The Pimpama Memorial is prominently located in the grounds of the Pimpama Uniting Church facing the Pacific Highway approximately halfway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
The stone memorial comprises a pedestal surmounted by a digger statue. It is surrounded by a low fence of evenly spaced white painted concrete posts linked by steel rails, also painted white.
It sits on a base step with margined, rough stone faces. Surmounting this are two smooth faced steps, the lower one having the words Pimpama and Ormeau Honour Roll relief carved on the front face.
The pedestal comprises a recessed square of marble plates with sandstone columns at each corner with foliated carved capitals and simple moulded bases. The front plate bears the leaded names of the seven local war dead, and the east side plate bears a commemorative inscription and a patriotic verse. This is capped by a cornice with curved pediment detail upon which sits a square sandstone plinth. Crossed flags (The Australian and the Union Jack) are carved in relief on the front face of the plinth and show remains of red, white, blue and gold paint.
Surmounting the plinth is the digger statue. The soldier stands to attention with his head bowed and his rifle reversed. The hands are crossed and resting on top of the rifle. He is supported by a tree trunk which is located behind and to one side of him.
","history":"The Pimpama and Ormeau War Memorial was erected by local residents in the grounds of the Pimpama Uniting (previously Methodist) Church. The masons were A L Petrie of Toowong, Brisbane who were responsible for many War Memorials throughout Queensland. It cost £154, which was raised by public subscription.
Pimpama was originally part of the pastoral run of Beaudesert. When the railway line was constructed between Brisbane and Southport in the 1880s, the towns of Pimpama and Ormeau prospered.
The Methodist church was constructed away from the town centre in 1880 by David Coulter who arrived in the district in the 1870s. The War Memorial was erected in 1919 in the grounds of the church cemetery, (gazetted in 1923) in remembrance of the six local men who lost their lives in the First World War. It has been relocated within the church property many times, most recently in 1993. Despite this, it continues to be a prominent landmark in the area.
Australia, and Queensland in particular, had few civic monuments before the First World War. The memorials erected in its wake became our first national monuments, recording the devastating impact of the war on a young nation. Australia lost 60 000 from a population of about 4 million, representing one in five of those who served. No previous or subsequent war has made such an impact on the nation.
Even before the end of the war, memorials became a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief. To those who erected them, they were as sacred as grave sites, substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East. British policy decreed that the Empire war dead were to be buried where they fell. The word 'cenotaph', commonly applied to war memorials at the time, literally means 'empty tomb'.
Australian war memorials are distinctive in that they commemorate not only the dead. Australians were proud that their first great national army, unlike other belligerent armies, was composed entirely of volunteers, men worthy of honour whether or not they paid the supreme sacrifice. Many memorials honour all who served from a locality, not just the dead, providing valuable evidence of community involvement in the war. Such evidence is not readily obtainable from military records, or from state or national listings, where names are categorised alphabetically or by military unit.
Australian war memorials are also valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time, not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste. In Queensland, the soldier statue was the popular choice of memorial, whereas the obelisk predominated in the southern states, possibly a reflection of Queensland's larger working-class population and a lesser involvement of architects.
Many of the First World War monuments have been updated to record local involvement in later conflicts, and some have fallen victim to unsympathetic re-location and repair.
Although there are many different types of memorials in Queensland, the digger statue is the most common. It was the most popular choice of communities responsible for erecting the memorials, embodying the ANZAC myth and representing the qualities of the ideal Australian.....loyalty, courage, youth, innocence and masculinity. The digger was a phenomenon peculiar to Queensland, perhaps due to the fact that other states had followed Britain's lead and established Advisory Boards made up of architects and artists, prior to the erection of war memorials. The digger statue was not highly regarded by artists and architects who were involved in the design of relatively few Queensland memorials.
Most statues were constructed by local masonry firms, although some were by artists or imported.
Of those produced by masonry firms, A L Petrie and Son of Toowong were the most prolific. They were the largest masonry firm in Queensland at this time and were responsible for many First World War memorials throughout the state. Some statues differed in detailing, although most were supplied on a range of standard pedestals. The pedestal at Pimpama is an early example of the style that was first used for the memorial at Ebbw Vale.
Information Note 1 - Following the relocation of the memorial within the church property in 1993, the Ormeau Pimpama War Memorial Committee sought professional advice on repair of the sandstone digger statue which had substantially deteriorated. At that time the arms were failing, as were the head and the hat. All of the available options for remedial work were considered to be only short term solutions. Permission was granted to commission a sandstone replica of the original statue. The rifle, which had already been replaced due to earlier vandalism, was retained. The new digger was produced by R C Zeigler Monuments of Toowoomba during 1994 and unveiled on ANZAC Day 1995. The original digger was given to the Miles Historical Village.
","criteria":"War Memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state. They provide evidence of an era of widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism, particularly during and following the First World War. The monuments manifest a unique documentary record and are demonstrative of popular taste in the inter-war period.
|Erected in 1919, the memorial at Pimpama demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event. This is achieved through the use of appropriate materials and design elements. As a digger statue it is representative of the most popular form of memorial in Queensland.
|This particular statue is also of aesthetic value, both for its high level of workmanship and design, and as a highly visible and well-known landmark in the area. It is rare for its inclusion of an unusual inscription and patriotic verse.
|It has a strong association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and probably is Queensland's best known digger memorial.
|It also has special association with the monumental masonry firm, A L Petrie and Son as evidence of their work.
","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":15303,"place_ref":602611,"name":"Southport Cable Hut (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Main Beach Parade","suburb":"MAIN BEACH","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-05-03","description":"Cable Park is a small grassy reserve located on Main Beach Parade at Main Beach at the Gold Coast. The Cable Hut is a small brick structure set well back from Main Beach Parade in the park.
The hut is about 2.4m square in plan view and about 2.7m high. There no windows, airflow being provided by ventilator bricks. It has a flat concrete roof. A plain wooden door secured by a barrel bolt and padlock is located in the middle of the northern wall. A section of submarine cable is mounted on the eastern wall above a rectangular brass plaque.
The interior of the hut is unlined and has a wooden floor. The pine skirting boards are of recent construction. Fastened to the wall opposite the door are three groups of cables passing through the floor. These cables run vertically up the wall and are held in place by a long wooden beam extending the length of the wall. The beam is fastened to the brickwork by bolts.
The group at the eastern end of the wall comprises two thick black cables. The outer insulating material of each cable has been removed to a length of about one metre from the end. An inner armoured sheath has been folded back over the outer insulation to expose another layer of insulation. This has been removed to expose three insulated wires. The wires are fixed to the wall on a block of wood.
At the opposite end of the wall is a group of three cables. The insulation and sheathing on one of these cables has been removed in a similar way to the cables mentioned previously. However, only a short length of insulation has been removed from the other two cables.
The third group of cables comprises two grey cables, one considerably thinner than the other. These pass through the floor between the two outer groups about an equal distance from each. The larger of the two cables is fixed with a metal saddle to a rectangular piece of wood fastened to the wall. Just above this, the cable enters a red, rectangular metal box bolted to the wall.
About fourteen smaller grey cables emerge from the top of this box; they are fixed to the wall by a bracket. Above this, twelve of the cables turn and run horizontally to the east, over two rusted metal brackets. Six of the cables are draped over these brackets and hang towards the floor. The other six run further to the left to a point immediately above the two thick cables at the eastern end of the wall. At this point, they turn towards the floor meeting the two cables coming up from the floor. They are fastened to the wall on a block of wood.
Immediately to the west of the red metal box is a wooden panel fixed to the wall. Mounted on this is a large, brass pressure gauge. The thinner of the two grey cables which emerge from the floor is fitted into the bottom of this gauge. Two of the cables which come out of the top of the red metal box turn to the west and curve downwards around the bottom of the wooden panel to enter the gauge at approximately the 'two o'clock' position.
A paved path runs from the eastern side of the hut towards a large raised circular platform. This has an aggregate top and set into this is a round metal plaque. Depicted on the plaque is a map of the world showing the route of the Pacific Cable.
Shrubs and palm trees grow in a small garden bed around the hut. A garden bed of shrubbery runs along the southern and western border of the park.
","history":"
Cable Park is a small reserve located on the corner of Cable Street and Main Beach Parade at Main Beach on the Gold Coast. The reserve contains a small brick hut and a raised circular platform with a plaque. The brick hut is the Australian terminal of the Pacific Cable, completed in 1902. This telegraph cable linked Australia and Great Britain via Canada and British dependencies in the Pacific. It was an important communications link between the east coast of Australia and the rest of the world until its closure in 1962.
Telegraph communication developed in the mid-19th century as a result of many years of discovery and experimentation in electrical communication culminating in the work of Samuel Morse. The rapid long distance communication provided by telegraph systems had a major impact on society. The telegraph was quickly utilised by news services; Associated Press and Reuters press service were founded to take advantage of the technology. Telegraph companies soon offered financial services, providing the facility to send money orders via the telegraph.
In Australia the telegraph helped to alleviate the isolation of the colonies. New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia were connected by telegraph by 1860. Queensland's first telegraph connection was made in 1861 between Brisbane and Ipswich. Brisbane was linked to Sydney the same year.
The first telegraph link between Australia and Britain opened in 1872. The link was via the Eastern Cable Company's network. It was routed through Singapore, India, Suez and Gibraltar. It was initially proposed to make landfall in north Queensland. However, the South Australian government successfully negotiated for the link to connect with Adelaide via Port Darwin and an overland route through the centre of Australia.
Before the Pacific Cable was opened, the Eastern Cable Company and its associates maintained a monopoly over international telegraph traffic with Australia. As a result, the cost of communication between Britain and Australia remained very high and beyond the means of most people.
Sandford Fleming, Chief Engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway, was an early advocate of an alternative cable route between Australia and Great Britain via Canada and the Pacific Ocean. He expressed his views as early as the Colonial Conference of 1887. A major advantage put forward by Fleming and other proponents of the Pacific route was that it would be more secure in times of war. The existing link passed through countries that were not part of the British Empire. It was proposed that the Pacific Cable would pass only through British dependencies.
The high cost of telegrams through the Eastern Cable Company's system provided further motivation for a competing route. The proposed Pacific Cable would break the Eastern Cable Company's monopoly and lower the cost of communication between Britain and Australia. When the Pacific Cable opened, the cost of telegrams reduced to less than half the former rate. The ability to communicate directly with the United States and so access more trade opportunities was another argument in favour of the Pacific Cable.
By the mid-1890s, agreement was reached that the cable should be laid. However debate about management of the cable laying project and ownership of the completed cable continued for some years. Finally, it was agreed that funding should be shared between the governments of Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. A committee named the Pacific Cable Board was formed made up of members from each of these countries. The Pacific Cable Act (1901) gave this board responsibility for managing the project and operating the completed cable.
The route selected for the cable linked Southport, Norfolk Island, Fiji, Fanning Island, and Vancouver. A branch connected to New Zealand. Since cartographers of the day traditionally coloured member countries of the British Empire in red, the route became known as the All Red Route.
Cable laying started in 1902 with two ships, Anglia and Colonia. Colonia, built specifically for the project, laid cable from Vancouver Island to Fanning Island in the mid-Pacific. Anglia laid cable from Southport to Norfolk Island, Fiji, New Zealand and Fanning Island.
The cable was landed at Southport in March 1902. It was laid into a trench through the dunes of Narrow Neck near Southport and terminated at a cable hut located close to the beach. From here, it connected to a cable which crossed under the Nerang River to the cable station at Bauer Street. The laying of the Pacific Cable was a major engineering feat for the time, costing about two million pounds.
The Pacific Cable was completed on 31 October 1902 and officially opened at Southport on 3 November 1902 by the Postmaster-General of the Commonwealth, the Honourable J.G. Drake. It was opened to public traffic on 8 December 1902.
Until 1912 Southport handled telegraph traffic for all over Australia. In 1912, a cable from Auckland was extended to Sydney and for a period after this, traffic for the southern States went directly to Sydney from Auckland. Technical changes to the system in 1923, including the installation of automatic repeaters, relegated Southport to a repeater station.
The Southport station continued to be operated by the Pacific Cable Board until 1932. Management was then taken over by Cable and Wireless Limited until 1946 when, after the Australian Government passed the Overseas Telecommunications Act, responsibility passed to the Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC).
By January 1950, the original cable hut located close to the beach at Narrow Neck had gone, leaving only a cement slab and a flag pole partly surrounded by a barbed wire fence. It is believed that it was destroyed in a severe storm. Serious erosion of the cable reserve by February 1951 threatened these remains and the cable connections located there. The current brick hut located at Cable Park was built during the first half of 1951 to remedy this situation.
In October 1962, the Compac Cable between Sydney and Vancouver was completed. The original Pacific Cable was thus rendered redundant and the Southport to Norfolk Island cable was closed. The Cable Station at Bauer Street was sold to De La Salle Brothers who operated a community youth centre there. In the early 1980s, the Cable Station buildings were removed, two of them to the Southport School where they continue to function as music rooms. However, the brick cable hut remains in its original location at Cable Park, Southport.
","criteria":"The Southport Cable Hut (c1951) is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history insofar that it marks the Australian terminal of the Pacific Cable, Australia's second telegraph link with Great Britain and the first to be government owned. Known as the All Red Route, the Pacific Cable was also the first link between Australia and Britain to pass only through countries of the British empire, by convention coloured red on world maps. The opening of the Pacific Cable in 1902 was an important step forward in international communications for Australia since it resulted in faster, more secure and much more affordable communications between Britain and Australia.
|The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of cable huts; small buildings where submarine telegraph cables were linked to their terrestrial counterparts. The Southport cable hut is a small, functional structure of simple, robust design. Fastened to the rear wall inside the hut are the ends of the Pacific Cable, the cable link to Sydney and the link to the Cable Station formerly located at Bauer Street, Southport. A gauge and equipment for maintaining gas pressure in the cable to Bauer Street also remain extant in the hut.
|The Cable Hut is the only surviving structure associated with the Southport terminal of the Pacific Cable that remains in its original location. Buildings of the former, nearby Cable Station, where communications were received and sent through the Pacific Cable, are extant but have been moved from their original location to the Southport School.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion B","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 demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16028,"place_ref":601265,"name":"Main Beach Pavilion and Southport Surf Lifesaving Club","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"off Macarthur Parade","suburb":"SOUTHPORT","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-03-01","description":"The Southport Surf Lifesaving Club and the Main Beach Pavilion are prominently located on Main Beach with vehicular access from Macarthur Street on the west. The listing boundary includes the two buildings with associated plantings and a group of Norfolk Island Pines to the south of the Surf Lifesaving Club.
Both buildings illustrate the Spanish Mission style of architecture particularly on the decorative parapeted gables, the heavy pilasters, the external stucco render and the prominent roof sheeted with corrugated fibrous cement, reminiscent of the cordova tile.
Main Beach Pavilion
The Main Beach Pavilion is a single storeyed building, used as a public toilet, showering and changing facility, with a kiosk and storage rooms for public and lifesaving use. It is of brick and concrete construction, with a fibrous cement roof.
The pavilion is rectangular in plan with central projecting bays on the east and west elevation. Decorative parapeted gables form the facade of the projecting bays. The parapets conceal the gabled roofs which abut them. The north and south wings of the building are hipped roofed.
The symmetrically arranged west elevation facing Macarthur Parade features a decorative gable element. At ground level this steps out to form a protruding bay unit housing a signage area in relief render. The decorative elements of the gable, which occur directly above the bay, include decorative relief patterns, a cartouche inscribed with the date of construction 1934, curved brackets supporting a mid-height awning, a central octagonal multi-paned window opening and lettering 'MAIN BEACH PAVILION'. The edge of the stylised Baroque parapet has raised edge detailing which culminates in spiralled curved on the face of the parapet.
There are four sets of doors on the western facade, of which only one set is now accessible. The eastern elevation is similar in detail and arrangement. A skillion roofed awning supported by four heavy rendered piers stands in front of the decorative parapet wall. There are five entrances from this facade three of which have overhead window openings. The five openings are fixed with vertical rolling doors. The side wings of the pavilion feature high level windows which are now battened or boarded, with face brick sills.
Internal spaces have been altered with the addition of concrete block walls in many places both in the kiosk and in the change rooms. Timber roof trusses and the underside of the roof sheeting are exposed in most rooms. Sections of timber bench seating and towel peg rails from the 1930s remain in the change rooms. The entrance foyer on the western side of the pavilion has early turnstiles.
The Southport Surf Lifesaving Club
The Southport Surf Lifesaving Club is a double storey building of brick, concrete and cement block. It is used by the surf lifesaving club and provides dormitory, storage and recreational space , and toilet, showering and restaurant facilities. The building is associated with a large collection of Norfolk Island Pines to the south.
The club consists of the original 1934 building, now two storeyed with two major additions on the southern side. The first addition is a continuation of the southern wing of the original section and is similar in style and detailing. The second addition is a large two storeyed, flat roofed structure abutting the southern end of the first addition.
The western elevation of the 1934 section of the building has a central projecting decorative parapeted gable with two heavy pilasters surmounted by urns on either side. The gable has lettering 'SOUTHPORT S.L.S.C.', a cartouche with the date of construction, 1936 and parapet edge detailing similar to that of the Main Beach Pavilion. There are three window openings to the upper level, and two to the lower and a doorway accessed by a ramp from the south. The window openings have face brick sills. The roof of the 1934 building is gabled and clad with corrugated fibrous cement sheeting with a skillion roofed section on the northern wing. The upper floor of the 1934 building is supported on steel columns and is accessed by two steel and concrete stairways. Concrete block walls are used extensively throughout the interior of this and the extensions.
","history":"The Main Beach Pavilion and Southport Surf Lifesaving Club were constructed on Main Beach at Southport, in the mid 1930s by the Southport Town Council. The Main Beach Pavilion was erected in 1934, and provided public bathing facilities. The Surf Lifesaving Club was built 1936, and provided dormitory space, equipment shelter and club room facilities for the surf lifesavers. Both buildings were designed by Hall and Phillips.
The buildings were erected during an important stage of the development of Southport. There was rapid growth in coastal regions during the 1930s as bathing in sea water became increasingly popular as a recreational pursuit. The majority of the population by the late 1930s benefited from paid holiday leave, increasing leisure time and the opportunities for extended holidays. Councils of various coastal regions were competing for holiday trade by instigating beautification schemes and programmes for the provision of public facilities on the beaches. Many public and commercial buildings were designed during this period in Southport by Hall and Phillips including the Council Chambers (1934), the Pier Theatre (1926), accommodation units (1928), a service station (1929) and various business premises as well as two bathing pavilions and lifesaving clubhouse.
South east Queensland has a long tradition of beach-going, resorts were developed from the 1860s when Sandgate and, to a lesser extent Cleveland, were premier coastal destinations. Southport developed as an alternate resort when Sandgate became more accessible with the introduction of the rail line in 1882. Logging in the Southport area commenced in the late 1850s, and by 1875 the first sales of land opened the area for settlement. By the 1880s major Brisbane families favoured Southport as the principal sea-side area. The construction of major schools, banks and hotels stimulated Southport's growth as a fashionable nineteenth century resort as did the presence of the Governors residence in the 1890s. A rail extension from Beenleigh to Southport was opened in 1889 making Southport more accessible from Brisbane.
With increased accessibility and popularity of the beaches during the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, the necessity for bathing controls was soon realised. By 1906, Section 109 of the Local Government Act prescribed that individual local councils control swimming and swim-wear, nominating standards for bathing costumes, segregating bathing and defining bathing areas.
Main Beach Pavilion
In the first decades of the century councils permitted privately owned bathing sheds on the beaches, which provided direct access to the water after changing. In the 1920s custom became more relaxed toward bathing in public. Sea water bathing, formerly encouraged for its curative powers, was gradually becoming a recreational pursuit. South coast councils, realising the possible financial benefits from holiday makers provided firstly public dressing sheds and, later, bathing pavilions.
During the thirties, various councils of the coastal regions of south east Queensland such as Southport and Coolangatta Town Councils and Nerang Shire Council on the south coast, as well as Redcliffe and the north coast councils, competed for an increase in holiday visitors. Chambers of Commerce and Progress Committees urged councils to develop and beautify foreshore area. The Southport Town Council adopted a beautification plan in the mid 1920s which included the erection of bathing pavilions.
Two bathing pavilions were built, one on Main Beach and the other on the Esplanade close to the railway station. The contractors for the Main Beach Pavilion were Lee & Barnby, who constructed the building at a cost of £4,447, half of which was subsidised by the State Government. The pavilion was built as a single storey brick and concrete structure, with change rooms, showers and lavatories. It contained separate sections for men and women, each with 204 lockers and eight showers with seven lavatories for women and five for the men, an ambulance first aid room and an entertainment hall for dancing.
The two bathing pavilions were opened simultaneously on December 22, 1934. The ceremony was held at the Main Beach Pavilion, it being the larger of the two. The buildings were described as of Spanish design, with Hardie's fibro corrugated roofing and copper flashing to prevent corrosion. Upon opening, the pavilion was leased to a Mr and Mrs W.T. Vickers who provided maintenance in return for charging an entrance fee.
Various parties have held leases to sections of the building, from the 1940s the surf lifesavers leased several rooms for storage. From the mid sixties a kiosk was opened at the pavilion when it is thought that an external curved concrete wall was added to the southern end.
Internal concrete block walls were constructed by 1978 diminishing the size of the change rooms, for extended kiosk and storage space.
In 1991-2 a mural, by artist Derrick Wynness, was commissioned by councillor Dawn Critchlow, for the curved wall on the south of the pavilion. This mural depicts a hot-air balloon journey from Uluru to Main Beach.
The Southport Surf Lifesaving Club
In the first two decades of the century the increased popularity of bathing led to an increased number of drownings. This publicity surrounding deaths at the Southport beaches concerned the Southport Chamber of Commerce and, in an effort to reduce the number of fatalities beach inspectors were hired. However, because of their inexperience and lack of equipment the inspectors were rarely successful in their attempts at lifesaving. The Southport branch of the Surf Lifesaving Club was established in 1912, just six years after the first branch in Australia was formed at Bondi. It was disbanded soon after but reformed in 1919 as the Cable Surf Lifesaving Club, named after the first trans-Pacific cable between Australia and Canada which was located on Main Beach. Again the club disbanded when the cable station closed in 1923, but reformed under its previous and current name soon after. By 1931 there were nine clubs in the South Coast Branch of the Lifesaving Association of Queensland
The Southport Surf Lifesaving Club built their first permanent home in 1927. This high set building, 9 by 3.6 metres, was clad with timber boards and a corrugated iron hipped roof. The building housed a club room and an ambulance first aid room, and was destroyed in 1936 by cyclonic winds.
By 1934 the Southport Club were canvassing the Local Council and the State Government for subsidies to construct a more appropriate clubhouse. The council intended that the Main Beach Pavilion provide the required lifesaving accommodation. However the club felt that it was inadequate and refused to move to the building preferring to remain in their own shed. They immediately requested a separate clubhouse.
In 1936, the State Government subsidised a loan to the Southport Town Council for the construction of a surf lifesaving clubhouse for Southport. The building cost 'in the vicinity of 1,500 Pounds'. It was constructed by the contractor A. Ledbury, who worked on the Southport Bathing Pavilion two years earlier. The site of the previous 1927 club house was too exposed, and thus it was decided to align the new surf club with the Main Beach Pavilion.
The club was a single storey building with a large central room and two smaller side wings. When built the club house was described as a very fine structure...the interior furnishings of which are up-to-date in every respect. They have ping-pong and billiard tables, showers, boat house, 92 lockers and all other necessary conveniences.
The club has experienced several additions as the lifesaving club grew. New equipment and shortage of accommodation space prompted the first addition to club in 1958, designed by Colin Trapp Architect. This two-storeyed extension included storage areas and dormitories which abutted the south of the building. The roof line of the original club was extended to accommodate the new two storey wing. At this stage a second floor to the original building is thought to have been inserted along with a shelter on the balcony.
The second extension was undertaken in 1978 to incorporate restaurant and bar facilities to increase the revenue of the club. This was designed by John Mobbs and Associates, and consisted of several spaces on the ground floor for storage, living quarters and a gymnasium. The second floor was dedicated to a large function room. A balcony was placed along the eastern facade of the first Trapp addition, linking the original building's balcony with the 1978 work. The top ends of the pilasters and the parapet were partially removed to follow the line of the roof gable. At this time a junior lifesaving club was built at Main Beach north of the bathing pavilion. Minor alterations were prompted by a fire at the Surf Club in 1990.
In 1993 the producers of an Australian television programme, Paradise Beach, chose the Main Beach Pavilion and the Southport Surf Lifesaving Club as outdoor scenes for their serial based on life at the Gold Coast, external sections of both buildings were painted.
","criteria":"The area is pivotal in understanding the development of the Gold Coast as a holiday resort and in particular the growth of the Southport area. It demonstrates the evolution of sea bathing from a curative activity to a recreational pursuit.
|The buildings and associated grounds are now rare examples of the natural and built environment of the 1930s at the south coast.
|The buildings are examples of the influence of a Spanish Mission style of architecture and of the public work of the prominent architectural firm, Hall and Phillips, at Southport.
|(Criterion under review)
|The area has an association with the Surf Lifesaving Association of Queensland, and in particular with the Southport Branch of the Association.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 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":16152,"place_ref":601389,"name":"David Fleay Wildlife Park","alternate_name":"Fleays Wildlife Park","street_address":"244-252 West Burleigh Road","suburb":"BURLEIGH HEADS","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-02-23","description":"The original section of the David Fleay Wildlife Park comprises an area in the south-central section of the park. Over the years, the park has expanded so that it now almost completely surrounds the original section. David Fleay Wildlife Park is surrounded by 37.3 hectares of conservation park [Tallebudgera Creek Conservation Park]. Part of the David Fleay Wildlife Park is bordered by Tallebudgera Creek Road to the west and Kabool Road to the south.
There are a number of enclosures and structures in the original precinct. Some enclosures were purpose-built, such as the platypussary, which was used exclusively for keeping platypuses. Other enclosures and structures, however, have been used for many purposes and to keep different animals over time.
The aviary, platypussary and the former Fleay home are located in the original section of the David Fleay Wildlife Park, to the south of the main section.
Aviary (Wedge-tailed Eagle Enclosure) (enc 1)
The aviary is 9.1 metres long x 4.8 metres wide x approximately 5.0 metres high. It is a sawn timber framed structure with birdwire to the walls and roof. The south-west corner of the walls and roof are partially enclosed with Super-6 corrugated asbestos cement and corrugated iron. Some corrugated iron sheeting, approximately 600 mil1imetres, has been used to retain the high south side. Perches are made from sawn timber and some tree branches.
Platypussary (enc 4 - second enclosure)
The platypussary is constructed on a concrete slab. It is 9.5 metres long x 4.9 metres wide x approximately 3.5 metres high and is an open-sided timber framed structure supported on sawn timber posts. The structure has a Super-6 corrugated asbestos cement roof with small areas of translucent roof sheeting. The platypussary has been partially enclosed with hardboard sheeting to the north and south ends.
The long, narrow, in-situ poured concrete and fibreglass covered concrete blockwork contains tanks with fine steel mesh covers. The concrete blockwork and in-situ poured concrete burrowing chambers are attached to the eastern and western ends of the tanks. Some early signage remains intact in the platypussary.
Former Fleay Home
The house is a timber framed, weatherboard clad, corrugated iron roofed building with a pyramidal hip roof extended in bungalow style over the verandahs with a small gable to the front porch. The lower floor has been enclosed with flat asbestos cement sheets. Various windows treatments include timber casement, sliding, and double-hung windows and more recent aluminium sliding windows. The verandahs on the western and southern sides have been partially enclosed.
Internally, the walls and ceilings are predominantly lined with vertically joined tongue and groove boards with door openings incorporating decorative timber arches and fanlight panels with Federation era motifs. Much of the interior has been painted white. A modern kitchen has been installed. The bathroom has also been refitted. A Super-6 corrugated asbestos cement-lined carport is attached to the eastern side of the house. Currently, the downstairs area is used for storage and the upstairs area is unoccupied.
Other enclosures within the original precinct include:
Tree Kangaroo/Scrub Turkey Enclosure (enc 2)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 7.9 metres by 5.1 metres approximately. It is a 3.5 metre high timber-framed structure with birdwire to the north, east and south walls and eastern half of the roof. In the south-west corner, the walls are sheeted with flat asbestos cement roofing.
Owls Enclosure [Spare](enc 3)
The enclosure is a 2.5 metres high, timber framed structure sheeted with asbestos cement to much of the perimeter and birdwire to the remaining area. The enclosure measures 3.3 metres by 2.2 metres. It has a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement roof.
Barking Owl Enclosure (enc 5)
Measuring 4.7 metres by 2.7 metres, the enclosure is an approximately 3 metre high, timber framed structure sheeted with flat fibre cement to the east side and chickenwire to the north side. A super-6 corrugated asbestos cement is located to the south the retaining wall and to the western side and west end of the roof. Chickenwire is located at the east end of the roof. Some early signage remains intact.
Saltwater Crocodile and Alligator Pool (enc 6)
The shallow concrete pool is surrounded by 10.2 metre by 7.6 metre by 1 metre high concrete blockwork walls topped with steel tube posts and birdwire used to enclose the sides and roof. Viewing panels are located in the northern wall with timber posts below, providing possible evidence for a former viewing platform. A timber sleeper retaining wall is located to the south side of the pool.
'Winter-Sun' - Flying Fox and Carpet Python Enclosure (enc 7)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 4.2 metres by 3.7 metres half-height concrete walls with timber framed walls and roof above. Birdwire and woven wire mesh is located above the concrete walls. The structure has a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement roof with some translucent sheeting and wire mesh panels. The structure is enclosed on the east, south and most of the west sides and is open on the northern side. Some early signage remains intact.
Taipanary (enc 8)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 7.3 metres by 9.2 metres. The enclosure is a 3 metre high, timber framed structure sheeted with corrugated iron. The roof is steel framed with approximately 30% covered with super-6 corrugated asbestos cement and the remainder covered with birdwire and hessian sacks.
Goura Pigeons Enclosure - 2nd Enclosure (enc 9)
The enclosure is a 12.6 metre by 6 metre by 4 metre high tubular, steel framed structure on a concrete blockwork base. The walls and roof are covered with chainwire except for the south-west corner, which is covered with shadowline asbestos cement sheeting. The earth floor has slate 'waterfall' and 'creek' water features.
Goura Pigeons Enclosure - Original Enclosure (enc 10)
The enclosure has an earth floor and measures 4.6 metres by 3.1 metres. The timber framed structure is approximately 3 metres high with walls to the east, south and west sides sheeted with flat asbestos cement. The enclosure is open to the north side with fine metal mesh. Approximately 70% of the roof is covered with super-6 corrugated asbestos cement, while the remainder is covered with fine mesh. Super-6 corrugated asbestos cement sheeting is located on the south retaining wall.
Cuscus Enclosure (enc 11)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 3.7 metres by 2.4 metres. The enclosure is a 2.5 metres high, timber framed structure sheeted with flat asbestos cement to the east, south and west sides. The enclosure is open to the north side with mesh. The roof is sheeted with super-6 corrugated asbestos cement
Fluffy Gliders (enc 13)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 2.5 metres by 2 metres. The enclosure is a 2 metres high timber framed structure on a concrete blockwork upstand. The enclosure is built up against a kiosk block wall to the east. The north and south walls are sheeted with flat fibre cement. Open mesh is located on the west side. The roof is sheeted with super-6 corrugated asbestos cement with a small mesh section.
Kiosk - 2nd Kiosk (building 14)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 6.7 metres by 6.7 metres. The enclosure is a 4 metre high, unpainted, concrete blockwork structure with a timber framed, red, concrete-tiled gable roof and aluminium windows. Some early signage remains intact.
Powerful Owl Enclosure (enc 15)
The enclosure is built on a sloping concrete slab on the ground, measuring 6.6 metres by 3.1 metres. The enclosure is an approximately 4 metres high timber framed structure, clad on all sides with unpainted sawn hardwood weatherboards. Birdwire is located in a panel in the centre of the north wall. The roof is clad with super-6 corrugated asbestos cement sheeting except for a central mesh panel. A meshed horizontal vent panel is located at a low level on the southern side.
Tasmanian Devils Enclosure (enc 16)
The enclosure measures 5.2 metres by 3.1 metres. It is an approximately 3 metres high, timber framed structure with super-6-formed base walls to the south and part of the east walls with sheet metal above to the east and north. Vertical timber boarding is located on the remaining base walls with fine metal mesh above to the east and north. The roof is sheeted with super-6 corrugated asbestos cement roof sheeting.
Crested Hawks Enclosure - 2nd Enclosure (enc 17)
The enclosure measures 7.1 m by 3.6 metres by approximately 4 metres high. It is a tubular, steel-framed structure with metal mesh to the walls and roof. The south-east corner walls and roof are enclosed with corrugated iron. Original black paint has weathered back to bare metal.
Squirrel Gliders and Carpet Pythons Enclosure (enc 18)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 5.5 metres by 2.5 metres. It is a 2.5 metres high, timber framed structure enclosed on the east, south and west sides with super-6 corrugated asbestos cement sheeting. Full-height birdwire is located on part of the northern side. A half-height super-6-formed concrete wall is located to the remainder of the northern side. The skillion roof is sheeted with super-6 corrugated asbestos cement.
Tortoise and Freshwater Crocodile Enclosure (enc 19)
The enclosure is a concrete slab on the ground measuring 5.2 metres by 2.5 metres with a sloping pond floor. In-situ poured concrete base walls have tubular steel framing with wire mesh located on the upper half of the north wall.
Reptiles Enclosure (enc 20)
The enclosure measures 3.3 metres by 2.2 metres. It is an approximately 2.5 metres high, timber framed structure with timber boarding to the lower walls and angled metal mesh above the north side. The south side is fully enclosed with flat asbestos cement sheeting. The skillion roof is sheeted with super-6 corrugated asbestos cement.
Brown Snakes Enclosure (enc 21)
The enclosure measures 4.6 metres by 2.5 metres. It is an approximately 2.5 metres high structure with concrete blockwork base walls and tubular steel posts supporting upper level metal mesh and a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement skillion roof. Flat asbestos cement sheeting is located on the west wall. The enclosure has elaborate timber perches and a steel framed and sheeted gate.
Rattle Snakes Enclosure (enc 22)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 3.3 metres by 2.4 metres. It is an approximately 2.4 metres high structure with base walls sheeted with flat asbestos cement and timber boarding. The upper walls are covered with angled metal mesh. The structure is fully enclosed with plywood sheeting to the south-east corner. The eastern side of the skillion roof is sheeted with super-6 corrugated asbestos cement.
Hairy-nosed Wombats Enclosure (enc 23)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 9.6 metres by 4.8 metres. It is an approximately 1.2 metres high semi-circular concrete blockwork structure open to the air except for a small reinforced concrete roofed area in the north-east corner. Reinforced concrete pipe tunnels are inserted in the east and west ends.
Flinders Island Wombats Enclosure (enc 24)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 6.8 metres by 2.4 metres. It is an approximately 2.5 metres high, timber framed structure with super-6-formed concrete lower walls. The structure has fine metal mesh to the west wall and full height super-6 corrugated asbestos cement sheeting to the south-east corner. The structure has a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement skillion roof with mesh panelling to the west end.
Potteroos Enclosure (enc 26)
The enclosure measures 7.5 metres by 3.7 metres. It is an approximately 1 metre high timber framed and sheet metal clad fence, with tubular steel posts angled in to support a birdwire perimeter to approximately 1.8 metres high.
Wedge-tailed Eagle Enclosure - Original enclosure (enc 27)
The enclosure measures 9.6 metres by 6.7 metres. It is an approximately four metres high timber framed structure with sapling corner posts and sawn timber framing. The walls are enclosed on the eastern half with birdwire and on the western half with super-6 corrugated asbestos cement sheeting. The structure has a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement flat roof. It has been substantially altered from the original by roofing and wall enclosures.
Grass Owls Enclosure (enc 28)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 6.4 metres by 3.9 metres. It is an approximately 4 metres high timber framed structure enclosed on the east, south and west sides with flat asbestos sheeting and hessian, and on the north side with birdwire and hessian. The structure has a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement gable roof.
Platypussary - Original enclosure (enc 29)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 6.4 metres by 3.2 metres. It is an approximately 3 metres high timber framed structure enclosed on the east, south and west sides with flat asbestos cement sheeting and vertical timber boarding. It is enclosed on the north side with birdwire. The structure has a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement skillion roof t the west end and a birdwire roof to the east end. A small enclosure is located to the west of the platypussary.
Boobook Owls Enclosure (enc 30)
The enclosure is a 1.9 metres-sided octagonal timber framed structure with an octastyle roof.
Koalas Enclosure (enc 31)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 8 metres by 3.4 metres. It is an approximately 4 metres high tubular steel-framed structure enclosed to the east and south sides with shadowline asbestos cement sheeting and chickenwire to the north and west sides. The structure has a metal deck gable roof with a central panel of chickenwire.
Death Adders Enclosure (enc 32)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 1.2 metres by 1.2 metres. It is an approximately 1.2 metres high timber framed structure on concrete base walls. The east and west walls are enclosed with flat asbestos cement sheeting. The north and south walls are open. The structure has a super-6 asbestos cement skillion roof. The enclosure contains an early chopping block possibly from the house.
Cockatoos Enclosure (enc 33)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 5.5 metres by 1.7 metres. It is an
approximately 3 metres high tubular steel-framed structure covered in chainwire. The south half of the gable roof is covered with super-6 corrugated asbestos cement sheeting. The upper parts of the south wall are enclosed with flat asbestos cement sheeting.
Platypuses Enclosure (enc 34)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 10.2 metres by 8.8 metres. It is an approximately 3 metres high open-sided post-supported timber structure with a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement skillion roof. The structure has fibreglass lined concrete blockwork tanks with concrete blockwork burrowing chambers. A timber deck is located on the north side.
Platypuses Enclosure (enc 34)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 4.4 metres by 1.8 metres. It is an approximately 3 metres high timber framed structure with walls enclosed to the eastern half with flat asbestos cement sheeting and on the western half with birdwire. The structure has a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement gable roof to the eastern half and birdwire to the western half.
Enclosure 36 (Use unknown)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 1.2 metres by 1 metre. It is an approximately 1 metre high timber framed structure with walls enclosed on three sides and woven mesh to the north side. The structure has a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement skillion roof.
Enclosure 37
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 1.6 metres by 1.4 metres. It is an approximately 2 metres high timber framed structure with walls enclosed on the east, south and west sides with flat asbestos cement sheeting. It is open to the north side. The structure has a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement skillion roof attached to the house.
Kite Enclosure (enc 38)
The enclosure has an earth floor and measures 4.2 metres by 2 metres. It is an approximately 2.5 metres high timber framed structure with flat asbestos cement sheeting to the south-east corner and chickenwire to the remaining walls. The structure has a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement skillion roof to the east end with chickenwire to the west end.
Sooty Owls Enclosure (enc 39)
The enclosure is built on a concrete slab on the ground, measuring 5.2 metres by 4.5 metres. It is an approximately 3 metres high timber framed structure enclosed along the western half with flat asbestos cement sheeting and along the eastern half with chickenwire. The structure has a super-6 corrugated asbestos cement skillion roof.
A network of paths and stairs connects most of the enclosures to both the house and the original public carpark and entry off Kabool Road. These are generally laid out in an east-west direction paralleling the natural contours of the site. The level pathways are connected between levels by stairways running north-south. Much of the path network has been damaged by either ground subsidence or tree root movement. Other miscellaneous structures include a range of modern, pre-fabricated meal sheds and enclosures used mainly for storage.
","history":"The David Fleay Wildlife Park was established by David Fleay in 1951 as a place of research and education.
David Howells Fleay was born in Ballarat in 1907 and established an interest in the Australian bush and its wildlife at an early age. Fleay accepted a teaching position at Ballarat Grammar School and, in 1927, moved to Melbourne where he taught whilst studying for a Bachelor of Science degree and a Diploma of Education at Melbourne University. At Melbourne University he met fellow science student, Mary Sigrid Collie, and they married in 1931, the year in which David Fleay graduated in Zoology, Botany and Education.
Between 1931 and 1934, Fleay taught at the Ballarat Church of England Grammar School and at State primary and secondary schools, while continuing his private study of native animals. By 1934 his reputation as a 'wildlife man' was sufficiently established that, when Melbourne Zoo decided to set up an Australian section as part of Melbourne's centenary celebrations, David Fleay was chosen to design and direct the section. He worked there for three and a half years, during which time he was able to achieve some significant scientific 'firsts' such as the first breeding in captivity of emus, scrub turkeys, some birds of prey, the tawny frogmouth and a variety of marsupials including the koala. He constructed his first platypussary (a home for platypuses). His time, however, with the Melbourne Zoo was not particularly happy as he disagreed with management on matters of principle. Reflecting his naturalist's viewpoint rather than traditional zoologists' thinking, he insisted that native birds and animals should be fed what they would eat in the wild. He was dismissed over this issue in 1937.
By chance, the wildlife sanctuary at Healesville, about 90 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, needed to replace Robert Eadie, who had been the honorary Curator since the early 1930s. In 1937, Fleay was appointed at £7 per week, the first paid Director of the sanctuary, to develop Healesville's wildlife sanctuary on temperate rainforest on Badger Creek. Fleay introduced 95 large tiger snakes to the sanctuary which were displayed on an island and milked for antivenene purposes. At Healesville, Fleay recommenced his breeding and conservation programs in earnest, achieving world-wide recognition. His greatest achievement at Healesville was breeding the first platypus is captivity in 1943. He designed and built a new platypussary, and, in November 1943, 'Corrie' the platypus was born. Despite numerous attempts by other scientist and sanctuaries, Fleay remains the only person to have successfully bred and reared a platypus in captivity.
In 1947, David and Sigrid Fleay travelled with three platypuses to New York's Bronx Zoo. The platypuses were accommodated in a new platypussary at the zoo, designed to Fleay's specifications. During the Fleay's stay in the United States, Fleay inspected the modern methods of housing and feeding animals at a number of zoos including the New York Zoological Park, Staten Island Zoo, National Zoological Park in Washington and the Golden Gate Zoo in San Francisco. It is not known whether he brought back with him from the United States any ideas which he intended to implement in Australia.
David Fleay returned to Healesville on 13 October 1947 to discover that the Board had fired him during his absence, for the alleged unauthorised donation of other sanctuary animals to the Americans. Whilst the accusation was false, this did not diminish the Board's hostility toward Fleay. After much public outcry, Fleay continued in a lesser role at Healesville as a consultant. Fleay continued to maintain his private fauna collection until 1951 when the Victorian Government banned private individuals from asking for and accepting admission fees from members of the public wishing to view personal collections of native fauna. This situation prompted Fleay to find a more suitable location which would enable him to carry out his research into the life and habits of native birds, animals and reptiles, and consequently, he and Sigrid Fleay moved north to Queensland.
In late 1951 David Fleay, after investigating around Brisbane and south-east Queensland, selected the Tallebudgera Estate as a suitable site for a fauna reserve. According to Fleay, the attraction of the site was the flood-free forested slopes and gullies, good run off, koala fodder gums with koalas in residence and the presence of fish, mammals and birds. The area at the time was used by small crop farmers who supplied the Victorian market in winter. The site preferred by Fleay comprised three properties owned by three separate individuals. Further, the land was not for sale and Fleay did not have the capital to purchase.
Persistence paid off, however, and Fleay steadily acquired the land in the names of DH and MS Fleay. He acquired Portions 20A (just over four acres), 21A (just over four acres) and 22C (just over nine acres) in May 1952. In July 1952, Portion 23A (just over seven acres) was purchased in Mary Sigrid Fleay's name. Portion 18A (just over twenty-one acres) was bought in October 1952. Further land acquisitions were occurred in June 1958 with the purchase of Portion 19A (just over 15 acres) and later, around 1965 a purchase of just over seven acres. This last portion became an additional car park.
Fleay's West Burleigh sanctuary was to be a place of research and education and David Fleay objected to descriptions of the place as a zoo. Fleay stated that 'It's a place where the animals are kept in conditions as close as possible to the natural environment - where they can breed freely and be studied "We're not in the job of sacrificing animals for the sake of showing them and I don't have a lot of time for many modern zoos."
Many of Fleay's animals were transported from Victoria and so animal enclosures were built rapidly. By October 1952, Fleay had constructed an interim platypussary. This was a large concrete water tank with artificial burrows and straw at one end, based on his design at Healesville. Large aviaries for the sea eagles, wedge-tailed eagles and the peregrine falcons were constructed, along with accommodation for the barking owl, great eagle owl and white goshawk. The barking owls' cages were built close to the house so that David Fleay could hear them.
The original layout of the sanctuary was designed by Fleay, who used a compass to ensure that each cage received breezes and the morning sun. Fleay designed the cages and specified the dimensions and the 'furniture'. The cages were always painted 'Lawn Green' with 'Mail Red' roofs. The timber was not undercoated or chemically treated. Chickenwire covered the platypus tank and raptors' cages to keep out carpet snakes. The sanctuary opened its doors to its first visitors on Easter Sunday 1952. Steadily new cages were built by David Fleay and his volunteers. The wedge-tailed eagles had a large timber enclosure with a frame inside in which they could build a nest. The cages had an inner shell of wire netting to guard against cyclonic blows and carpet pythons.
In 1955, a new, outdoor variety platypussary was constructed. This platypussary was later taken over by scrub turkeys who buried it under mounds of earth. A new, superior platypussary was built in 1958 with money provided by the United States in return for three platypuses taken by David Fleay to New York's Bronx Zoo.
The sanctuary survived principally through the hard work of David Fleay and his family, and at times, with the assistance of the local community. The family tended the animals and Sigrid Fleay provided teas on the verandah of the house to visitors. Sick and injured animals were brought to Fleays at all hours of the day and night, and at its peak the sanctuary cared for 450 animals. Volunteer labour and donations were vital to the sanctuary's survival.
The Fleay house was the original farmhouse on the property and, by its style and details, appears to have been built around 1910. It was purchased by Fleay in 1952 and was used as both the Fleay family residence and the base of operations for Fleays wildlife park during David Fleay's running of the place. From the period 1952 to 1985 the upper floor was used principally as the Fleay's residence. The lower floor was used for a range of park activities. Sick and injured animals were treated; food for the animals was prepared, including breeding rats and mice for food and snake specimens in bottles lined the walls. After the handover of the park to the Queensland Government in 1983, Fleay continued to live in the house until his wife's death in 1987, during which time the house was modified. After remarrying in 1987, Fleay left the house and lived in another residence adjacent to the park. He returned to live in the house in 1991 until his death in 1993.
David Fleay's achievements at the sanctuary were numerous. In 1955, he achieved the first known captive breeding of the mulgara, followed in 1958 by the breeding of the planigale (a midget marsupial). In 1958 he successfully delivered a further three platypuses to New York's Bronx Zoo and later that year was able to construct a new and improved platypussary at the West Burleigh sanctuary with a small grant awarded to him by the New York Zoological Society. In 1959, he achieved the first captive breeding of the taipan. Possibly his best known successes at Fleays were with owls and other birds of prey. His was the first known captive breeding of the powerful owl (1968), sooty owl (1969), grey goshawk (1971), mainland masked owl (1971), grass owl (1972), crested hawk (1975) and the wedge-tailed eagle (1977).
In 1970, Fleay continued his attempts to breed platypuses in a platypussary which, although slightly modernised, was largely similar to the one he built at Healesville, 28 years previously. There was no similar success at the sanctuary, although in 1972, Fleay did discover a small dead baby (50 days old) at the entrance to the burrow.
In recognition of the quality and value of his research and breeding programs, Fleay was awarded an MBE in 1960, an AM and Advance Australia Award in 1980 and was appointed an Associate of the Queensland Museum in 1978. In 1979, Fleay was appointed a Fellow of the Explorers' Club in New York. The accolades continued in 1984 when he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science by the University of Queensland and appointed a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow.
To ensure that the Fleays' sanctuary could survive intact, David and Sigrid Fleay decided to sell the land to the Queensland Government for a nominal amount. In 1982, a large portion of the land owned by the Fleays (37 acres) was sold to the government. The following year, the main area of the Fauna Reserve where the animals were enclosed (20 acres) was also sold to the government. The remainder of the site (7.5 acres) was transferred in 1985. This is the current public carpark. Under the terms of the handover, the Fleays continued to live at the sanctuary.
Some of the old enclosures, such as the old goshawk enclosure, were deemed beyond repair and were demolished. Minor repairs were made to the platypussary and small adjustments made to the barking owl aviary. A new platypus display and barking owl and powerful owl cages were designed by Fleay and were positioned according to his specifications. Fleay continued to work at Fleays Wildlife Park (as it was known) and to keep animals largely in their original enclosures. In 1983 the park closed for redevelopment. It reopened in July 1987, but without the original precinct being open to the public as it was considered unsafe.
David Fleay died on 7 August 1993 and his death was lamented by many. The regard in which he was held by his professional colleagues and the community is partly illustrated by the awards and honours bestowed upon him during his lifetime.
In October 1995, 7.4488 hectares of the site was gazetted as the 'David Fleay Wildlife Park' under the Nature Conservation Act 1992, and is operated by the Environmental Protection Agency Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Currently, the original precinct is off-limits to the public due mainly to the poor condition of the concrete paths and some enclosures. It is used for holding off-displays and sick or injured animals and for captive breeding. Many of the original enclosures are still in use.
","criteria":"Established in 1951 by world-renowned naturalist Dr David Fleay, forming part of the initial stage of development, the David Fleay Wildlife Park is significant for its contribution to Queensland's history, having a long tradition as a place for breeding and displaying native Australian animals, to draw community attention to Australian wildlife and the need to conserve Australia's native animals.
|As a type of zoo, which is defined as an enclosure where live animals are kept for public exhibition, the David Fleay Wildlife Park is further significant, as there are few such enclosures found in Queensland.
Retaining the enclosure in which the first wedge-tailed eagle was bred in captivity, as well as the platypussary and other breeding and displaying enclosures, the David Fleay Wildlife Park is significant for its rarity and for the high level of intactness of the layout of the original section of the park.
|The David Fleay Wildlife Park is significant as it provides examples of various types of timber-framed, steel-framed, blockwork structures and enclosures used in the fauna reserves. Of particular significance is the platypussary, the design for which, while modernised, is based on David Fleay's early, pioneering work.
|The David Fleay Wildlife Park is significant for its association with the many people who have visited, researched and been educated at the Park for nearly fifty years. The Park remains as a valuable asset to the community, where people may see native animals and where community awareness may be raised about the need to protect them, especially rare and threatened species. The David Fleay Wildlife Park combines community education, ecotourism, wildlife conservation and research.
|The David Fleay Wildlife Park is significant for its association with Dr David Fleay, known locally as the 'father of conservation'. It was during his time at the sanctuary that Fleay bred in captivity the first wedge-tailed eagle. The regard in which he was held by his professional colleagues and the community is illustrated by the awards and honours bestowed upon him during his lifetime.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion G | 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 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":16240,"place_ref":601477,"name":"Kinkabool","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"32-34 Hanlan Street","suburb":"SURFERS PARADISE","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-02-05","description":"Kinkabool is a high-rise unit building located in the heart of Surfers Paradise a block to the south of Cavill Avenue and about 200m from the ocean beach to the east. It presents ten storeys to the street and nine to the rear. On the ground floor, the two shop spaces retain the timber-framed and glass partitioning. On the eight storeys above the original layout of the 34 units has been maintained. The two 'penthouse' units on the tenth storey have been joined by a large opening in the shared wall between the original living areas and by enclosing part of the original vestibule space as a private lobby.
Founded on reinforced concrete footings, the frame of Kinkabool is constructed of reinforced concrete floors, columns and walls. The exterior is partly finished with alternating panels of painted render on concrete or face brick. The building has two areas of flat roof, access to which is gained first through double doors opposite the entry to the top level apartment, and then via a set of stairs to the upper roof space. A parapet encloses these roof areas.
More than half of the balconies have been enclosed with glass and aluminium framing, a process which began in the late 1960s, but has been kept within the line of the balustrading and completed in general keeping with the fenestration pattern employed elsewhere on the facade. Also, a number of the original timber-framed windows and exterior sliding doors have been replaced with aluminium alternatives, as has some of the balcony balustrading. The terrazzo flooring in the ground floor arcade has been covered with terracotta tiles; however it remains on the stairs to the first level. Vinyl lines the remainder of the stair floors and the floors of the vestibules, being differently patterned on each level.
","history":"Prior to the 1950s Surfers Paradise was just one of a number of popular but modestly equipped beach holiday resorts that dotted the coast from Southport to the State border with New South Wales. During that decade it became the epicentre of the Gold Coast and what would become an internationally renowned holiday destination, instantly recognisable for its high-rise towers lining a long strip of sandy beach. This iconic image of Gold Coast high-rise development began with the construction of Kinkabool in 1959-1960.
Kinkabool is a ten-storey home-unit building located on Hanlan Street in the centre of Surfers Paradise, constructed by JD Booker Constructions Pty Ltd to the design of architect John M Morton working for the Brisbane office of the firm Lund Hutton Newell Black & Paulson Pty Ltd. Kinkabool was the brainchild of Stanley Korman, a Victorian entrepreneur whose other Gold Coast development projects, including Lennon's Hotel at Broadbeach (opened 1956, demolished 1987), the Chevron Hotel at Surfers Paradise (opened 1958, demolished 1987) and Paradise Island (opened 1958), embodied a vision of the place as a modern, international-standard holiday resort. The Gold Coast remains Queensland's premier beach tourism destination.
The coastal areas south of Brisbane - or what became known as the South Coast - had long been a destination for beach holidaymakers. From the 1860s holiday houses for the Brisbane elite and Darling Downs pastoralists were being constructed at Southport on the northern shore of the mouth of the Nerang River. Daily steamboat connections to Brisbane brought day-trippers. The construction of a rail link between Beenleigh and Southport in 1889 opened the area to nascent mass tourism.
The corridor of land now known as Surfers Paradise, between the Nerang River and the ocean beach, was attracting recreational visitors by the 1870s. The land on which Kinkabool stands was part of a selection taken up by James Beattie in 1869 and sold in 1877 to Johann Meyer, who established a vehicular ferry across the Nerang River in 1881, connecting the area with Southport. In clearing the road - later to become Cavill Avenue - that formed the northern boundary of his property he opened up public access to the ocean beach. At opposite ends of this road, Meyer established the first two hotels serving the area: Meyer's Ferry Hotel and the Main Beach Hotel. In 1885 he sold part of his land, which included the site Kinkabool now occupies, to James Stodart, who developed it as the area's first subdivision, Main Beach Estate, with streets named after world champion Australian scullers: Hanlan, Trickett, Laycock and Clifford. The Elston postal receiving office was established in Meyer's Ferry Hotel before the turn of the century, and gave its name to the area.
During the 1920s and 1930s a rapid rise in private motor vehicle ownership, the construction of a new coastal road between Brisbane and Southport, and the crossing of the Nerang River by the Jubilee Bridge led to the subdivision and sale of many estates between Southport and the NSW border. The intensity and complexion of this development was further evidenced by the first of Jim Cavill's famous hotels being built on the main road south through Elston in 1925, which was renamed Surfers Paradise in 1933 after successful lobbying by Jim Cavill and other local residents. This reflected the influence of American beach culture and a shift in preference from still-water bathing sites (as at Southport) to surf beaches. Further marketing in southern states of the 'winter holiday' attractions of the South Coast was conducted in the years leading up to the commencement of World War II in 1939.
During World War II the South Coast proved a popular rest and recreation destination for combat troops, with many American, New Zealand and English servicemen and women enjoying the place and advertising its merits once home. Many of these international and interstate visitors were impressed by the beaches and climate and returned after the war to visit, reside or invest.
After building restrictions imposed during World War II were lifted in 1952, the South Coast changed rapidly. An intense period of building development and property speculation was ushered in, attracting a number of entrepreneurs focussed largely on the tourism potential of the place. The term 'Gold Coast' was coined in response to this promise of prosperity and wealth, and despite beginning as a derisive term used by the Brisbane press, was embraced by locals and then officially adopted as the name of the Town Council in 1958. In the following year the municipality was declared a city. It is the spirit of this era that Kinkabool embodies. The dramatic changes to the built fabric of Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast in general were succinctly described by Forbes and Spearritt in 2006: 'Fibro holiday shacks, two-storey guesthouses and weatherboard boarding lodges were torn down and swept aside, first for three, four and five storey walk ups and later 10, 20, 30 and now 80 storey structures.'
In the 1950s a greater capacity to pursue leisure (particularly among women, for whom a beach holiday had previously involved a continuation of everyday domestic tasks), the rise in private car ownership, and the growing preference among holidaymakers for American-style resorts, resulted in changed accommodation styles on the Gold Coast. Chief among these were motels (providing car parking outside each room), hotel resorts, and serviced apartments for visitors who had arrived not by car but by plane or coach. The hotel resorts, which were larger-scale tourist developments accommodating many more guests than the average public house, hotel or guest house, the forms relied upon in the past, included: the five-storey Lennon's Hotel in Broadbeach, designed by Dr Karl Langer in 1956, which included bars and beer garden, pool, tennis courts, dance floor and bandstand; and the three-storey Chevron Hotel in Surfers Paradise designed by David Bell and built for one of Stanley Korman's companies in 1958. The Carapark Motel at Mermaid Beach, designed by the Brisbane architectural firm Hayes and Scott in the mid-1950s was an example of a motel (with facilities for caravans). Others included the El Dorado and the Seabreeze. Serviced apartments were advertised as 'luxurious', providing modern conveniences such as refrigerators, clothes washers and dryers, and stainless steel sinks. The kitchens of these apartments were comparatively small, suggesting that a holiday would also involve frequent dining out. Early examples included the South Pacific in Orchid Avenue and the Palm Grove in Clifford Street. All these places were low-rise buildings; all have been demolished.
The iconic Gold Coast skyline of high-rises overlooking long sandy beaches commenced with the construction of ten-storey Kinkabool on Hanlan Street in the heart of Surfers Paradise in 1959-1960; described at the time by the local press as a 'giant'. A number of high-rise, home-unit developments had been planned for the Gold Coast in the 1950s, but Kinkabool was the only scheme to come to fruition. For example: two 25-storey home-unit 'skyscrapers', one at Surfers Paradise on Orchid Avenue and another at Burleigh Heads, were planned by Torbreck Pty Ltd following the success of its high-rise blocks in Highgate Hill, Brisbane (QHR 601256); a 20-storey accommodation tower was to be added to the Chevron Hotel, its foundations being laid with 350 guests in attendance; and a 17-storey tower called Taj was to be built on Beach Road in Surfers, foundation drilling having commenced in 1959.
The development and finance for Kinkabool were formally arranged by Booker Felton Pty Ltd however a number of companies contributed to its marketing and construction finance. One of the key figures in this matrix was Victorian entrepreneur, Stanley Korman, whose other major ventures on the Gold Coast were the nearby Chevron Hotel and Paradise Island, as well as Lennon's Hotel at Broadbeach and the remodelling of the Surfers Paradise Hotel - the area's leisure and civic hub - which he had purchased from Jim Cavill's widow in 1957. Polish-born Korman had emigrated to Australia in the late 1920s and established the Holeproof clothing company. His business ventures and the charisma he applied to them had established his popular profile as a successful entrepreneur in Victoria. He had a powerful vision of the Gold Coast, and in particular Surfers Paradise, as a modern holiday resort; his inspirations being resorts he visited in Hawaii and Florida. As historian Michael Jones reported in 1986, Korman made the startling suggestion at the time that 'southern' businessmen should be able to fly to their Gold Coast holiday unit or home on Friday evening after work, enjoy the beach and warm climate over the weekend, and then fly back to work on Monday morning. And as Alexander McRobbie suggested in The Real Surfers Paradise (1988), Korman also foresaw that many average Australians would come to thrill at the prospect of spending their holidays in a high-rise apartment with a view of the beach, in contrast to their everyday lives and the low-set suburbs that formed its backdrop.
The 'skyscraper' Kinkabool was designed for a small, 16 perch (approximately 405m²) site occupied by the Flamingo, a pioneer nightclub started in the early 1950s; and in close proximity to the key entertainment venues of Surfers Paradise. Next door was Margot Kelly's Hibiscus Restaurant, another popular and pioneering Surfers Paradise nightclub and one of the first Queensland restaurants to gain a liquor license. At the end of Hanlan Street was Surfers Paradise Beach. Between Kinkabool and the beach were the Coral Court holiday units, described as a leading holiday establishment and a more typical style of Gold Coast accommodation in the 1950s and 1960s. Other significant Surfers Paradise tourist businesses were only a block in each direction. To the north were Cavill Avenue and the Surfers Paradise Hotel complex, Bernie Elsie's Beachcomber Hotel (along with the Seabreeze Motel, home of the infamous Pyjama Parties), and many popular restaurants. Beyond these were The Walk and the Black Dolphin shopping arcades. Nearby was Korman's Chevron Hotel with 83 rooms, pools, bars and cabaret.
The first sketch drawings for Kinkabool, originally known as Poinciana Place, were prepared by John M Morton of the Brisbane architectural firm Lund Hutton Newell Black and Paulson Pty Ltd, in March 1959. The client was variously listed as Home Units Pty Ltd and Multi Units Pty Ltd. Its original concept designs featured between three and six storeys above a ground floor of shops, but within a month the height had increased to nine storeys, and by construction time the name had changed to Kinkabool, reputedly derived from an Aboriginal word meaning 'laughing water'. The Gold Coast Town Council approved the nine storey home-unit building being designed to the Hanlan Street boundary and partially to the other boundaries. Morton explains that this was possible because the building regulations, introduced in 1954, were not conceived with this kind of high-rise building in mind. Kinkabool's financiers were eager to take advantage of the 1950s Gold Coast building boom before tighter building controls were introduced.
Construction began some time after July 1959 when the building agreement between Kinkabool Pty Ltd and Multi Units Pty Ltd (the latter appears to have encompassed JD Booker Constructions Pty Ltd), was signed. The cost of construction, including architect's and engineer's fees, was estimated at this point at £272,000. The first stage, comprising two rear car parking areas, two commercial tenancies to the ground floor and eight storeys of four units each was completed soon after May 1960. After this, but before October, twin two-bedroom units had been added over part of the ninth floor and facing the street, mirroring the layout below and designated as penthouses. Such a feature had formed part of the building's design from its inception; however, more lavish ideas for double-storey units with observation decks had been abandoned.
Architecturally, Kinkabool is a characteristic example of 1950s architecture in Queensland, being a competent essay in mid-twentieth century modernism with straight lines dominating the façade, flat rooves and an absence of ornament. Influences on the design included English modernism as derived from that country's extensive post-war reconstruction efforts and the work of internationally renowned modern architects like Mies van der Rohe. The chief architect, John M Morton, was born and trained in England, having been in Australia only two years before starting work on Kinkabool. Lund Hutton Newell Black & Paulsen Pty Ltd was an established Queensland architectural firm with offices in Brisbane and Townsville, and busy completing a range of larger-scale commercial, ecclesiastical and multi-residential projects throughout the State. Morton was to become a partner and the firm, which had started as Ford & Chambers, would eventually came under his sole charge. He was later responsible for the Central Library Building at the Queensland Institute of Technology and the master plan for the State Government precinct near Old Parliament House (QHR 600069) and the Botanic Gardens (QHR 600067) in Brisbane. Soon after completing Kinkabool the same design, building and finance team completed Glenfalloch, another high-rise residential tower, this time in Brisbane's New Farm.
Kinkabool was laid out on a symmetrical plan, the centreline of which ran north to south from the street to the rear of the lot. Entrance was gained through large, central doors on the street into an arcade, which divided the two shops and provided access to a vestibule connecting the stairwell on the eastern side and the lift core on the west. Beyond this, to the rear of the building, and partly underground, were the car parking levels, accessed via external ramps on either side. Above the ground floor and service levels, the units were laid out identically on each of the proceeding eight levels: the stairwell and lift, joined by a small lobby provided access to two 1-bedroom units at the rear and two 2-bedroom units on the street. The 1-bedroom units featured an open-plan living, dining and kitchen area opening onto a small, squarish balcony, facing either east or west. Access to the bedroom with built-in cupboards was from the living area. Its combined bathroom and toilet fitted in behind the kitchen, which also included the laundry facilities. The rooms of the 2-bedroom units opened off a central hall with the front door at one end and the living/dining/kitchen space, combined as in the 1-bedroom units, at the other. A thin, rectangular balcony opened off the open-plan living space on the north-east or north-west corners. A bathroom was inserted between the kitchen and the master bedroom and incorporated laundry facilities. On the tenth level there were two 2-bedroom units at the front next to the lift tower, and a roof garden and drying court to the rear.
The techniques used to erect Kinkabool were not new to Queensland, although they were new to the Gold Coast. The structural frame of the building was made up of reinforced concrete raft foundations, columns and slabs, with similarly made reinforced concrete party walls separating individual dwelling units. The roof areas were flat and sealed with bituminous felt. Exterior in-fill walls were made with a carefully orchestrated pattern of rendered concrete and columns of red face-brick panels. A range of timber-framed window types were used throughout the building, including sliding doors to the balconies. The façade to Hanlan Street was formed using a formal patterning of timber mullions, sashless glass sliders and glass panels painted black before a sill-height wall was installed behind. The balcony balustrading consisted of painted steel verticals with a steel top-rail. A full-height section comprising painted Oregon timber blades set on an angle shielded part of the balcony. A septic tank with associated pump and filter services was installed beneath the building. Water tanks on the roof provided the necessary water pressure for the building's plumbing system.
The detailing employed on the interior of Kinkabool was advertised as 'luxurious' in 1960 and demonstrated the ideals of modernity that were to attract holidaymakers to this style of self-contained accommodation. The walls to the shops on the internal arcade were made with glass and Maple framing, and its floors were finished with terrazzo. The stairs were formed in reinforced concrete and lined with pre-cast terrazzo to the first level. The balusters and handrail were milled steel and Maple respectively. Ceilings throughout were sprayed with vermiculite plaster. Inside each unit, and demonstrating very clearly the preferences of the time for modern convenience, the kitchens featured laminated stainless steel sinks, plastic bench-tops, tiled splashbacks and floors, built-in cupboards with plywood doors, and sliding glass facing upper cupboards. They opened into the living area with bar units. The bathrooms were tiled in bright patterns.
The concept of strata title was not introduced into Australia until 1961 (and not into Queensland until 1965) so Kinkabool was developed and sold under company title wherein potential buyers became shareholders and leased their units and garage spaces from the company, depending on the number and class of shares they purchased. Kinkabool Pty Ltd was incorporated on 15 May 1959. Purchasers were required to submit personal references for approval by the company's Board of Directors, and its inaugural Board included Messrs Walter Oswald Burt, John Desmond Booker, Frank Maurice Felton, Roderick Consett Proctor, Ian Kenneth Redpath and Charles Hartley Wilson, who were largely the only shareholders prior to 1964. The 'credit squeeze' imposed by the federal government in November 1960, which contributed to the collapse of the Korman empire, initially may have deterred investor demand for the units. Morton and others suggest that, as with Glenfalloch, buyers were cautious about this new style of living in the sky. The mode of ownership of Kinkabool would not be converted to strata title until 1999.
In late 1960 an adjoining land parcel of 14.8 perches (approximately 374m²) to the east was acquired and an easement was created, granting a right to light and air that would protect the views to the beach from Kinkabool's units. This block was subsumed into the Kinkabool holding in 1964, but a single-storeyed twelve-car garage was not built there until 1976, the parking spaces being offered for sale to Kinkabool owners.
Kinkabool was first marketed by LJ Hooker Ltd who produced a coloured brochure emphasising its appeal as a modern accommodation option for owner/occupiers as well as a valuable investment acquisition. By July 1961, Dolby and Rankine (Accommodation) Pty Ltd had been appointed sole managing agents for Kinkabool and reported to The South Coast Bulletin that some units had been let for the Christmas period, while others were being readied for such use. It was also reported that some units had been let for periods of three to five months to New Zealand residents; and the penthouse had been let for Christmas at 40 guineas a week. Laurie Wall, a well-known Gold Coast real estate agent and identity would eventually sell the majority of unit shares in 1964.
From the beginning, Kinkabool was used as holiday accommodation, both by unit owners and short-term tenants, who visited during the annual holiday seasons of Easter and Christmas. A resident building manager or caretaker was employed from the mid-1960s; his duties included assisting owners and tenants with such services as providing televisions, linen and cutlery, moving luggage, and cleaning units after short-term holiday tenants had departed.
The LJ Hooker marketing brochure boasted that Kinkabool was 'changing the skyline'. As the tallest building on the coast it towered above the rapidly expanding set of hotels and motels at its feet, being a Gold Coast landmark and prominent in photographs and postcards from the 1960s. In the decade after its construction other coastal high-rises followed, such as: The Sands in 1964-1966 (11 storeys) and Paradise Towers (14 storeys) next door in 1965-1966, both designed by Sydney architect EG Nemes for the developer Alexander Armstrong; Garfield Towers, designed by FB Oswell, in 1966-1967; and Suntower on the Esplanade in 1968. The two River Park Towers were built on Watson Esplanade facing the Nerang River in 1969.
Development of ever taller high-rise unit towers continued during the 1970s, booming between 1979 and 1982, and giving the Gold Coast a key component of its national and international identity. Approval had been granted for the construction of more than 5,000 units in the six months before the crash that brought this period of fevered property speculation to an end in mid-1982.
Favourable development conditions returned during a number of later building phases, and high-rise developments continued. As Richard Allom, lead author of the 1997 Character Study of the Gold Coast, said in a Weekend Bulletin article from that year: "Dating from the 1960s, the Gold Coast had a form generated by a stretch of beach and a culture dependent on climate and tourism. ... It was a fantasy city like Las Vegas and its 'wonderful Great Divide of high-rise buildings' was its most important icon."
Suburban and semi-industrial development has rapidly overtaken much of the Gold Coast and its immediate hinterland, as its permanent population has expanded and its economic base diversified. But its tourism industry has also grown, making it internationally recognisable. Many of Kinkabool's lower-rise contemporaries of the 1950s and 1960s have been lost to this latter kind of expansion.
","criteria":"Kinkabool demonstrates the principal characteristics of a class of cultural place - high-rise beach holiday accommodation - that was rare in Queensland in the 1950s but is now common, particularly at the Gold Coast.
A number of components of Kinkabool have been maintained to the present day and reflect the standards marketed in the 1950s and 1960s as 'luxurious', but which also exemplify the character of this type of building. These include: the overall disposition of units; their relationship to private balconies, some of which have been enclosed with framed glass, all of which retain the original timber blade screens; the two ground floor shop spaces either side of an arcade leading to the lift and stair lobby and enclosed with the original timber framing and fixed glass; and the scale and location of the penthouse apartments. Despite the scale of the building being diminished by later high-rise accommodation developments all along the coast from Southport to Coolangatta, the Kinkabool units maintain their views to the beach and the hinterland, which were also important components of the building's attraction to early buyers and holidaymakers.
Rather than detracting from its significance, the great disparity in scale and appointment between Kinkabool and buildings like the 80-storey Q1 tower, demonstrates dramatically how tourist preferences, architectural design and construction technologies have evolved on the Gold Coast since the 1950s.
|Built in 1959-1960 at Surfers Paradise, the home-unit building known as Kinkabool was the Gold Coast's first high-rise and one of Queensland's earliest, built shortly after Torbreck (QHR 601256) was completed in Brisbane in 1960. It is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's beach tourism development as it is the starting point for a style and scale of multiple-dwelling and multi-title building that appeared in the late 1950s/1960s and from which the Gold Coast, Queensland's premier tourist destination in terms of visitor numbers, gained its international reputation.
Kinkabool also illustrates a significant aspect of the evolving character of the quintessential Australian beach holiday, which was highly influenced by American standards of accommodation and entertainment, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s. It reflects a shift in the preferences of many post-World War II Australian tourists away from traditional holiday accommodation options like camping or caravanning, guest or boarding houses toward high-rise, self-contained apartments with a view of the beach and equipped with modern conveniences like time-saving kitchen appliances and on-site pools. This shift reflects major changes that have occurred in Australian society, including increased prosperity, the changing role of women, and the embrace of the private car.
Situated one block to the south of Cavill Avenue, near the intersection with the Gold Coast Highway, Kinkabool is one of the few buildings remaining that delineates what was the heart of burgeoning Surfers Paradise in the 1950s, with its modern accommodation, entertainment and shopping venues.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion D | Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16242,"place_ref":601479,"name":"Southport Drill Hall","alternate_name":"Southport Drill Shed","street_address":"210 Queen Street","suburb":"SOUTHPORT","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-10-05","description":"The Southport Drill Hall is a timber building situated on the southern side of Owen Park, Southport, among a number of other timber buildings. The building is of single skinned construction, timber framed and clad externally with chamfered boards and elevated on concrete stumps. The corrugated iron clad roof comprises a curved section over the main hall abutting a skillion roof over a row of offices. The curved section is supported on curved wrought iron trusses and the curved sections of the end walls have high level fixed louvre ventilation panels (now clad internally with sheeting) above with is vertical boarding. The northern face of the building houses the principal entrance through a large double timber boarded door. Flanking the door are two large double unglazed window openings which are protected with timber boarded shutters. Centrally located on the two ends of the building is a similar double window opening protected with timber shutters. The southern face of the building, where the offices are located, has four small vertical sash windows regularly spaced along the face of the building.
Internally, the building comprises a large open space from which access is provided to four small rooms in a row on the southern side of the building. Separating the smaller rooms from the large central room is a single skinned timber boarded partition. External access is provided to the eastern most office via an external open tread timber stair of four steps shades by an ornate awning supported on fretwork brackets. The large internal room is open to the wrought iron roof trusses. This room houses ephemera and fittings from the Queensland Naval Brigade Southport Volunteer Company who now use the building and retains a strong sense of its military history.
","history":"The Southport Drill Hall was constructed in 1890 as the Southport Drill Shed to the specifications of George Connolly of the Colonial Architect's office. Although moved from its original site in Lawson Street, Southport, the building has retained a strong association with various defence related agencies.
On 10 December 1859 Queensland separated from New South Wales and became responsible for the defence of its territory. At the time, the population of the state was about 25 000 and the Colony was without any type of defence, and initially the services of the Brisbane and Ipswich Troops of the Queensland Mounted Rifles were utilised. By 1862, Volunteer Defence Forces had been instigated in several areas of the state and in 1867 Governor Sir George Bowen agreed to the formation of a Volunteer Rifle Corps on the condition that the group would finance themselves. The Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley Volunteer Rifle Corps (No. 3 Company) were amongst the first to come into being with Charles Lilley as the commanding officer. In 1876, as the fear of invasion from mounting European tensions was felt, the New South Wales Colonial Secretary, in association with several other mainland colonies including Queensland sought military advice from Britain. Lieutenant General Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois furnished the colonies with advice for each colony on fortifications, artillery, naval defence and manpower. One of the specific recommendations was that
He expressed his pleasure at having held a review which considering the disadvantages under which the Volunteer force had laboured had been fairly conducted. The force however had a good deal to learn before they could expect to meet an enemy on anything like equal terms...with regard to artillery they would have to learn to use heavier ordnance than that with which they were now practising and would consequently, like the rifle corps, require more instruction in drill.
Despite the recommendations, financial provision for the voluntary defence force remained inadequate until new Volunteer Regulations were passed in October 1882. Funding and support for the defence forces ensued. To accommodate the revitalised forces thus formed, drill halls were to be constructed and used as training facilities. These halls were designed to a standard planned and erected at strategic focal points of military strategy. The focal points recommended included those at local harbours and rivers, particularly where enemy warships may find entry. A good example of such a place was found at the South Passage at Southport, where river traffic between Brisbane and Southport also required protection. The passing of the Defence Act in 1884 saw the establishment of a permanent military force and a militia along with the already established volunteer corps.
A Southport Corps was formed from the Southport branch of the Queensland Volunteer Rifle Infantry and this was converted to a militia in 1887. In April 1885 a Southport Cadet Corps had been established. In the 1880s the popularity of Southport as a seaside holiday destination surged. Southport developed as an alternate resort when Sandgate became more accessible with the introduction of the rail line in 1882. Logging in the Southport area had commenced in the late 1850s, and by 1875 the first sales of land opened the area for settlement. By the 1880s Southport become the principal sea-side resort in Queensland. The construction of major schools, banks and hotels stimulated Southport's growth as a fashionable nineteenth century resort as did the presence of the Governor's residence in the 1890s. A rail extension from Beenleigh to Southport was opened in 1889 making Southport more accessible from Brisbane.
With increasing popularity of the area, and organisation of the military strategy a drill hall was constructed at Southport in 1890 on a military reserve in Lawson Street. This was a simple rectangular planned timber building housing a large open hall and abutting this a row of small rooms one an office and the other armouries for the three companies who trained in the building. The Drill Shed was completed in about November 1890 for a cost of £335/2/- by Coomera builder, John Fortune. The building was designed and construction administered by the Colonial Architect's Office of the Department of Works. Apparently George Connolly was the architect for the project. It is unclear whether the design was in fact a standard plan used for other drill halls although others constructed at this time, including that planned for Warwick (1888) were very similar. The design of the new Southport Drill Shed was in line with the maxim that military architecture was, above all else, functional, designed to maximise the safety and efficiency of personnel and their work. The timber used for the building was cypress pine and the curved, corrugated iron clad roof, was supported on wrought iron trusses. The windows were shaded with central pivoted timber shutters and a series of galvanised iron fixed louvre panels ensured cross ventilation. When finished the timberwork was painted white and included a detached toilet and fencing. Repairs and restoration were carried out in 1899, prior to the building reverting to Commonwealth ownership following Federation.
Although the Southport Drill Hall has sustained a long association with various Australian defence forces, it has been used for other community purposes. The first such use occurred in 1910 when permission was given to the Southport Agricultural and Horticultural Society to use the building during Carnival Week. Prior to 1910 the hall was only to be used for military purposes. Following WWI the Commonwealth military forces were reduced and the drill hall was leased firstly to a Boy Scout Group and then, from 1931 to the Southport Surf Lifesaving Club. The outbreak of WWII saw the Commonwealth reclaiming exclusive use of the Drill Hall and it remained in military use until 1988. The building was then left vacant until 1990 when it was used for the Queensland Naval Brigade Southport Volunteer Company.
In about 1995 the Southport Drill Hall was moved from its original site in Lawson Street to site in Owen Park, Queen Street, Southport. Owen Park, formerly a showgrounds, houses a number of other timber buildings moved from various parts of Southport. The Drill Shed remains substantially intact both internally and externally.
","criteria":"The building demonstrates the strategic military importance of costal areas, like Southport in the late nineteenth century and has a strong association with the Volunteer Defence Force.
|The building, contracted in 1890 to a standard design furnished by the State Department of Works, is a good and intact example of a standard nineteenth century drill hall of which many were constructed and very few are known to survive in their original form.
|The building, contracted in 1890 to a standard design furnished by the State Department of Works, is a good and intact example of a standard nineteenth century drill hall of which many were constructed and very few are known to survive in their original form.
|The building demonstrates the strategic military importance of costal areas, like Southport in the late nineteenth century and has a strong association with the Volunteer Defence Force.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 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":16277,"place_ref":601514,"name":"Southport Bathing Pavilion","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Marine Parade","suburb":"SOUTHPORT","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-01-13","description":"The Southport Bathing Pavilion is a single storeyed masonry building rendered with roughcast stucco, that is prominently located on Marine Parade at Southport. A brick and concrete structure with corrugated asbestos cement roof, it is flanked by two large established trees.
The Southport Bathing Pavilion demonstrates the influence of a Spanish Mission style of architecture particularly with the decorative parapeted gables, roughcast stucco render, entrance loggia, prominent roof with corrugated sheeting reminiscent of the cordova tile and arched openings.
Symmetrically arranged the building is rectangular in plan with central projecting bays on the west and east elevation. Decorative parapeted gables form the facade of the projecting bays. The parapets conceal the gabled roof which abuts them.
On the west elevation, which faces Marine Parade, the decorative gable element features a loggia, comprised of an open porch with three round headed arches supported on two 'barley sugar' twisted columns. The arches feature prominent keystone and raised edge detailing. Directly above the porch on the gable lettering spells 'BATHING PAVILION', with a cartouche with the date of construction, 1934. The edge of the stylised Baroque parapet has raised edge detailing which culminate in spiralled curves on the face of the gable. There are three doorways from the loggia, one of which has an overhead window opening, now boarded.
The eastern elevation has a similar decorative parapeted gable housing six boarded window openings. The surrounds of these windows are round headed arched recesses. The skillion roofed wings on either side of the parapet element, previously fin walls forming entrances, are now infilled with weatherboard.
There are high level window openings with face brick sills on all sides of the wings. Most of these windows are boarded or battened. The north elevation has a large metal door allowing vehicular access to the building.
The interior of the pavilion has two large spaces, a small room, accessible only from the loggia and two small enclosures on the eastern wall facing the arched window openings. The wall separating the original halves has been partially dismantled, as have sections of other walls around the entrances. The entire space is open to the timber roof trusses and the underside of the roof sheeting. The smaller rooms have individual ceilings immediately overhead, the space above which is open. The floor is concrete and the internal walls are rendered brick.
There is evidence in the two small rooms on the eastern wall of plumbing fixtures. The concrete floor in these spaces slopes toward an outside corner. There are sections of an early towel peg rail and early timber bench seating around the external walls in both halves of the building. Evidence in the concrete floor indicates the position of previous fittings.
","history":"This single storeyed building was built in 1934 by the Southport Town Council, as a dressing and showering facility for bathers using the Broadwater. The architects were Hall and Phillips and the contractor A. Ledbury, who built the pavilion at a cost of £1195.
The pavilion was erected at an important stage of the development of the coastal regions of south east Queensland. There was unprecedented growth in these areas as swimming and sun bathing became increasingly popular. The majority of the population, by the late 1930s benefited from paid holiday leave, increasing their leisure time. The councils of the various coastal regions were competing for holiday trade, beautification schemes and the provision of public facilities on the beach fronts were part of this attempt to attract the seasonal beach-goer.
Queensland has a long history of sea-side resorts. In the 1860s Sandgate and to a lesser extent Cleveland were popular destinations for beach-goers. With the introduction of the railway 1882 Sandgate's beaches became more accessible and Southport developed as an alternate coastal resort. Logging began in the area in the late 1850s and settlement was opened in the mid 1870s with the first sales of land. By the 1880s major Brisbane families favoured Southport as the premier seaside resort in south east Queensland. Major schools, branches of banks and hotels were constructed, as Southport assumed the appearance of a fashionable nineteenth century resort. Southport's distinction as a seaside resort is indicated by the Governor's maintaining a residence here from the 1890s. A rail extension from Beenleigh to Southport was opened in 1889 making Southport more accessible from Brisbane.
With increased accessibility and popularity at beaches, the necessity for bathing controls was realised. Bathing at the beach became increasingly prevalent in the late 19th century. By 1906 Section 109 of the Local Government Act allowed individual Local Councils to control swimming and swim-wear, nominating standards for bathing costumes, segregating bathing and defining bathing areas.
In the first decades of the century councils permitted privately owned bathing sheds on the beaches, which provided immediate access to the water after changing. In the 1920s custom became more relaxed toward bathing in public. Councils, realising the possible financial benefits from holiday makers provided firstly public dressing sheds and, later, bathing pavilions.
During the thirties various councils of the coastal regions of south east Queensland such as Southport and Coolangatta Town Councils and Nerang Shire Council on the south coast as well as Redcliffe and north coast councils, competed for holiday visitors. Chambers of Commerce and Progress Committees urged the councils to develop and beautify foreshore areas, in an attempt to attract visitors. As part of this process the Southport Town Council began a scheme to develop the Esplanade area, on which the Bathing Pavilion was to stand, as an recreational and entertainment area. This scheme was similar to those introduced in New South Wales at Manly, Bondi and Newcastle beaches in the late twenties and early thirties. The development of the Esplanade included tree-planting schemes, the addition of various side-show amusements and the construction of a picture theatre on the Southport Pier.
It was as part of the scheme of beautification at Southport that two bathing pavilions were erected, one on Main Beach and the other smaller building, the Southport Bathing Pavilion on the Esplanade close to the railway station. The two buildings were opened on the 20th December, 1934 by the Minister for Works, Mr H.A. Bruce. During a speech at the ceremony, mention was made of Southport being primarily dependant on visitors, and if something was not done for their comfort and convenience (Southport) would lose them. A newspaper report described the design of the buildings as Spanish.
Both of the bathing pavilions were designed by the Brisbane architectural partnership, Hall and Phillips who were responsible for the design of many of Southport's public buildings including the Southport Council Chambers (1934), the Pier Theatre (1921), accommodation units (1928), service station (1929) and various business premises as well as the bathing pavilions and clubhouse for the Southport Surf Life Saving Club (1936).
Southport gradually lost its prestige as the premier resort of the South Coast when the Jubilee Bridge across the Nerang River built in 1925 and new roads and improved transport made the southern beaches more accessible. In the 1930s and 1940s development of holiday apartments and hotels at Surfers Paradise increased the area's popularity, as did widescale promotion of the area. The surfing revolution of the 1950s and 1960s, resulted in rapid development of the south coast particularly Surfers Paradise. The three south coast councils amalgamated in 1949 to form the South Coast Council, later renamed the Gold Coast Council. From the mid 1960s the region has experienced rapid commercial growth which has greatly altered the environment. Five chains of land was resumed on the beach side of the Esplanade in 1965. As a result the Southport Bathing Pavilion is marooned in a large park. The resumption of land at the Esplanade, on Stradbroke Island and the Spit has caused silt deposits in the Broadwater, making it unsuitable for bathing.
As the pavilion was no longer used as public dressing and showering sheds the Council closed it to the public and use it for gardening and maintenance storage.
","criteria":"The Southport Bathing Pavilion, erected in 1934, is one of a group of buildings pivotal in understanding the development of the Gold Coast as a beach resort and in reflecting a new culture associated with beach going.
It provides evidence of the former use and scope of the area known as the Esplanade and the surrounding beach.
|It is a now rare example of the built environment at the south coast from the 1930s.
|The building is a good example of a Spanish Mission architectural influence and of the public work at Southport of the prominent architectural firm, Hall and Phillips.
|The building is a good example of a Spanish Mission architectural influence and of the public work at Southport of the prominent architectural firm, Hall and Phillips.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 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":16410,"place_ref":601649,"name":"Southport Town Hall (former)","alternate_name":"South Coast Town Hall | Gold Coast Town Hall | Gold Coast City Hall","street_address":"Nerang Street","suburb":"SOUTHPORT","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-10-05","description":"The former Southport Town Hall is a two storeyed rendered brick and concrete building situated on the corner of Nerang and Davenport Streets, Southport. The front façade of the building is set back from the Nerang Street footpath, allowing for a small lawned entrance court.
The symmetrically composed building comprises a central entrance bay on the Nerang Street façade, flanked by side wings. The Davenport Street façade of the building is three bays deep, each of these bays similar in form, although narrower, than those flanking the central entrance bay. The corrugated fibrous cement clad roof is concealed by a parapet on the principal façades of the building. The building is constructed with cavity brick load bearing external walls, rendered with cement externally and with plaster internally. A concrete slab forms the ground floor and the first floor is timber framed and boarded.
The principal façades of the building are divided into bays by flat vertical moulded fins which extend beyond the parapet line, terminating with leaf shaped silhouettes. These fins define the bays of the building and separate banks of windows surrounded by decorative moulding and moulded panels. A vertical fin moulded panel forms a base to the building and surmounting this are sills for the ground floor window openings. The windows throughout the building are timber framed vertical sashes. Between the windows of the ground floor and the first floor are vertical fin moulded panels with central disc and diamond shaped ornaments which also act as ventilators, alternating on each of the panels. Above the first floor windows openings is a strip moulding with chevron and diamond pattern. The parapet is lined on its upper edge with a strip moulding with a vertical lined pattern which creates a miniature crenellated silhouette between the leaf shaped fins. Separating the windows are vertical moulded pilaster-like elements with vertical mouldings. The other faces of the building are of unrendered brickwork.
At the base of the central entrance bay, which projects both forward from the footprint of the building and substantially above the parapet, is a double timber entrance door. Providing access to this is concrete steps, recessed into and flanked by the lawned court. The doors, which have carved timber Art Deco motif, slide into cavities flanking the doorway. Above the door is a signage panel with 'PRO BONO PUBLICO', above which is a fanlight with letting 'CHAMBERS'. Inside the entrance is a small vestibule from which further terrazzo clad stairs provide entrance to a large public space. Access is provided to the various ground floor offices, the stair hall and a c1950s public enquiries counter. The timber, three quarter turn stair is at the southern end of the building and fills the recess created with the projecting entrance bay. The stair has a metal balustrades comprising a simple geometric pattern wrought in steel. The stair hall is lined with square ceramic tiles which have been painted.
The upper floor of the former Council Chambers is arranged with a central space from which the offices and former council chamber is accessed. The former council chamber, on the western Davenport Street side of the building features an elaborate moulded plaster ceiling, which is stepped around the edges. The reveals of the steps formed have alternate bands of mouldings featuring strong geometric designs. Surrounding the uppermost step is a flat moulding spreading into the ceiling and incorporating octagonal shaped ventilators with stylised floral designed covers. The cornice also features a stylised floral moulded pattern. Generally the interior has plaster rendered walls and ceiling, with Art Deco inspired mouldings. The terrazzo floors on the ground floor have been uncovered and the timber floors on the first floor have been clad with vinyl floor sheeting and carpet. A strong room survives on the first floor.
To the rear of the 1935 building is a two storeyed reinforced concrete and glass wing, approximately the same size as the early building and linked to it with a recessed two storeyed wing. The recessed link creates a court on the Davenport Street side of the place, between the two main components of the council chambers, visually separating the buildings.
","history":"The Southport Town Hall was constructed in 1935 on the corner of Davenport and Nerang Streets, by the Southport Town Council replacing an earlier timber structure built in the nineteenth century. The building was designed by prominent Brisbane architects, Hall and Phillips, and is one of a number of buildings designed by the partnership which demonstrate a strong Art Deco influence.
The Nerang Division was formed in the nineteenth century to provide local government for the emerging community at the southern end of coastal Queensland. In 1883 Southport received separate local government representation when the Southport Divisional Board was formed. In the 1880s the popularity of Southport as a seaside holiday destination surged. Southport developed as an alternate resort when Sandgate became more accessible with the introduction of the rail line in 1882. Logging in the Southport area had commenced in the late 1850s, and by 1875 the first sales of land opened the area for settlement. By the 1880s major Brisbane families favoured Southport as the principal sea-side area. The construction of major schools, banks and hotels stimulated Southport's growth the premier nineteenth century resort as did the presence of the Governor's residence in the 1890s. A rail extension from Beenleigh to Southport was opened in 1889 making Southport more accessible from Brisbane.
A Town Council Chamber was constructed for the Southport Divisional Board at the corner of Nerang and Davenport Streets in 1899, prior to which the Board met at the court house. The Divisional Board continued to meet in this building until the 1930s when it was decided that a new chambers would reflect the increased size and popularity of Southport. The 1930s were a time of considerable growth and an important time in the development of Southport. In fact, there was rapid growth in coastal regions throughout Queensland during this period as bathing in sea water became increasingly popular as a recreational pursuit. As well, by this time the majority of the general population benefited from paid holiday leave, increasing leisure time and the opportunities for extended holidays. Councils of various coastal regions were competing for holiday trade by instigating beautification schemes and programmes for the provision of public facilities on the beaches.
The Southport Town Council, formed in 1915 from the Southport Divisional Board, undertook such an improvement scheme, taking advantage of the State Government's employment relief programme, which saw low interest loans provided to local councils for capital works. As part of this bathing pavilions, a surf lifesaving clubhouse, beach reclamation and the construction of the council chambers were planned. Included in the money borrowed by the Southport Council was £3000 for the construction of a new council chambers, to reflect the prosperity and progressiveness of the Council.
To design the council chambers the Town Council acquired the services of Brisbane architectural partnership, Hall and Phillips. Hall and Phillips were a Brisbane architectural partnership, formed in 1929, when Lionel Blythewood Phillips was admitted into partnership with Thomas Ramsay Hall, formerly of Hall and Prentice, who designed the City Hall and Ascot Chambers. Hall and Phillips continued in practice until 1948. TR Hall lived at Southport during this period and the firm was commissioned by the Southport Town Council for a number of projects in the 1920s and 1930s, including the Main Beach and Southport Bathing Pavilions (1934); and the Southport Surf Lifesaving Club (1936). Other work by Hall and Phillips at the south coast include the Pier Theatre (1926); Pacific Hotel, Southport (1926); and seaside homes for J Cavill, JB Charlton, TJ Barry and RG Clarke along with various business premises and accommodation units.
The design prepared by TR Hall, on behalf of Hall and Phillips, for the new Southport Town Hall was clearly inspired by the fashionable artistic and architectural style, Art Deco. Named as a style following a 1925 exhibition in Paris, Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, Art Deco refers more to pastiche qualities rather than a more integral architectural style. Hall and Phillips were the main proponents of Art Deco inspired architecture in Brisbane although this was certainly not the only influence on their vast work. Many of their prominent works displaying this influence include the dining room extension to the Tattersall's Club, Queen Street; McWhirters' corner, Fortitude Valley; Shell House (now CPS Credit Union), Ann Street; Stewarts and Lloyds Factory (now Australian Consolidated Industries), Montague Road, West End as well as the Southport Town Hall. Art Deco diverged from the aesthetic purity of modernism, reintroducing surface ornamentation and polychromy and with a theatricality which served as a 'middle-brow bridge between modernism and consumerism'. Art Deco was little used as a three dimension architectural style, more often applied as a two dimension ornament to the façades and interiors of mostly, commercial buildings and apartment buildings. Elements of the style include polychrome ornamentation commonly combining geometrical shapes particularly chevrons and repeated lines, and stylised floral patterns. Usually such ornamentation was concentrated around entrances and at the parapet line and is juxtaposed with more general ornamentation, like faceting, fins and chevron mouldings creating three dimensional crystalline surfaces.
The Southport Town Council were influenced by the architects to adopt a popular inter war style reflecting the anticipated prosperity and development of the south coast and specifically, Southport. Originally the building was designed to incorporate a central tower, but this was omitted from the final work for financial reasons. Tenders were called for the building in late 1934 and by January, 1935 the tender of Brisbane builder, H Cheetham was accepted as noted in the Architects' and Builders' Journal of Queensland. Construction began on the building on 11 January 1935 and the new Town Hall was expected to be completed at a cost of £5970. The first part of the construction process involved removing the original council chambers and transferring this to another part of Southport where it remained in use as the council chambers until construction was completed on the new Town Hall.
The building was finished by August 1935 and on 2 August 1935 the Southport Town Hall was officially opened by the Queensland Premier, William Forgan-Smith in commemoration of the employment relief loan the Southport Town Council received from the State Government in order to construct the building. When opened, the building provided four offices on the ground floor, three of which were to be let and one of which would house a state funded baby clinic. The upper floor provided office accommodation for the Mayor and Town Clerk of Southport and a council chamber. The painting on the project was done by Dyne and Co. under the supervision of Messrs James and Frank Holden. The plumber involved with construction was JW Parker and the electrician was JR Ritchie.
Both the local press in the form of the South Coast Bulletin, and the Architects' and Builders' Journal of Queensland reported on the completed building, which was described as 'an interesting study in modern architectural design' and a building which 'add(ed) a new type of architecture to the town.' More specifically one of the reports detailed the building:
The centre which has the main entrance is bold in treatment and is supported by symmetrical wings. The main motif is of vertical line, with horizontal treatment between the main piers...It is constructed of brickwork walls, concrete ground floor, wood first floor and fibrolite roof. All external walls are cavity brickwork preserving the coolness of the building and preventing dampness and as a further precaution the walls have been cement rendered. The ground floor has an entrance vestibule and hall stair lobby giving access to four large well lighted offices, which at present are to be rented but will provide extra space if required by the council...The council's offices are on the first floor where a generous public space provides approach to a general office and water authority business being conducted across a silky oak counter. Access to the mayor's room, health office and town clerk's office is direct from the public space. A staircase at the back leads to the yard. The council chamber (31 feet by 19 feet) is an imposing room with textured walls, silky oak furniture and honour board. The (un)usual splay steeped ceiling of fibrous plaster is a distinctive feature. Provision is made for a small public gallery to the chamber and adjoining the chamber is a committee room.
The Southport Town Council moved into their new Town Hall and remained in the building until the Southport Town Council was amalgamated with other south coast councils to form the South Coast Town Council in 1949. The new amalgamated council used the former Southport Town Hall as their council chambers and a large addition to the rear of the building was made in 1952 to house additional offices. The extension was well designed to allow the 1936 building to retain its form and scale. In 1955 a metal framed and glazed porch was added to the Nerang Street entrance to the 1935 building. As well windows were removed from the front façade and a ground floor men's toilet was relocated. The South Coast Town Council was renamed the Gold Coast Town Council in 1958 and, having reached the level of municipality, the council was renamed the Gold Coast City Council in 1959. The Gold Coast City Council remained at the former Southport Town Hall until 1976 when new offices at Evandale were constructed. From that time the building has been used as the Southport branch of the Council.
In 1997 a large scale conservation project was undertaken by the Southport branch of the City Council designed by Inarc Architects with Arnold Wolthers Architect providing heritage advice. The project involved the removal of the 1955 front porch; the reinstatement of ground floor windows and doors, internal reconstruction and the reconstruction of external decoration. During this work many of the original features, including the front doors, lettering over the front entrance and internal features were revealed.
","criteria":"The former Southport Town Hall, constructed in 1935 as the second town hall on the site, demonstrates the development of Southport during the 1930s when a developing permanent community and rapidly increasing transient, holiday making population were provided with a large progressively designed Town Hall, reflecting the anticipated prosperity and development of the shire.
|The former Southport Town Hall is an important example of an Art Deco influenced building, designed by Brisbane architectural partnership, Hall and Phillips.
The building has strong associations with its designers, Hall and Phillips, who designed many fine buildings in south east Queensland influenced by Art Deco.
|The building has aesthetic significance as a well composed public building on a prominent site, clearly designed to illustrate the progressive nature of the Town Council who built it in a popular inter-war architectural style. The ornamentation and decoration on and within the building contributes to its aesthetic value and the survival of internal Art Deco decoration is rare.
|The building has social significance as a centrally located civic building which has been open for public purposes for over sixty years.
|(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":16625,"place_ref":601889,"name":"Schmidt Farmhouse & Outbuildings (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"3 Worongary Road","suburb":"WORONGARY","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-04-08","description":"There are three main buildings at this site: a farmhouse, a slab barn, and a small creamery. There are also three other buildings: a timber shed of indeterminate age, a small timber outhouse, and a collapsed garage.
The farmhouse
The farmhouse is a timber framed and braced building raised on timber stumps and clad in weatherboards to the sides and rear, and in wide T and G boards with exposed studs and bracing to the front.
The house consists of two parts: the front section of two rooms with verandah, and an attached kitchen or service wing also of two rooms. Part of the rear verandah has been enclosed as a bathroom and small store room.
Existing shingle battens indicate that the house originally had a timber shingled roof, now replaced with corrugated iron sheeting. The roof is gabled in two directions. A brick fireplace and chimney are located at the rear of the building.
The front verandah has recently had the original floorboards replaced with new hardwood boards. A length of early handrail and dowel balustrade exists on the northwest corner. The verandah was until recently enclosed to create a sleep-out, with a second stair leading to the ground on the east side. Evidence of this stair exists in the form of holes to one of the verandah posts where the handrail was let in.
Examination of the house indicates that it originally contained only two rooms at the front section, with french doors opening out from both rooms to the front verandah. The room on the eastern side of the house was the larger of the two. The wide beaded vertical boards (approximately 200 millimetres wide) to the northern and southern walls and to the original dividing wall remain.
At a later date a wall was added to the larger room to form the present central corridor. This wall was constructed of 100 millimetre wide v-jointed boards. The door and door hardware to this wall confirm its later construction. The v-jointed boards lining the ceiling to these rooms, the timber ceiling ventilators and the scotia cornices were probably added at this time as well. The ceilings may have been calico originally.
The weatherboard walls to the eastern and western elevation may be original but if so were likely to have been unlined internally. The internal lining of 100 millimetre T and G boards are certainly a later addition. It is more probable that these walls were lined internally with studs exposed to the outside and that these have decayed and been replaced at a later date. This assertion is supported by inspection of the door and window sashes. The french doors at the front of the house have 'lambs tongue' or ogee profile glazing bars which were hand moulded and which are more in keeping with earlier construction techniques. The windows have glazing bars which are machine moulded indicating that the sashes, if not the whole body of the windows, are later and likely to have been inserted when the east and west walls were reconstructed. Window hoods throughout are likely to date to this period also.
The current wall between the kitchen and the adjacent room, which is believed to have been a bedroom, is original judging by the wide vertical boards used in its construction. The opening in this wall does not appear to be original. In this section too, external walls appear to have been reconstructed and were, until recently, lined with 100 millimetre T and G boards as the main house.
A photograph dated c1910 indicates that changes had been made from what it is believed was the original construction, including the addition of dowel balustrading to the front verandah, the replacement of the original shingled roof with corrugated iron, and the addition of stairs to the eastern side of the verandah. Evidence of the earlier balustrading exists in the mortice holes to the north-eastern verandah post.
Subsequent changes included the enclosure of part of the front verandah and the construction of a lean-to laundry building on the west. These additions have recently been removed. Nothing remains of the laundry except for an area of concrete slab on the ground at the foot of the steps. Sheet lining to the early bathroom and to the ceiling of the rear verandah has been removed, floors sanded and the whole building painted. The early timber outhouse and shed remain.
The slab barn
To the west of the farm house is a large barn constructed primarily of hardwood slabs and milled weatherboards with a corrugated iron roof. The barn is 15 metres by 10 metres and is elevated off the ground. The floor of the central section is made of hardwood boards, while the lower floors to either side are laid with large timber slabs. The building has been rebuilt recently and some roof framing and sheeting are therefore quite recent. Some new hardwood slabs have been introduced recently.
The creamery
Located in the showgrounds is a small creamery believed to be part of the Schmidt's farm. It is a timber weatherboard structure about 3 metres square with a corrugated iron roof. The framing and sheeting of the roof appear to be later than the body of the building.
The building has a concrete floor, not original. The walls are sheeted at about three-quarter height with timber slats to provide ventilation. There is evidence of 100 millimetre T and G lining internally, some of which has been cut away because of termite damage. Window openings are filled with timber shutters.
","history":"This farmhouse and outbuildings were constructed in the late 19th/early 20th centuries on land which in the 1850s was part of the Murry Jerry pastoral run, leased by William Duckett White of Beaudesert. The site was subsequently included in the 200 acres taken up by WD White as a pre-emptive selection in 1869, but the present buildings and structures appear to date to a later period, when the land was used for agricultural purposes. It was occupied by the Schmidt-Kurth family, Worongary dairy farmers, from c1901 to c1986.
Murry Jerry, a 25 square mile cattle run based around the present town of Mudgeeraba, was taken up by Alfred Compigne in 1852 and transferred to WD White in September 1853. Following the introduction of the Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1868, designed to open the large pastoral holdings of southern Queensland to agriculture and closer settlement, Murry Jerry was opened for general selection in April 1869. Initially timber getters took up the land, but were soon joined by farmers growing corn or maize, and later establishing dairies. Timber remained an important industry, especially after the establishment of the first saw mills in the Mudgeeraba area by the mid-1880s.
Under the conditions of the 1868 Land Act, WD White applied in December 1868 for a pre-emptive selection of 200 acres of the Murry Jerry run [portion 7A], on the southern side of Worongary Creek, to commence at a marked tree on the right [southern] bank of the creek about 250 yards northwest from Worongary Hut. White's selection application made reference to improvements including a stockman's hut and a store/dairy. When the block was being surveyed early in 1869, surveyor GL Pratten noted a hut in the vicinity of the present farmhouse and outbuildings. No connection has been established between the huts [probably of slab construction] referred to in 1868/69 and the present structures.
White acquired freehold to the Worongary selection in 1878 and in August 1879 this was transferred to his son Ernest, who controlled WD White & Son's coastal properties from his base at Nindooimbah near Beaudesert following his father's move to Brisbane c1860. It is understood that during the 1870s Ernest White used the Worongary land for pastoral purposes.
In the 1880s the selection changed hands a number of times and its use for agricultural purposes appears to date from this period. The form and construction of the farmhouse core, with its 8" wide beaded vertical boarding, suggest that it also dates from this period. Title was transferred in April 1880 to Anne Stephens of Brisbane, widow of Thomas Blackett Stephens, who in 1877 had established the Hillview dairy on part of his 11,000 acre estate east of Worongary, acquired in the mid-1870s. The Stephens family subdivided portion 7A and title to the 163 acres west of the Mudgeeraba Road passed early in 1885 to the Starkey family, who had taken up land at upper Mudgeeraba in the early 1880s. Later in 1885 title passed to John Etchells of Nerang Creek, who in 1870 had been amongst the first to select land at what is now Surfers' Paradise. Etchells mortgaged this land in the second half of the 1880s, and in mid-1889 title returned to Anne Stephens, and remained in the Stephens family [Stephens Estates Limited from 1904] until transferred to Mudgeeraba farmer Carl Schmidt in July 1912.
Johann Karl [Carl] Schmidt had emigrated from Germany to Queensland in 1881, aged 21 years. He appears to have worked as a farm labourer in the Nerang-Mudgeeraba district and in 1890 married Bertha Abraheim, whose parents had selected land in the Mudgeeraba district in the late 1870s. In 1891 Schmidt selected portion 24, parish of Mudgeeraba, where he took up mixed farming and later established a dairy. The Schmidt family moved to the Worongary property c1901, and may have leased the farm from the Stephens Estate, or managed it for them, prior to acquiring title in 1912. Schmidt descendants understand that the farmhouse was already on the property c1901.
At the Worongary property the Schmidt family engaged in the district's principal economic activity: commercial dairying, heavily promoted by the Queensland government in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1889 the Queensland Department of Agriculture [established 1887] sponsored the colony's first travelling dairy, which opened at Tallebudgera in April 1889 before moving on to other centres on the Gold Coast and throughout southeast Queensland, encouraging interest, demonstrating the technology, and imparting information and skills. The 1893 Meat and Dairy Act offered subsidies to dairy farmers, and introduced a tax on non-dairy cattle which funded the establishment of cheese factories and creameries. Quality controls were implemented with the introduction of compulsory grading of butter and cream in 1898, and inspection of dairies and factories under the Dairy Produce Acts 1904-05. Importantly, the Queensland Agricultural Bank was established in 1901 to increase the flow of credit to selectors - many of whom had taken up dairying. The Schmidt dairy was small - 20-30 cows - but typical of small selector farming practice in the early 20th century.
A number of turn-of-the-century alterations appear to have been made to the farmhouse, including: a detached kitchen joined to the main house; the shingled roof replaced with corrugated iron; weatherboard cladding on the external walls; new sash windows and window hoods; new front balustrading; ceilings and some internal walls lined with narrow tongue and groove boarding, with fretwork ceiling ventilators in the principal rooms; and a partition wall erected in the larger of the front rooms, to create a central hallway. These improvements, probably made by the Schmidt family and completed by c1910, reflect the rise in living standards which accompanied the expansion of dairying on the Gold Coast hinterland, as well as the determination of hard-working German immigrant families to succeed on the land.
Bertha Schmidt died in 1924 and in 1930, prior to Carl's death in 1931, the property was transferred to their youngest daughter, Mrs Eda Catherine Kurth. The farmhouse remained in the Schmidt-Kurth family until 1992, although by then on a substantially reduced site of 2548m². The land between the farmhouse and Worongary Creek was acquired by Albert Shire Council in 1987-88 for use by the Mudgeeraba Show Society, and the Schmidt's former creamery is now located within the showgrounds. The bales and separating room, initially situated east of the house and later re-located south of Worongary Road, no longer exist.
Rapid, sustained population growth on the Gold Coast hinterland in the last 15-20 years, and particularly since the early 1980s, has led to substantial re-development of former farming areas for new residential estates. The former Schmidt farmhouse is understood to be one of the earliest, and one of the few, surviving farmhouses on the Gold Coast hinterland.
","criteria":"The former Schmidt farmhouse and outbuildings demonstrate the pattern of Queensland's history by providing evidence of the farming history of the Gold Coast hinterland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In particular, it illustrates the expansion of commercial dairying on Gold Coast selections in the early 20th century. The place is also illustrative of the success of German immigration to Queensland in the last quarter of the 19th century.
|As very few farmhouses from the late 19th century are known to survive in the Gold Coast hinterland, the former Schmidt farmhouse demonstrates rare aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|The house, barn, creamery and other surviving outbuildings demonstrate some of the principal characteristics of a small, late19th/early 20th century dairy farm, and the farmhouse core survives as rare illustration of earlier form, construction and materials employed in a small, c1880 rural dwelling house in the Gold Coast hinterland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16672,"place_ref":601936,"name":"Laurel Hill Farmhouse","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Ruffles Road","suburb":"WILLOW VALE","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-12-01","description":"Laurel Hill Farmhouse, a single-storeyed weatherboard residence with a corrugated iron gable roof and timber stumps, is located fronting Ruffles Road to the northwest.
The residence has verandahs to four sides, with a separate kitchen wing at the rear connected via a covered landing. Original attic windows, one to each gable end, have been infilled with weatherboard.
The verandah has a corrugated iron skillion roof, with a timber lined ceiling (partially removed) and timber posts, capitals and brackets. Sections of the verandah have deteriorated and partially collapsed, and only a few sections of balustrading, consisting of dowel balusters and timber handrail, survive. The building has weatherboard cladding to the side and rear walls, and a single-skin externally cross-braced wall to the front verandah. The main entrance, consisting of a panelled timber door and fanlight, opens off the front verandah and is flanked by two french doors with fanlights on the northern side and a french door and fanlight on the southern side. Multi-pane sash windows open to the side and rear verandahs, and a timber door opens from the living area to the southeast verandah and covered landing, and a second door with fanlight opens to the northeast verandah.
The kitchen wing consists of an unpainted weatherboard structure with a corrugated iron gable roof and timber stumps, with a corrugated iron lean-to addition at the rear. This structure has sash windows to the main section, with corrugated iron and timber batten hoods, and hopper and louvred windows to the lean-to. A timber door opens to a covered landing to the northwest, and a second door opens to the southeast with timber steps to ground level.
Internally, the residence has a large living area facing the southeast and northeast verandahs, with two bedrooms to the southwest and two bedrooms to the northwest. Ceilings and walls are unpainted, and the original attic space has been closed and the access stair removed. The ceiling of the living space has been altered and now consists of plywood sheeting with timber battens, and some internal walls may have been altered and partially re-lined. Door heads are not of a uniform height, and the main bedroom has french doors opening from the central hallway, also suggesting some alteration to internal walls. The exterior walls have wide horizontal boarding, and the internal walls have vertical boarding. The bedroom ceilings vary, with some comprising raked cornices with joists supporting floorboards for the attic above, and others finished with timber boarding.
Internally, the kitchen wing has unpainted ceilings and walls. The main section contains a dining area and bathroom, and has vertically boarded walls and a boarded ceiling. The rear lean-to addition houses the kitchen with a stove recess at the northern end.
The building's immediate surrounds include overgrown gardens to the northwest fronting Ruffles Road, with the remains of a rock garden to the north of the house. There are also a number of large trees to the north and south, and the remains of a partially demolished shed to the northeast.
","history":"Laurel Hill Farmhouse, a single-storeyed timber farm house with attic, was erected in 1883-84 for Pimpama arrowroot grower and manufacturer, William Doherty. The builder was Alexander Fortune of Coomera. At the time, Laurel Hill Farmhouse was considered the finest residence in Pimpama district, and in 1897 was photographed by the Queensland Lands Department as an example of a successful Queensland selector's home.
Much of the Pimpama district had been taken up in the 1850s by William Duckett White of Beau Desert Station, who leased 20,000 acres between the Logan and Coomera Rivers, including upper Hotham Creek [a tributary of Pimpama River], as Pimpama run. A small settlement was established on Pimpama River c1860, but the site was abandoned within a few years in preference to Hotham Creek. Much of Pimpama run was thrown open for selection from April 1869, and White forfeited his remaining leasehold on Pimpama from 1 January 1870. The private subdivision and sale in February 1870 of town and farm lots at the junction of the Pimpama River and Hotham Creek, consolidated Pimpama township and initiated a small farming community of predominantly Irish settlers.
In the 1860s, farmers along the Pimpama River experimented firstly with cotton growing, then with sugar, both of which initially were dependent on South Pacific Islands labour. By December 1876 the principal Pimpama sugar plantations [Ormeau, Malungmavel, Pimpama and Yahwulpah] had ceased production, and were devoted either to cattle or arrowroot, but some smaller farms in the district continued with sugar growing for several decades.
The Pimpama selectors of the 1870s, searching for a new commercial crop, discovered that the climate, soil, and abundance of pure water in the Pimpama district were ideal for the cultivation and manufacture of arrowroot. Arrowroot gave about the same return as maize or potatoes, but was more frost, drought and flood resistant. The first commercial arrowroot in Pimpama was grown in the late 1860s, and the Lahey family, who moved to Pimpama in 1870 and eventually took up Sunnyside, adjoining William Doherty on Hotham Creek, went into arrowroot cultivation on a large scale, inventing a mechanical processing method which revolutionised the production of arrowroot, and marketing arrowroot under their own brand. By 1884, arrowroot was widely grown in the Pimpama and Coomera districts, and a number of new manufacturing plants were being established.
Most of the selections along upper Hotham Creek were surveyed in 1871, but not proclaimed for selection until August 1874. In the interim, many farmers were 'squatting' on these selections, with no guarantee that they would ultimately secure the land as leasehold.
Irish-born settlers William Doherty and his wife Eliza Fannon had arrived in Queensland by September 1867. It appears that they were resident in Brisbane until November 1869 at least, but had moved to the Pimpama district by August 1870, when William Doherty signed a local petition calling for a provisional school to be established in the area. It is not known where in Pimpama the Doherty family lived at this period, but William Doherty worked on a number of local sugar plantations and farms before taking up his own selections in the mid-1870s.
In October 1874, Doherty selected portion 21, parish of Pimpama [158 acres of second class pastoral land on Hotham Creek, on which Laurel Hill Farmhouse was later built]. The block already contained some improvements, including a slab barn and a small humpy [dwelling], and about 12 acres of scrub cleared and partly under cultivation, for which Doherty paid £20, and was issued with a conditional lease on the property for 10 years from 1 January 1875. At the same time he selected the adjoining portion 31 [135 acres], on which existing improvements comprised a bark-roofed barn, a small slab house, some cleared scrub and a small stockyard. It appears that the Dohertys resided on portion 31 from October 1874 until mid-1879, when they moved to portion 21. In 1879, Doherty also acquired the lease to portion 151, an 84 acre block which abutted the eastern boundary of portion 21.
In January 1884 he obtained title to portions 21 & 31, and embarked on substantial improvements to the property, which he had named Laurel Hill. A fine new house, erected for the Dohertys by Coomera builder Alexander Fortune, was completed by late January 1884. [This is understood to be the existing Laurel Hill Farmhouse.] Fortune, resident in the Coomera district by 1872, was a carpenter by trade, and had erected Coomera State School and an Anglican church at upper Coomera.
At Laurel Hill, William Doherty raised cattle and grew various crops. By 1884 he had between 40 and 50 acres under arrowroot, and erected his own factory in the first half of the year. Remnants of this mill survive. Before the turn of the century, he purchased Pimpama Plantation at Ormeau, [approximately 1,150 acres which he used for grazing purposes], and c1901 acquired Sunnyside, the Lahey family's substantial arrowroot plantation adjacent to Laurel Hill on Hotham Creek. Following William Doherty's death in 1904, the properties were divided between his three sons: Laurel Hill went to William Alexander [Alex], Sunnyside [re-named Willowvale by the Dohertys] to Thomas, and Pimpama to Robert.
By 1908, Queensland farmers on about a dozen farms in the Yatala, Pimpama, Ormeau and Nerang districts, were supplying almost the whole of the arrowroot used in Australia. Doherty Brothers of Hotham Creek and Robert Doherty of Ormeau, with together approximately 100 acres under arrowroot [or 50% of the total 200 acres under arrowroot in these districts], were among the largest arrowroot growers/producers in Australia. The Willowvale arrowroot mill was moved further downstream on Hotham Creek, closer to the Pacific Highway at Pimpama, and continued production until the mid-1930s. Alex Doherty at Laurel Hill turned to dairying in the early 1920s before retiring to the Gold Coast c1947. Subsequently the property was purchased by the Miles family of Pimpama, with title to Laurel Hill transferred in 1950. Members of this family resided in the house until mid-October 1997.
The Doherty family were prominent members of the local community, involved in church and civic affairs. William Doherty was a trustee of Pimpama School of Arts and served as a councillor on Coomera Divisional Board from c1887 to c1889. His son Thomas later became chairman of Coomera Shire.
Some changes to the farmhouse were made during the Doherty family's occupation. There is evidence of minor re-arrangement of internal partition walls, and the staircase to the attic has been removed and the stairwell enclosed, possibly in the 1920s. The ceiling linings in several of the rooms may date to the 1920s also. The original kitchen wing reputedly burnt down in the late 1920s, and was replaced with the present kitchen building.
","criteria":"Laurel Hill Farmhouse survives as an important illustration of the pattern of Queensland's history, demonstrating the success of arrowroot growing and manufacturing in the Pimpama district in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when this Queensland region supplied almost the whole of the arrowroot used in Australia. As early as 1897, the house was considered illustrative of what the Queensland land selection system could achieve, and was promoted officially as the ideal type of settler's residence.
|It is rare to find an early 1880s farm house as intact as this on the Gold Coast hinterland, which has experienced enormous pressure for development in the last quarter of the 20th century.
|The place has potential to provide important information about rural timber building techniques of the early 1880s, and about the types of materials used. The c1920s kitchen wing appears to have been constructed to much the same footprint as the earlier building it replaced, survives very intact, and in materials and form complements the 1880s building.
|Laurel Hill Farmhouse survives reasonably intact, and is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of an early 1880s settler's farm house with unpainted interior and original joinery.
|The place is valued by the local community for its long association with the Doherty family and their work in the local community, and for its illustration of pioneering achievement. The Willowvale/Pimpama community has a number of families descended from the first European settlers in the area, who value Laurel Hill Farmhouse as an important link with the past.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | 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 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 strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16748,"place_ref":602012,"name":"Dux Hut","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Dux Anchorage","suburb":"SOUTH STRADBROKE ISLAND","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-04-06","description":"Dux Hut is located on the western shore of South Stradbroke Island, facing Tippler's Passage in Moreton Bay. It sits above the high water mark and is surrounded by primarily native vegetation on the inland side, some of which has been cleared in the immediate vicinity of the hut, and by mangrove flats, on the bay side. A mature rubber tree in front of the hut, and several other mature, introduced trees close-by, provide shade.
Two recent structures associated with a working oyster bank are located on the southern side of the hut, but are obscured from view by the surrounding vegetation. Timber piles from a jetty are evident in the water in front of the hut, and an oyster bank is located in the bay, slightly to the south of the hut.
There are two distinct sections to the hut; the original gable-roofed section which is elevated on timber stumps, and a skillion-roofed extension which was constructed on the northern side of the original structure after 1957. This section sits at a lower level.
The original section consists of a single room. It has a post and sapling unlined frame, held together in a variety of methods, including wire and string ties, nails and rudimentary mortice and tenon joints. Some of the ties are of nylon string and appear to have been added at a later stage.
The frame is clad externally with disparate pieces of corrugated iron. The framework internally suggests that there were previously window openings, however these are now covered with corrugated iron. A window in the western side is thought to have been added at a later date and comprises a corrugated iron flap which is hinged along the top and opens outwards, supported by a timber prop.
The gable roof is also clad in corrugated iron and the floor is of timber boards, overlaid with variously patterned linoleum pieces. The room is furnished with a number of single beds.
On the northern side of the original section is an annexe. This is at a lower level than the original section and has a skillion roof. The construction technique is similar to that of the original section, with an unlined timber frame externally clad in corrugated iron. However, the frame is constructed of machined timber members and the corrugated iron is in sheets rather than small pieces. Large openings, of similar design to the window in the original section, are located in each side of the annexe and doors are located in the western and northern sides. At the front of this area is a sink and benchtop, and the remainder of the space is divided by a minimal amount of furniture.
","history":"Dux Hut was erected c1930, on Oyster Camp Reserve R.638 on South Stradbroke Island, in conjunction with oysterman Augie Dux's working of the oyster bank directly opposite, in Tippler's Passage.
Oyster cultivation in Moreton Bay has been regulated since 1863, and exploitation of the Bay's oyster banks as a food source by the indigenous population dates many thousands of years. In the mid-1820s, British convicts employed in establishing a penal settlement at Moreton Bay collected and burned oyster shells to produce lime, and during the first two decades after the opening of the district to free settlement in 1842, oyster shells [often including the live oysters] were collected by the schooner-load for the same purpose. This exploitative practice was prohibited under the Queensland colonial government's Oyster Act of 1863, which introduced a licensing system for oyster cultivation. The Oyster Act of 1874 implemented further controls: a system of annual licenses regulated the collection and cultivation of bank oysters [oysters found or cultivated between high-water mark and two feet below the level of low-water mark], and seven-year leases were made available for dredge oyster sections within the Bay. [Dredge oysters were identified as those found below the level of two feet below low-water mark]. These leases were offered at public auction, and attracted high prices during the late 19th century.
By 1886, oyster fisheries in Moreton Bay extended for nearly 100 miles, from Southport to Caloundra. 178 oyster banks, comprising over 5,000 acres, were being worked, and 40 dredge sections were available for lease. Moreton Bay and Sandy Straits were considered the great nurseries and breeding-grounds for oysters on the eastern seaboard of the Australian Continent, with an estimated 40,000 oyster cultivation bags in Moreton Bay, and scope for many times this number. The principal export market for Moreton Bay oysters was Melbourne, but periodic glutting of that market by New Zealand oysters was problematic for the Queensland industry. The industry was plagued also by operators who denuded oyster banks, and made little or no effort at replenishing the stock.
The Oyster Act of 1886 was introduced to encourage sustainable oyster culture [the cultivation of oysters and the taking of oysters for sale]. The Act offered transferable, 14 year leases over identified oyster grounds [which could comprise both an oyster dredge section and oyster banks]. Licenses were still available for working oyster banks not within a dredge section. A penalty for selling under-sized oysters was introduced, and lessees and licensees were required to register a brand, which had to appear on all oyster bags. Importantly, lessees had to reserve some cultivation on each bank, and to constantly renew the oyster stock.
To encourage the oyster industry further, and to regulate the practice of oystermen 'squatting' on Crown land, the Queensland government in 1889 proclaimed 26 oyster camp reserves, varying from 5 to 40 acres, in Moreton Bay and Sandy Straits. On these reserves, licensed oystermen were permitted to camp, build houses, fence in small allotments, and carry out activities associated with oyster farming. Further oyster camp reserves were proclaimed in the 1890s and early 20th century, as the need arose. Oyster Camp Reserve R.638, a five acre reserve at Jurim, south of Tippler's Landing, was gazetted in 1896 under the provisions of the Crown Lands Act of 1884, following application by the Inspector of Oyster Fisheries that a camping ground for oyster bank licensees was required urgently near Swan Bay.
The largest leaseholder of oyster dredge sections and oyster banks in Moreton Bay from the late 1870s to the 1920s was The Moreton Bay Oyster Company, established in 1876. The Company operated leaseholds near Stradbroke and Bribie islands and at Hervey Bay, employing a small community of workers. In the southern Bay a camp was established on the mainland at Coombabah, north of Southport. In 1881 the Company took over the lease of Currigee run on South Stradbroke Island, and a small settlement of oystermen and their families was established there as well.
Oyster cultivation in Moreton Bay peaked in the period 1880-1910. The breaking through of the ocean at Jumpinpin in May 1898, separating Stradbroke Island into north and south, decimated the oyster banks of southern Moreton Bay; this, combined with mud worm infestations, competition in the market place from New Zealand oysters, increased labour costs, and over exploitation of the oyster banks, culminated in the industry declining after 1910. However, The Moreton Bay Oyster Company continued its operations until 1965, and after the company was wound down, a number of its oyster leaseholds were taken up by previous employees. By the mid-1980s, there were no longer any dredge oyster sections in Moreton Bay, and Queensland wide, oyster production had fallen to 10% of peak period [1880-1910] output. Labour-intensive oyster cultivation is now rare in Queensland, and most oyster bank licensees harvest naturally occurring oysters.
Dux Hut on South Stradbroke Island was erected c1930 on Oyster Camp Reserve R.638, opposite Oyster Bank 122 in Tippler's Passage, by Augie Dux of Labrador, who had taken up the licence of this oyster bank in 1928, under the provisions of The Fish and Oyster Act of 1914. From early maps, this bank appears to co-incide with Oyster Bank 122 worked from at least 1884 by Henry Tippler, a pioneer of oyster farming in southern Moreton Bay.
Freidrich Carl August [Augie] Dux, born in 1878, was the son of German immigrants who settled at Nundah in the early 1870s. In the 1880s the family moved to Caboolture, where Augie's father, Johann Dux, took up fishing, crabbing and oyster culling at Pumistone Passage and Bribie Island. Dux Street and Dux Creek at Caboolture were named after this family. As a youth, Augie worked with his father on the oyster banks, and in the early 1900s, moved to southern Moreton Bay where he worked as an oysterman, eventually gaining employment with the Moreton Bay Oyster Company based at Currigee. He married Lillian O'Connell of Currigee in 1905, and c1910 the family moved to Southport.
Augie Dux later took up several oyster bank licenses in southern Moreton Bay, including Oyster Bank 122 in Tippler's Passage [1928]. His sons helped him to develop the oyster banks, obtaining timber and shell bedding from Crusoe and Rat islands nearby. On Oyster Camp Reserve R.638, directly opposite Oyster Bank 122, Augie Dux and his son Stanley erected a one-roomed hut, for use when working their oyster lease in Tippler's Passage. It is understood they re-used timbers initially cut by Augie in 1918, when the family moved to Broad Street, Labrador, where they erected a house of saplings and bark, with a hardwood floor. About 1929 this house was demolished and replaced with a new house of milled-timber, the timbers of the 1918 building being re-cycled in the hut on South Stradbroke Island. The stumps of this hut are understood to be of Bloodwood, the framing of Ti-tree saplings, and the floor and some of the wall linings of hardwood, all of which was cut by Augie Dux and his sons in the Labrador area. Oyster farming at this period was still highly labour intensive, and poaching was a continual problem. Stanley Dux recalls spending from Monday to Saturday each week at the hut, working and guarding the oyster bank.
About the same time as the hut was erected, the Dux family also constructed a jetty of cypress pine, immediately in front of the hut. This jetty survived for many decades, but now only a few stumps remain in the foreshore to indicate the location.
The Dux family retained the license to Oyster Bank 122 until August 1957. They were well known in southern Moreton Bay - the reserve in front of their Labrador home was named Dux Oval, and the foreshore in front of their South Stradbroke Island hut became known as Dux Anchorage. Since their time, the hut has been extended with a skillion-roofed kitchen, the window openings have been changed, the corrugated iron sheeting has been replaced, and a number of introduced shade trees have been planted.
Subsequent licensees of Oyster Bank 122 used the hut in association with working the oyster bank until two new sheds were erected about 50 metres to the south, in the 1980s. From the early 1970s, Dux Hut has been used also as a recreational venue - and exclusively so since the 1980s. In 1995, R.638 was repealed, and Dux Hut currently (February 1998) sits on Unallocated State Land.
","criteria":"Dux Hut on South Stradbroke Island, erected c1930 in association with the working of Oyster Bank 122 in Tippler's Passage, is important in illustrating aspects of the early-established and important oyster industry in Moreton Bay. In particular, it demonstrates the important relationship of the oyster reserves established by the Queensland government in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to the working of oyster banks and oyster dredge sections. Significantly, the hut remains in situ, on the shoreline, opposite a working oyster bank taken up by at least 1884.
|Local knowledge suggests that Dux Hut is one of only a few oystermen's huts remaining in southern Moreton Bay.
|It has been well maintained, and despite some changes, still demonstrates the principal characteristics of an oysterman's improvised 'camp': small scale, simplicity of design, use of re-cycled materials, and lack of amenities. With the addition of a skillion-roofed kitchen extension, changed window openings, and introduced shade trees, the place also demonstrates the principal characteristics of a squatter's beach-side recreational hut.
|Dux Hut is of aesthetic significance, largely due to its bayside setting. The rustic and rudimentary construction techniques also contribute to its aesthetic qualities and assist in the integration of the hut in the landscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16876,"place_ref":602140,"name":"Springbrook Road and Associated Infrastructure","alternate_name":"Toll Road | Springbrook Mudgeeraba Road | Memorial Cairn","street_address":"Springbrook-Mudgeeraba Road","suburb":"SPRINGBROOK","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-10-22","description":"The Springbrook Road Complex commences at the intersection of Austinville Road and the Gold Coast - Springbrook Road. The road, which is bitumened and in all but four small sections two way, rises generally in a southerly direction over a distance of approximately 22.5 kilometres. Features of the road infrastructure include:
Two curved timber bridges, one approximately 4.5km from Austinville Road and the other about 2km further along the road. The bridges are constructed to skirt the side of the mountain in tight corners, removing the need for major cutting into the mountain or filling a valley at this point to create flat surfaces for the road to continue.
The bridges are constructed from a combination of round and squared hardwood, with support formed by round logs braced with pairs of squared members. A standard timber balustrade with ribbed metal safeguard strip has replaced an early timber balustrade. Recent timber decking covers both of the bridges, which are aligned with the adjacent bitumen road. The bridges provide access for only one lane of traffic and a give way sign on the north facing access road regulates traffic.
A one-way road section starting at 11.5km and finishing at about 12.5km from the Austinville Road is an unusual feature of the roadway. At the southern end of this part of the road is a water fountain and water trough fed from a nearby spring. The two rustic features are site near to one another on the mountain side of the road and being constructed of the stone of the mountain are barely discernible from the surrounding landscape. The trough is a long and heavy stone and concrete basin and the water fountain is formed from a stone and concrete plinth through which a fountain head is run to bubble on the top surface.
To the south of the Springbrook-Nerang Road intersection, the Springbrook-Mudgeeraba Road separates into two distinct roadways. The area of the lower, southern facing road is of high aesthetic value beauty with large dramatic cuttings of the mountainous volcanic stone surmounted by natural vegetation. To the east of this part of the driveway are fleeting but expansive views of the valley and lower areas below increasing the quality of sublimity of the area.
Wunburra Lookout is a small cleared area just off the roadway and is signed. It consists of a concrete and rock viewing platform looking out over the valley with a simple chain wire safety fence.
At Hardy's Lookout a small clearing to the west of the roadway near the entrance to Old School Road, is a small Memorial Cairn constructed of stone set in concrete and recording the names of pioneers of Springbrook from 1906. Nineteen names are recorded on a brass plaque. Surmounting the cairn is a flat brass disc is a north point with place direction references.
","history":"The Springbrook-Mudgeeraba Road was constructed to encourage settlement and development in the Springbrook area in the mid 1920s. Several elements including two curved timber bridges, a water trough and a water fountain date from this early construction time.
The difficulty of access to the Springbrook plateau was a significant factor in the delay of settlement. Prior to settlement in 1906, the only access consisted of a walking trail on the western side that ended up in the Numinbah Valley. Once land was advertised for selection, the Lands Department was required to provide a road.
The early settlers knew that for their farms to succeed, reliable access was necessary. The determination to provide an alternate route off the mountain resulted in two tracks being brushed through the forest. One headed off the southern end of the plateau towards the village of Mudgeeraba. Jim Hardy and George Trapp blazed the Mudgeeraba track by following the ridge that separates the east and west branches of Little Nerang Creek. When they reached the confluence of the two creeks they turned east, only to find that the Nimmel Range blocked their way. By skirting round the flanks of Mount Nimmel, they managed to reach the dirt track that linked Mudgeeraba with the little cluster of farms near Neranwood.
By 1914 the track was upgraded to allow horse-drawn wagons known as 'buckboards' to negotiate the rough terrain. It coiled its way off the mountain down present-day Carrick Road and beyond to the meeting of the east of west branches of the Little Nerang Creek, over the Mount Nimmel Range and on through the Alstonville Valley before joining the present road at the Alstonville turn-off. The first Springbrook to Mudgeeraba road was an improvement on the brushed track.
After several deputations in the 1920's to the Minister for Main Roads, it was decided to survey a new route onto the mountain. The gradient required for such an undertaking was of much concern to the surveyors. A gradient of 1 in 18 was considered to be the limit for successful road building in Queensland at the time. The deputations from the Springbrook residents must have been very persuasive as the proposed Springbrook road required a gradient of 1 in 12 and in parts 1 in 10. It is believed to be the first road in Queensland to have been successfully constructed using such a steep gradient. A Swiss engineer named Juries was employed to conduct the initial survey, due to his experience in mountainous country. Fred Parkes, the Main Roads engineer and Tom Peters who represented the Nerang Shire, were grateful for his expertise. The terrain was so rough and steep that it was necessary to dig toeholds into the sheer hillsides, to enable the men to safely carry the delicate survey instruments to the next position.
Tenders were called for each one and a half miles of surveyed section and C.J.Hicks, a road contractor from northern New South Wales, tendered successfully for the construction of the new road. He commenced work at Rathbone's crossing in March 1925 and reached the eastern bank of the Little Nerang Creek in February 1926. Just over three miles of road had been constructed at a cost of £15 500. The section between Neranwood and Wunburra proved to be the most difficult of all. Work commenced in September 1925 and it took until November 1928 to complete the four miles of backbreaking road work at a cost of £20 000.
The men employed on the road had a camp on the ridge that runs between Big Gully and Watertrough Gully. These were the two greatest natural obstacles to the construction of a road and where the construction gang would spend most of its time. The provision of living quarters for the men was governed by specific regulations. A single man had to be supplied with a canvas tent measuring 6 feet by 8 feet. A married man was entitled to a tent measuring 8 feet by 10 feet, and if he brought his family along, a tent measuring 10 feet by 12 feet was provided.
The road was officially opened in February 1928. The sign erected at the toll gates at the base of Wunburra Range, just above the present Neranwood Park, proclaimed the times that traffic was allowed to travel up or down the narrow one-way road. A speed limit of 12 miles per hour was recommended. It was called the Toll Road as a charge was payable for each journey up or down the mountain. During the 1930's the toll was nine pence each way, rising to one shilling in the 1940's. Mrs Leu, whose husband had worked on constructing the road, became the gatekeeper. She was on call 24 hours a day, irrespective of the weather or personal considerations and received the sum of 30 shillings a week. She took her responsibility very seriously, especially in the 1940's, when the timber jinkers were frequent users of the one-way. She would not allow any vehicle to pass if the time for the down traffic had just lapsed as it was always possible that a vehicle was still on the road.
The stone water trough was built by the men who constructed and maintained Springbrook Road, as the only watering point for their horses on the high mountain stretches. It is now used as a well and is a tourist attraction. Visitors make use of the opportunity to drink the clean spring water and collect some to take home. The gully is part of Wunburra, which means For Run Up Hill-Hunting Dog, which forms part of Springbrook National Park.
The curved wooden bridges were built by Charlie Kolb, a bridge builder. He built the first one over the Little Nerang for just over £5 000. The bridges are an unusual feature of the Springbrook-Mudgeeraba road, in the fact that they were very early examples of this kind of bridge on a steeply sloped mountainous roadway to be built in Queensland. The timber decking has been replaced, and signs at both ends of the Springbrook-Mudgeeraba Road remind motorists that the bridges are not suitable for large vehicles.
A memorial cairns was constructed at Hardy's Lookout, off the Springbrook-Mudgeeraba Road in 1961 by the residents of Springbrook to celebrate the opening of the Springbrook School in 1911.
","criteria":"The Springbrook Road Complex was important in the consolidation and expansion of the Springbrook region and also in providing access to Springbrook National Park. Prior to its completion access to the plateau had been extremely limited which seriously affected development of the area.
|The trough and water fountain are remnants of an earlier use of the road when horses were used. The survival of these elements is a rare and unusual element of the Springbrook-Mudgeeraba Road.
|The Springbrook-Mudgeeraba Road has aesthetic significance as a picturesque place, where the natural rock formations and vegetation are juxtaposed with early evidence of man-made road cuttings and road construction. Lookouts that allow motorists to stop and enjoy the panoramic views have been popular since the road's completion. These include Wunburra Lookout, and Hardy's Lookout.
|It is understood that this road was the first in Queensland to have been successfully constructed using a steep gradient of 1 in 12 and, in parts, 1 in 10.
The curved timber bridges have technological significance, as they are very early examples of this kind to be built in Queensland.
|The Pioneer Memorial Cairn, included within the heritage register boundary at Hardy's Lookout, has social significance as a record of the early Springbrook settlers.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion F | 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 because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | 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":16877,"place_ref":602141,"name":"Former Springbrook State School (QPWS Information Centre)","alternate_name":"Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service Information Centre, Springbrook National Park","street_address":"2873 Springbrook Road","suburb":"SPRINGBROOK","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-08-05","description":"The former Springbrook State School sits on a revegetated site with considerable regrowth and understorey growth. The site includes a number of structures: the Information Centre, playshed, toilet block, carpark, stump, water trough, and tanks. Beyond these is a boardwalk and lookout.
The Information Centre is in the former Springbrook State School building [1911]. It is a modified version of a standard Queensland Works Department School Plan. It is a low-set timber-framed, weatherboard-clad building with a gabled roof clad in corrugated iron, and numerous additions and alterations. It consists of a large classroom, an enclosed verandah at the rear, comprising two rooms, an additional kitchen adjoining the enclosed verandah, a new front verandah and an access ramp.
The classroom is a large asymmetrical VJ lined room. The tongue and groove ceiling slopes at the northern and southern ends, which were originally separate verandahs. On the southern end, the wall to the back rooms supports the additional span of the ceiling, and at the north a metal support beam has been added. The door in the northern wall is a recent French door with French lights. The southern door is a sliding boarded door, with an opening for a display. Windows on the eastern and western walls consist of a pair of hoppers to the north (covered by a display on the western wall) and a bank of windows under the central flat ceiled area. This bank of windows consists of a central casement pair (original) and a slightly taller group of two hoppers, topped by louvres. The hardware on the windows varies. The sills are made from red cedar and silky oak, now stripped and varnished. The windows all have simple awnings. The floor is covered in cork tiles. Bricks have been laid on a portion of the eastern wall and the adjoining floor to provide fire-protection for a pot-belly stove. A blackboard and display board are on the northern wall. Displays of varying permanence have been constructed in the room, including a false suspended ceiling, replicating forest shade and a "pioneer room" in the northwest corner.
The three rooms at the rear of the building consist of two rooms in the verandah area and an additional kitchen on the eastern wall. The western room is entered from the central room and has one VJ wall and the remainder clad in fibrous cement sheeting and a sloped fibrous cement ceiling which continues the line from the classroom. There is a double pair of hopper windows with steel hardware and the floor is covered in cork tiles. A large portion of the room is occupied by temporary walls for a display. The central room has the same ceiling and floor as the western room, and is primarily a corridor. Doors open onto the exit stairs, the two other back rooms and the classroom. There is one fixed window with glazing in four panels. The eastern room is a newer addition with concrete stumps, a separate roof structure, a flat ceiling and a narrow board floor. It is lined with fibro boards, with no cover strips and there is one set of hopper windows on the north and a sink on the eastern wall.
The existing front verandah is a more recent structure [1986], built to resemble the original verandah (now enclosed) but with a separate roofline and supported on steel posts. It consists of timber railings and vertical balustrades except on the western end where it is enclosed in weatherboards to replicate the port rack area of the original verandah. The ramp is designed for wheelchair access and continues the structure of the verandah, on steel stumps.
The playshed [1954] is a rectangular unlined and timber structure with a concrete floor, constructed to a standard Queensland Works Department plan. It appears to have been built in the position of another structure as there are post holes remaining in the concrete floor. The walls are built of alternating wide and narrow vertical boards, which overlap each other. It appears to be roofed with Super 6 sheeting. The shed contains a restored Queensland Buckboard, which belonged to James Hardy, a Springbrook pioneer, and other equipment.
The toilet block is a semi-enclosed structure built from rock and timber with a metal roof, of National Parks vintage. It is divided into two separate rooms, each with a WC and external basin.
The carpark is recent, having been built on the site of the school tennis court.
The stump is the remains of a New England Mountain Ash (E. andrewsii) and is located about three metres from the main school building. The stump remains, approximately 3.5 m tall, complete with traces of springboard marks.
The water trough was added to the tank region after 1953. It is a metal trough with three taps that feed directly off the tank.
The tanks consist of two tanks near the school and playshed (both metal, installed 2003) and one above the toilet block, which although older is due for replacement and may already be replaced. These are not considered to be of heritage significance.
The boardwalk and lookout were constructed from treated pine in 1986 and are not considered to be of heritage significance.
","history":"The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service Information Centre, Springbrook, was erected as Springbrook State School in 1911. It was built by W Norman to a modified, low-set version of a standard Queensland Works Department School Plan.
Non-indigenous usage of the Springbrook Plateau began with the declaration of a Timber Reserve in 1879. Due mainly to inaccessibility, the timber was little exploited. In 1905 Gilbert Burnett, Forest Ranger, recommended that, as the hardwood could not be worked profitably, the area should be opened to selectors. The following year AH Burbank surveyed the plateau. Land was made available on the 3 September 1906, and the first settlers, mainly from the Bega area of the south coast of New South Wales, arrived in December 1906. They laboured to clear the thick bush and established small dairy and produce farms. Descendants of these settlers still live in the area. Within ten years large areas of the plateau were completely cleared.
Springbrook State School was established in 1911. In 1909, James Hardy corresponded with the Undersecretary of the Department of Public Instruction, David Ewart, concerning the possibility of a school being established at Springbrook. There were insufficient numbers for a State School and the community was not ready to fund a provisional school. The following year the Department of Public Lands received a petition to reserve an area for a school and dip, part of portion 91 held by John Boyd as Agricultural Farm 5256, Brisbane District. In February 1910 a public meeting was held to elect a School Building Committee and an 'Application for a State School' was sent to the Department. In March Inspector Shirley inspected the area and recommended establishment of a school on 15 acres to be surrendered to the Lands Dept by W Boyd. The Department of Public Works was requested to provide a plan and estimate for a school, and they suggested that reducing the structure to one verandah and stumps only two foot high would reduce the cost. W Norman won the contract for £209 and the Inspector of Works reported the completion of the building on 18 March 1911. Miss Elisabeth Josephine McMahon was the first teacher and fifteen children were enrolled when the Springbrook State School opened on the 26 April 1911.
In the following year an extremely large New England Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus andrewsii), which grew beside the school, was cut down and burnt. The stump of this tree remains beside the school building and springboard marks are still evident on the side. In 1912 the schoolyard was fenced. In 1914, following an application to JG Appel, the Home Secretary, who lived at Beechmont and understood the weather, a stove was installed in the school. In 1915, tenders were called for the erection of a rear verandah and BF Franklin tendered £50/5/0 and was accepted. The verandah was completed in September 1915. At some stage in the early years George Morton and Colin Sprenger laid an ant bed tennis court at the site of the current carpark. Further minor repairs and painting were undertaken over the years. In 1932 the school was restumped, but the stumps were too small and the building suffered from subsidence. In 1953, new windows were installed and in 1954 the playshed was erected, on the site of a previous rough shed. At some time in the 1950s the verandahs were enclosed and a small room was built adjoining the rear verandah.
The school was closed at various times during its term. In 1915, a teacher did not arrive for several months and in 1929 Grace Ethel Baker arrived as teacher but left the next day and no teacher was appointed until March. By May 1932 enrolment had dropped to 10, with an average attendance of 5.7. The Director of Education wrote and informed the committee that the small enrolment did not justify keeping the school open and the children would be accepted in the Correspondence School. Following appeals, this decision was repealed and Mr Mackie remained as teacher. By January 1933, however, enrolment had fallen to nine, and the Director of Education closed the school in March. Plans were made for moving the school building and equipment to Wanburra. A petition with 29 signatures was received protesting this removal and in May 1934 Inspector Bevington recommended that the school be opened on a trial for three months to see if attendance would improve.
In 1971 only four children were enrolled at Springbrook State School and the school was closed in February. The Springbrook pupils were transferred to Mudgereeba State School, as were the furniture and fittings from the former Springbrook State School. School Reserve 454, comprising approximately 3 hectares, and its buildings was transferred to the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The school building was used occasionally for training Police cadets and then as offices by the NPWS until being converted into an Information Centre for Warrie National Park. National Parks toilets were built at the site. In 1986, the building was renovated and restumped with the aid of a Commonwealth Employment Scheme. The window paint was stripped, a new front verandah and access ramp were built and cork flooring, a pot-belly stove and information displays were installed. Landscaping was undertaken and a board walk and lookout were built. When Mount Cougal, Warrie, Wunbburra, Gwongrella and Natural Bridge National Parks amalgamated in 1990, the old school building became the Information Centre for Springbrook National Park. Over the years the area has been revegetated and the largely cleared school site is now primarily bush. In 2003 new water tanks were installed.
As dairy farming became less profitable, farms were subdivided and the population of Springbrook grew from fifty in the 1950s to 400 in 1990. In 1984, the new Springbrook State School (School number 1931) was opened at 2327 Springbrook Road.
","criteria":"The former Springbrook State School, constructed in 1911, is significant as evidence of the late settlement of the difficult to access mountain plateaux of the Gold Coast hinterland. The Springbrook Plateau was settled as late as 1906 and then was only minimally developed and sparsely populated as a farming community. The former Springbrook State School is evidence of this early period, being the first public building erected and the oldest remaining building on the plateau.
The Stump is demonstrative of earlier attitudes to vegetation, particularly given the late 20th century re-vegetation program on the site.
|It is an attractive, although somewhat modified, version of typical small, early 20th century school designed by the Queensland Works Department. The 1954 playshed is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of its type, a standard design also supplied by the Queensland Works Department.
|(Criterion under review)
|The place has a strong association with the Springbrook community, having been a social centre as well as the only educational establishment for six decades.
","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":19539,"place_ref":602419,"name":"Numinbah Valley School of Arts","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Nerang - Murwillumbah Road","suburb":"NUMINBAH VALLEY","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-12-07","description":"Numinbah School of Arts is an elevated, single-storey timber building with a corrugated galvanised iron, double gabled roof. It faces the main road that links Nerang to Murwillumbah.
The core of the building is rectangular in plan with a small entrance veranda under the second and lower gable. An enclosed veranda with a hipped roof is attached on the left or southern elevation and there is an open-air annexe on the northern side. The main entrance to the building is via the entrance porch.
There are two sets of steps to the supper room on the southern elevation separated by pairs of sash windows which do not have sunhoods.
Both gables have a flying gable with bargeboards featuring fretwork decoration. The superior gable has a lattice infill on either side of the central open entrance which is flanked by windows with skillion sunhoods. Above the entrance is a large board proclaiming that the hall is the Numinbah Valley School of Arts. The lined entrance porch contains a ticket office on the left and another room on the right. There is a notice board inside this foyer and one outside under a window and another outside the supper room. There is a doorway to this supper room but no steps.
There are two doors into the hall on the northern elevation, but only the door near the front has steps. This side also features two pairs of sash windows with skillion sunhoods on either side of the door. From near this entrance to the rear of the building is an open-air annex. The sub-floor at the end of the building has been closed in. A large plastic tank and another concrete one at the back is used as the hall's water source.
On the southern elevation, a post and two-rail timber fence stretches from the rear of the hall to the brick and concrete public toilets and then across to the boundary of the adjoining property. On the northern side of the hall the fence separates the open rural park-like area from the road. Near the hall is a fairly level open stretch of ground with some simple plank seating near the river. Beyond this flattish area is undulating lightly timbered land. Near the road is a billabong.
The toilet block is not significant.
","history":"The Numinbah Valley School of Arts was built in 1925 and is a single story timber building raised on stumps and capped with a corrugated galvanised iron roof. Extensions were carried out in 1937, 1960 and 1981. On entering the Numinbah Valley hamlet it is the first structure on the right side of the Nerang-Murwillumbah Road.
The Numinbah Valley strikes north from the McPherson Range and is enclosed to the southeast and the southwest by the plateaux of Springbrook and Beechmont. The Nerang-Murwillumbah road runs along the valley floor adjacent to the banks of the Nerang River. The cliffs, narrow ridges, forested slopes and open farmlands combine to create one of the most scenic rural areas in the Gold Coast Hinterland.
Settlement of the area is associated with timber getters moving up from the Tweed and Richmond Rivers in search of the valuable red cedar trees in the 1870s. The Queensland Government opened up the timber reserves in the Numinbah district for selection, subsequently a wave of settlers moved into this area. The timber resources of the area supported the economy of the local farming facilities and supplied timber for a number of local and regional saw mills. Dairies, banana plantations, beef and pig production, played a significant role in the subsequent economic development of the area. The valley was isolated from the sea and it was not until the early 1900s that it was linked to Nerang by a mountainous track of 18 miles. As the population in the valley increased and farming prospered the community called for better roads, mainly due to the dairy farmers needing to transport their goods to Nerang for railing to the Kingston Butter Factory within a short space of time. It was deemed the responsibility of the Numinbah residents to maintain this road - it was often damaged by large timber wagons.
In 1909 the Yaun family started moving their sawmill operation to Upper Nerang (the early name for the Numinbah settlement). Initially this pioneering family owned the Pine Mountain Sawmill at Nerang from 1896. The Numinbah sawmill continued to operate and employ local labour until destroyed by fire in 1944.
In 1915 L.M. Yaun wrote to the Lands Department about acquiring reserve land for a community hall. After negotiations, the local community agreed to pay for a survey of land adjoining a road and a timber reserve for the School of Arts reserve. On 8 September 1916, 2 roods and 3 perches of thickly timbered land with dense undergrowth, was gazetted a reserve for a School of Arts. For many years the main venue for social and recreational events had been a farmer's barn or paddock. In 1923 Yaun again wrote to the Lands Department asking if the land could be used for a public hall as a social venue was required.
It was the need for a social, recreational and educational facility that galvanised the community in 1925 to raise funds by subscriptions and fund raising events so that they could build a hall. Members of the community donated timber to be processed in the Yaun Bros. sawmill (situated only a few hundred meters from the proposed School of Arts site); all work at the mill was carried out gratis. Cyril Duncan built the Numinbah Valley School of Arts hall for approximately £100 and this included the roofing iron and nails.
The first 'Mechanic's Institutes' or 'Schools of Arts' were established in Britain in the early 1800s and were intended to assist self improvement and to promote moral, social and intellectual growth, by providing lectures, discussions and lending libraries to a rising middle class. At the time there were no public libraries and books were expensive, so that access to books by borrowing as subscribers provided an important educational and recreational service. The first institute in Australia was formed in Hobart in 1827, followed by Sydney in 1833, from which date the movement rapidly spread throughout the rest of the colony.
The first School of Arts committee in Queensland was established in Brisbane in 1849 with the aim of 'the advancement of the community in literary, philosophic and scientific subjects'. As towns and districts became established, local committees were formed to establish Schools of Arts and they became one of the principal sources of adult education. From this beginning, approximately 350 Schools of Arts were established throughout the state during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
A typical School of Arts building was of timber construction including a hall and two or three rooms used for library and meeting purposes. Larger provincial centres buildings were of masonry construction. Although varied in scale, form and materials they were readily identifiable in the streetscape and often incorporated impressive facades which spoke of the cultural ambitions of those who built them.
When the Numinbah Valley School of Arts opened in September 1925, it was free of debt. The new single-story, weatherboard clad School of Arts was 50 by 25 feet, capped with corrugated iron gable roof over the core and a lower gable over the entrance porch. At the rear there was a ten foot stage with a room either side. The flooring, which was donated crow's ash flooring, was dressed by local labour and excellent for dancing. Seating was around the walls, which were 12 feet high. The roof was well braced and the hall included a side entrance.
The first letter requesting a school for Numinbah Valley was dated 10 July, 1926, and the parents asked if the Numinbah Valley School of Arts could be used as a Provisional school. From the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries the Queensland Government began to focus on the importance of education for children between the ages of six and twelve. The education system was poorly funded in this period. As a consequence many smaller communities, such as Numinbah Valley, were responsible for the establishment and funding of their own schools. The following year on 7 February the Provisional Numinbah School opened in the School of Arts building. There were 16 pupils; 13 boys and 3 girls. The Queensland Government recognised this school as a Provisional School. Limited Government assistance was given, such as salary assistance for a teacher and the supply of state approved books. The community had to provide the school building as well as accommodation for the teacher. The school continued to use this building until a purpose built State School opened in its own Education Department building on 8 October, 1934.
By 1937 roads had improved and banana plantations had been established. With increased development it was deemed necessary to enlarge the School of Arts. This included a 25 foot extension added to the rear to provide a much larger area for dancing and seating for concerts and other purposes. Also the front entrance was altered to provide male and female changing/ cloak rooms on either side of the entrance.
During the early 1960s the hall was further enlarged with the construction of a side veranda on the southern elevation, to allow for more seating and a supper area. The community, especially the local QCWA (Queensland Country Women's Association), helped raise the necessary funds. With the introduction of electricity to the valley in 1961 kerosene lanterns were replaced with fluorescent and other lights and power points were fitted. The kitchen was installed in 1962. Also in the 1960s the front entrance was again modified with the left-hand side room converted to a ticket office with a mother's room on the other side.
In September, 1975, locals and others celebrated the School of Art's 50th Birthday. An article 'Hub of Valley has a birthday Party' in the Courier Mail of 21 September, 1975, mentioned the gable of green painted hall as having very elegant fretwork infill. Also the article commented that the hall was used for wedding receptions, gift evenings, dances and socials, and church services.
A corrugated iron roofed open annexe was added along the end of the northern wall in 1981, and has been extended since. During 1983 prison labour from the Numinbah Valley State Farm was used to build a bar in the supper room, and the following year they repainted the hall. One prisoner painted Australian theme murals on three walls of the bar area.
A post and two-rail fence encloses much of a large semi open space on the northern side of the hall. This area stretches from the Nerang River to the main road and has been used for school and local sports days, picnic area and other recreational activities.
The Numinbah Valley School of Arts is a well loved community building and has been since it was built. It is a fine example of a community built building that is still being used for the very same purposes it was originally meant for - recreation, socialising and education.
","criteria":"The Numinbah Valley School of Arts, built in 1925, is one of many School of Arts constructed throughout Queensland. By the 1900s, almost every town in Queensland had a School of Arts and they were often seen as indicators of the prosperity or status of the town. As such, they demonstrate the evolution of Queensland's history.
The building is representative of an intact, community built School of Arts. It has strong associations with the Numinbah Valley and surrounding area as a recreational and social facility since 1925. It has been used as the venue for diverse activities ranging from state education, dancing classes, church services, cinema, exercise classes, table tennis, school sports and P and C fund raisers. It has also been home for many organisations and clubs including the local QCWA (Queensland Country Women's Association) and the Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade. The Numinbah Valley School of Arts is important for its connection with the valleys' community and as an integral part of the social and community life of the locality.
|It has aesthetic significance due to the simplicity of the design, symmetry of the front entrance with fretwork bargeboards, as well as the adjacent rural park-like area. As well proportioned and detailed timber buildings built in a traditional style, the Numinbah Valley School of Arts makes a substantial contribution to the built character of Numinbah Valley. The building is significant as part of the rural landscape that has a scattered population. The building has a landmark position with the small community as it is a large structure and is positioned on the main road through Numinbah Valley.
|The Numinbah Valley School of Arts is representative of a community hall built for the school of arts movement in Queensland. Its fabric is largely intact.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion D","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 is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19666,"place_ref":602547,"name":"West Burleigh Store","alternate_name":"Flectcher's Store","street_address":"33 Tallebudgera Creek Road","suburb":"WEST BURLEIGH","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-12-05","description":"The West Burleigh Store is a two-storey structure located in a retail shopping area in West Burleigh. The entrance to the building opens onto the footpath, the same being shaded by an overhanging enclosed verandah. It is about 10m wide and extends back from the footpath about 18m. The verandah is enclosed with fibrous cement sheeting and the rest of the building is clad in weatherboard. A row of timber framed sliding windows runs the full length of the verandah. Each of these comprises a single, large square light bordered with frosted glass. Four square posts support the verandah. The corrugated iron roof is hipped at the rear and gabled at the front. A separate hipped roof covers the verandah.
At the ground level, large plate glass display windows dominate the front of the store. The entrance to the shop is recessed and the plate glass windows continue around the sides of the entrance alcove. A decorative lead-light border made up of red, green and obscure glass runs the full length of the top of the windows. The rest of the shop front is clad with salmon and black ceramic tiles.
The ground floor accommodates a real estate agent's office and a health food shop. The polished timber floor of the shop comprises dark timber planks alternated with light coloured timber. A set of timber box shelves extends the full length of the shop to the ceiling along the southern side. A recently installed counter runs along the opposite side. Commercial refrigerators are positioned along the rear of the shop. The ceiling is made up of fibrous cement sheeting with painted or stained timber battens laid out in a decorative pattern.
Access to the upper storey is gained via a polished timber staircase. This part of the building accommodates offices. The floors of the upper storey are polished timber. Paneled internal doors or lighted French doors are used throughout with frosted glass or slatted wooden transoms. The original brass door and window furniture have been retained in most cases. The joinery is conservative in style and of good quality.
The store is the most prominent structure in a complex of shops and offices dispersed around the large allotment. The commercial precinct surrounding this complex contains a number of historic buildings including West Burleigh's first general store located to the south of the existing West Burleigh store.
","history":"The West Burleigh Store, constructed in 1935 during a property boom on the south coast stimulated by infrastructure development, is a substantial, timber two-storey shop house situated in a commercial precinct close to Tallebudgera Creek about 2.8km southwest of Burleigh Heads. Many of the original features of the store remain intact and it continues to be used as a retail outlet.
Timber getting, agriculture and tourism stimulated the development of the Gold Coast region. Timber getters were among the earliest European inhabitants of the south coast and as late as the 1930s, Dennis' and Woods' sawmills were the stimulus for much of the development of West Burleigh. Closer settlement began in the 1860s, initially in the form of cotton plantations. The Crown Lands Alienation Act (1868) gave further impetus to small scale agriculture and by 1869, farmers and their households, numbering in the hundreds, populated the Mudgeeraba and Tallebudgera districts. With the decline of the cotton industry after the 1860s, these farmers diversified into other crops and dairying. In the decades between the World Wars, bananas and dairying were the major farming industries in the area.
Campers and picnickers were attracted to the area as early as the 1870s by the natural beauty of the south coast beaches. Burleigh Heads was described in the Southern Queensland Bulletin in 1889 (2 March) as 'a pretty place, a nice place for a gentleman's residence and a small seaside resort'. Development of the coast as a destination for pleasure seekers was inhibited by poor access and inadequate infrastructure. This began to be remedied in 1889 with the opening of the railway to Southport and Nerang. Construction of an extension to Tweed Heads commenced in March 1901. A railway station was built at Booningba, (renamed West Burleigh in 1914) about half an hour's buggy ride from Burleigh Heads. The Oyster Bed Hotel (1901) was built close to the station to service the wants and needs of the railway workers. The town's first store (still extant) located next to the hotel is believed to have been built in 1904 by Samuel Andrews. By 1907 the storekeeper, James Herbert, was delivering supplies to campers at Burleigh Heads.
With the greater ownership of motorcars in the 1920s, road access became a key factor facilitating growth. The opening of the Jubilee Bridge (1925) and the coastal road and its extension south in 1926 promoted residential and holiday development along the coast especially at Burleigh Heads. In the 1930s, the construction of bridges over the Coomera (1930) and Logan (1932) Rivers improved car access to the coast from Brisbane and a building and property boom ensued. Development was further stimulated by the provision of basic infrastructure: electricity was connected to Burleigh Heads in 1930 and extended to West Burleigh in 1934, a reticulated water supply was provided the following year.
The West Burleigh Store and Post Office was completed in February 1935 during the boom period that followed these developments. Alf Fletcher had bought the town's existing general store business from J. Cuddihy in 1928. When the lease on the premises expired, Fletcher was required to move and the premises were taken over by another storekeeper. Fletcher built the new shop, West Burleigh's second general store, about 400m from the railway station. It was described in the South Coast Bulletin (15 February, 1935) as a 'large and up to date store' that, with its 'modern conveniences', would be a 'prominent link in the progress of the area'. For its time, the store was a modern example of its type.
Fletcher's new shop incorporated many features that were typical of general stores of the period. General stores were often large due to their profitableness and the increasingly diverse range of goods becoming available to consumers. The bi-coloured timber floor in the store was unusual and this, together with the conservative good quality of the building, reflected the prosperity of Fletcher's business and his expectation of commercial success. The large plate glass windows with a recessed entrance designed to maximize display space were a typical feature of interwar shops. The wooden box shelving (still extant) lining an inside wall was the recommended method for storing and displaying the increasing variety of packaged goods that were becoming available from the 1920s. These shelves are currently being used to display goods for sale. Counters (no longer extant) surrounded three walls and a large 'U' shaped display area was located in the middle of the space between the counters. Petrol bowsers (no longer extant) were located under the verandah on the footpath. Like many stores in the first half of the twentieth century, Fletcher's residence was located on the premises, in this case over the shop. Fletcher lived there with his parents and after they died, with his wife, Gussy, who he had employed in the shop.
Fletcher operated the shop until his death in 1963 and the store continued to be operated by his widowed wife until the early 1970s. It stocked a wide range of goods including foodstuffs, haberdashery, manchester, clothes, boots, hardware, and building material. A large shed at the rear (extant until the 1980s or early 1990s) held livestock feed. The West Burleigh post office and telephone exchange was also conducted from the store. The post office was a smaller building attached to the northern side of the shop. It is believed that it was removed when the shopping and office complex was built around the shop in the 1980s.
Alf Fletcher was a very well known local identity and his store was a focal point of West Burleigh's social and commercial life. Fletcher's customers were mainly the residents of Burleigh Heads and the farmlands of Tallebudgera, Nerang, Mudgeeraba, and Ingleside. The mailman or the cream and milk trucks that visited the surrounding dairies collected written orders and delivered boxes of goods on their return journeys. On Friday nights, local farm workers cashed their paychecks at Fletchers so they had cash to use at the local hotel. A former pupil of Ingleside State School recalls that Fletcher provided a bag of sweets for each child at the annual school break-up picnics.
The West Burleigh store continued to be operated as a general store until the 1980s when the shopping complex around the store was developed. The ground floor of the shop was divided into two, one side operating as a real estate agent's office and the other as a saddlery. The second floor continued to be used as a residence until 2001. The residence was recently converted to office space.
","criteria":"The West Burleigh Store provides physical evidence of an important stage in the development of the Gold Coast, one of the State's major tourist destinations. In the early 1930s, improved car access to the coast from Brisbane together with infrastructure development led to a building and property boom on the south coast. The store was completed in 1935 during this period. The erection of a substantial building with a good quality finish at a time when the nation was emerging from economic depression is indicative of the prosperity of the area at this time and storekeeper's expectations of future prosperity. As a substantially intact 1930s general store offering full service and a very wide range of goods and as a shop house, it is also important in demonstrating the evolution of retailing in Queensland.
|The store is uncommon insofar that intact buildings from this period are becoming increasingly uncommon in the Gold Coast region. It also demonstrates a way of life that has become uncommon, namely the practice where storekeepers combined their shop and place of residence.
|The store demonstrates many key aspects of 1930s general stores and shop houses. Considered to be a modern store for its era, many of its original fittings survive. The large display windows, recessed front entrance and the box shelves lining an internal wall are all features that were typical of general stores in the interwar period. The residence over the shop continued a long tradition in which a shopkeeper's home was combined with their place of work. This residence is also substantially intact.
|The store has special association with many former and existing residents of the Gold Coast and for the tourists who visited the area during the decades that it operated as a general store. Built and originally operated by Alf Fletcher until his death in 1963, it continued in family ownership until the early 1970s. It was a focal point of West Burleigh township. Its customers included tourists and the residents of West Burleigh, Burleigh Heads, Tallebudgera, Nerang, Mudgeeraba, and Ingleside. Fletcher and his general store were very well known in the district.
","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":28495,"place_ref":602624,"name":"Tallebudgera Post Office (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"17 Trees Road","suburb":"TALLEBUDGERA","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-10-01","description":"The former Tallebudgera Post Office is located at 17 Trees Road, Tallebudgera.
The original building is a small, single roomed structure with a verandah at the front. It is constructed from timber in the style known as 'board and batten'. The building is elevated off the ground on timber stumps with the front of the building being approximately 0.5 metres above the ground and the rear of the building being approximately 1.5 metres above the ground. The roof is corrugated iron. Inside the building there are timber shelves attached to the rear and right walls. The inside of the roof was originally lined with wood panels and a small portion of this remains.
A 'lean to' extension at the rear of the building has been added at a later, unknown date. The extension has been built from sheets of corrugated iron. It sits on the ground with the bare earth as the floor.
The original building (excluding the extension) measures approximately 5.10 metres in width by 6.0 metres in length, inclusive of the verandah which is 2.30 metres. The extension adds another 4.0 metres to the length of the building.
The building contains mostly original materials. Any new timber used in the restoration process has been date stamped and where possible other new materials, such as rose-headed nails, duplicate those of the original building.
A mature camphor laurel tree (Cinnamomum camphora) is located on the left side of the building with its branches spreading over the roof of the building. An early photograph of the building from 1917 also shows the camphor laurel tree.
","history":"The former Tallebudgera Post Office was officially opened in 1878 and was in operation until March 1958. It was a privately owned and built building. Tallebudgera was located along the main stock route between Queensland and New South Wales and was a stopover point for the Cobb and Co. Coaches. In 2002 the deteriorating property was purchased and restored by the Gold Coast City Council (GCCC). The GCCC now maintains the site as a museum piece for educational and historical purposes.
Settlement of the Gold Coast area by Europeans began in the hinterland with the harvesting of cedar timber which was shipped south to Sydney or north to Brisbane. Timber getters began moving through the heavily forested Tallebudgera area in the mid 1840s opening the way for the early settlers who came when land runs began to be granted from the 1850s. By the early 1870s, the Tallebudgera area was permanently settled. The population mainly consisted of timber getters and small crop farmers with dairy farming becoming important in the area from the 1890s.
Tallebudgera's location along the main stock route between Queensland and New South Wales, which became the early coach road between Nerang and the border, led to it becoming a convenient stop and changeover point for Cobb and Co. coaches. To serve the coach road traffic, and the wider farming community, a small village began to develop near the intersection of the Old Coach Road and Trees Road. During the 1870s a number of businesses and services began to appear including an accommodation house for travellers, the Rose and Crown Hotel, a general store, blacksmith, wheelwright, stables and school. Expansion continued in the 1880s with the establishment of a police station, a Presbyterian church, Catholic church and further construction and trade.
The establishment of a post office was an important element in the development of rural communities, providing both access to a communication network and a focal point where the community could share information. They became an integral part of the social system, providing a link to friends and family who were often many years distant. They also provided a link to the authorities of the colonies, becoming the principal symbol of civil governance in the most isolated areas. Particularly where communities were in remote rural or outback areas, the post office became a symbol of the presence of civilisation. Post offices were nearly always the first government service of facility established in towns, and often the first government building.
The post office was one of the main agencies of the government in the nineteenth century and nearly always also included a telegraph office in the same building. The buildings constructed for post and telegraph office use were, as a result, usually sited in prominent locations, and were among the more important government buildings in the town. In small towns, or when a town was first established, existing businesses often agreed to provide post office facilities and then, when the town grew, the government replaced these facilities with purpose built post offices. Privately owned and built post offices were unusual in Queensland.
The site of the post office was part of an area of land acquired by Stephen Tobin through a Deed of Grant in 1870. In 1872 a mail receiving service office was opened and in 1878 the Tallebudgera Post Office offically opened with Stephen Tobin listed as the first Post Master.
Although the post office provided an official government service, there is no documentary evidence to suggest the Tallebudgera building was ever owned by the government. The size of the post office, consisting of just one room, suggests that it was privately owned and built as even the smallest post offices built by the colonial government in the late nineteenth century period had floor areas larger than one room and often combined office space with living areas. That this building was never replaced by a more permanent, government building suggests, that in the eyes of the government, Tallebudgera was not deemed to be large enough to warrant a government facility.
With Federation in 1901, postal and telegraph services became a Commonwealth responsibility. All administrative functions of the Tallebudgera Post Office were transferred to the Commonwealth, but the building remained privately owned. The post office provided a number of services including a trunk line and telephone exchange, postal services, cash-on-delivery parcels, money order and savings bank services, payment of old age and war service pensions and telegraph by telephone. However, in the years after the Second World War the range of facilities gradually declined and by the post office's permanent closure in 1958, only basic postal services were being provided.
The ever growing landscape of the Gold Coast has left little evidence of its somewhat humble beginnings. Most early buildings have been demolished or relocated to other sites as development spreads throughout the area. The former Tallebudgera Post Office, as one of the Gold Coast's earliest, surviving buildings, vividly demonstrates the area's history and development.
","criteria":"The former Tallebudgera Post Office has important aesthetic significance. It is an intact structure which is an evocative reminder of late nineteenth century village life in the Gold Coast hinterland. The setting of the building with the adjacent mature camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora) tree enhances the rural nature of the building and the entire site.
|Established in 1878, the former Tallebudgera Post Office, is one of the earliest surviving buildings on the Gold Coast and is important in demonstrating the evolution of postal services in Queensland, the early history and development of the Tallebudgera area and the small rural towns that comprised the hinterland area.
|The former Tallebudgera Post Office is a rare example of a privately owned and purpose built post office. Few other post offices like this are known to survive in Queensland. Its construction history, ownership, and uncommon building form are all significant. With a single room and verandah, the former post office has value as an unusual building form of the late nineteenth century. It is also one of the oldest and one of the few remaining timber post office buildings in Queensland erected c1869 - c1885.
|The former Tallebudgera Post Office has a strong association with the general community of Tallebudgera for the crucial role it played in the provision of essential postal and telecommunication services.
|The former Tallebudgera Post Office is an important example of late nineteenth century building techniques. The building contains evidence of early construction methods and finishes and is interesting as a transitional example in the manner in which it is elevated high above the ground at a time when most buildings were set upon the ground or only just above. It is constructed of timber in an early 'board and batten' system, predating the later light timber construction that became known as the Queenslander style. Although the structure has been restored, most of the original building is still standing. It is one of few remaining timber structures from the late nineteenth century left in the Gold Coast area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion E | Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion G | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | 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 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 principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":29021,"place_ref":602649,"name":"The H2 HINDE TREE (Macadamia integrifolia) on Colliston","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"926 Gilston Road","suburb":"GILSTON","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-08-14","description":"A single H2 Hinde tree survives from the small macadamia orchard originally planted on Colliston sometime in the 1920s (another H2 tree on the site was planted after grafting trials conducted in the 1950s). What remains of the farm is an almost 11.5 hectare parcel of land situated between the Nerang River and Gilston Road, within 500 metres of the Hinze Dam wall and Advancetown Lake in the Gold Coast hinterland. The town centre of Nerang is approximately nine kilometres to the north-east.
The H2 Hinde (Macadamia integrifolia) tree is situated in a corridor of trees running north to south that divides the block in two in this area. It is approximately eight metres tall and has a metal tag painted with orange over one of its main branches, apparently put there by JM Wills during his survey work for the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock in 1948 and identifying it as a parent tree. The H1 and H3 macadamia trees were located between five and ten metres to the south. None of the H3 Stevenson trees survive. The remaining H1 Colliston is located about two metres to the east of the outhouse.
","history":"The H2 Hinde tree is located on Colliston, a former farm in the Gold Coast hinterland about nine kilometres south-west of Nerang in the Gilston district. It is the parent of a variety(1) of the species Macadamia integrifolia and was probably planted in the 1920s. It was registered by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock in 1960 as a scion wood,(2) and in the two decades after that time, a significant number of commercial orchards in the State propagated trees using material from this tagged parent tree, it being one of only two Australian-developed varieties to have then achieved such a status. The macadamia nut industry is the largest based on an indigenous Australian food crop and since the mid-1990s this country has become the world's largest exporter of the nuts.
Colliston was selected by Michael James Hinde in 1879 when land along the upper reaches of the Nerang River was being opened to closer settlement. In 1882 he married Alice Batten, the daughter of a Crown Land Ranger living at Pimpama. According to family lore, it was while he was walking to visit her before they married that he came across some native macadamia nut seedlings, uprooted them and re-planted them on Colliston. Otherwise he practiced small-scale farming and eked out a difficult living for himself and what was to become a large family of eight children, his enterprise emulating the nature of many other farms in the Albert Shire. He was resourceful in his efforts to cultivate new crops and test their worthiness as saleable products. Some of his crop choices reflected those made by many other farmers in the area, including maize and arrowroot in the early years, and turning to oranges in the early twentieth century. Like many others he established a small dairy. In lean times he harvested fruits growing wild on his property, such as raspberries, gooseberries and tomatoes, and caught fish in the river and fowl in the scrub. He planted a vineyard, and practiced apiary. Following his death in 1937 Colliston passed to his eldest son, who engaged a niece and her husband, William Hill, to manage the farm.
Also according to family lore, when his orange trees began to decline (probably in the 1920s), MJ Hinde started to cultivate macadamia trees between them, using material from the native trees he had planted in the early 1880s. A member of the Proteaceae family, series Folliculares and tribe Grevillea, which includes hakea and banksia, the genus Macadamia is divided into tropical and subtropical species. The three main varieties of subtropical macadamia - M. tetraphylla, M. integrifolia, and M. ternifolia - are indigenous to the coastal rainforests of south-eastern Queensland and northern New South Wales. Of these only the first two bear edible nuts.
There is some dispute as to which explorer, Cunningham or Leichhardt, was the first to encounter macadamia trees in the wild; however none disagree that it was rediscovered in 1857 in the form of a single tree without fruit by Dr Ferdinand Von Mueller, Royal Botanist at Melbourne, and Walter Hill, Superintendent of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, in forest growing along the Pine River. After Mueller returned south, Hill continued to collect samples from the wild, and it was only by accident that he discovered that one species in his collection produced edible, flavoursome nuts. In 1858 Mueller named the new genus in honour of John Macadam, MD, then Secretary of the Philosophic Institute of Victoria to which he presented its discovery; and in the same year Hill planted the first cultivated macadamia at his Botanical Gardens. Hill actively promoted the species throughout Queensland and the world, distributing material wherever he could. However, the proper distinction between the two species that bear edible nuts - M. tetraphylla and M. integrifolia - was not scientifically established until 1954.
According to historical research conducted by Ian McConachie,(3) following the 1857 'discovery', early settlers were discussing and cultivating macadamias for the quality of the nuts, despite the fact that their scrub-felling practices were destroying many native tree stands. From this time, botanical interest, as well as the delicacy of flavour and texture of the nut, meant seedlings and nuts were rapidly being removed from their native habitats, often to other parts of the world. For example, material was taken from the Mount Bauple area to Hawaii in the 1880s, and specimen trees were being grown at the University of California by the late 1870s and in France by 1890. Along with private individuals and enthusiasts, the New South Wales and Queensland governments distributed macadamia seed widely.
Macadamia trees, or their nuts, had many different names during this period: in New South Wales they were called Bush Nuts or Mullimbimby Nuts; further north they were called Queensland Nuts or Bauple Nuts (or Bopple and Popple); and in all areas they were known as Australia Nut, Poplar and Nut Oak. Aboriginal groups in each of the localities where the nuts were found wild had named them: boombera was common in New South Wales, the Pine River groups called them burrawang; and in most of Queensland they were called kendel or kindal kindal.
The first Australian commercial macadamia orchards were established in New South Wales from the late 1870s. It was not until 1910 that the first small orchard was planted in Queensland near Coolum. Others in the North Coast hinterland followed. During the first twenty years of the twentieth century both State Departments of Agriculture were actively acquiring knowledge about the crop and assessing its commercial potential, however the issue of cracking the generally thick shells enclosing the edible kernels thwarted development of the industry.
A fledgling cottage macadamia industry emerged in Queensland during the 1920s and 1930s; as a June 1923 article from the Queensland Agricultural Journal suggests: "a considerable acreage has recently been placed under nuts in the State". Around this time a small orchard of approximately 30 macadamia trees, including the tree under discussion here, was established at Colliston, although some experimental plantings may have occurred earlier. The general public was greatly interested in the nuts, evidenced by a 1930s estimation of the large number of trees being grown in backyards; 20,000 in Brisbane and 30,000 between Grafton and Maryborough.
From 1931 the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock began to promote macadamia tree cultivation as an adjunct to other farming activities. By November 1933 south-east Queensland growers were having success planting macadamia trees between banana plants, in anticipation that the macadamias would become commercially viable when the bananas began to decline. Reflecting this surge in the industry, the Australian Nut Association was established in 1932 to foster the wider growing of macadamia nuts, although it failed after ten years. Notably for the H2 Hinde macadamia trees growing on Colliston, in 1939 William Hill, then manager of Colliston, and MJ Hinde's brother George, provided assistance with a Queensland Agricultural Journal article identifying where the trees grew wild in the Gilston district and discussing their potential for commercial growing. This was to begin a long association between the managers of Colliston and the author of the article, John McGregor Wills, the State's Senior Advisor in Horticulture who became a great supporter of the commercial potential of the nut.
After World War II the commercial cropping of macadamia trees in Queensland was given renewed attention by its Department of Agriculture and Stock through the methodical survey, selection and experimental propagation of scion and stock material. In 1948 Colliston was visited again by JM Wills to assess the trees growing there. He tagged the trees and took away a range of material, which was investigated in trials, some of which were conducted at the Maroochy Horticultural Experiment Station outside Nambour from the 1950s and into the 1970s. The macadamia varieties Wills identified at Colliston were among other scion woods discussed in an Advisory Leaflet (No. 614) issued by the Division of Plant Industry and published in the Queensland Agricultural Journal in July 1961. The three types of trees that were growing on the property were assigned cultivar names and registered in 1960 as scion wood with the Department of Agriculture and Stock, as follows: H1 Colliston, H2 Hinde and H3 Stevenson. H1 and H3 were of the M. tetraphylla rough-shelled variety, H1 being thin-shelled and H3 hard. H2 Hinde was of the M. integrifolia variety, the shells of which are smooth and of medium thickness. One of its chief distinguishing features is a small indentation in the shell casing.
The H2 Hinde tree is the sole surviving of the three macadamia trees on Colliston that were tagged in 1948 by JM Wills, and finally registered as scion wood and assigned cultivar names in 1960. Of the three originally tagged trees, only the H2 variety was used for commercial purposes. The H2 Hinde tree on Colliston is the parent from which all other clones of this variety have been propagated.
Concerted efforts had been made to develop a viable macadamia nut industry in Hawaii, and it was these successes that spurred developments in the Australian industry. During the 1950s and early 1960s visits to Australia were made by a number of leading US macadamia scientists through the auspices of the California Macadamia Society and Colliston's H-series trees were visited and sampled for testing in Hawaii. Australia did not develop a reliable grafting method until 1958.
During the initial surveys and trials of the 1940s and 1950s, when both Queensland and News South Wales government agriculture departments were visiting Colliston, the H2 Hinde proved itself to be a heavy-bearing Australian variety. When commercial interests began to invest in the industry during the early 1960s, led by the Colonial Sugar Refining Co Ltd (later CSR Ltd), the H2 Hinde, only one other Australian cultivar, and a number of Hawaiian cultivars were deemed most suitable for commercial cultivation; the H2 being most appropriate for locations with a temperate climate. From the 1960s and into the 1980s the H2 Hinde as an Australian variety was widely cultivated in the country's commercial macadamia orchards, most notably in New South Wales, and to a lesser extent in Queensland where CSR and its preferences for Hawaiian cultivars predominated. This situation did not change until it was determined that the Hawaiian cultivars did not yield as highly in Australia and further research had to be done to develop more home-grown varieties. This work was led by the Australian Macadamia Society, which was formed out of Queensland in 1974, under the auspices of its Technical Advisory Committee (established in 1980), and the monies it levied from members. A survey of Australian growers revealed that the H2 Hinde was still considered a major variety in 1983. And when varietal performance trials were being conducted a decade later, the H2 Hinde was deemed an industry standard. Currently the two States equally share Australia's world-dominating macadamia export market, but large plantings in Queensland will ensure it becomes the major future producer.
When the commercial orchard trees of the H2 Hinde variety had reached the end of their economic or bearing lives (as distinct from their natural life spans) in the 1980s, they were replaced with trees grown from other scion woods that had been extensively trialled and found to possess a number of desirable characteristics, most notably imperviousness to certain fungal infections. However over the past twenty years the H2 Hinde has been the dominant variety kept by nurseries, with probably 90% of all grafted trees for commercial purposes using it as rootstock. It was its vulnerability to fungal disease that destroyed the small orchard of which the remaining, tagged H2 Hinde tree had been part. Of the two other macadamia cultivars grown on Colliston and registered with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock in 1960, only the H1 Colliston survives.
(1) The horticultural use of the term 'variety' refers to selected clones usually propagated by grafting. A parent tree is a genetically unique plant that is selected for specific traits, in the case of macadamias these include: strong tree growth, low incidence of pests and diseases, low incidence of stick-tights and premature germination of nuts, reduced years to bearing, high kernel quality and desirable market requirements (Wilkinson, J. 2005 Nut Grower's Guide: The Complete Handbook for Producers and Hobbyists. Canberra: CSIRO Publishing, p. 145.).
(2) The term 'scion wood' refers to the part of a tree that is grafted onto the roots or stem of another, known as the rootstock. This grafted branch or bud transmits the flowering or fruiting characteristics of the variety from which it is taken. With macadamia trees grafting is the only method, reliable and speedy enough by commercial standards, of growing a plant that will exhibit the sought after nut bearing characteristics, as they do not always grow true-to-type when propagated from seeds or seedlings.
(3) Ian McConachie was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2006 for his contributions to the macadamia industry as a grower and exporter. He has also had a long involvement with the Australian Macadamia Society Ltd, particularly with its Technical Advisory Committee and has been instrumental in furthering knowledge of the genus and establishing the Macadamia Conservation Trust, which aims to protect remaining native trees.
","criteria":"The H2 Hinde tree (Macadamia integrifolia), c1920, which survives on Colliston is significant to the commercial development of the Australian macadamia nut industry, particularly its establishment phase from the 1960s to the 1980s. Only two Australian-grown varieties of macadamia received official endorsement and gained popularity with commercial orchards throughout this State, as well as New South Wales, following extensive experimentation on a range of scion and stock material conducted by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. The H2 Hinde at Colliston is the parent tree of one of these two varieties. Since World War II, due to determined efforts on the part of government and commercial groups, the macadamia nut industry has become Australia's largest bush foods industry and dominates the world macadamia export market. The H2 Hinde tree cultivated at Colliston has played a key role in this success, first as scion wood, and in the last twenty years, as the parent of most rootstock used to propagate the large majority of commercial orchard macadamia trees in Australia.
","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":30719,"place_ref":602720,"name":"Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"28 Tomewin Street","suburb":"CURRUMBIN","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-09-18","description":"The Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife park and tourist attraction located in Currumbin, a beachside suburb of the Gold Coast. The wildlife sanctuary is located along Flat Rock Creek and straddles the Gold Coast Highway which divides the place into East and West halves, connected by a tunnel underneath the highway. The area of the wildlife sanctuary gifted to the National Trust of Australia, Queensland by Alex Griffiths in 1976 is substantial, extending from the southern and eastern slopes of Currumbin Hill at its west to two sites on Tomewin Street at its eastern extent, approximately 300m from Currumbin Beach.
\nCurrumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is set amongst bushland along a bend in Flat Rock Creek. Both the bushland and the creek are an important part of the wildlife sanctuary’s animal habitat and setting.
\nThe eastern half of the wildlife sanctuary consists of two sections, a car park on the north side of Tomewin Street and The Sanctuary section on the south. The Sanctuary section is the principal visitor entry to the place and contains many of the built features related to Alex Griffiths management of the Sanctuary.
\nThe western half of the wildlife sanctuary consists of The Reserve, a large area of sloped bushland that is now the setting for many of the wildlife sanctuary’s more recent displays and attractions. A miniature railway line loops around both the Sanctuary and the Reserve sections of the place.
\nThe place also includes a portion of bushland in the Currumbin Valley, known as Coolamon.
\nFeatures of Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary of state level cultural heritage significance are:
\nBushland Setting and Flat Rock Creek
\nCurrumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is set amongst protected and revegetated bushland, providing animal habitat and a natural landscape setting for the place. Small areas of vegetation have been cleared and regrown over time as the sanctuary has changed, however the majority of the place has significant tree cover and dense vegetation.
\nFlat Rock Creek is an important part of the habitat and setting of the wildlife sanctuary. The place includes a bend in the creek which enters the sanctuary from the southwest, forming a long lagoon which continues east under the Gold Coast Highway. On the Eastern side of the highway, the creek bends to the south forming a second, larger lagoon. At the southern end, the creek bends to the east, flowing through Alex Griffiths Park to the coast.
\nFeatures of bushland setting and Flat Rock Creek of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of bushland setting and Flat Rock Creek not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nThe Sanctuary
\nThe Sanctuary section of Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is located on the southern side of Tomewin Street. This area is where the sanctuary was established and contains many of the built features related to Alex Griffiths’ establishment and management of the place.
\nOn the northern boundary of the area is a large octagonal entry kiosk (1972), providing the principal visitor entrance to the place from Tomewin Street. East of the kiosk along the boundary are a series of later buildings providing an exit, shops, seating and toilets. The northeastern corner of the site contains an open lawn area and a house with attached shop.
\nImmediately beyond the entrance kiosk is the first wildlife attraction, the bird feeding arena, the same area used for feeding wild birds since 1947. To the Southeast of the arena and entry kiosk are an early aviary, a former Rock Shop, and its annexe.
\nA ticketing gate near the centre of the sanctuary site separates the free attractions from the remainder of the wildlife sanctuary. The southern half of the site contains mostly later attractions and facilities including wallaby enclosures, koala enclosures, Sir Walter Campbell Centre (1990), the Repturnal Den (Former Playground, 1989), Forest Fringe Aviary, train maintenance shed, and toilets. A former bird hospital is located at the southeast corner of the site.
\nFeatures of The Sanctuary of state level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of The Sanctuary not of state level cultural heritage significance are:
\nBird Feeding Arena (in use since 1947)
\nThe bird feeding arena is located at the northern part of the sanctuary section, near the Tomewin Street boundary. Located adjacent to the entrance kiosk, the bird feeding area is the first wildlife attraction visitors arrive at on entering the park.
\nWhile most of the fabric of the arena has been replaced over time, the characteristics of this attraction have remained consistent. The arena is rectangular with rounded corners in plan, approximately 25m long and 14m wide. A low fence encloses the arena and metal perches and stands to hold feeding plates are located near the fence line. The arena is a generally flat open lawn area and over time has had several structures added for birds to perch on, currently two metal wheels (early wheels mounted to new stands), and some small trees. The arena is entirely surrounded by an open, flat area for visitors to participate in the bird feeding shows. Garden beds, pavement and signage has been added within the arena. To the north of the arena is recent terraced seating, a shelter structure and sculptures have been added to the area around the arena.
\nFeatures of the bird feeding arena of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the bird feeding arena not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nEntry Kiosk (1972)
\nThe Entry Kiosk is located at the Tomewin Street boundary and is the principal visitor entrance to the Sanctuary. The large building is octagonal in plan and three stories including its basement and first floor level within the roof space. Each floor contains rooms arranged around a central octagonal core containing an elevator and stairwell.
\nVisitors enter the kiosk at its northern side, via a ramp from the street through wide glazed doors. Inside the kiosk, visitors arrive at an open plan cafeteria space which wraps around the western side of the octagonal core of the building, opening again on the south to an outdoor deck overlooking the sanctuary. The western half of the ground floor contains function rooms and a bar which open on to another deck on the northeastern side. A large mural painted by Hugh Sawrey for the Sanctuary in 1975 hangs on one wall of the function space. A smaller painting by the same artist hangs on an opposite wall in the function space. At the ground floor, the core of the building contains a kitchen serving the cafeteria and function spaces.
\nThe basement contains storerooms, workshops and offices around its northern side. The southern side is a loading dock access from a sloping driveway on Teemangum Street to the east and another driveway on the western side, allowing vehicle access to the Sanctuary.
\nThe first-floor level can be accessed from the core lift and staircase and a second door and staircase at the front entry of the building. The first floor has been enclosed and partitioned to form offices and meeting rooms with a smaller mezzanine above. The original raked ceiling and exposed roof beams are visible and dormer windows and a roof lantern, both later additions, provide natural light to the offices.
\nWhile the general form and layout of the kiosk remains the same as when constructed, there have been many changes to the building. These changes include the addition of dormer windows and a roof lantern; a shop and exit extension, visitor services extension, decks and a toilet block extension; mezzanine; new partition walls on all levels; addition of ceiling to ground floor level; recent fitouts including floor finishes, flat sheet walls, faux stone and tree finishes.
\nFeatures of the Entry Kiosk of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Entry Kiosk not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nAlex Griffiths Aviary
\nThe Alex Griffiths Aviary is a small domed aviary located immediately southeast of the entry kiosk. The aviary can be viewed externally from the entry kiosk’s southern terrace. The structure consists of a metal pipe frame supporting metal wire mesh. The aviary is entered from its southern side, through a double gate system, the outermost gate opening to a small chamber and the second gate opening to the aviary.
\nInternally, the aviary contains a water feature, gardens and perching structures. The water feature consists of a rock waterfall at the northern side which falls into a small stream flowing around a footpath to a small concrete pond at the southern side of the aviary. Garden beds with small ferns and trees surround the water feature. Perching structures made of tree limbs stand in the garden beds.
\nFeatures of the Alex Griffiths Aviary of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Alex Griffiths Aviary not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nformer Rock Shop and Annexe (1964, annexe added 1965)
\nThe former Rock Shop and Annexe are located south of the Entry Kiosk and Alex Griffith Aviary.
\nThe former Rock Shop is a single-storey building, octagonal in plan. The building is of slab on ground construction and its external walls are masonry with a rock facing. The roof is pointed and supported by external columns at the corners. There are two entrances to the former rock shop, one on the northern side through a wide doorway with a roller door, and the second on the southern side which has a later automatic sliding door. Internally the rock shop is a single open space with a column at its centre. The ceiling is raked and lined by flat sheets with clear finished timber cover strips and cornice. The remainder of the interior fit out of the former rock shop is not original.
\nThe annexe is a smaller, rectangular building, immediately south of the former Rock Shop. It is of similar slab on ground construction and masonry walls with rock facings. The annexe’s roof is skillion. The annexe’s original glazed doors and windows have been removed and the openings infilled with timber board lined walls with high, narrow windows. The interior of the building is not original.
\nFeatures of the former Rock Shop and Annexe of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the former Rock Shop and Annexe not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFormer Bird Hospital
\nThe former Bird Hospital is a small building located at the southeast corner of The Sanctuary. The hospital is octagonal in plan form with a gable roof clad in flat fibre cement sheets. The building is timber framed and the walls are clad in fibre cement flat sheets, the external windows have been boarded over. In 2023, the building is no longer in use, and the interior was not inspected.
\nFeatures of the former Bird Hospital of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nThe Reserve
\nThe Reserve section of Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is located on the western side of the Gold Coast Highway. A large portion of land, the Reserve is heavily treed and extends between the southern and eastern slopes of Currumbin Hill and the western banks of a stretch of Flat Rock Creek. Although fenced around its perimeter, the reserve was intended to show animals in their natural habitat, attractions are laid out in a less formal arrangement than those of The Sanctuary section.
\nThe Reserve is entered by visitors on foot or miniature train via the tunnel under the highway. To the north of the tunnel is a gently sloping clearing, which houses larger native species such as Kangaroo and Emus. The terrain slopes more steeply to the north and west forming a gully where a large aviary and enclosures for exotic species of animal are located.
\nTo the south of the tunnel entrance is Flat Rock Creek which features a small beach area used for feeding water birds and eels. Flat terrain along the western bank of the creek holds many of the most recent attractions such as an Aboriginal cultural show, wild Island playground and extinction trail. Near the centre of the Reserve are food kiosks, toilets and an outdoor dining area. The western slopes of the Reserve provide the setting for a treetop high-ropes course, smaller enclosures for native animals, and bird aviaries.
\nAt the southern end of the reserve is another small gully with a chain of ponds, a focal point of the reserve. Flat areas to the south of the ponds hold several recent attractions including a free flight bird show, sheep shearing pavilion, and ‘Conservation HQ’. These flat areas also hold most of the back of house and service buildings including quarantine and recovery enclosures for animals, workshop buildings, and a work yard.
\nUnder Alex Griffiths management, the Reserve section was primarily used as an open range enclosure for animals. Since that time, many attractions and features have been added to the Reserve, however the setting and some of the features of its earlier use remain.
\nFeatures of the Reserve of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Reserve not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nMiniature Railway
\nA miniature railway line runs through both The Sanctuary and The Reserve sections of the wildlife sanctuary, forming a large loop line. The alignment of the miniature railway begins in The Sanctuary area, single tracks loop around the southern half of the site, meeting north of Flat Rock Creek where the two tracks merge and continue to the tunnel below the Gold Coast Highway. On the western side of the tunnel, the tracks curve to the south toward the food and drink kiosks at the centre of the reserve, where the tracks split again forming another single-track loop. This loop runs along the western bank of flat rock creek where a siding leads to workshops. The main line loops around the ponds at the southern end of The Reserve, crossing small streams and ponds via metal truss bridges. The loop returns along the foot of Currumbin hill to meet near the food and drink kiosks.
\nWhile the alignment of the railway is generally the same as when gifted by Alex Griffiths, some changes have been made to accommodate more pedestrian traffic and changing exhibits. The loop around the Sanctuary area has been made smaller by moving the northern extent approximately 35m southeast, the location of the station on the sanctuary site has also been moved and new stations have been added to the reserve section.
\nFeatures of the Miniature Railway of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Miniature Railway not of state level cultural heritage significance include:
\nCoolamon
\nAs observed in 2009, Coolamon comprises four allotments, totalling almost 18ha of land, located in the Currumbin Valley about half way between the headwaters of Currumbin Creek and the ocean into which it drains, where Currumbin Creek Road turns toward the Queensland and New South Wales border about one and a half kilometres from the site to the south. Nicoll Scrub National Park adjoins the southernmost allotment to the south-east. There are two gated access points, one to the north, which follows an easement to the main body of the site, and another, the main entrance adjacent to a picnic ground in the south-west. The latter entrance is signed and comprises a steel-framed gate with chain-wire infill set within two tall steel posts and panels of ribbed metal sheeting, which provides access to a section of bitumen roadway. Elsewhere the site is fenced by chain-wire. Adjacent to this gate to the north-west is a toilet block overgrown by vegetation. Opposite this structure and across the roadway a grassed picnic area stretches toward the south. Beyond this are the remains of a timber bridge. A caravan sits at the southern end of the grassed area.
","history":"The Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary was established by beekeeper and floriculturist Alex Griffiths in 1947 as a small-scale tourist venture featuring lorikeet feeding displays in which tourists could participate. By at least 1953 it was known as the Currumbin Bird Sanctuary and by the mid-1950s had become an iconic tourist attraction on the Gold Coast. The place had evolved by the early 1970s to offer visitors a variety of experiences, including: the chance to see numerous bird and animal species and learn about their part in the regional natural environment; take a miniature train ride around the large site; purchase souvenirs; and enjoy a meal. In 1976 Griffiths gifted the Sanctuary to the National Trust of Queensland (the Trust), and the terms of this exchange and its ongoing operation are set out in the Currumbin Bird Sanctuary Act 1976. The place was re-named the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in 1995. It continues to be operated by the Trust as a nature-based tourism enterprise and is recognised as one of the oldest of its kind to remain in operation in the state.
\nThe Sanctuary lands gifted by Alex Griffith to the Trust encompassed four main areas: the original Sanctuary site on the southern side of Tomewin Street and three contiguous properties in Teemangum Street, including a house occupied by Alex Griffiths from 1971 until 1998; a car park and a picnic ground on the northern side of Tomewin Street; 18.728ha of heavily treed land on the western side of the Gold Coast Highway, known as the Western Reserve; and a 17.8ha property that Griffiths had named Coolamon, located on the Currumbin Creek-Tomewin Road in the Currumbin Valley just over nine kilometres to the west of the main venue. The Trust also took over the leasehold of swampy land on either side of Flat Rock Creek formerly leased by Griffiths for sanctuary purposes; and of a tunnel that Griffith had constructed under the Gold Coast Highway, linking the Tomewin Street site and the Western Reserve.
\nThe Currumbin area was taken up as timber leases in the 1860s and 1870s, with some gold fossicking in the creek in the late 1870s. The coastal strip was subdivided into housing allotments in 1886, but was slow to develop. Access to the area at that time was via a coach service that used the beach as a roadway. Bananas were a successful crop from the late nineteenth century and became a key industry in the Currumbin Valley in the twentieth century. In 1903 a rail line between Nerang and Tweed Heads was constructed, and a siding built at Currumbin in 1908 to cater for timber getters and dairy farmers. The Currumbin School opened the following year. During the 1920s and 1930s a rapid rise in private motor vehicle ownership, the construction of a new coastal road (the Pacific Highway) between Brisbane and Southport, and the opening of the Jubilee Bridge over the Nerang River, led to the subdivision and sale of many estates between Southport and the New South Wales border including Currumbin, especially after the final section of the Pacific Highway, between Currumbin and Coolangatta, opened in December 1933.
\nIt is ironic that the Currumbin Bird Sanctuary, a nature-based venture, emerged from the post-World War II development boom that saw the Gold Coast establish its present iconic identity as Queensland's premier tourist destination. In the 1950s a greater capacity to pursue leisure, increasing ownership and usage of private motor vehicles, and a growing preference among holidaymakers for American-style resorts and tourist entertainments, resulted in changed accommodation styles on the Gold Coast and increased patronage of 'tourist attractions' other than the natural attractions of surf beaches and estuary bathing and fishing. With the lifting of war-time building restrictions in 1952, an intense period of building development and property speculation at the South Coast followed, attracting entrepreneurs focussed largely on the tourism potential of the place. The term 'Gold Coast' was coined in response to this promise of prosperity and wealth, and was embraced by locals. The South Coast Town Council officially changed its name to Gold Coast Town Council in 1958, and in 1959 the municipality was declared a city.
\nThe Currumbin Bird Sanctuary evolved from the flower-farming and bee-keeping activities of Alexander Morris Griffiths. Born in New Zealand in 1911, his family moved in 1927 to Norfolk Island, where they grew bananas for the Sydney market. His parents retired to Currumbin in 1941, acquiring two adjoining parcels of land comprising two and a half acres (1.01ha) in Tomewin Street in February 1944. Alex joined them and at their Currumbin property established bee hives, planted gladioli, and ran a small road-side stall selling honey and flowers. However, local lorikeets proved problematic, destroying the marketability of the flowers and eating the honey from the hives. The diversionary solution Griffiths devised to protect his flower crop was to feed the birds honey and bread from a plate. The birds increased in numbers to a point where visitors would come to witness the afternoon feedings. Around 1947 Griffiths erected a small kiosk on Tomewin Street to sell his honey and Devonshire teas. The lorikeet-feeding spectacle continued to gain renown and was included in South Coast tourism promotional material. Griffiths did not charge admission fees to his Sanctuary but left a donation box near the exit. He also became the unofficial wildlife carer of the district, caring for fauna in his home and utilising small structures in the Sanctuary for sick and recuperating birds and animals.
\nSoon after Griffiths established his nascent bird sanctuary, another nature-based tourism venture commenced in nearby Tallebudgera Valley in 1951 with the establishment of David Fleay's Wildlife Park (QHR 601389). Fleay had a similar philosophy to Griffiths arguing that fauna should be kept in conditions as close as possible to the natural environment, and was critical of modern zoos; however Griffiths began as an entrepreneurial amateur while Fleay was a naturalist with scientific training, and before moving to Queensland, when still in Victoria, had been responsible for the first successful captive breeding programs of a number of Australian indigenous animals.
\nDuring the early 1950s Griffiths expanded his bird sanctuary with the acquisition of more land on the southern side of Tomewin Street, and utilised the adjacent public reserves along Flat Rock Creek. When an application was made for a dredging lease in the Scenic Reserve (R.579) along the creek in January 1956, Griffiths wrote a letter to the editor of the Courier-Mail protesting against the proposed sand mining because he had spent years encouraging wild birds to Flat Rock Creek. He received widespread public support and petitions against the sand mining were lodged. The Land Commissioner inspected the creek and noted that it contained a permanent waterhole frequented by wild ducks, pigmy geese and black swans. He also reported that the South Coast Town Council valued the bird sanctuary as an important tourist attraction and endorsed Griffiths' actions in preserving wildlife. A number of conservation organisations, including the Queensland Naturalists Club and the Save the Trees Campaign, also objected to the sand mining, arguing that, in the wake of other recent sand mining operations on the coast that had caused the loss of many native trees, Currumbin Sanctuary provided alternative food and shelter to displaced birds. The dredging application was withdrawn. This early example of a conservation battle waged on the South Coast occurred twelve years prior to Fleay's battle to save Tallebudgera Creek from canal development.
\nThe Sanctuary had gained such a level of renown that in October 1956 the (American) National Geographic sent top-ranking nature photographer and journalist Dr Paul Zahl to document the lorikeet-feeding phenomena. He described a scene of expectant lorikeets and tourists waiting for Alex Griffiths to fill pie tins with a mixture of bread, water and honey, and the delight of tourists when allowed to feed the birds. By this time Griffiths had other indigenous wildlife on the property and was well known as a wildlife carer of sick and injured animals and birds. No bird was kept in captivity if it was able to fly. Zahl reported that the Sanctuary already had a national profile, attracting 2000 visitors on holiday weekends, but the publication of his article gave it an international profile that enhanced its tourism potential and that of the South Coast.
\nThe 1960s was a significant period of expansion for the Sanctuary. In 1963 Griffiths was given a licence to enclose the road between the Sanctuary and the creek, and a lease on the Scenic Reserve on the banks of Flat Rock Creek contiguous with the road. Around this time he installed a neon sign within the road licence area facing onto Flat Rock Creek, which was visible to travellers along the main road. In June 1964, a miniature train was introduced. Built in Brisbane by James Jackson, the train hauled six passenger cars and operated on an eleven inch gauge rail loop for 300 metres around the Tomewin Street site. Other elements of this expansion scheme included the construction of an octagonal-shaped Rock Shop (now known as the Spirit of the Outback shop), for which planning approval was given by the Gold Coast City Council in April 1964; and a butterfly display which is no longer extant. Both projects cost £1500. The Rock Shop showcased Griffiths' passion for rock collecting and included the production of jewellery on site. He claimed it was the first of its type in Australia. The octagonal form of the Rock Shop was replicated in most of the buildings constructed at the Sanctuary during the 1960s and into the 1970s, although the Rock Shop Annex constructed in 1965 did not adhere to this precept. Griffiths formed a number of companies during this time and began acquiring additional lands around his Sanctuary under company title, including parcels in Tomewin Street opposite the Sanctuary for car parking.
\nIn the past, Queensland tourist attractions featuring animals and birds were mostly limited to zoos, such as those established at the Queensport Aquarium (1889-1895); Koombul Park near Cairns (early 1900s), Brisbane Botanic Gardens (early 1900s-1952); Rockhampton Botanic Gardens (established 1905 and extant in 2009, QHR 601819); and Hartley's Creek Crocodile Farm north of Cairns (1934 and still operational in 2009). One of the earliest nature-based tourism ventures was The Jungle near Malanda on the Atherton Tableland in far north Queensland, which showcased indigenous flora and fauna and Aboriginal culture from 1920 until the 1970s. In south-east Queensland, the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary was established in 1927, in response to the last open season on koalas, which had yielded 500,000 skins.
\nOn the South Coast, Alex Griffiths' serendipitous establishment of the Currumbin Sanctuary in 1947 was the first tourism venture to showcase fauna in an essentially natural setting. Animal attractions at the Gold Coast have tended to concentrate on their entertainment or curiosity value - such as the small zoo and aquarium established at the rebuilt Surfers Paradise Hotel in 1936. The 1950s saw the establishment of Natureland Zoo at Coolangatta and Jack Evans' erroneously named Pet Porpoise Pool at Snapper Rocks, featuring performing dolphins kept in captivity. Evans relocated to Tweed Heads in 1961. Marineland was established on The Spit at Southport in 1966 and Keith Williams' Ski World relocated from Carrara to The Spit in 1970. In 1972 Williams re-named the attraction Sea World, introduced dolphins and Californian sea lions, and built a marine stadium, chairlift and other attractions. He purchased Marineland in 1976 and transferred marine life displays to Sea World. He also purchased Jack Evan's Porpoise Pool business at this time. Marineland then became Bird Life Park. The only venture similar to the Currumbin Bird Sanctuary on the Gold Coast was David Fleay's Fauna Reserve at West Burleigh, which had a greater focus on scientific research.
\nIn April 1968, Griffiths announced that in the next two years he planned to develop the Sanctuary into a substantial wildlife attraction utilising 18.728 hectares of land on the western side of the highway, to which he acquired title in October 1968. The site was part of a former dairy and banana farm, and retained a number of artificial ponds or dams at the southern end, patches of subtropical rainforest in the north-western corner, and some transitional forest. Griffiths' plans for the property included a two mile extension of the miniature railway, and a large aviary encompassing mature trees for birds unable to survive in the wild. The chain of lagoons and ponds along a secondary watercourse to Flat Rock Creek would provide a habitat for water fowl. He also planned a new three-storeyed Kiosk on the Tomewin Street site and employed architect Stephen Trotter of the firm Fulton Collin Boys Gilmour Trotter & Partners to prepare a design. He was also negotiating with the Main Roads Department to build a tunnel under the planned new four lane highway to link the two properties. In the late 1960s the Gold Coast City Council demonstrated its support for Griffiths' work by constructing an illuminated fountain in Flat Rock Creek adjacent to the Sanctuary, visible at night to passers by on the highway. It is understood that this structure is no longer extant.
\nThe new Kiosk opened in March 1972, at a cost of about $120,000. It was a three-storey building made around a concrete frame with some stone wall facings, brick infill and large sliding doors, in an octagonal plan that reflected the approach taken to earlier structures on the site. The architect recalls that this plan geometry was intended to reference the individual chambers of a beehive (although these are hexagonal). With a central lift and stairs, the building had a basement housing service facilities; a main kiosk level that opened to both the street and to the lorikeet-feeding arena; and a mezzanine level used as a VIP lounge. The concrete tiled hipped roof had exposed timber framing on the interior and a large skylight at its apex.
\nIn 1972 Hugh Sawrey (1919-1999), a Queensland-born artist who in the 1970s and 1980s developed a national reputation for his paintings depicting Australian outback life, was commissioned to paint a large mural in the main level of the Kiosk. By 1972 Sawrey kept a successful horse stud at Coomera on the Gold Coast, which he moved that year to Boonah and to Victoria in 1978. His was the inspiration behind of the establishment of the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre at Longreach, which opened in 1988, and he was a strong supporter of Alex Griffiths' work at Currumbin.
\nGriffiths' parents' house and a neighbouring property, the former Currumbin Tea Gardens, were demolished for the construction of the new Kiosk. Griffiths then moved to another property that he owned in adjacent Teemangum Street - a small, early 1950s fibro cottage with an attached shop.
\nDuring the early 1970s negotiations continued on the construction of a tunnel under the Gold Coast Highway linking the existing Sanctuary to the new Western Reserve. This was built in conjunction with the construction of a four lane highway and new Currumbin Creek Bridge, which opened in November 1974. Leases on the reserves on either side of Flat Rock Creek were secured and eventually a new Reserve for Parks and Recreation (R.579) was gazetted in December 1977. The road reserve between the Sanctuary and the Flat Rock Creek leased land was closed in 1993, formally enlarging the Sanctuary.
\nBetween 1969 and 1973, Griffiths also acquired 17.8 hectares in the Currumbin Valley that he named Coolamon, an aboriginal word for carry basket, and also the name of the tree which is the floral emblem of the neighbouring Tweed Shire. Coolamon was used as a release area for rehabilitated fauna. It was also considered a possible venue for further educational purposes as it retained remnants of indigenous vegetation.
\nBy the early 1970s facilities on the formally laid out site on Tomewin Street included: the original kiosk and fernery, the lorikeet-feeding arena, the Rock Shop and its annex, the new Kiosk, the miniature railway and its butterfly-roofed station shelter, a number of aviaries (including a Rainforest Aviary), a bakery, a mini-cars course, an aquarium, a collector's corner, and a children's playground called Fairyland. This area was complemented by the more informally laid out Western Reserve which housed an array of indigenous fauna, some free ranging. One loop of the miniature railway existed around the southern part of the Western Reserve, travelling along Flat Rock Creek and crossing a chain of lagoons in order to showcase the water birds that frequented the site. There was a small siding (no longer extant) near the current Koala Junction Station. Visitation in 1973 was estimated at 600,000 per annum.
\nAround this time Griffiths sought to find an organisation to take on the management of the Sanctuary, stating: \"I wanted to make sure that on my death the Sanctuary would continue its work as a haven for wildlife... As you can see, I had to ensure that these creatures always had a safe place to come, even after I am gone.\" He began negotiations with the National Trust of Queensland with a view to gifting the Sanctuary to them. This necessitated the drafting of legislation to allow the Trust to take over the property, which was assented to on 3 November 1976. The Currumbin Bird Sanctuary Act 1976 made provision for the Trust to wind up the companies set up by Griffiths to manage various aspects of the Sanctuary. These were dissolved early in 1977 so that the Sanctuary could operate as a commercial undertaking in its own right. The gifted properties were formally transferred to the Trust between 9 and 15 March 1978. As part of the new management structure, a Board of Advice was established to which Alex Griffiths was appointed Chairman for life. He stepped aside in favour of retired Governor of Queensland Sir Colin Hannah, who was then succeeded by Sir Sholto Douglas. In 1980 the Trust produced a comprehensive development plan with ambitious ideas for the redevelopment of the park, aimed at removing all unserviceable or outdated structures, particularly old aviaries, and adapting existing serviceable buildings. In late 1980 the Trust discontinued the Board of Advice, effectively negating Alex Griffith's role as an advisor to the Sanctuary.
\nBoth the Trust's need to operate the Sanctuary as a commercial venture and Alex Griffith's desire to keep it as a fauna and flora reserve were embodied within the 1976 Act, but Griffiths became increasingly estranged from the Trust and its management of the Sanctuary. There were philosophical differences between his layman's perception of conservation, and the scientific approach which opposed artificial feeding of wildlife and the maintenance of exotic species. Griffiths had always kept exotic species at the Sanctuary and continued to house peacocks at Coolamon, where he moved to live in a caravan from around Christmas 1982. During the 1980s he continued to invest in this property, installing three landscaped dams, a concrete weir and spillways, and a hardwood vehicular bridge.
\nThe Trust pursued an active program of site development through the 1980s with the construction of a children's playground (1985-1986), refurbishment of the Rainforest Aviary as the Rainforest Pool Aviary (1987), and construction of a Sub-Tropical Aviary (1988). In the 1990s a number of new facilities were constructed, including the Sir Walter Campbell Environmental Education centre, a new koala exhibit, the Koala Junction Kiosk, a freshwater crocodile display, a Tasmanian Devil enclosure, four new cockatoo aviaries, and Flora Gully (which included rare and endangered species of plants). None of these elements is considered to be of cultural heritage significance for the purposes of this entry in the Queensland heritage register. At this period the Trust also made major renovations to the main administration building, extended the Kiosk to incorporate a shop and the nearby Honey House, and renovated two aviaries.
\nIn 1995 the Trust adopted a long term goal for the place: Currumbin Sanctuary was to be recognised nationally and internationally as a pre-eminent institution in the preservation and presentation of Australian indigenous fauna and flora, and in sustaining and promoting heritage-related values and ideas. The name was changed to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary to reflect this objective. 1996 visitation statistics showed 82,000 local, 96,000 interstate and 340,000 international visitors.
\nAlex Griffiths died on 29 July 1998. He had received numerous awards during his life: he became a Member in the Order of Australia in 1976; was awarded the Order of the White Cross for protection of wildlife in 1977; along with fellow Gold Coast environmentalist David Fleay was given 'Freedom of the City' of the Gold Coast by Mayor Lex Bell in 1989; and received an Honorary Doctorate from Griffith University in 1995. In 1999 Gold Coast City Council named a nearby open space in Teemangum Street, Alex Griffiths Park.
\nThe significance of the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary within its local context was recognised in the 1997 Gold Coast Urban Heritage and Character Study which stated: \"The Currumbin Area is one of a particular character... Generally the area contains more natural vegetation that other areas of the coast due in part to the difficulty of building on the steep hillsides and in part to the presence of the Currumbin Bird Sanctuary - a long standing icon and landmark of the Gold Coast.\" Its significance in Queensland has been recognised in 2009 through its inclusion in the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland's \"150 must do's\" as well as being voted one of the top 15 iconic Queensland locations as part of the State's sesquicentenary celebrations. The Sanctuary continues to draw tourists from around Australia and internationally, visitation statistics for 2021-2022 indicate 253,083 domestic and 8,088 international visitors during a period when the COVID-19 pandemic impacted international and state borders [1]. International visitors accounted for 57% of visitors to the sanctuary in the year before the pandemic [2].
\nIn 2013, ownership of Coolamon was transferred to the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (in 2024 the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation). Prior to the transfer of ownership, Coolamon had provided picnic facilities for visitors but in later years was only used as a release area for birds and other native animals treated at the Sanctuary's hospital (the latter is not located within the heritage boundary).
\nOf the facilities existing at the time of Alex Griffiths' gift to the Trust in 1976, the Entry Kiosk, former Rock Shop and its annexe, miniature railway (particularly its original circuit on the Tomewin Street site and its southern most circuit on the Western Reserve), the refurbished Alex Griffiths Aviary, Bird-feeding arena, and former bird hospital remain. All of the properties retain significant remnant native vegetation, which Griffiths retained as part of the concept of a flora reserve, and as a sheltering and breeding place for fauna.
","criteria":"As an iconic Queensland tourist destination, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary has had a strong association as an attractive nature-based tourism experience for the large community of Queenslanders who have visited the site since 1947, when the afternoon lorikeet-feeding spectacle was established by Alex Griffiths. The strength and endurance of this association are powerfully demonstrated by its featuring in tourism advertising since 1953 or earlier; by the widespread community support for the Sanctuary demonstrated in 1956 when hundreds of people signed a petition objecting to proposed sandmining adjacent to it; by inclusion in the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland's "150 must do's" in Queensland in 2009; and being voted by the community as one of the top 15 iconic Queensland locations during the 2009 State sesquicentenary celebrations.
|Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary has a special association with the life work of Alex Griffiths who established the Sanctuary in 1947 and remained involved in its ongoing management into the early 1980s, after gifting the Sanctuary to the National Trust of Queensland (the Trust) in 1976. Important surviving elements of Griffiths' pre-1976 tourism venture include: the Kiosk; the Spirit of the Outback Store (former Rock Shop) and its annex; an aviary; an early bird hospital; the site of the lorikeet-feeding arena; the concept of the miniature railway circuit and much of the original railway on both the Tomewin Street site and the Western Reserve; the tunnel beneath the Gold Coast Highway; the informally laid out Western Reserve; the bird habitat along Flat Rock Creek; and the bird-release property known as Coolamon.
|The Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, established by Alex Griffiths in 1947 as the Currumbin Bird Sanctuary, is important in demonstrating the evolution of nature-based tourism in Queensland. It is an early surviving attraction at the Gold Coast, Queensland's premiere tourism destination, and one of the earliest nature-based tourist facilities established in Queensland, evolving from a site of local interest and the public spectacle of lorikeet-feeding to an internationally-recognised nature-based tourism attraction.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion G | Criterion H | 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 has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650034,"name":"Southport State High School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"75 Smith Street","suburb":"SOUTHPORT","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2016-10-14","description":"Southport State High School occupies a 13.44ha, gently sloping site within a predominantly residential area of Southport. The main entrance addresses the major thoroughfare of Smith Street (south), and the school is bounded by Brooke Avenue (west), Lionel Avenue (north), and Loders Creek (north and east). The heritage boundary covers only the significant buildings and landscape features concentrated in the elevated southwest corner of the school, and the large sports oval to their east.
\nThe school retains a two-storey 1950s Hawksley Prefabricated School Building, aligned approximately east-west (Block E, Elevate, 1957-8). A two-storey Brick and Timber Building with Open-web Truss System, above an undercroft (Block F, 1961), aligned approximately north-south and connected to the eastern end of Block E by an elevated covered link (1961), contributes to the overall significance of the site planning by enclosing the eastern side of the former parade ground.
\nFeatures of Southport State High School of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nHawksley Prefabricated School Building (Block E, Elevate, 1957-8)
\nBlock E is a long, two-storey building with a gable roof and north-facing verandahs on both levels. The lower level is brick, set on a concrete plinth, and the prefabricated Hawksley ‘type F amended’ upper level incorporates open-web metal trusses that reduce the requirement for supporting elements. The Hawksley portion is aluminium-framed and clad in painted ribbed aluminium sheeting, including the eaves and first floor verandah ceilings. The upper gable-ends are flat-sheeted and have square louvred vents.
\nTimber and steel stairs on cantilevered concrete supports, with tubular steel rail balustrades, lead from both ends of the ground floor to the first floor verandahs. The ends of the first floor balustrades have timber-framed bag racks that are clad externally in ribbed metal (by 1959), and concrete-block bag racks have been added on the ground floor. The ground floor verandahs have paved concrete floors and flat-sheeted ceilings, with cover strips.
\nLarge areas of aluminium-framed awning windows line the first floor northern and southern walls; the northern with fixed lower sashes and tubular steel rails fixed at sill height along the verandah. Ground floor windows comprise predominantly timber-framed awning windows on the southern side and double-hung sashes, with louvred glass fanlights, on the northern side. Windows generally have original hardware. Original part-glazed classroom doors survive along the first floor verandah.
\nThe ground floor contains the former student recreation area and locker rooms (now two large classrooms) and toilets at the eastern end. The interior masonry walls are rendered and the ceilings are flat-sheeted, above the exposed open-web metal trusses. Enclosures on the verandah contain toilets at the eastern end and a former hat room (now a modern kitchenette) at the western end. A doorway accessing the western end of the southern side of the building, indicates the location of a former covered way (demolished 2018).
\nThe first floor retains evidence of its original layout of three classrooms and a physics laboratory (now two classrooms and a dance studio, converted c1989). The interior walls and ceilings are lined with flat aluminium sheets, with metal cover strips. One original classroom at the western end retains its angled blackboard mount, with cupboards below, and a partition with interconnecting part-glazed double-doors (now sealed and boarded). Enclosures on the verandah have been altered to connect with covered links to Block B (rebuilt 2020) via a former hatroom at the western end and to Block F (1961) via a former storeroom at the eastern end.
\nFeatures of the Hawksley Prefabricated School Building (Block E) of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Hawksley Prefabricated School Building (Block E) not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nBrick and Timber Building with Open-web Truss System (Block F, 1961)
\nBlock F is a long, two-storey brick and timber-framed building, above an undercroft, with the upper level incorporating open-web metal trusses, which are set on rectangular concrete columns and cantilevered to support a west-facing verandah. The northern and southern ends have full-height brick walls enclosing concrete stairwells. The ground floor is face brick on its eastern side and rendered on its western side; and the first floor is clad in ribbed metal sheeting, with large banks of timber-framed awning windows, with modern sliding fanlights, on its eastern side. The undercroft has rectangular concrete piers and is open to the east.
\nThe first floor verandah has a timber floor, square timber posts and bag racks that form a balustrade; the walls and raked ceiling are flat-sheeted, with cover strips, and the fixed timber-framed verandah windows have modern sliding fanlights. A central section of the first floor verandah has been enclosed with modern metal-framed sliding windows. The ground floor verandah has a concrete slab floor and ribbed aluminium sheet-lined ceiling.
\nThe first floor contains five classrooms and a staff room; the central two classrooms have been extended with the removal of the former verandah wall. The classroom walls and ceilings are flat-sheeted, with rounded cover strips. The ground floor comprises toilets adjacent to the northern and southern stairs, separated from central offices by passageways that connect the ground floor verandah with stairs on the eastern side that access the undercroft. The open undercroft contains a tuckshop.
\nFeatures of the Brick and Timber Building with Open-web Truss System (Block F) of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the Brick and Timber Building with Open-web Truss System (Block F) not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nCovered Link (1961)
\nAn elevated covered link connects the first floor verandahs of Blocks E and F, comprising an exposed open-web floor truss system, timber framing and flooring, and tubular steel rail balustrades. The ceiling is flat-sheeted, with cover strips.
\nLandscape Features
\nThe school grounds are well established, with school buildings at the western end, and a generously sized sports oval (pre-1964) to the east that has perimeter embankments and shade trees including various eucalypt species (spp. Eucalyptus).
\nConcrete pathways, at the base of concrete retaining walls with tubular steel rails, run along the southern sides of Block E and at the site of former Block B. Concrete steps punctuate the retaining walls, illustrating the location of the former ground floor covered ways (demolished 2018).
\nA sealed parade ground bounded by Block E, Block F to the east, and modern buildings to the south and west, retains its open character for assembly, and contains a flagpole (replaced c1997) and several modern memorial plaques.
\nLandscape features of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLandscape features not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures not of state-level Cultural Heritage Significance
\nFeatures of Southport State High School not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nSouthport State High School (SHS) opened at its current 13.44ha (33.2ac) site on Smith Street, Gold Coast in 1955, separating from the Southport State School, which had included a secondary department (or ‘high top’) from 1916. Southport SHS demonstrates the growth in provision of secondary education across Queensland in the 1950s on new sites with increased facilities. The school retains a rare Hawksley Prefabricated School Building (Block E, 1957-8, now named Elevate), a covered link (1961) that connects it with an adjacent brick and timber building with open-web steel floor trusses (Block F, 1961); retaining walls and railings; and assembly and sports areas; set within a generous landscaped site that exhibits organic site planning. The school has been in continuous operation since its establishment.
\nThe township of Southport, located on the traditional lands of the Danggan Balun (Five Rivers People) or speakers of the Yugambeh language,[1] evolved after its survey as a marine resort on the Crown Reserve at Nerang Creek Heads in 1874. Its first allotments were sold in April 1875 and the first of its many boarding houses opened in the following year. The sale of 180 marine villa sites on 13 March 1878 further stimulated Southport’s growth as a popular resort for Darling Downs pastoralists and the elite of Brisbane and Ipswich. From 1879 visitors could reach Southport via a daily Cobb & Co coach from Brisbane and Ipswich, or via the steamer Iris from Brisbane to Southport twice weekly, or by the steamers Albert or Leonie. By the 1880s Southport had a permanent population of about 230, sufficient to justify the establishment of a primary school, which opened on 17 February 1880.[2]
\nFrom 1860 the Queensland Government played an important role in the provision of schools in Queensland, providing an alternative to church schools and private schools. The provision of schools was linked to the location and development of communities, the number of children within reach of particular locations, community expectations, and changing government policies regarding the best way to provide for the education of Queensland children.[3]
\nSouthport continued to develop as a beachside holiday resort throughout the 1880s and 1890s, becoming Queensland’s principal seaside resort. Its popularity with the colonial elite was boosted when Queensland’s Governor, Sir Anthony Musgrave (1883-8), established a holiday home there in 1884. Its popularity with all classes of Queenslanders multiplied after the opening of the railway extension to Southport from Beenleigh, in 1889, gave them easier access. By 1901, Southport’s permanent population was 1230, which trebled in the peak holiday season.[4]
\nIn Queensland, governments were slow to establish state secondary education, considering this to be of little relevance to Queensland's primary industry-based economy. The Grammar Schools Act 1860 provided scholarships for high-achieving students to attend elite grammar schools, although few were awarded. It was not until 1912 that the government instituted a high school system, whereby separate high schools were established in major towns or, where the student population was too small, a primary school was expanded to include a 'high top'. High tops were an economical measure that provided essentially the same education while utilising already established facilities.[5]
\nBy 1914, Southport’s residents believed their town warranted a high school. On 21 April 1914, W Lather, the Secretary of the Southport State School Committee, requested that high school classes be established at Southport State School.[6] In the following year, a deputation called on the Minister for Education and in 1915 a public meeting was held, which elected a committee for promoting the establishment of a high school at Southport. The District Inspector visited the area at the end of 1915 and recommended that a high school be established at the Southport State School. Following an entrance test held on 25 February 1916, 30 pupils were approved for admission to a ‘High School Top’ at Southport State School. High School classes commenced on 10 July 1916 in rented premises, but classes were conducted at the school from the beginning of the following year.[7]
\nDuring the interwar period, Southport grew into a large town renowned as a popular resort and a fashionable residential and educational centre. With its population approaching 2000, Southport was proclaimed a separate town from Albert Shire in 1918.[8] By 1921 it had a permanent population of 3550 people, increasing to over 6000 residents in 1925.[9] By the 1930s Southport had ‘many modern hotels, guest houses, flats … water supply, septic sewerage systems and electric light’.[10]
\nAfter World War II, Southport continued to expand as Australia’s beach culture developed and tourism to the South Coast boomed. In 1949 Southport municipality amalgamated with that of Coolangatta to form the South Coast Town Council, extending from Labrador to Coolangatta.[11] As the commercial and administrative centre of the South Coast (renamed the Gold Coast from 1958), Southport experienced steady residential and economic growth in the 1950s, but the coastal area south of the town experienced massive growth.[12] This development inevitably led to a demand for state schools in the region.
\nThe Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[13] The overriding concern for the Department of Public Instruction was the need to build school buildings as expeditiously and economically as possible because the Queensland Government regarded education as a low priority and provided the department with only a small budget.[14]
\nThe need for an adequate high school at Southport, to serve the whole South Coast, became a priority in the 1950s. In September 1953 there were 99 pupils attending the Secondary Department of the Southport State School. Of those, 62 resided outside Southport. As the school did not teach science subjects, students were unable to pursue any university study that required science as a prerequisite.[15]
\nIn response to this situation, the Minister for Public Instruction acted to provide adequate high school education on the South Coast. He approved the establishment of a sub-senior class at the Southport SHS from the beginning of 1955 and allocated £61,831 in the 1954-5 financial year for the erection of the new Southport State High School.[16]
\nIn Queensland, high schools remained few in number until after World War II, when secondary education became accepted as essential and was more widely provided. In the 1950s the number of high schools in Queensland increased significantly. The grounds were large, greater than 12 acres (4.8ha) providing ample room for sports facilities. The general classroom buildings were the same standard types as used for primary schools but high schools also included purpose-built science laboratories, domestic science buildings, workshops for woodwork and metal work, libraries, and gymnasiums. These were also built to standard plans but were specific to their use and not a continuation of previous designs.[17] This reflected educationalists’ rejection of the previous designs of school buildings, considering them outdated and their favouring of ‘lighter, loosely grouped, flexible’ buildings.[18]
\nThere was also a focus on the fit between the school and its neighbourhood, as well as site planning for expansion. In the early 1950s, architects developed master planning concepts that influenced the design and layout of the whole school. Initially, these plans were broadly based on regular and symmetrical plan forms around a central or prominent axis.[19] A few years later there was a shift away from grid-like layouts to organic layouts which provided for growth and change. Classroom wings were connected to and fanned away from a central nucleus. Master planning schemes were focussed on the ideal solar orientation of buildings as well as their relationship to the natural contours and existing vegetation, resulting in building layouts that were more asymmetrical and open. The long, narrow buildings were positioned so that the spaces captured between them created playground areas and courtyards.[20]
\nPlans for a new Southport State High School, drawn by the Department of Public Works (DPW) and approved in October 1954, demonstrate an organic planning approach, with the buildings orientated at various angles and connected by covered links.[21] Positioned in the elevated southwest corner of the new 9.6ha (23.7ac) site, which was bounded by Smith Street (south), Brooke Avenue (west), Townson Avenue (north, now Lionel Avenue), Loders Creek (northeast) and Worendo Street (west, no longer extant), the buildings were ‘specially planned to suit the natural contours of the site and also make the most use of the prevailing breezes’.[22]
\nThe site was cleared by November 1954 and tenders called for the transport of building materials from the railway to the school site.[23] Construction commenced soon afterwards. The initial teaching buildings comprised three Hawksley Prefabricated School Buildings imported from Britain. All three (Blocks A, B and C) were erected by the end of July 1955 and teaching commenced there in late August 1955.[24]
\nHawksley Prefabricated School Buildings were prefabricated classrooms imported by the DPW from Hawksley Construction Co. of Gloucester, England, in response to materials shortages and the pressures of the baby boom.[25] Across Australia, £1.5 million worth of Hawksley prefabricated buildings for schools, offices, hospitals and bungalows had been delivered by November 1951.[26] Between 1952 and 1958, a total of 27 Hawksley Prefabricated School Buildings (90 classrooms) were imported by the DPW; initially intended to provide classroom accommodation at high schools and technical colleges, they were also erected at primary and infants schools across Queensland.[27]
\nThe Hawksley system was prefabricated from aluminium structural systems and included aluminium external cladding and aluminium framed awning windows. Aluminium column sections were fixed to a reinforced concrete ring beam at floor level, and support framing was sometimes provided by rolled steel joists at 12ft (3.6m) centres and spans. The introduction of structural steel elements reduced the number of concrete piers required and provided more open area under the building.[28] Many of the prefabricated components utilised techniques developed during World War II in aircraft manufacture, including pop-riveting and the use of synthetic gaskets and sealants. As a consequence, this system had an industrial aesthetic, unique in the evolution of Queensland school architecture.[29]
\nHawksley buildings could be high or low-set, had a verandah as circulation, and a gable roof. Ideally, they were oriented so the verandah faced north and the classroom faced south. The verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall had extensive areas of aluminium-framed awning windows, providing abundant natural ventilation and lighting. The classrooms were 24ft (7.3m) wide, larger than most previous classrooms.[30] A range of building lengths and layout configurations comprising classrooms, storerooms, teachers and other rooms, all accessed via the verandah, were available and identified as alphabetised Hawksley ‘types’.[31] The buildings arrived in panel form, with the internal details prefabricated in the factory and components designed to be readily handled, to enable rapid assembly on site.[32]
\nMasonry and concrete understoreys, and ancillary elements such as hat and bag racks, railings and stairs, were designed and installed by the DPW.[33] Attempts were made by DPW architects, in the adaptation of these prefabricated buildings, to use ‘sympathetic materials and … preserve the inherent lightness of the structure in the finished design’.[34]
\nAt Southport SHS, Block A, used for domestic science teaching, was a Hawksley Prefabricated School Building ‘type B less 16ft’ (4.8 m). Lowset with a gable roof and a northern verandah, it had a large number of awning windows in its southern and northern walls.[35]
\nBlock B to the north of Block A, a Hawksley Prefabricated School Building ‘type H plus additional 40ft’ (12m), was highset on a face brick substructure, with supporting concrete piers and metal posts, above a concrete plinth. The high school building had a gable roof, and was sheeted externally on the upper level with ribbed aluminium panels. The northern side had a verandah on both levels that had tubular steel balustrades, handrails, and supports, and enclosed hat and store rooms at the ends. The building contained four 24ft (7.3m) wide classrooms, a commercial room (west) and principal’s office (east) on the upper level; with a science laboratory, store and lecture room (west), and lavatories (east) flanking an enclosed area for students’ recreation space (temporary library and reading room) below.[36]
\nBlock C to the east of Block A, a lowset manual training building, was a Hawksley Prefabricated School Building ‘type A plus 8ft’ (2.4m). This building had a gable roof, a west-facing verandah, and exterior walls and eaves clad with ribbed aluminium panels, awning windows and two louvred vents high in the gable end walls.[37]
\nCovered links connecting Blocks A, B and C were also constructed in 1954-5. These had concrete footings, steel round posts with struts at the ceiling, concrete paths, timber seating with steel frames, sheet ceilings and galvanised corrugated metal roof sheets and square profile guttering.[38] The covered links surrounded an assembly area to the immediate south of Block B.[39] In 2024, only one elevated covered link, connecting blocks E and F, is extant.
\nIn December 1955, soon after Southport State High School’s commencement, the South Coast Bulletin newspaper commented on the modern new high school and the change of attitude towards secondary education that had preceded its establishment:
\nStanding in 24 acres of grounds, the school consists of three blocks designed in accordance with modern standards of school architecture. Great changes were made in educational thought and practice… following two World Wars and the intervening depression. With a clear conception of the rights of the individual there came acceptance of the principle that secondary education is the birthright of every intelligent child and that his studies be closely related to his needs and aptitudes.[40]
\nFurther funding, of £9406, was allocated to building at Southport SHS in the 1955-6 financial year. Another Hawksley Prefabricated School Building (Block D) of unknown type, shown as a future administration block to the immediate east of Block A in the original school plan, was constructed on the site after December 1955. This was a lowset building with a small entry porch.[41]
\nSouthport State High School, which provided secondary education for the whole of the South Coast, was officially opened on 26 October 1957, with the unveiling of a plaque in the vestibule of the Administration building, by the Minister for Education, J C A Pizzey.[42] The flagpole proposed for the site in 1954 was on-site, located to the south of Block B, for the official opening day.[43] In conjunction with the opening, student displays and demonstrations, an art exhibition and a fete were held, while the event closed with a passing out parade of the School Cadet Corps.[44]
\nGrowth of the school population continued and more buildings were added to the site. A fifth Hawksley Prefabricated School Building (Block E), shown on the original school plan as an intermediate school building situated to the east of Block B, was constructed in 1957-8. This was a Hawksley ‘type F amended’ building, highset on a face brick lower level with a concrete plinth. Unlike Block B, the upper level incorporated open-web metal trusses that reduced the requirement for supporting elements. It had a gable roof and was sheeted externally on the upper level with ribbed aluminium panels. The northern side had a verandah on both levels that had tubular steel balustrade, handrails and supports, and enclosed hat (western ends) rooms. The upper level contained three classrooms and a physics laboratory (east); with an enclosed student recreation area and toilets (east) below. The classrooms were 24ft (7.3m) wide. A pathway with concrete paving and retaining walls was constructed along the southern side of Block E, connecting with those that existed along the southern side of Block B; and a ground floor covered link, connecting Block E with existing covered links to the south, was built at the same time.[45] Alterations to Block B were also made – with balustrades at the upper verandah ends replaced by bag racks.[46]
\nFurther additions to the school were made in the early 1960s. Plans were drawn for the addition of Block F in 1960. This two-storey building with undercroft was supported by open-web steel trusses. Ribbed zinc anneal roof sheeting and wall cladding was used. The timber-framed building had brick ends that were designed to match the existing school buildings. Western verandahs were used at both levels and awning windows on all elevations.[47] Block F was completed by May 1961. It was aligned roughly north-south and linked to the eastern end of Block E by an elevated covered link with open-web steel trusses, similar in design to a link that was also constructed between the first floor verandahs of Block B and E.[48]
\nWith the addition of Block F, a parade ground was formed to the southeast of Block E, providing a formal assembly space for the growing school.[49] Other ground improvements at Southport SHS in the 1960s included tennis courts, at the northern end of the grounds by October 1960; and a school oval with perimeter plantings to the east of the school buildings by June 1964, to the immediate south of land that had been resumed in July 1961.[50] Further resumptions (1974) and closure of Worendo Street (1975) brought the school grounds to a total of 13.44ha (33.2ac).[51]
\nAlthough more high schools were built on the Gold Coast as its permanent population continued to increase – Miami SHS (1963), Palm Beach-Currumbin SHS (1972), Keebra Park SHS (1973) and Merrimac SHS (1979) – Southport SHS continued to expand to meet secondary education needs in the region. By 1980, 14 teaching buildings plus an assembly hall and sporting facilities (tennis and basketball courts, sports oval) populated the site, radiating in an organic manner to the northeast and northwest from the original buildings.[52] A principals residence, onsite by 10 June 1964, stood in the northwest corner of the grounds.[53]
\nSome changes to the surviving 1950s buildings have been made. Alterations to Block E were made in 1988-9 reconfiguring the upper level layout to three classrooms and converting the then science laboratories to general classrooms, and refurbishing the ground floor drama room (former student recreation area).[54] In 2001 the lower level of Block E was reconfigured for a multi-media room.[55] The brick walls and concrete plinths of the lower levels of Block E have been painted.
\nBy 2000, the school incorporated 16 teaching buildings, an assembly hall and sporting facilities including a swimming pool. The principals residence was still onsite in the northwest corner of the site on Brooke Avenue.[56] A new GLA (Cultivate) Building was added to the site in 2018.[57]
\nRemoval of buildings and features from the site took place in this century. By 2009 the principals residence had been removed and in 2011 Blocks A, C and D were demolished; however, their associated 1950s covered links remained.[58] Circa 2018, all of the covered links connecting the original buildings were demolished for construction of the Cultivate Building, except those between Blocks B and E, and between Blocks E and F.[59] In October 2019, Block B was severely damaged by fire and subsequently demolished, along with the covered link connecting it with Block E.[60] In 2020, a three-storey GLA building (Generate) was constructed on the site of Block B.[61]
\nOf the few reasonably-intact Hawksley Prefabricated School Buildings identified in the Queensland Schools Heritage Conservation Study, 1996, only the one at Southport SHS and five at Mt Isa SHS (1953) are extant in 2024.[62] Along with another Hawksley ‘type K plus six bays’ at Maryborough Central State School [QHR 601264], they are rare known surviving examples of the 27 original Hawksley Prefabricated School Buildings imported by the DPW. Block E is the only known example of type F in Queensland.
\nThe importance of the school within the community has been acknowledged during anniversary celebrations. In 1991 Southport State High School celebrated its 75th anniversary with the production of a commemorative booklet entitled Southport State High School: celebrating 75 years, 1916-1991.[63] Centenary celebrations were held in June 2016.[64]
\nIn 2024 Southport State High School continues to operate from its Smith Street site. Its school population is approximately 2068 students.[65] The campus incorporates more than 20 buildings, plus sporting facilities. The school is important to the Gold Coast as a focus for the community and several generations of students have been taught there.
\n","criteria":"
Southport State High School (established in 1955) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains an excellent, representative example of a standard school building that was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies; set in landscaped grounds with a former parade ground and sports oval.
\nIt is important in demonstrating the pattern of provision of secondary education, on new sites with expanded facilities, across Queensland in the 1950s, a time of enormous growth in school-age population and demand for secondary education.
\nThe Hawksley Prefabricated School Building (1957-8) demonstrates the introduction and adoption of imported prefabricated systems by the Queensland Government in response to acute building material shortages and population growth in the post-World War II period.
\nThe layout of this building, along with an adjacent brick and timber building with open-web steel floor trusses (1961), the covered link between them (1961) and associated open spaces, reflects the mid-1950s introduction of organic master planning, which responded to the existing contours of the site and provided for ordered growth from a nucleus.
|Highly intact, the Hawksley Prefabricated School Building is a rare surviving example of an imported post-war aluminium-framed prefabricated school building and is the only known example of a Hawksley type F in Queensland.
|The Hawksley Prefabricated School Building is an excellent example of its type and demonstrates a variation of the standard layout configurations and support framing designs: Hawksley ‘type F amended’ (1957-8), incorporating open-web metal trusses. Highly intact, it retains its: prefabricated aluminium-framed and clad structure, mounted on a brick base; gabled roof; verandahs for circulation; 24ft (7.3m) wide classrooms; and extensive banks of aluminium-framed awning windows to maximise natural light.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nSouthport State High School has a strong and ongoing association with the Southport community. It was established in 1955 and generations of students have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of the Gold Coast and as a focus for the community.
","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":null,"place_ref":650228,"name":"Ernest Junction Railway Tunnel","alternate_name":"Ernest Junction Tunnel","street_address":"797 Ashmore Road","suburb":"MOLENDINAR","lga":"GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2019-05-03","description":"The Ernest Junction Railway Tunnel is located approximately six kilometres west of the centre of Southport on the Gold Coast. The surrounding suburb of Molendinar is a mixed industrial and residential area, bounded by the Pacific Motorway to the west and Smith Street Motorway to the north. The tunnel passes beneath Ashmore Road, just south of the intersection with Zane Street.
\nNo longer functioning as part of a railway line, the tunnel runs in an approximately east-west direction with a curve to the south in the eastern half. The tunnel is approached on both sides by cuttings with steeply sloping sides through densely vegetated bushland. In 2019, the western approach to the tunnel is a rail reserve and the eastern approach is a conservation estate known as Activity Crescent Reserve. The western tunnel portal can be accessed from Ashmore Road via a dirt track. The eastern tunnel portal can be accessed from the Activity Crescent Reserve.
\nRailway Tunnel (1885-89)
\nThe Ernest Junction Railway Tunnel is a 114 metres long, semi-elliptical, concrete-lined tunnel with a curvature to the south at the east end. It has a base width of 4.4 metres, a girth width of 4.6 metres, a crown height at its apex of 4.9 metres and a 1:66 gradient against north-bound traffic. The tracks and sleepers have been removed and the floor is earth.
\nThe rock cuttings that lead to each portal have a rough finish that is evidence of the dynamite blasting used to construct the tunnel. A section of stabilising stone coursing is located on the south side of the cutting at the western portal just outside the tunnel entrance.
\nThe concrete portals are faced with a smooth concrete render surmounted by a shallow projecting ledge. The stucco finish continues inside the tunnel at each end. There is evidence of soot and smoke staining on the tunnel roof.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance include: boulders placed at the entrances to the east and west portals; iron fixings attached to each portal; and graffiti.
\nSetting and views
\nThe track approach to the western portal is dirt with added gravel, while the approach to the eastern portal leading from the end of the concrete pathway is grassed, passing through an open area containing interpretive signage. The landscape and heavily wooded surrounds limit views of the tunnel to the immediate approaches to the rock cuttings and portals.
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance include: signage and seating in the interpretation area at the approach to the eastern portal; and all vegetation.
\n","history":"
The Ernest Junction Railway tunnel, in the Gold Coast suburb of Molendinar, situated approximately 6 km west of Southport, was constructed in 1889. Built as part of the South Coast Railway Line which ultimately connected Brisbane to Tweed Heads, it is one of the last remnants of this important railway infrastructure on the Gold Coast, and the only extant tunnel from a decommissioned line which was essential to the South Coast’s agricultural and tourism industries. The line was closed in 1964 and the rail tracks were removed from the tunnel.
\nThe Gold Coast district forms part of the traditional land of the Yugambeh People.[1] The Gold Coast was originally known as the South Coast. European settlement here began in the 1840s with a fledgling timber industry, which utilised large rivers such as the Nerang and the Tweed to carry logs downstream to the coast to be shipped to Brisbane or Sydney.[2] By the 1870s sugar had become the predominant crop, as selectors established farms throughout the Nerang district. A small township emerged and from 1871 Cobb and Co. coaches arrived regularly. Nerang Creek Heads, as Southport was known at this time, soon became a holiday destination for some of the colony’s elite, with several large houses built overlooking the sea. By the end of the 1870s numerous stores, a hotel and a jetty had been established and visitors could either travel from Brisbane by coach or along the coast by boat.[3]
\nIn the 1880s the popularity of Southport as a seaside holiday destination surged and it was soon the principal seaside resort in Queensland. The construction of major schools, banks, guesthouses and more hotels stimulated Southport's growth as a fashionable 19th century resort, as did the presence of the Governor of Queensland's residence in the 1890s.[4]
\nIn 1885 a rail line to Loganlea from Yeerongpilly was opened, and soon after reached Beenleigh. Subsequent requests were made to the government for the extension of the line to the South Coast. A detailed survey was carried out by the Department of Railways, and in 1885 Parliament authorised the construction of this railway line extension. The line would divide in two, with a branch to Southport and another to Nerang. Although the provision of transport for passengers to the holiday destination was an important factor, the foremost consideration was to provide efficient transportation for farm produce.[5]
\nThe line between Beenleigh and Southport/Nerang was named the South Coast Railway Line. The construction of the 30 mile (48 km) line was contracted to experienced railway builder, George Bashford in 1886.[6] Despite a good start, floods in January 1887 delayed the work, which resulted in Bashford becoming insolvent and disappearing. The Queensland National Bank then took over the project.[7] Along the line, 10 stations were constructed (with Yatala and Coombabah closing in 1891), as well as three substantial bridges over the Albert, Coomera and Nerang rivers.
\nOnly one tunnel was planned along this line. Initially known as the Southport Junction tunnel, it cut through a large hill between Coombabah and Southport Junction stations.[8] The tunnel was concrete, 114m long and located at a depth of 23m from the crest of the hill. It curved to the right just after its western entrance, providing no straight view through the tunnel.[9] Construction had begun by April 1887 when it was reported that: ‘a top heading has been driven from each end, and a shaft has been sunk midway from the crown. The tunnel consists of very hard rock and entails heavy work’.[10]
\nOn 1 July 1887, a tragic accident occurred when three of the men constructing the tunnel, McDuffy, O’Brien and Christidon, were buried by 3ft of debris following an explosion from the dynamite they were using to blast the rock. The three men ‘were attempting a second time to fire off a dynamite blast, it unexpectedly exploded’. O’Brien and Christidon survived the accident. McDuffy, unfortunately was killed.[11]
\nIn December 1888, further progress was outlined in the Telegraph which stated that the ‘tunnel is six chains long and is carried through hard blue rock. It is lined with concrete, the height being 15 feet above railway level. The hill, through which the tunnel is taken, is about 68 feet above rail level’.[12] The tunnel was completed by January 1889.
\nThe replacement of brick or stone with concrete for tunnel linings was a recent technical development in Queensland. The 1880s was an important period for the adoption of concrete for the construction of Queensland Railway infrastructure. Concrete was first used during the extension of the Southern Railway from Warwick to Stanthorpe (constructed 1878-1881) due to the influence of civil engineer Charles Lambert Depree. Resident engineer on the extension from 1875-1878, Depree is attributed with the design of concrete culverts, the Gorge Dam retaining wall and the Cherry Gully tunnel [QHR 601519] on the line.[13] The Cherry Gully tunnel was the first tunnel in Queensland to use concrete, however, it was partially constructed with brick. HC Stanley, Chief Engineer of the Railway Department, reported in 1880 that the use of concrete, instead of bricks, for the tunnel provided a considerable saving for the department.[14] Another saving gained by using concrete was the ability to utilise cheaper, unskilled labour to carry out the work, rather than skilled brick-layers.[15] The 1882 Normanby Tunnel (no longer extant) on the Brisbane exhibition loop was wholly constructed of concrete, followed by the Woolloongabba Branch Tunnel in 1884 (no longer extant).[16] The construction of the Ernest Junction Tunnel occurred at the same time as the fifteen built for the ascent of the coastal range for the Cairns Railway, although the South Coast line opened earlier.[17]
\nBy the time the Ernest Junction Tunnel was constructed, standardised drawings were used, with variations made to suit each individual tunnel.[18] For example, at Ernest Junction the tunnel’s dimensions and semi-elliptical portals were standard, however, the length and curve and gradient in the track differed from other tunnels. Other examples of the early use of concrete lining in tunnels are the Dalarcha Railway Tunnel [QHR 601522] (1890); the Yimbin Railway Tunnel [QHR 602637] (1910); and the Muntapa Tunnel [QHR 602594] (1913).
\nOn 25 January 1889 the line to Southport was officially opened. Dignitaries travelled from Brisbane to Southport station where they were greeted by several hundred people celebrating the occasion.[20] Six months later, in July 1890, the branch to Nerang was opened with considerably less fanfare.[21] Southport Junction Station was at the divide of the line, with the two separate branches, Southport (to the east of the station) and Nerang (to the south of the station), leaving from there. In 1890, the Southport Junction station’s name was changed to Ernest Junction Station, to honour the respected local Member of Parliament at the time, Ernest James Stevens. The name of the tunnel was also changed to the Ernest Junction tunnel.[22] Initially, all trains travelled to Southport from Ernest Junction. A separate branch shuttle was provided to take passengers to Nerang from Ernest Junction.
\nNot long after the opening of the Southport/Nerang line, representatives from the district requested the South Coast line be extended to Coolangatta and Tweed Heads. A coach service had been taking passengers from the Nerang station to the increasingly popular holiday destinations at Coolangatta and Tweed Heads. It was believed that a line extension would also benefit the farming communities along the requested railway line.[23] In December 1900 Parliament approved the rail extension, which was completed by September 1903. The opening was reported in the Telegraph which stated that the ‘railway to the Tweed Heads will be opened today without ceremony’.[24] It was hoped that the Tweed Heads line would eventually link up to the New South Wales rail network, however, this did not eventuate.[25]
\nThe new rail extension increased Ernest Junction Station’s importance. As the terminus for the three lines (Ernest Junction to Brisbane, Ernest Junction to Southport and Ernest Junction to Nerang and Tweed Heads) its new role was to divide trains arriving from South Brisbane, to provide separate services to and from Southport and Tweed Heads. A train from South Brisbane with carriages separately assigned for Southport and Tweed Heads passengers would arrive at Ernest Junction Station. The Tweed Head bound passenger carriages were detached and reattached to another engine, which travelled south to Coolangatta and Tweed Heads, via Nerang. The original train with passengers destined for Southport would continue east. Conversely, trains arriving separately from Southport and Tweed Heads would be combined to form a South Brisbane-bound train.[26]
\nWith the extension of the line to Tweed Heads, another concrete tunnel was constructed at West Burleigh in 1900. This tunnel was slightly shorter than Ernest Junction, being 87m. It has since been demolished to make way for road construction.[27]
\nAt the time the line was extended to Tweed Heads, surf bathing was becoming increasingly popular. Younger holiday-goers were choosing the more exciting and challenging surf beaches, rather than still-water resorts such as Southport. Due to the rail extension, Coolangatta attracted thousands of visitors, eager to visit the fashionable seaside destination. In 1903 just under 7000 passengers arrived at Tweed Heads Station and ten years later this had risen to 16,522 passengers. Guest houses and hotels were rapidly established at Coolangatta and over the border in Tweed Heads. Photographs taken at the time depict crowds of visitors disembarking at Tweed Heads Station for a weekend at the beach. [28] The extension of the line also provided farmers in areas such as Currumbin and Tallebudgera with an efficient means of despatching produce to Brisbane markets, or of sending milk and cream to butter factories in the region.[29]
\nSouthport, Coolangatta and Tweed Heads continued to be popular seaside destinations throughout the interwar period. During World War II the South Coast line provided transportation to American troops on Rest and Recreation Leave, with several large camps established at Coolangatta.[30]
\nThe motor car became more affordable and war-time petrol rationing ceased in the 1950s. The new trend for holiday makers was to drive to the coast, rather than take the train. From 1925 the Jubilee Bridge crossed the mouth of the Nerang River to the surf beaches later known as Main Beach, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, with the road extending down the coast to Tweed Heads.[31] Regular bus services between Brisbane and the South Coast, which had been established in the 1920s, were greatly improved in the 1950s.[32]
\nResidential development transformed the South Coast in the 1950s and early 60s, with developments including the canal estates at Surfers Paradise, as well as tourist-based facilities such as hotels and motels, all conveniently accessed by car. By the 1960s the South Coast was increasingly called the Gold Coast. The rail-line was situated at a considerable distance inland from these surf beaches and holiday centres. As a result, rail travel to the South Coast declined and the Queensland Government decided to close the South Coast line for economic reasons.[33]
\nAlthough the Coolangatta station was situated walking distance to the beach, unlike Surfers Paradise, the line from Nerang to Tweed Heads was closed on 30 June 1961. The Ernest Junction to Nerang line was closed in May 1964. The Beenleigh to Southport line, despite considerable community protests, was closed on 1 July 1964.[34]
\nAfter its closure and the removal of the tracks, the Ernest Junction tunnel was open for vehicular access until gates were placed on the eastern entrance. For several years the tunnel was leased by a business who used it to grow mushrooms commercially. In the late 1990s large boulders were placed at both tunnel entrances. The Ernest Junction Tunnel Friends group was established in 2014. It carried out extensive clearing of overgrowth, removed rubbish from the tunnel and installed interpretive signage at the site. Following the tunnel’s clearing, it has become a hub for artists, photographers, history and railway enthusiasts, film students, and community and activity groups.[35]
\nThe majority of the former South Coast line’s infrastructure has been removed since its closure. The Ernest Junction tunnel is the only extant tunnel and one of only three railway remnants of the line; the others are the Currumbin Creek Railway Bridge [Gold Coast City Council Local Heritage Register Entry No.0075] and the Nerang Station which has been moved to the Gold Coast Hinterland Heritage Museum, Mudgeeraba.[36] In 2019 the tunnel is part of a bushland reserve with walking tracks leading to the tunnel from the eastern approach.
","criteria":"The Ernest Junction Railway Tunnel (1885-1889), is important in demonstrating the development of Queensland’s railway network in the late 19th century. Built as part of the development of the South Coast line, the tunnel was a major engineering works on the line, and is one of its few surviving features.
|The Ernest Junction Railway Tunnel is an early and highly intact example of a single track, concrete-lined railway tunnel, a standard construction type used throughout Queensland’s narrow-gauge railway network from the 1880s to the 1930s. It retains the principal characteristics of its type, including: a semi-elliptical shape; bare concrete-lined interior; concrete entrance portals topped by a shallow horizontal ledge; and steep cuttings on the approach to each entrance.
|Hidden within a parcel of bushland adjoining modern Gold Coast suburbia, the Ernest Junction Railway Tunnel is an unexpected discovery that evokes feelings of surprise and mystery. The experience of approaching and passing through the curving tunnel has picturesque qualities due to the unfolding sequence of views, which is heightened by the strong contrast between the bright exterior and the cool, dark interior.
|As an early surviving, fully concrete-lined,19th century railway tunnel in Queensland, the place is important in demonstrating the innovative use of concrete as an economic and effective method of railway construction in the 1880s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F","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 is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"} ]}