The northern end of the Warwick General Cemetery has the oldest graves and from the northern end the cemetery is divided into the old section which includes the Pagan, Jewish, Methodist, Congregational, Presbyterian, Catholic and Church of England sections. The southern end towards Lancaster Street is also divided into sections. The highest point of the Warwick General Cemetery is dominated by the Mitchner Memorial with the land descending gradually down to Wentworth and Lancaster Streets and the council depot and on the western elevation the terrain declines to a flatter area used as the lawn cemetery.
The Wentworth Street cyclone wire fence is divided by gates hinged on sandstone pillars that mark the entrance to each section. Within the monumental cemetery roads and pathways form a grid pattern and dividing it into denominational sections, while a road separates the lawn graves from the monumental sections. At its northern end this road curves separating the pagan and Methodist sections before straightening near the central north south road.
The most prominent structure in the cemetery is the Mitchner Memorial Shelter-shed, to one side of the central roadway and in the Church of England section. This memorial is octagonal in shape with 430-mm English bond brickwork with fine white pointing. The openings on the four points of the compass have gothic arches while alternative walls have a pair of smaller unglazed gothic arches.
Surmounting the octagonal corrugated iron roof is a ventilated octagonal timber belfry with a bell installed. The belfry and roofs have wide low-pitched gables over each door. Each corner is delineated by buttresses and stuccoed bands give an horizontal emphasis. The arch of all openings also has stucco surround. These bands are external and internal.
The floor is concrete while the ceiling is tongue and groove with eight iron ties radiating out from a central circle. Long timber pew-like seats abut walls. A sandstone vault is centrally located, on each end is a marble plaque with cross and the eastern aspect has a marble tablet inscribed:
The William Mitchner Memorial
This shelter shed is the gift of William Mitchner for the benefit of the public
Under this stone lies his body
Born August 2nd 1841
Died Jude 1st 1918
A marble bust stands on a marble slab above the sarcophagus.
Complementing this 1926 rest area and nearby on the south is an E-shaped columbarium [c.1972], protected on the east by a modern garden.
Many of the tombstones are by local stone masons, including James McCulloch, and others were transported from afar. Gravestones vary from simple upright tablets to more elaborate late Victorian types, including obelisks, broken columns, Celtic and Calvary crosses, urn-topped columns, horizontal slabs with tablets and more modern heart shaped memorials. War graves are simple white slabs with the brass tablet.
An unusual memorial is a bodystone, a horizontal tombstone in the shape of a burial casket. An 1908 memorial in memory of a wife who died shortly after her marriage is a marble angel that appears to drops fresh flowers onto his beloved's grave. A 1924 memorial to a young man features a football and a broken column symbolising a life cut short. A large 1939 monument near the Lawn Cemetery has a pink granite base below crafted sandstone with an urn framed by columns. The 1942 grave of a farmer who studied taxidermy has a small kingfisher in a glass-fronted niche at the base of his heart shaped polished black granite headstone. This tombstone is further embellished with fern sprays and a dove in flight.
Inscriptions can provide biographical information, personal history and cause of death. The 1866 gravestone of Elizabeth Diamond Hammersley includes that she died at Glengallan and was a servant to John Deuchar. The words on the McLeod tombstone, which includes the names of a three-year old and 8-month old child who both died in September 1864, suggest an epidemic or tragedy. A rough headstone of a man killed accidentally has the words 'Thy Will Be Done'. Martin Otto Roggenkamp's inscription not only provides date of birth and death it also includes his occupation of painter. Inscriptions often include place of birth, words such as 'native of Westmeath, Ireland' and 'born Taunton Somerset England'. Inscriptions also reveal if it is a monument for a single person or several persons, and usually provides the relationships. In the Jewish section there is a memorial to two young children. The inscription is in both Hebrew and English. The few extant Chinese memorials are tablets with inscriptions in Chinese characters.
Grave plots can be for a single person or a family group. Some of the older graves have cast-iron picket fencing such as the Clark family's which also has a gate. The majority of graves have a concrete kerbing.
While pine trees are along the road beside the Lawn Cemetery few exist in the older parts of the cemetery. Graves often seem crowded in this older section and the paths and graves do not have the rigid grid layout as in the post-1930s sections.
The cemetery is well maintained, however, in the older sections some monuments have deteriorated and others lean at oblique angles.
","history":"The first section of the Warwick General Cemetery was surveyed in 1850, when the town of Warwick was officially laid out, and the earliest burial is understood to have been in 1853. Warwick General Cemetery is located to the west of the CBD, on an elevated area near a bend in the Condamine River. While the size of the cemetery has changed it has always been organised with denominational sections and includes monuments and memorials pertaining to those who lived in Warwick and the surrounding district, including the prominently situated William Mitchner Shelter-shed.
Alan Cunningham's exploration of the southern Darling Downs in 1827 first revealed the potential of the Darling Downs for pastoral and agricultural usage. In the 1840s pastoralists moved into the area, and in the late 1840s the township of Warwick was established by the NSW colonial government as an administrative and service centre for the surrounding pastoral district. An initial survey of the town was undertaken in 1849, with further survey in 1850. The latter included 8 acres reserved as general cemetery, to the northwest of the township. The first sale of Warwick town lots took place in July 1850.
While deaths and burials occurred in the region and there are early graves on pastoral properties, the first known burial in the Warwick General Cemetery was that of Thomas Howard in 1853. On 23 February 1864 a Deed of Grant was issued to three trustees for 2 acres of land for sole use as by the Church of England. It does not seem that the other denominations acquired such a document. Subsequently an area to the west and north to the Condamine River of the burial grounds became a reserve for extension of the general cemetery.
Management of this cemetery has often been controversial. A visitor to the region complained in 1859 that the cemetery needed a pig-proof fence. Complaints about the cemetery continued with comments about locals using it for their dairy cows being raised by an alderman in Council in late March 1867. The 1865 Cemeteries Act provided for the regulation of cemeteries throughout Queensland and required Trustees to make by-laws in accordance with the Act. After public meetings in January 1868 the names of five denominational Warwick General Cemetery trustees were gazetted in June 1868. The Trustees formulated regulations and charges. Prior to this no cemetery records existed, however, cemetery transcriptions revealed 11 burials in the Methodist section, 5 in the Presbyterian, 19 in the Catholic and 25 in the Anglican section, pre-1868.
In 1898 the Trustees believed that more land for burial purposes was required. As the area reserved for extension included low-lying land liable to flood from the Condamine River they asked for Portions 328 and 333 to the south of a road and the road adjoining the cemetery to be added as it would allow extension of the Church of England and Roman Catholic sections. Warwick Cemetery Reserve was gazetted on 10 June 1899; it included the additional land. However it was not until 25 March 1908 that the Queensland Governor signed a Deed of Grant in Trust that named five Trustees for a Cemetery Reserve of 56½ acres.
The Trustees' income was derived from sale of gravesites, interments and donations and they had to pay the sexton's salary and maintenance costs. They were conservative with expenditure - for example not fencing the additional land until overcrowding warranted this in 1903. However, in 1911 the cemetery Trustees used 500 pegs of recent design manufactured locally by R Reyburn Warwick Foundry to replace wooden grave pegs. By 1917 Prickly Pear became a major problem for the Trustees. To assist with its eradication they sought permission, unsuccessfully, for selling off about 26 acres.
In January 1914 the Cemetery Trustees proposed erecting a cemetery rest-house. Local architects Dornbusch and Connolly had prepared plans and specifications and had estimated the cost of the timber structure with red asbestos roof tiles at £100. The core was to be 12-foot wide with 6-foot arms stretching out on the four compass corners, and was to be located where two pathways intersected at right angles. An earlier scheme was for a shelter to stand near the centre, on an intersection where the principal roadways intersected. The structure would 'harmonise with the foliage of the trees'. While the community obviously felt the need, a shelter-shed was not erected until a bequest from William Mitchner enabled its construction.
A dominant landmark, erected in 1926, the octagonal William Mitchner Shelter-shed is a single-storey, brick and tin building situated in the middle of the Warwick General Cemetery. German born William Mitchner of Allora died in Toowoomba on 1 June 1918. Under his will, £1,500 was to be used to erect a memorial shelter-shed. He left explicit instructions in his will, including that it was to be built of brick and was 'to contain in the left hand wing thereof a marble monument with an emblem of a simple marble cross resting thereon, the said monument to be surrounded with iron railings and to be inscribed as follows: - 'This Shelter-shed is the gift of William Mitchner for the benefit of the Public' and the date of his birth and death. The shelter shed was to include a vault for his body and on or near this a plaster bust of himself. To enhance the structure he wanted an appropriate steeple, bell and belfry. The vault and bust were to cost £150 and bell could cost between £150 and £200. The Cemetery Trustees were to invest £200 and use the income for the maintenance of the shelter and bust. The bell was to be tolled whenever a funeral was approaching. He also set aside £800 for a smaller shelter shed at the Allora Cemetery.
William Mitchner, born on 2 August 1841 in Germany, arrived in Allora about 1872 where he gained employment as a fireman or engineer in fellow German Francis Kates' flourmill. Later he was a storekeeper in the shop that was replaced by the Commercial Hotel. He acquired interests in Allora, Warwick and Toowoomba and his death certificate gave his occupation as an investor. His inventory for probate revealed an estate of over $30,000. Mitchner left bequests to both the Warwick and Toowoomba hospitals, money for the Anglican and Catholic churches in both Warwick and Allora and money for the erection of an Anglican Church in Hendon.
He also left money to his relatives and hometown in Germany. As Australia was at war with Germany in 1918 legal problems arose from this bequest. The distribution of his estate went to the Full Court in Brisbane in 1921 and on appeal to the High Court of Australia in 1922. Perhaps these legal issues explain why the memorial shelter shed was not put out to tender until 1926.
Established Warwick architects Dornbusch and Connolly, who accepted the tender of Phil Thornton for £1,236 in February 1926, designed the William Mitchner Shelter-shed. This octangular brick and cement structure was designed with a bell tower and seating accommodation inside. It did not have the wing's detailed in Mitchner's will but the shelter-shed does include a vault with marble crosses at ether end and marble plaque giving his details but no iron railing. In 1926 the Warwick and Allora Cemetery Trustees agreed to share the cost of a clay model for the bust. However, it is thought that Charles Astley created the Allora Mitchner bust and Petrie's Stonemasons were involved with the Warwick sculpture.
As the Cemetery Trustees died, moved out of the district, or resigned, the pertinent religious denomination appointed their replacements, although these appointments were not always gazetted. By September 1936 there were only two gazetted Trustees even though Churches had nominated new appointees. Meanwhile, there had been no Trustee meeting since 24 December 1933 and the Warwick City Council had been looking after the cemetery. While it was government policy to vest Cemetery Reserves in local councils, the Trustees were keen to retain their positions believing that as volunteers they saved taxpayers money especially as the cemetery was in the Shire of Rosenthal and not within the Warwick City boundaries.
Warwick City Council complained in February 1938 to the Lands Department about the cemetery's condition. A memo from the Toowoomba Land Office to Brisbane commented that the Cemetery Reserve comprised 52½ acres including the original 8 acres. The Trustees had recently surveyed 5 new sections with spaces for 500 graves marked off in good order and proper alignment. The southern boundary fence, along Lancaster Street, was renewed and a painted sawn picket fence with suitable gates was erected along the eastern boundary, Wentworth Street, and the northern and western boundaries were adequately fenced. A properly formed gravelled roadway lead from the main entrance and most paths were well maintained although some were much overgrown with grass. The shelter shed containing the remains of William Mitchner in a vault was being repaired and painted at the time of inspection.
It was in 1938 that the Warwick City Council proposed the construction of a sewerage treatment works in the northern section of the cemetery. The Council sought Lands permission to divide the cemetery into two land parcels, with the southern part for Cemetery purposes and the northern for its Sewerage Treatment Works. For various controversial reasons, it was not until late 1940 that legislation was passed that vested Warwick City Council as the new Trustees of the cemetery. The Council's sewerage works were completed during the 1940s.
In 1948 the Warwick City Council and Imperial War Graves Commission agreed to the establishment of a War Graves Civil Cemetery within the Warwick General Cemetery, a section to be dedicated to memorials to those lost in the First and Second World Wars. Initially this was for 21 plots.
Council set aside a section of land for a columbarium in 1964. However, the first internment was not until 1972.
In the early 1970s the Warwick City Council established a council depot for machinery and road making materials on part of the northern cemetery reserve, between the cemetery and the sewerage works. By 1974 the Cemetery Reserve was being used for three functions: that of Cemetery, Works Depot and Sewerage Treatment Works. Because it was necessary to gazette the three different uses of this reserve the Deed of Grant upon Trust for the Cemetery was surrendered in 1976 so that Lands could re-survey the land, dedicate roads and issue new Deeds of Grant.
Gazettal of the Warwick Shire Council as Trustees of the three reserves did not occur until 16 May 1997. At this time the former cemetery reserve bounded by the Condamine River in the north, Wentworth Street, Lancaster Street, Taylor Street and Lots 325 and 326 became a reserve for sewerage, a council depot and a reserve for cemeteries, crematoriums and mortuaries. The cemetery was reduced to an area of 13.63 HA (30 acres) and is separated from the depot by a road. While it is still located to the west of the CBD, it no longer includes the low-lying area adjoining a bend in the Condamine River as that area is used for other local government purposes.
In the late 1990s the Australian War Graves office refurbished the Warwick War Cemetery [located within Warwick General Cemetery] for $30,000 and this section includes a new lawn cemetery, columbarium and memorials to all fallen servicemen. It was re-opened on 12 April 1998, the same day that 28 trees were planted along Wentworth Street, opposite the Warwick War Graves, and dedicated in honour of the 28 original 'Dungaree' recruits who departed Warwick on 16 November 1915 for service in the First World War.
There are many extant early graves and memorials in this burial ground. They include an 1863 grave of James Jackson who is credited with the founding of Freemasonry in Queensland. His grave is still maintained by the Warwick Masons. An early doctor, Dr Jonathon Labatt born in Ireland in 1808 and died in 1869, lobbied for a vaccine institution on the Downs. Accidents often caused deaths. Octavius Frederick Farquharson aged 22 was buried in 1867 after a fall from his horse.
Andrew Fitzherbert (Herbert) Evans died in 1870; he was Warwicks first Clerk of Petty Sessions and he purchased the land that became the first part of the Cemetery Reserve. St George Richard Gore William who died in 1871, was an early pastoralist, the district's first state parliamentarian and Queensland's first Minister of Lands and Public Works. Scottish born John Deuchar worked for the pastoralist Leslie brothers before established his own merino sheep station in 1855 and in 1867 built his two-storey homestead, the well-known Glengallen [600007]. Deuchar was responsible for monuments in memory of his many employees and servants. He died in 1872 and was survived by his wife who is also buried in the Deuchar family plot. Another politician's grave is that of James Morgan who died in 1878. Morgan was instrumental in Warwick becoming a municipality in 1861, was an alderman in the first council, editor of the Warwick Argus, and the local state politician 1869-70 and 1873-76. Not all graves are those of important people, a South Sea Islander was buried in 1879 and another in 1881, and an 1880 grave is that of James Caulfield who died as a result of a railway blasting operation.
There are numerous children's graves as child mortality used to be high. The Clark family contains a gravestone to three children; Maria died in 1866, her 3-year old brother and an 18 day old sister on 21 August 1872. Their father, Charles Clark moved to the Darling Downs in 1861 where he and a partner established the first flourmill in Warwick. In 1868 Charles and his brother George bought Old Talgai which became well known for high-grade merino wool.
Warwick General Cemetery includes monuments for immigrants such as that of Frederich Reimers. He was born in Schleswich-Holstein in 1839, settled in the municipality of Warwick during the 1860s becoming a local cabinetmaker and undertaker. He died in 1915. Warwick's first stonemason, Scottish born John McCulloch established his business in 1863 on the corner of Wood and Dragon Streets. He was responsible for many of the cemetery monuments and his name is associated with masonry buildings such as St Marks Church, the courthouse, town hall and railway goods shed. He died in 1918.
A 1944 grave is that of Monsignor Michael Potter who founded the Warwick Catholic Young Men's Society in 1894. He was nicknamed 'the Builder', as he was responsible for the construction of several rural churches, and Warwick's St Marys Cathedral and Christian Brothers College. The Sterne family plot includes Warwick born Henry Sterne who died in 1954. He was an Alderman for 28 years and editor of the Warwick Examiner and Times for 29 years. Buried beside him is his second wife Elizabeth Sterne OBE who was involved with various community organisations such as the Country Women's Association.
Early pastoralists imported Chinese to work as shepherds, servants and gardeners and after the discovery of gold and tin in the district more Chinese moved to the area. Between 1875 and 1897 there were 24 Chinese buried in the pagan section, with a further 20 between 1990 and 1919. While many of the remains of those interred in this cemetery were later sent home to China and other markers have been lost, there are still marked graves in the pagan section of the cemetery. The Council is currently considering how to fence this area and recognise the contribution of these immigrants to the development of the district.
","criteria":"Warwick General Cemetery is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland history in that it provides evidence of the occupations, social status and demography of the Warwick district, particularly displaying the diversity of the town's cultural, religious and ethnic groups since the 1850s.
Warwick General Cemetery has significance as one of the oldest cemeteries in Queensland. Brisbane's two oldest extant cemeteries are Dunwich Cemetery gazetted in 1849 and the Nundah Cemetery which dates from the 1840s. The Toowoomba Drayton cemetery like that at Warwick was surveyed in 1850. Thomas Ayers was buried in the Drayton cemetery on 11 September 1850 and the earliest know Warwick Cemetery burial occurred in 1853.
|Warwick General Cemetery survives as a good example of its type, with a variety of headstones and monuments illustrating changing public attitudes to commemoration of the dead. While monuments and headstones vary in size, quality and condition they reflect the social, religious and architectural history of Warwick from the 1850s to the 21st century.
|The form and design of the shelter-shed and its dominating central position exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community as do the diversity of headstones, grounds, and formal arrangement of graves.
|The large masonry Mitchner Shelter-shed, designed by prominent Warwick architects Dornbusch and Connolly, was a given to the community by William Mitchner for the benefit of the community as a roofed rest area for use during internments, when visiting, refuge from the weather and as a meeting place. It has a special association with the Warwick community for social, cultural and spiritual reasons.
|The cemetery has a special association with many notable individuals and families who have contributed to the historical evolution of Warwick and district and to the mythology associated with pastoral and pioneering life.
","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":691,"place_ref":602199,"name":"Oddfellows Home Hotel (former)","alternate_name":"Harp of Erin","street_address":"cnr Wantley Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-07-06","description":"Located on the corner of Wantley Street and Wood Street, the main road out of Warwick to the south and west, the Oddfellows Home Hotel is a single storey timber building with a corrugated iron hipped roof. U-shaped in plan, it is positioned near the southwest corner of a large block, close to the street alignments.
\nThe building has been built in stages and is somewhat modified. It is a timber framed building set on very low stumps and clad in chamfer boards. The building is at the level of the footpath on Wood Street and falls slightly to the rear. Originally a simple L-shaped plan of two single storey wings, the building has been extended at the eastern end of the Wood Street wing. The oldest part of the building is clad in very wide chamfer boards, approximately 10-11 inches and lined with wide horizontal beaded boards.
\nThe steeply pitched roof is timber framed and clad in painted corrugated iron. It has no overhangs as the former hotel was originally built with verandahs. The front verandahs were replaced by enclosed skillion roofed bays which have recently been demolished. On the western or Wantley Street elevation the floor, framing and stumps of the enclosed bay remains. The rear U-shaped verandah is of relatively recent construction. The low pitched roof of this verandah conceals the top of a transom light over a rear door.
\nThe south elevation facing Wood Street is clad in the wide chamfer boards and has three sets of timber framed French doors with transom lights, flanked by double hung windows. Two brick chimneys protrude from the roof, the one closer to the street corner being a double flue. A cut in the chamfer boards on the Wood Street elevation, in line with the easternmost chimney, shows the extent of the original hotel. The Wantley Street elevation is also clad in the wide chamfer boards. Openings in this wall have been recently altered in association with the demolition of the enclosed bay. They consist of a partly glazed timber door flanked by double hung windows of different sizes. The main entrance to the building is located on the street corner in a short section of wall placed at 45 degrees to the adjoining walls. A pair of timber panelled doors with a transom light open directly into the interior of the building.
\nThe Wantley Street wing including the room on the corner is presently a single space as most of the internal dividing walls have been demolished. A hatch in the timber floor leads to an excavated subfloor area retained by timber slabs which may have once been a cellar. A brick fireplace is located in the centre of the eastern wall of the corner room. It is part of a double fireplace also facing into an adjoining large room used for meetings and activities. This activities room, located in the Wood Street wing, has three sets of french doors and an additional brick fireplace at the eastern end. A kitchen lined with cement sheeting is positioned on the northern side of the activities room. At the western end of the kitchen is a short hallway leading to the rear verandah and at the eastern end is a small storage room. A door beside the eastern fireplace in the activities room opens into the eastern wing, the addition to the Wood Street wing.
\nThe eastern wing is clad in narrower chamfer boards and lined with VJ timber boards. Its eastern elevation has double hung windows with metal hoods. Consisting of a row of four adjoining rooms accessed from the rear verandah, this wing has single skin partition walls of vertical VJ boards with belt rails.
\nSome rooms of the building, notably the Wantley Street wing, are in a state of partial demolition. Recent works include the removal of doors and windows and the creation of new openings, the repair of some areas of floor with wide wallboards, the insertion of steel beams where existing walls have been removed and the demolition of some ceilings. The wallboards in the Wantley Street wing have been removed and partly repositioned with the back of the beaded boards facing into the rooms. Much of this wing is unlined. Some partly constructed new work adjoins the building. This work includes timber framing for a toilet block and access ramps to the rear verandah.
","history":"The building formerly known as the Oddfellow's Home Hotel and located at the corner of Wood and Wantley Streets, Warwick, is of timber construction and was built in 1876 for Louis Muller.
\nThe allotment on which this building is situated was first alienated in 1861 as Allotment 1 of Section 55, parish of Warwick, county Merivale [1r 35p], by John May of Rosenthal, at a cost of just over £3. Warwick, located on the traditional land of the Githabul people, was proclaimed a municipality in that same year and over the subsequent 20 years it was consolidated as a regional centre of the southern Darling Downs. This growth is reflected in the number of public houses that were established in Warwick during the 1860s and 1870s to cater for the town's expanding population. One of these establishments was the Oddfellow's Home Hotel built in 1876 for Louis Muller. Following the discovery of tin at Quart Pot Creek, Stanthorpe, in 1871, Muller spent a couple of years there as a miner before moving to Warwick where he first appears as licensee for the Prince of Wales Hotel on the corner of Percy and Wantley Streets in 1873. Extant title documents do not make it clear when Muller purchased from John May the allotment which contains the present building, however in April 1876 his application for licensing a 'a new house' on the corner of Wood and Wantley Streets was deferred because the building was not completed. In July 1876, Muller inserted an advertisement in the Warwick Examiner and Times announcing the opening of his hotel. It was described as 'large and commodious, and offers comfortable accommodation for boarders', and it was promoted as a place 'where all who call there will find every comfort, and where they can rely upon obtaining Really Genuine Liquors'. Muller was a prominent member of the Rose Lodge of Oddfellows in Warwick and he named his hotel after this secular association. While there is no documentary evidence indicating that meetings of Oddfellows were held at Muller's hotel, a function for the Star of the Downs Lodge in 1878 was hosted at the Oddfellow's Home Hotel and it is clear that through Muller a connection with the society was maintained.
\nWhen Muller died in May 1886, the license for the hotel was registered in the name of his wife, Frances Muller, who held the property until 1889 when it was transferred to John Joseph Henry. Henry's brother, James, was licensee for the hotel from 1891 to 1892, before John Henry was again registered as the hotelkeeper until 1895. Warwick rate books indicate the property was valued at £260 in the mid-1890s and in 1896 Alexander Joseph Stephens is listed as occupier of the property. In 1897 title documents show Bernard Hughes, a local farmer, as owner of the property and it was around this time that the hotel was renamed the Harp of Erin, under which sign it operated until de-licensed in 1947. Rate books for 1898 record Alexander Stephens as the owner and occupier of the hotel and the following year title to the property was registered to Catherine Stephens, wife of Alexander. At this time improvements valued at £100 were made to the property and Catherine Stephens maintained the hotel until 1904 when it was leased to Thomas Olsen.
\nWhen Catherine died in April 1905 her estate was held in trust by Robert Cox. Following the expiration of Olsen's lease in 1910 several new lessees were appointed until Mary Cantwell, wife of Daniel Cantwell, became the hotelkeeper in 1918. Six years later, title to the property was transferred to Bernard Alexander Stephens and Ernest Joseph Stephens, and the latter became sole title holder the same year. Ernest sold his share in 1925 to John McDonnell, who that same year transferred the property to Daniel Cantwell. The hotel was delicensed in 1947, and Cantwell and his wife continued to live there. After Cantwell died in 1948 the property was registered in the name of Patrick Joseph Cantwell. During the 1950s the building was used as low-budget accommodation for boarders and some internal modifications carried out. When Patrick Cantwell passed away the property was transferred to his wife, Dorothy May Cantwell, in 1976 and the following year it was sold to the Churches of Christ. Until the mid-1980s the building was used as a shelter for homeless people and by 2004 it was used as a meeting house and as a centre for local community activities. In 2024 the former Oddfellows Home Hotel remains in the ownership of the Warwick Church of Christ.
","criteria":"The building formerly known as the Oddfellow's Home Hotel was constructed in 1876 for Louis Muller, a hotelkeeper of Warwick. It is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history insofar as it is representative of the emergence of Warwick as an important regional centre of the Darling Downs. The site remains as surviving evidence of the early development of the municipality of Warwick in a period of both economic and demographic expansion.
|The building provides a relatively well-preserved and rare example of early Queensland hotel architecture and is one of the oldest surviving public houses in Warwick.
|Despite alterations and additions over the years, much of the original fabric and features of the building remain intact, which gives it individual aesthetic value and makes it a valued part of the historical character of the local area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":693,"place_ref":602585,"name":"St Mary's Presbytery","alternate_name":"Former Father JJ Horan's Private residence | St Marys Catholic Presbytery","street_address":"142 Palmerin Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-07-31","description":"Standing to the south edge of the CBD of Warwick on the northern half of a one hectare block bounded by Palmerin and Percy Streets and Stewart Avenue, St Mary's Presbytery is a commanding presence in the neighbourhood. The presbytery is an integral part of the Warwick Catholic parish precinct which is spread across two adjacent town blocks and includes an imposing sandstone church, an earlier sandstone church now used as a parish hall, primary school and playgrounds, tennis and squash courts, a bowls club and residential apartments. The first floor verandah and belvedere of the presbytery afford sweeping views of Warwick and the surrounding district. There is a white painted timber fence across the block to the south of the presbytery separating it from the Southern Cross Bowls Club facilities (bowling green and associated structures) and lowset residential apartments which are not included in the heritage listing.
A two-storey residence with the ground floor verandahs standing on low brick stumps, the presbytery is constructed of red brick with the exterior now rendered and painted. (A portion of the face brick exterior remains behind hinged doors to the lower wall of the upper east verandah.) The building has verandahs to three sides on each floor and is distinguished by a handsome belvedere which crowns the main pyramidal roof. Curved roofs shelter the belvedere and verandahs. All roofs are clad in corrugated metal sheeting, the corners decorated with acroteria. Two painted brick chimneys rise through the main roof.
Addressing Percy Street, the front elevation is symmetrical about a projecting gable-roofed porch to the upper storey below which a small hipped roof shelters the ground floor main entrance steps. The projecting porch is crowned by a metal cross to the apex of the gable and is distinguished by decorative fretwork (incorporating a cross motif) to the arches and infill to the paired chamfered timber posts.
The upper verandah is punctuated by pairs of chamfered timber posts carrying plain square timber capitals and the solid balustrades are clad with weatherboards and lined with vertical tongue and groove boards. Later rendered masonry arches frame the ground floor verandahs and detract from the otherwise elegant understated presentation of the building. The verandahs to the east on both levels are enclosed with banks of sash windows to the upper storey and banks of glass louvres to the ground floor. The verandah ceilings are lined with ripple iron and the ceiling to the projecting porch with timber boarding. The rear elevation is clad with weatherboards.
Clad with chamferboards, the belvedere is defined by projecting pilasters to the corners which carry a moulded timber cornice continuous around all elevations below sets of decorative paired eaves brackets. Narrow round sash windows punctuate the east and west elevations matching a pair of round sash windows to the north. The bullnosed roof is crowned by a small open viewing platform screened with a low decorative cast iron surround & this is all that remains of the decorative cast iron that earlier embellished the building.
The interior is characterised by an elegant austerity with commodious rooms, decorative metal fireplace grates within marble or timber mantelpieces and quality moulded panel doors and etched glass fanlights. The front and rear doors are flanked by etched glass side lights. Door and window joinery retains much of its original hardware. The main and attic staircases have fine turned balusters and newel posts.
The plan is organised around a central hall which travels through to the rear enclosed verandah and later extension which houses the kitchen/dining and utility spaces and parish office. The hall accommodates a timber dogleg staircase with a half landing. A large double hung sash window lights the stairwell. A reception room and two offices open off the hall on the ground floor and four bedrooms and an enclosed rear verandah work off the hall at the upper level. A narrow rectangular cement rendered brick cellar sits below the hall and is accessed through a timber door under the main stair.
The reception room is a generous space running the length of the east side of the ground floor. Two fine cedar doors with etched glass fanlights open into this room from the hall. The room has a plain plaster ceiling and moulded cornice, a later wallpaper finish to frieze height on the plastered walls and a fireplace with a marble mantelpiece and decorative metal grate. A set of french windows open onto the enclosed verandah to the east which now functions as a small conservatory. Two commodious offices are accommodated to the west side of the ground floor and fireplaces in each room share the double-sided chimney. These rooms have plain plastered walls and timber lined ceilings and each has a double hung sash window to the west verandah. The front office has an additional window to the north verandah.
There are four spacious bedrooms to the upper floor. Those on the west accommodate fireplaces that share the double-sided chimney and have plain plastered ceilings and double hung sash windows to the verandahs. Those on the east side have timber boarded lining to the ceilings and double hung sash windows to the enclosed verandah which now functions as a sleepout. The enclosed rear verandah accommodates a dormitory style bedroom to the southwest end, a utility space to the middle and a line of bathrooms working off a narrow corridor to the east side. A pair of wide french windows open from the upper hall onto the north verandah.
A narrow timber stair ascends from the north of the upper hall to the attic space accessed through a hinged hatch timber door. The attic is lined with painted horizontal beaded tongue and groove boards and houses a small water tank. An unpainted timber door to the north connects to the belvedere viewing room which is lined with painted horizontal beaded tongue and groove boards and houses an unpainted timber cupboard and low bench. A steep timber step ladder rises to the roof space of the belvedere from which a shorter narrow step ladder ascends to the small open viewing platform crowning the belvedere. A removable hatch gives access to the platform.
The presbytery stands in a large yard with a range of shrubs and trees screening the front elevation and lining the front path to the main entrance. The large open grassed yard to the west has a scatter of shrubs along the southern fence line. A four car concrete block garage and a small low-set timber shed stand along this fence line to the southeast of the house and a timber four car garage stands directly east. A recent green powdered coated moulded aluminium fence with pale face brick piers runs to the north and west boundaries. These garages, shed, plantings and fence are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance and are not included in the heritage listing.
","history":"St Mary's Presbytery, Warwick, was built 1885-1887 to the design of local architects Wallace and Gibson for parish priest Father James Horan.
By the late 1850s, Warwick was the principal urban settlement on the southern Darling Downs, a service centre for the surrounding agricultural district. In 1862 Warwick became a large separate parish within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brisbane, a year after the town became Queensland's fifth municipality. Early Catholic services began in Warwick at the Horse and Jockey Inn in 1854 with Father McGinty, one of only two Catholic priests in Queensland, travelling from Ipswich to celebrate mass. McGinty continued to service the parish from Ipswich until 1862. Dr John Cani, later first bishop of Rockhampton, was the first permanent parish priest in Warwick and during his posting the first St Mary's Church [QHR 600958] was constructed, opening in 1865. The order of the Sisters of Mercy arrived in 1874 assuming the role of schooling previously conducted by lay teachers from 1867.
Father James Horan was appointed parish priest of Warwick in 1876. Horan was born at Gormanston, Ireland on 1 January 1846 and studied in Dublin and Versailles before his ordination in January 1868. Shortly after entering the priesthood Horan left Ireland for Queensland, arriving in Brisbane in July. Horan and his brothers Matthew and Andrew - respectively parish priests of Gympie (1868-1923) and Ipswich (1873-1924) - were nephews of James Quinn, first Bishop of Brisbane (1861-1881). From 1868-1872 James Horan performed duties in Rockhampton, Fortitude Valley, Maryborough, Mount Perry and the Peak Downs. In 1872 and 1874 he travelled with Bishop Quinn on Episcopal missions to the north of Queensland as his chaplain. By 1873 he was private secretary to Quinn, a position he held until his arrival in Warwick.
On 2 May 1880 the foundation stone for a presbytery in the grounds of St Mary's Church was laid by Bishop Quinn. The architect for this building was Andrea Stombuco who had previously designed a number of Catholic buildings in the diocese of Brisbane. By August 1881 construction had begun on an elaborate two-storeyed freestone building, featuring towers over the main entrance and the rear wings. However, in the same month Quinn died and work on the presbytery stopped soon after.
Adopting the policy that underpinned the reconstruction of the Church in Ireland, Quinn had actively promoted the expression of Catholicism in Queensland through imposing and expensive ecclesiastical buildings. Quinn's three Horan nephews shared this enthusiasm for large building projects, as illustrated in Gympie by St Patrick's Church (1883-1887) [QHR 601503], in Ipswich by St Mary's Presbytery (1876) [QHR 600577], and in Warwick by the scale of the proposed 1880 presbytery, described as 'beyond compare' the largest of any dwelling in the town. Quinn's successor, Robert Dunne (Bishop and later Archbishop of Brisbane 1882-1917), opposed such ostentatious displays, which had nearly bankrupted the Brisbane diocese. One of Dunne's early actions as Bishop was to restrict and control building activities throughout the diocese.
In July 1885 Horan purchased land comprising allotments 13 and 14 of Section 46 on the corner of Percy and Palmerin Streets, almost opposite St Mary's Church. In September 1885 a parish meeting convened by Dunne discussed the question of proceeding with the presbytery in the church grounds, on a reduced scale. Although money was pledged and a 'large and influential' committee was formed, construction did not resume. While there appear to have been later parish intentions of proceeding with the earlier presbytery, this never eventuated.
The following month, on 10 October 1885 local architects Wallace and Gibson called tenders for the woodwork of a two storey brick dwelling on Horan's property at the corner of Palmerin and Percy streets, Warwick. William Wallace and Richard Gibson were in partnership as builders and contractors from 1876 and worked on Catholic churches at Leyburn and Goondiwindi. By the mid-1880s they were in practice as architects and building surveyors in Warwick with work that included the St George's Masonic Hall (1887) [QHR 600952]. Stonemason John McCulloch, who had worked on the earlier presbytery, was awarded the contract for the brickwork. McCulloch worked on many prominent religious and civic buildings in Warwick including the Court House (1885) [QHR 600949], St Mark's Anglican Church (1867-1870) [QHR 600943], Our Lady of the Assumption Convent (1892-93) [QHR 600953] and the Warwick Town Hall (1888) [QHR 600961]. The presbytery was built during a pronounced period of prosperity for Warwick and the surrounding agricultural district. The second half of the 1880s was characterised by a wave of development and many of the town's most imposing buildings date from this time.
Horan is likely to have taken up residence by the end of 1887, visiting Brisbane in November to buy furniture for the presbytery after a fund raising concert was held by pupils of St Mary's School. The building has functioned as the Warwick parish presbytery since its construction.
A photo thought to date from the 1890s provides evidence of its appearance soon after its construction. The two-storeyed building, constructed of red brick, was surmounted by an imposing tower of timber over the entrance porch and a hipped iron roof. Iron lacework adorned the verandahs on both floors with timber weatherboards enclosing the corners and rear of the building. A description of the presbytery in 1888 noted the 'charming panoramic view' from the tower and the 'handsomely furnished' 14 rooms. Although the building included a central tower over the entrance, there is no known documentary evidence to suggest Stombuco's earlier design was appropriated by Wallace and Gibson. While perhaps less grand than the Stombuco design, the presbytery was still a large and highly prominent residence for Warwick, an assertive expression of the Catholic presence in the town and the centrality of the priest to the parish community. Set in spacious grounds on the corner of Warwick's principal thoroughfare, the visual dominance of the presbytery made it a landmark within the townscape.
St Mary's Presbytery fulfilled a range of functions within the parish. As well as the residence for parish priests and their curates, the presbytery was the centre for parish administration. It was used occasionally for wedding ceremonies, provided accommodation for visiting catholic dignitaries and was a social space for hosting important guests. The suitability of Warwick's temperate climate for recuperation saw the presbytery used in this manner by Archbishop Dunne over the summer of 1893-1894. During World War II, soldiers were camped in and around Warwick and chaplains attached to the army used the presbytery as their base.
The Warwick presbytery was one of a number built in Catholic parishes throughout Queensland in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. These varied from modest timber houses in small settlements to more impressive dwellings located in important regional towns with larger catholic communities. Many nineteenth century presbyteries were replaced during the extensive building programme that characterised the reign of Archbishop James Duhig (1917-1965). Presbyteries dating from the 1880s that continue to function as residences for Catholic priests in Queensland are uncommon.
James Horan died at the presbytery in May 1905. By the end of his time in Warwick he had been instrumental in the construction of Our Lady of the Assumption Convent, St Mary's School, extensions to St Mary's Church and timber churches in Emu Vale, Clifton, Allora and Goondiwindi. Among Queensland priests, Horan was Archbishop Dunne's key supporter in promoting Irish catholic rural settlement. The increase in Warwick's catholic population from 11.4 percent in 1881 to 32.1 percent in 1911 illustrates his effectiveness in this regard. In accordance with Horan's will, the presbytery was sold by the estate executors to Archbishop Dunne, Father Andrew Horan and Father James Benedict Breen on behalf of Warwick parish for £3,235, with the proceeds of the sale forwarded to the construction of the Christian Brother's College that opened in Warwick in 1912. In 1951 title of the presbytery was transferred to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba.
Monsignor Michael Potter, who was posted as a curate to Warwick in 1891, was appointed parish priest after Horan's death. Potter continued the enthusiasm for parish building with major projects including a new St Mary's Church (1926) [QHR 600959] and additions to the convent. Potter resided in the presbytery for over fifty years until his death in 1944.
In 1948 Father Michael Mahon was appointed administrator to the parish of Warwick. During the early years of Mahon's administration a substantial renovation program was undertaken on the presbytery. The brickwork of the presbytery was rendered and painted white. The decorative iron railings on the verandahs were replaced with timber weatherboards on the first floor and solid arches on the ground floor. At the rear of the building a single-storeyed timber kitchen/dining area and an office space were added. The rear ends of the verandah on the eastern side of the presbytery were enclosed to provide extra accommodation on the first floor and a sitting room on the ground floor. Basins were installed in the first floor bedrooms and a garage was built on the eastern side of the building. A hay shed at the rear of the property was replaced by a bowling green and clubhouse. More recently, a set of units have been built adjacent to the bowling green. Both the units and the bowling green are privately leased. An additional concrete block garage with a coloured metal sheeting roof has also been added behind the presbytery.
In the second half of the twentieth century, a succession of priests resided at the presbytery. St Mary's Presbytery continues to function as the dwelling of Warwick's resident priest and as administrative centre for the parish.
","criteria":"St Mary's Presbytery, erected in 1885-1887, is important in demonstrating the growth and prosperity of Warwick, an important regional centre for the Southern Darling Downs, during the prosperous second half of the 1880s when many of the town's most prominent buildings were constructed.
St Mary's Presbytery is important in demonstrating the pattern of development of the Roman Catholic Church in Queensland. The presbytery illustrates the consolidation and regional importance of the parish of Warwick in the late nineteenth century following its establishment in 1862.
|St Mary's Presbytery is important as an uncommon example of a Queensland presbytery from the 1880s that has maintained its use as a dwelling for a parish priest. Most presbyteries built in the colonial era in Queensland were replaced, reused or sold during the twentieth century.
|St Mary's Presbytery has a special association with the Catholic community of Warwick, having been the residence of successive priests and curates of the Warwick parish since 1887.
|St Mary's Presbytery is important as a fine example of a large nineteenth century presbytery in an important regional Queensland town. The building occupies a prominent position in the town, in close proximity to the parish church. The scale of the building, its large verandahs and multiple rooms demonstrate the presbytery's primary function of accommodating parish priests and curates, its capacity to provide hospitality for guests and ability to operate as administrative centre for the parish. Externally the scale of the building and its tower are designed to impress and to reinforce the Catholic presence in Warwick, while the plain internal finishes are illustrative of the more austere existence associated with religious vocations.
|St Mary's Presbytery has a special association with Father James Horan, parish priest of Warwick from 1874-1905, for whom the building was erected. Horan was an important figure in the early development of the Catholic church in Queensland and influenced the strong pattern of Irish land settlement in the Warwick district.
|St Mary's Presbytery is important because of its aesthetic significance. Set in spacious grounds on a corner along Warwick's principal thoroughfare, the visual dominance of the presbytery, enhanced by its imposing central tower, makes the presbytery a landmark within the townscape. The presbytery makes a strong contribution to a precinct of catholic buildings extending along Palmerin Street, an assertive expression of the Catholic presence in Warwick and the centrality of the priest to the parish community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion G | Criterion D | Criterion H | 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 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 | 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 because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":768,"place_ref":602153,"name":"Allora Cemetery","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Allora Clifton Road","suburb":"ALLORA","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-04-27","description":"Farms surround Allora Cemetery which is just over 3 kilometres northwest of Allora. Pepperinas along the Allora Clayton Road cyclone wire fence define the western boundary, as does a wet weather creek on the southern side.
This cemetery has the usual grid of roads and paths with signposts delineating each denominational section of the monumental burial ground. A central driveway is lined by evergreen cypress like trees and at the northern end a road separates the lawn cemetery from the Methodist and Catholic monumental sections. There is a brick columbarium near this entrance.
Facing the road and beside the central entrance is the largest memorial, the Mitchner Shelter-shed. A pedestrian gate and concrete path leads to this structure which is 5 metres square with 215 mm solid brick walls of Garden Flemish bond that are approximately 3 metres high. The corrugated iron roof rises to a square timber steeple capped by a domed mushroom and finial.
The main entrance, which faces west towards the road, has a central arched entrance separating a pair of arched glazed openings. The rear eastern wall also has a gothic arched opening. The northern and southern walls each have an off-centre rectangular double hung sash window. The exterior walls with pairs of corner buttresses are not painted except for the buttresses oblique planes.
The internal rear wall has a marble plaque stating that William Mitchner gave the shelter as a gift for the benefit of the public and that he was born 2 August 1841 and died 1 June 1918. The interior brickwork is painted. The concrete floor has been treated with terrazzo and the ceiling is fibro. The structure is hollow except for the blockwork walled toilet.
To the north and slightly further down the central roadway is a gravediggers shelter. It has a corrugated iron hip roof supported by timber posts and includes a small lockable shed.
Inscriptions on memorials reveal that many of the early settlers came from England, Scotland, Ireland and a few from Wales and Germany and other European countries. There are monuments and family grave plots pertaining to pioneers, immigrants and locally born, ministers, bank managers, teachers, publicans, builders, farmers and benefactors to the community.
Gravestones vary from simple upright tablets to more elaborate late Victorian types. There are obelisks, Celtic and Calvary crosses, urn-topped columns and horizontal slabs with tablets. There are single and family plots, while a few have cast-iron picket fencing many have concrete kerbing. Some are the work of Warwick monumental masons like James McCulloch and others were transported from afar.
The cemetery grounds are well maintained although some monuments show deterioration and others have collapsed.
","history":"Allora Cemetery on Allora Clifton Road is north west of Allora. While the cemetery was established in 1864 the oldest headstone dates from 1867. It has always been organised with denominational sections and includes monuments and memorials pertaining to those who lived in Allora and the surrounding district, including the William Mitchner Shelter-shed
Alan Cunningham's exploration of the southern Darling Downs in 1827 first revealed the potential of the Darling Downs for pastoral and agricultural usage. In the 1840s pastoralists moved into the area and shepherds on Goomburra Run built huts at the base of Allora Mountain where it was easiest to cross the Dalrymple Creek. It became a popular camping place for teamsters on the Warwick Drayton Road and was the beginning of Allora Township. The first inn was built in 1857 and the town was surveyed in 1859 with the first town land sales on 5 March 1860. During the 1860s as Allora became a service centre to the surrounding black soil farms the town acquired a police station, post office, national school, cemetery and courthouse.
In 1869 Allora was granted municipal status, but the railhead bypassed the town being established instead at Hendon. During the 1870s a flour mill, school of arts, saddlery and sawmill were opened. Allora continued to develop as the administration and service centre for the township and local wheat and dairy farmers.
The first burial in Allora Cemetery was that of John Rhinehart in 1864. Unfortunately the timber cross marking has grave has long since disappeared. Dr Sadjucis, a German, was the Allora doctor in the 1860s. He had a heart attack while on horseback at Spring Creek and was buried in Allora cemetery. However, the oldest extant headstone is that of Clifton Station Manager Charles Henry Bullock, who was buried in the Church of England section in 1867.
An area of 16 acres 1 rood 15 perches was surveyed for a Cemetery Reserve at Allora in October 1879, but it was not gazetted until 1893. It seems that the Allora and Clifton councils managed the cemetery. The 1865 Cemeteries Act provided for the regulation of cemeteries throughout Queensland and required Trustees to make by-laws in accordance with the Act. However, it was not until July 1893 that public meetings were called to discuss electing of Cemetery Trustees so as to bring the local cemetery under this Act. The initial Trustees where Thomas Kennedy, James Dougall, William Deacon, James Dean, Patrick Kelley, Robert Cooke and Joseph Nemeth. The Allora Cemetery Reserve with seven Trustees was gazetted on 23 September 1893.
In line with government policy, the Allora Cemetery Trustees requested in February 1915 that the cemetery be placed under the control and management of the Allora Shire Council. This occurred on 13 March 1915. Since the amalgamation of local government areas in 1994 the Warwick Shire Council manages the cemetery.
The most prominent memorial, a convenience for the first stage of a burial ceremony and a retreat from the weather, was erected during 1925-26. It is the rectangular brick William Mitchner Shelter-shed located near the front gate and beside the central pathway. German born William Mitchner of Allora died in Toowoomba on 1 June 1918. Under his will £800 was to be used for the erection of a shelter-shed that included a sarcophagus, bust of himself and belfry. The bell was to be tolled whenever a funeral was approaching. His will directed that this shelter-shed be similar to but smaller and less expensive than the brick shelter-shed to be constructed at the Warwick Cemetery. Also the amount the amount of £150 was to be invested by the Allora General Cemetery trustees to provide income for the shelter-shed's maintenance for 50 years.
William Mitchner, born on 2 August 1841 in Germany, arrived in Allora about 1872 where he gained employment as a fireman or engineer in fellow German Francis Kates' flourmill. Later he was a storekeeper in the shop that was replaced by the Commercial Hotel. He acquired interests in Allora, Warwick and Toowoomba and his death certificate gave his occupation as an investor. His inventory for probate revealed an estate of over $30,000. Mitchner left bequests to both the Warwick and Toowoomba hospitals, money for the Anglican and Catholic churches in both Warwick and Allora and money for the erection of an Anglican Church in Hendon. For various reasons no Anglican Church was erected at Hendon and in the 1990s the invested money totaling over $50,000 was given to Allora's St Davids Anglican to assist with its maintenance.
Allora Shire Council called a public meeting for 28 February 1920 to discuss accepting the Mitchner cemetery bequest, as the Council felt it was not appropriate; probably because of Australian involvement in World War I. At the meeting some felt that they should refuse the bequest, however, it was suggested a shelter-shed would be a useful convenience. The meeting agreed to ask the Mitchner Trustees to pay for calling tenders, preparing plans and specifications and then the calling another public meeting.
Mitchner also left money to his family and hometown in Germany. As Australia was at war with Germany in 1918 legal problems arose from this bequest. The distribution of his estate went to the Full Court in Brisbane in 1921 and on appeal to the High Court of Australia in 1922. The Full Court ruled that the bequest to the Warwick Cemetery Trustees was valid but with the Allora Cemetery wanting to modify the design, as the amount was insufficient, the court felt this needed further examination. Perhaps these legal issues and cost of erecting the memorial explain why the Mitchner Shelter-shed was not put out to tender until 1925.
On 3 October 1925 the Allora Shire Council Cemetery Trust called tenders for a brick and concrete shelter-shed for the Allora Cemetery, to comply with the William Mitchner bequest. Plans and specifications were available from the shire office and tenders closed 17 October 1925. By May 1926 the Cemetery Committee had agreed to a tender for the bell in connection with the Mitchner bequest and the Warwick Cemetery Trustees had agreed to share the cost of a clay model for the bust. However, it is thought that Charles Astley created the Allora Mitchner bust and Petries Stonemasons were involved with the Warwick sculpture. The bust has disappeared and the bell no longer tolls.
While it is usual for the family of the deceased to pay for the memorial this is not always the case. Alexander Cameron (1840-1882) was the first Allora Municipal Council clerk from 1860 to his death and in appreciation his fellow townsmen erected a small obelisk over his grave. His family plot also includes a small tablet in memory of his wife who died in 1944. Rev James Boyd Morrow (1856-1893) was the Allora Presbyterian Minster from 1888 to shortly before his death in Brisbane. A cortege of 50 buggies and 200 horsemen met the train at Hendon to escort the coffin back to Allora and his parishioners later erected an 18-foot high obelisk on a massive pedestal.
Irish born Samuel Gordon (1822-1902) became a Goomburra Station shepherd in 1858 and for a few years lived in a hut where Allora now stands. Gordon purchased the Drayton and Raff Streets corner in the first Allora town land sale. In 1864 he built Allora's second hotel, the Princess of Wales. Gordon's tombstone includes names of children, several of whom died before they were six years of age. Australian Joint Stock Bank manager Travers Robert Goff was only 43 when he died in 1907. His eldest daughter Helen Lyndon writing under the pseudonym Pamela Lyndon Travers created Mary Poppins.
Allora Cemetery includes memorials for townsmen and the surrounding district including pastoralist George John Edwin Clark (1834-1907). He and his brother Charles purchased Old Talgai Station in 1868 and it became well known for high-grade merino wool. In 1876 George helped establish the Warwick Examiner and Times and was the Warwick member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly 1867-8. Brought up an Anglican he became a priest of the Catholic Apostolic (Irvingite) Church with a private chapel at Talgai. His son George Carr Clark (1864-1942) remained at Talgai until 1910 and is also buried in this rural cemetery. An early pioneer was William Naish (1838-1918) who worked as a shearer and fencer on Talgai Station where he found the Talgai Skull in 1886.
Edward Anderson (1822-1908) was one of the first Allora aldermen and mayor in 1870 and he was also responsible for many of the early buildings. Irish born Henry Ludgate (1840-1929) emigrated and joined the Queensland Police in 1865 and was transferred to Allora in 1874. Although he had several transfers his family stayed in Allora and after his retirement he served as an alderman from 1900 to 1913.
Many of the early pioneers still have descendants in the district. James Gwynne (1815-1875) and his wife Rhoda (1828-1912) arrived in Allora in 1862. Mrs Gwynne opened the first school and together they opened the first Allora Post Office. Publican John Holmes (1837-1901) was established in Allora by 1862 and was licensee of the Dalrymple, Crown and Royal Hotel at various times and some of his family still have business interests in Allora. William Deacon (1839-1927) and his wife Anne arrived in Allora in 1867 where he became the first Allora State School teacher. Mrs Deacon was active in Methodist Church affairs and wrote under the pen name of Patience Brown while William is better remembered as a successful businessman who served 39 years on the local Council. Bookkeeper George Shooter (1861-1942) and his wife Leila (1869-1955) worked on various stations before moving to the district as share farmers. Descendants still farm on part of what was Talgai West.
Mortality rates for children used to be very high, and like all cemeteries there are graves for the very young. Many are small plots and often have small tombstones like that of 9 month old Mary Ann Holmes who died 9 February 1867 and 15 month old Mabel Hancock who died 30 November 1887.
Some graves do not have headstones including those of Queen Charlotte and Kitty Kitty. It is believed that these were the last local Aboriginals and they were buried in the southeastern corner of the cemetery.
Allora Cemetery includes a columbarium and lawn cemetery. Mark Brelsford was buried in the latter in 1996. Brelsford, a plumber by trade, collected historical information and using pen and ink sketched many of the districts heritage places and he was responsible for two books Land of the Leslies and Sandstone and cedar.
","criteria":"Allora Cemetery is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland history in that it provides evidence of the occupations, social status and demography of the Warwick district, particularly displaying the diversity since the 1860s of the town's cultural, religious and ethnic groups.
|Allora Cemetery survives as a good example of its type, with a variety of headstones and monuments illustrating changing public attitudes to commemoration of the dead. While monuments and headstones vary in size, quality and condition they reflect the social, religious and architectural history of Allora from the 1860s to the 21st century.
|The form and design of the shelter-shed exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community as do the diversity of headstones, grid layout with a central avenue of evergreen trees and layout of paths.
|The masonry Mitchner Shelter-shed was a given to the community by William Mitchner for the benefit of the community as a roofed rest area for use during internments, when visiting, refuge from the weather and as a meeting place. It has a special association with the Allora community for social, cultural and spiritual reasons.
|The place has a special association with several notable individuals and families who have contributed to the historical evolution of Allora and district and to the mythology associated with pastoral and pioneering life.
","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":1143,"place_ref":602351,"name":"Braeside Homestead","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Crystal Mount Road","suburb":"ROSENTHAL","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2002-08-23","description":"Braeside Homestead is located about 28 kilometres south of Warwick just west of the New England Highway, along Crystal Mount Road, overlooking Turner's Creek to the east. It comprises a complex grouping of timber structures, including the main residence with multifarious additions and extensions, outbuildings, yards, fencing and gardens. Most of the buildings date to the last quarter of the 19th and first two decades of the 20th centuries.
The core of the main building, which likely dates to the mid-1870s, is a rectangular, timber-framed, timber-clad and timber-lined building which faces east toward the creek. It is set on low timber stumps and has deep exterior chamferboards, a steeply pitched hipped main roof with two double brick chimneys, and a front central projecting gable over an enclosed former front entrance. The roof of this gable has timber shingles beneath later corrugated iron cladding. The interior is lined with wide, single-beaded, tongue and groove timber boarding.
At the northern end of the main house is an early 20th century bedroom wing, with heavy timber infill to the gable end, which faces north. Prior to the early 1950s, this wing extended further west, with a second north-facing gable. This second gabled section is now located about 100 metres to the west on the homestead block, and is occupied as a separate residence. In its place is a small timber laundry extension.
At the southern end of the core building is another early 20th century timber extension. This has a pyramid roof clad in corrugated iron., and external chamferboards narrower than those of the 1870s section. Like the core and the northern wing, the southern extension also rests on timber stumps, but at a greater height than the core, and there are steps leading down to the foyer connecting this extension to the 1870s building. The southern extension comprises one large room - living room/ball room/billiard room - with a high, coved ceiling lined in narrow tongue and groove timber boarding. In the eastern wall is a bay window overlooking the garden, and glass doors opening onto the southern verandah of the house core.
Opening off the southern end of this extension is an idiosyncratic timber 'tower', about one and a half storeys in height, with a steeply pitched pyramid roof of galvanized iron with a top finial and acroteria to the corners of the guttering. It is square in form, and has narrow windows at the top, just below the eaves. These are separated on the exterior by decorative timber brackets. There are verandahs with timber posts and capitals and corrugated iron roofs to the front [east] and side [south] of the tower. Later glass doors open to both verandahs. Internally the tower comprises one room, lined with the same narrow, vertically jointed tongue and groove timber boards as the southern extension, and opens directly into this room via a simple timber arch in the northern wall. Like the rest of the complex, the 'tower' is set on timber stumps, but higher than those of the larger southern extension. This 'tower' now forms the principal entrance to the residence.
Behind the 'tower' room, to the west, is a bedroom wing which appears to be the remnant enclosed northern verandah of an earlier dormitory wing which was destroyed by fire c1950s. This has an open verandah along the southern side.
Attached or semi-attached to the rear [west] of the core are a number of weatherboard-clad structures, including kitchen, study, meat house and garage. Most of these have hipped roofs clad with corrugated galvanised iron. The meat house roof is gabled. There are two red-brick chimneys, thought to date to the 1950s, in this section of the homestead.
The main house is set within gardens which include an early carriage path from the south with remnant early hedging; a number of mature trees likely to date to the 19th century; a tennis court in the southwest corner of the garden; and terraces with stone retaining walls along the bank to the creek.
To the west/northwest of the house are a number of outbuildings, which include an early two-storeyed timber barn relocated from its original location closer to the house, and an early single-storeyed two-roomed cottage also formerly located closer to the house.
Between these outbuildings and the main house is an L-shaped timber cottage with a front gable with heavy timber infill. This cottage was formerly part of the northern bedroom wing of the main residence.
There are numerous yards and sheds adjacent to the principal outbuildings and Rose Cottage. On the southern perimeter of the homestead block, along Crystal Mountain Road, is a timber paling fence.
","history":"The block on which Braeside Homestead is situated was taken up in 1869, during the opening of large tracts of Rosenthal run to selection in the late 1860s and early 1870s. The homestead itself was established in the mid-1870s. From 1879 to 1901 the property was developed as a model stud farm by Queensland pastoralist, politician and businessman William Allan. It is not certain who named the property, but by 1887 Braeside was identified in the local electoral roll as both the grazing property and a locality.
In the earliest years of non-indigenous settlement on the southern Darling Downs, Braeside was included within the Leslie brothers' mid-1840 ambit claim for Tulburra run, and from c1841 was part of the North British Australasian Investment Co.'s Rosenthal run, excised from Tulburra.
Under the provisions of the Alienation of Crown Lands Act of 1868, James Adam Veitch of Warwick selected two blocks along Turner Creek from Rosenthal Run in 1869. These comprised selection 286 (containing the site of Braeside Homestead - 1280 acres of first-class pastoral land and 1280 acres of second-class pastoral land) selected on 25 August 1869 and adjacent selection 295 (320 acres of first-class pastoral land and 320 acres of second-class pastoral land) selected on 15 September 1869 - making a total of 3290 acres. Under the conditions of selection, Veitch had to pay an annual rental of £96 per annum on selection 286 for a period of ten years, commencing 1 July 1869, and had to make improvements. Once these conditions were satisfied, he could apply for freehold title.
The Darling Downs Bailiff for Crown Lands first inspected selection 286 on 16 December 1875, to ascertain proof of the fulfilment of the conditions of selection. At this time boundary rider Henry Steel had been in residence on the block from 1 January 1870, acting as bailiff for JA Veitch, 'sheep overseer' of Glengallan. The property was stocked with 1000 sheep and 224 head of cattle, property of the selector. Improvements consisted mainly of fencing and sheep yards, and there was a two-roomed slab hut with a bark roof, chimney, verandah, and 'bush furniture', which was the residence of Steel and his wife. The inspector's report and neighbours' declarations satisfied WC Hume, the Darling Downs Commissioner of Crown Lands, who in February 1876 issued Veitch with a certificate of fulfilment of the conditions of selection. The next month Veitch signed over his interest in the leases of selections 286 and 295 to South Toolburra grazier Bertie Chiverton Parr, who immediately paid off the outstanding debt and gained freehold title in July 1876. Parr likely named the property, and also appears to have acquired a number of adjacent selections which became part of Braeside.
A little over a year later, in September 1877, Parr conveyed selections 286 and 285 [totalling now 3188 acres 3 roods, some land having been excised for roads] to Francis Henry Needham of Warwick, for the sum of £1200. This was the value of the property when first acquired for selection in 1869, suggesting that no substantial improvement, such as a house, had been erected by this date. In February 1878 Needham registered a £1600 mortgage on the property from George Arthur Needham, which he likely raised to purchase and/or improve the property. It was possibly Needham who erected the first house [as distinguished from the earlier slab hut] on Braeside.
Needham was the second son of the Hon. Francis Henry Needham. Socially he was extremely well connected, having married Grace Gore, daughter of the late aristocrat and pioneer Darling Downs squatter St George Richard Gore, at Warwick in June 1873. Needham was resident in the Dalveen district by 22 September 1876 - whether this was at Braeside has not been established, but it is possible he was managing the property for Parr - and was influential in selecting a site for the location of Dalveen Railway Station in October 1878. However, he retained title to selections 286 and 295 for less than two years before selling them for £1500 to pastoralist William Allan in July 1879.
Allan, the well-educated son of an Edinburgh lawyer, arrived in Australia c1857 aged about 17, to work for his uncle Alexander Campbell in Victoria. Allan gained his pastoral experience principally at his uncle's property and at Bundure Station in the Riverina. In 1869 he purchased the lease of Geraldra Station, near Bland Creek in New South Wales, and in 1871 established a lucrative stock and station agency at Young in New South Wales. Late in 1871 he married Emily Mate of Tarcutta Station, New South Wales, the daughter of successful Albury storekeeper, station owner and politician, Thomas Hodge Mate. The marriage consolidated Allan's social, business and political connections in the colonies.
In 1874 Allan joined the second wave of southern pastoralists to move into Queensland, with the purchase of Whyenbah and Woolerina Stations on the Balonne and Maranoa rivers. Pastoralists of Allan's generation were the pastoral improvers of Queensland, replacing the pioneer land grabbers of the 1840s and 1850s.
In purchasing Braeside, a well-watered grazing property on the southern Darling Downs, from FH Needham in 1879, Allan was able to concentrate on stock breeding and improvement, developing the property as a model stud farm, his pastoral headquarters, and his family's permanent place of residence. At Braeside Allan established a purebred Hereford Cattle Stud and bred black Merino and Lincoln sheep, the wool selling well on the London market. He took a great interest in developing the stud, keeping detailed herd books. His bulls had a reputation for hardiness and longevity, and were in demand with graziers. Braeside Stud was sufficiently significant to Queensland to be featured in the Department of Agriculture's Queensland Agricultural Journal of September 1899. At this time the property totalled about 12,000 acres, and included Mount Crystal. The Hereford cattle stud numbered over 1,000, all descended from high-class imported English stock. In addition there was a fine Jersey dairy herd at Braeside, and some cropping for home consumption, on the creek flats. The house was set amid extensive gardens and an orchard.
In the 1880s Allan established a close business connection with the mercantile firm of BD Morehead & Co. In December 1881 he nominated Boyd Dunlop Morehead of Brisbane and his brother-in-law William Henry Mate of Tarcutta Station, New South Wales, as trustees for Braeside, and in 1882 was made a partner in the firm of BD Morehead & Co. In 1886 he was appointed managing partner.
In addition to his building up of the Braeside stud, his other Queensland pastoral interests, his involvement with BD Morehead & Co., and world trips with his family in 1875 and 1883, Allan was actively involved in community and political spheres. He was a President of the prestigious Queensland Club in Brisbane, the Brisbane Chamber of Commerce, and the Eastern Downs Agricultural and Horticultural Association. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society of Queensland, and a committee member of the Royal Agricultural Society and the Queensland National Association. He was also a major in the Darling Downs Mounted Infantry Regiment [volunteers] and a prominent freemason. Through his work with the Darling Downs Pastoralists' Association, the United Pastoralists' Association, the Federated Employers' Union of Queensland [all of which he helped form] and as Vice-President of the Pastoralists' Federal Council of Australia, Allan took a significant role in defeating the shearers' strikes of the early 1890s and maintaining the pastoral status quo. He served as Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Darling Downs from November 1881 to October 1883 and from September 1887 to May 1888, prior to his election as MLA for Cunningham in May 1888. He held this seat until March 1896. As may be expected from his pastoralist and mercantile activities, he was a McIlwraith Nationalist and a Coalition Conservative, and while never holding a portfolio, his social, pastoral and business connections enabled him to wield considerable personal influence. In March 1897 he was appointed to the Queensland Legislative Council, a position he retained until his sudden death in October 1901. It is likely, given Allan's popularity and strong social, commercial and local political profile, that he entertained regularly at Braeside.
Following William Allan's death his wife Emily remained at Braeside for several years, with AW Allan [Alexina W Allan, the Allan's eldest child?], managing the property. In September 1906 the property was transferred to George Edward Bunning, manager of Darr River Downs Station in Western Queensland. Bunning and his family resided permanently at Braeside for only a few years, having made Brisbane their principal place of residence by 1911 and leaving Braeside to the supervision of managers. Photographic evidence reveals that substantial extensions to the main homestead, which include a northern bedroom wing, and on the southern side an idiosyncratic 'tower' and a large public room which may have functioned as a ballroom, living room or billiard room, were constructed between 1899 and 1918, and were most likely erected for the Bunning family. By 1918, Braeside Homestead comprised a substantial group of buildings, with a complex series of additions, extensions and renovations. The majority of these structures survive although some have been relocated within the homestead yards.
Bunning subdivided Braeside in the mid-1920s. The bulk of the property, including the block containing Braeside Homestead [subdivision 1, portion 192, par Rosenthal, co Merivale, comprising 1226 acres 3 roods 19 perches], was transferred in February 1925 to Englishman Harold Priest, who retained it for only a few years. During this period his brother Alfred, a London painter of some repute, stayed and painted at Braeside. Early in 1928 Priest sold Braeside to George Gilbert Cory of Gordonbrook and Cormanshurst. The Cory family retained and occupied Braeside for over 20 years until it was transferred in 1951/52 to Kenneth William Lloyd. In 1951 the western end of the northern bedroom wing of the main house was relocated about 100 metres to the west, to form a separate residence [now called Rose Cottage] for Mr and Mrs Leighton, who managed Braeside for the Lloyds.
In 1954 the property, then reputedly comprising about 7,000 acres, was transferred to Cecil Raymond Hardman Lockwood, who ran it with a staff of 6 or 7. It is understood that an early shingled dormitory building, evident in photographs taken between 1918 and 1922, was destroyed by fire in the 1950s. Lockwood sold Braeside in 1972. Several subsequent rapid changes in ownership to 1983 saw the property decline. In the late 1990s Braeside Homestead was developed by the Lindsay family as a 'home stay'.
","criteria":"Braeside Homestead is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland history. The property was developed as an important Hereford stud in the last two decades of the 19th century, during a significant period of pastoral improvement in Queensland, and is illustrative of the dominance of Darling Downs stud farms in livestock breeding in Queensland in the 19th and early 20th centuries. William Allan's work at Braeside made a major contribution to livestock improvement in this State.
|Braeside Homestead comprises a substantial complex of timber structures set within gardens and yards, which has evolved over time. It remains substantially intact, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type. The timber buildings are worthy of further investigation and analysis, and have the potential to contribute significantly to our understanding of the construction and design of timber buildings in rural Queensland from the 1870s to the early 1900s.
|The placed has strong aesthetic value, engendered by the materials, complex form, garden and creek-side settings, and surrounding rural environment.
|Braeside Homestead is important also for its association with pastoralist, businessman and politician William Allan, who contributed significantly to stock improving and conservative politics in Queensland, and who wielded strong personal influence in pastoral, mercantile and political circles.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | 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 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":5207,"place_ref":602209,"name":"Sundown Tin and Copper Mine","alternate_name":"BBS-2D 4","street_address":"Little Sundown Creek","suburb":"STANTHORPE","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"The tin mine area consists of the open cut, with a grided shaft in its floor, and a collapsed adit at the base of its work face. Above the open cut is the main shaft, located on a bench cut into the hillside, with a mullock tip, tripod steel poppet head and older timber shaft-head staging, over a three-compartment shaft. The concrete pad supporting one of the poppet legs is inscribed with the names 'T Fredrick, S. Lynn, F. Meehan, GRM Kane'. Adjacent to the shaft is a cutting dug into the wall of the benched area, which appears to have been used as a store or crib room. On the other side of the shaft is a bench cut into the slope, with a 'Herman' winding engine facing the poppet legs.
The mill area consists of two sets of stepped concrete floors, identified on plans as the 'New Works' (29.5 x 6.5m), and the 'Old Works' (42x9m) 24m further to the west. These concrete floors have concrete machinery foundations, troughs and the bases of timber vats or tanks. The Old Works has the foundations for a stamper battery.
The ruin of a furnace, taken to be the Merton Furnace for arsenic roasting, is located above the New Works area, and consists of a collapsed large brick furnace, built with 'Campbell' fire bricks, with a horseshoe shaped flue leading from it. The flue, which is collapsed, was an above ground 1.8m wide vault tunnel, and approximately the 200ft length referred to in the literature. The height could not be determined. At the other end of the flue from the furnace is a large brick pile and 14m long plume of rubble consisting of a fallen chimney. The curve of the flue is supported on a platform built of stone, and a large number of 2.95m-long iron pipes lay scattered in this area. There is slag underlying part of the furnace, and it may have been built on top of the first reverberatory furnace slag heap.
Between the 'arms' of the flue is an area of burnt and disturbed ground, which may be the site of the second reverberatory furnace, as a 12 x 19m slag heap extends from in front of this area. No ground features indicating the size or specific design of this smelter could be seen, but the loaf slag forms indicate the slag was cast into sand moulds, typical of reverberatory furnace practice.
East of the furnace are a number of sleepers, lengths of wire cable, and the base of the structure which could be the flying fox used to bring tin and copper ore to the mill site. However, this area of the site has been extensively disturbed by more recent bulldozing and earth moving activities.
The two dams are located below the Old Works site, and are earthen dams, riveted with timber on the downstream side, and both are broken. A large amount of tailings sand lines the creek above the dams, leaching the metallic salts and having a strongly sulphurous smell.
The Copper Mines are located about 140m east of the furnace site, and consist an adit near the creek, and a series of 3 shafts along the line of the reef running roughly s-w to n-e over the crest of the ridge, and mullock associated with the shafts. The main shaft is a three-compartment shaft. There is a collapsed ore bin and shute, and some concrete machinery pads, but no other substantial above- ground remains.
","history":"Tin was discovered at Sundown in 1893, and a reward claim was granted for 40 acres, but at that date there was no machinery on the ground. Mining had ceased in 1894 for want of equipment, and copper prices were at rock-bottom at that time.
The copper and tin deposits were on opposite sides of Little Sundown Creek, and were mined from different shafts. With rising prices the mine was operating again in 1897, and much development work was carried out in 1898. By 1899 a smelter must have been erected, as 470 tons of ore was smelted for 53 tons of matte containing 30% copper and 50oz silver per ton, and 20 men were employed. More ore was raised in 1900, but the mine was under exemption through 1901 -03, a time of low copper prices.
In 1904 the mine was described as having an open -cut on the tin portion, and on the copper section a tramway ran down 7 chains from the mine to the reverberatory furnace. The only building standing besides the furnace was the assay office. Firewood was swung across the creek to the furnace on wire ropes. The copper adit was driven 270ft, with winzes and drives off it, and a shaft connecting to the surface 60ft from the portal. The most recent smelting of 150 tons of ore produced 25 tons of matte containing 29% copper and 76oz silver and 6 dwt gold per ton matte. Mining recommenced in 1904, but was abandoned again in 1907, this time reputedly due to falling tin prices, though copper fell dramatically in 1907 as well. However, Kershaw and Dodds intended to erect a crushing works at the site the following year.
The mine was worked under tribute in 1909 - 1910. In 1911 -1912 work recommenced, with both copper and tin prices resurging. A road was cut to the site, and a shaft sunk in the bottom of the tin mine, which had previously been mined largely by open- cut. The old smelter was described as still being in good condition in 1913, but mining was clearly slow .
In 1914 the mine was taken over by the Sundown Tin and Copper Mining Company (N.L.) which erected a 10- head battery driven by a suction-gas plant, and built two fines dams. No work had been done for some time on the tin portion, but some had been going on for copper. In 1915 a calciner was erected, together with 'another' Wilfley concentrating table and a 5ft Berdan crushing pan, and a new shaft was sunk on the tin deposit. The new tin shaft had poppet legs errected over it in 1916, and a 16hp Tangye winding engine and vertical boiler were installed. That year 69.5 tons of tin and 26 tons of copper concentrates were produced.
Work carried out in 1916-17 included the construction of flues for saving arsenic, the electric lighting of the mines and mill, the construction of a new concrete dam, a new elevated double rope line form the new tin shaft to the mill, new self feeders at the mill, and the redressing works was to be remodelled and shifted from its present location at the mill to the calciner. The battery consisted of the 10 head stamper, 4 classifiers, 5 Wilfley tables, 2 Berdan pans and several buddles. The single reverberatory furnace was used to calcine the tin concentrates and drive of arsenic and sulphur. In 1917 a Merton calciner was erected and flues for arsenic recovery constructed. It is likely that these replaced the old reverberatory furnace and calciner. Arsenic became and important product of the mines, the demand escalating during the prickly pear infestation. New shafts were sunk at both the tin and copper mines. The lack of water reduced output in 1918, only 23 tons of tin and 12.5 tons of copper concentrates being produced, but the new shafts were continued, the three compartment copper shaft having poppet legs and ore bins erected, and a cableway built to the battery bins. A new reverberatory furnace was built and a water pipeline laid to the Severn River. The Merton Furnace was described in 1918 as being for the roasting of arsenic concentrates, with the arsenic being condensed in 200ft of 'mud flues', while the new reverberatory furnace was for copper smelting.
Production in 1919 and 1920 was modest, and in 1921 the smelter treated 100 tons of ore yielding 20 tons of matte containing 37% copper, and 60oz silver per ton. Air compressors and rock drills were obtained, and the calciner and reverberatory furnace were in working order. 30 tons of arsenic and 5.4 tons of copper were produced in 1922, and 200 tons of arsenic in 1923. In 1924 the furnace and part of the mill was leased by Arsenic Limited to O.C Roberts Limited, who remodelled the furnace to treat high-grade ore, as a result of the Prickly Pear Land Commission letting a 12 month contract for the supply of Roberts Improved Pear Poison, which was manufactured at Wallangarra. The ore was to come form the near by Beecroft Mine.
The arsenic works ceased operation in 1925, and tin does not seem to have been mined after 1923. There is no reference to copper after this date either.
","criteria":"The Sundown Mine is of historical importance because of its combination of tin, copper and arsenic production, the primary product at any given time varying with the prevailing market condition. Thus at one site is a microcosm of the forces influencing the pattern of most mining in this region of southern Queensland. The Sundown Mine together with the Beecroft Mine and the Jibbenbar State Arsenic Works, is associated with the prickly pear eradication program.
|The remains of the Merton Furnace and condensing flue are rare pieces of the technology demonstrating arsenic extraction in Queensland. The arsenic mill and furnace, together with the nearby Jibbenbar and Beecroft mines, demonstrates a rare aspect of mining in Queensland, and the fact that the mine was aimed at producing toxic material puts the site at considerable risk from future contaminated site rehabilitation, so it is endangered.
|The site has the potential to yield information about the highly volatile base metal mines industry. The combination of metals produced at the mine increases the potential of the site to contribute worthwhile research results.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14780,"place_ref":600005,"name":"Boer War Memorial and Park","alternate_name":"War Memorial Park | Queen's Park","street_address":"Warwick Street","suburb":"ALLORA","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Boer War Memorial is situated in a small park in Allora facing Warwick Street, in which memorials to the two World Wars are also found. The park is enclosed by a substantial brick and wrought iron fence along Warwick Street with a centrally placed gateway formed by brick newels with plaster finials and with an iron gate. The Boer and First World War memorials are towards the southern, Warwick Street side of the park and the Second World War Memorial is located toward the northern, rear of the park centrally placed between the others.
The Boer Memorial stands 15 feet from the ground and comprises a pedestal surmounted by a digger statue. The memorial is surrounded by a low fence, consisting of evenly spaced bollards linked by steel rods.
The sandstone memorial sits on a base step with picked stone faces, margined and chiselled around. Surmounting this is a smooth faced stone step with plinth, on the faces of both of which are marble plaques with details of the opening of the statue and the names of the Allora men who took part in the war along with the names of the fallen with details of their death. The plinth supports the shaft of the memorial comprising a recessed square pier which features a wreath on the southern facing side and has a base element comprising a cyma recta moulding with foliated carving. Also projecting from this base at the four corners of the pedestal are free standing round columns with simple Doric order bases and capitals. These support a cornice with curved pediment detail above which on the southern side is carved ornament of foliated scrolls and a central anthemion element.
Surmounting the pedestal is the digger statue, which is slightly smaller than life size. The soldier stands to attention and with his head bowed his rifle reverse. Unusually for this type of statue the mouth of the soldier his open and he stands alone, without the traditional tree stump support. WP MACINTOSH is carved onto the side of the plate on which the soldier stands.
The World War One Memorial, again constructed largely from smooth faced sandstone and marble, comprises a three-part pedestal on the central part of which sits an obelisk. The central part of the pedestal projects from the flanking elements and the whole sits on a three stepped base. Simple round columns with Doric order bases and capitals are found on each corner of the pedestal. Small carved field guns are mounted on the side tops of the pedestal flanking the obelisk which rises from the centre. The obelisk comprises a square planned shaft with various mouldings on its faces above which is a cornice of a cyma recta moulding with foliated carving. Surmounted on this is the obelisk, of smooth faced sandstone; a tapering column with carved shields affixed to the north and south.
The World War Two Memorial, which sits to the rear of the park is a simple obelisk, with a base of two sandstone steps surmounted by two white marble steps the upper one with a simple carved moulding at the top on which sits the tall tapering column of white marble on the south side of which a wreath and gun are carved.
","history":"The War Memorial Park in Allora contains memorials to the Boer War, unveiled in 1904; World War I unveiled in 1921 and also a later memorial to World War II and more recent international conflicts with which Australia was involved.
The land on which the memorials are now situated was part of a larger package of land bound by Dalrymple Creek, Warwick, Raff and Church Streets, which was proclaimed a park for recreation in the Government Gazette of 12 July 1902. However, early survey maps of Allora, dating from 1879 show this area of land set aside for recreational purposes. In 1903 a small section of the park in the south western corner was officially set aside as a Drill Shed Reserve.
Three digger memorials to fallen soldiers were built in Queensland following the Boer War which lasted from 1899 until 1902. The memorial at Allora was the first planned in 1904, followed in 1908 by a memorial at Gatton and, lastly, a memorial in Brisbane unveiled in 1919. Although the term 'digger' came into popular use only after World War I it is still thought to be appropriate to use the term describing figural memorials constructed commemorating soldiers from the Boer War. Many other types of memorials, including avenues of trees, bells, plaques and obelisks were erected in Queensland following the Boer War.
The construction of war memorials in Queensland became more widespread after the Boer War, when the State sustained the loss of 67 soldiers on the battlefields. Following World War I the practice of erecting monuments to the fallen soldiers became a major community concern and the rise of Australian nationality increased the fever with which these memorials were built during the inter-war period.
The unveiling of the Allora Boer War Memorial on 19 August 1904 proclaimed a public holiday in the district, was carried out by Colonel Harry Chauvel (later General and Sir). Chauvel is thought to be one of the most distinguished of Queensland soldiers. Memoirs written by him about his service in the Boer War indicate that he was interested in what he considered an English tradition of honouring fallen soldiers with memorials.
With the British race, more perhaps than with any other, the spirit of veneration for those who gave their lives for their country is very pronounced...This spirit was brought home to me immediately after the South African War when ...I toured the battlefields of Natal. I came across everywhere parties of British officers arranging to erect memorials...Incidentally these suggested to me the idea of erecting a memorial cairn on the first battlefield of my own regiment; with the result that there stands on a rocky kopje in the north of Cape Colony...the first Australian War Memorial erected on a battlefield.
Indeed, the speech with which Chauvel unveiled the Allora Memorial laments the fact that it was one of the very few memorials in Queensland erected at that time to commemorate the Boer War.
The base and pedestal of the Boer Memorial was constructed by Mr J McCulloch of Warwick, to designs of WP Prout. The Allora Boer War Memorial is thought to have cost about £134 which was raised by a committee formed for the memorial's construction. Sandstone used for the project was obtained from Mr Midson's Yangan quarry, near Warwick.
The digger statue was sculpted by William P Macintosh. Macintosh was a prominent sculptor who, after his arrival in Australia in 1880 from Edinburgh where he studied anatomy, began training in Sydney at modelling classes of Lucien Henry, and later life drawing classes with Julian Ashton. He undertook many architectural sculptures in Sydney from the 1890s, including work on the Queen Victoria Markets. His arrival in Brisbane in 1903 was prompted by a commission for the sculpture on the Lands Administration Building, and shortly after this he carried out work for the Allora Boer Memorial. Other significant Queensland projects completed by Macintosh include figural sculpture on the former Government Savings Bank of 1920 and the various devils on the Government Printing Office completed in 1910-11.
Immediately following the erection of the Boer War Memorial the committee who organised its erection thought it befitting to enhance the reserve in which the memorial stood, so that it might be considered a park. At this stage what then became known as the Memorial Park was bounded by the Creek and Raff Street. 120 trees were donated to the committee for the park by Mr McMahon, the curator of the Botanical Gardens in Brisbane and the Mayor of Allora also donated trees which were planted along Raff Street and became known as the 'Mayor's Row'. It is not known whether any of the trees donated by Mr McMahon or the Mayor of Allora remain extant today.
A further addition was made to the park in 1921 when a World War I memorial was constructed. This was built in the form of an obelisk and is signed WJ Prout. Prout was a proprietor of the Brisbane Monumental Company who specialised in various types of monumental design and construction. This memorial was unveiled by General JC Robertson in mid November 1921.
A third memorial to fallen soldiers of World War Two was constructed in the form of an obelisk, with sandstone base and marble shaft.
","criteria":"The Boer War Memorial is an immensely important Queensland sculpture. It is the first of only three digger statues built to commemorate the involvement and death of Queensland soldiers in the Boer War of 1899-1902. The memorial was constructed at an early phase of the history of war memorials in the state, which became prolific after the First World War but, in 1904 when the Allora Boer War Memorial was constructed were quite rare.
|The digger statue is uncommon in composition and detailing and is one of the only known memorials sculpted by Sydney sculptor WP Macintosh.
|The three memorials in the Memorial Park, Allora demonstrate the principal characteristics of war memorials in Queensland with appropriately use of various symbolic elements.
|The Boer War and World War I Memorials are of aesthetic significance both individually and as complementary sculptures with common ornamental and compositional detailing.
|The Memorial Park has special importance for the community commemorating local involvement in the major wars of this century.
|The memorials have special association with various people of importance to Queensland including Sir Harry Chauvel who unveiled the Boer War Memorial; William Macintosh who carved the digger and was responsible for much significant architectural sculpture on various Queensland Government buildings; as well as to all the soldiers mentioned on the memorials.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 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 | 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":14781,"place_ref":600006,"name":"Talgai Homestead","alternate_name":"Talgai","street_address":"Talgai Homestead","suburb":"ALLORA","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"Talgai Homestead, located approximately 6 kilometres west of Allora on the Dalrymple Creek Road, consists of the homestead and grounds, an office/store and the remains of a stone weir on Dalrymple Creek. The homestead has views across a valley to the east.
The homestead is a large single-storeyed U-shaped sandstone building with a corrugated iron hipped roof and verandahs all round. The verandahs have lesser pitch skillion roofs, with the verandahs to the outer side of the building having paired round cast iron columns with timber capitals, and the verandahs fronting the courtyard having square timber posts. The sandstone ashlar is dressed around openings and has rock-faced finish to the outer verandah walls and picked finish to the courtyard walls. The building has seven rock-faced sandstone chimneystacks, and french doors with glass fanlights and sash windows open onto the verandahs from most rooms. The main entry is on the northern side and is accessed via a flight of stone steps with a timber arch between timber posts. The entry door assembly consists of a panelled cedar door with glass fanlight and sidelights with cedar framing.
The east elevation has a verandah with a deep central loggia created by the projection of the northern and southern wings beyond the east cross wing. This loggia has two pairs of cast iron columns, centrally located along the line of the verandah wall, supporting a timber truss beam. The ceiling to this space has timber boarding, raked at the sides, with a central pendant lamp. Each projecting wing has a square timber bay with sash windows to floor level.
The southern verandah of the northern wing has been enclosed with chamferboard, french doors and some glazing to accommodate service rooms off the kitchen, and the western end of this wing has notched stonework for the originally intended extension. The southern verandah of the southern wing has been enclosed with chamferboard and large areas of glazing along much of its length to accommodate sitting rooms and ensuite bathrooms for the adjacent guest rooms.
Internally, the ceilings are boarded and raked at the sides, and the building has rough rendered stone walls, panelled cedar doors and ornate timber fireplace surrounds. Circulation throughout the building is mainly via the verandahs, and the southern wing has been refitted as guest rooms. The eastern wing contains two sitting rooms, one of which houses a grand piano which is the only surviving original piece of furniture in the homestead. The northern wing contains a formal dining room at the eastern end adjacent to the main entry, and an informal dining room at the western end which has two skylights. An office and large kitchen are located in the mid-section of the wing, and are accessed from the main entry via an arched doorway and corridor. A cellar with a concrete floor is located under the mid-section of the northern wing, and is accessed by a timber stair located in the southern verandah.
The grounds include a clay tennis court to the east of the homestead, an avenue of Bunya Pines to the south, and the remains of a sandstone slaughter house/acetylene store consisting of an L-shaped wall with two sash windows and a concrete floor to the west. A circle of sandstone blocks in the ground to the west of the courtyard may be the remains of a well. A gravel driveway enters the home paddock to the northeast of the homestead, and swings along the northern side bordering a pond with fountain to access a carpark to the west. A large Olive tree is located on the northern side of the kitchen, and a concrete water tank is situated adjacent to the western end of the northern wing. Palms are located either side of the entry pathway from the driveway.
Staff quarters are located to the northwest of the homestead. This single-storeyed building has a hipped corrugated iron roof and weatherboard cladding, and was originally the stables/carriage house. A large metal water tank (originally from a railway station) is located at the western end of the building.
A sandstone office/store is located to the north of the home paddock. This building has a corrugated iron gable roof, with an office at the southern end, store at the northern end and a basement located centrally. The office is accessed via a doorway on the eastern side, and has a boarded ceiling which is raked to the collar beam, timber floor, whitewashed walls, louvred windows, and a central fireplace on the southern side. The store is accessed from both east and west by double timber doors, and has exposed beams and rafters, earth floor, casement windows and a central raised timber platform, under which is located the basement. The basement is accessed via an external sandstone stair on the western side, and has ventilation slits on the eastern side and a stone flagged floor.
A timber cottage with a hipped corrugated iron roof and front verandah is located to the northeast of the office/store on the opposite side of the driveway. A shearing shed with a hipped corrugated iron roof is located to the east of the office/store.
The remains of a stone weir across Dalrymple Creek is located southeast of the homestead. The western side is extant, but the eastern side has been washed away. The line of the footings for the weir is visible in the stone embankment of the creek bed, and the remains of a water control mechanism is located at the western end. The property also has an airstrip to the south of the homestead.
","history":"Talgai Homestead was built in 1868 for George Edwin Clark, then owner of that part of the old Talgai run which lies east of the present Toowoomba-Warwick rail line and was designed by prominent Queensland architect R.G. Suter. This substantial sandstone homestead was first known as 'East Talgai' the second of three 'Talgais' to be constructed on what was part of the original 'Talgai' run taken up by E.E. Dalrymple in 1840.
Ernest Elphinstone Dalrymple was part of the first wave of European settlers, who included Patrick and George Leslie, and George and John Gammie, to drive stock to the newfound Darling Downs area on receiving instructions from explorer Alan Cunningham who first recognised the potential of the area for pastoral settlement in 1827. These early squatters overlanded their stock through the New England district from Sydney as access to the Darling Downs through the penal settlement of Moreton Bay was not allowed, nor was any settlement within 50 miles of the penal colony permitted. This group of pastoralists were instrumental in settling the land which in subsequent decades was to become Queensland's prime pastoral and agricultural district and which also became a seat of political power in 19th century Queensland.
Dalrymple only held the Talgai run until his death in 1844 after which Talgai passed through several owners, possibly being owned by the Gammie brothers at one point. In 1862, the property was divided, with the southern portion becoming 'North Toolburra' and Clark and Hamner acquiring the portion known as Old Talgai where they ran a high-grade wool merino stud. This partnership was later broken and the property remained in Hamner's possession until his death, when it passed to the Queensland Cattle Company, and later to Lucht, who sold it to George and Charles Clark in 1865.
The Clark brothers divided the land again, George taking East Talgai and Charles taking the western portion, on which the Old Talgai homestead had stood. In 1874 Charles Clark constructed his own home, Ellinthorpe Hall (the third Talgai) on this western portion of the run and this homestead later became known as 'West Talgai'. Charles Clark left Talgai in 1890, the western portion of the land eventually being subdivided for closer settlement with the homestead falling into decay and the sandstone blocks from the ruins of the homestead being used to construct a modern home at Flagstone Creek
When George Clark secured the eastern portion of the Talgai run in 1865 the only structure on the land was an old shepherd's hut. It was under George Clark's direction that the grand East Talgai Homestead and its many outbuildings were erected.
The stone building situated near the entrance to Talgai was apparently built as a residence for the architect, Richard George Suter and his wife, during the construction of the homestead and the property's huge woolshed. This building later became a storehouse and residence for the station storekeeper.
Richard George Suter (1827 - 1894) trained as an architect in London under his father after completing a Bachelor of Arts at Trinity College Cambridge in 1850. By 1865 Suter was working for Brisbane's leading architect Benjamin Backhouse while establishing his own practice. Suter was one of Queensland's most prolific and prominent architects of the late 19th century and was responsible for such grand designs as Jimbour House (Suter & Voysey 1873), St Mark's Church, Warwick (1867 - 70) and is recognised for his influence on the standard designs of schools in Queensland with the Board of Education using his designs almost exclusively until 1875. After a decline in his success, Suter moved to Melbourne in 1876 and became a priest for the Catholic Apostolic Church, where he died of heart disease in 1894.
Talgai Homestead was built of sandstone and covered sixty squares. The original roof was of shingles and the verandahs of hand and pit-sawn spotted gum, with cedar doors and architraves. Unlike the usual design for that period, the kitchen was attached to the main house.
George and Ellen Clark lived an affluent life at the grand East Talgai. The homestead was richly furnished and featured antique pieces which were probably a part of Ellen's dowry. George Clark was active in local affairs and Queensland politics, sitting on the Warwick Bench of Magistrates, holding an official position on the St. Marks Church Committee as well as the Warwick School of Arts, the Warwick Hospital Committee and the Royal Agricultural Society. He also had a short-lived but very controversial period as a member of Queensland Parliament. During this time, he set up the 'Warwick Examiner and Times' newspaper which was a pro-squatter vehicle and was constantly engaged in editorial clashes with the 'Warwick Argus' established by James Morgan, the former Talgai manager and a staunch anti-squatter advocate.
George Clark was involved in accusations of collusion with the Survey Office in 1871, allegedly using his position to avoid the restrictions of the Land Act 1868 to acquire additional land for his East Talgai run.
During the 1860s and 1870s Talgai was becoming what was arguably the most successful sheep stud in Queensland producing immense amounts of quality merino wool and trading in high quality rams which were exported to Tasmania and Germany. Talgai peaked in its production during the 1880s when stock figures reached 20 000 sheep and 3000 Devon cattle.
Talgai Station was a fully developed self-contained estate village during the 1880s. It incorporated employee's cottages, a smithy, stables, barn, woolshed, slaughterhouse, dairy and school. Beside the Olive tree, which still remains today near the back gate of the property, George also constructed a stone chapel which was used for family worship but was never consecrated. This chapel was pulled down in 1942 as, according to George's son, George Carr Clark's will, the sandstone was to be used to construct a tower for St Marks Church, Warwick, however this never came to pass. Talgai had three different watering systems which serviced the crops, the kitchen garden and formal English garden. Talgai also had vines of table grapes and an orchard of stone fruit.
It was in 1886 when a major anthropological discovery was made at Talgai. William Naish, fencing contractor, inadvertently discovered a skull where heavy rain had scoured out a creek bed. It was not until 1914 that Professor Edgeworth David, Professor of Archaeology at Sydney University on paying a visit to Talgai, presented a theory that the skull was 20 000 years old and provided a 'missing link' in the evolutionary chain. Interest in the skull and the site at which it was found persisted until the 1960s, during which time the CSIRO and the Queensland Museum had conducted archaeological surveys at the site. Interest in the skull waned in the following decades as newer theories eclipsed those attached to the Talgai Skull. The original skull is housed at the Sydney Museum.
George Clark died in 1907 and the property passed to his son George Carr Clark at which time he sold-off 5000 acres of Talgai and purchased 'Yanna' station on the Warrego. About 2000 special stud ewes remained at Talgai and the stud sires were bred there and transferred to Yanna for fattening. Aberdeen Angus stud cattle were introduced to Talgai in 1916 and ultimately became the main business of Talgai.
In 1934 both the cattle and the sheep studs were sold at public auction, leaving about 750 acres on the homestead block around East Talgai house. George Carr Clark resided there with his wife and various family members until his death in 1942 when the entire property was sold.
In 1968 Talgai was acquired by Mr and Mrs D Panton who undertook extensive restoration work. Talgai Homestead now operates as a function and luxury accommodation centre.
","criteria":"Talgai Homestead is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history as it reflects the earliest phase of pastoral settlement on the Darling Downs which significantly influenced the subsequent development of the region as the prime agricultural and pastoral region in Southeast Queensland. Talgai homestead also reflects the immense wealth that the early pastoralists were able to amass from wool production on the Darling Downs.
|Talgai Homestead is a rare surviving example of the early affluent development by squatters on the Darling Downs which was a feature of this pastoral district in the mid to late 19th century.
|Talgai Homestead has the potential to yield information about Queensland's history due to the age and former complexity of the settlement. The scope for further archaeological discoveries, (similar to that of the Talgai Skull) and discoveries through historical research has realistic potential.
|Talgai Homestead is a good example of an affluent pastoral settlement demonstrating the principal characteristics of a 19th century homestead complex.
|Talgai Homestead has significant aesthetic value as a well composed substantial stone residence in a picturesque setting of landscaped gardens showing a high level of skilled design. The building's aesthetic significance draws largely on its contextual setting for the overall effect of balance.
|The homestead has a special association with the life and work of prominent 19th architect R.G. Suter as a significant example of his work. It is also has a long association with the Clark family who established the station and homestead and who were an influential family in the evolution of the Darling Downs.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":14782,"place_ref":600007,"name":"Glengallan Homestead","alternate_name":"Glengallan Head Station | Glengallan","street_address":"New England Highway","suburb":"GLENGALLAN","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Glengallan Homestead is located on the southwestern slope of Mt Marshall at the mouth of a wide valley, running west from Cunningham's Gap, near the junction of the Cunningham and New England Highways approximately 15 kilometres north of Warwick. The fenced area of land on which the homestead is located is accessed via an easement from the New England Highway to the southwest. The homestead is currently in a ruinous condition but is undergoing conservation works.
The homestead is a long, narrow two-storeyed ashlar sandstone structure, built on an approximately north-south axis, with a hipped corrugated iron roof. The symmetrical principal elevation faces in an easterly direction overlooking the valley and towards Mt Dumaresq in the distance, which it resembles in silhouette. The rear elevation has projecting sandstone blocks on the north and south ends, indicating the intended two-storeyed extensions which were never built and which would have formed a U-shaped plan. The building originally had a timber shingled roof, and some of these shingles remain under the corrugated iron sheeting.
The building has the remains of double height verandahs to the north, east and south. The most intact section of verandah is located at the northern end, with the southern end almost completely missing. The ground floor verandahs have paired, narrow ornamental cast iron columns, which were produced by the Russell Foundry of Sydney, in front and to either side of a tubular cast iron column which was intended to support the load above. These columns are currently in place only to the northern end and part of the western side, and are supported by sandstone plinths which in turn are supported by a footing wall. The paired Russell Foundry columns were also located on the first floor verandah where they acted as structural members. The inside face of the columns had timber panelling which, to the ground floor verandah, aligned with expressed false beams in the timber panelled ceiling. The ground floor columns support a timber web truss, which in turn supports the first floor verandah above. The first floor verandah had cast iron balustrades, also produced by the Russell Foundry, which have been removed.
The ground floor verandahs originally had a fixed timber louvred panelled frieze, which was the remnants of a louvred system intended to have panels which ran in tracks located at the side of the columns allowing the verandah to be enclosed, but where venetian blinds were installed instead. The ground floor verandahs had timber floors which have been removed, and a central set of sandstone steps accessing the main entrance on the eastern side.
The east and south walls have smooth faced sandstone blocks, while the north and west walls have picked faced sandstone. Both floors have french doors with arched fanlights opening onto the verandahs, with three sets of doors either side of the central entry, and all arched headers have expressed vermiculated keystones. The central entry has double doors with sidelights, and an arched fanlight with coloured glass segments surmounted by an expressed keystone carved in relief with the initials JD 1867 surrounded by a garland of leaves. The doors and sidelights have timber lower panels with etched, arched glazed upper panels. The french doors are similar and open inwards. Originally these doors had a second set of doors which opened outwards and contained a timber lower panel with an upper panel of copper mesh, presumably as an insect screen. The ground floor north and south elevations have a projecting sandstone bay with a central french door flanked by a tall, narrow sash window.
The ground floor western wall has timber panelled doors with arched fanlight at the north and south ends. A similar doorway is located in the centre under the internal staircase, but the door is missing. These doors are accessed by rough sandstone steps and a timber ramp, and a stone lined stormwater drain is located in front of and running parallel to this wall. A tall sash window is located above the central door, with a smaller sash to either side. This symmetrical elevation has two chimney stacks which have picked faced sandstone to the base, and smooth faced sandstone above surmounted by a large cornice with curved capping pieces. The western wall has marks in the sandstone above the northern door which indicate the roof profile of the covered way which was originally located connected there.
Internally, the building has a symmetrical plan with a central hall and stairwell flanked by the former dining room on the north and former drawing room on the south. The first floor has a bedroom at either end, separated from the stairwell by an ante room and linked by a short hallway. The plaster finishes are thought to be original, but have suffered much water damage.
All the masonry walls are plastered, and on the first floor the non-masonry walls are lath and plaster. The ceilings are lath and plaster, and all rooms have plaster cornices, with the widths and designs varying in different rooms. Principal rooms have ornate central plaster ceiling roses, with the dining room containing two roses which would have been positioned above a central table. Throughout the building, the skirtings, architraves, doors and floor boards are cedar. Doors are panelled with etched, arched glass fanlights, and evidence of early decoration include brackets for curtain rods.
The drawing room originally had a white marble fireplace surround with relief carving of fruit, and the dining room had a black marble fireplace surround, both of which have been removed. The main bedroom, on the south, has a cedar fireplace surround and evidence of a shelving unit which was located between the chimney breast and adjacent wall but was probably not an original fitting. The adjacent ante-room housed a bathroom, and surviving evidence include vertically jointed timber panelling and a cedar surround for a shower rose. The bathroom originally housed a slate bath and flushing toilet. The northern bedroom has a vertically jointed timber partition wall which divides the room in two but which does not reach the ceiling height. This room had a cedar fireplace surround which has been removed, but the register grate is in place. The adjacent ante-room is thought to have been a nursery or dressing room.
The stairwell contains a U-shaped curving cedar staircase which as been partly restored. A protective timber cover and temporary handrail has been installed, with the original turned cedar balustrade and handrail in place to the first floor landing. The stair is lit by a tall sash window.
To the west of the homestead is the office/store. This single-storeyed sandstone building has a hipped corrugated iron roof, which originally had timber shingles, and a cellar. The stonework consists of a rough alternation of thick and thin bands, and the northern elevation has a central entrance flanked by a window to either side. A second entrance is located on the eastern side facing the homestead, two windows are located on the southern side, and the cellar is entered from the west via a flight of seven sandstone steps, but the original entrance door has been removed. The building has air vents to the cellar just above ground level. Internally, this building originally had two rooms with separate entries, but the internal wall has been removed. The walls are plastered and a ceiling has been installed. Remains of cobbled paths around the building are evident.
Cultivation of the paddocks above the homestead has resulted in the site being mantled in 300mm of black soil. Some of this overburden has been removed, but the majority of the site has been protected and the position of early structures may be able to be identified with further investigation. Excavations have been undertaken to the site of the cedar wing and kitchen complex, stables, stormwater drains and sewerage system, and to a large part of the area north and west of the office. The site boundary fence passes across the corner of the partly excavated area of the stables.
The remains of the gardens include two Norfolk Island Pines appear to mark the position of the original entrance gates and stone pillars to the northeast of the homestead. The form of the raised tennis court and curved drive can be determined, and a number of mature trees are located at the northern end of the homestead. Remains of the orchard, to the south of the homestead, include a number of gnarled and twisted fruit trees.
","history":"Glengallan Homestead, built 1867-68, is located on the southwestern slope of Mt Marshall at the mouth of a wide valley, running west from Cunningham's Gap, near the junction of the Cunningham and New England Highways approximately 15 kilometres north of Warwick.
This valley was the original Darling Downs, discovered and named by explorer Allan Cunningham (1791-1839) in 1827 in honour of the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Ralph Darling (1775-1858), and the name Darling Downs was later used to identify the surrounding region of open rolling country with rich and deep soils. Cunningham found a gap in the dividing range, and the following year, while visiting Moreton Bay, he found a gap which he thought was the same one he had discovered previously, and which became known as Cunningham's Gap.
This open country had been carefully and deliberately maintained by the Aborigines in what has been called firestick farming, an annual pattern of controlled burns to protect certain resource areas and pasture for native grazing animals. The Aboriginal burning pattern was disrupted within the first years of the runs being taken up, and the local Aboriginal population were soon killed off.
The unsettled districts outside the nineteen counties around Sydney had been thrown open to squatters by the 1836 licence system. This system proved ineffective and in 1839 a new Act was passed. This Act provided for an annual licence fee to be paid, determined per head of stock on the run, and also provided administration by Commissioners of Crown Lands. However, the squatters still had no permanency of land tenure, and in 1847 Orders in Council were introduced which allowed further 14 year leases for established unsettled runs on payment of an annual fee per head of stock. The Orders in Council also gave the run holders the pre-emptive right to purchase the land for its fair value in an unimproved state at less than one pound per acre at the completion of the lease. Pre-emption was allowed to continue until 1868, and meant that nearly all the best land, creek frontages, water holes and portions guarding leasehold areas were pre-empted. It allowed the squatters to hold onto their land, but also plunged many of them into debt often resulting in financial ruin.
Patrick Leslie (1815-1881) born at Warthill, Aberdeenshire Scotland, the second son of William Leslie, ninth laird of Warthill and eight of Folla, had sailed from London in 1834 and arrived in New South Wales in May 1835. He gained pastoralist experience under the Macarthurs of Camden, and in 1836 went to manage the property of his uncle Davidson on the Krui River at Colleroi. By 1839 Leslie had rented Dunheved farm at Penrith, and when his brothers Walter and George arrived he decided to look for new land north of the limits of settlement. In 1840 he started with a large party for the Clarence River district, and then resolved to look at the Darling Downs. With one companion, a convict named Murphy, he followed Cunningham's trail and relocated the Darling Downs and decided on the area that was to become Toolburra and Canning Downs for his first station. Walter Leslie and Ernest Dalrymple followed with the flocks, and in 1840 the Leslies became the first settlers on the Darling Downs.
Ernest Dalrymple took up a run next to the Leslies, and all runs on the Downs were taken up by June 1841. The Leslies originally selected all the land which became Toolburra, South Toolburra, Glengallan, Gladfield, Maryvale, Warwick and Canning Downs, and had taken up a far greater area than which they were entitled under a New South Wales licence. They had to dispose of the areas that became Glengallan, Sandy Creek and Fred (Bracker) the German's Creek (Rosenthal) to the Aberdeen Company.
The Leslies negotiated permission to bring supplies from the Moreton Bay settlement, even though it was not open to commerce. The settlement opened in 1842 however, and thereafter all the Downs squatters (run holders) were free to have supplies sent in and wool sent out to Ipswich, from where they could be transported by river to Brisbane.
In 1841-42 the Leslie brothers sold approximately 42,000 acres to brothers Colin and John Campbell, Scottish immigrants, who named it Glengallan Run. The Leslies noted they had disposed of the buildings and the right of the lower part of the run for which we had no use and we got 250 pounds for it. This description may have included Glengallan, Fred the German's Creek and Sandy Creek.
By 1844, Campbell and Co were in liquidation, but the partnership recovered and after 1844 it appears that licences for Glengallan were issued in the sole name of Colin Campbell. Another brother, Archibald, managed the property from 1845-48 and during this time the stock numbers increased considerably, but disease broke out in 1847. Glengallan was offered for sale in November 1847, but this was not successful.
The Campbell's first encampment had been at Freestone Creek, an area which has become known as Campbell Plains, but it proved unsuitable for sheep due to wooded areas and dingo habitat. The camp subsequently moved to Glengallan Creek, known as Gap Creek, near the slope of what became Mt Marshall. It has been suggested that their c.1842 residence, described as a rude but substantial hut, would have been close to the site of the present homestead being close to the creek but above flood level, with expansive views of the surrounding area and a relatively flat terrace of land, but the exact location has not been positively identified. The 1846 diary of the New South Wales Commissioner for Crown Lands, Darling Downs District, stated the run was 120 square miles with 15,000 head of sheep, 400 cattle and 30 horses. In 1848, a NSW Government Gazette noted Colin Campbell holding leases for Glengallan totalling 60,000 acres. Glengallan was located in a pivotal position on the main roads, which have changed slightly in position, from Toowoomba/Drayton heading towards the south and from the Downs properties heading towards Cunningham's Gap.
The NSW Government Gazette published a list of transfers of runs dated 11 October 1848 recording the transfer of Glengallan from Colin Campbell to the unrelated Robert Tertius Campbell (1811-1887) with whom Colin Campbell banked, and it appears that the three Campbell brothers died in 1853. Robert Tertius Campbell, whose father was a Director of the Bank of New South Wales, was related to the Campbells of Duntroon in the Monaro district, and had been lessee of Jondaryan in 1845, gained the lease of North Branch of Swamps Run in 1849, and continued leasing Canning Creek until 1852. The NSW Government Gazette dated 30 July 1852 recorded that RT Campbell transferred his interest in Glengallan to his partner Charles Henry Marshall, who had previously been his managing clerk and whom he took into partnership in Glengallan it appears in 1849-50. RT Campbell then moved on to the newly opened Burnett District.
In December 1851 and March 1852, the artist Conrad Martens (1801-1878), who had arrived in Sydney in 1835, stayed at Glengallan during the course of his five month trip to the Brisbane area and the Darling Downs in search of painting commissions. He travelled through the country making pencil drawings, many of which he used as the basis for water colours and oil paintings, which he executed on his return to Sydney. These drawings and paintings are some of the few illustrations of Queensland during this time, and his sketches of Glengallan show the main homestead as two timber buildings surrounded by verandahs and situated close together.
Charles Henry Marshall (1821-1874), who was born in Mauritius and had a background in London and Devon, was appointed Magistrate in 1849-50 and took John Deuchar into partnership in 1855. Marshall was an active member of the Church of England, and in 1858 gave 11 acres of land in Warwick to the church as the site for a parsonage and glebe. A parsonage, named Hillside, was built on the site for Reverend Benjamin Glennie. Marshall seems to have lived at Glengallan until 1865, when Deuchar bought out his interests and he retired from the partnership and departed for England, but was to return to Australia due to Deuchar's financial difficulties in 1870.
During their partnership, Marshall and Deuchar established the famous Glengallan Merino flock and Shorthorn stud.
John Deuchar (1820-1872) was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and with his sister Beatrice migrated to New South Wales in 1839. He gained pastoral experience in the Hunter River district and c.1842 drove sheep from Maitland to the Darling Downs for the Aberdeen Co, and later for the North British Australian Co. From 1844 he was overseer at Goomburra, and after two years with the support of Walter Grey of Ipswich, he bought Canal Creek well stocked with Talgai Merinos. In 1848 Deuchar sold Canal Creek, and succeeded Fred Bracker as manager of Rosenthal for the Aberdeen Co, and became travelling superintendent of the company's properties. In 1829 Bracker, from Mecklenburg, Germany, had brought to New South Wales a flock of Saxon Merinos of the Rambouillet family from Prince Esterhazy's Silesian flock for the Aberdeen Co. On Rosenthal, Deuchar had the first two thoroughbred Merino rams on the Darling Downs; Camden Billy from John Macarthur's stud at Camden Park, already there when he took over, and German Billy, which he brought with him from Canal Creek. A fine Merino stud was developed from a blend of Spanish Negretti Cabana and Rambouillet strains, developing long, superfine wool. Deuchar began breeding cattle, especially Shorthorns, and brought to Rosenthal Lord Raglan, the first imported Shorthorn bull to reach the Downs, and well bred cattle from the Australian Agricultural Co's properties farther south. He also developed a horse racing stud, and his stallion Grey Arab, bought from one of the Aberdeen Co's properties, sired many fine horses which Deuchar rode successfully at race meetings both on the flat and over fences.
In 1855 Deuchar went into partnership with Marshall on Glengallan, and continued his stock breeding. His overseer William Anderson had been at school with him and had come to the colony on the same ship. Deuchar insisted on building up his own teams of employees, and on taking over Rosenthal and Glengallan he dispersed the families on the properties and replaced them with other employees already known to him.
In 1857 Deuchar married Eliza Charlotte Lee, the sister of Dr Washington Lee of Warwick, in Paddington Sydney, and travelled to Europe in 1858-60 where he purchased stock which would become important in building up Glengallan's flocks. In Germany Deuchar selected ten rams and ten ewes from the flocks of Baron Von Malzahn at Lenschow in Mecklenburg, of which Marshall made a further selection of ten rams and fifteen ewes in 1862, the last time that outside blood was introduced and the Glengallan Merinos were bred up from this stock.
By 1865 Marshall and Deuchar had pre-empted 18,172 acres, which rose to 31,166 acres by the end of 1867. This was 66% of the total run area which totalled 44,800 acres, being the highest percentage of pre-empted selection of land of any run in the 1860-1874 period.
By 1864 the Glengallan Head Station complex included two houses, stables and a kitchen, with new stables having been built prior to 1858. In 1866 it was described by Kate Hume, a visitor, as the house has been added to, till it resembles a village, connected by verandahs and covered ways!
Glengallan Homestead was constructed in 1867-68, and it is thought that Deuchar had been planning his house for some time. The extant office/store building with cellar was constructed in 1864 by local builder Miekeljohn from local sandstone, and is thought to be both experimental and an integral part of the total envisaged precinct. A variety of sizes of sandstone block was used, unlike the regular masonry of the house or the irregular stonework of the verandah foundation. It has been suggested that the cellar was experimental in determining the movement and depth of the black soil, and that subsequently cellars were not chosen for the main house. It appears that the cellar was a cold store, and that the dry goods store was above, with the estate office.
Deuchar had intended to build a much larger house, possibly in a U-shape plan, although he only had time and resources to build one wing of Glengallan Homestead. Unconfirmed reports state that a massive hole was dug for the foundations, up to 20 feet wider than the building, till sandstone was reached. On this sandstone a massive platform of basalt rubble was laid, and the outer and dividing walls were then constructed and the intervening spaces refilled to ground level. During construction the Warwick Examiner and Times noted in November 1867 that Glengallan will be one of the most splendid gentlemen's residences in the colony.
The sandstone for Glengallan Homestead was quarried on the property, from an area now known as Swan Creek at Yangan, and the verandah sandstone, much coarser and softer, comes from Karcaruda, which was a former settlement and railway siding near Swan Creek.
The construction of Glengallan was supervised by Warwick builder Thomas Wood, possibly for architect Charles Balding who, based in Ipswich, had opened a temporary office in Toowoomba and his practice extended to the Darling Downs. Balding had designed Gooloowan in Quarry Street, Ipswich, for Benjamin Cribb, which was built in 1863-64 and is noted as being similar to Glengallan. It has also been suggested that Richard George Suter (1827-1894) may have been involved, possibly taking over from Balding who left the colony in 1867. Suter later designed Jimbour House (QHR 600941), a two-storeyed sandstone homestead built 1873-74.
Deuchar had two suites of furniture made at Ebenstons in Queen Street, Brisbane, for the drawing and dining rooms. The fact that local materials and a local manufacturer were used was publicised in the Brisbane Courier in August 1868. Reports of the cost of the house vary between £5-12,000, and a gala opening party was held on 16 September 1868. The Deuchars hosted many social events during their time at Glengallan, and house guests included Governor Bowen and his family. Deuchar had envisaged the ground floor rooms as drawing room (north) and ball room (south), but were actually used as drawing room (south) and dining room (north) with bedrooms on the first floor.
Nine months after the opening party, Glengallan was offered for sale. The cost of the pre-emptive purchase, building a grand house, a drought, and buying Marshall out of the partnership all contributed to Deuchar's financial ruin. In early 1865 Deuchar had taken over sole control of the management of Glengallan, and contracted to buy the property by taking out a mortgage with Marshall payable in ten years.
Deuchar was unable to pay instalments on the mortgage and Marshall foreclosed in 1870. Deuchar also owed other creditors, and may have had to leave all the contents at Glengallan when he and his family left. Deuchar retired to Mile End in Warwick where he died of pneumonia aged 50 on 11 September 1872, survived by his wife, two daughters and six sons.
During Deuchar's occupation, the servants quarters and buggy shed were built, and the gardens and avenue of trees were laid out. The house water supply and sewerage disposal system was also developed, with the water being pumped from the creek using a 2.5 horse-power Bailey engine, and the pump appears to have been set on a sandstone block platform. The water was pumped to a holding tank below the bathroom, then up to a 200 gallon lead lined wooden roof tank supplying cold water for bath, shower and flushing toilet on the first floor. The large size of the roof tank was probably due to the type of toilet system used, a rare feature at the time, which had been invented in 1778 and required high water pressure. The pump was also used to irrigate the gardens around the house.
During the next 20 years, the two early houses were demolished, and the covered way to one of the houses was truncated. A rear wing, known as the cedar wing, was built to provide guest rooms, estate office, cook's bedroom and housekeeper's room. The kitchen was built adjoining the side of the covered way, but separate from the stone house, and was set on stumps with a large chimney at its eastern end. The bath house was built against the western end of the south verandah.
Marshall returned in 1870 and remained until 1873 when he took WB Slade into partnership and again retired to England where he died in August 1874. The partnership continued however, with Marshall's share transferred to his widow Charlotte Augusta Dring Marshall, until 1904 when the property was sold.
A new woolshed was completed to the northwest of the house in 1873, being approximately three times the size of the present woolshed. The earliest position of the woolshed is noted in 1859-60. The 1873 woolshed is noted as having a T-shape plan and could accommodate 22 shearers, and was described in 1892 as being a hardwood structure, with a shingle roof, that could accommodate 1,000 sheep. The exact position of the washpool has been disputed, but some sources indicate that it was located upstream from the house. Clean wool was abandoned in favour of greasy wool with the cessation of sheep washing in 1870s.
During WB Slade's time at Glengallan, many changes occurred resulting from the increased diversification of the property into dairying and crops. In the open areas fostered by the Aboriginal land management practices, prior to European settlement, a pasture dominated by nutritious grasses had developed. These grasses did not survive intensified stocking, particularly when fencing became a standard practice, and less nutritious grasses took their place. A gradual decline in the carrying capacity was noted during the period 1860-1880, and the solution was to improve the feed and as a result lucerne became a major crop.
From 1842-1868 any cultivation was limited to paddocks lower than the house and closer to the creek. After 1868, Deuchar's pump, installed to deliver water to the house, was used to irrigate nearby fields. After 1880, the benefit of lucerne as a fodder crop was recognised and the cultivation of wheat and other grains began to assume importance. For the following 80 to 90 years, many of the paddocks above and near the house were cultivated for crops, and much soil was washed away.
William Ball Slade (1843-1938) was born in Somerset, England, and after some legal training migrated to Sydney in 1861 where his elder brother was practising as a solicitor. After pastoral experience in New South Wales and Queensland, Slade married Sophia Thompson on 1 March 1873 at St Mark's Church of England Warwick, and that year became manager and partner of Glengallan. Deuchar had established notable Shorthorn and Merino studs, and between the droughts of 1872 and 1902 Slade developed the Shorthorn stud to over one thousand pedigree females, one of the largest in the world. The Merino stud had such prestige that Slade maintained a closed flock until 1916. During that time he developed a heavier-fleeced flock, with wool that was stronger, of greater length and often brighter. He kept another line of Merinos of Vermont strain, separate from the Glengallan foundation stock, and also bred Lincolns. He exported stud Merinos to the Cape of Good Hope in 1888, a connection which was long continued.
Many more staff were required at Glengallan, even though shepherding was abandoned in favour of fenced paddocks, and sheep washing ceased in the 1870s. Glengallan concentrated on stud sheep and cattle, with fat lambs becoming important once rail transport and refrigeration came into the economic realm. One of Slade's achievements was to transform Glengallan from a traditional pastoral stud property to one where intensive cultivation of lucerne and other fodder supported not only the stud stock but also wethers bought for fattening from western properties, and he was praised by contemporaries as the best manager in the Darling Downs. Further diversification included dairying and a substantial piggery.
At some point it appears that the main flow of Glengallan Creek became diverted down Backwater Creek, for what reason is not known. By 1892 three dams had been constructed on Glengallan Creek to provide irrigation to the paddocks. Water was still being pumped from the creek in the 1890s, but by the early 1900s water was being supplied by a bore on the northwest of Mt Marshall to a holding tank near the woolshed, and the house water system was reliant on rain water. The original timber shingles to the roof of Glengallan were sheeted over with corrugated iron and stormwater drainage was introduced. Pipes were installed at both the northwest and southwest corners of the house, with the northwest pipe feeding into the stone lined channel that runs along the west side of house with sandstone capping pieces. Pipes also fed into the roof tank.
In 1885 Glengallan covered 42,000 acres, and from 1896 to 1904 Glengallan was progressively broken up into smaller units. After the original leases had expired in the 1860s, lease holders were permitted to acquire large areas by pre-emptive claim and further purchases. Considerable pressures were put upon the pastoralists due to demand for smaller land holdings, eventually resulting in the Selection Acts of the 1860s and 1870s which forced them to borrow heavily, and the fluctuation of wool prices meant that it was difficult for them to make a profit. The Agricultural Lands Purchase Act of 1894 was the instrument by which many of the large estates on the Downs were broken up. Under this Act, the Glengallan partnership restored its capital and recouped drought losses in three major subdivisions between 1895 and 1904, when the partnership came to an end. Slade actively offered his property to the Government and lobbied local Members of Parliament to assist in ensuring his offer was accepted.
In 1904, after the three major subdivisions, Slade retained 3,000 acres and repurchased the Glengallan Homestead block, reportedly between 1,275 and 2,000 acres in size, from the Government for £ 10,265. Later in 1904, Slade transferred the Glengallan Homestead and accompanying 482 acres to GH Gillespie, a member of the well known firm of Victorian Millers. It appears that by 1907, Clara Gillespie was farming the Glengallan Homestead portion with her son Alexander Frederick Gillespie.
Slade named his smaller estate East Glengallan, built himself a residence and continued with the Glengallan Merino and Shorthorn studs. Slade acquired properties near Warwick and at Gore, towards Inglewood, for his family. In 1912 East Glengallan was subdivided with the eldest son Oswald Carey Slade (1882-1956) managing the Merino stud. Slade's other son Adrian also managed or was proprietor of award winning studs.
WB Slade is celebrated as the archetypal Anglo-Australian patrician of Warwick, and was patron, office-bearer and benefactor of show societies, his church, Masonic Lodge and the Warwick branch of the Royal Society of St George. His great avocation was cricket, and he donated Slade Park to the Queensland I Zingari Cricket Club, which formed 1868 and of which he was one of the first members and Captain for almost 30 years. He established annual cricket matches at Glengallan and a pavilion was constructed. In 1932 he was appointed CBE, and he died 18 April 1938 and is buried in the Warwick cemetery. His name is remembered by the Slade School, Warwick.
Slade established a school, which had opened by 1886, and paid for its construction, desks, furniture and teacher. It was taken over by the Education Department in 1891, and was closed and relocated in 1904 when that portion of Glengallan was purchased by the government. Slade also gave 2 acres to the Anglican Church, and St Andrew's Church was opened in 1908. St Andrew's was described as a weatherboard church that could accommodate 200 people, painted dark red with pale green glass casement windows and a vestry at the western end. The church has since been relocated to St David's, Allora, and is attached to the hall.
The only alteration made to Glengallan Homestead by Slade is thought to be the timber partition in the first floor northern room to accommodate children's bedrooms.
By 1904 the structures at the head station consisted of Glengallan Homestead, with the rear cedar wing, kitchen and bath house attached, sandstone office/store, two storeyed stables, buggy shed, and servants quarters. The garden comprised a tennis court (often used for cricket practice) to the northeast of the house, a gravel/cobbled semi-circular drive lined by semi-circular garden beds and an extensive shrubbery, a lawn with a central circular garden, a tree lined drive (planted by Deuchar), and a box hedge separating the formal garden from the productive gardens. An orchard was located on the southern side of the house and was terraced down to Glengallan Creek which was fringed with willows. A vegetable garden was also located on the southern side or behind the house. Glengallan was described as giving the appearance of a picturesquely scattered township, and included many outbuildings and a large complex of structures nearer to the woolshed.
Clara Gillespie was declared insolvent in July 1910, and it appears that the property was transferred to her son Alexander Frederick Gillespie in January 1912. It is noted that financial problems plagued AF Gillespie, and during his occupation of the property there appears to have been no new buildings erected and some may have begun to deteriorate. It appears that the Glengallan Homestead portion was transferred to Oswald Carey Slade (son of WB Slade) in July 1918, and AF Gillespie died in 1926-27.
Oswald Carey Slade installed a manager, and it is recorded that the Atkinson family lived in the main house in 1927. Another manager and his family occupied the house from 1931 until he retired due to ill health in 1944-45. This was the last family to live at the house. During OC Slade's ownership, the property further deteriorated with the area between the house and the office/store turned into a farmyard.
In 1919, Glengallan was described as being approached via a winding drive over a quarter mile long, with magnificent pine trees lining either side of the drive, a neat picket fence of 270 yards surrounds the garden area, broken by a substantial gateway of stone pillars and iron gates. It was also described as having cobbled areas to the north side of the house and approaching the office/store doors, a fernery, small vineyard, homestead enclosure and adjacent small paddocks irrigated by pipes which were supplied by elevated tanks filled by a pump, stables with feed room and harness room, buggy shed for three vehicles, and a couple of six-room cottages for married men and their families. By this time, much of the infrastructure which originally supported Glengallan would have been disused or much modified.
The two-storeyed stables burned down, probably in the late 1920s, and a stone paved and corrugated iron roofed shed was erected partly over the site. This was possibly also the site of the earlier stables as sketched by Conrad Martens in 1852, which were also possibly built on the site of the c.1842 stables. In the early 1930s the first floor of Glengallan House was unoccupied and the servants quarters, a long narrow timber building comprising rooms opening onto a verandah, was demolished. The stone pillars and iron gates were removed in 1940 to Leslie Park in Warwick. In 1946 the kitchen and bath house were removed to other parts of the property, and later that year the cedar wing was dismantled and sold to Eddie Mogridge of Tanneymorel, and it has subsequently been moved to Swanfels. The remains of a cemetery is located at a distance from Glengallan House to the southwest, but the date of establishment is not known.
Oswald Carey Slade was childless, and in 1931 he transferred East Glengallan to the Anglican Church, subject to a life tenancy.
In 1949 Mr and Mrs OC Slade gave Glengallan Homestead to the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church had plans to dismantle Glengallan and use the materials to build a War Memorial Science Block at the Slade School in Warwick, but this did not eventuate. The school leased the property to various people for farming purposes.
After the property was accepted by the Anglican Church, no development was seriously attempted. Glengallan Homestead was left often open and used as shelter by goats and birds, and many of the fittings were removed. In 1972 the property was transferred to the Smith family. Glengallan was left unoccupied, its remaining gardens were turned into paddocks, and the slow creep of soil from cultivated paddocks above was allowed to continue. The only visible structures were the main house and the sandstone office/store.
A 1975 report noted that the structure was in reasonably good condition, some sheets of corrugated iron had blown off the roof and the verandahs had deteriorated. By 1983 the southern verandah had collapsed and the eastern verandah was unstable, water was entering the building and more corrugated iron sheets were missing.
In 1983, a group of fourth year architecture students from the University of Queensland made a set of measured drawings of Glengallan House. These were followed up by a conservation analysis funded by a National Estate Grant in 1983, 1984 and 1986, carried out by the Department of Architecture University of Queensland. Recommendations for the conservation and management of Glengallan were made, but no organisation was willing to undertake them. In 1993 Glengallan House and its surrounding grounds were gifted to the non-profit Glengallan Homestead Trust which was formed in 1993.
Since then archaeological excavations have been carried out, mainly involving the drainage, water and sewerage systems. However, works have also been carried out resulting in some damage to the property. These works include the removal of black soil overburden, the provision of water, power and telephone, the installation of a toilet block and septic system, excavation for rebuilding of verandah walls, the construction of a shed, and the verandahs have been largely removed. The roof has been repaired, with some new structural members being inserted, and resheeted with corrugated iron with some of the original timber shingles being retained insitu.
","criteria":"The district surrounding Glengallan Homestead was part of the area Allan Cunningham discovered and explored in 1827. The Glengallan Run was part of the first Darling Downs run, selected by Patrick Leslie in 1840, and was established and named by brothers Colin and John Campbell in 1841-42. The approximate site of the present homestead appears to have been established c.1842, and since that time has been located in a pivotal position on the main roads, which have changed slightly in position, from Toowoomba/Drayton heading towards the south and from the Downs properties heading towards Cunningham's Gap.
The homestead was built in 1867-68 by John Deuchar who, with partner Charles Henry Marshall, established the famous Glengallan Merino flock and Shorthorn stud. The breeding tradition established by Deuchar was further developed by William Ball Slade who maintained the pre-eminence of the Glengallan stud from 1873 until the property was sold in 1904. Slade also transformed Glengallan from a traditional pastoral stud property to one where intensive cultivation of lucerne and other fodder supported not only the stud stock but also wethers bought for fattening from western properties. Further diversification included dairying and a substantial piggery, and Slade was praised by his contemporaries as the best manager on the Darling Downs. Slade was also described as the archetypal Anglo-Australian patrician of Warwick, being a patron, office-bearer, benefactor and member of numerous societies, clubs, the Masonic Lodge and Anglican Church.
|Glengallan Homestead is a two-storeyed sandstone structure and as such, with the exception of Jimbour House [600941], is a rare example of a Queensland homestead of that period which were mainly single-storeyed timber structures. Although the homestead was built as part of a larger, uncompleted design, the grand architectural concept can be appreciated and, with its picturesque siting, the building is recognised as a landmark in the surrounding rural landscape.
|The site contains archaeological remains which could provide further information concerning the living conditions on the property and the development of the homestead and associated complex of buildings from the 1840s.
|The homestead and surrounding landscape provide evidence of the way of life of a large Darling Downs Station, from its establishment to eventual decline, and the building is symbolic of the power and prestige of the Darling Downs squatters in the mid to late nineteenth century.
|As a ruin of a grand homestead, which has strong associations with the history and pastoral development of the Darling Downs, the building has unique aesthetic and cultural attributes and has been the subject of much community concern and recent conservation action, as reflected in its current administration by the Glengallan Homestead Trust Ltd.
|The fabric of the building exhibits a sophisticated design approach, and the detailing of the materials reflects a fine quality of craftsmanship. Some elements of the building were technically innovative for the time, particularly the verandah louvre system and french doors with insect screens, reflecting a consideration for the Queensland climate and conditions.
|As a ruin of a grand homestead, which has strong associations with the history and pastoral development of the Darling Downs, the building has unique aesthetic and cultural attributes and has been the subject of much community concern and recent conservation action, as reflected in its current administration by the Glengallan Homestead Trust Ltd.
|The district surrounding Glengallan Homestead was part of the area Allan Cunningham discovered and explored in 1827. The Glengallan Run was part of the first Darling Downs run, selected by Patrick Leslie in 1840, and was established and named by brothers Colin and John Campbell in 1841-42.
The homestead was built in 1867-68 by John Deuchar who, with partner Charles Henry Marshall, established the famous Glengallan Merino flock and Shorthorn stud. The breeding tradition established by Deuchar was further developed by William Ball Slade who maintained the pre-eminence of the Glengallan stud from 1873 until the property was sold in 1904.
Slade was also described as the archetypal Anglo-Australian patrician of Warwick, being a patron, office-bearer, benefactor and member of numerous societies, clubs, the Masonic Lodge and Anglican Church.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | 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 has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place 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 | 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":15298,"place_ref":600523,"name":"White Swan Inn (former)","alternate_name":"White Swan Inn","street_address":"Swan Creek","suburb":"SWAN CREEK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The White Swan Inn is a one storeyed building with a substantial attic above. It is constructed mainly of tooled sandstone laid in a coursed random pattern with has a hipped corrugated iron roof. The building is surrounded by a simply detailed verandah which sits on low stumps. The verandah roof is supported by timber posts and the soffit reveals battening for shingles though these have been replaced with corrugated iron sheeting.
The exterior of the building is symmetrical in appearance. Timber steps to the verandah are centrally located in front of the main entrance door which is flanked by french doors. These replace the original inward opening single doors which are currently stored in the garage. Dormer windows with weatherboard sidings are located within the hipped roof at both the front and rear of the building, and align with the french doors below. Stone chimney shafts with moulded corbelling are situated at either end of the building.
The symmetrically arranged interior is divided by a central hallway from the front door, and which incorporates a narrow stair leading to the attic at the rear. High quality timber doors of varying sizes open from the hallway into the three ground floor rooms. The two rooms on the northern side are of similar proportions and detailing with plaster walls and a ceiling of wide beaded boards. The room on the southern side of the building appears to have had a central dividing wall which has since been removed to create one large room. This room has plaster walls and ceilings. The rooms have chimneypieces with early over-mantles excepting the one in the room at the north-east corner. Both the large room and the smaller front room have french doors that open onto the verandah. All rooms have timber skirtings and simply moulded cornices.
The staircase is a reconstruction of the original and leads to an upstairs area which is divided into three rooms and a hallway. The hallway is lined with 300mm (approx) wide pine boards. The original shingle roof of the building survives under the corrugated iron. The external walls of the building project approximately one metre above the first floor level. Above these, plaster walls taper to meet a plaster ceiling both of which are divided by exposed timber rafters and collar ties.
A new addition of timber and brick has been built at the rear of the house and is joined to the original house at the end of the hallway. Near this new addition stands a brick fireplace, probably from the original kitchen building which no longer exists.
","history":"The former White Swan Inn was built at Swan Creek in about 1876 as the residence of local farmer Edward Malone. Shortly after its construction the residence became a hotel, known as the White Swan Inn though it remained in this use for only ten years before becoming a residence again.
The Swan Creek district, situated about 11 kilometres from Warwick, was known as the Agricultural Reserve and comprised a tract of fertile country wedged between extensive pastoral holdings. Early settlers arriving in Swan Creek during the 1860s were successful in having the district surveyed and offered for sale in agricultural farm areas. 18 acres of the Warwick Agricultural Reserve, being portion 284, was granted to Joseph Thomas Wilson in May 1868 and it is on this land that the White Swan Inn was later built.
According to the titles information on the property, subdivisions 1 and 3 were transferred to Edward Malone by January 1880. However, it seems that the land was in Malone's possession many years prior to this. A roving correspondent for The Queenslander visited Swan Creek in 1876 and published descriptions of the area in several editions of the newspaper during October of that year in a series titled, Farming on the Darling Downs. The series has a description of a farm owned by Mr Edward Malone, who, at the time of the article was having some difficulties with his neighbour, a Mr Hughes, over road reserves and access for cattle.
The property owned by Edward Malone is described as 75 acres, of which 32 acres were under wheat cultivation. The correspondent noted that Malone was in the process of constructing a stone house on his property near an adjoining Church of England property. This house would appear to be the building known as the White Swan Inn today, which is situated alongside a former Church of England. Another mention of the house appears in an historical survey of the Swan Creek area published in the Warwick Daily News of September 1945. This talks about the White Swan Inn which was built as the residence of Edward Malone in about 1880, but after its construction became used as an hotel, namely the White Swan Inn, when Malone transferred his business from farmer to that of publican. A license was issued by the Licensing Court for a hotel at the White Swan Inn in 1878 though the publican's name is not mentioned. Early photographs of the White Swan Inn show a building much as it appears today, a single storeyed sandstone residence with shingled roof pierced by dormer windows.
Subdivision 3, on which the White Swan Inn was erected, was transferred from Malone to Matthew O'Sullivan in July 1884 and it seems the White Swan Inn continued to operate. According to the Warwick Daily News' article of 1945 was managed by a Mr Ravenscroft. On Matthew O'Sullivan's death on 24 February 1885 the estate was transferred to his widow, Mary Francis. On December 1887 Subdivision 3 was transferred to Bernard Hughes who returned the building to the former use of private residence. The house remained in the Hughes family until May 1972 when it was transferred to Colin and Edna Tyson.
By 1978 the Tysons implemented a building programme at their new home, which included the addition of a kitchen and living area at the rear of the house. Internally much work was undertaken during the Tysons stay in the house, including the realignment of internal stairs and the internal re-arrangement of the attic. In January 1989 the property was transferred to Neil and Donna Lomas and in March 1992 was transferred to Donna Lomas solely who owns the house today.
","criteria":"The former White Swan Inn is important in demonstrating the development of Swan Creek which was in an area formerly set aside as an Agricultural Reserve.
The former White Swan Inn demonstrates the principal characteristics of a small sandstone house in Queensland, particularly of those constructed in the nineteenth century in and around Warwick.
|The building contributes to the Swan Creek area where it is a prominent feature of a flat and sparse landscape. The residence is picturesquely situated and of aesthetic value.
|The White Swan Inn has special associations with JT Wilson and Edward Malone, early European residents of the area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a 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":15299,"place_ref":600524,"name":"Burndale","alternate_name":"Warrenilla","street_address":"Cutmore's Road","suburb":"SWAN CREEK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Burndale is a two-storeyed sandstone house with timber verandahs and a corrugated iron roof. It dominates a gently undulating, sparsely treed landscape, rising above a cluster of immediately surrounding trees. It has a simple square-shaped plan, with verandahs on all sides, shaded by a curved corrugated iron awning. A pyramid roof rises above the awning, with substantial brick chimneys to the north and the south. The verandahs have been enclosed with weatherboard to part of the northern elevation, all of the western elevation, and most of the southern elevation.
The verandah is supported with chamfered square posts with shaped brackets and battened valances. The unenclosed sections of the verandah have cast iron balustrades and valances. Grape vines grow around the base of the house, on wires strung between the verandah posts.
The upper level has glazed timber french doors leading onto the verandah, the lower level has timber sliding sash windows and timber doors. The sandstone is square-
snecked coursed, and has been recently repointed. The north-west corner of the house has a corrugated iron wash house incorporated into the base of a water tank on tall timber stumps.
The garden contains many mature trees, including olive trees fruit trees, cypress pines and a she-oak.
The building is an unusual example of a two-storeyed sandstone house, and the exterior is intact and in good condition. An internal inspection was not undertaken.
","history":"Burndale was built at Swan Creek, near Warwick, c1865 for Timothy Murphy and Peter McGuckin, early European occupants of the Swan Creek district.
The Swan Creek district, situated about 11 klms from Warwick, was known as the Agricultural Reserve and comprised a tract of fertile country wedged in between extensive pastoral holdings. Early settlers arriving at Swan Creek during the 1860s were successful in having the district surveyed and offered for sale in agricultural farm areas. The land on which Burndale stands originally comprised 38 acres, and was selected under section 4 of the Agricultural Reserves Act 1863, the intent of which was to facilitate the acquisition of land for the purposes of agriculture.
Burndale was erected with the aim of obtaining a license and conducting the premises as a hotel. This intention never materialised, and Burndale has always been used as a private residence. Burndale was constructed of locally quarried sandstone, carted by John Deveney of Yangan.
McGuckin acquired the whole property and half the adjoining block in 1877. McGuckin was a keen horse racing enthusiast and established a racecourse on the property adjacent to his home. On race days the balcony of McGuckin's home which overlooked the racecourse, served as a grandstand for spectators to watch the racing events.
On McGuckin's death in 1883, the property was transferred to Samuel Cutmore, with whom McGuckin had taken out a mortgage on the property in 1878. The Cutmore family was another of the early European families in the area. Cutmore took out a number of subsequent mortgages on the property until his death in 1915, when the property passed to his children.
The property remained in the Cutmore family until 1974, when the property was acquired by Ian and Sarah McMaster, who changed the name of the property to Warrenilla. The present owners acquired the property in 1976, and it reverted to the former name of Burndale.
","criteria":"Burndale is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the settlement of agricultural reserves in the Darling Downs area.
|As an example of an 1860s two-storeyed rural sandstone residence, Burndale demonstrates uncommon aspects of Queensland's heritage.
|Further, Burndale demonstrates the principal characteristics of a sandstone house in the Warwick district.
|Burndale exhibits particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular its contribution to the landscape of the Swan Creek district.
|Burndale has special association with the McGuckin and Cutmore families, both early European residents of the Swan Creek district.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15300,"place_ref":600525,"name":"Canning Downs Homestead","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Canning Downs","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Canning Downs Homestead is a complex of buildings including a timber residence with kitchen wing, brick stables and outbuildings. The Homestead is picturesquely situated facing eastward, looking over wide plains to the Great Dividing Range.
The central core of the residence has a simple rectangular plan with steeply pitched corrugated iron hipped roof on the eastern side of which is a projecting hipped section. This section of the building is constructed from vertical timber slabs housed in rebated sections at the base and top of the walls. Within the principal entrance facade of the building, under the projecting hipped section of the roof, denoting the former porch are four aluminium framed glazed sliding doors slightly projecting from the face of the flanking external walls. Adjacent to these doors evidence is retained of the c1920 Bungalow additions to the house, with grouped chamfered columns on tapering stuccoed masonry bases.
The rear of the central core is lined with a verandah supported on timber posts and joined at roof level to the covered walkway linking this building with the kitchen wing. Internally the central core has been subject to many alterations recently, with only the now stripped stone fireplaces retaining evidence of the former house. From the eastern enclosed verandah a principal entrance door of timber opens onto an entrance area from which access is provided to the dining room to the south and another room to the west which runs the length of the house and from where access is provided to the side wings. Two full length vertical sash windows provide access from the enclosed verandah to the dining room.
This central core is abutted on the north and south ends by added wings also with hipped roofs and with overhanging verandah awnings all clad with slate grey decromastic tiles. The verandahs of the wings have been infilled; the base of the infilled wall being formed by squared rubble sandstone walls, the sandstone for which was got from a stone cottage on the site. Above these walls are aluminium framed glazing. The wings are constructed from horizontal chamfered timber boarding, and several full length vertical sash windows and French doors open onto the verandah from the various internal rooms.
The kitchen wing runs north-south parallel to the house and is joined to it by a walkway with a pitched decromastic tiled awning. A low verandah awning on the west elevation of the kitchen is supported on squared timber posts. The building is constructed from vertical timber slabs*. Under the verandah awning access is provided to the three major rooms which constitute the wing, through single doorways housing timber doors. A tapering brick chimney shaft abuts the eastern side of the wing, and this is flanked by a rendered masonry wall section.
To the south of the residence complex is a large fenced area containing established trees and planting and remnants of an early trellis and garden walkway. Adjacent to this are many buildings, most of which have been moved to this site from further lying reaches of the station. These buildings include a corrugated iron clad tank stand with storage sheds; a small corrugated iron clad building with a gabled corrugated iron roof; two timber boarded buildings and a concrete block enclosure.
Beyond these buildings, to the east of the residence is the brick stable block. This is a quadrangular building; four long wings joined to form a square surrounding an internal grassed courtyard. The building has an overhanging pitched corrugated iron roof which is hipped over the four corners and surmounting the peaks thus formed are iron ventilators. The corner blocks of the building project slightly from the face of adjacent walls.
The principal entrance to the stables is on the north side of the building, where a centrally located gateway emphasised on the roof line by projecting pyramidal roof feature. The external elevation of the building are quite simple with timber doorways and high level window openings. Those elevation facing inward toward the courtyard are more complex, with an assortment of timber paling and latticework gates and timber boarded doors. Internally the building houses a series of stables.
Extending from the south elevation is a low one storeyed timber wing, of vertical slab construction, providing further equine accommodation which is more exposed to the weather. There are various timber weatherboard additions to the western side of the building.
Adjacent to the stables are early outbuildings and grounds associated with the principal building. Many small fenced paddocks and pens survive, as does a large storage shed.
","history":"The Canning Downs Station on the Darling Downs was established by the Leslie brothers in 1840. The principal timber slab residence on the homestead is likely to date from 1847-8, and has experienced several major additions over 150 years. The stables appear to date from the late 1850s.
Patrick Leslie, the second son of William and Jane (nee Davidson) Leslie of Warthill, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, arrived in Australia in May 1835 with the intention of establishing a pastoral holding. Such was the intention of many young British men who saw opportunities for earning sufficient money and returning to their homeland financially secure with an assured income from the established property. It is thought that the haste with which Patrick Leslie proceeded in securing his fortune was the cause of the considerable financial troubles which beset him thereafter.
Upon his arrival in Australia, Patrick spent several years employed on stations first by the Macarthurs of Camden and then by his uncle WS Davidson at Collaroi. When Patrick's younger brothers, Walter and George, arrived in Australia in 1839, the three decided to explore the unsettled Darling Downs in search of land for a station of their own. Tales of the fertile Downs region had reached Patrick Leslie after Allan Cunningham's discovery of the area in 1827.
After reaching the Downs the Leslie Brothers quickly marked out land for their station which they named Canning Downs. Adjacent land was taken up by a friend, Ernest Dalrymple, for his station, Goomburra. It was soon clear to the Leslies that the run marked by them was too large and they moved their head station to what remained the Canning Downs portion of the run with the remainder becoming the Toolburra run.
Though all three brothers were in fact partners in the Canning Downs run, Patrick's name was omitted from all documentation regarding occupation of the place owing to his financial troubles. An arrangement formalising the ownership or lease of the Canning Downs run by the Leslies was slow in coming and their tenuous hold over the land was a source of constant worry as demonstrated in the letters written by the brothers to their family in Scotland. Patrick wrote in April 1841 that the Commissioner for Crown Lands had visited the station and given the brothers a letter of authorisation allowing them to retain the run. This letter also mentions that the headstation was originally located south of the 1841 buildings. New buildings were constructed in late 1841, when the brothers feared encroachment of their run by the new comers on the Downs who were causing considerable aggravation to the Leslie brothers.
By 1842 the Leslie brothers were in dire financial trouble, borrowing money from their father, and another brother living in China to simply maintain the station. All three brothers were forced to assume roles of active stockmen to reduce wage bills. Wool prices were low, labour was expensive and supplies were difficult to transport to the Downs. Patrick spent substantial amounts of time during the early 1840s in Dunheved, a farm leased by him near Penrith, Sydney. He married Katherine Macarthur, daughter of Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur of The Vineyard, Parramatta in September 1840, and the two remained living on the Macarthurs' station, before returning to Canning Downs in 1842.
At Canning Downs a cottage costing £35 and of unspecified material was built for the return of Patrick and his bride. Upon their return it was arranged that Patrick would oversee the cultivation and horse stock, Walter would manage the sheep and George the cattle.
Further financial concerns saw Patrick withdraw from Canning Downs and purchase a block of land in Brisbane on which he built a cottage which was to become Newstead House. Meanwhile the Station was suffering from a prolonged absence of Walter Leslie. An interesting letter written by George to his parents in May 1845 details the plans for improvements to Canning Downs, including a new hut and stables, which he says will be constructed about 400 yards lower down the river.
Letters written by Walter and George during 1846 and 1847 indicate that improvements to the value of £1200-£1500 were planned and these were to include the construction of a "good house". In early December 1848, George married Emmeline Macarthur, who was another of the daughters of Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur, father of Patrick's wife. From Emmeline's memoirs it seems that the house in which she lived at Canning Downs upon her arrival after the wedding was a "cottage ...built of wood, painted white and lined with canvas, and pretty room papers, thoroughly and prettily furnished and surrounded by a white verandah". She continues on to say that a church service was held in a small hall of the house every Sunday at 11.00am for "several of our neighbours...employees and friends which produced quite a congregation". Emmeline suggests that their accommodation at Canning Downs was unusual,
the cottage only afforded two spare rooms and with the chance of six friends suddenly appearing such accommodation was impossible. At the end of our cottage and parallel to our own, and divided by a covered way, the sides and verandah covered with vines, was a long building devoted to servants, storeroom and offices. We had one very large room and six folding beds made on (the) principal of a long camp stool, called a stretcher. They were seldom all unoccupied and not infrequently all were in request.
She also talks of French windows opening onto the verandah from both the hall and her bedroom. This description of the 1848 residence at Canning Downs suggests that the house into which Emmeline and George moved was, indeed, the timber slab house still today used as the residence. The long building referred to in the above description would then be the kitchen wing of the present structure.
A sketch by Conrad Martens done in March 1852 provides further evidence of this. This shows the residence as a house with hipped roof, verandahs and shuttered french windows with a kitchen wing at the rear. Notes at the top of the sketch suggest that the building was white with "green venetians", presumably a reference to the fixed louvre shutters.
Life on the Downs during the time of the Leslie occupation was quite difficult and financial problems burdened the squatters. The discovery of gold fields in Australia further increased the price and scarcity of labour on stations. Early searches for gold were carried out on the Darling Downs, not only with the intention of actually finding mineral rich fields, but also in a desperate attempt to lure workers and servants into the area. Searches for gold at Canning Downs resulted in the discovery of the Lucky Plains Goldfields which allowed George Leslie to realise his aspirations of wealth and make plans to return to his family in Scotland.. Emmeline and George did not remain at Canning Downs for very long, leaving for a year's rest in Scotland in the early 1850s and returning to Australia only to see the Station sold to George's cousin, Gilbert Davidson for £50,000 on January 7, 1854.
Davidson was the only son of Walter Stevenson Davidson, a close friend of John Macarthur of Camden. The Davidson managed and owned various pastoral stations in New South Wales, including Collaroi on which Patrick Leslie worked upon his arrival in Australia.
Though little documentary evidence has been located, it seems that the quadrangular stable block was built during Davidson's ownership of Canning Downs which lasted only until 1865. The Sydney Morning Herald of 26 November 1859 reports on an extensive fire at Canning Downs, which started in the stables. The report continues to say that "a large range of buildings, nearly forty yards long, and comprising hayloft and coach house, were entirely consumed...It was apparently owing to the direction of the wind that the dwelling-houses were not also destroyed". The extant stables are thought to have been constructed after this fire, from bricks hand made from Killarney clay at a cost of £3000.
The stable, when built and extant today, is a square planned building with an open central courtyard. The roofs of the four sides of the building are clad with corrugated iron, and this iron is believed to have been in one of the earliest shipments of corrugated iron to Queensland. All corrugated iron was imported to Australia until 1921 when Lysaghts began its manufacture. The material was used in Melbourne as early as 1852, but manufacturers were still experimenting with galvanising, a method of coating iron with zinc. Early galvanising techniques were primitive and involved dipping the sheets into molton zinc, resulting in large deposits of zinc on the iron which protected the material much better than the latter mechanised techniques. Thus many early corrugated iron roofs have remained remarkably intact.
This may be the case with the corrugated iron roof of the stable at Canning Downs, which, according to photographs and oral history has not been altered since construction in about 1859. The roof retains four iron ventilators on the pyramidal sections over the four corners of the building, which also appear in the earliest photographs of the structure. The roof framing is a series of closely spaced trusses with battens, further apart than is needed for shingles but much closer than standard corrugated iron roof framing. It is thought that because the technology of iron clad roofing was novel and little understood, the framing was cautiously planned and overcompensated for the actual weight of the iron.
Several early photographs of the residence and stables at Canning Downs survive from the time of Davidson's ownership. These show a substantial timber slab house with a steeply pitched hipped roof of shingles, and shingled verandah awnings surrounding the building. French doors open onto the verandahs. Davidson may have replace the shingled roof of the main residence with a corrugated iron roof as one of the photographs apparently dating from this time shows the replacement occurring.
Davidson owned Canning Downs until 1865, when on the 18th November he sold the entire station to Frederick John Cobb Wildash. The property comprising 3040 acres with 53,700 sheep, 5000 cattle, 70 horses and improvements was sold for £100,000. A default on repayments to Alexander McDonald and Charles Smith, merchants of Sydney, who loaned money to Wildash for the property, saw Canning Downs sold again on June 4, 1874 to John Donald Macansh.
Macansh, a Scot, emigrated to Australia after the death of his father, with his mother and siblings. After managing various stations in New South Wales, Macansh moved to Queensland and undertook the management of Canning Downs. In 1886 Macansh was appointed to the Legislative Assembly, and he was generally held in high esteem by the community in which he lived. After his death on 1 August 1896 Canning Downs was managed by a family trust comprising his eleven children.
During the time of their management extensive alterations were carried out on the residence. Local Warwick architects, Wallace and Gibson undertook extensions of the house in 1898-1899. The architects, a partnership of William Wallace and Richard Gibson, designed many buildings in and around Warwick including St George's Masonic Hall and the Barnes & Co department Store in Palmerin Street. The extensions at Canning Downs comprised the addition of timber wings abutting either side of the principal residence. Both of which were rectangular planned with hipped corrugated iron roofs and discrete verandah awnings on the front and side elevations. The wings were timber framed and clad with chamfered horizontal boarding, with decorative timber features including cross-braced balustrading and fretwork column brackets.
The Canning Downs estate was then subdivided, and that portions containing the residence and stables was sold to Henry Richard Needham on March 2, 1906 who owned it only until January 9, 1918 the ownership of the Canning Downs Homestead was transferred to John Hawkins Smith and Sara Barnes, parents of the present owner Charles Edward Barnes. The Barnes family were a prominent horse racing family who owned Lyndhurst a station in far north Queensland. Canning Downs became an important stud, with many successful racing horses reared there.
Soon after the Barnes family moved to Canning Downs in 1918 a large porch was added to the house, in the popular Californian Bungalow style. At this time other cosmetic alterations were undertaken.
During the 1970s the corrugated iron roof of the residence, including the kitchen wing was replaced with a decromastic tile roof. Recently (c1994) extensive work has been undertaken on the residence. The c1918 porch was removed, the verandahs enclosed with aluminium framed glazing, the interior has been entirely re-worked and the decromastic tile roof replaced on the central section of the residence with a new corrugated iron roof.
","criteria":"Canning Downs, one of the earliest homesteads established on the Darling Downs provides remarkable evidence of the pastoral and agricultural growth of South East Queensland.
|Although the age of the various buildings comprising the residence is unknown, it is likely that at least some of the structures date from the Leslie occupation of the run in the 1840s and early 1850s, making this a rare and early example of residential building in Queensland. The brick stables are rare in their form and age, and may have some of the earliest corrugated iron roofing used in Queensland, demonstrating the development of this technology.
|Great potential exists for further archaeological research on both the buildings and grounds at Canning Downs which are intact despite a long and varied history.
|The residence and the stables, with associated grounds including the gardens, paddocks and driveway, provide a good example of a mid-nineteenth century pastoral run. The stables are an excellent and intact example of a building of this type.
|The buildings and grounds have aesthetic value, increased by their situation and context. The stable is a well composed structure of great architectural merit. The gardens and grounds surrounding these buildings contribute to their setting. Many established trees and early garden areas are of importance.
|The brick stables are rare in their form and age, and may have some of the earliest corrugated iron roofing used in Queensland, demonstrating the development of this technology.
|The station is of cultural importance to Queenslanders as one of the earliest European homes surviving in the state.
|Canning Downs is associated with many people of importance to Queensland history including Patrick, George and Walter Leslie and their families who were instrumental in opening the Darling Downs for pastoral runs and settlement.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | 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 has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place 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 | 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":15301,"place_ref":600526,"name":"Yangan Masonic Hall","alternate_name":"Yangan School of Arts | Yangan Masonic Temple","street_address":"36 King Street","suburb":"YANGAN","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The village of Yangan lies in the Swanfels Valley some 18kms to the east of Warwick, on the banks of Swan Creek. The Masonic Hall is a two-storeyed timber building on the northern side of King Street, the main street of Yangan. It sits on the high side of this street, on the south-western bank of Carey's Hill giving it commanding views over the valley. The site falls from the rear towards the street boundary where the entry to the site is formalised by a concrete retaining wall with concrete stairs, pillars with lights and fence posts with chain-wire panels between. Vehicular access to the site is from a secondary road running along the high side of King Street. To the rear of the site is a timber and corrugated iron outdoor toilet.
The building has two levels, including a long entry stair, on the low or south side of the site, with the ground then rising to just below the floor of the upper level at the rear. The southern or street elevation has a symmetrical verandah with a central gabled entry porch, and bull-nosed verandah roofs to either side. The name of the building is painted within the porch gable, and below is painted details of the foundation and consecration. Over the remainder of the building is a corrugated iron gable-ended roof with two roof vents. Above the entry is a cast iron lace archway, and to either side are lace spandrels between paired chamfered timber posts. To the corners are cast iron lace brackets, although some are missing and one has been replaced by a bracket from a window hood. Approach to the building is by the long timber stair. The verandah and stair have cast iron lace balustrade panels, with a timber handrail.
Externally, the building is clad in chamferboards. The windows are timber sash, or aluminium-framed glass louvres. All of the window hoods and the roof to the side entry are of metal deck. The entry doors are panelled French doors. There are two other external doors to the western side of the upper level, and one to the street elevation for the lower level.
Internally, the upper level is divided into the Lodge Room and the Ante-Room. The Ante-Room has a small storage area to one corner. Between the Ante-Room and the Lodge Room, the timber wall has been modified to include removable boarded panels which allows the seating to extend into the Ante-Room when required. The interior is painted light blue with brown trims, and to the Lodge Room a brown dado with stencilled frieze.
The interior walls are lined with wide beaded vertical boarding. The ceilings are of tongue and groove board, with a fretted ceiling rose to the Ante-Room. The ceiling to the Lodge Room is raked to the line of the collar-tie with moulded timber cornices at both junctions. The floor is also timber boards, with raised platforms to the perimeter for the seating. The furniture in the Lodge Room includes timber "thrones" denoting rank of office with desks, timber pews, lectern, bible pedestal, black and white linoleum floor centrepiece, triangular timber encased 'G' suspended from the ceiling, and wall mounted tracing boards. Also mounted on the walls are various ceremonial items including sword-bayonets and gavels. The panelled entry door to the Lodge Room has brass knockers to both sides and a sliding eye-hole.
On the lower level is a small kitchen and dining area known as the Festive Board Room. Its walls are lined with fibrous cement sheet. In its centre is a chamfered timber post.
","history":"The Yangan Masonic Hall was acquired by the Yangan Lodge as their meeting place in 1912. Erected c.1898 it was built as Yangan's first School of Arts when the town was developing as one of the Darling Down's small but prosperous towns.
The Yangan and Swanfels area (then named Loganvale) was explored by Allan Cunningham in 1827. In 1840 the Leslie brothers established Canning Downs, one of the station outposts being Heifer Creek whose first hut and stockyard were established at what became Yangan. The town developed to serve the industries of the Swanfels Valley: timber getting, sandstone quarrying, dairying, and mixed farming. Although a settlement (including a school, church, and police station) existed prior to 1884, it was the opening of the first stage of the Warwick to Killarney railway (including a station at Yangan) on 2 June of that year which provided the real impetus for further development. The Warwick to Killarney line was one of the earliest of the state's branch lines built to service short distance traffic generated by farmers rather than squatters.
By 1900 Yangan had become (according to an article in the Queenslander) one of the most thriving centres on the [Warwick to Killarney] line. Here there are two cheese factories which have done an inestimable amount of good for the whole district. The township which is growing larger every year, has several stores, a couple of black-smith shops, a hall, ... and two boarding-houses. There was also a very natty little School of Arts and reading room.
The Yangan School of Arts was formed in 1897. By the following year a single storeyed timber building had been erected according to plans and specifications prepared by MP Henricksen on a small 19 perch block owned by the Warwick Hospital Committee. As early as 1899, plans were afoot to enlarge the building to twice its existing size. In 1901 this work was undertaken by which time the institution included a library room and smoke room. The work costing £49.13.6 (including additions and the removal of the existing building further back on the site) was undertaken by contractor WP McDonald according to plans prepared by School of Arts caretaker C Berthelsen.
By 1909, further expansion including a billiard room was planned. The existing site was not apparently considered suitable for this and a new site was sought. For a time removal of the building to a new site was contemplated, however in June 1912 tenders were called for the erection of a new School of Arts building (without billiard room) on a site on the southern side of King Street purchased from the Railways Department. The new School of Arts building (QHR 600527) was opened on 19 October 1912.
In the same year the Yangan Masonic Lodge acquired the first School of Arts building for some £40 (from the School of Arts) and the site for some £25 (from the Warwick Hospital Committee). An overdraft of £130 was arranged to meet the cost of purchase and improvements undertaken immediately with several of the Brethren giving freely of their labour for some weeks. The temple which became known as the Temple with the Long Stairs was officially dedicated on 11 September 1912.
The Yangan Lodge was formed in 1903 as no. 3082 under the English Constitution. Prior to its formation locals were members of other lodges such as St George's, Cunningham, and Killarney; early meetings were held at the Yangan Oddfellows Hall (now the Yangan Hall).
The first Queensland Masonic Lodge, known as the North Australian Lodge was established in Brisbane in 1859. As lodges were established in other Queensland towns, the type of Masonic Temple erected varied considerably; however the plan of the Lodge Room remains constant reflecting the highly symbolic and ritualised practices of the Masons.
In 1920 the Yangan Lodge became no. 107 of the Queensland Grand Lodge which was temporarily formed to enable lodges like Yangan which had worked under the English, Scottish, and Irish Constitutions to unite with the Grand Lodge of Queensland to form the United Grand Lodge of Queensland. With the union of the two Grand Lodges on 29 April 1921 Yangan became no. 148 on the roll of the United Grand Lodge of Queensland.
After the first World War, the Lodge began to expand again; one of the events of the district was the annual Yangan Masonic Ball. A number of improvements were made to the Lodge Room at this time including the purchase of the altar, organ, tracing boards, and various other furnishings. Battery powered electric light was installed c.1930 to replace kerosene lanterns and candles.
During World War II the activities of the lodge were severely curtailed: blackout conditions were enforced, installation banquets and formal dress for meetings were abandoned, and nearly all Offices were held by Past Masters.
Post war alterations included modifications to enable the removal of part of the wall between the Lodge Room and ante-room (1950s); and during the 1970s work included the remodelling of the Festive Board Room, alterations to provide a second external stairway, and the addition of a door from the Lodge Room directly to the outside in the event of fire. In 1994 repairs (including the reconstruction of the front stair and repainting) were undertaken.
Perhaps the most significant change to the site involved the building in 1957 of a concrete retaining wall, stairs, and pillars with lights at the street entry adding even more weight to Yangan's unofficial title, the Temple with the Long Stairs. This effect was even further accentuated by council works undertaken about this time to King Street which saw the street become in effect split into three levels, with the Yangan Masonic Temple in a commanding position on the highest level of all.
The post World War II period saw a decline in Yangan's fortunes epitomised by the closure of the Warwick to Killarney railway on 1 May 1964. By the late 1970s the Yangan Masonic Lodge was struggling to exist with rising costs, few candidates, and low attendances. Within a decade however it had overcome many of those difficulties to become once again a thriving lodge.
","criteria":"Situated on the high northern side of Yangan's main street, the Yangan Masonic Hall with its long processional approach (giving rise to its title as the Temple with the Long Stairs) is a distinctive landmark and symbol of the former prosperity of the town in which only remnants of the main streetscape survive.
Erected as the first reading room and library of the Yangan School of Arts and later acquired and altered by the Yangan Masonic Lodge, the Hall has a commanding view of the district which it has served for nearly a century.
|The Masonic Hall is in essence a simple timber vernacular public building, but its decorative frontal emphasis of the gabled entry porch, verandah clad in filigree screen, long timber stair, and ceremonial approach is (in common with the present School of Arts building [600527]) a deliberate gesture to demonstrate the civic prominence of the building, and to formally address the town's main street.
|Situated on the high northern side of Yangan's main street, the Yangan Masonic Hall with its long processional approach (giving rise to its title as the Temple with the Long Stairs) is a distinctive landmark and symbol of the former prosperity of the town in which only remnants of the main streetscape survive.
|As the meeting place of the Yangan Masonic Lodge for over eighty years the Hall (and in particular the Lodge Room and its furnishings) is an integral part of the Masonic ceremonial tradition as practised by several generations of local Masons.
|(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":15302,"place_ref":600527,"name":"Yangan School of Arts","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"7-9 King Street","suburb":"YANGAN","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The village of Yangan lies in the Swanfels Valley some 18kms to the east of Warwick, on the banks of Swan Creek. The School of Arts is a single-storeyed timber building situated on the southern side of King Street, the main street of Yangan. It sits on a flat, grassy site facing the few remaining shops on the northern side of the street. There is a gravel driveway leading from a secondary road which runs along the low side of King Street. Also on the site is a timber and corrugated iron toilet block to the east, and a tennis shed clad in fibrous cement to the south, neither of which are of cultural heritage significance. To the west and south of the site are clay tennis courts, and to the east is the Police Station and lock-up. Further to the south is the corrugated iron structure of the former Grain Shed, built about 1922.
The building is a simple, timber-framed structure on low timber stumps, with a hipped corrugated iron roof. The street or northern facade has a symmetrical verandah with a central gabled entry porch, and bull-nosed verandah roofs to either side. A timber parapet divides this from the roof over the main body of the building. There is a frieze of flat pressed metal panels to the entry porch, and to the ends of the bull nosed roofs. The porch ceiling is of tongue and groove boards, the remainder being unlined.
The verandah has a dowelled and cross-braced timber balustrade with diagonal lattice panels above. There is a pair of dowelled gates to the entry. The original gates were taller and remnants of these still exist stored under the building. The verandah also has chamfered timber posts with timber capitals, and a cast iron lace frieze with brackets. The lacework is continued as spandrels between the paired timber posts, and as an archway over the entry. Leading onto the verandah are three pairs of French doors with tilting fanlights. The central entry doors are panelled, whilst the doors to either side are glazed. The cladding to this northern facade is chamferboard, but on the other three faces and the parapet this has been replaced by fibrous cement planks.
The rectangular plan is divided into the Reading Room, the Library and the Kitchen (formerly the committee room). The Reading Room is accessed from the verandah by two of the French doors, the Library from the third, and the Kitchen from a later ledged and partly braced door on the eastern side. The three windows to the Reading Room are aluminium sliders, and the windows to the Library and Kitchen are timber sashes. All of the windows have ripple iron hoods with cast iron lace brackets. The two internal doors are panelled, also with tilting fanlights.
The internal wall lining to the Reading Room and Library is vertical tongue and groove boarding, apart from the eastern wall of the Library where it has been removed. The walls to the Reading Room have a timber picture rail. The Kitchen walls are lined with fibrous cement sheet. All of the ceilings are also tongue and groove boards, with two pressed zinc ceiling roses to the Reading Room, and one each to the Library and Kitchen.
Mounted on the walls of the Reading Room are two war memorial honour boards. A matching pair made from silky oak and marble, the one on the eastern wall being for World War I, and the one on the western wall being for World War II and Vietnam. Also in the Reading Room are two timber reading tables reputedly dating from the opening of the building. The Library still houses a substantial collection of books.
","history":"Formed in 1897, the Yangan School of Arts erected their second building in 1912 on land acquired from the Railways Department on the southern side of King Street, Yangan. At that time Yangan was one of a number of small but prosperous Darling Downs towns.
The Yangan and Swanfels area (then named Loganvale) was explored by Allan Cunningham in 1827. In 1840 the Leslie brothers established Canning Downs, one of the station outposts being Heifer Creek whose first hut and stockyard were established at what became Yangan. The town developed to serve the surrounding industries of the Swanfels Valley: timber getting, sandstone quarrying, dairying, and mixed farming. Although a settlement (including a school, church, and police station) existed prior to 1884, it was the opening of the first stage of the Warwick to Killarney railway (including a station at Yangan) on 2 June of that year which provided the real impetus for further development. The Warwick to Killarney line was one of the earliest of the state's branch lines built to service short distance traffic generated by farmers rather than squatters.
By 1900 Yangan had become (according to the Queenslander) one of the most thriving centres on the [Warwick to Killarney] line. Here there are two cheese factories which have done an inestimable amount of good for the whole district. The township which is growing larger every year, has several stores, a couple of black-smith shops, a hall, ... and two boarding-houses. There was also a very natty little School of Arts and reading room.
The first School of Arts in Queensland was established in Brisbane in 1849. The Schools of Arts grew out of the Mechanics Institutes first established in Great Britain in the early 19th century as part of the popular education movement to train working men for Britain's industrial expansion. In Australia, Schools of Arts were often the only cultural and educational facility in newly established towns providing meeting rooms, halls, libraries, and technical education. Later as government assumed some of these responsibilities, the focus of the Schools of Arts became more recreational.
In Yangan, the School of Arts provided to subscribers a lending library and reading room (stocked with current journals and newspapers); its rooms were regularly rented to other local organisations. The School also provided a social focus for the district with (fundraising) entertainments regularly organised by the committee.
The first Yangan School of Arts building (erected c1898) was located on the northern (high) side of King Street. In 1912 it was acquired by the local Masonic Lodge becoming the Yangan Masonic Temple (QHR 600526). As early as 1899, plans were afoot to enlarge the single storeyed building to twice its existing size. In 1901 this work was undertaken by which time the School of Arts included a library room and smoke room. Further expansion including a billiard room was soon planned. In 1909 the committee approached the Railway Department with regard to providing a new site for the School of Arts. At this time it was apparently envisaged that the existing building would be removed.
However, in June 1912, tenders were called for a new School of Arts building. The site chosen formed part of some 8 acres of Yangan land acquired by the Commissioner for Railways in 1884 to enable the building of the railway line from Warwick to Killarney. Resub 1 of sub 1 of portion 205 containing 18.5 perches (now lot 1) was acquired by Trustees, Redmond Brewer, Alexander Kemp jnr, and Thomas Kirkland on behalf of the School of Arts in September 1911. The adjoining resub 2 (now lot 2) was acquired by the School of Arts in December 1914.
The plans prepared for the new School of Arts by W Kemp to the specification of the School of Arts Committee provided for a three roomed (reading room, library, and committee room) single skinned timber building with latticed verandah set flush with the foot-path. The tender of Sam Fagg for the sum of £264 was accepted.
Hitching posts were erected outside the building and "SCHOOL OF ARTS" was painted on the front of the building which was opened on 19 October 1912 by the Minister for Railways on the occasion of a visit by a Parliamentary party to the district. A short article in the Warwick Argus described the School of Arts as a well-found little institution of high public utility ... on Saturday night 80 books issued from the library.
In April 1919, a World War I roll of honour was unveiled and a further roll of honour to World War II in 1949. During the post war period many such institutions were in decline. At the Annual General Meeting of the Yangan School of Arts in 1946 it was noted that support by the public was lacking but still, although the war had hampered the institution and owing to radio and pictures having their effect, [they were] still able to carry on. In 1947, a general meeting was held to consider the future of the institution.
Nearly fifty years later, despite the decline of the town's fortunes epitomised by the closure of the Warwick to Killarney railway on 1 May 1964, the Yangan School of Arts, unlike many of its sister institutions, lives on.. Although with the recent introduction of a council mobile library service, the future of the School of Arts library is uncertain, the Yangan School of Arts remains a valuable local institution overseen by its Secretary of 43 years, Mr Gus Mauch with its facilities used by more than a dozen local groups including the local play group, Ladies Guild, QCWA, Qld Dairymen's Organisation, National Party, RSL, Graingrowers, Bush Firebrigade, and Sports Association.
","criteria":"In Queensland the Schools of Arts were the forerunners of the government operated public libraries, technical colleges, and cultural centres.
Formed in the late nineteenth century when the town was developing the infrastructure to support a thriving district, the Yangan School of Arts and its (second) building erected in Yangan's main street in 1912 are important reminders of those more prosperous times; the change reflected in the much reduced streetscape of King Street of which the School of Arts building and the Masonic Hall [600526] are an important part.
|Unlike many of its sister institutions in the state, both the building (which houses the district's war memorials) and the institution survive.
|Somewhat atypical for an institution of this size, is the centrality of the Reading Room and Library (whose book collection survives) to the institution's functions.
|The School of Arts is in essence a simple timber vernacular public building, but its decorative frontal emphasis of the gabled entry porch and verandah clad in filigree screen is a deliberate gesture to demonstrate the civic prominence of the building, and to formally address the town's main street.
|The Yangan School of Arts has for nearly a century fulfilled an important cultural, educational, and social role for the town and its district.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 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 | 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":15602,"place_ref":600827,"name":"Leyburn State School","alternate_name":"Leyburn National School | Leyburn Provisional School","street_address":"34 Peter Street","suburb":"LEYBURN","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Leyburn is a rural village on the southern reaches of the Darling Downs, some 50kms. northwest of Warwick, on the banks of Canal Creek. The school grounds are sited on the western fringe of the township. The school building addresses Peter Street to the west, and nestled behind it beneath a canopy of camphor laurels is the playshed. To the south of the school building is the residence, to the north a demountable classroom block, to the east is the sports field and to the northeast is the tennis court, toilet block, swimming pool and change sheds. There are several silky oak trees to the eastern and western perimeters.
The school building has two classrooms used as one, an office, store and staff area. It is a high set timber building with gabled corrugated iron roof. The original classroom is lined with tongue and groove boards, and the newer areas are lined with fibrous cement sheet. To the west is an open verandah with bag racks. There are timber stairs to the front and rear. To the east is a small landing with the original school bell. Underneath is mostly open with remnants of old school furniture.
The Playshed is a symmetrical open timber structure, which is rectangular in plan. It has a gabled roof framed in large timber sections and clad in hand-split hardwood shingles. There is wide overhang on all four sides, leaving large gablets clad in weatherboard. There are metal ridge and hip cappings. The roof is supported on ten stop-chamferred square posts, about 140mm. (6") square, which are bolted to buddy posts of a similar size, all set into the ground. There is triangular strutting to these posts which is also stop-chamferred, but some are replaced and some are missing. There are 120mm. (5") square perimeter roof beams, and 190x70mm. (8"x3") tie-beams. Where the struts are missing, the quality of the workmanship is evident in the precision of the recessed housings. As there is no internal linings, the quality of the timber and the workmanship are plainly evident when inside the structure. The words "All Are Welcome" have been painted on the beam on the north side.
There is a raised timber floor, one step above ground level, with 150mm. (6") wide boards. To the perimeter running inside the posts are timber benches, which leave entrance openings to the centre bay to each of the long sides.
","history":"The settlement on Canal Creek (a tributary of the Condamine River) had grown from the 1840s to service the colonising settlers following the stock route blazed by the Leslie brothers in 1840 to the southern Darling Downs. Known from 1853 as Leyburn, the first sale of allotments was held in 1857 following the survey of the town earlier that year.
By 1872 a state school, an Anglican Church, Police Station and Court House, two smithies, three stores, a sawmill and the inevitable three hotels made up the straggling wooden town centre along the Warwick road [Leyburn]. The town was described as always a sleepy little town ... whose calm was broken by the brief Canal Creek gold-rush in 1871-2 ... clothed in dust raised by the slow passage of teams and flocks through the town. Most men were either employed as carriers on the Toowoomba Goondiwindi road or else worked on nearby stations, rejoining their families at their Leyburn cottages on Saturday night.
As one of the Darling Downs droving, drinking, and administrative centres located on the old stock and work-routes, significant government infrastructure was located in the town: from 1852 Leyburn became a postal distribution point for the district with mail services branching out from the town; in 1872 Leyburn was connected to the electric telegraph system becoming an important repeating station between Sydney and Brisbane; in 1861 Leyburn was appointed as a place for the holding of Courts of Petty Sessions, a Police Magistrate was appointed, and a lock-up erected followed in 1867 by a court house.
Leyburn's first primary school (then called the National School) was established following the petitioning in 1861 by the local community of the colony's Board of General Education. Reputedly the twelfth in Queensland, the school opened with an enrolment of 46 pupils on 13 January 1862 in temporary premises described as a small, dirty and uncomfortable hut pending the building of a more permanent school.
On 22 January 1865 the purpose built school house was opened. Funded by a combination of local subscriptions and Board moneys, the school was erected on the eastern side of the existing school site bordering a narrow lane. At this time the school site consisted of blocks 8 and 9 (block 7 bordering Canning Street being added in 1945). The new school house was, in the style of the time, a low set building. It contained a single large school room and an adjoining smaller class room with the main entry by way of a covered porch. A verandah appears to have been added to the rear at a later date. Contrary to the Board of Education's recommendations, and owing to cost and time factors, the school was built not of brick but of timber (cypress pine). Soon afterwards, in fact, architect RG Suter was to convince the Board of the utility of timber schools and a number were to be erected throughout Queensland.
The bypassing of Leyburn by the western railways signalled its (and other similarly bypassed towns') decline: in 1868 the Toowoomba to Dalby link was completed and in 1871 the Toowoomba to Warwick link leaving only (yet significantly) the Goondiwindi traffic to pass through Leyburn. In the 1900s that too was destroyed with the building of the line known as the Border Fence from Warwick to Goondiwindi (later extended to Dirranbandi).
The shingle roofed playshed was erected in 1883 to the west of the school house and teachers residence (erected adjacent to school house by 1877). Tenders for the erection of a playshed at Leyburn school were called in late 1882 by the local school committee according to plans and specification supplied by the Department of Public Instruction. It appears that the spec may have been altered to allow for hardwood other than ironbark to be used as the committee advised that it was impossible to procure ironbark at the local sawmill.
William Clark's tender of £151 completion in 6 months, although not the lowest, was accepted apparently on the advice of the Superintendent of Buildings who advised that Clark performed excellent work for the Department and is now engaged at erecting a new School at Merritts Creek. He also noted that material must be very difficult to procure at Leyburn as the prices generally are very high. By comparison for example a similar playshed with shingled roof was erected at Kalkie in 1879 (QHR 600971) at the cost of £59.
"Playshed" is the name used officially as well as colloquially for these structures. They were commonly associated with early lowset schools and were superseded by the innovation of raising the school buildings on high stumps to provide shelter underneath. More recently however shade structures within the school playground have enjoyed a renaissance. Playsheds were not designed to facilitate any particular game (although the board for the game of "Stones and Glasses" has been engraved on two of benches in the playshed) but rather were more general purpose spaces. In Queensland they were a response to the climate as well as a mechanism for dealing with a fluctuating number of enrolments.
Timber flooring was added to the playshed in 1887. The words "All are Welcome" painted on one beam are believed to have been added in the early twentieth century. In 1973 and 1974 the playshed was reshingled with 10,000 iron bark shingles by the Parents and Citizens Association. An outline of the playshed forms the school's emblem and appears on T shirts and sweat shirts worn by the children and used on souvenirs for the 125th jubilee.
The existing (main) school building was opened on 20 October 1934. Following requests from the school committee and the Leyburn and District Progress Association for a new school and residence, the Public Works Department (who were at this time responsible for the building of schools) reported that the school was still sound but one of the most out of date on the Downs. It was recommended that the school and residence be sold for removal and new buildings erected in a different position.
The site chosen for the new school and teacher's residence was on Peter Street. Both buildings were erected by Brisbane contractor DWT Holmes according to types developed by the Public Works Department. The school, costing some £283, was (in contrast to its predecessor) a raised timber building (providing play space under the school) with a single classroom for 40 pupils with verandahs back and front, part of which were enclosed to provide hat rooms. This type of school building (described as E/T1) was constructed between 1930 and 1946 and was a continuation of earlier types developed for country schools, although differing from its predecessors in providing more lighting, a lower pitched roof, and wider classrooms. Unlike the sectional schools built by the Department of Public Instruction (which formed the majority of timber schools erected after 1920), this type was not originally designed for expansion.
As a response to both a shortage of teachers and perceived inadequacies in their accommodation (particularly in rural areas), the Department constructed during the 1930s a number of new residences. The residences which provided accommodation for married male headteachers were thus used as an incentive to teach in country areas. In addition they were justified as providing a resident caretaker and cleaner of the site. The teacher's residence at Leyburn, costing £700, was described as a standard number 3 type (D/R3) but with brick chimney. Constructed between 1929 and 1950, type 3 residences were timber framed buildings clad externally with weather boards except for the verandah walls which were single skinned vertically jointed T & G boarding. They contained three bedrooms and were generally highset. Atypically the Leyburn residence is lowset.
Soon after the opening of the school, the former school house and residence were sold and removed: the school was purchased by Robert R Colebon and removed to nearby MacIntyre Street where it is still used as a private residence; the teacher's residence was purchased by Mr T Hutton of Pratten.
Since its erection, the school has undergone a number of changes. In 1951 additions costing £544 were undertaken involving the extension of the classroom and verandahs on the northern side of the building; in 1957 part of the eastern verandah was enclosed for use as a library; in 1959 additions costing some £2000 were completed to convert the building into a two classroom school. In 1976 a further addition (to the southern end of the building) included a library and health service room.
The school celebrated its 125th anniversary in 1987; in the same year the pool (used regularly by the local community) was opened. In 1995 approximately 40 children are enrolled with the junior school housed in a prefabricated building adjacent to the main building housing class rooms for the upper grades and offices.
","criteria":"Established in 1862 and on its present site in 1865, the Leyburn State School (then known as the Leyburn Provisional School) is significant as one of the first of the colony of Queensland's national schools.
Together with the other buildings and sites associated with the development of Leyburn in the nineteenth century, Leyburn State School is a symbol of the more prosperous times of the town and of government's investment in that development.
The Playshed, together with the mature trees and (the second) school building and residence (both erected 1934) are important components which collectively demonstrate the development of the school site.
|It is a rare example of a surviving timber shingled roofed building made more remarkable by the survival of its shingled Leyburn relative, St Augustine's Anglican Church (1871) [EHR 600628]. Perhaps to a lesser extent, timber framed buildings constructed with large sections of timber carefully jointed are also now uncommon.
|The school is an integral part of the Leyburn townscape which presents a remarkably intact example of an early Queensland township which serviced the Darling Downs, Queensland's first settled and richest agricultural district.
Together with playsheds at Brisbane Central State School (1877) [Entry in the Heritage Register 600312] and Kalkie State School (1879) [EHR 600971], the Leyburn Playshed is one of the oldest surviving playsheds, a building type commonly employed in nineteenth century schools.
The school building (described as type E/T1) is a variation of an earlier type which continued to be used for small country schools. The residence is an interwar Type 3 teacher's residence (also described as type D/R3) and is evidence of the continuing departmental policy of the provision of accommodation (for married male head teachers) as an inducement to teach in country areas whilst also providing the school with an onsite caretaker.
|The Playshed has considerable architectural and aesthetic significance: it is a successful marriage of vernacular form and materials and is both a response to climate and a mechanism for dealing with fluctuating enrolments.
|The Playshed has considerable architectural and aesthetic significance: it is a successful marriage of vernacular form and materials and is both a response to climate and a mechanism for dealing with fluctuating enrolments.
|The school has had a long association with the Leyburn community: as both the centre of local education and a focus for community activity.
The Playshed erected in 1883 has become an emblem of the school and local community.
|The school and residence are significant as examples of building types developed by the Department of Public Works for the Department of Public Instruction.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | 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 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 | 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":15603,"place_ref":600828,"name":"St Augustines Anglican Church, Leyburn","alternate_name":"St Augustine's Church of England, Leyburn | St Augustines Church of England | St Augustine's Anglican Church","street_address":"5795 Toowoomba Kara Road","suburb":"LEYBURN","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"Leyburn is a rural village on the southern reaches of the Darling Downs, some 50kms northwest of Warwick, on the banks of Canal Creek. St. Augustine's Church is located on the north-eastern approach to the village from Toowoomba, Dove Street. The church is timber of outside stud framing on low timber stumps with a steeply pitched gabled roof clad in hardwood shingles. It is reputedly styled on English village churches of the period, expressing many Gothic elements in a vernacular form of construction.
The church is positioned centrally within the site, which slopes gently to the east. The nave is orientated east-west, with the chancel at the eastern end and Dove Street to the West. Entrance to the site is through a timber arched gateway with a small pine tree and a short bay of picket fencing to either side. The remainder of the fencing is of timber rails. There are several saplings to the perimeter fence, and a clump of eucalypts to the northern side. To the east of the site is a small weatherboard store, and a memorial to the gold miner Dan Bray under an open shelter also roofed in shingles.
The church is a simple rectilinear form, with the chancel to eastern end and the porch to the south of the western end. The addition housing the vestry is to the south-east corner. The wall framing of studs, noggings and bracing is exposed to the exterior of the building, and purposefully arranged as a decorative element which is further emphasised by its contrasting colour. The wall cladding to the interior of the framing is pit-sawn planks of cypress pine, some 250mm (10") wide, laid horizontally. The roof is steeply pitched with gable ends, and a timber bell-cote with spire at the western end. The roof is clad in hand-split hardwood shingles.
The entry door from the south porch is a boarded and ledged door with a lancet head, and still furnishing its original bolt and rimlock. Inside, the nave has a special quality of light created by a continuous opening between the top of the walls and the roof framing, to the sides and the gable ends. The tall, narrow windows hand painted with a stipple pattern also contribute to this light. These windows have trefoil heads applied to the outside, giving them a Gothic-like shadow internally. They open by sliding along tracks to the inside of the wall. The floor is of wide raw cypress pine boards, which are hand-scrubbed clean to retain their bleached appearance. The exposed roof framing and trusses have been stained. All the major members are stop chamfered. The trusses feature twisted vertical tie rods. The chancel arch, also of lancet form, is lined with beaded board.
The furniture reputedly dates from the church's establishment. The altar, lectern, pulpit and pews are of stained pine. To the west end of the aisle is the movable stone baptism font. The altar has been moved away from the apse to face the congregation. The original timber screen from the altar is presently stored in the vestry. To the rear of the altar there are now stained glass windows. To the side walls of the chancel are gas lamps on swivelling brackets.
The later addition of the vestry is lined with narrow boards. It houses a dresser, washstand, bed, wardrobe, and the bellow organ. Also stored here are the original gas lamps from the roof, and the dedication chalice and plate.
","history":"The settlement on Canal Creek (a tributary of the Condamine River) had grown from the 1840s to service the colonising settlers following the stock route blazed by the Leslie brothers in 1840 to the southern Darling Downs. Known from 1853 as Leyburn, the first sale of allotments was held in 1857 following the survey of the town earlier that year.
By 1872 a state school, an Anglican Church, Police Station and Court House, two smithies, three stores, a sawmill and the inevitable three hotels made up the straggling wooden town centre along the Warwick road [Leyburn]. The town was described as always a sleepy little town ... whose calm was broken by the brief Canal Creek gold-rush in 1871-2 ... clothed in dust raised by the slow passage of teams and flocks through the town. Most men were either employed as carriers on the Toowoomba Goondiwindi road or else worked on nearby stations, rejoining their families at their Leyburn cottages on Saturday night.
As one of the Darling Downs droving, drinking, and administrative centres located on the old stock and work-routes, significant government infrastructure was located in the town: from 1852 Leyburn became a postal distribution point for the district with mail services branching out from the town; in 1872 the town was connected to the electric telegraph system becoming an important repeating station between Sydney and Brisbane; in 1861 Leyburn was appointed as a place for the holding of Courts of Petty Sessions, a Police Magistrate was appointed, and a lock-up erected followed in 1867 by a court house; the Leyburn National School opened in 1862.
The bypassing of Leyburn by the western railways signalled its (and other similarly bypassed towns') decline: in 1868 the Toowoomba to Dalby link was completed and in 1871 the Toowoomba to Warwick link, leaving only (yet significantly) the Goondiwindi traffic to pass through Leyburn. In the 1900s that too was destroyed with the building of the line known as the Border Fence from Warwick to Goondiwindi (later extended to Dirranbandi).
Anglican church services had been held in Leyburn since the 1840s when the Bishop of the newly formed Diocese of Newcastle (of which Queensland, then part of New South Wales was part) sent to the district the man who would become known as the Apostle of the Downs, the Reverend Benjamin Glennie. Early services were held at various locations including public houses and later the Court House. In 1861 the Anglican parish of Leyburn was formed and a parsonage erected on land donated by the Gore family of nearby Yandilla. A church, however, was not erected until 1871.
According to contemporary newspaper reports, the building of the church was mainly due to the Bishop of Brisbane (Edward Wyndham Tufnell) who chose Leyburn to be the beneficiary of moneys sent by a number of students of the college of St Augustine in England which were to be expended in the erection of a church in Queensland. The site chosen on the main Warwick Road near the Court House was purchased in 1870 for £4. Tenders for fencing in the English Church ground were accepted soon after; tenders for the erection of the new church were called by architect RG Suter in September. Built of 12" pit sawn timber with shingled roof, the contractor was John Baillie, the church of St Augustine of Canterbury was dedicated in September 1871 by Bishop Tufnell.
Architect Richard George Suter (1827-1894) was responsible for the design of at least ten of some thirty-four churches built during the episcopate of Bishop Tufnell (1859-74) including St Mark's Warwick (1867-70) and St James' Toowoomba (1868-69) as well as a number of timber churches including St Andrew's Lutwyche (1866) and (the first) St David's Allora (1868). Suter also undertook a considerable amount of work for the Queensland Board of Education. Like his churches, Suter's early schools used timber with outside studding as a construction technique, an ingenious modification of traditional half-timbered construction developed and popularised by Suter in Queensland. He designed relatively few houses, but residences such as East Talgai (1868) and Jimbour (1873-4) homesteads are some of the most substantial and distinguished ever erected in Queensland.
Following the decline in importance of Leyburn with the building of the railways, the parish name and centre was changed in 1889 from Leyburn to Pittsworth. To enable the Priest (who now travelled from Pittsworth) to stay overnight in Leyburn, a vestry was added to the church in 1918; the timber being supplied by Mr McDonald. The shingles were replaced between 1889 and 1924 and donated by Mr McWilliam. In 1924 the parish of Millmerran was formed of which Leyburn became a part. In 1931, the roof was again reshingled (by Mr T Hutton) with shingles cut by Mr W Lambley of Pratten; reshingling was again carried out in 1993 using ironbark cut from the property of local parishioners Clarrie and Nola Kirby.
In 1986 stained glass windows were erected behind the altar. More recently a memorial erected by the local historical society in the grounds of the church to gold miner Dan Bray (died 1901) as a tribute to all the goldminers of Leyburn's' early history who lie in unmarked graves in unknown places. Weekly services are held at St Augustine's.
","criteria":"St Augustine's Leyburn was erected in 1871 to the design of one of Queensland's most notable architects, RG Suter. Responsible for some of the state's most significant residences he also undertook considerable work for the Board of Education as well as the Church of England. His timber buildings in particular for both organisations established a local tradition, albeit without the architectural pretensions of Suter's original designs, of timber buildings with outside studding which combined economy, internal finish, and picturesque appearance. Architect also to several churches constructed in stone, it was Suter's timber churches such as St Augustine's (believed to be his only remaining timber church) which presented a challenge to the theological thinking of the time which viewed timber as an unsuitable material to be used in the construction of the houses of God.
Together with other buildings of the nineteenth century particularly of the 1860s and 1870s, St Augustine's is a symbol of the more prosperous times of Leyburn and an integral part of its townscape which presents a remarkably intact example of an early Queensland township as well as an important representation of the settlement of the Darling Downs
|St Augustine's is a rare example of a surviving timber shingled roofed building; made more remarkable by the survival of its shingled relative the Leyburn State School Playshed [600827].
|Although reputedly patterned on the form of English village churches, the expression of the timber work and the simplified Gothic motifs give St Augustine's a delicate lightweight vernacular charm; there is a special quality of the internal light through the eaves and translucent windows.
|Together with other buildings of the nineteenth century particularly of the 1860s and 1870s, St Augustine's is a symbol of the more prosperous times of Leyburn and an integral part of its townscape which presents a remarkably intact example of an early Queensland township as well as an important representation of the settlement of the Darling Downs
|St Augustine's Leyburn was erected in 1871 to the design of one of Queensland's most notable architects, RG Suter.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | 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 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":15604,"place_ref":600829,"name":"Quart Pot Creek Rail Bridge","alternate_name":"The Red Bridge","street_address":"Quart Pot Creek","suburb":"STANTHORPE","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Quart Pot Creek Rail Bridge comprises 7 50-foot (15.2 metre) spans of 3 rivetted deck type metal double lattice girders supported on six concrete piers and two abutments. It has a total length of 106.7 metres. The centre girders, the pier tops and bedplates have been altered. The No.7 span has been braced. The bridge carries a single 1.07m gauge railway.
","history":"The Quart Pot Creek Rail Bridge was constructed in 1886 as part of the Brisbane-Sydney interstate rail link.
The major impetus to development in Stanthorpe occurred in 1872 with the start of the practice of alluvial tin mining after discoveries of the valuable metal in the area in the mid 1850s. Stanthorpe become the collective name for two townships that grew as a result of the mining boom and became the only centre on the pastoral Darling Downs to develop with mining based revenue.
The Quart Pot Creek Rail Bridge forms part of the Southern Railway Toowoomba - Warwick- Wallangarra. The line reached Warwick in 1871 and was extended to Stanthorpe to serve the tin industry in 1881. The railway was then extended to the border with New South Wales. The Quart Pot Creek Bridge was built as part of this extension. The original plans were drawn in 1880 and the contract plans were drawn up in 1884. The line opened for traffic between Stanthorpe and Wallangarra, the change of gauge border station, on 4 February 1887. Interstate rail services commenced on 16 January 1888, linking Brisbane with Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
Plans to strengthen the 50-foot girder spans had first been drawn up in 1904 to permit the operation of heavier locomotives on the Sydney Mail and work began on the Warwick-Wallangarra section in 1910. The No.7 span was braced in 1913 to further accommodate 12-ton axle loads.
","criteria":"The Quart Pot Creek Rail Bridge is an important part of what was formerly the interstate link between Brisbane and Sydney. It is the fourth oldest bridge of its type in Queensland.
|The bridge demonstrates a robust engineering design, which has allowed it to be upgraded whilst retaining its essential character.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15605,"place_ref":600830,"name":"Central Hotel","alternate_name":"Sheahan's Hotel | Quinn's Hotel | Sheahans Hotel | Central Hotel, Stanthorpe","street_address":"140 High Street","suburb":"STANTHORPE","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Central Hotel, Stanthorpe is a two-storeyed brick building built to the corner of High and Victoria Streets. The hotel has principal facades addressing both Victoria and High Streets and a smaller wing parallel to Victoria Street extending from the northern end of the building. The building is lined with a double-storeyed verandah featuring cast iron balustrading and valancing. The verandahs are supported by double timber posts with capitals.
A striking feature of the building is the parapet decorated with symetrically positioned projecting arched and trianglular pediments. The decorative parapet is crowned on the front corner of the roof line with a multi-faced turret structure. Four brick chimneys are visible from the road.
The ground floor facades are lined with doors and windows with the main entrance being a double timber door with fanlight on the corner of the building. The upper floor verandah is also lined with glass panelled french doors gaining access to the bedrooms. The corner of the upper level has a large bay window from a bedroom.
A former rear verandah on the upper level has been enclosed at some stage and extending from the rear of this verandah is an addition which enclosed a formerly outdoor area in the centre of the originally U-shape building. This addition has a square lantern roof structure.
On the western side of the hotel facing Victoria Street is a drive-in bottle shop.
The interior of the hotel has been altered, the upper floor being the more intact example of the original design. On the ground floor the public bar extends the length of the High Street elevation and features exposed brick walls and decorative pressed metal ceilings. The bar itself runs lengthways down the room and there is a fire place at the northern end.
Internal doors at either end of the bar access the rear section of the building. On the southern side of the building the door from the front bar accesses a small hallway with an entrance door to Victoria Street. The hall leads on to two parlour rooms with pressed metal ceilings and brick fireplaces to the west, and the main central staircase to the east. A newer spacious lounge area is located in a central position in the rear section of the building which has the afore mentioned lantern style roof.
The upper floor is accessed by the central staircase with original timber balustrading. The ceiling over the staircase retains its decorative pressed metal. The stairs land onto a long north-south hallway which is clad with sheeting material and accesses a large doorway to the southern verandah. Three large bedrooms with original fireplaces line this hallway, all have doors to the verandahs. There are two narrow hallways running east-west on either end of the building each lined with bedrooms on either side. The southerly hallway still displays original Vertical Joint timber work and a decorative arch at its entrance. These hallways are connected by an intersecting hall along the former enclosed verandah at the rear of the building.
","history":"The Central Hotel, Stanthorpe was constructed in 1908-9 as Sheehan's Hotel. It was one of the largest buildings in the town at the time of construction.
The major impetus to development in Stanthorpe occurred in 1872 with the start of the practice of alluvial tin mining after discoveries of the valuable metal in the area earlier in the mid 1850s. Stanthorpe become the collective name for two townships which grew as a result of the mining boom and became the only centre on the pastoral Darling Downs to develop with a mining based revenue.
Stanthorpe was situated on part of the early Folkestone Run, which was occupied from November 1846 by Matthew Henry Marsh, who acquired 160 acres of the run on pre-emptive purchase in October 1852. Alford Greenup assumed the management of the run in 1868, and by 1878 as a result of the tin mining boom Marsh converted his run into the private township of Stannum, which is a Latin word meaning tin. The Government surveyed land on each side of Stannum and formed a township known as Stanthorpe. Stannum and Stanthorpe were incorporated forming the town of Stanthorpe. Public sales were held soon after the subdivision of the town into building allotments. The Central Hotel was constructed on land which formed part of the private township.
The Sheahan family, who later opened the Central Hotel, had arrived in Stanthorpe by 1872 when John Sheahan opened the Hibernian Hotel
The Central Hotel was initially opened as Sheahan's Hotel in 1909. An advertisement in Souvenir of the Stanthorpe District published by L.T. Hobson in 1908 proclaimed:
The Public and Visitors requiring accommodation in Stanthorpe are reminded that Denis Sheahan will open his New Two Story Brick Hotel at the Beginnin f the New Year, 1909. Everything New and Up-to-date. Tariff: 4s. & 8s per day, Special arrangements re Permanent Boarders. The largest and best appointed Hotel in South-western Queensland, containing 30 Bedrooms and 4 Parlours. Rooms Large and Airy, with twelve foot wide Balcony all round. Table Unexcelled. The comfort of Patrons carefully studied. Hot and Cold Water Baths. The Proprietor guarantees the Purity and Quality of all his stock of Wines and Spirits; only the very best are served. Letters and telegrams receive prompt attention. Cab meets all trains. 'Phone No. 4.
The hotel remained in the Sheahan family until the early 1920s when Queensland Breweries took ownership and leased the hotel to various managers until it was sold on again to a private owner in 1954. The hotel was known as Quinn's Hotel from at least 1960 - 1962 after the owner of the time, Lawrence Quinn. From 1962 - 1963 the hotel was called the Garden Hotel and in 1964 it became the Central Hotel.
In 1978 plans were submitted for a proposed drive-in bottle shop and lounge area together with provision for a liquor service point in the existing lounge of the hotel. The bottle shop now stands adjacent to the hotel on the western side.
The ground floor of the hotel has undergone many changes however much of the original plan is still evident. The front public bar which would have originally been two parlours is now an open area, the remains of the dividing wall evident in the ceiling near the front entrance door. A former outdoor area which was formed by the original u-shaped plan of the hotel has been enclosed and is now a lounge area (most likely at the time of the bottle-shop construction).
The hotel still provides accommodation on the upper level, the rooms still in their original layout.
An unusual feature of the hotel is a glass bottle collection displayed in the front bar which is passed on from owner to owner with the hotel.
","criteria":"The Central Hotel, a large, two storeyed masonry building was one of the largest buildings in Stanthorpe when constructed in 1908 and demonstrates the development of the town in the early twentieth century, when several large masonry buildings, including the nearby post and telegraph office were constructed.
|The Central Hotel demonstrates the principal characteristics of large masonry hotels in regional centres of Queensland. Such hotels were designed to attract local custom and to provide superior accommodation for visitors. It remains substantially intact particularly on the first floor, and is a good example of its type in both design and function.
|The hotel is a well composed building situated on a prominent corner contributing significantly to the principal street through Stanthorpe.
|The Central Hotel is significant for its association with the local community of Stanthorpe as a place of social gathering since the early 20th century.
|The Central Hotel is also significant for its association with the Sheahan family for whom it was constructed. The Sheahans were prominent locals who ran several of the town's many hotels in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
","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":15607,"place_ref":600832,"name":"Ballandean Homestead","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Ballandean","suburb":"BALLANDEAN","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Ballandean Station is situated approximately 5 kilometres south-west of the township of Ballandean, which lies 20 kilometres south of Stanthorpe on the New England Highway. The large property borders part of the eastern edge of Sundown National Park, between the park and the NSW border, in an area of southern Queensland known as the Granite Belt. The former head station is located in a contained area in the north-east of the property, within a kilometre of Washpool Creek, a tributary of the Severn River. The homestead comprises a number of structures of cultural heritage significance, including a rendered masonry house, detached kitchen, creamery, killing and milking sheds, combined stables and hayloft and the remains of a blacksmith's shed and forge.
House
The residence is a single-storeyed, rendered (stuccoed) brick building with a central rectangular core surrounded by wide verandahs. The side and northern verandahs have been enclosed. The roof is an elongated hip clad in corrugated steel sheeting. On each plane of the roof, the pitch reduces along a particular line, creating a broken-back skirt over the verandahs. Two tall, symmetrically disposed chimneystacks pierce the north-facing plane. The principal entrance is in the northern (rear) elevation.
An open verandah extends the length of the southern (front) elevation and is supported by tapering timber posts that are stop chamfered. The posts rest on concrete plinths. Four sets of early French doors open from the core of the building onto this verandah.
On the northern elevation the verandah is enclosed and a small, central, gable-roofed portico (a later addition) shelters the main entry doors. The portico roof is supported on two timber posts identical to those on the southern elevation. The double entry doors are low-waisted with glass fitted between fine mullions in the upper sections and a three-centred fixed fanlight above the transom. A narrow band of green and red glass forms a border to the upper half of each door leaf. On each side of the main doors are single banks of timber-framed windows.
The interior arrangement of rooms demonstrates an early layout. The rectangular core comprises three rooms, each with French doors opening to the southern (front) verandah. There is no central hallway, but there are single leaf doors opening between these rooms. The central room is the larger, with two pairs of French doors in the southern elevation and another opening into an entrance vestibule on the enclosed northern verandah. French doors also open from the eastern and western rooms to the formerly open side verandahs, which have been enclosed as sunrooms.
The sunrooms are similarly sized and, positioned at either end of the building, contribute to the symmetry of the external elevations. In their southern and side external walls there are large timber-framed, multi-paned windows (some casements and some fixed) with low sills. The interior sills are wide, making a ledge that has been fitted with timber.
On the northern side the main entrance opens into a small vestibule from which a door in each side wall opens to an enclosed verandah room. In both rooms there is a brick fireplace with a timber surround and mantel. The fireplace in the western verandah room stands back-to-back with a fireplace in the western room of the core. The rear of the fireplace in the eastern verandah room protrudes into the eastern room of the core, but there is no fireplace in this room.
The northern verandah has been enclosed at each corner to make two additional rooms. The north-east room has been refurbished as a kitchen and the north-west room as a bathroom and laundry, with external access.
Ceilings throughout the house are lined with wide timber boards, with those in the enclosed verandah rooms following the slope of the roof and those in the core being coved. The ceiling and walls of the kitchen have been further lined with fibrous-cement sheeting with timber cover strips and there is a pressed metal ceiling in the bathroom/laundry. The interior partition walls of the core are brick and these and all interior faces of the exterior brick walls are plastered and rendered. Several of the rooms have moulded picture rails, which vary in profile and in position on the wall. There are timber skirting boards at least six inches high throughout, except in the sunrooms, which appear to be a later addition.
Detached kitchen
The detached kitchen is situated approximately 10 metres to the north-west of the house, connected to it by a concrete path. It is a timber-framed building elevated on low timber stumps and has a hipped roof, the ridgeline of which runs almost perpendicular to that of the main house. The roof is clad in corrugated iron sheeting. An approximately 1.5 metre wide verandah encircles the building on three sides. The main roof covers these areas and is supported at each edge by timber posts. On the northern elevation the plane of the roof does not extend over the end wall, which is of brick with two separate chimneys and a stove alcove, which has a skillion roof clad in corrugated iron sheeting.
The timber walls are single-skin, vertical tongue and groove timber boards, with the wall framing visible in the interior. The western elevation has three timber-framed, double-hung sashes and a single leaf door. There are two similar windows and a door on the eastern elevation.
Internally the detached kitchen is divided into two rooms, the smaller being accessed externally from the south. A timber board door connects the two rooms. The ceiling is lined with fibrous cement sheeting. In the rear masonry wall of the main room (the former kitchen) are a bread oven, a central cooking alcove with an early range and metal flue, and a brick fireplace with a gently curved head. This wall has been plastered at some stage.
Creamery
The creamery is sited approximately 6 metres to the west of the detached kitchen. It has a pyramid roof clad in corrugated iron sheets and walls constructed of horizontal painted timber slabs. There is a deep overhang on each face of this small building that is supported on large, undressed timber poles. In plan the walled part of the structure is approximately 2.5 metres square. There are a door opening and a screened window in the eastern elevation.
The killing shed is located almost 35 metres directly north of the detached kitchen, within an arrangement of operational outbuildings and yards. It is a small gabled structure made of vertical timber slabs. The roof is clad in corrugated iron sheeting. A single-leaf timber board door opens out of the southern elevation. Two timber-framed meat storage cupboards, lined with wire mesh, sit against the interior of the eastern elevation. The floor is a concrete slab, bordered by timber.
Milking Shed
The milking shed is located almost 20 metres directly north of the killing shed. The structure is comparatively long with a gabled roof clad in corrugated iron sheeting. Its northern face and ridgeline run almost parallel to Lynams Road, which runs from north-east to south-west past the Ballandean yards. It is constructed of unpainted, vertical timber slabs fixed to an undressed timber frame. Some of the framing members appear to be large stumps. A timber stock herder feeds into the eastern façade, while a large timber board gate opens into an ancillary yard off the western façade.
Stables and Hayloft
The combined stables and hayloft sit about 10 metres to the south-west of the milking shed. This structure also has a gable roof clad in corrugated iron sheeting and is constructed of vertical, unpainted timber slabs. The upper part of the eastern gable is clad in weatherboards and has a high door into the hayloft. The west-facing gable also has a high door but is clad in corrugated iron sheeting. There are timber doors or gates in each elevation, some of which give access to a large fenced yard.
The interior is divided by a series of timber slabs partitions the height of the long, side walls. The plan consists of a central corridor, the walls of which are half-height and made with horizontal slabs. This corridor leads into a room for which the hayloft platform makes a ceiling. The rafters are made of stripped tree trunks, while the battening that does exist is dressed timber.
Remains of blacksmith's shed and forge
The blacksmith's shed and forge is situated over 30 metres to the east and slightly to the north of the milking shed, on the north-east side of Lynams Road. The shed is a skillion-roofed structure, of which only the undressed framing, some upper sections of timber slab work and a part of a lower slab wall remain. One timber board gate is also still fixed to the frame. This building overlooks the remains of a forge, which comprise an upright piece of rusting iron and some loose timber framing.
","history":"Old Ballandean Homestead comprises a c1870 residence, detached kitchen, creamery, killing shed, milking shed, yards, stables and remnants of a blacksmith's shed and forge. It was the third head station constructed on Ballandean run, established c1840 in the New England district.
Ballandean was among the earliest pastoral runs taken up in that part of the north-eastern districts of New South Wales that later became Queensland. Some reports claim occupation as early as 1839.
From 1837 Robert Ramsay Mackenzie held an interest in a number of New England runs, but resided in Sydney, leaving his New England properties in the hands of managers. Sometime prior to 1844 Mackenzie either established or acquired an interest in Ballandean. Documents and notices pertaining to Mackenzie's bankruptcy, declared in April 1844, indicate that he held an interest in and 400 head of cattle running on Ballandean under the charge of Mr HH Nicol. Mackenzie later recovered his financial position and became a prominent Queensland politician, but his association with Ballandean appears to have concluded in 1844.
In November 1845 Henry Hayter Nicol, who had been managing Ballandean for Mackenzie, was granted a licence to depasture stock on Ballandean and in 1851 he was granted an official lease. The establishment of Ballandean as a successful pastoral property is attributed to Nicol. His first home on the run was a bark-roofed slab hut close to Washpool Creek. Reputedly, when the creek silted up and formed a swamp, Nicol constructed a four-roomed slab cottage with a stone fireplace and a shingle roof closer to the site of the later head station. An early traveller on the Darling Downs, writing in 1926 of a c1857 journey through the Granite Belt, recalled that Nicol had not yet built the rendered brick house and that he still resided in a slab building.
Nicol's lease passed to John Brown Watt in 1863. Like Mackenzie, Watt was an absentee squatter who owned a large number of runs. He was a prominent Sydney businessman and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1861 to 1866 and from 1874 to 1890. It appears that Nicol continued to manage the property for Watt, and likely still held an interest in it, voting in the district until 1868 under his licence to depasture stock at Ballandean.
Robert Reid Cunninghame Robertson acquired the lease to Ballandean in 1865. Robertson was from Wellington Vale, west of Deepwater in northern New South Wales.
Donald Gunn, whose father owned nearby Pikedale station, visited the homestead c1868 as a child and later recalled it as one of the best houses in the district. Gunn attributed the improvements on Ballandean to Nicols, not Robertson, whom he believed spent little on the property. Timber used in the new dwelling was cut on the property and limestone for the mortar is believed to have been quarried from a Ballandean paddock.
During Robertson's occupation the colonial government commenced a process of large-scale resumption of lease-hold pastoral land for closer agricultural selection. Under the Pastoral Leases Act of 1869, squatters had the option of protecting their homesteads and permanent improvements from this process by making a pre-emptive purchase of 2560 acres (1036 hectares) of their lease. In 1872 Robertson purchased the land surrounding Ballandean head station, which included the home station, meat station, woolshed, stockyards and most of the improvements.
In the 1870s the Ballandean lease encompassed 133,202 acres (53,905.52 hectares) extending north to Folkstone and south to the New South Wales border. In 1877 about half the leasehold, 98 square miles (25,382 hectares), was resumed for closer settlement.
While Robertson maintained Wellington Vale as his principal place of residence he also took an interest in the affairs of Ballandean. He appears to have spent some time there and used his freehold title to vote in the district from 1874. After his death in 1883 Robertson's executors consolidated Ballandean run concurrently with further government resumptions of the lease in March 1886. In 1889 they transferred the homestead and leasehold rights to James Fletcher, who erected a dingo proof fence on the property and cleared much of the run.
In 1889 the roads through Ballandean were surveyed. The Surveyor-General instructed that the road from Nundubbermere passing through the Ballandean pre-emptive should join the Red Rock Road near the head station, and Fletcher requested that the road pass the gate on the east side of his paddock. The road survey map shows the buildings of Ballandean head station near the gate and on the southern side of the new road. A woolshed was located some distance south and stockyards to the southwest.
Ballandean was acquired by John William Luke in 1906. Luke had been manager at Ballandean from about 1898 and did much to improve the property. He became a prominent public figure in the area, at one time serving as chairman of the Stanthorpe Shire Council. By the 1920s he had stocked the run with merino sheep. The property was noted for its high quality wool, a reputation based largely on the fact that it was free of many of the pests common elsewhere in pastures. At one time the run achieved a record price for its wool clip. Luke also ran ponies and Devon cattle on the property.
During Luke's ownership The Queenslander featured "the picturesque homestead of Ballandean station" in its issue of 24 May 1924. The author described the main residence as having been constructed in the mid-19th century, but the offices, stores, stables and yards were of more recent date. Although much reduced in size, the station still had 22 paddocks and a 'park-like' appearance with rich grasses and abundant water.
Since the late 1920s Ballandean has undergone several changes in ownership. Between 1967 and 1973 a cavity brick house was built on the property for use as the main residence. This is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance and is not included in the heritage boundary for Ballandean Homestead.
Between 1973 and 1977 new owners renovated the c1870 homestead.
","criteria":"Ballandean Station, established c1840, was one of the earliest pastoral runs taken up in the Granite Belt district of Queensland. Ballandean Homestead, erected c1870, is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, being associated with the pattern and nature of squatter occupation of the New England and Darling Downs districts preceding agriculture and the establishment of towns.
|The homestead is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of early and evolving head stations on Queensland pastoral properties. Significant fabric in the homestead complex includes a masonry residence c1870, detached kitchen and a range of timber slab ancillary structures including cream house, killing shed, milking shed, and combined stables and hayloft. There are also the remnants of an early blacksmith's shed and forge. The residence has thick walls of rendered brickwork, coved ceilings, and early French doors, and is important in demonstrating an early (mid-19th century) arrangement of interior residential space.
|The homestead complex has aesthetic importance as a picturesque and rustic place set in a rural environment, which quality has been valued by visitors over many decades.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15717,"place_ref":600942,"name":"Hillside","alternate_name":"Thuruna","street_address":"25 Weewondilla Road","suburb":"GLENNIE HEIGHTS","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Hillside is a substantial sandstone residence located on a prominent site in Warwick, overlooking the township from the nearby Glennie Heights.
Hillside comprises an 1860s sandstone section which is approximately half of the present house, and subsequent timber and sandstone extensions. The house is surrounded on three sides by a verandah, whose awning is discrete from the corrugated iron hipped roof of the central body of the building where there is terracotta ridge and hip flashing. Two sandstone chimney shafts extend through the roof.
The northern elevation, where the principal entrance doorway is located, comprises the early sandstone section to the east, and a weatherboard and sandstone addition to the west, which infills the early verandah space. The early entrance doorway is centrally located on the facade, to the north of the 1860s section of the building. This timber framed doorway, features a transom and side lights of etched glass. The four panelled and moulded timber door, housed here, has the two upper panels replaced with glass.
Running along the entire length of the eastern facade is a verandah, supported on stop chamfered timber posts, rectangular in section, with simple capitals and bases. The facade of the building is punctuated with five, irregularly spaced, French doors which are fully glazed within a cedar frame, with side opening transom lights above. Shade is provided to the openings with full length timber shutters. The soffit of the verandah is unlined with principal edge rolled framing members, and the floor is timber boarding, with chamfered weatherboards on the faces of the base of the building. Access is provided to the verandah from the terrace via three sandstone steps flanked by low sandstone walls.
The southern elevation, originally verandahed, is now largely the later section of the building, with roughly tooled and margined sandstone to the underside of the window sills and vertical timber boarding above.
The western sections of Hillside are largely recent works, with rooms constructed to the west of the early house and a wing adjoining the building to the south west. These additions have been added in weatherboard and sandstone at various times and enclose a small central courtyard.
Internally the building comprises the 1860s section, including the central hallway and three room to the east of this; and the later additions to the south and west of the central hallway. The hallway, which runs north south for the length of the house from the principal entrance on the north of the building. The hallway has a beaded board ceiling and slab floor and is divided into three areas with transverse plastered sandstone walls, with timber framed four panelled cedar doors, demarcating the entrance, formal and rear zones of the house. Housed in the hallway is an early fitted cedar cupboard.
Provision is given from the central section of the hallway to a dining/drawing room separated by a three leaf folding door. These rooms have beaded board ceilings, small moulded cornices and frieze rails, high cedar skirting boards and rendered walls. Both rooms feature polished cedar chimney pieces, with timber corbels supporting the mantle. French doors provide access to the verandah on the east of these rooms. Further along the hallway, in the rear section a doorway leads to a small room, seemingly the former study, which has similar but simpler details than those found in the drawing/dining rooms.
A looped driveway provides access to the house from Weewondilla Road, the central lawned section of which is planted with native trees and plants. To the east of the house, overlooking Warwick, is a multi-tiered terrace garden, edged with sandstone and concrete walls. A feature of the southern garden is a paved sandstone semi-circular seating area adjacent to the terrace retaining wall, in which there is a outdoor cooking alcove. Another feature of the grounds is a trellised walkway to the west of the house.
","history":"Hillside was constructed as the Anglican parsonage for Reverend Benjamin Glennie in 1862-4 to designs of prominent Brisbane architect, Benjamin Backhouse.
The Reverend Benjamin Glennie held Anglican services in Warwick as the Incumbant of Moreton Bay and the Darling Downs from 1848. The services were held in the old Court House in Alice Street until 1858 when a timber slab church was constructed on the corner of Grafton and Albion Streets.
Benjamin Glennie was born in Dulwich, Surrey, England on January 29, 1812, and after his education arrived in Sydney in January 1848 following his three brothers who had arrived in the colony earlier. Glennie was made deacon by Dr W. Tyrrell on March 19, 1848 and appointed to Moreton Bay, where he faced numerous challenges encouraging the growth of the church. Originally he was based in Brisbane, but made extensive tours of the surrounding areas, including Ipswich and the Darling Downs.
After his ordination as a priest in 1849 he was transferred to Drayton, on the Darling Downs, where he was responsible for the whole of the Downs. This remained his responsibility until 1860 when the parishes were re-organised and he was then moved to Warwick where he served as the parish priest until 1872. He was an arduous and tireless worker, establishing churches, purchasing land and encouraging congregations.
After moving from Warwick, Glennie was appointed to Drayton where he served until 1876, when he returned to the Toowong parish of Brisbane. He had been appointed an archdeacon earlier in his career, but was now able to devote his full time as an examining chaplain and in the training of younger members of the holy orders. Glennie is often considered the pioneer of the Anglican movement in Queensland, and is particularly fondly remembered on the Darling Downs.
The house was not completed to original plans, only the eastern half and central hallway were constructed. Though rooms were planned to the west of the hallway, as is indicated by the doorways in the hall, this section was never constructed to Backhouse's designs.
It was during his time in Warwick that Glennie built the first purpose-built parsonage in there, Hillside. His first residence was in McEvoy Street, but when this proved inadequate he had plans prepared for a new parsonage on the outskirts of Warwick overlooking the growing township.
The land on which Hillside was later built was purchased by Edward Wyndam Tufnell, the Anglican Bishop of Brisbane on March 28, 1865 for £58.3.1. Plans were prepared for the parsonage in 1862-4 by Brisbane architect, Benjamin Backhouse, who was in partnership at the time with Thomas Taylor. The contractor for the project was William Craig. A newspaper report of August, 1867 suggests that the parsonage had just been completed and that various members of the congregation were presenting Glennie with £120 of drawing-room furniture.
Glennie remained in residence at the parsonage until he was relocated to Drayton in 1870, and soon after when James Matthews was the rector at Warwick it was decided that Hillside was too far from the church and another parsonage was planned. Hillside was transferred to the Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese in 1872, and another rectory was constructed in the church close.
In 1878 Hillside was leased for a period of seven years to a George Sumner Renwick Dines and then passed from the Anglican Church and changed hands many times, until it was bought by local architect Conrad Cobden Dornbusch on September 19, 1908 for £1150. The large block of land on which Hillside was situated was gradually subdivided and from the original 16 acre lot only one hectare remains around the house.
","criteria":"Hillside demonstrates the development of Warwick and the growth of the Anglican Church in regional Queensland. As one of the oldest sandstone residences in Warwick, it pre-empts the tradition of sandstone building in the town.
|The building is a good, yet incomplete, example of the domestic architecture of Benjamin Backhouse, and, of a colonial residence constructed during the 1860s.
|The building is valued on aesthetic and architectural merit, as a substantial early residence.
|The building is valued by the local community, particularly the Anglican community, as the parsonage of the first resident priest in Warwick.
|It has strong associations with Archdeacon Benjamin Glennie, a figure of importance in the early religious history of Queensland.
","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":15718,"place_ref":600943,"name":"St Marks Anglican Church","alternate_name":"St Mark's Anglican Church | St Marks Church of England","street_address":"55 Albion Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Mark's Anglican Church is a sandstone building located on the intersection of Grafton and Albion Streets, Warwick. The building conforms to a traditional cruciform plan, with additions in the corners of the chancel and transepts, and a tower abutting the western end of the nave, adjacent to the entrance.
The building is constructed of coursed sandstone blocks, from the Sidling Quarry, with picked surfaces. Window reveals and sills, tracery, carvings and buttress facings are all of smooth faced sandstone. Encircling the whole building, two courses from ground level, is a course of projecting rock-faced stonework, approximately half the height of the sandstone blocks. The various stages of construction of the church are manifest in slight variations in the colour and wearing of the stonework.
The Colorbond roof of the building, is gabled over the transepts, nave and chancel, with discrete gables over the infill sections between the chancel and transepts on the eastern end.
Entrance is gained to the church from the western elevation, which addresses not a street but a driveway from Grafton Street. The projecting entrance porch is surrounded by a concrete stair of three steps. Three pointed arched openings, separated by buttressed piers surmounted by gabled pinnacles, open onto the small single storeyed porch. The roof of the porch is concealed behind a parapet with a moulded stone coping, interrupted by the pinnacles of the buttressing. Above the porch, on the face of the western wall is a gable rose window, with heavy circular tracery. This is glazed with panels of multi-paned diamond shaped coloured glass.
The tower, extending through two stories and a bell tower, sits on an arrised plinth with string course mouldings. The tower was built in two sections, the base and first storey of sandstone and the belltower, which is of cement rendered brick. Single lancet windows on the tower extend from slightly above the plinth, to just below the bell tower extension. These windows have hood mouldings and traceried awnings. Tripartite elongated rectangular window openings are found on the upper, cement rendered, section of the tower.
The north and south elevations of the church consist of the transepts with small entrance porches and the nave and 1939 chancel extensions. Entrance is through a pointed arched opening above which is an inverted eyelet window in the transept porches, which have steeply pitched gabled roofs, with smooth faced sandstone coping terminating in carved corbels at the base of the sides of the gable. The steps on the north have been replaced by a ramp providing access for people with disabilities. Above the porches in the gable of the transepts are circular windows with heavy circular tracery, above which are trefoil window openings. The nave elevations are characterised by bipartite lancet openings, in pointed archways, separated by buttressing. The 1939 extension of the western, entrance end is distinguishable by squared headed window openings and wider buttress spacing.
The eastern elevation of the building comprises three gabled sections, the central earlier section projecting slightly from the flanking wings. A large traceried window is featured in this central section, and above this is a recent trefoil opening. The flanking gables have a single centrally located lancet opening.
Internally, St Mark's Church, is composed of a six bay nave intersecting with transepts and terminated by a chancel, these being separated from the nave by pointed arched openings. The interior is generally of coursed rock faced sandstone, with arch linings, corbels and interior detailing of smooth faced sandstone.
The chancel, which is housed in a gabled section of lower height than the body of the church, has a ceiling lined with timber rafters which are supported on simple sandstone corbels. The eastern wall of the chancel features a quinpartite lancet window arrangement, above which, partially concealed by the roof framing, is a trefoil window. Lining the lower part of this rear wall is a stained timber reredos, with panels of pointed arches and carved trefoil and quatrefoil motif. A brass communion rail separates the chancel from the body of the church.
St Mark's has hammerbeam roof trusses and the underside of the roof is lined with diagonally arranged timber boarding. High level openings, which are now generally of glass louvres, were previously filled with timber panels, operable from inside the church, allowing light and ventilation. Some of these panels remain.
The north transept of the church, which was extended with the 1939 addition between this and the chancel, is now a chapel. The addition was added through a square opening with a timber bulkhead above. The south transept is also a smaller chapel. A vestry, in the addition between the south transept and chancel, has rendered walls and a plaster ceiling, with sandstone quoining around the openings. A reinforced concrete strong room in found in the vestry.
An organ gallery is located in the most western bay of the church, and is accessed via stairs in the base of the tower. Two pointed arched openings, under the gallery, in the southern wall, provide access to the tower, which consists of a first floor and bell tower.
A particularly noteworthy feature of the interior are the stained glass lancet panels, paired in the nave and, singularly in the transepts of the church. These William Bustard designed panels are very finely worked with figures housed in Gothic inspired architectonic forms. This stained glass, which is generally read over the coupled panels, depict various biblical stories, including Jesus welcoming the children; the birth of Jesus; and the visitation of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary.
","history":"St Mark's Anglican Church was constructed to designs of prominent Brisbane architect, Richard George Suter from 1868 as the second of the Anglican Churches in Warwick on this site.
The first Anglican service in Warwick was held in about 1848, and services continued in the temporary accommodation offered by the old Court House in Alice Street until 1858 when a timber church was constructed on the site of the present stone building in Grafton Street. This first church was a simple slab structure with nave and transepts, covered by a shingled roof. The building was constructed at a cost of £329/10/0 and was built by John Niblock and John Thompson. At this time the parish did not own the land, but it had been set aside for Church of England use according to a Survey Plan dated 1856. It was not until March 1872 that the land was actually granted to the Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane by the Governor of Queensland.
The Reverend Benjamin Glennie held Anglican services in Warwick as the Incumbent of Moreton Bay and the Darling Downs from 1860 until 1872 when he was made Rector of Warwick. Glennie was born in Dulwich in 1812 and, after coming to Australia, was ordained a deacon by Bishop Tyrrell in Morpeth, New South Wales in 1848.
It was during Glennie's time in Warwick that the decision was made to construct a more permanent church building, and the foundation stone of the present sandstone church was laid by Bishop Tuffnell on March 19, 1868. John McCulloch was the contractor of this early section of the present building. The stone used was quarried from Bishop Tuffnell's Sidling Quarries. The original building consisted of a short nave, transepts, chancel and a small octagonal vestry in the corner of the chancel and southern transept. A broach spire surmounted the intersection of the nave of the church and the transepts and the roof was of timber shingles.
The architect chosen for the building was Brisbane based, Richard George Suter.
The Queenslander of May 2, 1874 indicates that additions were made to church, and from early photographs these additions are thought to have been the extension of the nave, the addition of transept porches and the insertion of stained glass to the western end of the building.
In 1938-9 substantial alterations were undertaken to designs of Brisbane architect Lange L Powell, tenders were called on August 6, 1938 and the tender of H Sanlan and Son for £8500 was accepted. These alterations, which were carried out in similar sandstone to that of the earlier building, included the flanking of the chancel with similar sized gabled structures, in the corners between the chancel and the transepts - one to serve as a vestry and the other as a chapel extension. The nave was extended at this time and the base of a tower was built at the western end of the building. Lange Powell died before the job was completed and construction was then supervised by Dods and Thorpe Architects of Brisbane. An extension, faced with concrete scoured to resemble the stonework of the body of the church, was added to the tower in 1962.
","criteria":"St Mark's Anglican Church, Warwick, demonstrates the growth of Warwick as a provincial centre, and the development of the Church of England in Queensland.
The church has associations with prominent early Brisbane architect, Richard George Suter, and with the first Rector of Warwick, Benjamin Glennie.
|The church demonstrates the principal characteristics of a nineteenth century Church of England in Queensland, influenced by the interest in Gothic revival ecclesiastical architecture.
|St Mark's is of considerable aesthetic value; it is a well composed building on a prominent site, which is an important element of the surrounding streetscape. The building contains many finely crafted elements including internal joinery such as the ceiling and roof trusses, reredos and seating pews; glazing and stonework.
|The William Bustard stained glass windows of St Mark's are of considerable creative and technical achievement. The provision of ventilation and diffused lighting via the high level louvred openings is a considerably innovative achievement.
|The church has a strong association with the Warwick community, and in particular, with members of the Anglican community who have used the building as their church for nearly 130 years.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | 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 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":15719,"place_ref":600944,"name":"The Commonage","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"69A Dragon Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Commonage is a single-storeyed brick cottage with an attic space beneath its steeply pitched roof. It faces east onto Dragon Street, a residential street only several blocks from the main street of Warwick. Nearby, on the same side of this street is Pringle Cottage [600945]. The front wall of the Commonage is at the street alignment, with an awning overhanging part of the present footpath. There is a narrow laneway to the north, between the cottage and the adjoining shop, giving access to the rear yard.
The bricks, laid in Flemish bond, are reputedly hand-made locally but, apart from the two chimneys, are painted externally to resemble their unpainted colour. The footings, doorsteps, thresholds and window sills are of local sandstone. There is a steeply pitched corrugated iron gabled roof with fretted barge boards and turned finials. To the front is a reconstructed convex corrugated steel awning at the front extending to the former kerb line. To the rear is a contemporary yet sympathetic skillion addition with a corrugated steel roof and fibrous cement plank cladding.
The frontage has two doors, apparently separate entrances for the shop and the residence. These doors each have flush lower panels, a glazed upper panel of six panes, and a glazed fanlight above. The two large double-hung windows are either side of the southern door indicating this was probably the shop. There are smaller double-hung windows to the sides, including the attic space, some of which are original. The plan is rectangular with four rooms and a central corridor running from the shop to the recent addition at the rear. This addition contains the kitchen, dining and bathroom areas.
The plasterwork to the interior walls extends upwards from the chair rail, leaving a dado of exposed brickwork whilst the rising damp dries out. The rooms of the lower level have polished 200mm (8") wide floorboards, most of which are original. The high ceilings are lined with wide beaded boards. The polished cedar joinery includes two chimneypieces and internal flush four-panelled doors.
From the room which was formerly the shop, is the straight varnished cedar staircase leading to the attic. It has turned balusters and newel, a panelled spandrel below, and a beaded board soffit over the doorway. The balustrade to the attic is simpler with squared posts and balusters. The attic is a single long room with tongue-and groove beaded boards to the side walls, flat and raked ceiling, and end walls of painted brick.
","history":"Evidence indicates that this brick cottage, known as the Commonage, was erected during the late 1860s or early 1870s for John Leonard of Warwick.
Warwick was established as an administrative centre in 1847, and a post office established there in January 1848. From late 1848 an embryonic town was emerging, and surveyor JC Burnett made an initial survey of the town of Warwick in March 1848. Burnett undertook further survey work in April 1850 and the first sale of crown land in Warwick took place on 31 July 1850. By 1859 Warwick was recognised as a major urban centre on the Darling Downs, and on 25 May 1861 Warwick was proclaimed a municipality under the 1858 Municipalities Act (NSW). The municipal boundary followed the original Warwick Town Reserve of five square miles. At the first Queensland census taken in April 1861 the town of Warwick recorded 241 houses (34 of which were either uninhabited or unfinished).
The allotment on which the cottage is located was acquired by Isaac Bennett in 1862, and transferred to Leonard, then described as a carrier, in 1863. The 1868 Warwick Post Office Directory records Leonard's address as Albion Street, however by 1874 Leonard's address was given in the Directory as the Commonage.
The building appears to have been erected as a residence and shop for Leonard, who was subsequently listed as a shopkeeper. The building included two street entrances and large front windows.
Locally it is understood that the shop to the north of the Commonage was erected by Leonard at a later date. Rate books from 1881 provide separate valuations for a house and shop on the allotment, indicating that a new detached shop may have been erected by this time.
In January 1890, Leonard advertised the whole of his Dragon Street property for sale. At this time it comprised a half acre of land on which were erected a brick dwelling house of 4 rooms downstairs and 2 rooms upstairs, with kitchen, large produce shed and horse and cart shed, and a new brick store with a good 3-roomed dry store at the rear. The new store was stocked with drapery, groceries, boots and shoes, and Leonard advertised as the National Stores, Dragon Street.
The property did not sell at this time, and following Leonard's death in May 1898 was transmitted to his widow, Annie Leonard. Annie continued to run Leonard's business as a general storekeeper until c1914 at which time she disposed of the stock.
Annie died in 1924 and the property passed to Thomas John Holland. The property subsequently changed hands a number of times. The original out house and wash house were demolished c1949, and a skillion-roofed weatherboard addition erected at the rear of the house.
The allotment was subdivided in 1951, creating separate allotments for the Commonage and the shop.
The property was acquired in 1977 by the present owners who have subsequently undertaken substantial conservation work to the building, including reconstruction of the front awning, repainting the exterior and interior of the building and renovation of the c1949 addition.
","criteria":"Constructed of brick, the dwelling is illustrative of the use of this building material in Warwick during the late 1860s and early 1870s.
|The Commonage is an unusual surviving example of a single-storeyed dwelling incorporating a shop; this dual function is reflected in the street elevation of the building, which has separate front entrances to house and shop.
|The Commonage makes an aesthetic contribution to the Dragon Street streetscape, which includes Pringle Cottage [600945]. The building retains much original fabric including joinery, and plaster and boarded linings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15720,"place_ref":600945,"name":"Pringle Cottage","alternate_name":"Miss Lukin's Boarding School | Milton College / Mountview | John MCulloch's Cottage","street_address":"81 Dragon Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Pringle Cottage is a two storeyed sandstone building, prominently situated facing Dragon Street, within the grounds of the Warwick and District Historical Museum, which comprises several other smaller buildings.
The building has a simple rectangular plan, with kitchen wing extension on the rear and a verandah on the eastern, entrance facade. The corrugated iron gabled roof runs north south, and is partially concealed by a moulded stone parapet on the eastern facade, behind which is a box gutter. Stone chimney shafts extend from the apex of the stone capped gable ends on the north and south elevations. The sandstone blocks used in the construction of Pringle Cottage are generally coursed rubble, with picked faces. The cottage sits on a plinth of margined rock faced sandstone.
The eastern facade of the cottage, which faces Dragon Street, is dominated by the ogee or double curved corrugated iron verandah, supported on chamfered timber posts. The returns of the verandah, above the line of the posts are infilled with timber lattice panels. A centrally located half glazed entrance door is flanked by two pane vertical sash window openings. These openings are all surmounted by transom lights, narrow over the windows and more generous above the door.
The northern facade of the building is a flush gabled sandstone wall, with two four pane vertical sash windows on the second floor and one on the ground floor. These openings, like others to the house generally, have sparrow picked sandstone quoining, margined on the opening edge, with a smooth faced sill, a sparrow picked stone lintel is surmounted with a simple voussoir detail. The western end of this wall is unfinished, with alternate sandstone blocks continuing on from the corner of the building. A recent infill section of timber boarding has been added to the north west corner of the building, aligned with the kitchen wing on the south west.
The kitchen wing, a two storeyed sandstone structure, attached to the rear wall of the cottage, has a corrugated iron roof, hipped on the edge nearest the cottage, and gabled at the other end. Again a sandstone chimney shaft, with brick extension, surmounts the apex of the gable. A corrugated iron enclosure is found on the western wall of the kitchen wing.
The double entrance door, which has round headed glazed cutouts, accesses a central hallway from which the major rooms on the ground floor are accessed as well as the stair. A round headed archway in the hallway separates the front two rooms from the rear section of the house. Generally the interior of the ground floor is of rendered masonry, masonry floor and plaster ceilings.
The interior rooms of the ground floor feature early chimney pieces, mantle pieces and cast iron fire grilles. The rooms are generally quite simple, with timber skirting boards, stained architraves and stained timber boarded ceilings.
A timber stair leads from the rear of the central hallway and winds at the top to a first floor space, from which the principal rooms on this floor are accessed. This stair has square sectioned balusters and a chamfered newel post.
The upper floor rooms have walls lined with fibrous cement boarding, timber floors and ceilings of timber boarding which rake toward the eastern and western ends of the building in accordance with the roof line. Early fitted floral carpet survives in one of the rooms on this floor.
The kitchen is accessed from the rear of the central hallway on the ground floor and has whitewashed stone walls, unlined timber ceiling and stone floor. There is a stone chimney piece on the western wall, to the south of which is a small doorway leading to a corrugated iron oven recess. A steep straight stair is on the eastern wall, and has open tread timber steps, square balusters and a simple handrail. The stair leads to a timber boarded room, with recent timber boarded raked ceiling, which is naturally lit by small windows on the western and southern walls.
","history":"Pringle Cottage is a two storeyed sandstone building, located within the Warwick and District Historical Society's museum grounds. It was built by a local stonemason, John McCulloch as his own residence in the 1860s or 1870s.
The land on which the cottage was built was first acquired by Deed of Grant by Edwin George Rigby in November 1862. This was transferred to John McCulloch in September 1863 when a new Certificate of Title was issued.
John McCulloch, a stonemason, arrived in Warwick in about 1862 and was responsible for the stone work of many of the sandstone buildings in the area including the Court House (1885); St Mark's Anglican Church (1874); St Andrew's Presbyterian Church (1869); Methodist Church (1875); and the Central School (1874).
McCulloch is reported to be living in Warwick, as a stonemason, in the earliest Post Office Directory of 1868, although his address is not specified. Between 1871 and 1874 McCulloch borrowed about £950, and this may have been for the construction of his house.
The property passed from McCulloch's hands in March 1902 when it was transferred to Mrs Helen Devine, and then in April 1903 to Elizabeth Ann Devine. Archibald and Mary Crawford purchased the property in 1929, and it changes hands again in 1942 when Evan James William Mason acquires it.
Reputedly, a private school was run by a Mrs FS Pringle and her daughter, Miss FHM Pringle in the upper floor of the cottage from 1898 until at least 1905, when the last recorded break-up event was held. It is after these teachers that the Warwick and District Historical Society, who gained possession of the building in November 1979, renamed the cottage.
","criteria":"Pringle Cottage survives as an early sandstone dwelling in Warwick, and is important in demonstrating the pattern of development in Warwick as a residential location from the 1860s.
|The building, located within the Warwick and District Historical Museum, is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of early domestic design and construction from sandstone as it developed in Warwick.
|The simple, but harmonious, facade is an important and prominent feature of the Dragon Street streetscape.
|(Criterion under review)
|Pringle Cottage has strong associations with an early builder in Warwick, John McCulloch, who built the cottage as his own residence. As the home of the local historical society for sixteen years the building is important to the local community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | 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 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":15721,"place_ref":600946,"name":"Leslie Park","alternate_name":"Warwick War Memorial and Gates | Leslie Centenary Memorial Gates | Morgan Memorial","street_address":"Fitzroy Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Leslie Park is a Park Reserve of just over 4.05ha in Warwick on the Darling Downs. Located within the central business district, it is bounded by Fitzroy, Guy, Albert and Palmerin Streets. Leslie Park comprises a number of significant elements, including lawns crossed with pathways, mature trees, croquet lawns (1906), lawn bowls lawns (1909), the Warwick War Memorial (1923) and War Memorial Gates (1925), the Leslie Centenary Memorial Gates (1941) and the Morgan Memorial (1911).
\nThe park features axial and transverse pathways, between 3.9m and 4.2m wide, generally covered with decomposed granite and edged by the lawn. The paths are lined with large trees of different varieties including mature; Hoop Pines (Araucaria cunninghamii), Bunya Pines, (Araucaria bidwillii), Silky Oaks (Grevillea robusta), Kurrajongs (Brachychiton populneus), one Bottle Tree (Brachychiton rupestris), Bookleaf Pines (Thuja orientalis), Japanese Maple (Acer palmatuma), and Date Palms (Phoenix dactylifera).
\nThe southeastern section of pathway has been concreted providing sealed access from the corner of Palmerin and Fitzroy Streets through the War Memorial Gates, the War Memorial and beyond. Formal parterre gardens on either side of this path, edged in concrete, planted with annuals, are symmetrically arranged either side of the war memorial. The path reverts to gravel beyond the flower gardens, towards the centre of the park.
\nWar Memorial
\nThe War Memorial is situated in the southeastern corner of the park, inside the War Memorial Gates. It stands on a stepped granite base, the upper step of which is rusticated and has a foundation stone on the southwest face. The memorial is a substantial Helidon sandstone and granite structure, standing 10.7m high, and comprises a plinth, pedestal, and surmounting Celtic cross.
\nThe plinth features AIF badges (rising sun), and a marble plaque with leaded lettering listing the 122 local soldiers who died in World War I. The pedestal features four polished granite columns with Corinthian capitals and has a carved wreath, carved lettering The Honoured Dead, and Roman fasces on each corner. The entablature features a frieze with the dates 1914 - 1918 carved in relief. A 1996 plaque commemorating those who died in WWII, Korea and Vietnam is mounted on the eastern side of the memorial.
\nTo the west of the memorial, is a German field gun war trophy, along with a black marble obelisk on a granite base, approximately 1m high, commemorating those who served in Malaya, Borneo, Korea and Vietnam. Standing nearby is a small sandstone plinth with a brass plaque commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of the war with Japan. On the eastern side of the main memorial, is a German trench mortar gun trophy, and another small sandstone plinth with brass plaque dedicated to the Milne Force. These are all elements of the war memorial precinct of Leslie Park.
\nWar Memorial Gates
\nThe War Memorial Gates comprise four 2.9m high sandstone pillars with rusticated courses. The outer two pillars are surmounted with marble globelike finials and each pillar supports marble tablets with leaded lettering listing those from the district who fought in World War I and returned. A pair of wrought iron swinging gates allows vehicular traffic between the inner pillars and single gates provide for pedestrian traffic between these and the outer pillars.
\nCroquet and Lawn Bowls Lawns
\nTwo croquet lawns (32m x 25.6m) are located in the northwestern quadrant of the park, facing Albert Street. A bowling green (40m2) is situated within the southeastern quadrant of the park facing Fitzroy Street. All adjacent clubhouses and shade structures are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nLeslie Centenary Memorial Gates
\nThe Leslie Centenary Memorial Gates, located at the southwestern corner of the park, comprise four 3m high sandstone pillars with rusticated column and base, supporting wrought iron gates with arrow topped bars. The central pillars sit either side of the 4.2m path and support a pair of entry gates. Smaller pedestrian openings are located on either side, each with a single wrought iron gate, approximately 1.2m wide. Both central pillars have been propped at their rear, with galvanised iron piping. Some movement in the foundations have led to the gates being misaligned. Marble plaques with the words ‘Leslie – Centenary 1840 - Memorial 1940- Gate’ have been added to each pillar.
\nMorgan Memorial
\nThe Morgan Memorial is situated at the northeastern corner of the park at the intersection of Albert and Palmerin Streets. It comprises a coursed sandstone column with capital on a stepped concrete base surmounted by an urn. Marble plates on three sides of the memorial are inscribed details of members of the Morgan family.
\nOther elements not of cultural heritage significance
\nOther elements of the park which are not of cultural heritage significance include: the new shelter shed in the centre of the transverse paths; the children’s playground close to Fitzroy Street, and the teenagers’ playground close to Albert Street; the new outdoor theatre space and barbeque between the teenagers’ space and the croquet lawns; the gardeners’ sheds, close to Guy Street; the picnic shelter and barbeque near Guy Street, the public toilets and the winding concrete path on the southern part of the park. The spiral rose garden near Guy Street, reflects the historic planting of roses in Leslie Park, but was not established until the late 1990s.
","history":"Leslie Park in Warwick is one half of a recreation reserve allocated during the first survey of the town in 1849. While the northern section has now been largely built upon, the southern section remains a public park. It was named Leslie Park in 1901, honouring the Leslie brothers; Patrick, George and Walter who established Queensland’s earliest pastoral runs on the Darling Downs in 1840. The park comprises a number of significant elements: the pathways, dating to at least 1867, a croquet club (1906), lawn bowls club (1909), Morgan Memorial (1911), War Memorial (1923), War Memorial Gates (1925), war trophy guns (relocated to Warwick 1921) and the Leslie Centenary Memorial Gates (1941). The Leslie Centenary Memorial Gates were donated to the town in 1941 by the owner of Glengallan Homestead [QHR 600007].
\nAllan Cunningham, explorer and botanist, was the first European to sight the Darling Downs in 1827; naming the district after Sir Ralph Darling, Governor of New South Wales (NSW). Cunningham was impressed with the potential of the area which comprised wide expanses of fertile grasslands, rich soils and verdant natural vegetation and gentle climate. Patrick Leslie met Cunningham in 1839 and he and his younger brothers George and Walter, and their sheep flocks, followed Cunningham’s route north. Arriving in May 1840, they selected areas that were to become the pastoral stations ‘Toolburra’ and ‘Canning Downs’ [QHR 600525]. Patrick returned to Sydney to register the runs and Walter Leslie remained on the Darling Downs camped at the end of Leslie’s blazed trail.[1] Numerous grazing runs were taken up on the Downs between June 1840 and 1843.
\nThe Leslie brothers, George and Walter, established themselves on the Downs, with Patrick Leslie initially dividing his time between ‘Canning Downs’ and his uncle’s property near Penrith NSW. Patrick built Newstead House [QHR 600265] in 1846, selling it to his brother-in-law, Captain Wickham in 1847 and returning to the Darling Downs. The town name of Warwick was gazetted in May 1847, replacing ‘Canning Downs’, as a place where Petty Sessions were appointed to be held. According to the memoirs of George’s wife Emmeline, George and Patrick chose the town’s name from a novel by Edward Bulmer Lytton;[2] ‘The Last of the Barons’ (1843).
\nThe Village of Warwick was surveyed by Colonial Surveyor James Burnett in 1849. The town survey included a large recreation reserve comprising two town blocks bounded by Fitzroy, Guy, Victoria and Palmerin Streets. The Warwick Town Square was formally gazetted as a 20 acre (8ha) Reserve for Public Recreation, in December 1855. In May 1861, the five square mile (1295ha) town reserve was proclaimed the Municipality of Warwick.[3]
\nThe Leslie brothers had left the district by this time. George sold ‘Canning Downs’ to his cousin Gilbert Davidson in 1854. Patrick had acquired ‘Goomburra’ run to the north of ‘Glengallan’ in 1848 where he bred horses and ran sheep. Patrick sold both ‘Goomburra’ and the adjoining ‘Gladfield’ in late 1857 and returned to Scotland.[4]
\nIn 1867, the reserve squares in Warwick were divided in two with the opening of Albert Street through the centre. While it was re-gazetted by the Queensland Government in 1869 as one Reserve Square, the sections became known as the Southern and Northern Squares. They were fenced by the Municipal Council, with gates installed at each corner and the reserves planted with ornamental trees and shrubs obtained from Walter Hill, Curator of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens.[5] In 1875 the reserves were described as; ‘two large public squares, planted with lawns, trees, shrubs and flowers [that] were a unique haven from the unpaved, dusty streets’.[6] The park has been the subject of drawings and photographs from 1883.[7]
\nWalter Hill reported on the parks’ progress in 1876 and made suggestions for their future development, including; laying out existing paths to a width of 14 feet (4.2m) and lining them with suitable trees, with shade trees be planted along the perimeter, 4 feet (1.2m) from the boundary, with allowances made for future plantings. By November 1886, the Southern Square was described as having a pretty appearance with healthy trees … beautiful flower gardens; predominantly roses.[8]
\nThe Warwick City Council became trustee of the recreation squares in May 1888. The squares were renamed in March 1901; the Southern Square became Leslie Park, and the Northern Square, Cunningham Park (now occupied by the Warwick State High School, the Senior Citizens Centre, and the Indoor Recreation and Aquatic Centre). From at least 1901, the council employed professional gardeners to manage its parks; Messrs Stephens and Scott, being praised for the unique display of 100 different varieties of roses in both Leslie and Cunningham Parks in 1902. [9]
\nIn June 1905 the Croquet Club received permission to establish two croquet lawns at the western end of Leslie Park. It may be that croquet lawns were initially established on the western side of the park and were relocated the northwestern side of the park where they are today. The Warwick Croquet Club was reported as reopening in October 1906, which may suggest relocation. By 1909, the lawn bowling club used the croquet lawn, while their bowling green was being prepared. Tennis courts were in the park from at least 1910, and a band rotunda was erected in 1913. From 1911, council created a boulevard along the eastern end of the park by planting two rows of trees, bordering a path, along Palmerin Street. [10]
\nThe Defence Department allocated two captured artillery guns to Warwick as war trophies in 1920 which were transported to Warwick in 1921.This initiated a fund-raising drive for a war memorial, and a public meeting was held in November 1921. Local architect Roy (Roderick) Campbell (AIF) produced plans for the sandstone memorial and iron gates on stone columns in December 1922. Campbell called for tenders for the project in January 1923. He was concurrently designing and supervising a similar set of memorial gates for Glen Innes, where he also had an office. Ipswich stonemason Frank Williams lodged the successful tender.[11] Two other war memorials had been unveiled in Warwick prior to this: the Footballers Memorial plaque in the Town Hall [QHR 600961] in May 1917 and the Railway Employees Honour Board at the railway station in February 1922 [QHR 600955].
\nThe war memorial and gates were located close to an existing memorial, erected in 1911 on the corner of Palmerin and Fitzroy Streets. The Morgan Family Memorial originally included a fountain. It is built of Helidon sandstone and was designed by local architects Dornbusch and Connolly. It honours James Morgan, his sons Sydney and Sir Arthur Morgan, and Sir Arthur’s sons, Franklin and Arthur Clinton Morgan. James, the proprietor of the Warwick Argus newspaper and his son Arthur were both mayors of Warwick. James was also a Member of the Legislative Assembly while Sir Arthur was premier of Queensland from 1903 to 1906. This memorial was relocated to the corner of Palmerin and Albert Streets in 1937.[12] The date of the removal of the fountain from the memorial is unknown.
\nThe foundation stone for the war memorial was laid on 7 June 1923 by the Prime Minister, Hon S M Bruce. The completed memorial was unveiled by the Governor, His Excellency Sir Matthew Nathan on 5 December 1923. War memorials were the first national monuments, recording the devastating impact of war on a young nation. Australia lost 60,000 from a population of around four million, representing one in five of those who served. Australian memorials are unique in that they commemorate all those who served from a locality. The memorial includes a number of symbolic elements including a laurel wreath (mourning); rising sun (national birth); columns (honour) and it is topped with a Celtic cross (sacrifice).[13] While many Queensland towns provided landscaped parks or gardens to accommodate their memorials, Warwick’s Leslie Park was a natural choice, as the memorial complemented the well-established existing park, along the main street.
\nThe memorial gates, featuring the names of Warwick enlistments, were completed by Frank Williams in October 1924 and were officially opened on Anzac Day 1925, by Sir Littleton Groom and the Mayor, Ald. D Connolly. The gardens were re-designed to enhance the new memorial and gates, with a broader gravel path, edged with formal flower gardens, and a row of palms planted inside the hedges along Palmerin and Fitzroy Streets, (two of which survived to 2017). The war trophy guns were relocated from the Returned Sailors, Soldiers Imperial League of Australia (RSSILA) to Leslie Park in 1938.[14]
\nWarwick was declared a city in 1935 and the community began planning celebrations of the centenary of the 1840 foundation of the Darling Downs by the Leslie Brothers, and the subsequent founding of Warwick. A committee was formed to plan commemorative events in 1939 there was a desire for a permanent memorial in Leslie Park. The committee was made aware that the Slade family, which owned Glengallan Homestead [QHR 600007] had once offered the homestead gates to the Church of England. Glengallan Homestead was described as picturesque ruins in March 1940, and Oswald Slade eventually donated the iron gates and stone pillars to the council as a centenary memorial. The council funded their relocation and re-erection in Leslie Park. Local monumental mason Reg Booth and stonemason William Thompson began work on the foundations in January 1941. In late May, four marble slabs carrying the words ‘Leslie – Centenary 1840 - Memorial 1940 - Gate’ were added to the four sandstone pillars.[15]
\nPresident of the Warwick Centenary Committee, Donald Gunn, performed the opening ceremony on 16 June 1941. His wife was the daughter of John Deuchar, who had built Glengallan Homestead in 1868. Gunn recalled that the gates had been imported from Scotland or England, and thanked the Slade family for the donation of the gates. By 1949, Slade had offered the ‘Glengallan’ estate to the Anglican Church, with the intention of demolishing the house and partially re-erecting it at the Slade School in Warwick.[16]
\nWhile the committee of the Warwick and District War Memorial was taking steps to have the names of those killed in World War II (WWII) engraved on the war memorial in 1948,[17] this did not occur until July 1996, when plaques commemorating those who died in WWII, Korea and Vietnam were also added to the eastern side of the memorial Other war memorial cairns commemorate WWII and conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Borneo and Malaya; the end of the war with Japan and one dedicated to the Milne Force (2005).
\nA number of changes to the use of both Leslie and Cunningham Parks were re-gazetted in 1968. Leslie Park (R.644) was gazetted as a Park Reserve in the trusteeship of the Warwick City Council. Aerial photography indicates the tennis courts, established around 1910, were used through to the 1960s.[18] Cunningham Park was divided into a number of reserves for a swimming pool, playground and park, and school, and was essentially lost as a Recreation Reserve. Changes in Leslie Park include construction of a new rotunda in 1995 on the same site as the original one.[19] The Croquet Club replaced its old equipment shed in 2006[20] and both the croquet and bowls clubs have new club facilities. A new picnic shelter has been built at the centre of the park where the transverse paths meet. [21] This replaces an earlier rockery and fountain, which replaced a gold fish pond, built in the 1930s. A new set of low wrought iron gates on stone pillars (approx. 1m high), reflecting the style of the Memorial Gates, and erected in front of them on the kerbside, are not of state heritage significance.
\nLeslie Park remains the focal point of community activities in Warwick, being the location for Anzac and Remembrance Day commemorations, low impact sports such as croquet and lawn bowls, a children’s playground, regular markets, events such as Christmas carols and general relaxation and recreation.
","criteria":"Leslie Park is important in demonstrating the allocation of reserves for public recreation in the establishment of Queensland settlements. This early reserve dates to the 1849 survey of Warwick, and was gazetted as a Reserve for Pubic Recreation by the New South Wales Government in 1855.
\nLeslie Park retains important surviving evidence of the early layout of the park including pathways, mature plantings and formal gardens, as well as long-term recreational use by the croquet club (1906) and lawn bowls club (1909).
\nThe Warwick War Memorial (1923), War Memorial Gates (1925) and war trophy guns, are important in demonstrating Queensland’s involvement in major world events: World War I (WWI), World War II (WWII) and subsequent conflicts. Memorials are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state and are a tribute from a particular community to those who served and those who died. As the focus of Anzac Day and Remembrance Day ceremonies, war memorials are an important element of Queensland’s towns, and cities and are also significant in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
|Leslie Park is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an early public park reserved from the mid-nineteenth century. These characteristics include grassed areas, pathways, formal plantings, memorials, recreational uses and a formal layout. It includes design influences from the curator of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Walter Hill.
\nThe transverse and axial paths, and croquet and bowling lawns are early and sustained recreational uses of the park.
\nThe Warwick War Memorial and War Memorial Gates are fine examples of well-designed and finely crafted WWI monuments, designed by local architect Roy Campbell and created by Ipswich stonemason Frank Williams, in enduring materials, funded by public subscription, and in a spacious location facilitating community commemoration. The Memorial includes symbolic elements found in War Memorials nationally, including columns (honour), laurel wreath (mourning) the rising sun (national birth) and the Celtic cross (sacrifice). The Memorial Gates include panels bearing the names of Warwick district residents who served and those who died. Together, the memorial and the gates demonstrate the principal characteristics of a war memorial; with their high level of integrity, workmanship and design, complemented by the war trophy guns and memorials to later conflicts.
|Leslie Park; including the War Memorial, War Memorial Gates, croquet and bowling lawns, Morgan Memorial and Leslie Centenary Memorial Gates, makes an important contribution to the aesthetic qualities of the streetscape of Warwick’s town centre. The aesthetic significance of the War Memorial and War Memorial Gates, overlooking the main street of Warwick, lies in their high level of integrity, workmanship and dignified design, set within landscaped surrounds. The formally designed park, with its vistas, planned gardens and historic plantings, provide a verdant backdrop to Warwick, and a place of quiet respite from the activities of the town. The picturesque park has provided a subject for artists and photographers from 1883.
|Leslie Park has a strong association with the Warwick community as a public park providing community recreation since its establishment in 1849.
\nThe Warwick War Memorial and War Memorial Gates, funded by public subscription, have a strong and special association with the people of Warwick. Commemorations at the memorial reflect the wider reverence felt for war memorials across Australia. As a focus for Anzac and Remembrance Day ceremonies, the memorial is highly valued by the community for its spiritual, symbolic, cultural and social associations.
\nThe Leslie Centenary Memorial Gates, installed at Glengallan Homestead [QHR 600007] circa 1868, and donated to the City of Warwick in 1941, commemorate the centenary of the arrival of the first European settlers, the Leslie brothers, to the Darling Downs in 1840, and the subsequent establishment of Warwick.
\nThe memorials provide symbolic meaning for the residents through remembrance ceremonies, and commemoration of Warwick’s history.
|Leslie Park, named in 1901, has a special association with the Leslie brothers who are credited with the establishment of Warwick, soon after their settlement of the Darling Downs in 1840. The stone pillars and iron gates, relocated from Glengallan Homestead [QHR 600007] in 1941, were renamed the Leslie Centenary Memorial Gates, when installed in Leslie Park; further honouring the Leslie brothers.
","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":15722,"place_ref":600947,"name":"Warwick East State School","alternate_name":"Warwick National School","street_address":"45 Fitzroy Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Warwick East State School occupies a 4.045ha site located approximately 300m east of the Warwick CBD. The school fronts Fitzroy Street (south) and is bounded by Canning Street (west), Condamine Street (North) and Sawmill Street (east). The heritage boundary covers only the southwest corner (original 1850s reserve extents) of the school site.
\nThe former National School building is prominently sited in the school grounds, facing the main entrance and set amongst well-tended gardens.
\nFeatures of Warwick East State School of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nNational School building (1865, modified c1878, 1913)
\nThe National School building (1865) is a one-storey brick building with a gable roof and verandahs along its long sides (c1878, east and west). The building is well-composed in a Victorian-era style, with decorative brickwork and finely crafted timberwork. The main school room is rectangular in plan and the principal elevation (south) features an offset gable-roofed entrance porch that is square in plan and has round arched openings on three sides.
\nAdditional doorways accessing the school room are centred on the east and west sides and flanked by evenly spaced arched windows. Larger banks of windows are located at the north and south ends, and two dormer windows (1913) punctuate the east side of the main gable roof.
\nThe lofty single school room interior features timber king post trusses with struts. A raised timber dais (after 1962, dais not of cultural heritage significance) is located at the northern end.
\nFeatures of the National School building of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of the National School building not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nLandscape features, open space and views
\nThe established gardens and grassed areas adjacent to the National School building form an attractive landscape setting and front entrance to the school from Fitzroy Street, with secondary access from Canning Street. Open space around the National School building facilitates natural light and ventilation, as well as views to and from the building.
\nViews of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLandscape features of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLandscape features not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of Warwick East State School not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nEstablished on its present site in 1850, Warwick East State School (originally Warwick National School) was the first National School in (pre-separation) Queensland. The former Warwick National School is a one-storey brick building that was completed in 1865 to a design by noted, early Queensland architect, Benjamin Joseph Backhouse.
\nThe city of Warwick stands on the traditional lands of the Githabul People (Waringh Waringh).[1] The first surveys of Warwick were carried out by J C Burnett 1849-1850,[2] followed by the first land sale in July 1850. On 25 May 1861 Warwick was declared a municipality and continued to grow steadily as the service centre of the Southern Downs, a wealthy pastoral district that developed into an agricultural area. During the 1860s, the tradition of building permanent masonry buildings in Warwick began.[3]
\nIn pre-separation Queensland, education was provided initially by fee-charging religious schools and private academies. The standard of education varied and most of these early schools were short-lived. They catered principally for children in the main population centres of Brisbane and Ipswich.[4]
\nA more organised approach to education commenced when Governor Fitzroy set up the New South Wales (NSW) National Board of Education in 1848; charged with establishing and administering schools. Modelled on the Irish system, the Board’s purpose was to provide state-assisted, secular, elementary education for as many children as possible, particularly in more isolated areas. The Board established and administered schools where parents contributed one-third of the building costs and guaranteed an average attendance of at least 30 pupils.[5] Under provisions from this body, four National Schools were established in what was to become the Colony of Queensland. The Warwick National School (1850) was the first of these, followed by Drayton in 1851, and a boys’ and a girls’ school in Brisbane by 1860.[6]
\nThe national school in Warwick opened on 4 November 1850, with 30 students. It comprised a timber slab building on a gazetted site of 1 acre 1 rood (25.29sq m; allotment 1 section 17) located on the corner of Fitzroy and Canning streets.[7] The school was established largely as the result of efforts by local pastoralist, George Leslie, who was concerned about the education of children in the district. He started making enquires to the Board of National Education in September 1848, but it was not until September 1850 that the school was completed.[8] At this time, Warwick’s population was about 267.[9]
\nThe first headmaster was George Abbott, who ran the school until December 1852 when it closed. In April 1853, the school re-opened with George Lewis as the headmaster. Jonathan Harris was appointed headmaster in 1855 and retained this position until 1860.[10]
\nFollowing separation of the Colony of Queensland from New South Wales in December 1859, the Queensland Government passed the Education Act 1860, which created a Board of General Education (the board) to oversee the development and administration of schools in the colony. The Board combined the functions of New South Wales’ national and denominational boards and was responsible for funding both public and religious schools. Assuming control of existing national schools, the Board aimed to establish a Queensland system of national schools similar to the New South Wales model.[11]
\nAfter the 1860 Act, the Warwick National School, along with the three other government schools, came under the jurisdiction of the newly created Board of General Education. In 1864-1865, the present brick building was constructed on the site to a design by prominent architect, Benjamin Backhouse. This building joined the earlier timber classroom, constructed at the school's inception in 1850.
\nAs the Board did not have the resources to construct school buildings, it encouraged local committees to build and maintain their own schools. However, the Board fostered the construction of suitable school buildings by supplying standard plans, based on ideal space requirements, to local committees. Commissioned by the Board, architects prepared plans for communities as required. The Board preferred that national school buildings be single storey, but had no other architectural stipulations. Consequently, the buildings varied, depending on the architect responsible. While timber was the dominant form of material for school buildings, in urban centres such as Brisbane, Warwick, Toowoomba and Ipswich, stone or brick buildings were erected. National school buildings were constructed throughout the colony.[12]
\nBackhouse, who was based in Brisbane from mid-1861 until late 1868, designed more than 100 buildings for a wide range of public, commercial, and religious organisations, and for private clients. He prepared a ‘model’ plan in 1864 for the newly created Board, to be used for country schools and was responsible for the design of many of the early National Schools, including those at Toowoomba, Condamine, Laidley, Maryborough, Bowen, Nanango, Bald Hills and Goondiwindi; of which Warwick is the earliest known to survive.[13] Backhouse also designed the first two stages of Ipswich Grammar School’s main building [QHR600601: 1863, 1865] and many early permanent churches in Queensland, including the former St Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Warwick [QHR600958], the now demolished Union Presbyterian Church in Brisbane, and the first plan for St Stephen's Roman Catholic Cathedral [QHR600107].
\nWhen completed, the National School at Warwick was a single-storey brick building, with asymmetrically placed entrance porch and small windows lining the eastern and western elevations of the building. It was constructed by Welsh contractor, William Conley, using local bricks from Snitzerlings Brickworks in Lyons Street, Warwick and had a hardwood shingled roof.[14] The original timber slab building continued to be used as a classroom and teacher’s residence.[15]
\nOf the Queensland Government school buildings built to 1865 the only known survivors are Gayndah State School (1861-63) (QHR600516), South Brisbane (by 11 January 1865) [QHR601222] and Warwick East State School (by 11 February 1865) [QHR600947]. Only two other 1860s school Queensland Government buildings survive in Queensland, both dating from 1867; Baroona Special School [QHR600278] and Fortitude Valley State School (former) [QHR602136].[16]
\nBy 1874 the Warwick National School was too small for the growing town, which had been connected by rail to Brisbane via Toowoomba in 1871.[17] The establishment of a new school, the Warwick Central School, was planned. The foundation stone was laid on 25 June 1874 by the Mayor, at a celebration attended by a large gathering of citizens.[18] When this new school, on the corner of Guy and Percy Streets, opened in 1875, the former Warwick National School, became known as the Warwick East State School.
\nBy 1877, the original 1850 timber school building was in a dilapidated state and tenders were called for its purchase and removal.[19] By 1878, the Inspector for Schools recommended that two ten-feet (3.05m)-wide verandahs be added to the 1865 brick building at Warwick East State School on the east and west sides, and that a northern end verandah be enclosed to house lavatories and classrooms. This work was carried out at a cost of £175, by contractor David Crombie.[20]
\nBy 1911, the site of the Warwick East State School was considered to be unfavourably situated. The surroundings were considered detrimental to children's health and morals, as they were bounded by an open sewer conveying drainage from the lower parts of the town; people of suspicious morals lived on the northern boundary; and to the south was a miserable hovel touching the school fence. A new site was not found. However, the school reserve was doubled in size through the resumption of Lot 2 Section 17 to its north and improvements were carried out to the existing buildings.[21]
\nAt this time, the provision of lighting and ventilation in the 1865 brick building was deemed inadequate. These problems were addressed by the Public Works Department when tenders were called in November 1912 for additions, alterations and improvements. D Crawford’s tender of £957 to alter the existing building, construct a new classroom building, and provide furniture was accepted in January 1913.[22]
\nAlterations to the National School building were undertaken for £289.[23] The multi-pane window on the southern elevation was enlarged and two dormer windows were inserted on the eastern side of the corrugated iron roof. Concrete floors were formed along the verandahs, a new interior timber floor was laid on concrete piers, and the face brick walls were kalsomined. A hat room, which had been added adjoining the east of the entrance porch, was removed.[24]
\nA timber classroom block was constructed to the west of the 1865 brick school building in 1913 (Timber School Building type C/T2) for £655. However, on 28 December 1914 fire razed this building. The school re-opened in January 1915 using the 1865 building and the enclosed play shed. In the same month, tenders were called for reconstructing the timber classroom block. The lowest quote of £534 by S Noyes was accepted in February 1915. The second version of the timber building was completed by October 1915.[25]
\nIn 1934, a timber Infants building (Sectional School Building D/T1) was added to the 1915 building, which together were known as Block A.[26] Open space to the immediate north of Block A was retained in site planning from the 1940s onwards, and is identified as a parade area by 1962.[27]
\nOver time, the school site was landscaped and expanded. By 1894, Arbor Day was celebrated at the school, which continued into the 20th century.[28] A new garden was created in front of the school in 1908 when the School Committee Secretary, J B Fell, the owner of plant nursery donated 27 trees.[29] Gardens were established on the corner of Fitzroy and Canning Streets by c1913.[30] The acquisition of land to the north (allotment 2 section 17), doubled the size of the original school grounds by 1915.[31] Head Teacher Tom Garland, appointed in 1917, is credited with heralding ‘a new era’ for the school. Plans were made for front gardens (along Fitzroy Street); a croquet lawn and tennis court (laid out in 1920 east of the National School Building); and areas were set aside for football, cricket and a horse paddock.[32] During the 1930s the school was known for its gardens and playgrounds:
\nAlong the fence between the schoolyard and the large playground were wattle trees and a few pepperinas…also a space was set aside for the would-be child gardeners!…. The school gardens out the front were…out of bounds. Flower beds and trellis and roses galore. Hedges shut in the netball and tennis courts.… near the large open [play] shed on the [south-east] corner.[33]
\nA flagpole was presented to the school in 1930 (replaced in 2020).[34] Further land additions to the east were made in 1947 (allotment 6 section 17) and later to the north (allotments 3, 4 and 5 section 17), bringing the school to its current extent.[35]
\nPlans from 1962 show the ‘old brick school’ was to remain for use for visual education and assembly. Proposed alterations included: the removal of a portion of the west verandah, adjacent to the entry porch; construction of a brick wall linking the southwest corner to an adjacent timber school building; and a suggested dais at the north end of the interior.[36] Flooding during December 2010-January 2011 caused damage to all the school’s buildings and resulted in the refit of the National School building at ground level.[37] Flooding also occurred in May 2022.[38]
\nFrom 1970, school buildings were gradually added to the site and some were removed.[39] On 19 July 2019, Block A was destroyed by fire and has since been replaced by a large new building.[40] Subsequent conservation works undertaken on the National School building included the removal of paint finishes to reveal the original face brick exterior.
\nThe importance of the school within the community has been demonstrated through regular social and fundraising events, anniversary celebrations, and through the publication of a commemorative history. In 1955, belated centenary celebrations were held for the school, including a parade, a fete and a concert in the town hall. On 5 October 1970, the Queensland Women’s Historical Association (QWHA) unveiled a plaque at Warwick East State School acknowledging the 120-year-old school as the oldest state school in Queensland. In 2000, the school celebrated its 150th anniversary and published a school history.[41]
\nIn 2024, the early National School building remains the focal point of the school and is remarkably intact. Currently, half of the space is used as a classroom for instrumental music lessons, while the other half is setup as a meeting venue, with some display cases of school memorabilia. The building is also used as a polling station for elections.
","criteria":"Warwick East State School, opened in 1850 in the early regional centre of Warwick as the Warwick National School, was the first national school established in (pre-separation) Queensland, and is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture, set in sufficient grounds to provide play space.
\nThe former National School building (1865) provides evidence of the growth of Warwick during the 1860s and is one of the earliest surviving government school buildings in Queensland. The building is representative of the earliest phase of government-provided education in Queensland, and precursor to the subsequent system of widespread standardised state education. One of five known surviving examples constructed during this period, it demonstrates early Queensland school architecture in urban areas, of substantially constructed masonry buildings.
|The highly intact National School building at Warwick East State School is significant as a rare surviving example of a Queensland government school building from the 1860s, a building type that has always been uncommon.
|The National School building is a rare, intact example of an 1860s Queensland government school building and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, with subsequent modifications to improve lighting and ventilation. The building retains its: masonry construction with steep roof; large classroom with lofty interior; doors and windows that maximise light and ventilation; and a high standard of design and craftsmanship.
\nThe National School building is a good intact example of the work of noted early Queensland architect Benjamin Backhouse, and the earliest known surviving example of one of his National School designs for the Queensland Board of Education.
|Warwick East State School is of aesthetic significance for its beautiful attributes and contribution to the streetscape. Highly intact, the well-composed Victorian-era National School building features decorative brickwork and finely crafted timberwork and is of high-quality materials and construction. Prominently sited in a landscape setting comprising open grassed areas and garden frontage, the National School building is an attractive feature along Fitzroy Street.
|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.
\nWarwick East State School has a strong association with past and present pupils, parents, staff members, and the Warwick community, as a place of education and as a community focal point since 1850.
","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":15723,"place_ref":600948,"name":"Warwick Court House and Police Complex","alternate_name":"Warwick Courthouse | Warwick Police Station","street_address":"Fitzroy Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Warwick Court House and Police Complex fronts Fitzroy Street to the north and is bounded by Guy Street to the west and Haig Avenue to the east. The complex consists of the court house, police station, lock-up, former lock-up keeper's residence, former acting sergeant's residence and service buildings.
Court House
The court house is a single-storeyed (with attic) sandstone structure located on the corner of Guy Street fronting Fitzroy Street to the north. The building has a hipped sheet metal roof, with metal ridge ventilators, and a clock tower on the Fitzroy Street frontage.
The symmetrical Fitzroy Street facade, of dressed sandstone, is stepped in plan with the central clock tower and pedimented entrance abutting the footpath. The pediment is supported by four pilasters resting on a deep base framing an entrance. The entrance has double timber panelled doors with fanlight surrounded by a sandstone moulding and keystone. A deep string course crosses above the entrance between the pilasters at eave height, with a metal coat of arms positioned centrally above. The clock tower is square in plan with a clock face, surrounded by sandstone mouldings and framed by pilasters with a deep cornice above, to each side and a convex hipped sheet metal roof. The lower wings either side of the tower have parapet walls and continue the eave height string course and top ledge of the sandstone base. The rear of the structure is of rough faced sandstone. Windows are mainly timber sashes and have sheet metal hoods with cast iron brackets.
The building is H-shaped in plan, with the taller court room forming the main section of the building with lower offices and service rooms forming the cross wings at either end. The court room has verandahs on either side, with the western side having been enclosed to form the main entry fronting Guy Street and the eastern having steel posts. High level windows above the verandah roof on the west light the attic space which was formerly a gallery level.
Internally, the building has been refitted a number of times. Walls are rendered and ceilings are mainly of hardboard. Some painted timber fireplace surrounds remain, as do some panelled timber doors with glass fanlights. A strong room, now used for storage, retains the original steel door. The attic space, originally a gallery level and now accessed by a steep timber stair, has a coffered, boarded timber ceiling which now supports a curved, suspended ceiling to the court room below.
Police Station
The police station is a two-storeyed sandstone structure fronting Fitzroy Street to the north. The building has a gable and half-gable sheet metal roof, with dressed sandstone street facade, chimney stacks and quoining to the side and rear with square-snecked rock-faced ashlar. The chimney stacks are capped by a cornice and have circular openings on the vertical face. The symmetrical street facade has an arched sandstone arcade to the ground floor, consisting of four central arched bays supporting a verandah to the first floor, with two smaller arched bays on either side. A central stone wall divides the verandah and arcade, reflecting the original function of the building, with a set of stone entrance steps to each of the end central bays. The arches have pronounced extrados, imposts and keystones, and the verandah has timber batten balustrade and french doors with fanlights. Downpipe heads have the year 1900 in relief, gables have decorative timber panels and windows are timber sashes. A section of verandah is located at the rear on the ground floor, and a single-storeyed masonry toilet wing has been added to the southwest corner. Tie rods have been inserted through the building in various places.
Internally, the police station has recently been refitted. Twin entrances each lead into a hall containing a staircase with timber balustrade. Rooms retain timber doors, architraves and skirtings, boarded ceilings and some timber fireplace surrounds. Walls are rendered and large pendant lighting has been installed in every room.
Lock-Up
The lock-up, located to the southwest of the police station, is a single-storeyed sandstone structure with a corrugated iron gable roof with central ridge ventilator and a verandah on the western side. The building, consisting of five cells, has dressed sandstone quoining with rock-faced ashlar. Each cell has a steel door, corner toilet, corner security camera and rendered walls, with the southern cell being originally a padded cell. The verandah has been enclosed with steel mesh to create larger cell areas. A shower building is located to the southwest of the cell block and consists of a timber structure with a corrugated iron gable roof and concrete floor. The lock-up compound is surrounded by a timber framed corrugated iron fence, the top of which is serrated.
Former Lock-Up Keeper's Residence
The former lock-up keeper's residence, to the south of the court house, is located adjoining the lock-up and fronting Guy Street to the west. The building, U-shaped in plan, is a single-storeyed sandstone structure with dressed chimney stacks and quoining with vermiculated ashlar. The chimney stacks are capped by a cornice and have circular openings on the vertical face. The hipped corrugated iron roof extends over verandahs on the north and west, which have been enclosed with chamferboard, hardboard and a variety of windows. A small verandah located within the U on the east has also been enclosed.
Internally, the building is one room deep and consists of one large central room with a room opening to either side, enclosed verandahs west and north, and two rear rooms with a small enclosed verandah between. The sandstone walls have been painted to the enclosed verandah sides, and rendered to the room interiors. French doors with fanlights open to verandahs, windows are timber sashes and ceilings are boarded.
Former Acting Sergeant's Residence
The former acting sergeant's residence is located between the police station and court house fronting Fitzroy Street to the north. The single-storeyed chamferboard building is L-shaped in plan and has a corrugated iron gable roof with a hipped rear wing and two metal ridge ventilators. Evidence of an early second rear wing is apparent in the joins of the corrugated iron. The building has timber stumps with battens between, and verandahs on the north and south have been enclosed with chamferboard and a variety of windows. Most windows are timber sashes and have corrugated iron and timber batten hoods on the east and west.
Internally, the building is one room deep and consists of one large central room with a room opening to either side, enclosed verandahs front and rear, and a rear wing of two rooms. Verandahs have single-skin exposed framed timber walls and french doors with fanlights, and rooms have boarded ceilings.
Service Buildings
The service buildings consist of two toilets and a store. The toilets, one located to the north of the lock-up, and one to the north of the former lock-up keeper's residence, are single room sandstone structures with rock-faced ashlar and a corrugated iron gable roof. The store, located to the north of the former lock-up keeper's residence, is a single room rendered masonry structure with a curved corrugated iron roof and steel door.
","history":"The Warwick Court House and Police Complex comprises a group of timber and stone buildings erected from 1885.
The town of Warwick was gazetted in 1847, and a police unit is recorded as being established in Warwick from this time. A shepherds hut on Canning Downs is believed to have been used as the first police station and barracks. In 1850 a township was laid out, and allotments auctioned. Warwick was incorporated as a municipality in 1861. Indications are that Albion Street was the main centre of Warwick during the early development of the town. A Reserve was set aside in Albion Street, and public buildings erected on this site included a Court House (1862) and Police Station, Post Office (late 1860s) and Telegraph Office (front portion of the Court House, erected 1875).
Court House
The Albion Street site was prone to flooding from the Condamine River, and by the mid 1880s plans had been prepared for a new Court House on an allotment purchased from Frederick Hudson, at the southeast corner of Fitzroy and Guy Streets.
The design for the Court House was prepared by the Department of Works, John J Clark being Colonial Architect at the time. The contract price for the building was just over £3700. The contractor for the building was William G Conley, and John McCullough completed the stonework on the building.
The decision to incorporate a clock tower at the front of the building was made during construction, and the clock was supplied by Messrs Flavelle Brothers and Roberts. A public clock appears to have been long sought after by Warwick citizens.
By late 1887, a shed and stables were needed; these were erected shortly after.
During the early years of use, the court house proved to be draughty and have poor acoustics, these problems being attributed to the "over-ventilation" of the court house through "superfluous" openings in the ceiling. Various measures were undertaken to overcome these problems, including capping the roof ventilators. A false ceiling was eventually added to the court room to reduce the volume of the space.
A brick strong room was erected at the rear of the court house in 1880. This building is now used as a store.
Consistent with its public function, the court house has also provided offices for government agencies including Land Agent, the Labour Bureau and various Registrars and Inspectors, for example, the Inspector of Factories and Shops. Part of the rear verandah was enclosed and extended in 1914 to provide additional office space.
Alterations to the building have been undertaken from the 1960s, including the formation of a public entry/waiting area by enclosing the western verandah, and the rearrangement of office spaces within the building.
Former Timber Lock-Up (1892) / Former Acting Sergeant's Residence
The difficulties associated with separate sites for court house and lock-up became apparent following the erection of the court house in 1886. For example, prisoners had to be escorted through the streets to the court house; a situation which was regarded as highly undesirable. Sketch plans indicating the placement of a new lock-up on the court house site were prepared in the late 1880s.
Tenders were called in November 1891 for a "new Police Station in the court house yard", the contract of J Ledbury being accepted in December that year. The contract price was £415, and the building which included 3 cells and living quarters, was generally referred to as the lock-up/lock-up keeper's quarters. Contemporary newspaper reports indicate that the building was completed by the end of April 1892.
With the completion of a new stone Police Station on the adjoining land in 1901, consideration was given to the future use of the timber lockup; the options for which included sale of the building, or its removal to another district where a police station was required. The matter appears to have been settled in December 1900 when it was decided that its was "...a first rate building in excellent repair, and will make good quarters for a married Sub Officer...". The building has provided residential accommodation for police officers from this time.
Records indicate that in September 1903 it was recommended that the old cells be pulled down and stacked, ready for removal to other areas. It is assumed that the cells referred to, were those erected as part of the timber lock-up.
Evidence suggests that this building, originally in a U-shaped form combining living quarters and cells, is one of few remaining buildings of this type erected during late nineteenth century.
Police Buildings
By the late 1890s, accommodation at the police station in Albion Street was described as "...very indifferent...", and it was suggested that the old post office premises, (a new post office having been erected in Palmerin Street in 1898) be handed over to the Police department to be made part of the station. The former telegraph and post office buildings were quite dilapidated by this time, and would have required major repairs to make them fit for habitation. As the town had extended in a south west direction, Albion Street was no longer as central, and attention turned to the allotment in Fitzroy Street adjoining the court house and timber lockup, as the site for a new police station.
Plans were prepared for the new building late in 1899 by the Department of Public Works, Alfred Barton Brady being the Government Architect at the time. The contract for the new stone police station was let to John Longwill of Warwick, at a price of just over £5700.
The final inspection of the new buildings was carried out in July 1901 by Thomas Pye, District Architect - Southern Division, who reported that "...The work has been carried out well, and the buildings as completed have a good and substantial appearance...". The new stone building provided office and residential accommodation, which included barracks and officer's quarters. Five new cells and a new lock-up keeper's residence, both of stone construction, and stables were also completed at this time.
Problems with the settlement of the foundations of the police station building required repairs throughout the early 1900s, including underpinning in 1908, insertion of tie rods in 1910 and bolting the walls in 1913.
During the 1940s an Air Raid Shelter was erected at the police station, which was converted into a police garage following the Second World War. Also around this time, the police stables were converted into a garage then Public Works Depot. These buildings have since been demolished.
Warwick Police District was created in the mid 1950s, the headquarters being at Warwick. It is likely that it was at this time the building ceased to be used for residential accommodation, with houses for police quarters being acquired elsewhere in Warwick. The building was rearranged to include an office for the district inspector and staff. An inspection of the station in 1971 found the buildings generally in poor condition, and there was some indication that plans for a new station were being prepared, although did not eventuate.
A new district office was erected at the police station c1990, and the station building was renovated c1992.
","criteria":"The Warwick Court House and Police Complex survives as evidence of the consolidation of Warwick as a centre for the surrounding district during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
|It is a highly intact working example of a turn of the century police complex with adjoining late nineteenth century court house.
|Through the use of materials (in particular the local sandstone) architectural forms and scale, the complex is a significant element within the Warwick townscape and identifies with other major public sandstone buildings.
|The complex, which has evolved on this site from 1885 maintains a strong association with the Warwick community and continues to provide a focus for policing and administration of justice, and other administrative functions.
|The complex, which has evolved on this site from 1885 continues to provide a focus for policing and administration of justice, and other administrative functions.
","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":15725,"place_ref":600950,"name":"National Hotel","alternate_name":"O'Mahony's Hotel | Allman's Hotel | National Hotel, Warwick","street_address":"35 Grafton Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The National Hotel is situated on the corner of Grafton and Lyons Streets, some three blocks to the east of Warwick's main street. It consists of a two-storeyed brick main block with filigree verandahs to both streets frontages, a two-storeyed brick accommodation wing which runs west to the rear of the main block, and a small corrugated iron garage on the northern side. The building sits in the southern half of the property, with the now vacant northern half probably the former site of other outbuildings. To the east, across Lyons Street is the railway station complex.
The two-storeyed filigree verandah extends over the footpath to the south and part of the east side, then continues along the eastern and western facades. It has stop-chamfered timber posts which are tripled at the splayed corner. The upper level mostly has a cast iron balustrade, with a cast iron fringe and brackets below, but as the eastern verandah returns the balustrade becomes timber lattice with a boarded valance below. The verandahs have a bull-nosed roof with shaped rafters, and a ripple iron underside with internal gutters to its perimeter. To the street facades above the verandah is an articulated parapet with cornice, pedestals and urns, and at the centre of the eastern side the date of 1887. Behind the parapet are two parallel hipped corrugated iron roofs forming a central gutter. In contrast, the roof to the west wing is a single hipped roof. There is also several brick chimneys with corbelled tops and terra-cotta cowls.
At ground level the street facades have plaster mouldings including window and door surrounds, and quoining to the corners. Here, the brickwork between has been painted, but otherwise it is unpainted, laid in English bond. There are two entrances with "PRIVATE ENTRANCE" lettered in the architraves above the door. These are centrally located on each street facade, with panelled doors and leadlight side and toplights. There is also a further entry at the splayed corner which leads to the Public Bar. Although substantially remodelled, the Public Bar retains its pressed metal ceiling with beam surrounds, cornices and roses.
From both private entrances, generous corridors lead to a central arched vestibule which features moulded pilasters and archways with keystones. Adjoining is the main stair in polished cedar, with square moulded balusters and carved newels. The Stair Hall is lit by a stained glass leadlight window. Beside the Stair Hall is the Dining Room which also retains its pressed metal ceiling with cornices, borders, beam cladding and roses. There is a timber chimney piece and hatch to the Kitchen. Other ground floor rooms formerly the Parlour, the Smoking Room and the Lounge also retain their pressed metal ceilings, but have altered layouts partly because of the addition of toilets.
The First Floor of the main block is generally accommodation. The rooms to the southern end have been divided off as the Manager's Residence, but generally retains its layout and pressed metal ceilings and cornices.. There is a Lounge located centrally at this level, from which lead several corridors to the verandahs and to the west wing. Generally at this level, there are pressed metal ceilings and cornices through the halls and bedrooms. The doors are low-waisted four panel doors with tilting fanlights. To the north-eastern corner of the verandah is an external timber stair with moulded square balusters, square newels with ball motifs, and boarded spandrel, all less decorative than the main stair.
The west wing brickwork is laid in stretcher bond, which is different to that of the main block. Entrance at both levels is via a timber connection from the main block with the upper level being enclosed. From each entrance runs a central corridor with bedrooms to either side, with some rooms having been converted to bathrooms. To the exterior of the northern facade is a simple timber escape stair.
The building is substantially intact both internally and externally, with only minor alterations being made to the layout. It retains much of the pressed metal ceilings and joinery. Of the outbuildings, only one survives as the present garage, which was possibly the former laundry.
","history":"The National Hotel was constructed in Warwick in about 1907 for Daniel Allman to designs of J Marks & Son, architects of Toowoomba.
Warwick was established as an administrative centre of the emerging Darling Downs regions in 1847, with a post office being established in the town in 1848. This year saw the first survey work of the embryonic town completed by surveyor, JC Bennett, with further surveys in 1850, and the first sale of crown land in July 1850. On May 25, 1861, Warwick was granted the status of a municipality. The town continued to grow throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The introduction of the rail from Toowoomba in 1867 and its extension through to Stanthorpe in 1881 when tin was discovered contributed to Warwick becoming a major service and trade centre on the Downs.
The property on which the National Hotel was built, situated diagonally opposite the Warwick Railway Station was acquired by Deed of Grant to William McGarry in June 1858. In 1884 Bishop Tuffnell was paying rates for the property which was described as simply 'fenced' and he continued this ownership until 1893, during which time the railway station was constructed opposite the hotel.
The first railway terminal at Warwick was built on a site on the northern fringe of Warwick and was moved to its present site in 1887 when the line was extended through to Stanthorpe. At this time the present passengers' station and goods' shed were constructed. 1887 is the date marked on the parapet of the National Hotel however this is not the date of the construction of the building and it is unclear to what the date does refer.
The National Hotel was built by the Allman family who were prominent in Warwick for many years. Jeremiah Allman arrived in the town in about 1870 aged 28, when he married the owner of the Sportsman's Arms Hotel, a Mrs Mary Dwan. Allman moved to Stanthorpe some years later when the Stanthorpe tin mines were flourishing, and bought another hotel after which he removed to Toowoomba where he ran the Harp of Erin Hotel. In the late 1870s Allman returned to Warwick and the Sportsman's Arms Hotel. In 1887 he bought the Criterion Hotel in Palmerin Street one of the oldest and best known establishments in the town. In 1917 he rebuilt the Criterion and this substantial masonry building is extant today. (DoE file no. 600692)
Allman took a keen interest in the social and political affairs of Warwick. He was elected as an alderman of the Town Council in 1886 and remained on the Council until 1903 serving as mayor in 1895 and 1902. He was an active member of the Warwick Coursing Club and the Hibernian Society. Allman's active involvement in matters of Warwick progress resulted in the establishment of the Warwick Butter Factory, which he at least partially funded and he was also involved with the Warwick Hospital. He had five children from two marriages.
Jeremiah Allman acquired the property on which was later built the National Hotel in Grafton Street in 1897, after the death of the previous owner, Bishop Edward Wyndham Tufnell in 1893. Jeremiah leased the property to his son, Daniel Francis Allman on 5 March 1907. In February of that year the younger Allman applied to the Warwick Licensing Court for hotel premises to be erected opposite the railway station gates, corner of Grafton and Lyon Streets...The plans provided for a two-storey building with 16 bedrooms and handsome fronts to two streets.
The architects commissioned to design this hotel were James Marks and Son who were partnership formed by the prolific Toowoomba architect James Marks and his elder son, Harry. James Marks undertook many substantial building projects in Toowoomba, including the St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral and St Stephen's Presbyterian Church, along with many hotels including the Imperial Hotel in Ruthven Street, the Globe Hotel also in Ruthven Street. Marks and Son also designed many regional hotels and churches on the Darling Downs.
The hotel designed for Daniel Allman by Marks and Son and opened by early 1908 was a two storeyed masonry building, constructed by local contractor Daniel Connolly, who later joined in partnership with Conrad Dornbusch forming Dornbusch and Connolly, a prominent architectural firm of Warwick. Donnolly's tender price of £3960 was accepted in April 1907 and one of the conditions by which a license was granted to Allman by the Warwick Licensing Court for the construction of the hotel was that it would be finished within 6 months from the hearing in April of 1907.
On the death of Jeremiah Allman in September 1910, the National Hotel property was transferred to Daniel Allman and his brother John Michael Allman as tenants in common. In 1918 John Allman transferred his share in the hotel to a John Playford, who is listed as a Warwick farmer in previous Post Office Directories. On the death of Daniel Allman in July 1936 the property was transferred to his widow, Maria Allman. The property was then acquired by Queensland Brewery Ltd.
Minor changes were undertaken to the National Hotel in 1937. These were designed by Addison & Macdonald, an architectural partnership from Brisbane renowned for their work modernising many early hotels in south east Queensland during the inter-war period. A small addition was added to the underside of the verandah to the north of the ground level, housing an ironing and linen room.
The public bar has been internally re-arranged with a new bar which extends into the room less than the original but is of the same shape.
","criteria":"The National Hotel, a substantial masonry building, provides evidence of the growth of Warwick during the early years of this century.
|The hotel is a good example of a substantially intact hotel of the early twentieth century in Queensland, and contributes to the nearby railway precinct.
|The hotel is a good example of a substantially intact hotel of the early twentieth century in Queensland, and contributes to the nearby railway precinct.
|The building is associated with the prominent architectural firm based in Toowoomba, Marks and Sons.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | 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 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":15726,"place_ref":600951,"name":"Residence (former)","alternate_name":"50 Guy Street | Latter Day Saints Chapel | Church of the Latter Day, Warwick","street_address":"50 Guy Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former residence at 50 Guy Street is a one storeyed timber building with simple rectangular plan and encircled by verandahs on three sides. The building, which is slightly elevated from the ground level on short timber posts, is timber framed and clad externally with horizontal chamfered timber boards. The hipped roof of the building is clad with sheets of corrugated iron. The verandahs, on the principal facade to the east and on the northern and southern facades of the building have a bull nose curved corrugated iron awning supported on paired timber columns with decorative cast iron brackets. The verandahs are lined with cast iron balustrading.
Centrally located on the symmetrically arranged eastern facade of the building is the entrance door which is emphasised with a gable projecting from the main roof and projecting above the verandah line of the building. The gable features a triangular pediment supported on paired timber posts, projecting forward from those supporting the verandah, and these are infilled below the pediment to the level of the verandah line with timber fretwork panels. The principal entrance, a four panelled unpainted timber door, with the upper panels removed and glazed substituted for the panelling.
Internally the former residence is planned around a central hall from the front door which terminates at a rear deck on the western side of the building. All the major rooms of the building are accessed on either side of this hallway, which features a silky oak round headed archway about mid way along its length. The four panelled timber doors providing access to the internal rooms from the hallway have transom openings above, infilled with timber fretwork panels.
","history":"The residence situated at 50 Guy Street, Warwick was constructed for Vodeville Francis Doujère, a local merchant.
Warwick was established as an administrative centre of the emerging Darling Downs regions in 1847, with a post office being established in the town in 1848. This year saw the first survey work of the embryonic town completed by surveyor, JC Bennett, with further surveys in 1850, and the first sale of crown land in July 1850. On May 25, 1861, Warwick was granted the status of a municipality, and discussions soon after for the introduction of the railway which was in elementary stages of planning in Queensland.
The property, being 1 rood 35 perches, on which the house was constructed was acquired by Deed of Grant by William Tidman of Ipswich in September 1860, and transferred the following year to Henry Clinton of Main Range, and then to Arnold Weinholt of Maryvale in June 1862. Elizabeth Bridget Dourjère, a widow, acquired the property in July 1880 and on her death on 26 August 1882 the property was left to Vodeville Dourjère and Diamantina Dourjère.
The Warwick rate books for this period indicate that a house, valued at £35 was indeed on the property from 1888. These books show that Vodeville Dourjère who is variously described as a draper, grocer and storeman both dwelt in and owned the property from 1891, when its value increased from £35 to £150. This sudden rise in value seems to indicate that a house may have been constructed in this year.
William Kennedy Hyslop acquired the property at 50 Guy Street in May 1903 and retained it until November 1929 when the property was transferred to his wife, Mary Maria Hyslop. 50 Guy Street passed from the Hyslop family in February 1940 after the death of Mary Hyslop, when it was transferred to Alice May Charles. It changed hands many times and then, in 1985, was purchased by the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. To accommodate the auditorium of the church in the residence internal walls were removed to turn three rooms on the north of the central hallway into a small auditorium.
","criteria":"The residence at 50 Guy Street demonstrates the growth of Warwick at about the turn of the century, and also, more recently, the spread of American Christian religions to regional areas of Queensland.
|The house is a well-composed Victorian timber building which contributes to the Guy Street streetscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15727,"place_ref":600952,"name":"St George's Masonic Centre","alternate_name":"St Georges Masonic Centre | Warwick Masonic Centre | Cunningham No. 90 Lodge","street_address":"50A Guy Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Masonic Centre is a monumental double-storeyed sandstone building with a classical facade, and a corrugated iron hipped roof. The building assumes considerable prominence on the street, where its neighbours are single-storeyed detached buildings. The building has a simple rectangular plan running east-west, with a 1963 rendered blockwork annex to the rear. It contains a hall with an entry vestibule on each level: the upper level hall is richly appointed to cater to masonic ceremonial meetings, while the relatively spartan ground floor hall is used for more casual gatherings.
Externally, the rough hewn sandstone walls to the side and rear of the building contrast strongly with the finely carved symmetrical parapeted front facade. This facade has paired doric columns, flanked by one and a half squared pilasters. The columns are spanned by a large pediment inlaid with the compass and square symbol, resting on an entablature inlaid with other masonic and hebrew symbols. The columns and pilasters rest on a high plinth, and frame an arched doorway surmounted by a pediment and three arched windows.
The building, entered via central timber double doors opens into the ground floor entry vestibule. The entry vestibule has a dressing/store room to its right, and contains a fine set of carved cedar stairs with cupboards underneath. Another set of timber double doors open into the ground floor hall which has painted rough-hewn sandstone walls, timber boarded ceilings and a polished hardwood floor. The floor of the upper level hall is supported by two round timber columns and beams with decorative casings. The room is lit with timber sash windows with deep splayed dark timber reveals, and contains numerous lodge-related photos and prints.
The upper floor vestibule contains two banks of timber cupboards used for storage of robes, under a more recently added mezzanine. The timber boarded ceiling is decorated with two fine carved timber rosettes. The western wall has three arched diamond-glazed windows with stained glass borders and inset with masonic symbols.
The ceremonial hall is an impressive room with rich decoration and furnishings. The walls are embellished with fluted pilasters framing diamond glazed arched windows with stained glass edging. The pilasters are spanned by a substantial plaster architrave. A deep coved cornice rises to a timber boarded ceiling which has three intricate roses. The floor, which is stepped around its perimeter, is covered with red carpet, and has a black and white linoleum centrepiece in "masonic pavement" pattern.
The hall is laid out according to masonic practice with the Grand Master located to the east, the Senior Warden the west, the Junior Warden the south and the secretary to the north. The Grand Master's seat is framed with a carved timber aedicule with a curved pediment. All office bearers have timber "thrones" with triangular backs inlaid with the "jewels" or symbols of their office. These chairs are draped with collars also bearing the "jewels of office". A velvet upholstered bible pedestal sits in the middle of the room, with a triangular timber encased 'G' suspended from the ceiling above it. A polished brass rostrum bearing memorial plaques is located to the south east of the Bible pedestal. Other furniture in the room inscribed with masonic symbols includes four small timber cube-shaped tables, a velvet upholstered timber kneeling stool, a small timber lift-top desk, and three timber ionic, doric and corinthian half-columns which relate to the three key office bearers. The room contains numerous photos and certificates, and a carved timber and marble honour roll on the northern wall.
","history":"St Georges Masonic Centre is a double-storeyed sandstone building, the foundation stone of which was laid in November 1886. The building, which was opened in October 1887, was designed by Warwick architect William Wallace, who was also one of the trustees for the Masonic Lodge at this period. Wallace became the Mayor of Warwick in 1899. The centre was built on approximately half an acre of land, one block west of the main business centre of Warwick.
The site was granted to John Bennett in 1860, and had a succession of owners until it was acquired by Charles Baker in June 1885. In November 1885 the property was taken over by the trustees for the Masonic Lodge.
Both the laying of the foundation stone and the opening of the centre were elaborate occasions. The laying of the foundation stone was accompanied by full masonic ceremonials, including a procession of the "brethren of the mystic tie" through town to the site of the new hall. A scroll, the current coins of the realm and copies of the local newspapers were deposited in the cavity of the stone, before it was lowered into position. Both the laying of the foundation stone and the opening of the hall were celebrated with a ball.
At the time of its opening the centre was described as "... the addition of another public building, [to Warwick] surpassing all the others for magnificence...". The hall was notable for a number of features, including the patent springs under the ball room floor which had been manufactured specially for this purpose and were the first to be used in Warwick. The foundations of the masonic centre were composed of sand, and with the exception of the Warwick Town Hall [600961], this was the only building in Warwick at the time having sand foundations. The building was constructed of sandstone, and together with buildings such as the Court House [600949], Town Hall, Post Office [600963], Railway Goods Shed [600955] and various churches are among a group of important sandstone buildings constructed in Warwick in the late nineteenth century.
Ownership of the land was transferred to The Trustees of the St George's Lodge No. 20 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Queensland in 1959.
","criteria":"The building is a rare example of a sandstone masonic temple in Queensland and demonstrates the principal characteristics of both a substantial masonic temple in Queensland and a late nineteenth century sandstone public building in Warwick.
The building exhibits aesthetic qualities valued by the community, in particular; it contributes to the streetscape as a prominent monumental building and contains well-crafted elements, notably the furniture in the ceremonial hall, the stairs, the window reveals and plasterwork.
As a place which has been in continuous use as a Masonic Centre since 1887, the configuration of furniture and fittings in the upper hall has a strong association with masonic ceremonies and the masonic lodge.
|The building is a rare example of a sandstone masonic temple in Queensland and demonstrates the principal characteristics of both a substantial masonic temple in Queensland and a late nineteenth century sandstone public building in Warwick.
|The building is a rare example of a sandstone masonic temple in Queensland and demonstrates the principal characteristics of both a substantial masonic temple in Queensland and a late nineteenth century sandstone public building in Warwick.
|The building exhibits aesthetic qualities valued by the community, in particular; it contributes to the streetscape as a prominent monumental building and contains well-crafted elements, notably the furniture in the ceremonial hall, the stairs, the window reveals and plasterwork.
|As a place which has been in continuous use as a Masonic Centre since 1887, the configuration of furniture and fittings in the upper hall has a strong association with masonic ceremonies and the masonic lodge.
","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":15728,"place_ref":600953,"name":"Cloisters","alternate_name":"Sophia College | Our Lady of Assumption Convent | Assumption College | Abbey Boutique Hotel","street_address":"8 Locke Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Cloisters is a substantial two storeyed sandstone building prominently located on Locke Street, Warwick. The building consists of a central entrance bay running east-west, flanked by transverse wings which extend to the south forming a three sided courtyard at the rear of the building. Two storeyed verandahs are found on all elevations except the principal entrance facade.
The building is constructed of sandstone from Mitchell's Quarry, and is generally coursed ashlar on the northern entrance facade, and coursed rock faced on the other elevations. All stone detailing, including tracery and window surrounds, mouldings, carvings, copings, chimneys is of smooth faced sandstone.
The corrugated iron roof is generally hipped, and gabled over the transverse wings. Three dormer windows project through the roof on the northern and southern faces of the central wing of the building.
The entrance facade, addressing Locke Street, consists of the central bay, the gabled ends of the transverse wings, a prominent entrance porch and the bell tower, attached to the building at the intersection of the central bay and the eastern, chapel, wing. The entrance porch, located, not centrally, but slightly closer to the east of the building, is a pointed arched opening flanked by gabled pinnacles and all surmounted by a pedimented block, in which is a statue niche.
The octagonal sandstone and timber tower, to the east of the entrance porch, extends through two levels of the building and is surmounted by a belfry. Openings to the ground floor level of the tower are elongated rectangular windows filled with stained glass, and to the upper level are triangular headed windows, with similarly shaped hood mouldings joined at the intersections of the faces of the tower. The first floor of the tower is expressed with a string course, above which is a moulded course which is repeated above the first floor windows. A battlemented edge coping surrounds the top of the sandstone section of the tower. Surmounting this, is a timber extension recessed from the edge of the sandstone section and with timber louvred trefoil lancet openings. The tower is roofed with a lead sheeted onion dome, with expressed ribs and surmounted by a Latin cross made from metal.
The gabled eastern end of the entrance facade, projects past the adjacent tower only at the ground floor level. This projection has a central pedimented bay in which there is a statue niche. Flanking this are paired lancet windows of stained glass, and on the outside edges of the wing is angle buttressing. The projecting section has a parapet detail of trefoil arches between sandstone string courses, concealing a hipped roof. The first floor of this elevation of the wing features a tripartite lancet tapering window arrangement, above which is a smaller lancet opening. The apex of the gable, which has a moulded coping stepped at the gable corners, is surmounted by a carved sandstone Latin cross.
The western end of this southern facade, is similar, but considerably less decorative than the eastern, chapel, wing. A centrally located bay window, with similar parapet detailing to that on the projecting section of the eastern wing, is found on the first floor. This bay window is rectangular in plan, with three glazed openings, a wider central four panel sash, flanked by sidelights. These openings have corresponding transom lights. The first floor tripartite window arrangement and high level lancet, as well as the gable edge detailing, found on the eastern wing of the building, are also featured on this western gabled section.
The double storeyed verandah, which dominates the western facade of the building, is of stone construction on the ground floor and timber construction above. Vermiculated stone columns have carved Greek Cross motifs in their capitals. Stone balustrading, with a trefoil arched cutout detail infills the southern return of the verandah, and cast iron balustrading and timber lattice infill panels are used elsewhere. The first floor verandah is infilled with fibrous cement sheeting to balustrade level, above which are side opening arctic glass casement windows in bays of six.
The rear of the building, to the north, comprises a three sided courtyard bound by the transverse wings and the rear of the central bay, all dominated by two storeyed verandahs. The rear of the central bay features a hipped roofed octagonal section, expressing the internal principal stair. The verandahs to this section are stone on the ground level and timber above, where all other verandahs, some of which have been infilled with fibrous cement sheeting and glazing, are timber framed. The gabled elevations of the transverse wings are stone and have tripartite lancet windows, and similar gable edge detailing to that found on the front of the building.
The eastern elevation of the building, again dominated by two storeyed verandahs, has a centrally located projecting gabled bay, expressing an internal stair hall. Two pointed arched windows are found on the first floor of this and a door opening on ground level, covered by a recent walkway into adjacent schoolgrounds. To the northern (rear) of this bay the verandahs are timber framed with simple turned balusters, stop chamfered columns and fretwork brackets and infill mouldings. To the south of the central bay the verandah is stone on the ground level and timber above. The verandah fascia, at first floor level, is lined with a decorative timber panel with trefoil arched cutouts.
Internally, the building is arranged around a central corridor running east west through both levels of the building from which smaller rooms are accessed, with major rooms in the transverse wings. Generally, the lower floor has plastered ceilings and walls, and the upper floor has beaded timber board ceilings and walls. To the rear of the chapel, in the eastern wing, the 1914 addition is generally of timber internally.
The principal entrance, through the porch on the southern facade, features a double ten panelled and moulded high quality timber door, through which the entrance vestibule, in the porch is reached. This small area features two elaborate stained glass windows of grisaille glass where the panels are entirely of ornament, in trefoil arched openings, and a diagonally boarded stained timber raked ceiling. Through a pointed arched opening is an entrance hall with ribbed cedar wainscotting. Two elaborate timber doorways, with moulded architraves surmounted by entablatures, have four panelled doors with transom lights above, and access former reception and music rooms. These front rooms have two vertical sash windows each, with stained glass transom lights above.
Separating the entrance hall from the central corridor is a fine cedar screen, with three tiers of trefoil arched openings, some of which are glazed with embossed glass panels. Beyond the screen and separated from the corridor by a round plaster arch, supported on Norman-inspired corbels, is the principal half turn closed well stair of cedar, with a large carved newel post and turned blasters. The underside of the stair is lined with coffered cedar panels. A stained glass staircase window, of two vertical panels and a transom light, provides natural lighting. Two pointed arched openings in the corridor, flanking the stair, separate this principal entrance area from the remainder of the ground floor.
The chapel, which is at the eastern end of the corridor, is entered through a stained timber door with trefoil arched cutouts, surmounted by a triangular arched transom light. The chapel comprises two identifiable sections, the southern end being the original chapel, and the northern end a later addition; these are separated by a round arched opening in a central wall. The coffered timber ceiling, of the southern end, rakes toward the long sides of the room, to timber brackets which are supported on Norman-inspired corbels. A perforated timber frieze, just below the timber ceiling allows ventilation. On the southern wall of the room, adjacent to where a raised platform indicates the chancel area, are four fine stained glass window panels, in trefoil arched openings, depicting the four Evangelists and from the Royal Bavarian Art Institute for Stained Glass. The eastern wall of the front section of the cheap features large pointed arched window openings, with grisaille stained glass panels. The more rudimentary rear section of the chapel has a timber fireplace, a walk through sash window and french door with transom light opening to the adjacent verandah. To the north of the chapel, and separated by a stair hall, is the 1914 addition, which comprises large rooms with Wunderlich pressed metal ceilings featuring fleur-di-lis and Greek cross motifs and rendered walls with dado and picture rails impressed in the plaster.
On the western end of the central corridor of the ground floor, through a cedar doorway with transom and sidelights, originally to the exterior, is another half turn cedar stair. Two large rooms beyond this, with timber boarded ceilings and vertical sash windows, have been recently joined with a six leaf folding door. There is s generous bay window in the southern wall of this space. To the north of the ground floor are ancillary spaces, housed both in the rear of the western wing and in enclosed verandah spaces of the central bay.
The first floor of the former convent is, again, arranged around a central corridor, with timber boarded ceiling, running through the central bay terminated by large rooms in the flanking wings. Housed in the central bay, and accessed from the corridor, are many former bedroom cells, the northern ones of which access the rear verandah.
Above the chapel, in the eastern wing of the first floor, is another former dormitory, which features a vaulted timber ceiling, with moulded cedar ribs and purlins, and panels of stained pine boarding. The ribs are supported on Norman-inspired corbels. Half glazed french doors open from this room to the adjacent verandah. A transverse wall has divided the room, which was formerly the largest in the 1893 section of the convent, into two smaller spaces.
The western wing of the first floor of the building houses a very large, former dormitory space, with a lengthwise running timber boarded ceiling, flanked by generous coves formed by slender timber slats also running lengthwise. This ceiling features early paintwork, generally salmon pink and aqua on the coves.
The 1914 south eastern wing comprises a central corridor, off which many small former cells are accessed. Again, details in this section of the building; including the Wunderlich ceiling, joinery and glazing reflect the later date of its construction.
Two stairways from the first floor of the convent, provide access to the attic space, in the ceiling of the convent. This room, which was formerly used as a dormitory, has horizontal timber boarded walls, which are raked towards the ceilings and punctuated by six dormer windows.
The grounds in which the convent sits, contain many features which add to the amenity of the building, including the circular front walkway with central statue; the rose gardens to the east of this and the grotto.
","history":"Cloisters, formerly Our Lady of the Assumption Convent was built in 1892-3 as the second convent of the Sisters of Mercy in Warwick. Additions in 1904 completed the original plans of Brisbane architects, Simkin and Ibler.
The township of Warwick was declared a municipality in 1861, and prior to this was a developed centre of Darling Downs agriculture with the first land sales in 1850, and the establishment of the Horse and Jockey Inn in December 1848. In 1854 Roman Catholic services, like many other religious and social gatherings held in Warwick, began in the Horse and Jockey Inn. Father McGinty, one of only two Catholic priests in Queensland, travelled from Ipswich to celebrate mass. In 1862, Warwick became a separate parish of the church and Dr John Cani was appointed as the parish priest.
An order of the Sisters of Mercy was founded in Warwick on October 29, 1874, thirteen years after the Sisters first arrived in Queensland, from Ireland with Bishop Quinn. The Warwick community was the fifth branch house that the Sisters of Mercy established in Queensland, from the mother house at All Hallows' in Brisbane. The Sisters acquired their first convent in a brick cottage at the corner of Albion and Percy Streets, Warwick, and immediately took over the running of the catholic school, operated by the Missus O'Mara since 1867.
The Sisters remained in the cottage for nineteen years when, after many years of planning, their new convent was ready for occupation in 1893. The site, on Locke Street, was chosen by Bishop Quinn and purchased by the Sisters on August 27, 1877 from Edward Collins, who acquired the original Deed of Grant on February 1, 1854.
Several plans were submitted for consideration and those of Brisbane architects, Simkin and Ibler were chosen. When tenders were obtained for these plans: a two storeyed sandstone building consisting of a central bay flanked by transverse wings, it was too expensive to build, and, rather than alter the plan, the central bay and eastern, chapel wing were constructed with provision allowed for completion at a later date. The early drawing of the convent shows the building as a mirror image of how it now stands, which the chapel wings and tower to the left of the entrance porch rather than to the right.
In the early 1890s, Simkin and Ibler were responsible for the design of several other buildings constructed for the Catholic Church in Queensland, notably Darra, a residence on Ann Street opposite All Hallows' Convent, for Bishop Quinn, who died before its completion in 1891; St Stephen's Girl's School in Charlotte Street, Brisbane (1892); and St Mary's Church on Peel Street, South Brisbane (1892-3). George Simkin and John Ibler, who comprised the partnership, practised together from 1889 until 1894 and many of their buildings are notable examples of Victorian eclecticism and flamboyance.
The foundation stone of the convent was laid in August , 1891 by Archbishop Dunne, who also performed the opening ceremony two years later on March 11, 1893. These occasions were gala events in Warwick, and much of the cost of the building was defrayed by subscriptions raised at the ceremonies.
The building was described as a magnificent edifice...commanding a beautiful view of the town and district. A timber kitchen wing, which was replaced by a 1914 wing, was constructed to the south east of the building which comprised the kitchen, a boarder's refectory, laundry and servant's rooms. Water tanks were provided near the laundry and also above the attic, in the space between the ceiling and the roof of the convent.
The building contract was undertaken by Mr Alexander Mayes of Toowoomba, at a cost of £4500. The stonework was sub contracted to John McCulloch of Warwick, and the painting and decorating work was undertaken by Mr P Cameron of Fitzroy Street, Warwick.
The second stage, being the western wing of the building was constructed by E. Valley, in 1904 at a cost of £3215. This saw the completion of the original plan, with reception rooms on the ground floor and a large dormitory space above.
In 1914 an extension of the western wing was added to designs of local architects, Dornbusch and Connolly, who designed the second St Mary's Church in Warwick (1929). Tenders for this work were called in December 1912. The painting and decorating was by Mr Donald Crawford in this extension. Sandstone used for this extension was from Campbell's Gully. This work was undertaken to meet the newly introduced State High School provisions (1912), which required extra subjects and, therefore, extra rooms, to allow the students to graduate. It is thought that dormer windows were added to the roof of the building, providing natural lighting to the attic at about this time.
During the Second World War, boarders from All Hallows' Convent in Brisbane were transferred to the convent in Warwick, which required the closing in of the western verandah.
The Sisters of Mercy withdrew from Warwick in 1988, when lay catholics in the town retained Assumption College as a campus for tertiary education. The convent was re-named 'Sophia', a Greek word for wisdom, and opened on February 17, 1989.
The building was sold in 1994 and has become a reception centre. This required the addition of a toilet block to the west of the building, and a substantial internal renovation.
","criteria":"The former Our Lady of Assumption Convent demonstrates the pattern of growth of Warwick as a large centre of development on the Darling Downs; and the pattern of growth of the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland.
|The building houses some very fine and rare stained glass panels, from the Royal Bavarian Art Institute of Stained Glass in Munich.
|The building is a good example of ecclesiastical Victorian architecture, influenced by the revival of interest in Gothic architecture during this period and adapted to the sub-tropical Queensland climate. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of Sisters of Mercy convents, in its layout, finishes and features.
|The former convent has considerable aesthetic value, as a well composed substantial sandstone building, with fine detailing, including sandstone carvings and tracery; stained glass panels; and internal joinery, particularly the timber ceilings.
|Cloisters has a strong association with the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland and the Catholic community of Warwick.
|The building is significant as the home of one of the many branch houses of All Hallows' Convent, from where many of the state's early educational and social programmes were established.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 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 | 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":15729,"place_ref":600954,"name":"St James' Hall, Warwick","alternate_name":"Assembly Hall","street_address":"6 Locke Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"St James’ Hall, Warwick (1917, relocated 1987) occupies a level site within the grounds of Assumption College, approximately 1km south of the central business district in Warwick. Relocated from its original position on the adjacent allotment (Cloisters (Our Lady of the Assumption Convent) [QHR 600953]) and accessed from Lock Street to the north, the place stands at the western edge of the school grounds, southeast of the main school buildings and adjacent to the sports fields.
\nFeatures of state-level significance at the place include:
\nHall (1917, relocated 1987)
\nThe Hall is a rectangular timber building, set on low stumps, with its long sides facing east and west. It has a gable roof that wraps at its lower sections around the front (north) of the building to form hip-roofed awnings. The awnings frame a central gable-roofed entrance porch, which is accessed from its front (northern) side (balustrade has been altered - formerly accessed from its western side). A narrow hip-roofed projection extends from the rear (south) elevation and features a decorative gablet. No visible evidence remains of gabled roof vents.
\nThe interior comprises a large rectangular auditorium, separated by a full-height timber partition from a southern storage room (forming the southern projection). The auditorium has a low stage at the south end and a coved ceiling with metal tie-rods (the coved ceiling and tie rods are concealed by a removable suspended ceiling). Its walls feature a moulded timber dado and picture rails.
\nFeatures of the Hall of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of St James’ Hall not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nSt James’ Hall, Warwick, was built in 1917 to the design of architects Dornbusch and Connolly for the Sisters of Mercy. The hall was named for Archbishop Duhig who opened the building in October 1917. Constructed as a recreation hall to provide music education and performance space for Warwick’s Convent High School, run by the Sisters, the hall was used by the school students and teachers for classes and public performances throughout the 20th century. Moved to its current site in 1987, the hall remains part of Assumption College, Warwick.
\nThe land around what is now Warwick has been occupied for thousands of years by speakers of the Bundjalung language group. Traditionally home of the Githabul People[1] the open country was carefully and deliberately maintained by its Aboriginal custodians in an annual pattern of controlled burns to preserve pasture for native grazing animals. European occupation of the Darling Downs by graziers and pastoralists began in 1840. The town of Warwick was surveyed by James Burnett in 1849, with the first sale of crown land in July 1850. Warwick was declared a municipality (Queensland’s fifth) in 1861 and grew from a squatters' town into the principal urban centre of the prosperous southern Darling Downs’ pastoral and agricultural district.[2]
\nEarly Catholic services began in Warwick at the Horse and Jockey Inn in 1852 with Father McGinty, one of only two Catholic priests in Queensland, travelling from Ipswich to celebrate mass. McGinty continued to serve the parish from Ipswich until 1862, when Warwick became a large separate parish within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brisbane. Dr John Cani, later first bishop of Rockhampton, was the first permanent parish priest in Warwick and during his posting the first St Mary’s Church [QHR 600958] was constructed, opening in 1865. A Catholic school, run by the Misses O’Mara in the Albion Street Oddfellows’ Hall, followed in 1867.[3]
\nThe railway linking Brisbane to the tin mines of Stanthorpe reached Warwick in January 1871, fuelling further development in Warwick. As the population grew, an order of the Sisters of Mercy was founded in the town on 29 October 1874. The order had arrived in Queensland from Ireland thirteen years earlier with Brisbane’s first Bishop James Quinn (1861-1881). The Warwick community was the fifth branch house that the Sisters of Mercy established in Queensland, from the mother house at All Hallows' in Brisbane (QHR 600200). For their first Warwick convent, the Sisters acquired a brick cottage at the corner of Albion and Percy streets, and immediately took over the running of the Catholic school.[4]
\nThe Sisters of Mercy, founded in Ireland by Catherine McAuley in 1831, was principally a teaching order. The establishment of religious schools in the Queensland colony was considered crucial to instil and strengthen faith in the community where religion was secondary to money-making.[5] By 1892, the Sisters were educating 7,000 students at 26 schools across Queensland, including secondary schools for girls in Brisbane and Rockhampton.
\nThe quality of education offered by the Sisters was high, including a comprehensive curriculum with specialist teachers in music and domestic science decades before these were introduced at state schools. It was also broad-ranging, providing education to young women before the concept of formal academic education for girls had become part of Australia’s educational system, and ecumenical, open to non-Catholic and Catholic students. Members of all religious denominations from regional centres across Queensland and northern New South Wales sought education at the Sisters’ schools. The number of non-Catholic enrolments exceeded that of the Catholic enrolments until the 1880s and remained equal to them until the turn of the century.[6]
\nAt Warwick, class sizes quickly increased beyond the building’s capacity, and in 1882, the school moved from the Oddfellows’ Hall to St Mary’s Church in Palmerin Street. The Sisters remained housed in the cottage until 1893 when after many years of planning, a new convent was ready for occupation. The site, a 14½ acre block on Locke Street, was chosen by Bishop Quinn and purchased by the Sisters in 1877. An imposing two storeyed sandstone convent, designed by architects George Simkin and John Ibler, was constructed on the site and opened in 1893 [QHR 600953]. The new convent included accommodation for 30 school boarders as well as the sisters, and helped give rise to the name ‘St Mary’s Convent School’ or ‘the Convent School’. A western wing, part of the original plan, was constructed in 1904.[7]
\nExtensive reforms in Queensland’s educational system in the early 20th century impacted on both Warwick and the Convent School. Although primary education and been made free and compulsory from 1875, Queenslanders had limited access to secondary or tertiary education before 1900. Secondary education was provided through a small number of grammar schools, denominational schools or private high schools; all charged fees, with only a limited number of state scholarships available to the grammar schools. From 1900, students who passed the scholarship examination could take up their secondary education at schools approved by the Governor-in-Council, which included private and denominational schools. In 1912, state high schools were introduced to Queensland. Though initially opened in small numbers, these schools vastly expanded Queenslanders’ access to secondary education and provided a pathway to the recently introduced University of Queensland, teachers’ training college or technical schools.[8]
\nWarwick was considered an ideal location for educational institutions, thanks to its climate (believed to be conducive to studying), ‘congenial surroundings’ and railway service.[9] From 1910 a number of state, private, boarding and day schools offering primary and secondary education opened at Warwick, including: the Warwick Technical College (1910; and High School 1914 [QHR 6500562]); St Joseph’s Christian Brothers College for boys (1912); Church of England Girls School (1917); Presbyterian Girls’ College (1918); Scots College (1919) and the Slade School (1926).[10]
\nWarwick’s Catholic residents, who comprised almost a third of the city’s population by 1911, also felt the need for their students to compete for any available scholarships. In 1912, Sister M Vincent Donovan began a room in the Convent School dedicated to secondary classes. At the same time, a number of male students were transferred to the newly-opened Christian Brothers’ College, allowing the Sisters to focus largely on educating girls.[11]
\nIn 1914 an extension of the convent’s western wing was added to designs by local architectural firm, Dornbusch and Connolly. This extension was undertaken in response to the newly introduced State High School provisions, which required additional subjects to be taught at the convent for students’ eligibility to graduate at junior and senior levels. The new extension furnished the convent with extra classrooms and space for boarders’ accommodation. Female secondary school students were relocated from St Mary’s primary school in 1915, marking the beginning of the Convent High School.[12]
\nWhile the new extensions facilitated secondary teaching, there was insufficient space within the convent building to assemble students in one space. Additionally, Warwick’s Sisters of Mercy had a particular and long-standing focus on teaching vocal and instrumental music and a suitable space for classes and concerts was also required. Convent school students were renowned for their ability in musical performance from the early 20th century, earning honours in music examinations and winning local and State competitions,[13] including the Queensland Eisteddfod piano competition in 1911, and the school choirs competition in April 1917.[14] Archbishop Duhig, attending a concert at the school in December 1916,
\n'mentioned that he had hardly ever listened to a finer concert than the one he had heard that evening. He congratulated the pupils upon their prowess, which was so largely the result of the excellent education given by the Sisters of Mercy, and which brought the children so closely in contact with those refining influences which make for so much in modern education.’[15]
\nThe Warwick Examiner and Times lamented, however, ‘that the concert room was not more spacious so that full justice could be done to the real excellence of the performances, and also add to the comfort of the audience’.[16]
\nIn 1917, the Sisters again engaged the services of Dornbusch and Connolly to design a large timber hall adjacent to the High School wing to accommodate their needs. Architect Conrad Dornbusch (1867-1949) had trained in England, and by 1887 was employed in the Brisbane office of the architects Oakden, Addison and Kemp. He was practicing as an architect in Warwick by 1891. He was elected an Associate of the Queensland Institute of Architects in 1893, and a Fellow in 1913. He was an Alderman of the Warwick Municipal Council in 1901. In 1910 he entered into a partnership with Queensland-trained architect Daniel Connolly, with their offices located opposite the Town Hall. Dornbusch and Connolly worked on a number of prominent Warwick buildings, including the Christian Brothers’ School; the Mitchner shelter shed at the Warwick General Cemetery [QHR602152]; the Johnsons Building [QHR600960] adjacent to the Town Hall; the Langham [QHR600957] and Criterion [QHR600962] hotels on Palmerin Street; and the 1926 St Mary’s Church [QHR600959]. The partnership also designed the rest house at the Stanthorpe Soldiers Memorial [QHR601632].[17]
\nDornbusch and Connolly received tenders for the Convent’s ‘recreation hall’ in February 1917. The contractor for the hall was Phillip Thornton and the painting was undertaken by John Ambrose Lefrancke. The building was officially opened on Monday 22 October by Archbishop James Duhig, and named St James’ Hall in his honour.[18] Some 500 people were in attendance and a fundraising concert was performed by students. The building of the hall had coincided with a push within the Warwick parish for a new church to replace St Mary’s, and the concert was the first public appeal for funds by the Sisters.[19]
\nSt James’ Hall was described in the Warwick Examiner and Times shortly after its opening. The building was 69ft x 40ft (21m x 12m), with a 40ft x 15ft (12m x 4.5m) stage. Behind the stage were two small teaching rooms (21ft x 10ft and 17 x 10ft) (6.4m x 3m and 5m x 3m). The main hall featured a 20ft (6m) high coved ceiling with pressed metal panels; fixed seating around the walls; four double hung outward-opening escape doors with fanlights, and eight casement windows with fanlights, ‘opening outwards so as to catch any breeze that may be passing’. Gables in the roof were louvered, allowing warm air to escape. A porch provided the main entrance at the building’s eastern end. The roof – a single span with subsidiary roofs and gables – had a 4ft (1.2m) overhang to provide protection from sunlight. Inside, ornamental columns and panelling provided screening at both sides of the stage, flanking a heavy curtain. The description emphasised the hall’s acoustic properties (a test of which had ‘given every satisfaction to the Sisters’), decorative features, ventilation and heat reduction features.[20] Later articles exhorted the hall’s aesthetic qualities of soft curves, quiet beauty, desirable acoustic properties, splendid lighting, ‘modern’ ventilation, handsome stage and embellishments and tasteful artwork at the back of the stage.[21]
\nWith accommodation for music training and performance space at St James’ Hall, Convent High School students maintained their reputation for musical excellence into the mid-20th century. In 1921 a Convent student was the first to receive the Queensland-wide three-year travelling scholarship from Trinity College London.[22] All of the school’s students were trained for Trinity College London and University of Queensland music board examinations,[23] and a number of the Convent students received high-level musical qualifications from Trinity College while under the Sisters’ tuition.[24] Others used their musical education at the Convent as the basis for professional careers in music.[25]
\nSt James’ Hall also provided a useful function venue for the school. The convent’s annual end of year entertainments and awards presentations were held in the hall, as were public music lectures; fundraising concerts; music examinations for students of the Convent and other Warwick schools; and euchre tournaments and dances, hosted by past students. Public concerts were held for high-ranking religious figures, beginning with an entertainment for the Apostolic Delegate to Australia in 1918.[26]
\nIn February 1922, the Warwick Convent School was approved as a school at which holders of state scholarships could attend.[27] The Governor (Sir Matthew Nathan) attended a performance at the school; Archbishop Duhig encouraged the Warwick parish priest to ‘be sure and show him [the Governor] the new hall’ at the school.[28] The Governor returned in December to present prizes at the school’s end of year event, when ‘the beautiful and spacious hall was arranged like a drawing-room with comfortable easy chairs and large carpet square’.[29]
\nBy 1964 St James Hall had been renovated to include temporary high school accommodation. In 1969 Warwick Assumption College was built next to the convent to provide additional facilities for the Convent High School. Year 11 and 12 classes were discontinued at the Convent High School in 1975. In 1980 Assumption College became a co-educational Junior Secondary College, absorbing the boys from St Joseph’s Christian Brothers College.[30]
\nSt James’ Hall, also known as the Assembly Hall, was moved from its original site west of the convent in 1987 to the Assumption College grounds.[31] Some features of the hall were altered or lost, including the stage with decorative arch, side screens and curtain; interior fixed perimeter seating; external gabled roof vents (removed 1975-6); and crosses to the gable ends of the main roof. Additional windows have been inserted and the porch altered with the removal and insertion of balustrading.
\nThe Sisters of Mercy withdrew from Warwick in 1988, marking the end of the convent’s association with school teaching. Lay Catholics in the town retained the convent as a short-lived campus for tertiary education (Sophia College) before the building was sold in 1994 to private owners.[32]
\nWithin Assumption College, St James’ Hall is still maintained as a space for assembling students and for teaching subjects including music.
","criteria":"St James’ Hall, Warwick (1917, relocated 1987), through its form, fabric and architectural composition, is important in demonstrating the pattern of development of the Roman Catholic Church in Queensland. The hall was built as a component of Our Lady of Assumption Convent following the establishment of the Convent High School by the Warwick Sisters of Mercy in 1914.
\nBuilt as a recreation hall for the school, with a focus on providing music education and holding performances, St James’ Hall is also important in demonstrating the development of secondary education and specialist education including music, as well as the role of religious groups in providing that education. As a hall purpose-built for music education and performance, it is important in demonstrating the Sisters of Mercy’s long and significant role in providing music education to students in the 19th and 20th centuries.
","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":15730,"place_ref":600955,"name":"Warwick Railway Complex","alternate_name":"Warwick Railway Station","street_address":"Lyons Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-09-24","description":"The Warwick Railway Station complex, bounded by Lyons, Hamilton, Fitzroy and Percy Streets, is located several blocks to the east of Palmerin Street, the main street of Warwick. It consists of a series of buildings scattered about the many branch lines and sidings: the stone Station building faces west along Grafton Street, with the footbridge providing a connection where Grafton Street once continued; to the north of the station building is the stone Goods Shed, the timber Sale Yards, and the Turntable (601521); to the east, the cluster of Railway Institute Buildings, and the various quarters buildings fronting Hamilton Street; to the south is the former Barnes and Co. warehouse and the Wheat Shed fronting both Lyons Street and the railway lines; to the west is the driveway and garden; and to both the northern and southern ends of the block are concrete traffic underpasses below the railway lines.
Goods Shed
The Goods Shed is a single-storeyed sandstone building, situated to the north of the Station. A narrow linear building on a north-south axis, it measures some 70m (220ft) in length by 11m (36ft) in width. The gabled roof is of corrugated iron, with translucent skylight panels and a deep overhang on the western side protecting the loading bays. The stonework is of picked finish with draughted margins, laid as coursed ashlar. Added to the south of the building is a small timber office, and to the west is a recent steel canopy structure. Inside the building is a railway siding, with the remainder being a timber platform. The building is still in use as a goods shed.
The western side of the building is divided into bays by stone piers, with seven loading bay openings with arched heads scattered between. Beside these openings are timber bollards. The roof overhang is supported by curved timber brackets resting on stone corbels at the piers. The rafters, doubled at these brackets, have decorative fretted ends. There is an external timber platform at Doors 1 and 2, and at the northern end, and there is evidence there was previously one at Door 5. The east side of the building is also divided into bays by piers , with arch-headed fixed windows of eight panes at every second bay. The north and south ends have large battened gates giving entry to the internal siding, and lunette windows centred within the gable. Connected to the south end of the building is a timber office, with a posted verandah to its north and west sides, and a gabled corrugated iron roof. Enclosing this part of the complex is a perimeter fence of timber posts with a piece of upturned railway track as the rail.
The interior of the Goods Shed is substantially intact. The raised timber platform runs the full length, beside the internal siding. To the loading bay openings are substantial boarded and cross-braced sliding doors, and above are robust exposed timber roof trusses. Also within the building is the warehouse crane (by Dorman and Long) at Door 4, and the scales (by Henry Pooley and Sons) with checkers desk and cupboard. To the southwest corner are partitions enclosing a small office.
Passenger Station
The Passenger Station is also a single-storeyed sandstone building on a north-south axis, with the platform running along its eastern side. The western facade features an entrance portico and verandah. The roof is hipped and mainly of corrugated asbestos cement sheet, apart from the kitchen wing which is corrugated iron. Above the roof are two rendered chimneys with decorative mouldings and a cornice. There is a cantilevered steel awning over the platform, which continues past the Station building in both directions.
The rendered entrance portico has columns and pilasters of Tuscan order, mounted on pedestals. Above is a projecting cornice, then a simple parapet. To either side is a timber-framed verandah with a battened valance. The walls of the building are sandstone laid in ashlar coursing, with picked finish. The stones of the quoins and opening architraves project slightly and have draughted margins.
The station platform is of concrete, and still evident is the line of the former edge, before it was widened. The platform awning is of a common railway design with a butterfly roof reducing to a simple cantilever at the station, on a framing of narrow steel lattice girders.
The interior retains little of its original fabric, and has been largely remodelled. It presently houses offices, staff facilities, toilets and the entrance hall. The entrance hall still features the marble World War I honour board.
There are two outbuildings immediately to the south of the Station. The first is a small brick building, formerly a toilet block, with a hipped corrugated iron roof and roof ventilator. The second is a smaller timber building with a gabled roof. In front of the Station in the island formed by the driveway is a flower garden with shrubs and small trees.
Grafton Street Footbridge
The Footbridge spans across the railway lines from west to east connecting the two parts of Grafton Street. There are three central spans of some 17.5m (58ft), and approach sections at each end of some 7.5m (25ft). It is framed with steel lattice trusses, with timber decking and steps. The handrails are back-to-back steel angles, and together with the steel stringers, incorporate a curve down to the landing of the stair. There are steel T sections curved to form brackets supporting the balustrade. The balustrade is enclosed with panels of chain-wire framed in timber.
Sale Yards
The Sale Yards are a series of open pavilions with bush-timber posts, concrete floors, dressed timber roof framing and corrugated iron roofs. The roofs are a mixture of gabled, half-gabled and hipped forms, with fixed timber louvres infilling some of the gables. The yards contain a series of pens, framed in walls and gates of timber slats, with some of the walls being relocatable to vary the size of the pens. The gates have sliding timber slats used as catches. To the periphery are a series of uncovered pens and loading ramps for vehicles and the railway. The smaller pavilion to the east of the group contains an auction pit surrounded by timber bench seats. The yards are presently still in use weekly for pig and calf sales.
Hamilton Street Buildings
Along Hamilton Street to the east of the station, are the Railway Institute Buildings and a series of quarters buildings. At the eastern end of the footbridge is the Railways Institute Building which has corrugated iron walls and gabled roof, and a small timber lean-to addition. Beside this, is the Billiards Room also of corrugated iron, with trapezoid-shaped shutters. Also nearby are the corrugated iron Plant Store and another Store known as the Boxing Room (now housing model trains). This branch of the Railway Institute is still active.
To the south of the footbridge along Hamilton Street are the remaining quarters buildings. The first is the Single Men's Quarters, a timber building with a hipped corrugated iron roof, and a posted verandah to all four sides, onto which open several doorways. Connected to the rear is a timber addition housing amenities. Similar to other parts of the complex, it has a perimeter fence of timber posts and a piece of upturned railway track as the rail.
Next is the Inspectors quarters, a high-set timber house with front verandah returning to the southern side, which is apparently an standard elevated pyramidal gatekeepers cottage. At the corner is the Station Masters house, also of timber and corrugated iron, which has both open and enclosed verandahs. Between are more recent small fibrous cement cottages.
Subways
To the north and south of the site, on Fitzroy and Percy Streets, concrete subways have been constructed for the road traffic, with bridges for the railways, to replace the level crossings.
Turntable
The Turntable (601521) located in the northeastern corner of the complex, has been excavated and is being restored to working order. The present pit measures some 17.5m (58ft) in diameter, with evidence of the previous diameter of some 12m (40ft) remaining on the concrete base of the pit. The remaining original walls of the pit are of rendered stone, with the refurbished walls being in face stonework. The turntable itself turns on a single circular rail at the perimeter of the pit, and revolves about a central pivot. It is constructed of steel plate, with steel handrails to both sides, and is power-operated from a control point at one end
To the north of the turntable is the former site of the engine shed. Four of the concrete-lined ashpits have been excavated, leaving three still covered. Between the rail lines are timber stumps which are the remainders of the shed's structural posts. The position of these pits and stumps are evidence of the shed's size and curved form.
To the south of the turntable is an iron water tank on a timber stand, which has been brought in from elsewhere. Although lower in height, it is said to be reminiscent of the original tanks which once stood in this location. To the east of the turntable is a recent steel shed in which railway carriages are presently being restored.
","history":"The Warwick Railway Station is an amalgam of buildings dating from the mid 1880s, when this site became the principal railway station in Warwick. The buildings include a sandstone goods shed and passenger station, a turntable, various staff dwelling and recreational buildings, warehouses and a goods sale yard complex.
Warwick was established as an administrative centre of the emerging Darling Downs regions in 1847, with a post office being established in the town in 1848. This year saw the first survey work of the embryonic town completed by surveyor, JC Burnett, with further surveys in 1850, and the first sale of crown land in July 1850. On May 25, 1861, Warwick was granted the status of a municipality, and discussions were held soon after concerning the introduction of the railway which was in primary stages of planning in Queensland.
The first rail line in Queensland, between Bigge's Camp (later Grandchester) and Ipswich, opened in 1865, and it was always the intention of the early Queensland Government to extend the line to provide the pastoral land to the west of Ipswich with a rail link. The line extended to Toowoomba in 1867. A contract was let for the extension of the rail line from Toowoomba to Warwick in February 1866.
This contract was awarded to David Williams of Muswellbrook, New South Wales for £267,566. But with the financial problems of 1866 the first section of this extension, from Toowoomba to Allora was not opened until March 1869 and from there an extension to Warwick was completed for the grand opening attended by the Acting Governor on January 10, 1871.
One of the principal forces shaping the government's construction of the line from Toowoomba to Warwick was the minimising the cost involved, and hence, the cheapest possible route was chosen. This explains why the location of the first terminus at Warwick was chosen to the north of the town and thereby not requiring a bridge over the Condamine River. This initial terminus, known later as Mill Hill, was furnished with a stone goods' shed and timber station building, but was only a temporary facility as the location of the Warwick terminus was resited when plans for extension of the train line were realised.
The discovery of tin at Stanthorpe prompted the government to make surveys for extending the train line from Warwick to Stanthorpe in 1873. This extension made necessary the construction of a bridge across the Condamine River and therefore another railway station was established closer to the settlement although both stations continued for some time simultaneously. In 1885 this second station became the main terminal station at Warwick and has remains so to this day. It is this second Warwick Terminus which forms the basis of the present study. The extension of railway was opened on May 3, 1881 at which time a platform and closets were erected. A shelter shed was erected on the site in 1882.
The station was known as the East Warwick Railway Station until 1885. A plan was instigated in that year for the redevelopment of the newly deemed terminal station, which was fortunate as the former station buildings on the site were destroyed by fire on 10 August 1887 just as the redevelopment plan was nearing completion. This redevelopment was spurred by the planned extension of the line to the New South Wales border, agreed to by Parliament in August 1884. Warwick was planned as a major station on this route.
Tenders were called on June 22, 1886 for the construction of a passenger station and goods shed at the new Warwick terminal station. The contract for the goods shed was let to MT O'Brien for £2710 and for the passenger station to R Godsall and others for £5624. A 40 foot turntable was also planned for the Warwick Railway Station at this time. These were the second set of tenders called for the station buildings as the previous tenderers were all too high.
A report in the Warwick Examiner and Times published on October 12, 1887 describes the progress on the redevelopment plan of the site. Implicit in this report is the frustration felt by the local Warwick community over the lack of official commitment to the project, supposedly manifest in the 'passable appearance' of the passenger station, the prolonged time taken for the tendering process and the lack of funding available. This perceived lack of support was thought to reflect the Queensland Government's uncaring disposition toward Warwick at the time. The article does not mention an architect, but does say 'the architecture (of the passenger station) is not of a very elaborate character, and is said by connoisseurs not to be of a particular order, being a 'homologation' of various orders, such as flitted across the mind of the draftsman when preparing the plans.'
Whilst thus dismissed the passenger station constructed was a substantial single storeyed stone building, with rendered brick portico of classical derivation. A stone kitchen was built adjacent to the station building. An early description of the passenger station describes verandah awnings attached to the eastern side of the building which provide shelter over the platforms. The awnings were supported on cast iron columns on stone bases and with cast iron brackets from the top. This awning was replaced in September 1934 when the extant steel cantilevered awnings were constructed. According to early photographs of the building, the roof of the passenger station was originally covered with a both rolled iron sections and corrugated iron sections.
J McCulloch, the prominent Warwick stonemason responsible for St Mark's and St Andrew's Churches, the convent, the courthouse, town hall and central school, superintended the stonework construction of the station.
Another major part of the redevelopment plan was for a goods' shed, which had been finished for 'some time' when the Examiner and Times reported on the progress of the site in October 1887. According to this report a carriage shed, engine shed and station master's residence had been planned but were not yet erected on the site. Local contractors, Campbell and Thompson were awarded the contract for the station master's residence on 31 July 1888, and this was constructed at the southern end of the railway site.
By 1900 a timber footbridge had been constructed off Grafton Street to plans of the Railways Section of the Works Department. This was planned to minimise the risk of people living on the eastern side of the railway complex, crossing the tracks. The Tighe brothers were awarded the contract, and the bridge which was lit with lamps, was built at a cost of £209/16/-.
During the first few years of the 1910s major redevelopment of the station was planned and the whole site was re-organised. The timber footbridge of 1900 was replaced with a steel framed structure with timber decking. The timber decking was replaced with steel mesh decking in 1932. Further extensions of the 1910s included the May 1912 replacement of a 40 foot turntable on the northern end of the site with a 58 foot model, to accommodate larger locomotives. Various alterations were made to the passenger station, these involved the addition of a refreshment room on the south end of the building joining the kitchen block to the station. Several residences were erected on the eastern boundary of the site, as well as various railway community buildings including the timber building used for crews' sleeping quarters. A timber extension of the Goods Shed used for offices, was extended again by July 1912. Plans were made for the erection of a semi-circular locomotive shed or part round-house in 1912. In 1921 a coal stage was added to the site.
A legendary event of 1917 at the Railway Station catapulted the site to national significance when an egg was thrown at Prime Minister Billy Hughes whilst he was visiting Warwick during the conscription referendum. This incident led to the establishment of the Commonwealth Police.
A c1940s photograph of the site shows extensive gardens on the west side of the passenger station, adjacent to the entrance, extending from Grafton Street.
From the 1960s the importance of the Warwick Railway Station diminished, with increased road competition and the consequent reduction of railway traffic. The passenger service by train to Wallangarra was withdrawn in 1972 and to Dirranbandi in 1992. Warwick now operates solely as a freight station.
A fire spread through the passenger station in September 1963, destroying much of the interior of the building and damaging some external areas. A north end bay of the building was removed at this time and not replaced. The roof of the passenger station has been replaced.
","criteria":"The railway station complex demonstrates the pattern of growth of Warwick, and the development of the railway in southern Queensland and the network of rail-lines centred on Warwick.
|The Passenger Station and Goods Shed are unusual among Queensland railway building, as they were constructed from stone, reflecting the abundant supply of local sandstone. The sale yards are another rare feature of the railway complex. Many saleyards were constructed within railway complexes in Queensland and few of these survive.
|The Warwick Railway Complex is an intact example of a railway precinct dating from the late 19th century. The additions and alterations which have occurred reflect the changes and development of the railway system in southern Queensland. The site with extant passenger station, goods' shed, footbridge, turntable pit, various residences, camping quarters, railway workers' institute and other communal buildings, sale yards and various other smaller buildings and structures, including the extant sidings is an important document of Queensland railway history.
|Several individual buildings on the site have aesthetic merit including the goods' shed which is a fine stone building; the passenger station; the goods yards; and the corrugated iron buildings on the eastern side of the block.
|The site has special associations with the Warwick community, as a centre of trade and travel for about 110 years.
","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":15731,"place_ref":600956,"name":"Barnes and Co. Trading Place","alternate_name":"Smith and Miller Furniture Store | Barnes & Co","street_address":"118 Palmerin Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former Barnes & Co. Store is a brick building of one and two storeys situated on the corner of King Street and Palmerin Street, the main street of Warwick. The building has substantial frontages to both streets, with a two-storeyed central corner block which is square in plan, and single-storeyed wings extending both frontages to the east and south. The building is generally of brick, with rendered ornamentation to the street facades, a plate glass shopfront at ground level, a cantilevered awning over and a corrugated iron roof with rooflights. It now houses a furniture and carpet store known as Smith and Miller, and several other retail tenancies.
Each street facade of the two-storeyed corner block is divided into six bays by rendered pilasters. Between is tuck-pointed brickwork and pairs of vertical sliding sash windows with projecting sills and bracketed heads. Above is a projecting cornice, and a parapet with open circular motifs and finials with four-sided triangular pediments, however the finials of the south wing have been removed. The parapet has higher bays in brickwork emphasising the ends and the corner of the two-storey block. The present awning is cantilevered, replacing an earlier posted version, and supports some timber farm relics. Above the awning is a row of small clerestory-like windows with arched brick lintels, which light the ground floor.
The shopfront has large panes of plate glass divided by cast iron column mullions with simple moulded bases and capitals. Behind are circular metal columns supporting the brick facade above. The shopfront is punctuated by a series of truncated recesses leading to the entry doors, which are low-waisted glazed and panelled double doors.
Internally, the ground floor of the central area is a large open space interspersed with columns, apart from a later partitioned office to the south side. It features a high ceiling lined with ornate pressed metal including borders, cornices, roses and beam surrounds, but the volume of the space has been interrupted by the addition of a timber mezzanine level and a steel stair. To the south wall of this central space is a substantial flat-arched opening decorated with a moulded architrave, consoles and a cast-iron column of Corinthian order leading to the adjoining south wing. To the southeast corner is a walk-in safe with a large steel safe door. To the eastern wall is a timber stair with turned balusters and newels. Visible from the interior, at the north western corner of the building is a sandstone column and part walls at the rear of the building, which are believed to be the remnants of a previous building on the site.
The single-storey south wing has been divided by a timber tongue and groove partition wall, separating a retail tenancy. The boarded ceilings are have been covered with a later suspended tile ceiling. The east wing is presently under a separate title and was not able to be inspected at the time of writing. It has been divided into retail tenancies with new partitions, ceilings and shopfronts, but above the rooflights and boarded ceilings are still evident.
The first floor of the central area is also an open space with 190mm stop-chamfered timber posts supporting steel roof beams lined with timber boards. Over the new stair, there is evidence in the tongue and groove ceiling of the former location of the building's lift. To the south-east corner are partitions enclosing the toilets and a caged service hoist. Vertical sliding sash windows continue on those sides not fronting the streets but with less frequency, and from here can be seen the corrugated iron roofs of the single-storey wings. These are a series of parallel hipped structures with gutters between, and rooflights interrupting the ridges. These rooflights are small rectangular pavilions with windows on all four sides, and hipped roofs featuring acroteria to the gutter corners.
The rear of the building, fronting the corner of the laneway, has timber, brick and some stone walls, and a series of lean-to roofs creating some loading areas. From here a timber ramp runs back into the building, past the later partitions of staff toilets and store rooms.
","history":"The former Barnes & Co department store, now housing Smith and Miller furniture showroom, situated on the corner of Palmerin and King Streets, Warwick, was constructed in 1910-11 to designs of local Warwick architects, Wallace and Gibson.
The building was described in contemporary reports as a trade palace and was, in fact, a department store. Department stores became popular in England during the mid nineteenth century, assuming the popularity arcades formerly held for would-be purchasers. The new stores were large scale buildings, usually multi-levelled, with impressive architectural edifices raising them to the standards of public monuments. By the First World War the department store flourished as a middle class institution where shoppers were less intimidated and offered a wider variety of goods than were available in traditional exclusive shops.
Barnes & Co in Warwick was typical of many of the early Australian department stores. The company which was known under various names had been merchants in Warwick since 1874 and, in the tradition of many other large stores, considerable expansion and rebuilding occurred resulting in the 1911 building extant today.
George Powell Barnes who founded Barnes & Co, was born in 1856 in Castlemaine, Victoria. He was educated in Queensland when his father, a driver employed by Cobb & Co established the Brisbane-Gympie-Maryborough run. George worked as a cashier in various stores in regional Queensland before moving to Warwick in 1878 and opening a store. Early stores on the Darling Downs were a necessity to the farmers; their isolation made contact with potential buyers difficult and stores were able to act as middlemen and ensure the disposal of goods and produce.
A company started in 1880 by George Barnes in association with his brother, Walter Henry Barnes and Mr TF Merry was known as Barnes and Company Limited. Merry was a storekeeper in Toowoomba, with whom George worked earlier and whose daughter, Mary Cecelia was married to George in 1879. Barnes and Co was formed to control businesses in Warwick, Allora, Yangan and Roma Street and Commonwealth Flour Mills at Warwick and South Brisbane.
In 1898 Messrs Wallace & Gibson, local Warwick architects, called tenders for the erection of a business premises located at the corner of Palmerin and Fitzroy streets for Messrs Barnes & Co. This stone building, used as the registered offices of the firm, was constructed on land several blocks to the north of the site of the 1911 Barnes & Co building, and was known as the Emporium. A 1901 description of the business describe Barnes & Co Ltd as general merchants, having departments specially devoted to general drapery, millinery, dressmaking, groceries, crockery, and glassware, furniture, boots and shoes, ironmongery, farmers' produce and agricultural machinery. Another building owned by the firm, in another part of Palmerin Street, was known as the Exchange and was devoted to the selling of agricultural machinery. As before mentioned Barnes & Co were the proprietors of the Commonwealth Flour Mill, located in Wantley Street, Warwick. This was a complex of brick buildings used for the storage of wheat.
The culmination of the Barnes & Co expansion was the opening of their trade palace at the corner of Palmerin and King Streets. The land on which the building stands was acquired by Deed of Grant by William Brown on 23 November 1860 and had many owners until 23 March 1907 when George Powell Barnes bought the site for his new trade palace.
The building was constructed by contractor, Mr M Ivory and cost £9000. When constructed the building was featured in a lengthy report of the Warwick Examiner and Times and described as a distinct and unassailable illustration of the progress and wealth of Warwick and the rich agricultural and grazing belt surrounding it. The store was a large addition to Warwick in 1911, and of not inconsiderable architectural pretension. Externally, well composed facades of tuck pointed brickwork and plaster pilasters and cornices contribute to the quality of the design of the building and this is re-inforced by the internal finishes and detailing including the Wunderlich ceiling, timber joinery and plate glass. A Lamson pneumatic railway system was installed to connect with tubing nineteen points of sale with a cash office at the rear of the store, through which cash and documents could be moved around the building quickly.
Particular attention was given to internal lighting, with Webb & Weston electrical and mechanical engineers consulting on the installation of an electric generator, for lighting and general power. The roof was pierced with several skylights. Internally the plastered walls were kalsomined.
The interior of the former Barnes & Co store seems to have been divided into several smaller departments and a small note in the opening description describes wooden partitions as painted. The ground floor of the shop, with a total of 370 feet of plate glass frontage to King and Palmerin Streets, was devoted to various departments, including menswear on the corner of the streets, haberdashery, manchester, furnishing, grocery and crockery and dress departments along the King Street facade and the boot and furniture departments along Palmerin Street. In the upper floor of the store was the ladies' underwear department, the dressmaking and fitting rooms and a staff luncheon room.
The property passed out of the Barnes family in the late 1950s and has been used since that time by various commercial outlets.
","criteria":"The former Barnes & Co store is important as it provides evidence of the growth of Warwick during the early part of the twentieth century. The building demonstrates the development of trading companies and department stores in regional Queensland, and, in particular, the growth in Warwick and district of the prolific firm Barnes & Co.
|The building is a good example of an early twentieth century regional department store, with evidence of the original layout and previous use of the building with intact shop front and ceilings throughout.
|The building contributes to Palmerin Street which is the principal shopping street in the town and is a substantial well-composed prominent building.
|(Criterion under review)
|The building has special associations with a prominent Warwick resident George Barnes.
","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":15732,"place_ref":600957,"name":"Langham Hotel","alternate_name":"Langham's Hotel, Warwick","street_address":"133 Palmerin Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Langham Hotel is a two-storeyed brick building on the southern end of the business centre of Palmerin Street, the main street of Warwick. The property is elongated, with the narrow eastern end facing the street. Its street elevation has a two-storey filigreed verandah extending over the footpath and a masonry facade beneath articulated with moulded archways and pilasters, and topped with a balustraded parapet of classical motifs. Behind this balustrade is a roof terrace giving commanding views of the main street and the roofs of the city.
The eastern end of the building contains mainly public spaces, and from it run two parallel accommodation wings along the northern and southern boundaries. These have simple elevations of face brickwork and window penetrations. Between these wings a roof has been added enclosing the lightwell below. The rear of the site extends into an extensive public carpark..
The front verandah has stop-chamfered timber posts, doubled at the central and end bays. The cast iron balustrade features the classical motif of a woman in flowing gowns at the centre of each panel. Below the balustrade is a pressed metal frieze, then a slatted timber valance. To the underside of the verandah has a ripple iron lining trimmed with moulded metal gutters. The hipped bullnose roof to the verandah is of corrugated iron, and framed with stop-chamfered purlins and shaped rafters. The gutter has a decorative metal acroterion remaining on one corner. Above is balustraded parapet of moulded plaster pedestals topped with ball motifs, concrete balusters and face brick surrounds. To each end are ornate metal rainwater heads announcing 1912 as the year of the building's construction. The balustrade returns at each end for only one bay, as the side elevations become much simpler and less ornate
At street level, the facade is an arcade of moulded segmental archways with pilasters, ornate capitals and keystones engraved with the letter 'L'. At the northern end are stairs to two entries to the public bar with double doors of silky oak and etched glass, and double hung windows between. To the central archway are white marble steps to a pair of similar doors with matching sidelights and arched toplight, which leads to the entrance vestibule. Beside the central arch is a small illuminated sign of the hotel's name. To the south is the entry to a retail tenancy with a recent aluminium shopfront.
The entrance vestibule has a pressed metal ceiling, and leads to the former telephone lobby which features tessellated floor tiles and a leadlight window. Through a further triplet of moulded plaster archways with keystones, capitals and balusters, is the main stair hall. The stair has squared balusters and newels, and a panelled spandrel below. Adjoining is the public bar whose layout has been altered, but it retains its pressed metal ceiling with roses, cornices borders and beam linings.
The rear of the ground level has also been largely altered. The light area between the accommodation wings has been roofed over to form the lounge bar and the former Billiard Room and Dining Room have had walls removed, but the Dining Room retains its pressed metal ceiling.
The stair to the first floor was lit by leadlight windows which are now blocked by the addition of later bathrooms. The stair hall at the first floor level has similar archways leading to the lounge which in turn opens onto the verandah. Also from the stair hall lead the corridors to the accommodation wings, which both have pressed metal ceilings with roses and cornices, four-panelled doors with glazed fanlights, and tall timber skirtings. All the bedrooms also have pressed metal ceilings. The southern wing has a coloured glass door leading to a verandah, onto which open several glazed French doors to further bedrooms.
The lounge also features a pressed metal ceiling with borders roses and cornice, also a picture rail and tall timber cornice. Opening from here and other rooms onto the balcony are panelled and glazed French doors with tilting fanlights. The facade treatment here is face brickwork with flat brick arch lintels, simple pilasters continuing from ground level to the parapet, and double-hung windows with moulded plaster sills.
The main stair continues to a third level, where the stair hall features the continuation of the stair balustrade, leadlight windows and pressed metal ceiling. Externally it is brick with a hipped roof of corrugated iron again with acroteria to the gutter corners. It opens onto the gravelled roof terrace with its views over the city. From here can also be seen the hipped roof of the north wing in metal deck, and the gabled roof of the south wing in corrugated iron. The brick chimney shafts have rendered mouldings and cornice, and terra cotta chimney pots. At the roof terrace they are grouped in stacks and turned on the diagonal, showing an Old English influence.
The building features many classical motifs, both internal and external, in its articulated street facade and ornamentation of the major rooms. There is an extensive range of pressed metal ceilings throughout the building, with the degree of ornamentation varying with the importance of the room. Also intact is a substantial amount of joinery, in particular the elaborate staircase.
","history":"Completed in 1913, the Langham Hotel was designed by Warwick architects Dornbusch and Connolly for Mrs Cobcroft. The Langham Hotel replaced an earlier hotel on the site known as the Rose Inn.
The property was acquired by Maria Dank in 1860, then transferred to John Heffernan in 1870 and to William Law in 1871. By 1881 records indicate that there was a hotel on the site, also a house and a cottage which fronted a lane. Records of licenses issued show that the hotel was known as the Rose Inn Hotel.
In 1911 the property was transferred to Arthur John Cobcroft, a Bank Manager of Warwick. In the same year Edward Portley, then licensee of the Rose Inn Hotel, was granted a licence to carry on business temporarily during the demolition and re-erection of the hotel premises. Title records indicate that Cobcroft leased the property to Daniel Allman from October 1911.
Tenders were invited in January 1912 for the erection and completion of the Langham Hotel, Palmerin Street Warwick for Mrs CA Cobcroft. A detailed description of the new hotel appeared in the Warwick Examiner and Times in August 1913. The erection of the hotel by Mrs Cobcroft was described as ... a progressive move on her part and provides an ornament to the town... , reflecting Mrs Cobcroft's optimistic view of the future of Warwick. The article noted that the Hotel will be conducted under the direction of Mr and Mrs Allman, and will be managed by Mrs Stokes, who has been managing Allman's Hotel in Grafton Street for the past four years. During the early twentieth century the Allman family owned and also operated the National (then Allman's) [600950] and Criterion [600962] Hotels in Warwick.
Sample rooms were provided in the hotel, and stabling accommodation was available. The main staircase of the hotel was designed to enable the subsequent installation of a passenger lift, however there is no evidence to indicate that this ever occurred. The article also indicated that the walls of the hotel had been built of such a thickness that two additional stories could be added at any time which indicates a possible reason for the provision for a passenger lift.
The ground floor of the hotel included a shop to the southern side of the main Palmerin Street entry, and in August 1913 PR Woods, a Chemist, removed his business to the commodious new shop in the Langham Hotel premises... .
The property was transferred to James Roach in 1919 and remained in the Roach family until 1948. The property was subsequently held by a number of people until 1964 when it was acquired by Anthony and Jacob Maroon. Jacob Maroon died in 1979 and his share transmitted to Anthony Maroon. The lease on the property is presently (1995) held by Anthony Maroon and Marcell Maroon.
","criteria":"The Langham Hotel survives as evidence of the role of Warwick as a commercial centre for the surrounding district.
|In street frontage, internal organisation and interior ornamentation, the building is typical of hotels erected in Warwick during the early 20th century.
Internally, the building retains substantial amounts of original fabric including pressed metal ceilings, plaster mouldings and joinery.
|Prominently located within the business centre of Warwick, this substantial two storey brick hotel with filligree verandah contributes to the Palmerin Street streetscape and the Warwick townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15733,"place_ref":600958,"name":"St Mary's Church (former)","alternate_name":"St Mary's Church | St Mary of the Assumption Church | St Marys Church (former) | St Marys Church | St Mary's Catholic Church (former)","street_address":"163 Palmerin Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former St Mary's Church is situated within the school grounds of the local catholic primary school in Palmerin Street, Warwick.
The church is of solid sandstone construction, and conforms to a cruciform plan, with nave extending to the east, transepts to the north and south and chancel to the west. The sandstone, which is finely tooled, is generally coursed, with larger blocks used as quoining.
The church sits on a plinth, formed by a course of sandstone projecting slightly from the face of the walls. The corrugated iron roof is gabled and has overhanging eaves lined with wide timber beaded boarding which returns to the interior of the space.
The eastern entrance facade features a small gabled entrance porch, with a pointed arched opening formed with smooth faced sandstone blocks. Buttressing is formed by extensions of the faces of both the porch and main body of the church, this detail is repeated on the transepts and western end of the building.
Above the porch is a rose window, of heavy tracery, with some early glass panels; above this is a ventilation opening in the form of a Latin Cross. Surmounting the apex of the gable is a carved stone Latin Cross.
The north and south, transverse elevation feature projecting side entrances and transepts, among regularly spaced single lancet window openings. The entrances from the sides of the church, feature pointed arched doorways on the eastern face, and single window openings of plate tracery, with small quatrefoil opening above. The transepts feature large rose windows in the gables.
The western, chancel, face of the church features a large geometric tracery opening, incorporating four lancet openings, two quatrefoils and a rose feature above.
Internally, the building retains very little of its ecclesiastical character, with the exception of the window openings. The walls are rendered, the floor carpeted and a ceiling of fibrous sheeting has been inserted. The space is divided into several smaller spaces with v-j boarding. The sandstone of church suffers from rising damp problems.
","history":"The former Saint Mary's Church, Warwick is a substantial sandstone building, constructed 1863-5 to designs of prominent Brisbane architect, Benjamin Backhouse.
From the 1840s, it seems that informal Roman Catholic services were held in Warwick by visiting priests from Sydney, Ipswich and Brisbane. The first recorded mass was held in 1854 by Rev. Father McGinty who travelled from Ipswich, and this was celebrated at the Horse and Jockey Inn, Palmerin Street, where services for most other denominations were held at this time.
In 1862 Warwick became a separate parish of the church, only one year after Warwick was declared a municipality on May 25, 1861. The first priest was Dr John Cani, who was later to become the first Bishop of Rockhampton. By August 20, 1863, discussions were being held for the erection of a church in Palmerin Street. £20 was subscribed on that day, and £180 was needed for the purchase of land.
Various people, including Michael Knole, William Cowper and Sarah Ransley acquired the various future church lots by Deed of Grant on August 16, 1860 (Allotments 7-12 of Section 49) By September 1863, John Cani and James Quinn, the parish priest and Bishop, became the registered owners of these allotments.
The plan for the church was duly prepared by prominent Brisbane architect, Benjamin Backhouse, to the specifications that it was to be simple but tasteful, in the Gothic style and in stone or brick. Benjamin Joseph Backhouse arrived in Brisbane in May 1861, and designed many buildings of architectural pretension in Queensland over the next six years, before he departed for New South Wales by 1868. He was responsible for the design of many churches including the second St Stephen's Roman Catholic Cathedral, additions to St John's Pro-Cathedral, as well as many other smaller regional churches.
Despite the setback of severe damage during a thunder storm the church the building was officially opened on August 23 1865 by Bishop Quinn, the first Bishop of Queensland. At this time the church was named the St Mary of the Assumption, now popularly shortened to St Mary's. This original building consisted of only the nave of the present church, with side entrances, not through porches, but simply accessing the body of the church directly. The roof of the building was slated or shingled. The contractor was CA Doran and the structure cost about £1500. The stone for the construction of the church was obtained from the Sidling Quarries, which were a small group of quarries in Warwick.
In 1865 Dr Cani was succeeded by Father Scortechini, who was soon after replaced by Father Hogan. By 1867 a catholic school, run by the Misses O'Mara until the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy in 1874, was established in the church by the next parish priest, Father O'Reilly. The church was partitioned with calico screens, firstly to separate the sanctuary from the teaching area and, later to divide the teaching area into smaller rooms in the body of the church. O'Reilly was replaced by Father McDonagh, who was the first resident priest, and after him in 1876 came Father James Horan who was to remain in Warwick until 1905. Horan was responsible for the completion of the church by 1894, when the transepts and chancel were added. By this time porches over the side entrances were also completed.
Monsignor Michael Potter was posted as a curate to Warwick in 1891, and continued there as the parish priest after Horan's death in 1905. It was Potter who decided that the original St Mary's Church was no longer adequate for the needs of his community. Thus he sought plans for the construction of a larger church, further north on the same block in Palmerin Street. Local architects, Dornbusch and Connolly drew plans for the new church which, like the original church, was to conform to a cruciform plan, but only the body has thus far been completed. The new church was constructed between 1920 and 1926, when it was officially opened.
After the opening of the new church, the original St Mary's was partitioned, lined and used as school rooms, for the catholic primary school which began in the building in its earliest days. It has remained as a community meeting hall and store to this day.
","criteria":"The church is important in demonstrating the growth of Warwick during the 1860s when the town became the centre of an agricultural region. The church is able to demonstrate the spread of the catholic church through regional areas where substantial buildings were erected in the mid nineteenth century.
The former St Mary's church is associated with the early prominent Brisbane architect, Benjamin Backhouse.
|The former St Mary's Church is rare as one of the earliest extant sandstone buildings in Warwick, and the earliest sandstone church.
|The building is a good example of masonry church design of mid nineteenth century Queensland, influenced by the English revival of early Gothic architecture.
|It is a well composed and constructed stone building, with fine stone tracery.
|The building has special associations with the Roman Catholic community in Warwick, as a former parish church and as the central focus of the catholic primary school since its construction in 1863-5.
","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":15734,"place_ref":600959,"name":"St Mary's Church","alternate_name":"St Mary of the Assumption Church | St Marys Church | St Mary's Catholic Church","street_address":"163 Palmerin Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Mary's Church is a substantial sandstone building prominently located on the corner of Palmerin and Wood Streets, Warwick. The church, a local landmark, is visible from most areas in Warwick. It is situated on land adjoining the local catholic primary school in which the former St Mary's Church is situated.
The church, which remains incomplete, was designed with a the traditional cruciform plan, with entrance from Palmerin Street and north and south transepts and a sanctuary west of this. The body and tower of the church and were the only parts completed resulting in a curiously proportioned building.
St Mary's consists of a central nave, flanked by side aisles, a shallow sanctuary and a large tower on the eastern, entrance facade. The nave and aisles are expressed on the exterior of the church with distinct purple Bangor slate gabled roofs; the height of the aisle roofs allowing the loftier nave to be naturally lit by clerestory windows.
The tower, projecting through 29 metres on the south eastern corner of the building, is surmounted by an octagonal spire protruding above a crenellated parapet through which eight spired pinnacles project. The pinnacles, which extend from the angled buttressing strengthening the tower, are surmounted by sandstone fleur-de-lis, a motif which continues throughout the building. The tower features a number of openings repeated on all sides: a cinquefoil rose at the base; above which is a pair of double lancets with fleur-de-lis opening above; two quatrefoil openings; surmounted by two comparatively small tripartite lancet openings and finally, at the top, two larger lancet openings.
The building is constructed from coursed rock faced sandstone with smooth faced arch mouldings, string courses, copings, parapet detailing, tracery and carvings. The glazing in the building consists of leadlight panels, with stained and coloured glass sections.
The eastern entrance facade consists of a large central gabled bay adjoining a smaller gabled bay to the north and the tower to the south. Access is gained to a porch up seven stairs extending the width of the central bay, and through three segmental arches which are supported on circular granite columns with foliated capitals and resting on elongated octagonal bases. The archways are under a chevroned hood moulding resting on corbels; surmounting the central chevron is a cross. Above the porch opening is a large window of geometrical tracery, with lancets under a large circular light. Large sandstone crosses surmount the gable tops of both the central and subsidiary bays, which are demarcated by angled buttressing extending to pinnacles.
The northern and southern faces of the church consist of the transverse elevation of the aisles and, set back from these, the elevation of the nave. These elements are punctured with openings of geometric tracery featuring twin lancets and quatrefoil above. Concealing the roofs are parapets; over the aisle roof the parapets are moulded with protruding miniature gabled pinnacles and to the nave the parapet is crenellated with similar protruding pinnacles. The roof is punctured with ventilation gablets. Confessional rooms project from the transverse elevations of the building.
The western elevation of the church, which was to be extended, is of rendered brickwork and consists of a central gabled extension lower than the body of the church, flanked by two skillion roofed sections.
Entrance is gained to the body of the church via three double panelled timber doorways from the porch, and by two side entrances. The ashlar faced porch has a deep coffered timber ceiling and a grey terrazzo floor with dark red border.
Internally the church has a six bay nave, defined by a pointed arched arcade supported on granite columns with polished shafts. A large pointed chancel arch demarcates the sanctuary, which features a rose window and a fine marble High Altar. Two shallow side altars in pointed arched recesses flank the sanctuary and terminate the side aisles of the church
The concrete floor of the church is rendered with red ironite with terrazzo in the aisles featuring the recurring fleur-de-lis motif. The internal walls are all rendered masonry, with mouldings around windows and at dado rail height and below the clerestory windows of plaster.
The ceiling is of panels of diagonal timber boarding, alternately arranged. The timber king post roof trusses feature caps and sunk mouldings, with elegant moulded sweeps which rest on attached piers extending to the spandrels of the nave arches, where they are terminated by a carved sandstone corbel. Between the piers are the clerestory windows, featuring leadlight panels and a stained glass quatrefoil, the image on which differs on each window.
A gallery with silky oak panelling extending for one bay of the nave, is situated at the eastern end of the church and supported on cast iron columns. Confessional rooms are accessed from half glazed timber doors under recessed pointed archways in both aisles.
Many early features of the church remain intact, including the timber pews, timber framed Stations of the Cross, and a marble memorial plaque to Rev. Jacobi Horan. The chancel features a very fine Gothic revival High Altar of white Sicilian marble with panels of red and green marble and matching side altars and pulpit.
","history":"St Mary's Church, Warwick was constructed between 1920 and 1926, as the second Roman Catholic church in Warwick, to designs of local architects Dornbusch and Connolly.
From the 1840s, it seems that informal Roman Catholic services were held in Warwick by visiting priests from Sydney, Ipswich and Brisbane. The first recorded mass was held in 1854 by Rev. Father McGinty who travelled from Ipswich, and this was celebrated at the Horse and Jockey Inn, Palmerin Street, where services for most other denominations were held at this time.
In 1862 Warwick became a separate parish of the church, only one year after Warwick was declared a municipality on May 25, 1861. The first priest was Dr John Cani who was soon pursuing the need for a church building. A site was chosen in Palmerin Street and the land was acquired on the south of block bordered by Palmerin, Wood, Percy and Acacia Streets in central Warwick.
Plans were duly drawn by prominent Brisbane architect, Benjamin Backhouse, to the specifications that it was to be simple but tasteful, in the Gothic style and in stone or brick. Despite the setback of severe damage during a thunder storm the church was officially opened on August 23 1865 by Bishop Quinn, the first Bishop of Queensland. The contractor was CA Doran and the structure cost £1500. The stone for the construction of the church was obtained from the Sidling Quarries, which were a small group of quarries in Warwick.
Dr Cani left the parish and was succeeded by a number of priests in quick succession until Father James Horan was appointed in 1876, and remained the parish priest of Warwick until his death in 1905. Horan was responsible for completing the original church with the addition of transepts and the chancel by 1894.
Monsignor Michael Potter was posted as a curate to Warwick in 1891, and continued there as the parish priest after Horan's death in 1905. It was Potter who decided in the 1910s that the original St Mary's Church was no longer adequate for the needs of his community, and a larger more grand church was required.
Local architects, Dornbusch and Connolly were commissioned to design the new church, which was built on land immediately to the north of the original St Mary's Church. This land, Allotments 3-6 on Section 49, was acquired by Samuel Elphick on August 16, 1860 by Deed of Grant, and was bought by the Church by 1880. The foundation stone of the new church was laid by the Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix assisted by Archbishop Duhig of Brisbane on February 29, 1920.
The original plans for this church conformed to the traditional cruciform plan, with the chancel extending almost to the Acacia Street boundary of the property. Two lawsuits were held during the construction of the church, firstly over ownership of the rear section of the property and then with the contractors, Kerr and Clark who were sued for beach of contract, making work cease. This delayed the building work and meant that the construction of the church, which was eventually finished by day labour, took six years. The rear section of the church, including the transepts and the chancel was not completed, and, indeed, remains incomplete in 1995. The western wall and shallow chancel were temporarily undertaken in rendered brick.
Sandstone for the church was obtained from the nearby Yangan quarry and the granite, used in the piers both internally and externally, from Greymare. A damp proof course, of sheet lead in asphalt was inserted to all the walls.
The church was designed in a style described at the time of its construction as a revival of Gothic architecture practiced between 1274 and 1377, or Decorated or Middle Pointed Gothic. This is evident in the traceries and mouldings around the church. Major departures from this style include the internal nave piers, thought to be of earlier, Norman influence and the entrance porch of the later 15th century pointed Gothic.
Stained glass windows were the design and manufacture of Messrs RS Exton and Co of Brisbane. The supervisor of the stone work was Mr FJ Fuller of Toowoomba, and other building works were supervised by Mr FJ Corbett of Brisbane. St Mary's was constructed at a cost of £40,000.
When built, St Mary's incorporated electrical lighting, a fine set of stations of the Cross, and a pneumatically blown organ. By July 1929 a High Altar and two side altars designed by Dornbusch and Connolly and executed by Messrs F. Williams and Co of Ipswich were made for the church from white Sicilian marble with panes of Red Verona and Verde Antico. The following year a pulpit, again designed by the church architects and made by F Williams and Co. was introduced to the sanctuary.
The church has been used continually since its opening on March 21, 1926 by the Archbishop of Brisbane, James Duhig. In 1929 a grotto, a small replica of that at Lourdes, was constructed to the north of the church and this was donated by Mr and Mrs Martin Crane.
","criteria":"The immense scale and size of the planned St Mary's Church demonstrates the importance of Warwick as a major provincial centre.
|St Mary's Church is important in demonstrating the characteristics of early twentieth century Gothic revival churches, of which it is a fine example, although incomplete.
|The building has many fine elements including the stonework, particularly the tracery and carvings; internal joinery; and a very fine marble High Altar, side altars and pulpit. The building is a landmark in Warwick as the highest and most prominent building in the town.
|The church has special associations with the catholic church of Warwick as their parish church for over sixty years.
|It has particular associations with Rev. Father Matthew Potter, under whose guidance the church was constructed.
","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":15735,"place_ref":600960,"name":"Johnson's Building","alternate_name":"Johnsons Building","street_address":"64-70 Palmerin Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-06-11","description":"Johnson's Buildings comprise four single-storeyed shops linked by a rendered masonry facade. The shops have brick party walls, individual pitched corrugated iron roofs, timber framed additions at the rear, and out-buildings.
The facade above the awning line has a cornice with dentils which forms a large central arch flanked by two smaller ones. These arches are topped with scrolls and a central stepped pediment. The parapet is decorated with acroteria and plaster reliefs of drapes and scrolls; the central arched panel bears the name "Johnson's Buildings", with "1913" set in the pediment above.
The cantilevered awning replaced an earlier one which was supported by posts. Internally, the shops retain some of their original fabric, including pressed metal ceilings in the two 1913 shops to the north. These ceilings have floral motifs set in a grid pattern to a large central panel, with a finer floral motif pattern to the edge and cornice.
The elaborately decorated facade of the Johnson's Buildings makes a distinctive contribution to the streetscape of Warwick's main street, which includes some particularly fine and intact nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings.
","history":"Johnson's Buildings are a group of four single-storey masonry shops linked by a common facade, adjacent to the Warwick Town Hall [600961] in Palmerin Street.
The land was acquired by Frederick Hudson in 1857 who held the land for a number of years before it was sold to Thomas Alexander Johnson in 1896. Johnson was an Alderman on the Warwick Municipal Council from 1879-1898, and was Mayor of Warwick from 1881-1884. Johnson was subsequently a Member of the Legislative Council from 1904 until his death in 1914. Johnson also held various positions such as President of the Warwick Progress Association, Vice-president of the Eastern Downs Agricultural and Pastoral Association and Chairman of the Warwick Farmers' Milling Co.
The two shops adjacent to the Town Hall were built in 1898. They were designed by Conrad Dornbusch and built by Daniel Connolly.
In 1900 these shops were altered and converted into premises for the Warwick branch of the Royal Bank of Queensland. The alterations were overseen by Dornbusch, acting for Hall and Dods in Brisbane.
In 1913 the premises occupied by the Bank were altered, and two new shops were constructed adjacent to the northern side of the Bank. A new facade was also constructed to link the existing and new buildings. The new shops and alterations were designed by local architect Hugh Campbell and built by LA Tessman.
Johnson died in 1914 and the building was divided between three of his children, leaving the two new shops to his daughters Helena Maria Rowell (64 Palmerin St) and Elizabeth Ellen Hardaker (66 Palmerin St). The premises leased to the bank were left to one of his sons, Thomas James Johnson (68-70 Palmerin St).
64 Palmerin Street was rented by Mrs Gertrude Florence Jensen from 1932 until 1948 at which time she purchased the shop. Mrs Jensen ran a ladies fashion shop known as "Jennette Salon". The shop was acquired by her son, Mervyn W Jensen in 1989, and continues to operate as a ladies fashion shop.
Elizabeth Hardaker owned 66 Palmerin Street until her death in 1923 when it passed into the hands of trustees. The property was purchased in 1949 by Mrs Jensen's son and daughter, Mervyn W Jensen and Dulcie D Jensen, and continues to trade under the name of Jensens Men and Boys wear.
The Royal Bank of Queensland, subsequently the National Bank of Australia, continued to occupy part of Johnson's Buildings until 1930 (68-70 Palmerin St), after which the premises were leased to a succession of tenants who operated a cafe. The property was acquired by Peter Stephanos, one of the lessees in 1943. In recent years, the premises have been divided into two shops, currently the Warwick Newsagency (68 Palmerin Street), and the Fair Lady Hair/Beauty Salon (70 Palmerin Street).
","criteria":"The buildings are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the development of the commercial centre of Warwick.
|Further, they are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a group of early twentieth century shops.
|The richly decorated facade makes a distinctive contribution to the main street of Warwick which is valued by the community.
|The Johnson's Buildings have special association with the life of Warwick businessman and politician, the Hon TA Johnson and his family.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | 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 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":15736,"place_ref":600961,"name":"Warwick Town Hall","alternate_name":"Town Hall and Footballers Memorial","street_address":"72 Palmerin Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Warwick Town Hall is a two-storeyed sandstone building of Classical influence, with a symmetrical principal facade addressing Palmerin Street, the main street of Warwick. This main western facade has recessed colonnaded verandahs to both levels, and a central entry bay emphasised by an imposing clock tower. The stone is laid in ashlar coursing and mostly of tooled finish with polished trims. This western end of the building contains two levels of offices, behind which is the main hall with the stage at the eastern end. Beyond this is a single-storey timber extension of backstage areas.
\nThe central bay to the street facade emphasises the entry with columns and pilasters of Tuscan order, and a segmental pediment with a shield motif at its centre. The upper level of this bay has similar columns and pilasters and a bracketed triangular pediment, with \"1888\" carved to its centre and \"TOWN HALL\" to its entablature. To either side at the lower level is a colonnade of segmental arches, and to the upper level is a recessed verandah of semicircular arches with cast iron balustrades and timber handrails. Above is a bracketed cornice and a stone parapet with circular openings, topped with urns. The clock tower is square in plan, with square pilastered corners and a clock face on all four sides. It is capped by a high-pitched truncated pyramid roof of corrugated iron, with horseshoe-shaped louvred vents, decorative iron cresting and a flagpole at its apex.
\nThe lower colonnade has a concrete floor, boarded soffit, and single-pane vertical sash windows with semicircular heads. Within the colonnade are archways to either side of the entry forming a small vestibule. Mounted on the wall is the Footballers Memorial (600964). The returns to this western facade are less ornate, with similar windows, projecting stone sills, string courses, and the continuing cornice and parapet. The exterior to the main body of the hall is less ornate again, with only projecting sills, tall awning windows also with semicircular heads, and a gabled corrugated iron roof with three decorative vents to its ridge. The roof behind the parapet to the western end is hipped, with a protruding stone chimney and dormer window. The chamferboard addition to the rear has an assortment of windows, and a corrugated iron lean-to roof with several skylights.
\nEntry to the building is through a pair of substantial six-panelled timber doors, which have a smaller segmental stone pediment over, and \"TOWN HALL\" set into the threshold. The Entry Hall has several four-panelled cedar doors with glazed fanlights to offices on either side. A toilet has been added into the space once occupied by an office, behind the front office on the northern side of the ground floor, and this toilet fitout is not of cultural heritage significance.
\nA moulded plaster archway leads to the cedar staircase up to the second level. This open-welled stair begins with a curtail step and handrail scroll, and features turned newels and balusters, and a boarded soffit lining. From the second landing is the entry to the Gallery through a similar doorway. At the top of the stair is a series of doorways to offices, formally the \"Mayor's Room\", the \"Council Chambers\" and the \"Town Clerk\", as announced by the painted signs on the doors' lock rails. Above this is a further stair of similar character but of lesser width which leads into the clocktower. The former Council Chamber has glazed French doors with semicircular fanlights leading onto the recessed verandah; a moulded cedar chimney piece; and two panelled cedar bulkheads to the Town Clerk's room, one of which still has its hinged panelled cedar dividing wall. Fixed to the south wall is a timber post, a remnant of a rail which has since been removed. The windows generally to the side wall also have semicircular heads. These rooms have boarded ceilings with fretted roses.
\nBeyond the stair lobby is a recently altered foyer space giving entry to the main hall. The foyer features two cast iron columns, with two more enclosed in glass cases built into the wall. The toilets on the north side of the foyer are not of cultural heritage significance. Entry to the Hall is through a pair of timber doors with glazed panels etched with \"TOWN HALL\", which appear to have been repositioned into the new wall alignment. The hall itself is a long rectangular room with the stage at the eastern end. Tall narrow windows with awning sashes and semicircular heads punctuate the walls on both sides. The coffered ceiling is of wide beaded board with beaded timber-clad beams between, and a curved perimeter of narrow horizontal boards. There is a pressed metal ceiling rose in every second coffer. The hall contains a gallery to the western end over the entry foyer. The gallery has a wrought iron balustrade and a pressed metal frieze along the fascia and return with brackets over the columns. There is an exit via a side door and a steel external stair. The modern retractable seating at the back of the hall, below the gallery, is not of cultural heritage significance.
\nThe stage is of timber boards. Over the stage is a proscenium decorated with timber mouldings. Above the stage is a timber catwalk, from which can be seen the substantial timber king-post roof trusses.
\nBeyond the stage is a single-storey chamferboard extension on timber stumps, which houses backstage areas, change rooms, a meeting room and a kitchen. It has wall linings of fibrous cement and tongue-and groove boards. Parts of these areas have timber brackets and beads to the wall and ceiling linings painted to give these rooms something of a Tudor flavour.
\nBehind the timber extension at the rear of the Town Hall is a freestanding brick lavatory block with separate entrances into either end: two toilet cubicles for women in the western section, and two toilet cubicles and a urinal for men at the eastern section. These entrances are shielded by L-shaped brick wing walls. The internal fittings are modern, and a concrete block wall has been added to further screen the women’s entrance. The lavatory block is not of cultural heritage significance.Attached to the northeast corner of the lavatory is a later addition, comprising two short remnant wing walls of brick with cement render, on two sides of a concrete slab, adjacent to the men’s entrance. This is possibly a remnant of a lethal gas chamber for exterminating stray cats and dogs. The walls have marks showing that there were probably other walls and a ceiling of masonry, forming a ‘box’ shape, which have been demolished. The lavatory block, remnant walls and slab are not features of state cultural heritage significance.
\nFOOTBALLER'S MEMORIAL
\nOn the external front wall of the hall is a marble plaque, the Warwick Amateur Rugby League War Memorial to Footballers. It lists nineteen footballers who lost their lives during the World War I. It is an honour board of classical influence with leaded lettering, and decorated with bas-relief carving. The base is supported by two brackets ornamented with acanthus leaves (a classical architectural motif). Pilasters with Corinthian capitals and foliage motifs border the role, joined at the top by a dentil cornice. Above the cornice is a triangular pediment, within which are crossed rifles (symbolizing war) over a football and a crown at its apex.
","history":"Officially opened in October 1888, the stone Warwick Town Hall on Palmerin Street is important in demonstrating the consolidation and importance of Warwick as a business and administrative centre for the surrounding district during the late 19th century. It is an excellent example of the work of architect Willoughby Powell, demonstrates the principal characteristics of a 19th century town hall, is a landmark, and has a long association with the Warwick community. The Footballers Memorial, a marble honour board mounted on the front of the Town Hall, is a rare and unusual example of a war memorial that reflects the contemporary parallels drawn between war and sport.
\nThe first European pastoralists, Patrick Leslie and his brothers, arrived on the Darling Downs in 1840, and selected the land which became Toolburra and Canning Downs [QHR600525] stations. The New South Wales Government opened the Darling Downs Pastoral District on 11 May 1843, and in 1847 the site of Warwick was chosen as the business and administrative centre for the southern Darling Downs.[1]
\nWarwick township, surveyed in 1849, developed slowly during the 1850s and by 1857 the population of the parish of Warwick had reached just over 1300. Under the provisions of the 1858 Municipalities Act (NSW), any centre with a population in excess of 1000 was entitled to petition the colonial government for recognition as a municipality. Brisbane was proclaimed a municipality on 7 September 1859.
\nBy 1859, the year in which the colony of Queensland separated from New South Wales, the township of Warwick was recognised as a major urban centre on the Darling Downs, and when Queensland's new electoral districts (settled areas only) were proclaimed on 20 December 1859, the electorate of the Town of Warwick had its own representative in the Legislative Assembly.
\nIn February 1861 a petition calling for municipal status for the town of Warwick, with 110 signatures appended, was sent to the Queensland Governor, and on 25 May 1861 Warwick was proclaimed a municipality. The municipal boundary followed the original Warwick Town Reserve of five square miles. Warwick was the fifth corporation created in Queensland outside of Brisbane, being preceded by Ipswich, Toowoomba, Rockhampton and Maryborough. The first Warwick municipal election was conducted on 5 July 1861, and at its first meeting on 15 July 1861, the Warwick Municipal Council elected John James Kingsford as the first mayor of Warwick.
\nAt this time the first Warwick Town Hall was established in a slab building at the northern end of Albion Street, which had been constructed in the early 1850s as Warwick's first court house. In 1873 the Council purchased the Masonic Hall, a brick building in Palmerin Street, and this served as the Warwick Town Hall until imposing new premises were constructed in 1887, on a half-acre (2023m2) site in Palmerin Street purchased for £500.[2] During the late 19th century, Palmerin Street gradually replaced Albion Street as the main centre of commercial and public activity in Warwick.[3]
\nA sum of £2000 was borrowed from the Queensland Government, and a competition for the design of the new Town Hall was held in 1885, expenditure not exceeding £3,500. First place in the competition was won by Clark Bros, a partnership formed in Sydney in 1883 between architect brothers John J and George Clark; the design by Clark Bros coming closest to Council's budget. However, although more costly, the design of second placegetter, Willoughby Powell, was eventually chosen for the new Town Hall.
\nPowell had arrived in Queensland c1873, and practiced as an architect until c1913. During Powell's architectural career in which he alternated between employment in the Queensland Department of Public Works and periods of private practice, including working for Richard Gailey, he was responsible for the design of a number of substantial buildings in Toowoomba, Maryborough, and Brisbane including churches, private residences, shops hotels, and the Toowoomba Grammar School [QHR600850]. Powell was also responsible for the winning design in a competition for the (third) Toowoomba City Hall, although he subsequently had to give up supervision of its construction to Toowoomba architects James Marks and Son in order to take up an appointment in the Department of Public Works. Powell died in 1920.
\nTenders for the building were called in 1887. Although tenders were called for either a brick and stone or an all-stone building, Council accepted the tender of Michael O'Brien for a stone building, and the contract with O'Brien, for £4810, was signed in March 1887. Warwick had access to quality building stone from a number of nearby locations. As early as 1861 Warwick boasted 16 stone houses. By 1886, there were 14 stone masons working in Warwick, as opposed to four bricklayers. Warwick’s sandstone buildings indicated prosperity and importance, which reinforced its position as the major town on the southern Darling Downs.[4]
\nShortly after construction began, O'Brien advised the Council he was insolvent, and arranged for the firm of Stewart, Law and Longwill to take over the work, which they did on 9 July 1887. Work recommenced under the supervision of William Wallace, with sandstone transported from the Mt Sturt quarry for the Palmerin Street elevation, and from the Mt Tate quarry for the back and sides of the building.[5]
\nThe stone work was subcontracted to John McCulloch, a Warwick stonemason responsible for the stone work on a number of prominent buildings in the town including Pringle Cottage (McCulloch’s house) [QHR600945], the Court House [QHR600949], St Marks Church [QHR600943], St Andrews Church, Central School, the Sisters of Mercy Convent [QHR600953], the Railway Goods Shed [QHR600955] and the Albion Street Post Office.
\nThe foundation stone of the new Town Hall was laid on 13 August 1887 by Lady Griffith, wife of then Premier of Queensland, Sir Samuel Walker Griffith. A bottle, sealed with the Corporation seal and containing a copy of a commemorative scroll, copies of the local papers and coins, was placed in a cavity in the stone.
\nA clock tower was not part of Powell's original design for the new Town Hall. In late 1887, however, it was suggested that the building would be enhanced by the addition of a clock tower. At a meeting of ratepayers in December 1887, a vote was carried in favour of the addition of a tower which was subsequently incorporated into the building. The final cost of the Town Hall was £6317.[6] The clock itself was not installed until 1891-2. It is understood that the Council acquired a bell from St Mary's Church in Warwick, which was eventually installed on the outside of the tower.[7]
\nOccupied by the Council from September 1888, and hosting its first public performance on 7 September, the new Town Hall was formally opened on 1 October 1888 by the Mayor of Warwick, Ald. Arthur Morgan. The event was marked with a concert given by the local Philharmonic Society. In his remarks, Morgan described the new Town Hall as ‘...a credit to the town… If there was any truth in the saying that the history of a town was known by the character of its buildings, then the Municipal Council of Warwick had no reason to be ashamed of the page they had contributed to the history of their town’.[8]
\nThe Town Hall faced west directly onto Palmerin Street. It was reported that the front of the ground floor contained, either side of a 30ft by 9ft (9.1m by 2.7m) corridor, two rooms on the south side, each 20ft by 13ft (6m by 4m); and a front room on the north side, with another office behind. The southern rooms were meant for the aldermen, and the northern rooms for the Town Clerk and the rate collector, but these officials instead chose to occupy the first floor rooms. The first floor included two offices, ‘on the right’, each 14ft by 13ft (4.3m by 4m), with a front room extending the width of the building, for the Municipal Chambers. A narrow staircase ascended from the first floor, to a series of steps and ladders within the tower. The hall, with a panelled and coved ceiling and seven windows to each side, was 70ft (21.3m) long from its entrance to the stage, and 42ft (12.8m) wide, with walls 26ft (7.9m) in height. Doors led to the stage on either side of the arched proscenium – which had a 22ft by 18ft (6.7m by 5.5m) opening – and there were two dressing rooms at the rear of the building.[9]
\nThe Town Hall was the venue for a number of celebrations, including a ball for the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897. Fireworks were discharged from the tower to celebrate the Relief of Mafeking, during the war in South Africa in 1900, and the balcony of the Town Hall was used to proclaim the declaration of the WWI Armistice in November 1914 and of the City of Warwick on 2 April 1936. A reception was held in the hall in 1923 for the Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce, when he laid the foundation stone for the war memorial in Leslie Park [QHR600946].[10]
\nIt was also used by community groups for balls, festivities suppers, concerts and flower shows. The hall’s acoustics attracted travelling performers, including JC Williamson, Peter Dawson and Gladys Moncrief. As well as hosting functions, the Town Hall was used for picture shows, with references to Cook’s Pictures being shown there as early as 1906.[11]
\nThe building has had a number of additions and renovations over the years. Gas lighting was installed in the building in 1889, and was subsequently replaced by electricity c1912-3. In October 1907 Conrad Cobden Dornbusch, architect, called tenders for the addition of a gallery (a tiered balcony for audience seats) and iron escape stairs in the hall.[12]
\nDornbusch (1867-1949) trained in England, and by 1887 was employed in the Brisbane office of the Architects Oakden, Addison and Kemp. He was practicing as an architect in Warwick by 1891, where he had an office in the Warwick Town Hall during the 1890s. He was elected an Associate of the Queensland Institute of Architects in 1893, and a Fellow in 1913.[13] He was an Alderman of the Warwick Municipal Council in 1901. In 1910 he entered into a partnership with Daniel Connolly, with their offices located opposite the Town Hall.[14] Dornbusch and Connolly worked on a number of prominent Warwick buildings, including the Christian Brothers’ School; the Mitchner shelter shed at the Warwick General Cemetery [QHR602152]; the Johnsons Building [QHR600960] adjacent to the Town Hall; the Langham [QHR600957] and Criterion [QHR600962] hotels on Palmerin Street; and St Mary’s Church [QHR600959]. The partnership also designed the rest house at the Stanthorpe Soldiers Memorial [QHR601632].[15]
\nThe new town hall gallery designed by Dornbusch was 42 feet (12.8m) by 13 feet 6 inches (4.1m) with five tiers for seating. The balcony fascia was panelled with pressed metal. On the southern side of the gallery was a fire escape door leading to an external iron stair to the alley running down the side of the building. The plans included substantial swing doors leading into the hall from the ground floor foyer, which were built under a separate contract. The contract for the gallery was awarded to HD Miller, who commenced work on 9 December 1907 and promised to have the gallery ready by Boxing Day, for the Caledonian Society’s 35th annual gathering in the Town Hall – a feat which was just achieved. The contract for the swing doors was let in September 1908 to JD Connellan and R Elloyes. Steel girders were installed on the front of the balcony to support these doors which hung between the vestibule and the auditorium.[16]
\nThe Town Hall was also extended at the rear in 1911. Efforts to extend the Town Hall date from about 1907, when new supper rooms at the back of the hall were recommended by the Town Hall Committee. By 1908 the committee also hoped to enlarge the hall. Loans were obtained from the Queensland Government, and in 1910 Dornbusch and Connolly were commissioned to design the additions. The work was undertaken in 1911 by contractors Connolly and Bell (for a tender of £1297), and when the Town Hall Committee inspected the additions in August 1911, it stated that 200 more chairs were required, due to the extension of the hall, and that the area underneath the ‘new dressing rooms’ should be enclosed with corrugated iron.[17]
\nThe Town Hall was also a place for a prominent memorial to remember the war dead. In early 1917 a movement was initiated by James Brown, Patron of the Warwick and District Amateur Rugby Football League, to erect ‘a memorial to honour the Warwick league football heroes, who have given their lives for their King and country (and those who may yet fall)’.[18] A committee was formed, subscriptions collected and a tablet unveiled at a ceremony on 12 May 1917. Inscribed with nine names (later 19) and placed to the right of the entrance to the Town Hall, the tablet was the work of Warwick masons Troyahn, Coulter and Thompson. In unveiling the tablet, the then Mayor of Warwick Ald. Gilham drew contemporary parallels between war and sport, suggesting that ‘There were worse places for young fellows to be than on the football field and places that were not such good training grounds to fit the young fellows for service to the Empire. It was said that Waterloo was won on the cricket fields of England. Probably some of the glories of the war had been contributed to, and to some extent made possible by, the previous practice the boys had received on the football fields of sunny Queensland’.[19]
\nA tablet/plaque to the memory of Colonel William James Foster CB, CMG, DSO, Australian Staff Corps, was also mounted to the right of the entrance to the Town Hall in 1930.[20] Colonel Foster was born in Warwick in 1881 and died in England in 1927. The memorial was erected by Colonel Foster's brother officers, of the Australian Staff Corps and Australian Light Horse.
\nFurther changes occurred in the Town Hall in the 1920s. Undated plans by Dornbusch and Connolly show that a strong room, 3ft 9 inches by 8ft (1.1m by 2.4m) with a concrete floor, was added to the upper floor adjacent to the gallery, and this occurred between 1925 and 1929.[21] In 1925 there were also plans to turn the Town Clerk and accountant’s rooms into the Council Chamber, and vice versa. Minor alterations to the vestibule were made in April 1926, to plans by Dornbusch and Connolly, and the nosing of the step at the entrance was modified. Tiles were added to the entrance vestibule c1929. On 6 August 1930 a contract was signed with James Straddock to build a ticket office in the vestibule in accordance with plans drawn by Dornbusch.[22]
\nThe Town Hall was again extended to the rear, including the construction of a separate lavatory block, in 1929-30. In 1928 the Town Hall Committee recommended renovations and further additions, including extending the dressing rooms and the back of the Town Hall, and erecting four brick lavatories.[23] The lack of ‘public conveniences’ had been an issue for Warwick for some time. There was only one latrine, in Leslie Park, in 1911, and more public lavatories for Warwick had become part of the local Labor Party’s policy by 1927.[24]
\nThe tender of P Thornton for £2877, for improvements to the Town Hall to be completed in 18 weeks, was accepted in June 1929. The improvements included a new supper room, measuring 42ft by 30ft (12.8m by 9.1m), which was almost finished in September 1929. By that time widening of the Council Chamber – from 13ft to 20ft (4m to 6m) – was about to commence.[25] The new supper room appears to have been added to the rear (east) of the existing 1911 timber extension.
\nThe lavatories were completed by August 1930, when Dornbusch (as architect) and Thornton (as contractor) were in a disagreement about Thornton’s adherence to the building specifications: the joists in the supper room were in many cases over 5 inches (12.7cm) wider apart than specified, while the rafters in the lavatory block were more than double the width apart that was specified.[26] The lavatories were attached to a septic system, as Warwick’s sewerage scheme was not implemented until World War II. The Town Hall lavatory block was seen as ‘out of date’ by 1948, and new public toilets were built on Grafton Street by June 1954 (since replaced).[27]
\nWarwick was one of the first municipalities in Queensland to have a lethal chamber for exterminating stray cats and dogs with coal gas, and one was added ‘at the rear of the Town Hall yard’ by March 1935. It was said to have been built of concrete, with a removable door and two pipes; one for pumping in the gas, and one for releasing displaced air. Death was supposed to occur within 3-4 minutes, and was seen as an improvement on the previous method of death by hanging. However, no written evidence has been found confirming its exact location.[28]
\nIn October 1935 Warwick celebrated (prematurely) 75 years of municipal government, and at this time the local press popularised the idea of the town being proclaimed a city. The Queensland Cabinet approved the granting of city status to Warwick on 2 April 1936, and this was celebrated in Warwick on 29 June.
\nBy the 1950s there was pressure to extended the Town Hall once more, and £7500 was borrowed, although the City Engineer claimed that £14,000 would be required to ensure adequate seating, stage space and dressing rooms, while completely replacing the supper room and building a new kitchen.[29] This work did not eventuate.
\nA Council employee, Tom Bryant, recalled that in the 1950s the room on the ground floor to the southern side of the entrance was used by a clerk and two typists, while immediately inside the office was a large public counter. In the 1960s the position of Health Surveyor was created and the room was divided to provide a separate office space. On the northern side of the entry was the committee room which was connected to the Shire Clerk’s Office. Upstairs, office space was provided for the Works Foreman and the Sewerage Foreman, while the Mayor had a private office and retiring room. The room on the southern side was used for Council meetings. A raised podium was provided for the Mayor and part of the room was separated by a rail to form a public gallery which had a separate doorway.[30]
\nIn 1965 the supper room was modernised in accordance with plans prepared by Warwick Consulting Engineer HA Leonard. Between 1962 and 1972 a kitchen extension was added at the rear of the hall, onto the other extensions.[31]
\nBy the late 1960s, the Town Hall was considered generally inadequate for the purposes of the City Council. A new administration centre was erected at the corner of Fitzroy and Albion Streets, and the last meeting of the Council was held in the Town Hall in August 1975.
\nThe Town Hall, after being listed with the National Trust in 1973, was re-roofed in 1975 with a National Estate Grant, and a damp proof course was inserted into the main building in 1976.[32]
\nFurther refurbishments occurred in 1984, when the ceiling and walls were repainted and new incandescent chandeliers replaced the former fluorescent lights. Stage lighting was renewed and improved and a bio box was installed behind the gallery to provide required lighting effects. Carpet was laid on the floor, which was provided with heating, and concrete was poured on the foyer floor. In the 1990s there was a problem with rising damp in the front, northern room, which did damage to the plasterwork, and repairs were made c1998.[33] The rear office on the northern side of the ground floor has also been converted to a men’s toilet at some point.
\nIn July 1994 the Queensland Government amalgamated the City of Warwick and the surrounding Shires of Allora, Glengallan and Rosenthal to form the Shire of Warwick; which was later amalgamated with Stanthorpe Shire in 2008 to form the Southern Downs Regional Council.
\nThe Warwick Town Hall remains in use as a venue for community functions including flower shows, school plays and other entertainment. In 2017 its ground floor offices were used for a tourism office and craft shop, while the upstairs rooms were used by the Southern Downs Regional Council’s Economic Development Unit. The building remains a prominent local landmark in the otherwise low-rise centre of the town.
","criteria":"Officially opened in October 1888, the Warwick Town Hall is important in demonstrating the consolidation and importance of Warwick as a business and administrative centre for the surrounding district during the late 19th century.
\nThe Footballers Memorial (1917), a marble World War I honour board mounted on the external front wall of the Town Hall, is important in demonstrating Queensland’s involvement in major world events. War memorials are an important element of Queensland’s towns, and cities and are also significant in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
|The Footballers Memorial is a rare and unusual example of a war memorial that reflects the contemporary parallels drawn between war and sport, and provides a unique historical record of local participation and sacrifice in World War I.
|The Warwick Town Hall, an impressive example of the work of architect Willoughby Powell, is highly intact and retains the principal characteristics of a town hall built in Queensland in the 19th century, including: a central location, classical styling, and an imposing street presence, clock tower, civic office spaces, a council chamber, a hall and a raised stage.
\nThe Footballers Memorial, made by local stonemasons Troyahn, Coulter and Thompson, retains the principal characteristics of a World War I memorial tablet, displaying: fine marble craftsmanship, leaded letters listing the local men who died, a classically-styled form with its pedimented top, pillars and decoration.
|Prominently situated on Palmerin Street, this substantial two-storeyed stone building, with its dominating tower, is important for its aesthetic significance as a skilfully designed and constructed public building in a classically influenced style. Highly intact, the building features finely crafted elements of high quality materials including the external stonework, marble memorial plaque and internal timber joinery. It is a landmark building that symbolises the aspirations of the town, and makes an important contribution to the Palmerin Street streetscape and Warwick townscape.
|Used for council meetings from 1888 to 1975, the building continues its long association with the Warwick community as a focal point for social and civic functions and performances.
\nThe Footballers Memorial is important in demonstrating the Warwick community’s involvement in a major world event. War memorials, including honour boards, are a tribute from the community to those who served, and those who died. They are an important element of Queensland’s towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
","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":15737,"place_ref":600962,"name":"Criterion Hotel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"84 Palmerin Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Criterion Hotel is a two-storeyed brick building, with a principal western facade addressing Palmerin Street, the main street of Warwick. The long street frontage features a two-storeyed filigree verandah running its full length with a masonry parapet above, whose central bay announces the hotel's name, and 1917 as its date of construction. Behind the parapet is a meandering mostly-hipped corrugated iron roof, over the main wing and the three perpendicular accommodation wings running east. At ground level, the street frontage has a series of decorated entries to the different areas of the hotel and an adjoining tenancy.
The stop-chamfered timber posts of the verandah are paired at the ends and the three central bays. Arched between these posts on both levels is a slatted timber valance. To the upper level is a cast iron balustrade with a clover leaf motif to the centre of each panel. The underside of the verandah is clad in ripple iron, with gutters to its internal perimeter. The verandah has a corrugated iron bull-nosed roof with a gabled entry porch over the central bay.
The external walls are unpainted brickwork, with painted plaster ornamentation to the western facade. The openings to the lower level of this facade are decorated with moulded plaster archways with keystones, cornices and projecting window sills and are separated by fluted pilasters. There is a series of entrances which, beginning from the north, lead to a tenancy, a blocked shopfront possibly also a former tenancy, the Public Bar, the Stair Hall leading to the accommodation wings, and the Lounge Bar which leads into the Bistro area. The recessed entry vestibule leading to the Stair Hall features tessellated floor tiles. The main bedrooms open onto this verandah. The painted pilasters continue through the first level separating the doorways to the Bedrooms of this wing. Above the verandah roof is a rendered entablature and balustraded parapet with pedestals topped also with a clover leaf motif.
The rear wings are generally of unpainted brickwork, including several brick chimneys decorated with cornices and corbels. Each wing is terminated with a timber lean-to, housing the amenities. The verandahs of these wings have cast iron balustrades matching that of the western verandah.
The Public Bar features a silky oak bar with a curved central bay and mirrored shelving behind. The style of the bar matches that of the Lounge Bar, though the end bays are not consistent. This supports the possibility that the two bars were once part of the same public bar and have been rearranged and relocated. The Public Bar also has leadlight windows, and a pressed metal ceiling featuring the face of the "Virgin Mary" keeping watch over the patrons.
The Stair Hall also has several moulded plaster archways. The polished cedar stair has moulded square balusters, carved newels and a panelled spandrel beneath. The stair is dog-legged, with leadlight windows to the landing.
From the Stair Hall, entry to the Lounge Bar is through a doorway in a glazed timber bar screen. The bar, similar in style to that of the Public Bar, has a curved corner to the eastern end and a timber bar screen to western end, which is similar to the screen of the doorway. There is a pressed metal ceiling and cornice, forming coffers between the beams. Beyond the Lounge is the Bistro area which also has a pressed metal ceiling with borders, cornices and roses. From here several french doors lead into beer garden courtyard.
In the central wing across the courtyard is the laundry, the kitchen and the former Dining Room now used for serving breakfast. This wing is approached from the Stair Hall along a timber verandah which continues around the wing. The upper level of this verandah also has a ripple iron soffit with internal gutters.
The main stair arrives at the First Floor in the upper Stair Hall which has moulded archways less ornate than that of the lower level. From the mid-landing is a smaller stair of similar detail, which leads to the upper level verandah. From the Stair Hall run two corridors through the accommodation wings, a lounge leading to the western verandah, and the former Lobby and Ballroom which are now part of the manager's residence.
The Bedrooms to the accommodation wings typically have low-waisted four panel doors with tilting fanlights. The rooms and corridors have pressed metal ceilings and a variety of plaster and timber archways. Exit doors commonly have coloured glass upper panels and flush lower panels.
The Criterion Hotel retains a substantial amount of its internal joinery including the main staircase, although some has been relocated within the hotel. There is also an extensive range of pressed metal ceilings, including the unusual "Virgin Mary" motif in the Public Bar.
","history":"This two storeyed brick hotel, prominently situated in Palmerin Street, the main street of Warwick, was erected in 1917 for the Allman family.
It replaced a single storeyed timber hotel, known also as the Criterion, which existed on the site from the 1860s, owned by David Bugden. Records indicate that although Bugden apparently left the Criterion in mid 1872, he retained ownership of the property and the hotel continued to be operated by members of the Bugden family until the early 1880s, then by JW Quinn until the mid 1880s.
The Criterion Hotel was acquired by Jeremiah Allman in 1887. Born in Ireland, Allman arrived in Australia in the mid 1860s, establishing himself on the Darling Downs and acquiring a hotel in Stanthorpe in the early 1870s. At around this time Allman married Mrs Mary Dwan, a Warwick widow and licensee of the Sportsman's Arms Hotel in Albion St, Warwick. The Allmans remained at the Sportsman's Arms until they moved to the Criterion Hotel in the mid 1880s.
From the mid 1880s, Allman was also actively involved in the development of Warwick. Allman was elected an alderman of the Warwick Town Council in 1886, remaining with the Council until 1903 and serving as Mayor in 1895 and 1902.
Mary Allman died in 1898. Some time after this Allman remarried to Catherine King, also known as Kate.
In 1899 a notice appeared in the Warwick Argus advising that the goodwill and plant of the Criterion had been purchased by Perkins and Co, the reason for the sale given as Allman had decided to take a long holiday. The sale does not appear to have eventuated however, as there is no record of such transfer on the Title documents.
Another notice appeared in the Warwick Argus in 1900 from J Allman to inform customers and the public that having purchased the above hostelry, he has had the premises thoroughly renovated, rendering the CRITERION one of the best appointed hotels in the district.
The license of the Criterion Hotel was transferred to Kate Allman in December 1908, prior to Allan's death in September 1910. Subsequent to Allman's death the property was transferred to Allman's son Daniel, Patrick Joseph Dalton and John Logan. During the early twentieth century the Allman family also owned the National [600950] and leased the Langham [600957] Hotels in Warwick.
Tenders for a new (brick) Criterion Hotel were called by Warwick architects Dornbusch and Connolly in December 1912, and again in March 1916. The estimated price of the new hotel was £12,000.
By February 1917 the original Criterion Hotel had been demolished to make way for a more palatial structure. Erection of the new hotel was in progress by March that year, and it was noted that even at this early stage the big structure has quite altered the aspect of Palmerin-Street...An examination of the hotel shows it has been designed on most modern methods, the general arrangements being very up-to-date. When completed the new Criterion will be one of the most imposing and finest hotels in the State. The contractors for the hotel were Messrs Connolly and Bell.
The ground floor of the new building also included shops to either side of the main Palmerin Street entry, and by the end of July 1917, letting notices for the shops in the new Criterion buildings appeared in the local press.
The hotel remained in the Allman family until 1968. The hotel subsequently had a number of owners before being acquired by the present owners in 1989, by which time it is understood that the hotel was in poor condition. Alterations undertaken to the hotel at this time included the reorganisation of the main bar area and bar furniture to create two separate bar areas.
","criteria":"The erection of the hotel in 1917, replacing an earlier hotel building, is important in demonstrating the high level of building activity in Warwick town during the early twentieth century when many of the general stores and hotels were re-built or renovated.
\nThe Criterion Hotel has an association with the Allman family, who ran other hotels in Warwick during this period, and who were actively involved in the development of Warwick from the 1880s.
|The Criterion Hotel retains a substantial amount of its internal joinery, and includes an extensive range of pressed metal ceilings.
|Prominently located within the business centre of Warwick, this substantial brick hotel contributes to the Palmerin Street streetscape and the Warwick townscape.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16006,"place_ref":601242,"name":"Wallangarra Railway Station and Complex","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Woodlawn Street","suburb":"WALLANGARRA","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-03-28","description":"The station building consists of a long double sided single storey hip roofed brick station with cast iron verandahs after the style of an NSWGR building of the period with the exception of the Brisbane platform which has a cast iron curved shade similar to South Brisbane and Emerald stations. A small-stock slaughtering yard consisting of high-walled brick for the Refreshment Rooms adjoined the station building. The New South Wales side awning was built in 1890, and is sheeted with flat raked iron. Brackets and columns were cast by the Toowoomba Foundry. The elevations now overpainted, have pilasters at regular intervals with archways marking the location of the original lobby. Internally space was provided for offices and a large kitchen, dining room, bar and bedrooms for Refreshment Rooms staff.
The offices are located to the south of the present ticket lobby with refreshment rooms and post office now vacated to the north where there is also an enclosed yard (slaughtering yard). The refreshment room fittings have been removed. The station platform features a two road horse dock platform at its southern end. The Queensland/New South Wales border diagonally crosses the platform approximately 2 metres to the north of the horse dock platform.
The Station Master's house faces the Sydney platform and is constructed of brick adopting QGR forms and details. It is an asymmetrical villa, being constructed in a L shape with faceted bay in the projecting wing, posted verandah (reconstructed), stuccoed quoins and decorative brackets to the gable ends, and prominent chimneys.
To the west of the station are two buildings identified by Ward in his survey as being the Locomotive Inspector's quarters and running men (crew) quarters.
","history":"The Southern Line was extended from Stanthorpe to Wallangarra on 4 February 1887 almost a year prior to the completion of the NSWGR line from Tenterfield to Wallangarra on 16 January 1888, thereby opening an inter-colonial link between Brisbane and Sydney. Temporary buildings were first erected with the permanent buildings being erected from 1887 to 1890.
The first section of the Southern and Western Railway had opened between Ipswich and Bigges Camp (Grandchester) on 31 July 1865. The railway was constructed to link the pastoral areas of the Darling Downs, with the head of navigation on the Bremer River at Ipswich. The Southern and Western Railway was progressively extended to reach Toowoomba in April 1867, following completion of the Main Range section of the railway. Further westward extension of the line completed the Ipswich-Dalby line in 1868.
A line serving the southern part of the Darling Downs to Warwick, to be built in two sections was approved by Parliament in 1865. However major financial difficulties for the colony saw that the line was not completed to Hendon until 1869 and through to Warwick until 187. An indirect route from Ipswich was chosen branching off the western line near Gowrie, and running south via Westbrook, to save on construction costs.
The discovery of tin south of Warwick at Stannum Creek, and around present day Stanthorpe, in 1871 encourages a rush of miners to the area. The first agitation for an extension came from miners and people on the tin fields wanting closer communication with Brisbane and its port. A large amount of goods was also transported over the inter-colonial border and shipped from Northern New South Wales, whilst ore was also treated at a special smelter built in Brisbane. It was hoped that railway communication with Brisbane would secure this traffic for Queensland.
A trial survey was run out from Warwick to Stanthorpe in 1873, however the difficulties that would be experienced in construction of such a line through the Granite Belt, and its attendant cost forestalled further action. Two more surveys were completed in 1876 and 1877, and importantly these surveys continued beyond Stanthorpe through to Queensland/New South Wales border. Construction from Warwick to Stanthorpe was approved in August 1877. The section from Warwick-Stanthorpe was divided into two sections and work commenced in 1878 being completed in 1881.
Parliament approved plans for extension of the line southwards from Stanthorpe to the Queensland-New South Wales border in 1884 via Ballandean. New South Wales had proposed that the Queensland main line be extended beyond the border to Tenterfield (a distance of 20 kilometres). This suggestion had originally met with support from the Brisbane business community, as well as the New South Wales government. However the Queensland Parliament chose to create the break of gauge location at the colonial border. The transhipping station and yards would lead to the creation of two townships on the border, Jennings on the New South Wales side and Wallangarra on the Queensland side. The border township of Wallangarra had been described in 1885 as being of 'quite a pretentious appearance consisting of butchers, bakers, blacksmiths and with an aerated water factory.'
The New South Wales government had agreed with great reluctance to the extension of the line to the Queensland border. The contract for extension of the railway to the border 25 miles 19 chains - (42 kilometres) was let to the railway contractors George Bashford and Company in 1885 for £ 140,885.8.2, completion date being June 1887. The New South Wales government initially rejected the plans proposed by Queensland for Wallangarra station costing £ 28,000 as being too expensive. The decision was taken by the Commissioner for Railways on 18 November 1886 for a smaller station to be constructed wholly on the Queensland side of the border at a cost of £ 6 000.
Temporary station buildings were constructed until the completion of the permanent station platform in 1886. On 14 February 1887 the railway line was opened to the border, subject to a final decision on the break of gauge point. The platform and station yard layout was designed to incorporate the eventual extension of the New South Wales standard gauge lines to the border. A contract for the building of a station master's residence, goods shed, and removal of the carriage and engine sheds from Stanthorpe to Wallangarra was let in 1887 to George Bashford and Company. The contract was let for £ 2509. On 26 February 1887 the contract for the passenger station was let to George Bashford and Co. for £ 1741.
Previously the Stanthorpe Border Post had described Wallangarra as having a very fine platform but the buildings were 'ludicrously inadequate', as being temporary constructions, consisting of a shed 'as large as two boxes'. In February of 1887 a meeting had been held in Wallangarra to support the retention of the break of gauge point at the border, and not at Tenterfield as was being proposed. The Queensland/New South Wales border forms part of the fenceline for the Station Masters property. The station master's residence was unusual for a Queensland station residence was constructed in brick. A Post Office was opened in the station in March 1887.
The station was built on an island platform, with station awnings on both sides. The Queensland side awnings (western platform) being to Queensland design patterns and that on the standard gauge side (eastern platform) being built after New South Wales pattern. The New South Wales government completed its railway line to the border station in January 1888. The New South Wales awnings were not constructed until 1890. Both colonies had name boards in their usual style, the Queensland one having a hyphenated nameboard (Wallan-Garra), whilst New South Wales substituted with Wallangarra. The original station building occupies the present southern section, and consisted of office, lobby, store and closets. The booking office also served as the customs office and general waiting room as well as the Station Master's office. In 1892 drawings were prepared by Henrik Hansen for a new bar, dining room, Refreshment Room female staff (girls) bedrooms and kitchen.
By 1884 the train travelling between Brisbane and Stanthorpe had been referred to as a 'Mail' train running with a Travelling Post Office. The opening of the inter-colonial line saw the introduction of a regular train service between Sydney and Brisbane, the 'Sydney Mail'. 26 Up (Sydney Mail) and 37 Down (Brisbane Mail) were the premier service of the era. The timetable was improved in 1894 and remained unchanged until 1908, when a more powerful locomotive C16 class was introduced. In 1923 a new and heavier Sydney Mail train was constructed consisting of nine carriages including a parlour car based on observation platform at the rear of the train, to be hauled at what was the time the most powerful locomotives on a narrow gauge in Australia.
In 1921 the Federal Royal Commission into Standard Gauge had recommended that the mainland states and the Commonwealth commit themselves to providing a uniform railway network linking the capital cities of Australia with common gauge. As part of the standardisation of the disparate gauges, a new link between Sydney and Brisbane via Kyogle was identified as being a central element. Queensland in 1924 passed the South Brisbane Kyogle Grafton Act committing itself to the construction of a new standard gauge railway from South Brisbane to the border with New South Wales. New South Wales for its inclusion in the agreement between the Commonwealth and Queensland demanded a bridge over the Clarence River at Grafton and the upgrading of the Kyogle branch. The Commonwealth Government provided half the funding for the project. The interstate standard gauge railway line between Kyogle and South Brisbane opened in 1930. The importance of the Toowoomba-Wallangarra southern line diminished, as the new link via northern New South Wales and the Richmond Gap into Queensland did not involve a change of trains at a border station.
During the time of the Second World War the strategic importance of Wallangarra was vital in providing an inland transhipment and staging point during the defence of Australia. Large numbers of workers were employed to tranship goods in the New South Wales section of the yard. The extensive yard and station complex at this time consisted of the station building, closets and horse dock at the southern end of the station platform (the border dock). Refreshment Room staff and ambulance quarters were situated at the north end of the platform. On the western (OGR) side was a goods office, casual crew quarters with dining room, frame tent and library. To the north-east an engine shed was situated, reserve coal dump, locomotive coal stage, tool room, ASM's residence (1919), ganger's residence (1919) and trucking yards. On the east side (NSWGR platform) was the Station Master's residence (1887), 25 ton weighbridge, lamp room, waitresses quarters and the footwarmer furnace. Quarters were also provided for laundresses. Most of these ancillary buildings are now removed.
The last Sydney Mail (26 Up) ran on 29 January 1972, and the Brisbane-Wallangarra service was withdrawn as of 1 February 1972. The Wallangarra Refreshment Rooms closed to the public on 5 August 1973. The Refreshment Rooms were demolished in 1975. With the cessation of passenger services on the Queensland side of the border, the line reverted to a goods only basis. With the continuing decline of Wallangarra the decision was taken in 1984 to abolish one of the two positions of Assistant Station Master. The line between Tenterfield and Wallangarra on the New South Wales side of the border was closed to traffic in 1989. The line northwards of Guyra in New South Wales, and then Armidale was progressively mothballed by the State Rail Authority. In March 1994 the Assistant Station Master's and Ganger Residences at Wallangarra were sold. The Station Master's residence was sold in 1994-5, and the Station Officer withdrawn in 1995. The Southern line south of Warwick was threatened with closure in 1993-4, but the link was retained due to community protest, and a twice weekly goods service was still operated. In recent times trains have only been run on an as required basis, and all station staff withdrawn leaving Wallangarra as an unattended station.
","criteria":"Wallangarra railway station, associated trackwork in the railway yard and ancillary railway buildings situated at Wallangarra on the border of Queensland and New South Wales are important in demonstrating the pattern of transportation and communications in Queensland's history. In particular it demonstrates the pre-eminence of rail transport in the nineteenth and early twentieth century in Australia. The station building and yardwork was the response to the meeting between two separate colonial railway systems at a border using separate railway gauges. They demonstrate the inter-colonial rivalry with regard to railway gauges, which continued from the end of the nineteenth century, until major rail standardisation between the systems began in the 1960's.
|It is a rare complex of its type, being especially comparable nationally with Serviceton on the Victoria/South Australian border (1888) in terms of its construction date, large size and redundancy. It compares also with other late Victorian border stations at Albury and Wodonga.
The station building and Station Masters residence are uncommon in Queensland as being constructed of masonry which demonstrates the NSWGR influence.
|The station building and yardwork was the response to the meeting between two separate colonial railway systems at a border using separate railway gauges. They demonstrate the inter-colonial rivalry with regard to railway gauges, which continued from the end of the nineteenth century, until major rail standardisation between the systems began in the 1960's.
","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":16052,"place_ref":601289,"name":"Assmanshausen Winery and Residence (former)","alternate_name":"Toolburra Vineyards","street_address":"Serisier Road","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-01-06","description":"The former Assmanshausen Winery and Residence are situated on a low ridge just north of the intersection of Sandy Creek and Serisier roads about 11 kilometres northwest of Warwick. The Sandy Creek district retains its rural character.
Winery
The winery is situated a little to the northeast of the residence, on the same low ridge. It is a rectangular structure of dressed local sandstone, aligned lengthwise on an east-west axis, comprising a ground-level workroom and a deep cellar. It has a low-pitched roof of galvanised iron, replacing an earlier steeply-pitched shingled roof, evidence of which can be seen in markings and cuttings on surviving beams and plates. Along the southern side is a skillion-roofed, open-sided extension with timber posts, in the place of the former roof overhang. At the western end is a small sandstone extension with a separate skillion roof and a large timber door, set one course above ground level. The extension gives access to both levels of the winery - up one more course to the workroom and down a steep timber stair to the cellar. At the eastern end of the workroom are large, timber double doors, again set above ground level. On the northern side of the building is a small, skillion-roofed later extension in brick. There are small, formerly shuttered windows along the northern and southern sides of the building, for ventilation rather than light. One of these on the northern side has been converted into a doorway, to provide access from the workroom to the brick extension.
Internally, the structure retains much of the original timbering, including heavy, square-hewn timber beams and posts. The wide timber boards of the workroom floor form the ceiling of the cellar. At the western end, the floor joists are early split logs; those at the eastern end of the building are later milled timber. There is an opening in the workroom floor midway along the southern side, sufficiently large to enable barrels or butts to be lowered into the cellar below. The workroom roof structure is of much later milled timber, and is unlined.
The cellar is accessed from the stair at the western end of the building. It has an earth floor, with a number of depressions possibly indicating where the barrel racks were positioned. There are 6 air shafts built into the walls of the cellar - two each in the northern, southern and eastern walls. These slope upwards to just above ground level, and help regulate the temperature to a constant c50º Fahrenheit.
The workroom is utilised as a storage shed but the cellar is vacant. No equipment associated with wine production remains in the building. None of the vineyard, which was planted along the ridge close to the winery, survives. However, considerable potential exists to search for archaeological evidence of the verandahs which formerly surrounded the stone structure, and of the late 19th century timber extension to the eastern end of the winery.
Residence
The house is situated close to Serisier Rd, but facing south toward Sandy Creek Road, in grounds containing mature trees and shrubs [including conifers and pepperinas (Schinus molle)], and early terracing. The residence is of timber construction, with a double hipped roof of galvanised iron, and rests on low timber stumps. The timber frame is clad externally with 8" pine chamferboards. The core of the house is surrounded by deep verandahs, which have been enclosed across the back [north] and at the northern ends of the side verandahs. These have roofs separate to the main roof, and where un-enclosed, are supported by chamfered timber posts with timber capitals. Along the front and western verandah low benches have been constructed between the verandah posts. There is no evidence of an earlier balustrade. Steps lead from the front [south] verandah to a garden terrace with flagstone path and early stone-edged flower beds.
The core comprises four rooms and a generous entrance vestibule, accessed from a central front entrance. To each side of the vestibule is a bedroom with large, double-hung sash windows opening onto the front and side verandahs, and beyond the vestibule is the parlour. Opening off the parlour, to the east, is the dining room. These rooms have particularly fine cedar joinery, including door and window architraves, cornices, skirting boards, a decorative timber arch between vestibule and parlour, and elegant timber fireplace surrounds. There are two double chimneys and a fireplace in each of the four main rooms, with original plaster to the chimneys. Throughout, the original pine lining to walls and ceilings - 8" deep, beaded tongue and groove boarding, horizontally laid on the walls - has been masked by later masonite sheeting with timber cover strips and wallpaper. Lights above some of the doors have early decorative wax paper. Several of the rooms have early decorative pressed metal cornices or pelmets above the windows.
French doors open off the western end of the parlour onto the verandah, which has been enclosed to make a small room. The rear verandah has been enclosed and extended to house a modern kitchen and living room, replacing an earlier rear kitchen wing and a bedroom wing. The rear extension is accessed from the core via the original central back door out of the parlour and the original doorway from the dining room. Another door opening from the parlour to the former rear verandah has been sheeted over. The northern end of the eastern verandah has been similarly enclosed and extended, to house a guest bedroom, bathroom, and laundry, and to provide walk-in closet space for the front bedroom on the east side. A side door from the dining room now opens into this enclosed verandah space.
The grounds at the rear of the house contain mature trees and shrubs and several timber structures associated with the homestead, including a meat-house and wash-house. The house block is defined by fencing - a three-railed timber fence, painted white, along the western boundary addressing Serisier Road; a similar two-railed fence along the southern boundary; and wire fencing along the eastern and northern boundaries. Two large pine trees, important to the garden setting of the residence, lie just outside the southern fence.
","history":"Assmanshausen Vineyard at Sandy Creek, near Warwick was established in the 1860s by German immigrants Jacob and Elisabetha Kircher, who were also among the first in the district to establish commercial wine production on a substantial scale. In the late 19th century, Assmanshausen's award-winning wines were known throughout southern Queensland, and the winery was a popular attraction for visitors to the Warwick district.
Jacob and Elisabetha Kircher were early settlers on the southern Downs, arriving at Moreton Bay in March 1855. Jacob gained employment as a gardener at Canning Downs Homestead near Warwick, when the principal stations on the southern Downs had extensive orchards and gardens. About 1857 the Kirchers left Canning Downs, Jacob working as a bushman on Rosenthal station and at various other activities, before taking up farming in the early 1860s. In December 1861 Kircher purchased adjoining portions 238 [45 acres] and 239 [45 acres], near Sandy Creek, about 7 miles northwest of Warwick, for £81. The Kirchers were among the earliest farmers in the district. They fenced and cleared their land and experimented firstly with wheat, but after successive failures turned to vine growing, the first 1,000 vines being planted c1864. By 1870 they had established Assmanshausen Winery - named after a celebrated wine-producing district on the Rhine.
Viticulture and wine production in the Warwick district was pioneered in the mid-19th century by principally German immigrants. By 1861, Germans formed 9.75% [217 persons] of the population of the towns of Warwick, Allora, Leyburn and the rural portion of the Warwick police district. Like the Kirchers, most were farmers sponsored in the 1850s by southern Darling Downs squatters. Most of those who pioneered the wine industry on the southern Downs took up selections on the Warwick Reserve or Warwick Agricultural Reserve in the 1860s. By the mid-1870s a number of vineyards had been established along Sandy Creek, at Swan and Deuchar's Creek, and at the Jew's Retreat on Glengallan land. Only one vigneron relied solely on the vineyard as a source of income; most also grew wheat, maize and lucerne or had established orchards, and none of the vineyards exceeded 10 acres. All made wine on the premises, and all had constructed cellars [some in stone, often two-storeyed and partly underground] in which the wine was both made and stored.
By 1876 Assmanshausen was the principal vineyard and winery in the Warwick district, with 10 acres under vines. Older plantings included both white [verdeilho, muscadine and salvina] and red [black Spanish and Mataro] grapes, but more recent plantings were reds only: Mataro and Hermitage. Most of the vines were trellised, the newer ones planted about 6' x 6' apart, and Kircher had invented a horse-drawn cultivator which could weed and turn the soil close to the vines while the horse walked at a sufficient distance to prevent vine damage from the traces. Kircher was producing unfortified wines [dry wines made without the addition of cane sugar or spirits], and had already won prizes at the Warwick and Brisbane exhibitions. At this period the Assmanshausen winery comprised a dressed stone building of 3 flats: an underground cellar; a ground-level workroom; and a steeply-pitched shingled roof containing an attic space. The attic was ventilated by 12 air shafts fitted with shutters on the inside, ensuring that the temperature in the attic was cooler than that of the ground floor. There were also 6 air shafts in the cellar. These shafts sloped through the stone walls to the surface of the ground. Kircher had devised his own system of wine production: the press was located in the ground floor workroom; from here the must [unfermented grape juice] was suction-pumped through pipes up to the attic, where it was fermented in 500 and 300 gallon vats before being fed through more pipes to the underground cellar, where it matured in wooden butts.
In the 1870s, grape growing and wine production in the Warwick district emerged as an important economic activity. Warwick vignerons had reached a stage whereby they could hold much of their produce until it had mellowed and ripened with age, and the reputation of Assmanshausen wines in particular was growing. By 1881, Kircher had installed modern screw presses at Assmanshausen and his winery was described as one of the best in Queensland. At this period the presses were located in the attic, the must then gravity-fed down pipes to the ground floor where it was fermented in vats, before being piped to the underground stone cellar to mature. A timber, ground-level extension to the cellar may have been constructed by this time. Kircher had 11 acres under vines around his house, and a 5 acre vineyard about half a mile distant. He was also farming his land, with a 10 acre paddock under oats and 500 merino sheep. The Kirchers' residence [unlikely to be their first house on the property] was impressive also - described by one reporter in 1881 as the neatest, best finished, and most comfortable dwelling I have ever seen among Queensland farmers or selectors . . ., and in an 1887 report as one of the most perfect in the colonies.
Assmanshausen figured prominently in the 1889 report on viticulture and wine-making in the southern districts of Queensland, prepared by the Under Secretary for Agriculture, Peter McLean, who visited the Warwick district in late 1888 or early 1889. Assmanshausen was then one of the oldest vineyards in the district, and Kircher, with wine exports to Scotland, was the only Queensland wine-maker then exporting to Britain or Europe.
By March 1901, the Assmanshausen vineyard still comprised just 10 acres, but Kircher was devoting most of his time to wine production as distinct from general farming. The cellar was considered still one of the finest in the State, carrying on average about 18,000 gallons of wine, with annual output averaging 4,500 gallons. Assmanshausen wine was seldom sold until it had aged 7 or 8 years, and was in demand throughout southern Queensland. Kircher had secured about 60 prizes and certificates for his wines, some awarded for exhibits sent interstate and to Britain and Europe. Both the winery and the vineyard were managed by Jacob Christian Barth, son of the Kirchers' adopted daughter, Mary Rickert of Warwick.
In March 1902 Assmanshausen Farm, Vineyard and Winery was advertised for sale. The property still comprised 90 acres of first-class agricultural land, 10 of which were under vines, and contained a substantial 8-roomed timber residence and a winery comprising a 3-floored stone cellar, attached to which was a timber and iron cellar. It failed to sell at this time, and following the death of Jacob Kircher on 30 April 1903, the property passed to a trustee, the Kirchers having no children. Following Mrs Kircher's death in 1912, title passed in 1915 to an American nephew, Michael Kircher, who had been managing the winery since c1902, prior to Jacob's death.
In the early 20th century, following the federation of the Australian colonies and the removal of interstate tariffs, Queensland wine-production declined in the face of strong competition from more established wine producers in South Australia and New South Wales. Henri Macquarie Serisier of New South Wales was associated with Assmanshausen from c1915, and in 1920 purchased the vineyard and winery from Michael Kircher for £2,200. Serisier was the son of Jean Emile Serisier, a successful Dubbo [New South Wales] vigneron, and had both Australian and European experience of viticulture and wine-making. He changed the famous Assmanshausen name to Toolburra Vineyards, and undertook extensive new plantings, many of which were table grapes. By 1922 he had about 65 acres under grapes, and was expecting to produce about 20,000 gallons of wine that season - principally ports, muscat, madeira, sweet sherry, claret and hock.
HM Serisier remained at Toolburra Vineyards until a few years before his death in 1942, but in 1932 transferred the property to his son, Kelvin Eugene. KE Serisier sustained Toolburra Vineyards throughout the 1930s, but with the onset of the Second World War, when he joined the RAAF, the vineyard fell into decline and the winery ceased production in the early 1940s. At some period after the closure of the winery, the timber extension, and the shingled roof with its attic space, were demolished. The property remained with the Serisier family until 1980.
","criteria":"The former Assmanshausen Winery [c1870] and Residence [extant by 1881], is important for its association with, and as a role model for, and as surviving evidence of, one of the earliest economic activities on the southern Darling Downs - the establishment of vineyards and wineries.
The finely-finished house illustrates the success of the winery, and the desire of its immigrant owners to establish themselves in their adopted country.
|Despite the loss of the upper level, the sandstone winery survives as a rare and important example of its type.
|The place also has the potential to reveal, through archaeological investigation, further information about the nature of the structure, and to contribute to our understanding of wineries and wine-making in Queensland.
|It retains much early fabric [including the dressed sandstone and heavy adzed beams and posts ], and design elements [including the underground sandstone cellar, air shafts and small shuttered windows in the upper level], which contribute to our understanding of the construction and functioning of a 19th century Queensland winery. The addressing of temperature control through design and materials is particularly interesting.
Despite the loss of the kitchen and bedroom wings at the rear, the residence core remains important in illustrating the principal characteristics of a well-detailed farmhouse, in which the quality of finish is well above the usual. The house retains its early form and most of the original fabric, including particularly fine cedar joinery and fireplace surrounds, and early pressed metal cornices above the windows.
|Both the winery and the residence have considerable aesthetic appeal. The house, with its early form, wide verandahs, red roof and white chimneys, set amid a garden of mature trees and shrubs, is a local landmark. The winery has an aesthetic appeal engendered by the rusticity of the fabric, the atmospheric underground cellar, and the pleasant rural setting.
|Assmanshausen Winery has strong social significance - it was a popular tourist attraction in its time, and the names Assmanshausen and Toolburra Vineyards are well-known in Warwick history.
|The place is important for its strong association with Jacob Kircher's significant contribution to the development of the wine industry in southern Queensland, from the 1860s until his death in 1903, and illustrates the important contribution of early German immigrants to the evolution and development of Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | 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":16268,"place_ref":601505,"name":"Glennie Hall","alternate_name":"Odd Fellows Hall","street_address":"66 Albion Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-07-05","description":"Glennie Hall is a single-storey symmetrical masonry building. It is set close to Albion Street, which is a section of the busy Cunningham Highway linking Brisbane to Sydney and Melbourne.
Glennie Hall appears to have an inverted T-shape plan, with a rectangular front and the rectangular stem of the hall has a corrugated iron gable roof. The 1891 front wing is designed in a symmetrical neoclassical style.
The 1891 section has an ornate parapet broken by a central gable and small gable roof entry lobby. This gable has an open-bed pediment above the central front opening. The openings on either side of the entrance have rectangular windows surmounted by an arched concrete moulding descending to a dripstone and broken by a keystone. The pair of windows either side of the entrance and side windows are casement windows and are delineated by concrete moulding that is horizontal beneath the sill and outlines the arch of the window shape. All windows are recessed into the wall.
The architects employed geometric shapes to enhance this hall. The base has a strong horizontal emphasis that is reinforced by the horizontal window moulding and entablature beneath the parapet. Roundness is emphasised by the semi-circle window heads and mouldings and the circular decorations in the parapet. Supporting vertical brackets and gable like moulding infill enforces the oblique line of the parapets central gable.
The northern elevation of the 1881 hall is not ornate and appears to have two windows and a door near where it adjoins the 1891 section.
","history":"A single-storey masonry hall designed by architects William Wallace and Richard Gibson was built 1880-81 on the southern end of Albion Street for the Royal Rose of Warwick Manchester Unity Independent Order of Odd Fellows (MUIOOF) Lodge. Wallace and Gibson were responsible for the entrance lobby and parapeted front rooms added in 1891.
Alan Cunningham's exploration of the southern Darling Downs in 1827 revealed the potential of the area for pastoral and agricultural usage. However, it was not until the 1840s that pastoralists moved into the district. It was at the end of the decade that Warwick started emerging as an administrative centre and a town serving the local pastoralists. The northern end of Albion Street, near the Condamine River ford, developed as the main administrative and business area, but flooding resulted in movement away from this area by the 1870s.
While the first Oddfellows Lodge in Queensland opened in Brisbane in 1847 it was not until 1871 that the Rose of Warwick MUIOFF was founded. Friendly societies believed in self-help, and by making regular set contributions members and their families secured benefits when ill, unable to work, for funeral service and clothes for the widow and family. Lodges were meant to practice universal brotherhood and be open to all religious persuasions. Each lodge was an individual financial entity run on democratic lines and the aim was for good fellowship, benevolence, charity and improving of morals. Lodges met fortnightly and often concluded with a paper or talk. They ran social events and raised funds to ensure profitability of the lodges. Oddfellowship did practice secrecy, wore regalia and had specified ceremonies. Acceptance into an Oddfellows lodge was after being medically checked, approval by members, payment of an initiation fee and the actual ceremony. Lodges employed a local doctor to look after members and paid for approved medicines from the selected pharmacist/chemist.
By 1878 there were two MUIOOF lodges in Warwick with the Loyal Rose Lodge meeting fortnightly in their Town Hall lodge room. Lodge members were actively involved in the community and raised funds by organising balls and athletic events. It was on 30 August 1880 that the local state parliamentarian, Jacob Horwitz, laid the foundation stone for the Oddfellows Hall at the southern end of Albion Street. It was designed by prominent Warwick architects Wallace and Gisbon with brickwork by Brother EB Budgen and cost £268. The hall was formally opened at the January 1881 meeting of the Loyal Rose Lodge.
In 1891 the Oddfellows decided to enlarge their hall and again employed architects Wallace and Gibson. The tender for these additions that included an imposing front facade, front rooms and side verandahs was for £413/10/- and the total cost was over £600. The Warwick Argus of 25 July 1891 commented that builder John Longwill was making rapid progress with the Oddfellows Hall and 'The new front, which will be very imposing when complete, is now nearly high enough to obscure the main portion of the hall. When complete, the building will present a very neat and roomy appearance'.
The Oddfellows Hall was used for fortnightly MUIOOF lodge meetings, WPO meetings and dancing classes. It was also a venue for Oddfellows social evenings and rented as a hall to many other local organisations, for example football clubs. Over 100 couples attended a fancy dress ball in the Hall when the first anniversary of the formation of Female Oddfellows was celebrated in August 1907. About 1908 a new floor costing £80 was laid in the Lodge Hall.
Old-age pensions of £26 per year were introduced by the Queensland government on 1 July 1908 and in September delegates from the various Warwick friendly societies met to discus the benefits of forming an association. By 31 October 1908 the Warwick and District Friendly Societies Association was founded and office bearers elected. The Commonwealth Government's introduction of the old age pension in 1909 which was soon supplemented by an invalid pension and introduction of the maternity bonus in 1912, was the onset of the welfare state and a death knoll for friendly societies.
Throughout 1909, 1910 and 1911 the three Warwick MUIOOF lodges continued to meet in the Oddfellows Hall and rent it out for social events and as a meeting place for other organisations. Perhaps the government social welfare legislation had reduced the number of members, or the need for a hall was no longer felt to be a necessity, or for some other reason, but by early 1912 the Royal Rose of Warwick MUIOOF was sold to John Lamb for a four figure price. Lamb used the hall as a wine and spirit store in connection with his already established business. In 1915 Lamb leased the business to William Reuben McEwin. The hall ceased being used as a wine and spirit store about 1916.
The Church of England purchased the Oddfellows Hall in 1921 for £800. After spending over £400 on refurbishment including adding modern conveniences the hall was official opened by the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane on 21 August 1921 as the home of the St Marks Young Men's Club. It was renamed the Glennie Hall in honour of Archdeacon Glennie who conducted the first Warwick Anglican Church services in September 1848. In 1860 Archdeacon Glennie moved to Warwick to serve as the parish priest until 1872. He was responsible for the erection of St Mark's Warwick [600943] and encouraging regular church attendance.
St Mark's Young Men's Club was formed on 10 August 1920 with 21 members, one year later membership had increased to 129. The Club aimed for the development of mental and social culture amongst its members. The Club's fortnightly meetings included public debating, mock banquets, preparing articles for the magazine, giving of papers, addresses from visiting speakers. Another important activity was social fund raising evenings such as dances.
While the Warwick MUIOOF lodges held their fortnightly meetings in the Masonic Lodge they continued to use Glennie Hall for social events as did other local organisations.
A dramatic change of use occurred in 1935 when radio station 4WK inaugurated broadcasting to the district within 50 miles of Warwick from Glennie Hall on 6 May 1935. One of the 1920s innovations was radio communication. Radio broadcasting was used for not only news broadcasting but for the spread of information and education and 4WK presented poetry in Children's programs, provided intelligence on local happenings and helped raise funds for organisations such as the Lord Kitchener's Cheapside Mission.
Rosenthal Shire Council purchased the land from the Church by 20 December 1957 with the hall becoming the shires administration centre. The shire used the hall for functions including Health Department inoculations. While this long block of land had space for the Shire's heavy equipment and a workshop the increasing heavy highway traffic was to prove problematic for the moving of machinery in and out. While Rosenthal Shire adjoined Warwick Town Council and there were various boundary changes, the Shire offices were always in the Warwick CBD. It is probable that the Shire installed a fireproof safe for secure storage of council records.
Vacated by the Shire in 1970, by 1974 Glennie Hall had new owners and became a gymnasium. Subdivided in 1991, with the larger rear area used as a bus depot, the hall was sold and became an antique shop. Put up for auction on 26 March 1994, when it was described as including kitchen, toilets, offices and display areas, it had been recently painted inside and outside. Internally there was a central hall with rooms of various sizes opening off it including a strongroom. Since 1994 it has been used as a restaurant and more recently it is a vacant premises.
In January 2001 Glennie Hall was again for sale. A sign informed those interested that the building contained a fully renovated gourmet kitchen, a cold room and bar, sealed rear carpark, two-room accommodation fully furnished and fitted out to down to crockery, and the place was suitable for nightclub, bar, showroom, restaurant, office or other use.
A 1921 photograph shows that there was a convex verandah on the actual hall's northern elevation. This photograph and another when Glennie Hall was a radio station show that urns surmounted the pilasters. A low picket fence and shrubs have replaced the front picket fence, the verandah has disappeared and an awning added to the front entrance. As the place has not been inspected internal changes are not known.
","criteria":"While Albion Street was once the Warwick administrative and business area, this place is the only remaining colonial structure.
This place demonstrates a way of life during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when friendly societies were a prominent and expanding part of Queensland society. The Oddfellows like other Friendly Societies was a voluntary association where members paid periodic payments and received sickness and funeral benefits.
That Glennie Hall has been used as a hall for specific groups and the community, a wine and spirits store, radio station, shire office, gymnasium, shop and restaurant demonstrates the growth of Warwick and changing social needs of the community.
|The Oddfellows hall, designed by prominent Warwick architects Wallace and Gibson, opened in 1881. The front wing, also designed by Wallace and Gibson, was added in 1891. This single-storey hall's front facade with its articulated geometry is important in illustrating the design, materials and construction techniques of late-19th century masonry building in Queensland.
|(Criterion under review)
|The Oddfellows played an important community role in pre social welfare days. The hall was the venue for their meetings and social events and other community activities. As Glennie Hall, and home to St Mark's Young Men's Club, it social usage continued as it was rented out for community activities to various organisations including the Oddfellows.
|That this place has retained the name Glennie Hall since 1921 reveals the strong association of Warwick with Archdeacon Glennie even though the place has been employed for broadcasting and local government administration.
","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":16280,"place_ref":601517,"name":"Cherry Gully Tunnel","alternate_name":"Gorge Tunnel | Cherry Gully Railway Tunnel","street_address":"Warwick - Stanthorpe Line","suburb":"SILVERWOOD","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"Cherry Gully tunnel is situated on the Southern railway line between Warwick and Wallangarra. The Tunnel’s centre is situated 281 kilometres from Roma Street Station, surrounded by sparsely wooded hills and penetrates a low ridge. The straight tunnel is aligned northeast–southwest, it is approximately 272 metres long and semi-elliptical in section, wide enough for a single railway line.
\nBoth ends of the tunnel are approached by a cutting with steep earth and stone embankments either side of the rail line. The tunnel’s portals are faced with concrete walls with a square cornice to their tops. Internally, the tunnel is concrete lined at its base and brick lined to the top half. The floor is gravel ballast with a single line of railway tracks on sleepers.
\nFeatures of Cherry Gully Tunnel of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\n· tunnel alignment, northeast-southwest
\n· semi-elliptical form, wide enough for a single railway line
\n· face brick and cement internal linings
\n· concrete walls and portals to each tunnel end with square cornice to tops
\n· cuttings for railway corridor leading to tunnel portals.
\nFeatures of the Cherry Gully Tunnel not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\n· modern markers and signs painted at each portal and inside tunnel
\n· modern railway tracks and sleepers.
","history":"Completed in 1880, Cherry Gully Tunnel is a concrete- and brick-lined railway tunnel located about 20km south of Warwick and 281km from Roma Street on the Warwick to Wallangarra section of the Southern Railway Line, the only rail connection between Brisbane and Sydney from 1887 to 1930. This section of the Southern Line was constructed to Stanthorpe (originally named Quart Pot) to service the nearby tin-mining field that arose after discovery of alluvial tin in Quart Pot Creek in February 1872.[1] Cherry Gully Tunnel is located on the traditional lands of the Githabul People.[2]
\nThe establishment of railway lines in Queensland by the Queensland Government dates from the 1860s. The government’s primary objective was to use its limited resources to develop regional industries (wool, agriculture, mining) by moving products by rail from their source to a port. The first rail line between Ipswich (a port on the Bremer River) and Bigge's Camp (later Grandchester) opened in 1865, with the intention that it would be extended west to the Darling Downs, the principal pastoral area of the colony at that time. Connection to Toowoomba was achieved in 1867. The rail line extension south to Warwick from the rail terminus at Toowoomba was contracted in February 1866 and opened on 9 January 1871.[3]
\nExploitation of the colony’s mineral resources through railway development commenced in the 1860s. The construction of the first of these lines from Rockhampton towards the Peak Downs copper field began in 1864, with its initial western terminus at Westwood opening on 19 September 1867.[4] This nexus continued when the Queensland Parliament approved construction of four mineral railways in August 1877: from Townsville to Charters Towers, Bundaberg to Mount Perry, Maryborough to Gympie, and the extension of the Southern and Western Railway from Warwick to Stanthorpe.[5] However, the decision to construct these rail lines with no connection to other parts of the Queensland Railways system resulted in a proliferation of separate railways from the interior to ports (the main railways linking to Rockhampton, Townsville and Cairns), which were not unified until 1924, with the opening of the North Coast Line between Brisbane and Cairns.[6]
\nAgitation for the construction of a railway from the town of Warwick[7] to the mining centre of Stanthorpe was a major political and social rallying point for the population of the southern tablelands. The booming tin mining area around Stanthorpe provided the impetus for the extension of the railway south from Warwick.[8] In 1873 a survey from Warwick to Stanthorpe began and the 41½ miles (66.8km) to Stanthorpe was mapped. However, this survey included two costly tunnels ‒ one 29 chains (583.4m) in length to save a 1¾ mile-long (2.82km) detour and a 13-chain (261.5m) long tunnel to save 2½ miles (4km).
\nA permanent survey in 1876 was completed to the 85-mile (136.8-km) mark, which was 27 miles (43.45km) from Warwick. The line surveyed passed through the centre of Warwick, and included a new railway station for the town.[9] On this survey, several deviations shortened the overall distance of the line.
\nIn 1878, the working plans for the section from Warwick to Stanthorpe were finally prepared. Tenders were called at the beginning of February 1878 for two sections from Warwick to Stanthorpe. Section One ran to a point 20 miles 28 chains 19 links (32.75km) south of Warwick, whilst Section Two ran 20 miles 41 chains 60 links (33.03km) to Stanthorpe.[10]
\nSection One was awarded to J & A Overend and Co. on 31 May 1878 for £178,784, to be completed in two and a half years. This section included a long tunnel later named Cherry Gully Tunnel. Construction was described in the Engineer’s Report (Southern and Western Line) as follows: ‘Section One ‒ operations were begun May 1878 vigorously – all stone culverts and many of the concrete ones completed. Open cuttings near the tunnel were well advanced but delayed due to the very hard rock encountered. Spring and Mineral Creek bridges were delayed...an average of 784 men were employed.’[11]
\nOverend & Co established a major construction camp for the Cherry Gully tunnel at the works location, in accordance with railway construction practices of the time. Construction camps were temporary townships, supplied with drinking establishments, sometimes a school, contractor stores, and even places of worship. A school was established at Cherry Gully. In common with many railway communities, much of the construction workforce was drawn from Irish ancestry.[12]
\nThe contract for Section Two, which included a short tunnel, situated at 84 mile 20 chains, later named Dalveen Tunnel [QHR601519], was awarded to J Garget for £105,983, after the tender was readvertised in July 1878.[13] A camp would also have been situated near No.2 [Dalveen] tunnel to act as labour base for its workings. Approximately 325 men were employed at this time on Section Two.[14]
\nWork started on Section One in May 1878[15] and by 1879 it was reported that good progress had been made. However, delays were experienced due to the difficult nature of the rock at the tunnel site. The major engineering work on Section One was the tunnel at Cherry Gully, known locally as the big tunnel. The hard basaltic rock encountered caused great problems for the engineers and ‘navvies’ on the line, delaying excavation.[16]
\nIn a new innovation for Queensland, the contractor experimented with several kinds of drilling machines, but all failed. As a result, hand drilling operations were resorted to. The use of rock drills in driving this tunnel may have been unsuccessful, however there is evidence of the use of rock drills in cuttings to the south of this tunnel as far as the head of Rosenthal Creek.[17] This use of rock drills was subsequent to the introduction of the Low patent rock drill into Australia, where it was used by the Mount Tarrengower Tunnelling Company at Maldon, Victoria in 1865.[18] Earthworks were also greater than expected due to the unstable nature of the rock encountered.
\nAs a cost-saving measure, according to the Engineer’s Report on the Southern and Western Line for 1878: ‘All the stone culverts, and a large proportion of the culverts and drains in concrete have been completed. A considerable saving has been effected by the substitution of cement concrete for brickwork and masonry, both in culverts and bridges.’[19] The Engineer reported in 1879 ‘that the adoption of concrete in these works has proved an undoubted success, and I should not hesitate to use it for similar ones, in future, in preference to brickwork, not only on account of its being under most circumstances less costly, but stronger and much more reliable’.[20] By the end of 1879, the main works remaining on Section One were the bridges over the Condamine River, Spring Creek and the Cherry Gully Tunnel.[21]
\nIn another innovation implemented in an effort to effect savings during construction, concrete was substituted as a building and lining material for the Cherry Gully Tunnel, instead of the more conventional brick. This was the first use of concrete on a railway tunnel by Queensland Railways and the contractor reported it as successful.[22] Subsequently, concrete became the standard lining material for rail tunnels in Queensland. Since 1880, at least 27 railway tunnels across Queensland have been constructed using concrete.[23]
\nIn April 1880 the Stanthorpe Border Post reported that good progress had been made at the south end of the tunnel, despite the ‘formidable nature of…the granite bars to be displaced’.[24] Garget & Co apparently were proceeding well with their construction effort despite the dangers during blasting operations. By mid-May 1880, the Cherry Gully Tunnel had been fully excavated and rail laid, allowing a locomotive to pass through. However, the tunnel’s brick and concrete lining had not been completed.[25]
\nThe Queensland Times reported in October 1880 that the line was expected to open to Cherry Gully on 1 December. At this time, the first ballast train made its way over the Mineral Creek bridge and all the way up to the tunnel. It was anticipated ‘that within three weeks contractors will have finished one of the most difficult railways constructed in the colony’.[26]
\nThe opening of the line through to Cherry Gully was achieved about five weeks late – on 8 December, but considering the difficulties experienced was an excellent effort for all concerned.[27] The difficulties of driving and lining the tunnel had meant that three shifts of workers were eventually required on the work. However, using concrete to line the tunnel, apart from the brick crown, a first in Queensland, reduced the tunnel’s construction time.[28]
\nTo provide water for steam locomotives on the line between Warwick and Stanthorpe a concrete arch dam (Gorge Tank and Dam) had been built in 1879 across a large gully approximately two km north of Cherry Gully Tunnel and 279 kms from Roma Street station. It is the earliest example in Queensland of a concrete dam wall constructed for storage purposes.[29] The dam had a storage capacity of 400,000 gallons (1,818.44 kilolitres). The water tank and pipe from the dam were gravity fed, as the dam was situated in an elevated position. The construction of a new water supply at Glen Niven in 1914 meant that the tank was no longer needed as a major watering location for locomotives. From 1950 it was only in use for emergency purposes.
\nThe remainder of the line – from Cherry Gully through to Stanthorpe – was officially opened on 3 May 1881[30] and was taken over by Queensland Railways on 1 November 1881.
\nThe Southern Line extension from Stanthorpe to Wallangarra opened on 4 February 1887. With the completion of the New South Wales Government Railways line from Tenterfield to Wallangarra the first inter-colonial rail link between Brisbane and Sydney opened on 16 January 1888.[31] However, it was not until the Hawkesbury Bridge opened on 1 May 1889, completing the Sydney-Newcastle Link that the Brisbane to Sydney railway was completed.[32] This line served as the rail link between Brisbane and Sydney for the next four decades.
\nFrom the late 19th century, agriculture, particularly deciduous fruit growing, replaced mining in the Stanthorpe district. Deciduous fruit, comprising pome fruit (apples and pears)[33] and stone fruits (peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, cherries),[34] proved viable, with growers utilising the Southern Line to transport produce to market.[35] Fruit growing around Stanthorpe expanded into an important industry in the state[36] after a soldier settlement scheme was established to the town’s north and northwest after World War I. A branch rail line from Cotton Vale to Amiens opened in 1920 to serve the Soldier Settlement.[37] The importance of the rail transport in growers’ success was noted by The Queenslander newspaper in 1922: ‘The principal centres of fruit production in the Stanthorpe country, with few exceptions, are situated on or near the railway…. Easy accessibility to a railway siding or station is…a great convenience in the height of the fruit season, when growers have to cart their produce…almost every day in the week.’[38]
\nIn 1924, the Queensland Government passed the South Brisbane Kyogle Grafton Act, committing itself to the construction of a new standard gauge railway from South Brisbane to the border with New South Wales.[39] This arose from a federal royal commission in 1921 regarding a uniform railway gauge for Australia that recommended the states and commonwealth commit to linking the capital cities of Australia with common gauge railway tracks. As part of the standardisation of the disparate gauges, a new link between Sydney and Brisbane via Kyogle was identified as being a central element. At a conference between the Prime Minister and Premiers in November 1921, it was agreed that standard gauge (4 feet 8.5inches: 1435mm) be adopted.[40] This proposed railway line between Kyogle and South Brisbane, which opened in 1930 as the new link via northern New South Wales and the Richmond Gap into Queensland, did not require a change of trains at a border station.[41]
\nThereafter, the importance of the Southern line between Toowoomba and Wallangarra diminished. However, during the World War II, the strategic importance of the rail line through Wallangarra was vital in providing an inland transhipment and staging point during the defence of Australia, with a large ordnance depot established at Wallangarra.[42]
\nFrom the 1960s, the importance of the Warwick Railway Station and the Southern rail line diminished due to increased road competition and the consequent reduction of railway traffic. The rail passenger service to Wallangarra was withdrawn in 1972.[43] ‘The last Sydney Mail (26 Up) ran on 29 January 1972, and the Brisbane-Wallangarra service was withdrawn as of 1 February 1972…. With the cessation of passenger services on the Queensland side of the border, the line reverted to a goods only basis.’[44] The line between Tenterfield and Wallangarra on the New South Wales side of the border closed to traffic in 1989.[45]
\nThe Southern Line south of Warwick was threatened with closure in 1993-4, but the link was retained due to community protest, and a twice weekly goods service continued. By 2003, trains only ran on an ‘as-required’ basis, and all station staff were withdrawn, leaving Wallangarra as an unattended station.[46] Since 2009, Southern Downs Steam Railway Association has regularly operated tourist trains between Toowoomba and Wallangarra.[47]
\nIn 2024, the Warwick to Stanthorpe Section of the Southern Line is used for regular steam train journeys for tourists and rail enthusiasts.[48] Cherry Gully Tunnel remains an intact, major engineering work on the Southern Line.
","criteria":"Cherry Gully Tunnel (1880), an intact major engineering work on the Southern Line extension from Warwick to Stanthorpe, is important as a demonstration of the Queensland Government’s policy of constructing railway lines to access mineral fields throughout Queensland, having been built as part of the first rail line completed (1881) due to this policy. Following extension of the rail line to Wallangarra, the Southern Line became the colony’s first and only inter-colonial railway connection with New South Wales and Queensland’s between 1889 and 1930, ensuring the Southern Line’s importance to Queensland.
|Cherry Gully Tunnel is important for demonstrating the principal characteristics of a 19th Century Railway Tunnel in Queensland constructed for Queensland Railways. It is exceptional as the earliest example of a concrete-lined railway tunnel in Queensland.
\nThe highly intact tunnel demonstrates the principal characteristics of its type through its semi-elliptical cross-section wide enough for a single rail corridor, lined with concrete and face brick; gravel ballast floor; and concrete entrance portals, with steep cuttings on approach to each entrance.
|Cherry Gully Tunnel represents a breakthrough in construction technique as the earliest use of concrete construction in a railway tunnel in Queensland. Its success led to concrete becoming a standard construction type used throughout Queensland’s narrow-gauge railway network from the 1880s. The tunnel and its experimental concrete linings are highly intact.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | 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 in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16282,"place_ref":601519,"name":"Dalveen Tunnel","alternate_name":"Dalveen Railway Tunnel","street_address":"Warwick to Wallangarra line","suburb":"DALVEEN","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"The Dalveen tunnel is situated on the Southern railway line, 295km from Roma Street Station on the eastern outskirts of Dalveen, a town approximately halfway between Warwick and Stanthorpe. The tunnel is surrounded by sparsely wooded hills and penetrates a low ridge, a private unsealed road runs across the top of the ridge. The straight tunnel is aligned northwest–southeast, it is approximately 150m long and wide enough for a single railway corridor.
\nBoth ends of the tunnel are approached by a cutting with steep earth embankments either side of the rail line. The tunnel’s portals are faced with brick walls with sandstone capping to the tops, sandstone voussoirs at the north-western portal and concrete around the south-eastern portal. A painted sign above the south-eastern portal displays the date “AD 1880”. The tunnel is semi-elliptical in section, brick lined and has a gravel ballast floor with railway tracks.
\nFeatures of the Dalveen tunnel of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\n· tunnel alignment, running northwest-southeast
\n· semi-elliptical form, wide enough for a single railway corridor
\n· face brick linings
\n· face brick retaining walls to each tunnel end with sandstone capping to tops
\n· sandstone voussoirs around tunnel’s north portal
\n· concrete surround around tunnel’s south portal
\n· cutting for railway corridor leading to tunnel ends
\n· concrete spoon drains to top and bottom of retaining walls.
\nFeatures of the Dalveen tunnel not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\n· unsealed road above tunnel
\n· markers painted at each tunnel end and inside tunnel
\n· modern railway tracks, sleepers, and gravel ballast.
","history":"Completed in 1880, Dalveen Tunnel is a brick-lined railway tunnel located about 34km south of Warwick and 295km from Roma Street on the Warwick to Wallangarra section of the Southern Railway Line, the only rail connection between Brisbane and Sydney from 1887 to 1930. This section of the Southern Line was constructed to Stanthorpe (originally named Quart Pot) to service the nearby tin-mining field that arose after discovery of alluvial tin in Quart Pot Creek in February 1872.[1] Dalveen Tunnel is located on the traditional lands of the Githabul People.[2]
\nThe establishment of railway lines in Queensland by the Queensland Government dates from the 1860s. The government’s primary objective was to use its limited resources to develop regional industries (wool, agriculture, mining) by moving products by rail from their source to a port. The first rail line between Ipswich (a port on the Bremer River) and Bigge's Camp (later Grandchester) opened in 1865, with the intention that it would be extended west to the Darling Downs, the principal pastoral area of the colony at that time. Connection to Toowoomba was achieved in 1867. The rail line extension south to Warwick from the rail terminus at Toowoomba was contracted in February 1866 and opened on 9 January 1871.[3]
\nExploitation of the colony’s mineral resources through railway development commenced in the 1860s. The construction of the first of these lines from Rockhampton towards the Peak Downs copper field began in 1864, with its initial western terminus at Westwood opening on 19 September 1867.[4] This nexus continued when the Queensland Parliament approved construction of four mineral railways in August 1877: from Townsville to Charters Towers, Bundaberg to Mount Perry, Maryborough to Gympie, and the extension of the Southern and Western Railway from Warwick to Stanthorpe.[5] However, the decision to construct these rail lines with no connection to other parts of the Queensland Railways system resulted in a proliferation of separate railways from the interior to ports (the main railways linking to Rockhampton, Townsville and Cairns), which were not unified until 1924 with the opening of the North Coast Line between Brisbane and Cairns.[6]
\nAgitation for the construction of a railway from the town of Warwick[7] to the mining centre of Stanthorpe was a major political and social rallying point for the population of the southern tablelands. The booming tin mining area around Stanthorpe provided the impetus for the extension of the railway south from Warwick.[8] In 1873 a survey from Warwick to Stanthorpe began and the 41½ miles (66.8km) to Stanthorpe was mapped. However, this survey included two costly tunnels ‒ one 29 chains (583.4m) in length to save a 1¾ mile-long (2.82km) detour and a 13-chain (261.5m) long tunnel to save 2½ miles (4km).
\nA permanent survey in 1876 was completed to the 85-mile (136.8-km) mark, which was 27 miles (43.45km) from Warwick. The line surveyed passed through the centre of Warwick, and included a new railway station for the town.[9] On this survey, several deviations shortened the overall distance of the line.
\nIn 1878, the working plans for the section from Warwick to Stanthorpe were finally prepared. Tenders were called at the beginning of February 1878 for two sections from Warwick to Stanthorpe. Section One ran to a point 20 miles 28 chains 19 links (32.75km) south of Warwick, whilst Section Two ran 20 miles 41 chains 60 links (33.03km) to Stanthorpe.[10]
\nSection One was awarded to J & A Overend and Co. on 31 May 1878 for £178,784, to be completed in two and a half years.[11] This section included Cherry Gully Tunnel [QHR601517].
\nInitial tenders for Section Two were too high. The contract, which included a short tunnel, later named Dalveen Tunnel, was awarded to J Garget £105,983 after the tender was readvertised in July 1878.[12] The Engineer’s Report stated: ‘Clearing of the right of way began in November 1878, as well as some cuttings were begun.’[13]
\nIn common with railway construction of the time, a camp would have been situated nearby to act as labour base for its workings. On Section Two, some 325 men were employed at this time. [14] Construction camps were temporary townships, and were supplied with drinking establishments, sometimes a school, contractor stores and even places of worship. Edmund Power operated a drinking establishment on the Second Section at Telegraph Road crossing, while John Commerford opened the North Australian Hotel, Main Camp, at the new Tunnel on the 2nd section. Life in the camps could be a perilous affair at times, especially where hot tempers were concerned.[15]
\nDalveen Tunnel, situated at 84 miles 20 chains (135.23km), was constructed to pierce a spur of the Silverwood Range. It was one of the major works on the Second Contract of the line to Stanthorpe. Section Two did not experience the construction difficulties encountered on the works around the Cherry Gully Tunnel. By the end of 1879 it was noted that:
\nThe heading of No. 2 tunnel at 84 miles 20 chains was excavated to about one-third of the total length, and a large number of bricks had been prepared in readiness for the lining.
\nThe Commissioner's Report for 1880 noted that the excavation and lining of No.2 tunnel had been completed and that only track laying remained to be done. The Commissioners Report noted that only plate laying and ballasting required completion.
\nThe remainder of the line – from Cherry Gully through to Stanthorpe – was officially opened on 3 May 1881[16] and was taken over by Queensland Railways on 1 November 1881.
\nTo provide water for steam locomotives on the line between Warwick and Stanthorpe a concrete arch dam (Gorge Tank and Dam) had been built across a large gully approximately two km north of Cherry Gully Tunnel and 279 kms from Roma Street station. It is the earliest example in Queensland of a concrete dam wall constructed for storage purposes.[17] The dam had a storage capacity of 400,000 gallons (1,818.44 kilolitres). The water tank and pipe from the dam were gravity fed, as the dam was situated in an elevated position. The construction of a new water supply at Glen Niven in 1914 meant that the tank was no longer needed as a major watering location for locomotives. From 1950 it was only in use for emergency purposes.
\nThe Southern Line extension from Stanthorpe to Wallangarra opened on 4 February 1887. With the completion of the NSWGR line from Tenterfield to Wallangarra the first inter-colonial rail link between Brisbane and Sydney opened on 16 January 1888.[18] However, it was not until the Hawkesbury Bridge opened on 1 May 1889, completing the Sydney-Newcastle Link that the Brisbane to Sydney railway was completed.[19] This line served as the rail link between Brisbane and Sydney for the next four decades.
\nFrom the late nineteenth century, agriculture, particularly deciduous fruit growing, replaced mining in the Stanthorpe district. Deciduous fruit, comprising pome fruit (apples and pears)[20] and stone fruits (peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, cherries),[21] proved viable, with growers utilising the Southern Line to transport produce to market.[22] Fruit growing around Stanthorpe expanded into an important industry in the state[23] after a soldier settlement scheme was established to the town’s north and northwest after World War I. A branch rail line from Cotton Vale to Amiens opened in 1920 to serve the Soldier Settlement.[24] The importance of the rail transport in growers’ success was noted by The Queenslander newspaper in 1922: ‘The principal centres of fruit production in the Stanthorpe country, with few exceptions, are situated on or near the railway…. Easy accessibility to a railway siding or station is…a great convenience in the height of the fruit season, when growers have to cart their produce…almost every day in the week.’[25]
\nIn 1924, the Queensland Government passed the South Brisbane Kyogle Grafton Act, committing itself to the construction of a new standard gauge railway from South Brisbane to the border with New South Wales.[26] This arose from a federal royal commission in 1921 regarding a uniform railway gauge for Australia that recommended the states and commonwealth commit to linking the capital cities of Australia with common gauge railway tracks. As part of the standardisation of the disparate gauges, a new link between Sydney and Brisbane via Kyogle was identified as being a central element. At a conference between the Prime Minister and Premiers in November 1921, it was agreed that standard gauge (4 feet 8.5inches: 1435mm) be adopted.[27] This proposed railway line between Kyogle and South Brisbane, which opened in 1930 as the new link via northern New South Wales and the Richmond Gap into Queensland, did not require a change of trains at a border station.[28]
\nThereafter, the importance of the Southern line between Toowoomba and Wallangarra diminished. However, during the World War II, the strategic importance of the rail line through Wallangarra was vital in providing an inland transhipment and staging point during the defence of Australia, with a large ordnance depot established at Wallangarra.[29]
\nFrom the 1960s, the importance of the Warwick Railway Station and the Southern rail line diminished due to increased road competition and the consequent reduction of railway traffic. The rail passenger service to Wallangarra was withdrawn in 1972.[30] ‘The last Sydney Mail (26 Up) ran on 29 January 1972, and the Brisbane-Wallangarra service was withdrawn as of 1 February 1972…. With the cessation of passenger services on the Queensland side of the border, the line reverted to a goods only basis.’[31] The line between Tenterfield and Wallangarra on the New South Wales side of the border closed to traffic in 1989.[32]
\nThe Southern Line south of Warwick was threatened with closure in 1993-4, but the link was retained due to community protest, and a twice weekly goods service continued. By 2003, trains only ran on an as-required basis, and all station staff were withdrawn, leaving Wallangarra as an unattended station.[33] Since 2009, Southern Downs Steam Railway Association has regularly operated tourist trains between Toowoomba and Wallangarra.[34]
\nIn 2024, the Warwick to Stanthorpe Section of the Southern Line is used for regular steam train journeys for tourists and rail enthusiasts.[35] Dalveen Tunnel remains an intact, major engineering work on the Southern Line.
\n","criteria":"
The Dalveen Tunnel (1880), an intact major engineering work on the Southern Line extension from Warwick to Stanthorpe, is important as a demonstration of the Queensland Government’s policy of constructing railway lines to access mineral fields throughout Queensland, having been built as part of the first rail line completed (1881) due to this policy. Following extension of the rail line to Wallangarra, the Southern Line became the colony’s first and only inter-colonial railway connection with New South Wales and Queensland’s between 1889 and 1930, ensuring the Southern Line’s importance to Queensland.
|The Dalveen Tunnel is an intact example of a late 19th century railway tunnel as constructed by Queensland Railways. The tunnel is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class of cultural places in its: Semi-elliptical cross-section wide enough for a single rail corridor, face brick linings and portals with sandstone quoins, gravel ballast floor with metal railway tracks, and earth embankments on approach to both ends. With very little alteration, the Dalveen Tunnel is intact and retains a high degree of integrity.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16314,"place_ref":601552,"name":"Masel Residence (former)","alternate_name":"Diamond Residence","street_address":"98 High Street","suburb":"STANTHORPE","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"Situated on the main street into Stanthorpe from the northeast, the former Masel Residence and consulting rooms is a brick and reinforced concrete building set in an established garden. Suburban houses extend along High Street to the east of the residence while institutional and commercial buildings predominate to the west. A school now adjoins the property on two sides. Other heritage buildings in High Street include the Stanthorpe Post Office [600831] an imposing Arts and Crafts building which terminates the vista at the western end of High Street and the Central Hotel [600830].
Solid, cubic and monumental, the house is a two-storey structure with some single storey projections. These single storey sections include the former consulting rooms on the southern corner, a laundry and bathroom on the western corner, a garage at the rear and the eastern end of the living room, which supports a balcony above. Dominating the front façade is a centrally located curved stairwell with strip windows intersected by a continuous horizontal awning.
Exterior walls are finished in a face brick ranging in colour but predominantly red-brown. Brickwork is generally stretcher bond but incorporates header bricks where required to make sections of curved wall. English garden wall bond has been used to make the portion of parapet wall above the line of the roof and a soldier course terminates the top of the parapet. Windows are steel framed strip or corner windows. A dynamic asymmetric composition is created by the contrast between different building elements; curved corners are juxtaposed against right angles, horizontal proportions against the verticality of the staircase and carefully composed windows, emphasized by the fine horizontal planes of projecting concrete awnings, highlight the planar qualities of walls.
Low-pitched corrugated iron roofs are hidden from view behind brick parapet walls. Rainwater, collected in concealed box gutters, is discharged through the parapet walls into painted metal rainwater heads and downpipes. Metal ladders bolted to external walls provide access to the roofs.
Set behind the original low brick fence, the house faces southeast across High Street. An original metal gate in a simple geometric design opens onto a stone path that leads to the main entrance. Metal gates on the driveway match the design of the pedestrian gate but were constructed later by the Diamond family. Situated at the base of the stairwell, the main entrance opens into the residential quarters. A more modest entry further to the west, which originally provided access to the consulting rooms, has since been blocked by the construction of low brick walls. This former public entrance, now converted to a balcony, is closer to the street and is screened from the residential entry by a brick fin wall with a porthole opening. Cantilevered concrete awnings protect the entries as well as most of the doors and windows.
Located on the lower floor of the house are the former consulting rooms and the communal and utility rooms of the private residence. Bedrooms and a bathroom are located on the upper level. A double garage, with an extension used as a storeroom, is located at the rear of the house. Underground power and phone lines, the original arrangement, are connected to the house.
On entering the residence one passes under the mid-landing of a dogleg staircase with a solid timber balustrade that fills the entrance hall. A passage, which continues the entrance hall, bisects the house and leads to the rear garage. On the northeast side of the entrance hall is an L-shaped living and dining area arranged around a north-facing terrace. The living room has a brick fireplace and curved east-facing window. Steel framed French doors open from the dining and living area onto the raised terrace, which is connected to the garden by an elegant curved brick stair. The kitchen, which connects to the dining room via a pivot-hinged door, was renovated in the 1970s but retains some original cupboards. On the southwest side of the passage are a former maid's room and a small room originally designed as a bathroom but never fitted out. The laundry and a small shower and toilet are accessed externally.
A discreetly positioned door off the entrance hall connects the former consulting rooms, now used as an informal living area, with the residence. The internal walls have been removed between the waiting area, consulting and x-ray rooms. But the former laboratory remains intact.
The upper level contains three bedrooms, a nursery and a bathroom. The main bedroom, located on the eastern corner of the house, opens onto a private balcony. Positioned over the curved corner of the ground floor living room, the balcony overlooks the side garden and street. All the bedrooms have built-in wardrobes with timber veneer doors. A third level, located over the upper level bathroom and accessed via an external ladder, originally housed a header tank and hot water system.
The finish of the interior walls and ceilings is generally painted plaster but walls were originally finished with wallpaper. With the exception of wet areas, the floors are carpet over timber. The rich dark finish of the internal joinery, including timber veneered doors and timber architraves and skirtings, contrasts with the white walls. A recess in the reveals of the windows accommodates curtain tracks. A similar recess is located in the opening between the dining and living area and originally was fitted with brown velvet curtains. The original built-in heating system is no longer used but electric radiators remain in the walls of the former surgery and main bedroom. A system of electric bells located in the downstairs hallway, operates doorbells at the house and consulting room entries and connects the main bedroom to the former maids quarters. The house retains some original light fittings in the entry hall and dining room.
The planning of the house is typical of modernist designs of the period. There is an emphasis on open planning in the living and dining spaces, which flow out to the garden and occupy the most favourable orientation. Private and utility rooms are enclosed cubicles, separated from open plan areas. Corridors and vestibules are used to enhance privacy. Published plans of the house show how rooms were designed to accommodate particular furniture arrangements and indicate extensive use of built in furniture, for instance the fireplace area has a built-in sofa and bookshelves. The bookshelves remain but the sofa was never built.
The house is set in a large established garden of lawn, clipped hedges, shrubs and mature trees. Brick planter boxes associated with the terrace and entrance areas help to integrate the house into the garden. The land slopes gently towards the rear of the block. Partly terraced, it is divided by stone garden and retaining walls. The main lawn is located on the north eastern side of the house while the service yard and driveway occupy the south western part of the block. The driveway, originally gravel, is now paved. Access around the garden is via stone paths. The path to the front door has been rebuilt, using the original stones where possible. The circular path on the northern lawn was built by the current owner. Apart from the low front brick fence, the property is enclosed by a variety of non-original fences creating a secluded rear garden. The backyard originally contained a badminton court and remains of a concrete wading pool are visible near the northeast corner of the garage. Trees include a mature gum, English oak and white cedar.
","history":"A substantial two-storeyed brick building, the former Masel Residence was erected in Stanthorpe in 1937-1938 for Dr Harry Masel and Una Masel and their family. Designed in 1936 by Charles William Thomas Fulton of Donoghue and Fulton Architects and constructed by Sydney builders Kell and Rigby, the building with its functionally zoned planning and abstract monumental facades was strongly influenced by European modernist architecture. One of the first examples of these trends in architecture in Queensland, it was the joint winner of Queensland's inaugural awards for meritorious architecture in 1938.
Settlement at Stanthorpe began around 1872 with the commencement of alluvial tin mining in the area. Originally two townships, it grew into a centre for that part of the Darling Downs. Dr Harry Masel, a general practitioner in Stanthorpe, acquired the title to a half-acre lot on High Street in 1936. Una Masel, Harry's wife, had an interest in contemporary architecture and commissioned Brisbane Architect JP Donoghue to design a home for her family. The house was also to incorporate rooms for Dr Masel's general practice, including waiting area, consulting and x-ray rooms and a laboratory. It was not uncommon during the first half of the 20th century for doctors to practice from their homes. In new homes, for example at La Scala [600207] built in Brisbane in 1914, purpose designed facilities were sometimes incorporated. Dr Masel was particularly interested in radiology and his surgery was subsequently fitted with a large X-ray machine, more commonly found in a hospital.
JP Donoghue already had a commission in Stanthorpe that may have brought him into contact with Dr Masel. He was the architect for the main block of Stanthorpe hospital, erected in 1936. The Masel residence was designed by Charles Fulton, then an employee of JP Donoghue. The architectural practice Donoghue and Fulton was subsequently established and the Masel Residence, completed in 1938, was one of its first commissions. Kell and Rigby, builders from Sydney who were also working in Stanthorpe on the hospital, most likely built the house. Kell and Rigby, now a prominent construction firm, are still operating in Sydney.
During the 1930s the detached residence in a garden setting continued to be the most common form of housing in Australia. Houses were built in a range of styles such as Spanish Mission, Tudor Revival, Georgian Revival and various bungalow styles. A small number of houses were also built in styles inspired by European modernism. Modern architecture was the outcome of an attempt by European architects to invent new ways of building guided by rational principals of construction and associated aesthetic ideals rather than tradition. Typical features of interwar Modernist styles in Australia included parapet walls concealing low pitched or flat roofs, steel framed corner and strip windows, masonry walls devoid of decoration, rounded external corners, cantilevered concrete awnings and balconies, asymmetric composition and stairwells expressed as vertical elements contrasting with dominant horizontality. Low brick walls, hedges and extensive lawns were common in gardens.
The former Masel Residence introduced many features of this new and influential architectural vocabulary to Queensland. Unlike most Queensland houses, the Stanthorpe house was designed to suit the cold climate of the granite belt. Later buildings designed by Charles Fulton show more adaptations to the generally hot Queensland climate. The house for Dr Masel was published in national architecture journals, prior to construction in Building (1937) and after completion in Architecture (1940). Recognised as an important work of architecture at the time of its construction, the house was the winner of one of two medals awarded at the inaugural annual meritorious architecture awards of the Queensland chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 1939. The awards were for outstanding examples of domestic architecture constructed in the previous five years. The home of Dr H Masel, Stanthorpe won the Country Division.
Charles Fulton was born in Sydney in 1906. He received his architectural training at the Sydney Technical College, was an articled pupil of FE Stowe, architect and civil engineer and subsequently worked as a draftsman for Rudder and Grout. In 1931-32 he travelled overseas working in London for B George Architects. During this period he made trips to Europe to look at buildings. He was particularly interested in the work of Dutch architect Willem Dudok, whose Hilversum Town Hall was influential in Britain and Australia in the early thirties. In 1933 he returned to Australia and settled in Brisbane where he was employed, initially by Hall and Cook and later by JP Donoghue. In 1937 he entered into partnership with JP Donoghue, an older and more established architect and became Lecturer in Charge of Architecture at the Brisbane Central Technical College. Fulton taught at the architecture school for 33 years and the Queensland University of Technology, in recognition of his contribution to architectural education, named its architecture facility the 'Charles Fulton School of Architecture'.
Charles Fulton was a key practitioner and teacher of modern trends in architectural design in Queensland during the late thirties and forties. The Masel residence, Nudgee Junior College Indooroopilly (1938) and his own residence (1940) all received meritorious architecture awards in the early Royal Australian Institute of Architects Queensland Awards Programs. The practice of Donoghue and Fulton was also renowned for innovative hospital design and they were architects for the Townsville Hospital designed between 1935-39 (built 1951), the Kingaroy General Hospital and Nurses' Quarters 1936-38, Goondiwindi Hospital 1939, Roma Hospital 1940, Nurses' Quarters Nambour (601568) 1941-42 (demolished 1999). After the Second World War the partnership of Donoghue and Fulton was dissolved and Fulton took a new partner JM Collin. During this period Charles Fulton designed a number of notable hospital buildings including, Barcaldine Hospital main block and Staff Quarters (1953), Clermont Hospital main block (1955), Aramac nurses quarters (1957). These later buildings were characterised by low-pitched roofs, linear planning, cross ventilation, wide eaves or awnings and the use of modern materials. The firm that he founded continues as Fulton Trotter.
The Masel family owned the house for less than 10 years. Dr Masel moved to Brisbane at the end of the Second World War to further his specialization in radiology. After moving to Brisbane they became friends with the Fultons, their neighbours in Taringa and Charles Fulton later designed another house for the Masel family at Russell Terrace, Indooroopilly. The Masels sold their Stanthorpe house to Dr DT Rushton Smith. In 1949 the property was acquired by Laurence Diamond and remains in the Diamond family.
","criteria":"One of the first examples in Queensland of a house in a modernist style, the former Masel Residence is an important building in the evolution of architecture in Queensland. During the 1930s most houses in Queensland were being designed in traditional or historically derived styles. The former Masel Residence demonstrates the influence of modernist architectural ideas and practices that developed initially in Europe and became the dominant trend in architecture after World War 2.
|The former Masel Residence was designed in a style which although influential was not widely used and is uncommon outside of Brisbane. It is unusually intact for an interwar house, preserving in original condition both its architecture and its garden setting.
|The house demonstrates, through the inclusion of a purpose-built surgery with separate entry, ways in which work and domestic environments were combined in the homes of medical practitioners during the first half of the 20th century.
The former Masel Residence is a striking example of a building in what is known as the interwar functionalist style and incorporates typical features of the style such as asymmetrical cubic massing, expanses of undecorated brick walls, steel corner and strip windows, curved brickwork corners, flat cantilevered awnings and a concealed roof.
|The aesthetic qualities of the place are heightened by contrast with the otherwise traditional character of the surrounding Queensland country town. The house in its garden setting contributes to the distinctive character of the main street into Stanthorpe.
|The former Masel Residence is a highly accomplished design and received an inaugural award for meritorious architecture in Queensland.
|An early example of the work of one of Queensland's outstanding architects Charles Fulton, the house displays many of the characteristics of his work including an abstract sculptural form and the eschewing of internal decoration.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | 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":16393,"place_ref":601632,"name":"Stanthorpe Soldiers Memorial","alternate_name":"Stanthorpe War Memorial | Stanthorpe Soldiers' Memorial","street_address":"Lock Street","suburb":"STANTHORPE","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-08-03","description":"Located on Foxtons Hill a short distance from the Stanthorpe town centre the Stanthorpe Soldiers' Memorial is a rugged parkland of some one and a half hectares crossed by walking paths leading to a rest house at the top of the hill. The site is bounded to the north by Lock Street and on the remaining sides by residential allotments including "El Arish" along part of the western boundary. The main entrance is from Lock Street; access can also be obtained from White Street via lots 16 and 17 and from Scholz Street to the south, the entry of which is marked by two large eucalypts which frame the view of the rest house up a long slope.
The site is rugged and rocky with exposed granite boulders and mixed vegetation. Landscaping is in a naturalistic manner with bush pathways (and some sets of concrete stairs), seats cut out of the rock along some paths, and stone walling and terracing. There is evidence of some formal planting along the pathways including yellow jasmine hedges. The site also contains a number of memorial trees including what are believed to be several Lone Pines which surround the rest house and stands of pines on the western edge of the site.
From Lock Street, the rest house is approached by several sets of concrete stairs on a path leading up the hill from the road. The rest house is set amongst exposed granite boulders on a flat site at the summit of the hill. There is a flagpole to the south and retaining walls and stairs to the south and west. Set on an east west axis with views through arched openings including to the west, a panorama of Stanthorpe and the surrounding district, the rest house is a white painted concrete pavilion with a painted corrugated roof gabled in four directions. On the east and west gables in concrete raised lettering is the inscription "SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL"; on the north and south gables "1914-19".
The rest house is entered via arched openings to the north and south elevations. Inside the ceiling is pressed metal painted powder blue with gold plastic stars affixed; the floor has been painted red. Along the east and west walls are two long timber slatted seats. On the walls are five World War I honour boards of metal set into concrete mouldings, one of which is reserved for the names of the dead. In raised letters it reads: "TO THE MEMORY OF OUR GALLANT BOYS WHO FELL IN THE WORLD'S WAR 1914-1919". The boards record the names in alphabetical order with no military ranks or honours indicated. There is also an honour board for World War II and a plaque for Korea.
","history":"Built in honour of the soldiers of the district who participated in the Great War, the Stanthorpe Soldiers' Memorial was funded, as with many other such memorials across the state, by public subscription. Stanthorpe's memorial took the form of a park and rest house located on Foxton's Hill described at the time by the Queenslander as one of the lonely hills overlooking Stanthorpe. The rest house was designed by Warwick architects Dornbush and Connolly and built by local contractors NJ Thompson and Sons; inside were seats and on the walls, five rolls of honour, one of which was reserved for the fallen. The Soldiers' Memorial was officially opened on 6 February 1926 by Major General Sir William Glasgow, a commander of campaigns in Gallipoli and also in France, whose battlefields were to be memorialised in Australia by the naming of the towns of the soldier settlement area (Amiens, Pozieres, Bullecourt, and Fleurbaix) established near Stanthorpe soon after the War.
The first meeting to consider the erection of an honour board or soldiers memorial in Stanthorpe was held on 1 December 1918; a committee was formed to raise funds. The committee considered a possible site at Mt Marlay, the major lookout point for the town, however this was later rejected and by 1921, suggestions were being sought for other suitable schemes. Mr Fletcher favoured erecting a memorial on the proposed new cricket grounds; Mr Corden favoured a block of land owned by ER Hopper situated close to town and on a high position on Foxton's Hill which could be bought at a reasonable price; CF White suggested a rest house on the Hopper land and also using the land as a memorial park by erecting seats in convenient spots for the public. A public meeting was called resulting in the memorial committee agreeing on 21 May 1921 to pay a deposit on the Foxton Hill site and a committee was formed to draw up a development scheme for the park. It was proposed that Dornbusch and Connolly be asked to prepare plans of a rest house and submit estimates.
The site chosen was rough and rocky: the main park area (sub 22 now lot 33) fronted Lock Street with two smaller allotments (subs 5 and 6 now lots 16 and 17) fronting White Street. In 1923, the memorial site was formally acquired by the Committee, being held in the names of Charles Frederick White, James Vincent Scully, and Harry Wright. In September of that year, Dornbusch and Connolly were asked to prepare specifications in both local stone and concrete and tenders were to be called. Apparently due to lack of funds work on the rest house did not in fact commence until 1925. The memorial site was however already marked as such: a Turkish gun believed to have been brought to Australia as a war trophy by the commander of the Light Horse, Sir Harry Chauvel and his brother, Major Alan Chauvel (whose family summer house, "El Arish", adjoined the memorial site) was placed at what became the Lock Street entrance to the memorial. This entrance was also to be marked by a sign, a fence, and a stile.
It is not known if landscaping and planting was undertaken at the site prior to the erection of the rest house. Certainly by the 1930s photographs show that pines (believed to be Lone Pines) had been planted around the rest house; pines had also been planted on the western slopes of the site (adjoining "El Arish"). Wooden pegs (now lost) which recorded the names of fallen servicemen were placed below the memorial trees. By 1933, a blue light shone at night from the memorial making it visible from the town centre. Two memorial eucalypts were planted at the Scholz Street entrance which was also fenced. More recently, in the 1980s, the floor of the rest house was painted over to cover a "flag" and the pressed metal ceiling painted blue and stars affixed. The Turkish Gun has also been removed and now stands in front of the RSL building. In 1995 a timber fence and stile were removed from the White Street frontage.
For many years, Anzac Day was commemorated in Stanthorpe by a number of events commencing with a Dawn Service at the Soldiers Memorial, morning services at the various churches, and in the afternoon, a public service held at the Arcadia Theatre preceded by a march through the streets by returned soldiers. Afternoon tea was provided by the CWA for the families of returned service personnel. In more recent times the Dawn Service has been held at Weeroona Park.
Until 1963, when the memorial was transferred to the Stanthorpe Shire Council, it was maintained by public donations, including those collected for its upkeep at the annual Anzac Day Service. There also exists a long tradition of service to the memorial by local people (often returned servicemen) who were responsible for not only maintaining the memorial but also for the landscaping and planting of its grounds. These included Mr AH Hocking (who conducted working bees during the 1930s), Mr and Mrs AE Bateman, Mr Barton, Mr Ted Knight, Mr Jim Robertson, and during the 1980s, Mr Robert Dekeersgieter; more recently a local group, the Friends of the War Memorial and Local Residents Association has been formed.
Stanthorpe Shire Cultural Heritage Study report - The Stanthorpe Soldiers Memorial was built in 1926 to a design concept by architects Dornbusch and Connolly. The 6.15m x 4.6m building housed five Honour Rolls and after WWII the sixth was placed in the building. Further honour boards have been added to mark conflicts in which Australians have participated. The ground around the building has been landscaped.
","criteria":"Located on Foxton's Hill overlooking the town and surrounding district of Stanthorpe, the Soldiers' Memorial comprising a rest house set within a rugged park is a remarkable memorial having no apparent parallel in the state. In common with many other memorials erected across the country, the Stanthorpe Soldiers' Memorial was a prominent focal point for the town, however it is highly unusual in that it was not set within the town's centre, but rather on its outskirts: the memorial was thus a place of public memory and also of private pilgrimage.
|Located on Foxton's Hill overlooking the town and surrounding district of Stanthorpe, the Soldiers' Memorial comprising a rest house set within a rugged park is a remarkable memorial having no apparent parallel in the state. In common with many other memorials erected across the country, the Stanthorpe Soldiers' Memorial was a prominent focal point for the town, however it is highly unusual in that it was not set within the town's centre, but rather on its outskirts: the memorial was thus a place of public memory and also of private pilgrimage.
|With its memorial plantings and naturalistic landscaping including rock seats and walls and bush paths leading up the hill to the rest house, positioned so as to view the rising and the setting of the sun through its archways, the memorial is clearly intended as a place of both commemoration and contemplation.
|The site, with its rough terrain and exposed granite boulders common to the region retains its wilderness quality as a stark landscape which is both peculiarly local, but also on a grander scale, making apparent symbolic reference to Gallipoli and the Turkish coast.
|The Stanthorpe Soldiers Memorial is a memorial to those who served in the Great (and other later) wars but is also a testament to the community who built the memorial and remain as its custodians.
|The Stanthorpe Soldiers Memorial is a memorial to those who served in the Great (and other later) wars but is also a testament to the community who built the memorial and remain as its custodians.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 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 | 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":16394,"place_ref":601633,"name":"El Arish","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"94 Greenup Street","suburb":"STANTHORPE","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1996-10-04","description":"El Arish consists of a single-storeyed chamferboard residence, with a corrugated iron roof, set amidst a structured garden comprising distinct formal, informal and service areas. El Arish is located on the western slope of Foxton's Hill, adjoining the rugged landscape of the Stanthorpe Soldier's Memorial [601632] reserve at the rear, with the highest section of the property affording views over Stanthorpe a short distance to the west.
The residence is located towards the southern section of the site facing Greenup Street to the northwest. The formal garden compartment is located to the west and northwest, the informal stroll garden is located to the north and along the eastern boundary, and the service garden is located to the south of the residence.
The formal garden compartment is screened by a very large Cypress hedge along the western boundary to Greenup Street, and contains a geometric layout of gardens, hedges and shrubs with defined boundaries and a distinct pink and white theme. This garden was originally used to formally greet guests and create an impressions of the family's status, and the front verandah formed an adjunct to this garden for entertaining. Entry to El Arish is via a narrow arched opening in the hedge, facing northwest along the axis of Lock Street opposite, with a rustic timber gate with metal fittings. The northwest section of the formal garden contains a lawn, bisected by a concrete path leading to the residence, bordered by garden beds. The northern boundary of this section of the garden has a low stone wall, screen planting and a hedge, with a central gateway providing access to the informal stroll garden beyond. The gateway has a rustic timber gate with metal fittings, an arched metal lamp post with lantern, and a section of stone flagging with stone steps.
The western section of the formal garden is bordered by the driveway along the southern boundary and contains a reconstructed timber pergola supporting an Isabella grape vine at the southern end. The garden also contains a grafted William's pear tree, which shades a stone bench seat, and the stump of a Walnut tree from the original Walnut grove, both of which are remnants of Scholz's market garden. The remains of a fish pond is located amidst remnant rose bushes, and hedges and shrubs divide the garden spatially with an accent on content and form. A large Black Bamboo, enclosing secluded pathways with stone edgings, screens the adjacent service garden compartment to the south of the residence. A non-original cricket practice net is located in the western corner.
The informal garden was designed to be more private, and intimate spaces were created for the family's enjoyment and relaxation. The garden has an overall rustic character which was intended to invite exploration in the manner of an English stroll garden. There are controlled entry points within the garden, with several route options and focal points. Mass plantings in scale with the garden spaces has been employed, rather than the emphasis being given to individual plants and diversity as in the formal garden. Tall specimen planting and obscured views of boundaries have been utilised to give the impression of increased space, with the garden seemingly extending over boundaries to the rugged landscape of the adjoining public space.
The eastern side of the informal garden rises steeply towards the adjoining Stanthorpe Soldier's Memorial [601632] reserve, and consists of natural rock surfaces and stone terracing, some of which dates from Scholz's market garden and has been built up to form a maze of planting and paths. Planting includes agaves and Century plants, and a path leads to a stone lookout on the eastern boundary which affords expansive views over El Arish and Stanthorpe to the west. The stroll garden contains narrow paths with several arched trellises, and a non-original concrete water tank has been constructed in the southeast corner.
The northern section of the informal garden is relatively level, and has a timber post and rail fence along the Greenup Street boundary. This section of the garden contains tall Oak and Cedar trees, with low stone walls and areas planted with bulbs and containing remnant rose bushes. A large wisteria and the remains of a rustic pergola are located to the northeast of the residence, and garden beds and areas of lawn with a clothes line and fruit trees are located to the east of the house. The remains of the original woodland area of the garden, which is outside of the current garden boundary, can be seen to the south on the adjoining property.
The service garden was designed as a work and service area, and includes a driveway, guest parking, rear entry, garage and small kitchen garden. The service garden also contains the foundation remains of the maintenance shed, and has obscured views towards the formal and informal gardens. The rear entry to the residence has non-original timber pergola, stone flagged path, a lamp post with a stone base and a small hedge.
The single-storeyed chamferboard residence has a hipped corrugated iron roof with projecting gables, stumps with timber batten infill, and a verandah on the northwest with timber posts, brackets, balustrade and lattice-screened entry. A gabled projecting bay on the northern side of the entry has casement windows, and the verandah wall has single-skin exposed framing and french doors. The northeast verandah has been enclosed with chamferboard, and a stone flagged terrace has been added. The southwest section of the front verandah has also been enclosed. The rear of the building has been altered, with an original rear wing having been removed and verandahs enclosed and extended. Windows are mainly casements, some with corrugated iron and timber batten sunhoods, and a corrugated iron garage has been built adjacent to the southeast corner of the residence.
Internally, the residence has been redesigned several times.
","history":"The garden and house which comprise El Arish were established in the early 1920s by Major Allan and Isabella Chauvel on the site of a former market garden in Stanthorpe.
The major impetus to development in Stanthorpe occurred in 1872 with the start of the practice of alluvial tin mining after discoveries of the valuable metal in the area earlier in the mid 1850s. Stanthorpe become the collective name for two townships which grew as a result of the mining boom and became the only centre on the pastoral Darling Downs to develop with a mining based revenue.
Stanthorpe was situated on part of the early Folkestone Run, which was occupied from November 1846 by Matthew Henry Marsh, who acquired 160 acres of the run on pre-emptive purchase in October 1852. Alford Greenup assumed the management of the run in 1868, and by 1878 as a result of the tin mining boom Marsh converted his run into the private township of Stannum, which is a Latin word meaning tin. The Government surveyed land on each side of Stannum and formed a township known as Stanthorpe, and the towns were incorporated. Public sales were held soon after the subdivision of the town into building allotments.
Portions 166 and 167 of what was the Folkestone Run, later the site of El Arish, were sold to Karl Wilhelm Scholz in 1878. Scholz had arrived on the Darling Downs from Germany in 1872. As the tin mines of Stanthorpe became depleted the town became more reliant on market gardening as a source of revenue and Scholz established a market garden on his selection soon after its purchase. He cleared all natural vegetation from the site by 1890, and planted vegetable crops for short-term income whilst the orchards and vineyards matured. At this time wide paling fences were built as boundaries and the rear of the site was terraced. The garden was very successful though part of it was established on seemingly inhospitable land with massive granite outcrops on the side of a hill. Scholz's produce was often awarded prizes at local agricultural exhibitions.
In 1915 Scholz sold his property to Walter Hall and Ephriam Albert Maddock, who sold it soon after in June 1919 to Charles Frederick White, a member of a prominent Armidale family. White owned the property for only 12 months before he sold it to Susan Isabella Chauvel (nee Barnes), who was commonly known as Isabella. She borrowed £1150 from White for the purchase of the property. Isabella was married to Allan Chauvel and they owned and managed a pastoral property, Summerlands, in the Fassifern Valley. The purchase of the property in Stanthorpe was to provide the Chauvel family with a summer residence.
It was during the Chauvel's ownership that the property in Stanthorpe was named El Arish recalling Allan Chauvel's involvement in the First World War. Allan and his brother, Henry George Chauvel, later knighted, were born in Tabulum, New South Wales and grew up on a cattle station on the Clarence River. Family tradition dictated Henry and Allan's military involvement, firstly with the local Upper Clarence Light Horse established by their father, Charles Henry Edward Chauvel. When Allan and Henry moved with their family to a station in southern Queensland, Canning Downs South on the Darling Downs, the men continued their involvement with local volunteer light horse brigades. By the First World War Henry Chauvel who had also served in the Boer War, was chosen to command the 1st Light Horse Brigade. Allan Chauvel served in World War One, alongside his brother, as a major.
Henry, as one of the commanding officers, and Allan were involved in the 1916-17 Desert Column appeal which saw the advancement of the British troops across the desert into Palestine, driving the Turkish army from Aleppo on the northern borders of Syria. The Light Horse Brigade was the spearhead of the advancing forces. Under Henry Chauvel's command the forces destroyed Turkish garrisons at Rafa in December of 1916 and then, Maghaba in January 1917. This opened access for an assault on the principal Turkish positions near Gaza and Beersheba. After the attack on Maghaba the Light Horse Brigade found themselves without water and returned to a small village, El Arish where they re-stocked and celebrated their victory. El Arish is an Arabic word meaning 'place of rest' and it is therefore appropriate that this name should be given to the Chauvel family's summer residence.
Allan and Isabella Chauvel had five children, of these the eldest son John become an Anglican church minister and Charles the second son was a renowned Australian filmmaker. Charles Chauvel and his wife, Elsa, were among the instigators of the Australian film industry in the 1920s and 1930s. Charles was born in 1897 in Warwick and was educated at Ipswich Grammar School and, from family reminiscences, it appears that his father, Allan, planned that Charles would remain on the land, continuing the Chauvel pastoral tradition. However Charles studied commercial art and took drama classes, and from 1920 worked for many early film-makers in both Australia and Hollywood. Late in 1923 he returned to Australia to begin his career making his own films. He returned to Hollywood many times over the next few years, seeking funding from large studios for his own locally made projects. Charles and Elsa Chauvel were given land in Stanthorpe by Isabella Chauvel on which they built a house, so that they could be nearer to his mother and continue assistance with Isabella's project which was the garden at El Arish.
According to family history, Allan and Isabella Chauvel had a cottage moved to its present location at El Arish soon after they acquired the property. Stanthorpe at this time was experiencing a transitional period when it became well known as a 'sanatorium' and the destination of many summer holiday makers seeking retreat from city life. A general concern with one's health, after the influenza epidemic and the war, was manifest in the advertising of developing holiday destinations who claimed that fresh air, either by the sea or in the mountains was beneficial to one's well-being. Sea side resorts, like Southport, Burleigh Heads, and Redcliffe became very popular along with mountain resorts like Stanthorpe.
Supporting this new focus of the Stanthorpe economy, the rail line which had been introduced in 1881 had been extended through to Wallangarra on the New South Wales/Queensland border in 1887, though was only finished in 1920 making Stanthorpe more accessible to a large population base. The town's location on the Granite Belt, produced an unusual landscape of granite outcrops amid lush vegetation which was attractive to prospective holiday makers. Stanthorpe, like the other towns developing at this time in the southeastern region of Queensland became serviced with an infrastructure vital for its role as holiday destination. Such services included private boarding houses and hotels, as well as facilities for a wide range of leisure activities such as golf, tennis, bowling, swimming, bush walking, horse racing and picnicking.
The Chauvels used El Arish as a summer residence where they could take advantage of, not only a more temperate climate, but increased social activity which was developing in Stanthorpe at the time. They would come from their pastoral property, Summerlands, in the Fassifern Valley, where Allan was involved in local politics. Upon their arrival in Stanthorpe work began on the creation of the marvellous garden upon the remnants of the market garden which, since the Scholzes departure had not been commercially used.
The garden which the Chauvels created was carefully planned to include some remnants of Scholz's garden including an early Williams pear tree and several Isabella grape vines. It is reputed that these vines were brought by Scholz to Australia from the south of France when he emigrated and were arranged in the garden on trellised arbours. The Chauvels' garden in Stanthorpe took great advantage of many of the site's intrinsic qualities; making a feature of the aspect and incline of the land and the natural granite outcrops.
According to family history, the garden at El Arish was designed by Isabella and her son, Charles. They worked to create a garden which allowed a variety of experiences and views as one walked through the varying garden sections. A sense of enclosure is achieved in several of the smaller sections of the gardens, most importantly in the formal garden where the house, hedge and screening devices create smaller areas. This sense of enclosure is created also in other areas; in the bamboo grove and within screened and hedged sections of the formal garden. The paths built upon the terraces established by Scholz allow one to stroll through a created 'natural' (but not native) environment. These paths terminate at a natural lookout on the highest point in the garden, from which one can orient oneself not only within the confines of the El Arish property but within Stanthorpe. The manner in which the garden affords these changing experiences, allowing both action and contemplation from one section to another is a characteristic feature of many famous gardens of the time.
In fact, El Arish has many characteristics of English Arts and Crafts gardens of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which did inspire and influence many Australian garden designers. Notable British gardens of this type were the work of many acclaimed designers most significantly William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll, who wrote widely in journals about their design philosophy as did others like British novelist Vita Sackville-West, a serious and dedicated garden enthusiast. These writings are thought to have influenced garden design in Australia, most evident in the work of acclaimed landscape architect, Edna Walling.
Many gardening ideas of the time are apparent at El Arish; contrived 'wild' sections of plantings; emphasis on contrasting foliage, particularly involving sub-tropical plants and the use of rock-gardening, along with planning and layout ideas including the use of local quarried stone walling, a sense of enclosure, a myriad of paths and terraces and a consciousness of the local environment. The Chauvel family had many close family ties in Britain and during the involvement of the brothers Henry and Allan in the wars, their families spent time in England. Charles Chauvel was involved with the design of many of the gates and walls at El Arish, bringing hinges and gate fittings from a Spanish Mission in California from one of his trips to America. He is also thought to have constructed many of the dry-stone walls in the garden.
The El Arish garden was divided into several distinct compartments, a feature of many renowned gardens both in Britain and Australia of the time. These included a formal compartment to the west of the house; a large informal or stroll garden to the north and east of the house; a service compartment to the immediate south of the home and around the caretakers' house on the south boundary of the property and an open park and woodland to the south of the house incorporating a wood and orchard; with another informal compartment containing the horse paddock to the south of this.
The formal compartment was created between the house and a hedge along the Greenup Street boundary of the property providing a conventionally formal entrance and view to the house; a place where guests could be greeted and entertained. This area was screened on the north by a rose arbour and gateway, and on the south by a bamboo grove. The plantings in this area were carefully planned in symmetrically composed beds with the manicured cypress hedge contributing to the general geometric nature of this section. A decomposed gravel path flanked by planted borders extended from the front gate on Greenup Street, in the hedge, to the front door of the house.
The informal compartments of the garden, including the stroll garden and the garden on the southern boundary of the property, were places for family and friends' relaxation and recreation. The stroll garden incorporates that area developed on the northern side of the property by Scholz, where he produced several terraced areas conforming with the contours of the site. The Chauvels planned pathways through this area with several visual focal points, like specimen planting and small garden structures constructed from natural timbers and covered with wisteria and grape vines.
The open park and woodland to the south of the house at El Arish was identified in a recent study of the garden as an areas which "provided the visual setting for the buildings and garden areas while buffering the site from encroachment". In this area found to the south of the house was an orchard containing fruit and nut trees, a large lawn and a pine grove which obscured the tennis court and boundary fences from the house and the rest of the garden. The service compartments of the garden included the kitchen garden adjacent to the south of the house and the area around the caretakers' cottage on the southern boundary.
The garden is almost entirely composed of exotic species. Three major specimen trees are found along the Greenup Street boundary, include a ?Lebanon cedar (Cedrus libani), several Walnut trees (Juglans regia) and a grafted Williams pear tree (Pyrus communis). Several hedges were planted, the most noticeable along Greenup Street a Cypress (X Cupressocyparis leylandii), and several smaller sections scattered throughout the garden Pink may (Crateagus laevigata), Yellow jasmine (Jasminum fruticans) and Pink may bush (Spiraea x bumalda). Some of the other, more notable plantings from the Chauvel era include the Century plants (Agave americana), Black bamboo grove (Bambusa nigra); the grafted English hawthorn (Crateagus monogyna); Red pyracantha (Pyracantha rogersiaria) and Orange pyracantha (Pyracantha angustitolia); English lavender (Lavandula augustifolia); many rose species including the Dorothy Perkins rose, Gallipoli or Rock rose, Red letter rose and Polsen Bedda rose; Banksia rose; Black boy rose; Mermaid rose; as well as a proliferation of Wisteria (Wisteria floribunda), Isabella grape vines (Vitis vinifera); honey suckles, a large number of flowering annuals including Hollyhock, Wallflower, Cosmos, Dahlia, Delphinium, Foxglove, Baby's breath, Jonquil, Alyssum, Stock, Forget-me-not and Zinnia. The many other notable trees include Japanese maple (Acer palmatum); Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida); Flowering plum (Prunus x blirelana); English elm (Ulmus procera); English oak (Quercus robur), Deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara) and Crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica).
The garden at El Arish has survived in a form retaining many of the characteristics of the early garden; the zoning system is still evident with surviving plantings and layout. Though the garden has diminished in size with the sub-division of the land, the formal garden remains largely intact as do large sections of the informal stroll garden and smaller sections of that section used as a service garden. Most of open park and woodland to the south of the house and the tennis court beyond this have been sub-divided from the garden.
The house was an integral part of the landscape produced at El Arish, providing a focus for the formal part of the garden and a buffer between the other sections. The house in which the Chauvel's lived was moved to its present site, though accounts vary as to the origin of the building with family reminiscences recalling the building used as both the earlier Scholz residence which was altered and extended, and also a cottage purchased from Killarney and moved to Stanthorpe. There are similarities between the extant house at El Arish and an early photograph of the Scholz residence, both are single skinned buildings with external framing and bracing, though many other details have been altered.
The house was intended as a summer residence, hence its light weight timber construction and verandahs, which may seem an inappropriate choice for a Stanthorpe residence where winter temperatures dictate a more insulated dwelling. Early photographs of the house from the Chauvel family, show a simple assymetrical timber dwelling with low pitched hipped roof extending over a verandah on the principal entrance facade. The house has simple details; a traditional verandah balustrade with dowel balusters and square planned columns. Photographs of the house often feature a verandah screening device, either striped fabric awnings or timber blinds.
By the early 1930s it seems that Isabella was living at El Arish permanently, preferring the climate of Stanthorpe and the social opportunities the town presented, to that in the Fassifern Valley, where Allan still maintained the family property. Prior to the deaths of Allan and Isabella within nine months of one another in 1939, El Arish was their permanent home. On the death of Isabella, in whose name the title to the property was held, on 20 November 1939 El Arish was passed to her son, Charles Chauvel but by September 1940 the property was transferred to his sister, Jean Chauvel.
The task of maintaining the large garden and house at El Arish was an onerous one and Jean Chauvel subdivided the property a number of times, to reduce the scope of maintenance and to offset the financial burdens caused by death duties. Several houses now sit on the what were sections of the service and informal garden to the south and southwest of the house. Jean also undertook many renovations to the house, demolishing the rear wing and making the home more habitable for the winter months.
During World War II El Arish was used to house a number of families and Jean was billeted to share another house in the town before leaving to serve in the war herself. Jean returned to El Arish and, in 1957 after appropriate training, opened the first kindergarten in the district which she operated until her retirement in 1975. The house was then renovated for use as two flats and passed through a number of hands before its purchase by the current owners, David and Carey-Lee Downs. Though the garden suffered from neglect during the years after the Chauvel's residence there, the Downs have made a significant contribution to its conservation.
","criteria":"The development of Stanthorpe is unique within the pastoral and agricultural Darling Downs region, initially owing its growth and prosperity to tin mining, and in the early twentieth century to market gardening and summer holiday making. El Arish, which was originally a market garden and then a summer residence from the early 1920s, is one of the few surviving properties which reflects the contribution of both market gardening and tourism to the development of the town.
|Characteristic elements of the early market garden survive at El Arish including a rare and early Williams pear tree, Isabella grape vines, sections of dry stone walling and terraced sections of the garden which were incorporated into the later Chauvel garden. These elements are illustrative of the establishment of market gardens in and around Stanthorpe from the 1880s.
El Arish is a characteristic and rare example of a summer residence established in Stanthorpe in the 1920s during a period of intense tourist activity which saw many buildings constructed to support this new industry.
The garden at El Arish is an important and rare surviving example of a 1920s Queensland garden influenced by Arts and Crafts gardening ideals. It was designed by Isabella and her son, Charles, to allow a variety of experiences and functions within different areas. Many of the early features remain extant. The cypress hedge along Greenup Street is a marvellous feature of the garden and a rare example of a hedge of this size and extent in Queensland.
|El Arish is a characteristic and rare example of a summer residence established in Stanthorpe in the 1920s during a period of intense tourist activity which saw many buildings constructed to support this new industry. The timber residence was initially intended for use during the summer months. The name chosen for the property by the Chauvels was El Arish, meaning 'place of rest', and this commemorates a town in the Sinai and recalled Allan Chauvel's involvement in the Middle East during World War I.
|El Arish makes a significant aesthetic contribution to the Stanthorpe streetscape, and with its location at the base of the Stanthorpe Soldier's Memorial [601632] reserve, is a recognised local landmark. The separation of the garden into distinct areas provides a range of aesthetic experiences including formal plantings emphasising individual plants and diversity; geometric layouts of gardens, hedges and shrubs with defined boundaries; themed flowering displays; rustic stroll gardens inviting exploration; private and intimate spaces; tall specimen planting and obscured boundaries which give the impression of increased space with the garden seemingly extending over boundaries to the rugged landscape of the adjoining public space; natural rock surfaces; stone faced terracing; distant views; mass plantings in scale with garden spaces; and various garden structures.
|The garden displays significant creative achievement in its design, choice of plantings and utilisation of the site.
|The first kindergarten in the Stanthorpe district was operated at El Arish from 1957 until 1975. Many residents of Stanthorpe attended the kindergarten and the property has a special association with the community for this reason.
|El Arish is associated with several people of importance to Queensland history. The Chauvel family who developed the property as their summer residence have a long and acclaimed history in the Armed Forces in Australia. Allan Chauvel's brother, Henry, was knighted for his service in World War I, where Allan served as a Major. Allan and Isabella Chauvel's son Charles, who helped to plan the garden, was a renowned Australian film maker who, with his wife Elsa, made many early important films.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | 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 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 | 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":16467,"place_ref":601725,"name":"Plumb's Chambers","alternate_name":"Medical Hall | Plumbs Chambers","street_address":"84 Fitzroy Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-11-03","description":"Plumb's Chambers is a two-storey sandstone building fronting north onto Fitzroy Street near its intersection with Palmerin Street, the main street of Warwick. It complements other adjacent sandstone buildings including Warwick Police Station and Court House [QHR 600948] and Warwick Uniting Church [QHR 601757], and overlooks Leslie Park [QHR 600946] across Fitzroy Street.
\nThe front part of the building is a rectangular two-storey core with a hipped roof. Spanning the front is a wide two-storey timber framed verandah that shelters the footpath. Across the back of the core is a wide one-storey sandstone lean-to portion. Projecting from the rear of this is a one-storey rendered masonry and timber-framed and -clad former service wing with a gable roof. Beneath this extension is the remains of a brick beehive water tank concealed under a concrete slab. All roofs are clad with corrugated metal sheets while ogee gutters with acroteria surround the core and verandah. A tall sandstone chimney projects from the main roof and has moulded cornice and three arched cowls. The sandstone is in ashlar courses and has a tooled face. Haig Avenue, a short narrow lane, runs directly beside the building on its western edge and on the eastern side is a shared easement that provides access to the rear yard and to the adjacent shopping centre.
\nThe front verandah is an accurate reconstruction performed in c2015-7 and has stop-chamfered timber posts and a skillion roof. The posts of the ground floor have mouldings and a slatted timber board valance. The footpath ceiling is ripple iron. The upper level of the verandah has a dowel balustrade and scrolled timber post brackets.
\nThe front elevation has three separate entries from the footpath: one for the large former grocer’s shop at the eastern end, comprising a recessed set of panelled timber French doors with bolection moulding and a fanlight, flanked either side by large multi-paned timber-framed show windows; one for the former chemist shop in the centre comprising a panelled timber door with bolection moulding and a fanlight with ‘Plumb’s Chambers’ applied to the glass and a large timber framed show window; and the former residence entrance at the western end, comprising a panelled timber door with bolection moulding and a small fanlight beside a domestically-scaled timber-framed double-hung window. The entrances are one step up from the footpath and above them runs a frieze of moulded timber panels across the width of the facade. The first floor has four sets of panelled timber French doors, with bolection moulding and glazing that lead out from the front rooms of the first floor onto the verandah.
\nThe eastern side elevation includes two small, high fixed, timber-framed windows with iron bars on the ground floor and two doors into the building. There is a door-sized opening on the first floor that has modern timber-framed and glazed infill. The western side elevation has a series of domestic-sized timber-framed double hung sash windows on the ground and first floor. Within a wide central recess of the lean-to structure is a rear entrance from the yard into the building, via a set of French doors. Beside this entrance is a modern entry with glazing.
\nThe gable roofed extension has been more heavily modified on its eastern side and comprises a narrow verandah with a concrete floor and timber posts sheltering a verandah wall clad with chamferboards that has modern aluminium louvered doors and a row of high-set, timber-framed, fixed windows.
\nThe layout of the ground floor retains original dividing walls between the three tenancies. These have had large openings made in them to connect the spaces. The ceilings are lined with beaded timber boards and a double-sided fireplace with timber mantle and surround survives in the western rooms. The interior partitions have been relined with flat sheet and new partitions and doors have been added. The rear extension does not retain original partitions and has been altered to accommodate toilets and store rooms.
\nA recent L-shaped stair leads to the first floor. This level has a more intact layout comprising a central transverse corridor with rooms opening off on either side. The ceilings are beaded timber boards with central vented cast metal rosettes. The doors have glazed fanlights but the leaves have been replaced with replica panelled timber doors.
\nAn early narrow steep timber stair with turned timber balusters and simple timber handrail leads to the attic. This space is used as a store for early fabric removed from elsewhere in the building, including a timber fire surround, glazed fanlight with painted ‘Plumb’s Chambers’, verandah valance board and section of verandah balustrade, metal rosette, doors, and other items.
\n","history":"
Plumb's Chambers is a substantial, two-storeyed stone building at 84 Fitzroy Street, constructed in 1875 for Warwick chemist and seedsman David Clarke. Known as Clarke’s Medical Hall, this building functioned as shops and residential space on the ground floor with further residential accommodation above. The rear service wings were a later addition. From 1910, an adjacent brick and timber two-storey shop of a similar age, was jointly owned and also functioned as a shop house. The two buildings became known as Plumb’s Chambers during the second half of the 20th century. The brick and timber building was demolished in 2014 and the stone building subsequently restored.
\nWarwick was established as the business centre for the southern Darling Downs, an important pastoral district discovered and named by Allan Cunningham in 1827. It was first settled by the Leslie Brothers in 1840 who were closely followed by other graziers. The town of Warwick was surveyed by James Burnett in 1849, with the first sale of crown land in July 1850. Warwick was declared a municipality in 1861, and was subsequently transformed from a squatters' town into the principal urban centre of this prosperous pastoral and agricultural district. The construction of the railway linking Brisbane, Toowoomba, Warwick and the tin mines of Stanthorpe, reached Warwick in January 1871, and fuelled further growth.[1] Albion Street was initially the main centre of public and commercial activity. These activities were gradually relocated to Palmerin, Fitzroy and Guy Streets during the 1880s because Albion Street was often subject to flooding. The 1887 flood led to Palmerin Street becoming the main street.[2]
\nThe building at 84 Fitzroy Street was erected in 1875, during the town's first building boom. From the late 1860s through the 1870s, early timber slab structures were replaced by brick and stone buildings. Warwick had access to quality building stone from a number of nearby locations. As early as 1861, when the first Queensland census was taken, Warwick boasted 16 stone houses. John McCulloch and J McMahon established stone masonry businesses in 1863 and by 1864 two local quarries were supplying 28% of Queensland’s sandstone. Ten years later, facilitated by rail transport, 87% of Queensland’s sandstone was taken from four quarries in the Warwick district.[3]
\nA number of early timber public buildings in Warwick were replaced in stone from the late 1860s; some do not survive, including the hospital (built as a private home in 1862); the Post Office (1869) and the Lands Office (early 1870s), both in Albion Street. Existing stone buildings from this era include: Pringle Cottage (McCulloch’s home dating to circa 1860-70) [QHR 600945]; a small shop and residence known as The Commonage (late 1860s or early 1870s) [QHR 600944]; St Mary’s first Catholic church (1863-65) [QHR 600958]; St Mark’s Anglican Church (1868) [QHR 600943]; Warwick Uniting Church (built as St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in 1869-70) [QHR 601757]; Warwick Central State School (1875) [QHR 602497]; and Olsen’s Hardware (built as Tulloch’s Central General Store (1876) [QHR 601756]. By 1886, there were 14 stone masons working in Warwick as opposed to four bricklayers; and the proportion of masons employed was higher than those in Toowoomba. Warwick’s sandstone buildings indicated prosperity and importance, which reinforced its position as the major town on the southern Darling Downs.[4]
\nThe site on which Plumb’s Chambers stands, was initially part of allotment 12 of section 21 in the Town of Warwick (comprising 2 roods), which first sold at auction in September 1857 for £4. In 1866, title to the whole of the allotment passed to Frederick Hudson, publican of Warwick, who purchased the land for £40. It is not known whether improvements had been made to the property by this date. Hudson transferred the property to his wife Margaret, who subdivided the block into three parts, selling off the western and eastern subdivisions in 1868. The western part of the allotment, about 29 perches, (later subdivision 1) was sold for £60 to David Clarke, chemist and druggist of Warwick, and title was transferred to him in May 1868.
\nClarke, an Irish Protestant emigrant and dispensing chemist since c1856, arrived in Warwick in 1867. During the next 15 years he played an important role in the development of agriculture in the Warwick district, at a period when powerful local pastoralists were still strongly opposed to opening the land to selection. Clarke actively promoted the expansion of agriculture on the southern Darling Downs, specialising in the importation of seeds (including cotton and Indian wheat) and fruit trees likely to succeed in the district. In late 1867 he instigated the formation of the highly successful Eastern Downs Horticultural and Agricultural Association, established in October that year. This was the fourth agricultural association established in the Colony of Queensland.[5] Clarke was the Association's first secretary, and retained that position for well over a decade. In the early 1880s Walter Hill, curator of the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane, said of David Clarke that he had ‘done as much to foster and encourage agriculture as any man he knew of in the colony, and who had placed the district under considerable obligation to him.’ Clarke also took an active role in establishing the Wesleyan Church and was nominated for the 1880 Warwick town council elections.[6]
\nIn May 1867, Clarke had established a wholesale and retail drug, grocery and seed warehouse in Warwick in rented premises at the corner of Fitzroy and Albion Streets, opposite the first Bank of New South Wales. By October 1869, Clarke's business had proved so successful that he was able to separate the drug and seed departments from his grocery business, moving the former into a purpose-built addition which opened on 15 November 1869 as the Medical Hall. In the early 1870s, business expanded, with a branch opened at Quartpot Creek (Stanthorpe), following the discovery of tin early in 1872. This branch seems to have been short-lived as his shop was reportedly taken over by the Lands Office in July 1872. In the meantime he relocated his entire Warwick building across Fitzroy Street in May 1872.[7]
\nClarke's success in Warwick as a dispensing and manufacturing chemist and seedsman culminated in 1874 with the selling of his grocery business to George P Barnes (formerly Clarke's assistant) and William Lavers in October, and the construction of substantial new stone premises[8] on the Fitzroy Street land he had acquired in 1868 from Margaret Hudson. The site overlooked the Reserve Square; now Leslie Park [QHR 600946].
\nThe new Medical Hall must have been well under construction when Clarke called tenders for the carpenter's work in October 1874 and the plasterer's work in January 1875. In late February 1875, Clarke advertised for sale the portable building then occupied by his chemist shop in Fitzroy Street, the location of which is not clear.
\nClarke’s new two-storeyed stone building was substantial and made a prominent contribution to the streetscape. It was reported as complete in May 1875 and described as the largest stone structure in town at the time. It had a 50 foot (15.2m) frontage to Fitzroy Street, a depth of 48.5 feet (14.8m) and a height from floor to roof of 23 feet (7m). The dressed stone walls were 18 inches (0.45m) thick and the roof was of galvanised iron. The ground floor comprised two shops. Clarke’s chemist shop, 30 feet (9m) by 13 feet (4m), with a laboratory and dispensing room behind, and Messrs Barnes and Laver’s grocery store, which was 30 feet (9m) by 20 feet (6m). There was a sitting room, dining room and kitchen on the ground floor. A wide staircase led to the upper floor, comprising four bedrooms, two sitting rooms and a large library or study, 30 feet (9m) by 20 feet (6m). Most rooms had fireplaces. The large balcony offered extensive views. An underground tank supplied water to the bathroom and kitchen by a force pump; and may have supplied the dispensary on the ground floor of the building.[9] (This tank was discovered and documented during construction of a new sewer main as part of restoration work that occurred in 2015.)
\nBy August 1877, Barnes and Lavers had moved out, but two grocery shops as well as the Medical Hall were operating on the ground floor from August 1877 to March-April 1878. Retailers in nearby premises frequently advertised themselves as 'adjoining' or 'adjacent' to David Clarke's chemist shop, including Chinese oysterman John Kee Chow.[10]
\nIn July 1881 David Clarke passed the running of his business to his son, Charles De Lacy Clarke, also a licensed chemist, and moved to Maryborough.[11] Charles Clarke then took over the Medical Hall in his own name, but by September/October 1882 had purchased a business in St George, advertising the Warwick building for rent. At that period the main building comprised 15 rooms, with a large shop and storeroom on the ground floor, residential accommodation on the first floor, bathroom, kitchen, stables, coach-house and a large underground water tank with pump.
\nDespite an attempt in June 1893 by David Clarke's mortgagor, the Queensland Investment and Land Mortgage Co. Ltd, to sell the property, the title remained in Clarke's name; presumably due to the economic downturn of the early 1890s. The building continued to be leased, with S Benjamin and Co, wholesale wine and spirit merchants, occupying one of the shops from 1898.[12] In 1902-3, H D Stenz operated the premises as a ‘Coffee Palace’, as well as offering accommodation and meals.[13]
\nDuring the period 1883-1909, the property was let either as a house, store or both. Tenants included Dr William Tilley, surgeon at the Warwick hospital, from 1887-89; Mrs WD Wilson, storekeeper and widow of a former Warwick businessman and Mayor, 1891-94; and S Benjamin, wine and spirit merchant, stayed on until at least 1904, and possibly later. The property was offered for sale in 1907 and was described as a substantial stone building of 18 rooms, with access from the lane on the western side.[14]
\nBy this time, Fitzroy Street featured a number of stone buildings: St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church built in 1869-70 [Warwick Uniting Church QHR 602479]; the Courthouse (1885) and Police Complex (1899-1901) [QHR 600948]; and a two-storey Bank of New South Wales once on the corner of Fitzroy and Palmerin Streets (1887, demolished).[15]
\nIn November 1909, the stone building was transferred to retired Freestone farmer and grazier, James Wilson. Wilson occupied the property as his town residence for less than a year before his death in September 1910. He also owned the smaller brick and timber building dating to at least 1878, adjacent at No 82 Fitzroy Street. In mid-1910, Wilson received building permission from the Warwick Town Council to erect a balcony over the footpath in front of his stone building,[16] and was in the process of carrying out what were described in the local press as extensive alterations to his home, when he collapsed. It is thought that the front balcony and some renovations to the rear service wing date to this period.
\nIn 1914, title to both buildings passed to Warwick bootmaker James Plumb and his wife Jamesina. Plumb was active in the masonic movement, and served as Worshipful Grand Master of St George's Lodge in Warwick. He operated his bootmaker’s business from one of the shops. A grocery shop was reported operating in 1919 adjacent to Plumb’s bootmaker, but it is unknown if this referred to the stone building or the brick and timber building. Plumb resided and worked at the Fitzroy Street premises until his death in February 1933, and his widow continued to occupy one of the buildings. Towards the end of 1933, she was offering the shops for rent and unfurnished rooms in Parkview Residential. Later both buildings were simply known as Plumb’s Flats.
\nMrs Plumb died in 1948 and the properties were transferred to her nephew and niece; Joseph and Margaret Bryant. Margaret (known as May) married John (Jack) Hill, a lodger at Plumb’s Flats, in 1952.[17] In 1955 the properties were transferred to Mrs Hill.[18] May and Jack lived with their son in No 82, Fitzroy Street (demolished 2014). Jack died around 1960 and May carried on alone.[19] During May Hill’s occupation, both No 82 and No 84 became known as Plumb's Chambers, honouring her aunt and uncle. She lived at No 82 well into her old age. The building has been home to an array of businesses over time including Theo Cantor’s drapery store, law firms, stationers, real estate agents, furniture retailers and the State Government Insurance Office.[20]
\nThe properties were transferred to Rose City Centre Pty Ltd in 2009. Demolition of No 82 (due to its poor structural condition) occurred during October 2014, and subsequently work began on the restoration of No 84. This work involved rebuilding the deteriorated front verandah to recreate its c1910 condition, refurbishment of the interior to accommodate commercial office use on both levels, and conservation and structural stabilisation of the exterior stonework. During this process in 2015, the original beehive-shaped underground brick water tank was revealed, documented and re-buried under the central cubicle of the men’s toilet.
","criteria":"Plumb’s Chambers, an 1875 two-storey stone building, is important in demonstrating the evolution of Warwick from a squatters’ town to the principal urban centre of Queensland’s southern Darling Downs. The area was established as a prosperous pastoral and agricultural district during the late 1860s and 1870s. The building is indicative of Warwick’s first major building boom, as local quarried sandstone structures became a feature of the town. Plumb’s Chambers is a rare example of a 1870s stone shop house in Queensland.
|Plumb’s Chambers is an important example of an early two-storey stone shop house built in Queensland in the 1870s. It retains the principal characteristics of the type including: an arrangement of retail, store, and residential spaces integrated into one building; separate entrances and circulation for its different uses; and retail shop windows facing the footpath.
|Plumb’s Chambers’ has aesthetic significance as a well composed two-storey stone building and expresses the prosperity and confidence of Warwick at the time of its construction. In its form, scale and materials, it makes an important streetscape contribution, complementing other 19th century stone buildings in Fitzroy Street and the adjacent Leslie Park.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16472,"place_ref":601732,"name":"Spicers Gap Road Conservation Park","alternate_name":"Spicers Peak Road | Spicers Gap Road","street_address":"Spicers Gap Road","suburb":"MAIN RANGE NATIONAL PARK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-07-23","description":"Located partly within Main Range National Park, Spicers Gap Road passes through the Great Dividing Range about four kilometres south of Cunninghams Gap. The length of road contained with Main Range National Park measures approximately 4500 metres long. Approximately 1600 metres of Spicers Gap Road has been declared as a conservation park. The section of road within the conservation park is forty metres wide the entire length of the park, and is located between Governor's Chair (Devil's Elbow) and the western boundary of the park.
Technological features exist in the form of different road surfaces used to solve various problems encountered during construction. Surfaces include macadamised surfacing; corduroy surfacing exists in two areas, 560 metres and 765 metres west of Devil's Elbow; stone pitching exists in a number of places, many in excellent condition.
Engineering features exist in the form of inverts, whoaboys and a diversionary drainage system. The remains of a whoaboy is located 868 metres west of Devil's Elbow. Over one kilometre of the road is benched as it runs across the slope of the mountain. Some of the original pick and chisel marks occur on a section of basement rock on the road 65 metres west of Devil's Elbow.
There are a number of other features associated with the road, including stone extraction quarries, side cuttings, a system of catch drains and culverts occurring along the entire length of the roadway. Catch drains average about 50-75 centimetres in width and 20-25 centimetres in depth. Some of the drains are stone pitched.
The road has suffered from the activities of four-wheel driving with damage to some of the culverts and to the adjacent metalled and stone road surfaces. Approximately 1100 metres of the road are in fair to excellent condition. Many of the associated features are in good to excellent condition. The remains of telegraph poles, insulators and wire can be found following the route of Spicers Gap Road.
","history":"During his exploration of the Brisbane River with surveyor John Oxley in 1824, explorer Allan Cunningham had observed the Dividing Range to the south-west. In 1827, Cunningham led a party to explore the land beyond this range, approaching from the south and inland, from New England. Leaving the Hunter River in April 1827, Cunningham made the first recorded European discovery of the Darling Downs, along Glengallen Creek, on 5 June 1827.
On 11 June 1827, Cunningham identified a possible dray route (later known as Spicers Gap) through the Dividing Range to the coast. Cunningham returned to Sydney where he reported to Governor Darling on the quality of the country, the timber and the potential for an access route to Moreton Bay. In 1828, Cunningham returned to Moreton Bay to search for the pass through the Dividing Range, he travelled south-west from Ipswich and discovered Cunningham's Gap in the Dividing Range on 21 August 1828. Although Cunningham suspected that the newly identified pass was not the same one which he had discovered in 1827 [Spicers Gap], a search further north failed to find the other pass and he returned to Cunningham's Gap, which he then incorrectly assumed must have been the pass he identified in 1827.
Cunningham reported to the New South Wales government on the economic significance of the pass which connected the coast lands with the extensive pastoral country to the west, however, it was not until the late 1830s and early 1840s that pastoralists began to explore the potential of the Darling Downs.
The Leslie Brothers settled the grazing lands of the southern Downs in 1840. Other squatters soon followed. Darling Downs pastoralists were faced with an expensive 800 kilometre trip to Maitland to carry wool to port and return with suppliers to the stations. A direct route to the Moreton Bay settlement was needed. Leslie and Hodgson were able to obtain permits from Sir George Gipps, the Governor, in 1840 to have supplies sent to Brisbane, however, they still had problems with getting their stores from Brisbane over the Dividing Range to the Darling Downs. Cunningham's Gap proved almost impassable to heavy vehicles and other dray routes to the coast were sought. Alternative routes over the range included Gorman's Gap near the headwaters of Hodgson's Creek, and Hodgson's Gap via Drayton.
Squatters in the Warwick district continued to search for a southern pass through the range, and in April 1847, Henry Alphen rediscovered the pass identified by Cunningham in 1827, between Mount Mitchell and Spicer's Peak. Spicer's Peak was named by Cunningham after Peter Beaucierk Spicer, a superintendent of convicts at Moreton Bay, who discovered the mountain while looking for convicts who had escaped from the Moreton Bay penal settlement. Mount Mitchell was named after the explorer, Thomas Mitchell. The pass, subsequently known as Spicers Gap, was about 4 kilometres south of Cunningham's Gap.
The discovery was announced in the Moreton Bay Courier, through which an appeal for construction of a road through Spicers Gap was launched. Little public support was forthcoming and squatters Patrick Leslie and Fred Bracker put up most of the money to clear the road and lay a 'corduroy' or pine log surface. By early August, two drays had travelled to Ipswich using the new road, saving three days and approximately 100 kilometres.
Around this time, licensed inns began catering for travellers and two inns were constructed along the new road, Balbi's at Clumber and the Main Range Hotel near the pioneer cemetery in the Main Range National Park. Alphen was rewarded for his discovery of the route through Spicers Gap by the New South Wales authorities and he built a public house. The building was weatherboard with a shingle roof, including kitchen, stables, stockyards and paddocks. Known as Alphen's Inn or the Woolpack Inn, the licence was taken over by William Jubb in 1851. After 12 years of occupation however, the inn was dismantled in 1858, owing to disputes over land ownership.
In the 1850s, further attempts were made to upgrade the road. Edward Moss was contracted to upgrade a section of the road to the east of Governor's Chair using logs as foundation. The corduroy road soon collapsed making the road even more difficult to use. Although Moss did not complete his contract, the fresh water spring, known as Moss's Well, is named after him. By 1857, a team of up to 60 bullocks were need to haul a wool-laden dray through difficult sections of scrub. The New South Wales Legislative Assembly considered internal communications in the Moreton Bay District in 1856-57. In 1856, the District was granted £3500 for road works.
By January 1859, the New South Wales government was considering further work to Spicers Peak Road. The Minister for Public Works (NSW) authorised expenditure of £1200 for construction work on the road. The work was unfinished at December 1859 and from this point on, the road became the responsibility of the new Government of Queensland.
An early action of the Queensland parliament was to appoint a Select Committee, consisting of Messrs Buckley (Chairman), Moffatt, Watts, Haly, Broughton, Raff, Taylor and Thorn, to inquire into the internal communications of the colony. Also called to give evidence at the committee were FE Roberts, the Surveyor of Roads and AC Gregory, the Surveyor-General. Roberts favoured the use of Cunningham's Gap for the Ipswich to Warwick Road, and considered that sufficient money should be spent on Spicers Peak Road only to render it passable until a decision about a new line of road was made.
The government decided to have both passes more closely examined. On 25 August 1860, Surveyor Austin reported to Gregory upon the eligibility of Spicers Peak pass and the ineligibility of Cunningham's Gap. Austin stated that ...the surveying and levelling of the line I have selected will occupy me about a month, so that at the close of the period or about the end of September, I shall be open for another duty. On 6 October 1860, Austin informed Gregory, from the Survey Camp at Spicer's Peak that I have surveyed and levelled the...new line proposed through Spicers Peak Pass.
Between 1860 and 1865 a properly designed and engineered road was completed. Much of the road which remains was built under the direction of Robert Austin, surveyor and later Engineer of Works. Henry Clinton, Clerk of Works, supervised a construction of up to 90 labourers.
Stone pitching was used in steeper sections of the road. Large stones were packed carefully by hand, smaller stones were then wedged between to form a heavy-duty road surface. In other sections, consolidated broken stone or 'road metal' was used as foundation and surface. This design, sometimes known as 'macadamising', was developed by John MacAdam, a British engineer. 'Corduroy roads' were also utilised in places, possibly the result of repairs to boggy sections of the road by bullock drivers. With corduroy roads, logs were laid side by side to form a solid foundation. In 1854, Nehemiah Bartley describing the Spicers Peak corduroy road wrote:
\t...the place was naturally a bottomless morass, full of springs; the logs had rotted in the middle...It was an awful place for a horse, bullock or vehicle of any kind to face...A dense wall of scrub on each hand prevented escape...A man, on foot, could, by treading on the roots of the tree, get along, but a saddle horse or bullock team, could not do this.
Drainage was a vital aspect of Austin's design, consequently, drains up to one metre in depth occur on both sides of the road. On steep slopes, the roadway was cut into the side of the hill to form a 'benched' road, however, benched roads cut into hillsides sometimes posed drainage problems. Water from the side drain on the high side was directed across the road by diversionary embankments known as 'whoaboys'. Inverted sections or shallow drains directed water across the road and slowed the flow to stop erosion. The name 'whoaboy' is said to be derived from the driver's command to the horses approaching the banks.
Austin's improvements allowed a change from bullock teams to horse teams. Heavy traffic used the Gap briefly in the 1860s but this was to be shortlived. With the coming of the railway to Warwick from Brisbane via Toowoomba in 1871, Spicers Gap Road was virtually abandoned. Heavy haulage by railways proved to be much more efficient than the slow haulage undertaken by drays and teamsters.
Following the establishment of local government in 1879, responsibility for roadworks was transferred to the Boonah and Glengallen Shire Divisional Boards. The turn of the century period brought depression, drought and floods. The road did not produce rate revenues for the shires and, consequently, little was spent on maintenance. Interest was revived after 1910 with the development of the motor car and recreational driving. Shire Councils were lobbied to repair the road, but it was not always passable.
In 1925-27, communities from the Darling Downs and Fassifern Valley combined to build a road through Cunningham's Gap. Debate followed regarding whether the alternative route would go through Cunningham or Spicers Gaps. In 1935, the Cunningham's Gap route was upgraded by the Main Roads Commission to a highway.
Until 1973, Spicers Gap Road carried the main telegraph link between Brisbane and New South Wales. In 1861 the single iron wire telegraph line was built establishing the first telegraph link between New South Wales and Queensland. The section over Spicers Gap Road linked up the first telegraph station at Fassifern Reserve with the station at Treganny, on the Darling Downs side. An additional line was added in 1866 between Brisbane and Stanthorpe via Ipswich, Fassifern, Spicers Gap and Warwick. In 1905, five telegraph wires formed the line. During the 1920s the iron wires were replaced with copper. The telegraph line ceased operations in 1973 and was removed in 1975.
Spicers Gap Road was maintained until the Cunningham Highway was completed. Governor's Chair became a popular spot for picnickers in the 1930s and 1940s and this continues today. Spicers Gap Road was officially opened, as an historic road, by the Minister for Transport and the Minister for Environment on 23 August 1992. The historic road was declared a Conservation Park in 1998.
","criteria":"Built in 1847, with major work dating from the 1860s, Spicers Gap Road demonstrates the evolution of Queensland's transport system, and is significant as one of the first major public works of the new Queensland colony following Separation from New South Wales. From the 1850s to the 1870s, Spicers Gap Road was important as the major transport route from the Southern Darling Downs to Ipswich.
Spicers Gap Road is also significant as the site of the telegraph line that carried the interstate and telephonic traffic for 112 years from 1861 to 1973. The line was the first telegraph line to run from Brisbane to Sydney and determined the direction of southerly traffic.
Spicers Gap Road is significant for its association with surveyor and engineer, Robert Austin, who oversaw the major construction of the road during the 1860s.
|Designed with gently sweeping curves and low gradients to cater for the heavy transport of the day, Spicers Gap Road is a rare extant example of the application of engineering from the 1860s. Engineering features, including a system of catch drains and culverts occurring along the entire length of the roadway, demonstrate technological achievement.
|Spicers Gap Road is significant as it has potential to reveal more information about nineteenth century engineering techniques.
|Located within the Main Range National Park, Spicers Gap Road is important for its aesthetic significance and in some areas it retains the ability to promote a sense of remoteness and ruggedness.
|Designed with gently sweeping curves and low gradients to cater for the heavy transport of the day, Spicers Gap Road is a rare extant example of the application of engineering from the 1860s. Engineering features, including a system of catch drains and culverts occurring along the entire length of the roadway, demonstrate technological achievement.
|Spicers Gap Road is significant for its association with the community of the surrounding area. Spicers Gap Road is well-known to all residents and is a popular tourist destination.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | 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 has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place 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":16493,"place_ref":601756,"name":"Olsen's Home Hardware Store","alternate_name":"W.K. Hyslop's Reliance Stores | W.K. Hyslop & Sons (The Economists' Trading Centre) | Tulloch's Central Stores","street_address":"110-114 Grafton Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-04-09","description":"Olsen's Home Hardware store, a single-storeyed sandstone structure, has a triple gable corrugated iron roof partly concealed behind a parapet wall. The building is located fronting Grafton Street to the north, and consists of a single shop-front at the eastern end separated from an adjacent double shop-front by a section of sandstone wall. A continuous corrugated iron skillion roof verandah is located over the footpath.
The verandah has timber posts with timber brackets, and the parapet wall supports signage. Each shop-front consists of recessed french doors flanked by glass bays. Each bay window has a turned timber corner post, with the front section and return section each containing a single pane of glass. The double shop-front also has high level glazing which has been sheeted over. The sections of sandstone wall and timber window surrounds are painted.
The western and southern walls are constructed of predominantly rough faced ashlar, with dressed stones around window and door openings. The western wall has three tall arched sash windows with steel bars, and the bottom course of stone, slightly expressed to suggest a base, has small vented openings. The southern wall of the western section of the building has two arched doorways, which have enclosed walkways attached, flanked by a tall arched sash window with steel bars to either side. The southern wall of the eastern section, which is three courses shorter than the western section, has an arched sash window with steel bars and a doorway with paired timber doors and a glass fanlight.
Internally, the western section of the building, with the double shop-front, has a central row of timber posts. The eastern section of the building is separated by a rendered sandstone wall, with access via an arched opening. A second arched opening has reportedly been bricked-in and is covered by display walls. Interior walls are rendered, and side and rear windows have been sheeted over with displays of merchandise. Both sections of the building have boarded ceilings, and concrete floors have been laid with a setback from the side and rear sandstone walls. This setback has been filled with gravel and covered with a raised display platform, and is intended to allow moisture to evaporate to alleviate rising damp in the stonework.
At the rear of the building, a small single-storeyed timber and fibrous cement clad structure has been attached via a covered ramping walkway. This structure, which is used as an office, has a corrugated iron hipped roof, timber stumps and sash windows. Paired timber doors open to the rear, and the structure is attached to a second walkway on the western side which accesses an adjacent corrugated iron clad storage shed. Neither of these structures is considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
An L-shaped shed with a skillion roof is located towards the rear of the property. This structure has timber stumps, corrugated iron cladding and is used for storage. It is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Olsen's Home Hardware Store is a single-storeyed sandstone building constructed in at least two stages, mid-1870s and 1908.
The land on which the building is located was part of a larger town parcel [allotment 13 of section 28, parish of Warwick] alienated in 1859 for £7/16/-. However, by the time John Tulloch, a Warwick general storekeeper, purchased the land in 1872 from the original deed of grant holder for £50, there may well have been a small, shingle-roofed building, and possibly a cottage behind this, on the eastern part of the site [now occupied by Hyslops Furniture Store], which are evident in an 1899 photograph. Electoral rolls reveal that Tulloch was resident on his freehold land in Grafton Street from at least 1875 until c1880.
From October 1873 Tulloch was advertising in the local press as conducting the Central General Store, Grafton Street, and it is reasonable to suppose that this store was located on the land he had purchased in 1872. In 1876 he mortgaged his Grafton Street property to local 'gentleman farmer' Bertie Chiverton Parr for £1000, and by September that year he was conducting the Central Stores, suggesting that he had more than one store on the site. It is likely that the eastern bay of the present stone building, which is of a smaller scale than the other bays, was erected at this time. In 1877 Tulloch took Emu Creek sawmill proprietor William Hall into partnership in his Central Stores, with Hall & Tulloch announcing plans to enlarge their business. What is now the middle bay of the present building may have been added at this time. The store was for some period one of the leading businesses of this town [Warwick Argus 20 November 1900:2:5], but Tulloch lost the property to Parr when he defaulted on the mortgage. The firm conducted their final clearing sale in March 1879.
It is not known who then occupied the buildings until William Kennedy Hyslop, a young Scotsman who had been in the employ of GP Barnes at the Warwick Exchange [drapery store], opened his own general grocery and drapery store in Grafton Street in September 1888, in the premises formerly known as Tulloch's Store. He leased these premises from Parr prior to purchasing the whole of the land and buildings in late 1892, for £600. According to rates records, the land contained a store/s and house at this time.
Hyslop had resided in Warwick from at least April 1886, when he married a local girl. He was to become a prominent member of Warwick's Good Samaritan Lodge of the Protestant Alliance Friendly Society of Australasia in Queensland, and an active community member in general. He called his Grafton Street business the Reliance Stores, importing many lines directly from Britain, avoiding wholesale costs and passing on those savings to the public, and the business proved immediately successful. He was prepared to deal in kind, and as late as 1897 was advertising that he would take farmers' butter, eggs and hides in exchange for drapery and groceries. In the second half of the 1890s he opened a branch store in Allora, run by his son James, but this had closed by 1903.
In September 1902, Warwick architect Hugh Campbell called tenders for three stores and a dwelling for WK Hyslop, adjoining the eastern side of the Reliance Stores in Grafton Street. Local builder Daniel Connolly won the contract with a price of £500, and the buildings were completed by late December. The shops were known as Hyslop's Buildings, and were constructed partly for rental purposes and partly to enable the firm to establish a furniture and bedding department. These shops occupied the corner of Grafton Street and Acacia Avenue, were of timber construction, and survive in a modified form as the present Hyslop's Furniture Store. They are not included within the listing boundary for this entry in the Queensland Heritage Register.
The expansion of the dairy industry on the southern Darling Downs after the turn-of-the-century created boom years for Warwick businesses, and WK Hyslop was again able to expand his Grafton Street premises in 1908, when the stone buildings were extended and modified to form a larger, more cohesive building.
Warwick architects Wallace & Gibson [who later designed the new Barnes Emporium in Palmerin Street, 1910-11] called tenders for stone extensions to the WK Hyslop building in March 1908.
The successful tenderer was HD Miller, with a price of £1089. Work commenced in May, and the new premises were opened in late October 1908. The modifications comprised: the addition of a third bay, extending the building to the western boundary of the property; an extension of 15 feet to the rear of the existing stone buildings; remodelling of the existing shop fronts with large, fashionable plate-glass windows to match those of the new bay; and a new front awning and posts constructed across the whole. Physical evidence suggests that the stone blocks in the western and southern walls of the 1870s buildings were re-used in the construction of the 1908 western and southern walls: the semi-circular headed windows in these walls are more 1870s than early 20th century in design, and there are some oddly placed picked stones in the western and southern walls.
The additions to WK Hyslop's Reliance Stores were considered by his contemporaries to make a substantial improvement to Grafton Street, which was being transformed rapidly with the construction of a number of impressive masonry buildings, including The National Hotel [1907 & extensions in 1908-09] at the corner of Lyon Street; Devine's Buildings [1907] at the southwest corner of Grafton and Palmerin Streets; and a new Caledonian Stores [1907].
With the enlargement of his main premises, Hyslop was able to move all his departments into one building, and offer each of the shops in the 1902 Hyslop's Buildings for rental. Although Hyslop had opened a furniture and bedding department in the early 1900s, the firm continued to specialise in clothing and drapery until the 1920s at least. About 1914, the firm became WK Hyslop & Sons, and by 1922 was operating as The Economists' Trading Centre, Grafton Street.
In 1923, Hyslop let the stone building on a 10 year lease to The ACB, a Brisbane-based drapery firm which by 1933 had a chain of 30 stores throughout Queensland. During the 1920s the ACB was one of Warwick's three principal drapery stores, the competition being Barnes & Co. and Johnson & Sons. With the depression years of the early 1930s The ACB was bankrupted, and it is understood that the Warwick store reverted to being part of WK Hyslops & Sons, who had maintained their furniture business in the adjacent timber building.
William Hyslop had subdivided the land c1924, retaining title to the site of the stone building [subs 3 & 5] until his death in 1944, and transferring the 1902 Hyslop's Buildings [subs 1, 2 & 4] to his sons John and James. He does not appear to have resided in Warwick after the late 1920s. James Hyslop died in 1948, and in February 1949 title to the property containing the stone building passed out of the Hyslop family.
The building has functioned as a hardware store since the early 1940s. When Barnes & Co. liquidated c1938, their hardware business was purchased by members of the Connolly family of Warwick in partnership with Charles McKenzie, formerly the manager of Barnes' hardware department, and they formed The Warwick Hardware Company. This firm shifted to the Hyslop's stone building c1942, and purchased the property in 1949. The store remained The Warwick Hardware Company premises until 1970, when Dave Washbourne and Alexander McKenzie started trading there as M & W Hardware [a Mitre 10 franchise], purchasing the property in 1976. In the 1980s the property changed hands a number of times, but the hardware business has been sustained.
The present owners acquired the property in 1988, and have made a number of alterations to the building, including opening up the street awning, (which had been enclosed), replacing the front verandah posts, removing the walls and ceilings of the front display windows, concreting the floor, and adding an office extension to the rear of the building.
","criteria":"Olsen's Home Hardware Store, constructed in at least two stages [mid-1870s and 1908], is significant in illustrating the principal phases of early Warwick and district development, and in particular the flow-on effects to Warwick businesses of the district's 'dairy boom' in the early years of the 20th century. The place is important also in illustrating the strong and, for Queensland, unique tradition of stone construction in Warwick and district which was sustained from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries.
|With further research, the place has the potential to reveal important information about stone construction and materials in Warwick, and about local historical processes and developments.
|The building clearly demonstrates the principal characteristics of an evolving late 19th century store of substance and quality, with a turn-of-the-century remodelling which reflected new attitudes to merchandise display and customer convenience, as well as the buoyant nature of the local economy. This is particularly evident in the inclusion of the large plate-glass display windows.
|The building is significant for its strong contribution to the streetscape and to the Warwick townscape, in terms of materials, scale, form, design and intactness.
The building makes a significant contribution to the unique nature of Warwick, with its substantial proportion of surviving 19th and early 20th century stone and brick buildings.
|The building is of significance to members of the Warwick community and of Queensland generally who value Warwick's historical reputation as 'The Sandstone City'.
|The place has a strong association with the Hyslop family, who were prominent in the Warwick community from the 1880s to at least the 1940s, both as businesspersons and as active members of religious and social organisations, and who were respected for their charitable works.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16494,"place_ref":601757,"name":"Warwick Uniting Church","alternate_name":"St Andrews Presbyterian Church | St Andrew's Presbyterian Church","street_address":"Guy Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-03-24","description":"The Warwick Uniting Church is a simple sandstone structure, rectilinear in form, with a stone entry porch on the front eastern façade of the building. It is constructed of load-bearing, rock-faced ashlar sandstone and is divided into six bays separated with buttresses. Lancet arched openings, each housing a pair of lancet windows with a circular window above, are situated between each buttress. The majority of these windows are now filled with commemorative stained glass and the remainder with diamond patterned leadlight windows. A larger lancet arched opening at the eastern end contains three rose windows and five lancet windows, now partially obscured on the exterior by the entry porch. The western gable end contains a single rose window.
The entry porch is rock-faced ashlar with a pitched tiled roof and a pair of arched, timber entry doors surmounted by a small rose window. The steeply pitched roof of the church is clad in red terracotta tiles with small decorative stone pinnacles located in each corner and a small metal fleche resembling a miniature church spire at the roof ridge at the western end. The vestry and choir room is a small rendered masonry structure with a pitched roof added to the western end of the building. It is finished in pebbledash stucco and has a wide-pan corrugated iron roof which is painted.
The interior of the church has an open roof structure comprised of arched brace trusses with the ceiling lined in painted, diagonal timber boarding and acoustic tiles. The walls are lined in hardboard that has an ashlar-like profile and has a timber panelled dado. A pair of automatic, glass and timber framed doors separate the porch from the nave. The nave is carpeted, has a central aisle and recent timber pews. The choir and organ are located in the chancel, along with the pulpit, baptismal font, communion table, carved timber memorial chairs, war memorial boards and flags. The organ pipes are centrally located at the back of the chancel and are covered with a timber grille.
A window has been removed on the southern elevation and has been replaced with a recent door opening to a covered walkway that links the church to the new hall. A courtyard paved in terracotta tiles occupies the area between the church and hall. Lawn comprise the eastern and northern parts of the site, with a wide concrete path leading to the entry door of the porch flanked by mature trees including two large Silky Oaks and some smaller conifers.
","history":"Warwick Uniting Church is an unpretentious sandstone building built 1869-1870 and located on the corner of Fitzroy and Guy Streets, Warwick. The site also contains a parish hall (1998) and a manse (1940).
The sandstone church is the second church on this site which is associated with the earliest Presbyterian ministry on the Darling Downs. From the 1840s, an itinerant Presbyterian minister was present on the Darling Downs, however, it was not until Reverend Thomas Kingsford arrived in Warwick in 1851 that the church had a permanent presence in the district. The first services were held in the Court House, initially in the timber slab building in Alice Street and then in the new Court House in Albion Street.
In May 1857, the New South Wales Government granted land in Alice Street to the church to build a church, school and manse. It may be that the land was unsuitable in some way as that same year the church purchased an alternate site on the corner of Fitzroy and Guy Streets for the sum of £36. A sawn slab and shingle church was constructed on the site in 1858, becoming the second provincial Presbyterian church to be established in Queensland, the first being in Ipswich.
The congregation in Warwick continued to expand and in 1867 a building committee was formed, making the decision to build a finer and larger church. The old church was sold to Harry Houghton for removal and continued to be used as a residence. Construction of a new church began in March 1869. It was built of local sandstone quarried near Rosehill and had a shingled roof. The contractor for the building was John McCulloch, foremost stonemason in the town and brother of the then Minister of the church, Reverend Colin McCulloch.
Deposits of continental sandstone in the district surrounding Warwick provided a ready source of good quality building stone for the town. As Warwick developed and early buildings were replaced, this sandstone was used for a number of the city's finest buildings and has become a distinguishing feature of the place. John McCulloch was the most prominent of Warwick's masons. He had learned his trade in Scotland and arrived in Warwick in 1863. It is difficult to assess the full extent of McCulloch's work in Warwick due to inadequate records from his yard, however, he is known to be responsible for a number of churches and commercial buildings, as well as the Courthouse, Town Hall, Sisters of Mercy Convent and the Railways Good Shed.
The church opened on Sunday 20 November 1870 and the first service was conducted by the Reverend Isaac Mackay, a noted Scottish preacher who held services in both English and Gaelic. The church was not quite complete and had cost £1000. St. Andrew's is said to have been the first church building in the colony that was floored in "cement". The local newspaper, the Examiner and Times reported on 26 November, 1870 that the material was not only cheaper than timber but well suited to the Queensland climate as it was "cool, clean and almost noiseless when walked over" and commented that the building was "one of the best ornaments the town possesses".
A number of changes have taken place to the building over time. During the time that Reverend Robert Fraser was Minister (1882-87) he made an interest-free loan of £300 to the Committee of Management which was used to strengthen the roof and erect pinnacles on top of the buttresses. In 1897 a stone entry porch was added to the front of the building. This work is attributed to local builders, architects and surveyors, Wallace and Gibson, however, it is not clear whether they designed the porch as well as constructing it.
Fundraising for a hall began in 1900 and the Mary Williams Memorial Hall opened in 1904, incorporating an earlier hall that was re-aligned on the site. In 1922, a vestry and choir room were added to the eastern end of the church and a pipe organ was purchased as a Soldier's Memorial in 1924. A new manse, designed by R.H and H Campbell, was officially opened in 1940. It appears that the entry porch was re-modelled in 1950 through a financial gift of Charles and Esther Counsell and it is likely that the main roof was tiled and the pinnacles atop the buttresses were removed at this time. Major interior changes took place in 1964-65 following a gift from the Ross family. The pipe organ was extensively altered and the pipes were relocated into an alcove at the front of the church, the interior was re-lined including the fitting of acoustic tiles in the ceiling, installation of new pews and choir seating and the removal of traditional seating for elders.
In 1990, the Uniting Church congregations of Wesley and St. Andrew's joined together as one worshipping congregation and chose St. Andrew's church as their home, the church then became known as the Warwick Uniting Church. The Williams Memorial Hall was sold for removal in 1998 and a new hall designed by John Marsson and Associates Architects and also named the Williams Hall was dedicated in August 1999. A steel and glass link to the church was constructed at the same time and a window was removed to accommodate a new door to the church on the southern side. The manse is now used as office space.
","criteria":"Warwick Uniting Church is important in demonstrating the early presence and growth of the Presbyterian church in the Darling Downs and the pattern of development of religious and social institutions of the city of Warwick.
|As an early sandstone church in a city which owes much of its character to the use of local sandstone, Warwick Uniting Church has aesthetic value. The building makes a significant contribution to the streetscape, located on a prominent intersection of the town that includes Warwick Courthouse and Leslie Park.
|Warwick Uniting Church has social and spiritual significance for its association with the Presbyterian and Uniting Church congregation of Warwick as their principal place of worship for over 140 years.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16509,"place_ref":601772,"name":"Aberfoyle","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"35 Wood Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1996-08-05","description":"Aberfoyle is a single-storeyed chamferboard residence with a corrugated iron hipped roof with projecting gables, a bullnosed verandah to the south, southeast and southwest, and timber stumps. The building is located on a level corner site fronting Wood Street to the south and Albion Street (the Cunningham Highway) to the west.
The entry, facing Wood Street to the south, is symmetrical in elevation and is composed of a central timber stair leading to the verandah, surmounted by a gable to the roof above, and flanked on either side by projecting five-sided corner bays on the southwest and southeast. Gables project above the corner bays, with the verandahs encircling them in plan. The western elevation has a central projecting gable, to which the verandah is terminated, with the kitchen wing projecting to the north. The rear of the building has enclosed verandahs, and a large single-storeyed addition on the northeast.
The roof has timber eave brackets and a central ventilator, and the projecting gables have timber finials and diagonal boarding over pressed sheeting. The verandahs have timber posts with timber capitals, timber handrails and cast iron balustrades to the projecting bay sections and entry, and cast iron brackets. The verandahs also have unusual lattice screens which consist of scalloped timber lattice which gives a star-like pattern. A brick chimney stack is located mid-way above an internal wall on the western side of the building, and the rear kitchen wing shows evidence of alterations to windows and an early addition to the northern end. The western elevation has decorative window hoods consisting of cast iron brackets with corrugated iron hood and timber sides, and the central window hood has a gable with finial.
The building has sash windows, french doors with patterned glass panels and fanlights opening onto verandahs, and decorative leadlight sash windows to the projecting southwest and southeast corner bays. These windows have leadlight, in a geometric pattern, to the bottom panel only. The main entry door assembly consists of a central door with solid bottom panel and leadlight upper panels, and leadlight panels to the fanlight and sidelights featuring a floral design.
Internally, Aberfoyle has six rooms opening off a central corridor with a kitchen wing at the rear. The front two guest rooms have curtained off projecting corner bays with leadlight windows and cedar frames, with the southwest bay containing a photographic image of a picturesque railway line in a bush location (possibly on the Cairns-Kuranda or the Spring Bluff rail line) set within a glass panel in the centre of a leadlight window. The southeast bay has a textured glass panel in place of a similar image which was originally located there.
Aberfoyle has ornate pressed metal ceilings and cornices, woodgraining to internal doors with fretwork panels above, and stencilled friezes, with a portion of the original frieze surviving intact in the entry foyer. Internal walls are lined with vertically jointed boards, and some early changes involving doorways and partition walls are evident in the fabric. The entry foyer has an arched timber opening to the narrower hall beyond, and the two middle bedrooms have early linoleum floor coverings.
The living/dining room has a non-original timber fireplace surround, and the chimney has been sealed. A timber door with textured glass upper panels provides access to the adjacent kitchen, but is not in its original position. The northeast bedroom retains the upper portion of a partition wall which originally separated a former adjacent bathroom which contained a sunken bath. A recently constructed bathroom is located adjacent in the northeast corner of the enclosed verandah.
A timber door with coloured glass upper panels, fanlight and sidelights, separates the hall from the enclosed rear verandah. The rear kitchen wing has undergone several changes, including the kitchen being refitted, but retains the upper portion of a partition wall which originally separated a maids room. The early addition on the northern end contains a study with working fireplace, and an internal bathroom has been constructed within the inside corner of the enclosed rear verandah.
A large single-storeyed addition has been constructed on the northeast, and contains living spaces and a garage. A deck has been constructed on the northwest, and an inground swimming pool is located on the northeast.
The grounds include three large Camphor Laurel trees along the Albion Street frontage, and terracotta tiled paths lead from the front gate to the entrance off Wood Street, and a side path from Albion Street to the verandah near the living/dining room. The paths have Marseilles tiles with edgings in a cabled design, also referred to as a rope or barley-twist design, and the entrance path has been reconstructed in places with tiles from the side path.
","history":"Aberfoyle, a residence in Wood Street, Warwick was constructed in 1910 to the design of local architect, Hugh Hamilton Campbell for local dentist Peter Alexander Affleck.
Warwick was established as an administrative centre of the emerging Darling Downs regions in 1847, with a post office being established in the town in 1848. This year saw the first survey work of the embryonic town completed by surveyor, JC Burnett, with further surveys in 1850, and the first sale of crown land in July 1850. On May 25, 1861, Warwick was granted the status of a municipality. Throughout the 1860s and with the introduction of a rail link to Toowoomba in 1871 Warwick was consolidated as a small municipal centre.
Warwick continued to grow as the service centre of the southern Darling Downs and by the 1910s consolidation of the town occurred with many substantial commercial, religious and residential buildings constructed. Barnes & Co, a local trading company, built a large department store in Palmerin Street; the local Roman Catholic community thought that a larger church was required to accommodate the growing population though this was not built until the late 1920s; full scale redevelopment of the railway station was undertaken and the commercial core of Warwick was consolidated.
Aberfoyle was built in 1910 on land to the south east of the core of the town near Slade Park. The area near this land was developing as a result of the subdivision of the Cornwall Estate into building allotments giving impetus there for closer settlement. Contemporary newspaper reports describe the area in which Aberfoyle was built as this portion of town where such a large amount of building progress has been recently made.
According to the titles information on the property, the land on which Aberfoyle was built was first acquired by Deed of Grant by Matilda Blewett on 26 April 1859. The titles suggest that Peter Affleck (Snr), a member of a prominent local saw-milling family acquired the property in November 1882. Affleck died in June 1886 leaving the property to his widow Anne Affleck. Peter Alexander Affleck, the son of the Anne and Peter snr, acquired the property on 19 August 1910. Peter Alexander was trained as a dentist and ran a dental practice from his surgery in Palmerin Street. Until 1910 a Miss Jessie L Affleck, presumably a relative of Mr Peter Affleck, is listed in the Queensland Post Office Directories as living at Freestone Creek. From 1911 she and Peter Affleck are listed as living in Wood Street, presumably in Aberfoyle.
The house was constructed for an unspecified sum by contractor, LA Tessman to the design of local architect, Hugh Hamilton Campbell. Campbell had been working in Warwick, variously as a cabinet maker and contractor, before practicing as an architect from about 1897, in which business his son, Roderick Hamilton Campbell, joined him as partner in about 1909. Campbell snr designed a cottage, Westhall, for a Mrs P Affleck in Freestone Creek, the mother of Peter Alexander and this may be the house in which Jessie L is listed as living until her move to Aberfoyle.
When construction was finished the two local newspapers wrote lengthy descriptions of the house. Aberfoyle was constructed as a six roomed timber residence with a central hallway from the main entrance off Wood Street. The hallway was divided by a glass door separating the entrance from the rear portion, off which access was given to a bathroom housing a sunken bath. The floor of the bathroom was covered with lead and the walls were clad to dado height with small gauge corrugated iron sheets. The painting was completed by local painter, Mr Donald Crawford and the plumbing by Mr E Morrison.
Aberfoyle was transferred to a William Tindal Scrymgeour in January 1927 and changed hands many times during the century. A breakfast room was added to the northern end of Aberfoyle between 1918 and 1927. Other additions were made after this. Conservation work has been an ongoing concern of the present owners who bought Aberfoyle in 1993; frieze stencils have been uncovered and repainted, joinery has been wood grained and restorative work has been done to the entrance pathway from Wood Street.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1910, Aberfoyle is a substantial timber house which demonstrates the growth of this area of Warwick during the 1910s; a period of commercial and social expansion for the town, following closer settlement.
|The decorative architectural composition of this substantially intact residence, along with its surrounding plantings and quality fittings and finishes, makes an important aesthetic contribution to the local streetscape and Warwick townscape.
|Aberfoyle is of importance as it was designed for Peter Alexander Affleck by local architect Hugh Hamilton Campbell who previously designed Westhall, a property at Freestone Creek, for Affleck's mother.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a 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":16797,"place_ref":602061,"name":"St Davids Anglican Church","alternate_name":"St David's Church of England | St David's Anglican Church | St David's Church | St Davids Church","street_address":"1 Church Street","suburb":"ALLORA","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-03-24","description":"St. David's Church, Allora is a small timber building elevated on a short brick plinth and clad in weatherboards, with a steeply pitched, wide pan "trimdeck" roof. It is set within a large grassed site, together with the timber rectory and parish hall.
The building follows traditional church planning with a central nave of six bays with an apsidal chancel at the rear end. Six windows with foiled heads line the side aisles of the building, indicating the internal bays. Gabled projections from the northern and southern sides of the church provide an allusion of transepts and enhance the formality and scale of the building. Other notable architectural elements on the exterior of the building include a slender timber fleche located on the crossing of the roof ridges, six gabled roof vents and scalloped and pierced bargeboards.
The church is entered via a small gabled porch that is centrally located on the principal façade. The porch is part of a concrete apron that continues to the boundary of the site at the street where a set of four decorative steel gates on brick piers are located. The porch is flanked by single windows with trefoil heads and a tripartite lancet stained glass window arrangement is located above. A ramp is located on the northern elevation of the building.
The interior of the church has an open roof structure comprised of arched brace trusses with the ceiling lined in unpainted, stained diagonal timber boarding. Timbers used in the construction and furnishings of the church, such as cedar, are now rare or irreplaceable. Timber fittings include the pews, rails, pulpit and altar. Stained glass windows are located in the gabled sections in the north and south walls and the apse.
The Rectory is a low, single storey house with a gabled hip roof . It is constructed of timber and has verandahs on two sides and an enclosed section of verandah on a third side. The house is entered via a short set of steps which are flanked by two pairs of timber columns with decorative capitals and brackets. The roof is clad in painted corrugated steel and has two brick chimney stacks. The parish hall is comprised of two sections, both timber with corrugated steel roofs and elevated on short timber posts. The northern section is a former church and has a pitched roof, small entry porch and three pairs of double-hung sash windows on each side. The southern section is wider with a shallower, pitched roof and pairs of casement windows with an arched detail at the heads.
","history":"St. David's Church, Allora, a timber, Gothic Revival style church prominently located at the end of the main thoroughfare of the town, was constructed in 1887-88 to the design of leading Queensland colonial architect F.D.G Stanley. This building is the second church to be built on the site, which also contains a rectory designed by architect J. H Buckeridge(1901) and a parish hall (1912, 1962).
Allora claims to be amongst Queensland's oldest inland towns. The beginnings of a small settlement at the crossing of Dalrymple Creek was recorded in 1844. A survey of the town was completed by G.F Pratten in 1859 and land sales began the following year. In 1862, Reverend Benjamin Glennie bought land at Dalrymple Creek in the name of Bishop Tufnell. A two roomed timber slab cottage was built on the site of the present Parish Hall and used as a school, Sunday school and teacher's residence. Reverend Glennie preached here once a month. Prior to this, church services in Allora had generally been held at the Dalrymple Hotel and sporadically at a number of the early stations. One such is recorded to have been held by Glennie at Talgai Station in 1852.
Allora township continued to grow throughout the 1860s. By the end of the decade, Allora was becoming a substantial town, servicing the blacksoil farms established along Dalrymple Creek as a result of the lands acts of the1860s. In 1868, the first purpose built church of St. David was erected on the site of the present church. It was designed by architect Richard Suter and was typical of his timber churches that used outside studding to decorative effect. Suter also designed Allora's first national school in 1866 which was similar in design to the church. The original slab hut continued to be used for church services until the completion of the new church and was then relocated in 1870 to form part of St. Matthew's Church, Spring Creek. In 1870 Allora became a separate parish and a new rectory parsonage was built, again designed by Suter.
The first mention of a new church appeared at the Easter meeting on 27 April, 1886 when a subscription list was proposed. Plans for a timber church with shingle roof to seat 400 were discussed with architect F.D.G Stanley. The brief was revised to seating for 250, as the initial design proved too expensive. New plans were shown at a meeting in December 1886 and were accepted by the Vestry. Tenders were called in January 1887 and local contractor W.G Gillam's tender of £800 was accepted. Construction was delayed, however, when Bishop Webber requested a number of changes to the design, including the removal of doors planned for the north and south gable walls. Not all of his requests were able to be accommodated, nonetheless Bishop Webber laid the foundation stone on 5 August. The 1866 church was re-sited within the precinct to make way for the new church and was then used as a parish hall. This building was demolished in 1911.
The new church was informally opened with a service on 23 December 1888, however, the consecration of the church was not performed by Bishop Webber until 1 February, 1890.
The church at this time was of single skin timber construction with exposed bracing and studding on the exterior and a timber shingle roof. All the principal interior fittings were also designed by Stanley and made of cedar. F.D.G Stanley has been described as "the best known of all Queensland's early architect's because of the quality, diversity and extent of his work". He designed ten churches for the Anglican Church, five of which survive. Six of these were timber and St. David's Church, Allora is the only one that remains the property of the diocese. St. George's Church, Beenleigh (1875) is the only other surviving timber church of Stanley's design but is no longer within Anglican ownership.
Minor alterations have been made to the St. David's Church over time. In 1888, a rainwater tank was installed on the south side of the church to keep water away from the foundations. The thrust of the shingle roof was causing the side walls to shore and in 1892 tie rods were introduced to reduce the outward thrust. In 1897, the exterior was sheathed in horizontal pine chamfer boards and painted, at a cost of £108. A memorial altar and altar rails were added to the church after World War One and the original altar and rails were then donated to St Andrew's Church at Glengallan. To celebrate the golden jubilee of the church in 1938, the shingled roof was replaced with diamond laid, fibrous cement tiles. This cladding was replaced in 1978 with corrugated metal sheeting and the church was painted at the same time. Sixteen stained glass windows - nine in the chancel, two in the lower western wall and five in the north wall - were installed in the early 1980s.
The early rectory designed by Suter was sold for removal to W. Leggat and re-sited at 35 Warwick Street, Allora. The present rectory was constructed in 1901 to the design of architect John H Buckeridge who was then architect for the Diocese. Construction was supervised by the Toowoomba firm of James Marks and Son and the cost was £546. A hall for Sunday School was built in 1912 and was then amalgamated with the former church of St. Andrew, Glengallon in 1962 to form the parish hall presently on the site. In 1967, a lean-to garage and storage shed were built next to the hall.
","criteria":"St. David's Church Precinct is significant for demonstrating the growth of the Allora district within an important agricultural area of the Darling Downs. In particular, St. David's Church Precinct demonstrates the growth of the Anglican Church in Queensland and reflects local community efforts in meeting their spiritual needs, being an accretion of both purpose-designed buildings and buildings brought to the site.
The church also has a special association with prominent colonial Queensland architect F.D.G Stanley and is one of two remaining intact timber churches designed by Stanley for the Anglican Church. The rectory has an association with another important Queensland architect, John Buckeridge.
|St. David's Church Precinct demonstrates the principal characteristics of a small, nineteenth century timber church and related buildings located in a small rural settlement. Key features of the church include the simple building form, steeply pitched gable roof, timber fleche and scalloped and pierced bargeboards.
|The church has architectural and aesthetic significance derived from the well composed design which uses architectural elements to enhance the formal presence of the church in its setting. The rectory also has aesthetic significance as a fine example of a gracious timber dwelling. The collection of buildings has significant landmark qualities in the Allora townscape and from the New England Highway.
|St. David's Church has a strong spiritual and social association with the Anglican Parish in Allora as their principal place of worship for over 100 years.
","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":16812,"place_ref":602076,"name":"T J Byrnes Monument","alternate_name":"T.J. Byrnes Monument","street_address":"Palmerin Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-01-06","description":"The TJ Byrnes Monument is located at the intersection of two principal streets in Warwick - Palmerin and Grafton - opposite the Warwick Post Office. It comprises a pedestal and life-like statue, facing east along Grafton Street, set on two stepped courses of a basaltic rock identified in 1902 as Melbourne bluestone. The whole rests on a concrete base, nearly obscured by later road surfacing.
The pedestal of veined marble is approximately 3.5 metres high, is alike on all four faces, and comprises plinth, dado and entablature. The plinth is a diminishing panelled block with a heavy moulding above. Inscriptions on the four panels of the plinth read: THOMAS JOSEPH BYRNES MLA for Warwick, 1896-98 [east face], Born Brisbane 1860 [north face], Premier of Queensland 1898 [west face], and Died 1898 [south face]. At the base of the east face of the plinth is the inscription: Andrews Bros Sydney. The dado forms the shaft of the pedestal. At each corner is a column with foliated capital set in a rectangular recess, and each face has two pilasters either side of a semi-circular headed recess. The entablature consists of architrave, frieze and projecting cornice, with a panelled pediment at the centre of each face. 1902 is inscribed on the pediment of the east face.
The life-like statue stands larger-than-life at approximately 2 metres in height. It is carved of a fine white marble. The figure stands as if addressing an assembly, with right hand extended and a manuscript in the left hand. The head is bare, and the figure is clothed in conventional 19th century morning costume.
","history":"This monument was erected in 1902 by the citizens of Warwick and district to honour the former Premier of Queensland and MLA for Warwick, Thomas Joseph Byrnes, who died on 27 September 1898 at the age of 37. He was the first Queensland-born premier of this state, and had held office for only five months prior to his death. The sudden loss of this youthful, charismatic leader shocked Queenslanders, who mourned the passing of his vision of a strong and vibrant Queensland as much as of the man himself. Byrnes is the only Queensland premier to be honoured with two memorial statues [the other being in Brisbane], and is one of only three Queensland premiers [along with Sir Charles Lilley and TJ Ryan] to have a medal for scholarship posthumously endowed in his name.
Byrnes was born into a large, impoverished Irish Catholic family in Brisbane in 1860. In 1866 the family moved to Bowen, where Byrnes was educated at the local primary school. In 1874 he won a scholarship to the Brisbane Grammar School, where he won the Lilley gold medal for distinction in Greek, Latin and English, annually from 1875 to 1877. In 1876 he won the University of Sydney prize in the junior public examination, which granted him an extension scholarship to complete his secondary education at Brisbane Boys Grammar School. This was followed in 1879 with a scholarship to Melbourne University where he graduated in Arts [1882] and in Law [1884] - both with honours. On 8 July 1884 he was admitted to the bar in Victoria, but returned to Brisbane immediately and was admitted as a Queensland barrister on 5 August 1884. During 1884-85 Byrnes read law in the chambers of Patrick Real, then built up his own large, successful law practice in Brisbane.
In 1890 Byrnes entered politics. He was elected to the Legislative Council in August and was given the portfolio of Solicitor-General in Sir Samuel Griffith's newly formed coalition government. Byrnes' politics were essentially Catholic conservative. Although at this time he supported Federation, he opposed the Shearers' Strike of 1891, invoking an outdated conspiracy law to convict unionist strike leaders.
In March 1893 Byrnes was appointed Attorney-General, and held this portfolio until his death in 1898. He entered the Legislative Assembly as MLA for Cairns, [Sir Charles Lilley's 'pocket borough'], from April 1893 to April 1896. Byrnes' policies at this period received considerable support in far north Queensland - he advocated the continued use of South Sea Islander labour and declared an interest in northern development [without committing himself to separation]. Later he became an outspoken opponent of the separationist movement, which may account for his choosing to stand [unsuccessfully] for North Brisbane in March 1896.
Although nominated for North Brisbane by Premier HM Nelson, Byrnes was unpopular in the capital, where he was seen to be concentrating more on his law practice than on his portfolio. His integrity had been called into question in several legal disputes where he used his powers as Attorney-General to further personal interests. However, immediately following his defeat in North Brisbane, Byrnes stood in April 1896 for the electorate of Warwick, where he achieved a resounding victory. At Warwick, Byrnes had a large Irish-Catholic vote as well as the support of Arthur Morgan, owner/editor of the Warwick Argus and former MLA for Warwick who had stood aside for Byrnes' benefit. Byrnes' personal appeal, his Queensland birth, and his conservative politics [advocating the postponement of Queensland's involvement in Federation], contributed to his success. In Warwick, the self-made man epitomised what could be achieved in Queensland, the land of opportunity.
Warwick took great pride in its state representative, and Byrnes reciprocated by assiduously promoting Queensland and his electorate. When he and Premier Nelson represented Queensland at Britain's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 1897, Byrnes visited Warwick, England to promote his constituency and the Darling Downs, and in June 1898 presented Warwick, Queensland with gifts from its English counterpart.
Early in April 1898 the president of the Queensland Legislative Council, Sir Arthur Palmer, died. Premier HM Nelson succeeded him, and on 13 April 1898, TJ Byrnes was appointed Premier, Chief Secretary and Attorney-General. Fellow Parliamentarians supported his appointment because he was popular with voters, and the struggling coalition government needed the charismatic Attorney-General as their figurehead.
Byrnes was to spend little more than 5 months in office. On 27 September 1898 he died at his residence at Yeronga near Brisbane, after a short illness [pneumonia complicated by a severe cardiac condition], less than 2 months short of his 38th birthday.
On the day following Byrnes' death, all Warwick businesses were shut, and on the day of the state funeral in Brisbane, Warwick schools closed. A week after Byrnes' death the Mayor of Warwick, J Allman, suggested that a fund administered by a citizens committee be established to erect a memorial to Byrnes, in Warwick. A public meeting was called on 20 October 1898, at which time a committee was formed. Over the next 3 years £250 was raised locally from 363 subscribers, and this was matched £ for £ by the Queensland government.
In Brisbane, a Byrnes Memorial Fund was established from which the Byrnes Medal for scholarship was created, and a £2,000 bronze statue was erected in Centenary Place. Warwick also chose a statue as a memorial, but in stone. Erecting a statue was a traditional tribute by European towns and cities to their great men and women, and illustrated as much about the sophistication of the town which commissioned it as about the person being commemorated.
In June 1901 the Warwick committee accepted a tender of £500 by Andrews Bros of Sydney for a marble statue of TJ Byrnes, resting on a marble pedestal. The statue was carved in Italy from Carrara marble and arrived in Sydney about September 1902. Both the statue and the veined Sicilian marble pedestal, designed by ED Andrews, were freighted from Sydney to Warwick by New South Wales and Queensland railways free of charge, and were erected in November 1902 under the supervision of Warwick architect Conrad Cobden Dornbusch.
There had been some committee debate over the most appropriate site for the statue. The original proposal was to locate it opposite the two-storeyed 1897-99 stone post office [600963] which had been erected during Byrnes' term as MLA for Warwick. Later, some favoured the Southern Square [now Leslie Park]. Both sites were submitted to the Municipal Council, which preferred the more prominent post office location - so that the children going to school could see the man who rose from the bottom to the top rung of the ladder.
The pedestal was erected at the intersection of Palmerin and Grafton Streets - in the centre of town opposite the post office - on 25 November 1902, and the statue was raised to face the rising sun [looking east along Grafton Street] at daybreak the next day. The whole monument weighed 26 tons, rested on a concrete block and plinth of Melbourne bluestone, and stood 19.5 feet high. Inscriptions on the four sides of the pedestal read: Thomas Joseph Byrnes; Born Brisbane 1860; Premier of Queensland 1898; Died 1898. Following suggestions from local residents, the Warwick Council agreed that MLA for Warwick 1896 to 1898 should be placed under the name. The monument was surrounded by a temporary wooden picket fence until an iron railing could be erected. This iron railing had been removed by mid-1935.
The statue was unveiled officially on Saturday 13 December 1902 by His Excellency the Governor of Queensland, Sir Herbert Chermside, in the presence of several Byrnes' relatives; the Mayors of Warwick, Brisbane and South Brisbane; the Minister for Railways and Works; the Hon Arthur Morgan [MLA for Warwick 1887-1896 and 1898-1906]; and Warwick dignitaries. Sir Herbert described Byrnes as a great statesman and patriot and stressed the distinction conferred on Warwick by having had the Premier as its representative. All speakers emphasised Byrnes' remarkable academic achievements and charisma, his rise from poverty to greatness, and his Queensland birth, and portrayed him as a role model for Queensland youth. Besides honouring Byrnes, the statue was intended as an example to the young of the possibilities open to even the poorest Queenslander. The unveiling of the monument was an important occasion for Warwick and a souvenir photograph and description were published by The Warwick Examiner and Times.
","criteria":"The TJ Byrnes Monument at Warwick is one of Queensland's earlier public monuments, and makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the way in which Queensland towns and cities honoured their heroes and heroines in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, and promoted them as role models.
|It remains an excellent example of its type - a life-like, finely carved statue set high on a decorative pedestal and located at the intersection of two of the principal streets in Warwick - specifically designed and located to impress.
|The monument is significant for its aesthetic and landmark qualities, and has been a prominent part of the Warwick townscape since 1902.
|The monument is significant for its aesthetic and landmark qualities, and has been a prominent part of the Warwick townscape since 1902.
|As a memorial, the place has a close association with the life and work of TJ Byrnes - barrister, politician, and one of Queensland's early heroes.
","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":19621,"place_ref":602497,"name":"Warwick Central State School","alternate_name":"Warwick West School | Warwick West Boys School, Girls School and Infants School","street_address":"55B Guy Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-02-06","description":"The former West Warwick School is set in well kept gardens with the main entrance facing Guy Street.
School Building
The original school is a single story building, T-shaped in plan and constructed from brown sandstone blocks. The gabled roof is clad in corrugated iron sheeting and is set with pairs of dormer windows on each side of the roof. Each dormer is composed of four single paned casements.
The eastern, principal, elevation features a projecting gable with two narrow lancet windows with a small arched window above them and a centrally positioned circular air vent. A similar arrangement of vent and lancet windows is found at the western gabled end of the building. On the northern and southern gable ends there are sets of three narrow lancet windows. Above each set is a small arched window. The eastern elevation has five large square windows to both northern and southern wings on either side of the projecting gabled entry porch. On both sides of each wing are open verandahs. The southwestern section is enclosed and incorporates a timber extension now used as a tuck shop.
Internally, the building is divided into four large rooms. At the front is the gabled entry to the southern wing currently used for school administration. The northern wing houses the library and the western wing is divided into two rooms currently used for music and storage rooms.
The administration wing is lined with fibrous cemented sheeting and contains an office and staff room. The Library is open planned and the rooms in the western wing retain the original spaces though the dividing walls have been removed, presumably when the single sex schools amalgamated.
The ceiling in the main building is lined with pressed metal. Modern stained glass windows have recently been inserted into the lancet windows on the northern wall of the library wing.
Playshed
One of the original playground shelter shed remains on the southern side of the grounds. It is timber framed with a gabled roof clad in corrugated iron. Walls to the lower half screen the rear and end walls. A section has been enclosed at the western end and is used for storage.
","history":"The Central State School is a stone building constructed in 1875 as the second school in Warwick, but one of the earliest State-run schools in Queensland.
Education in Australia was first provided by Churches and by small private concerns. In 1848 a New South Wales Board of National Education was formed to provide public, secular education through National Schools. When Queensland separated from New South Wales in December 1859, two National Schools had been built in Queensland, the earliest in Warwick in 1850.
The Education Act of 1860 was amongst the earliest legislation enacted by the new colony. It established a Board of General Education and provided for a system of government-subsidised primary schools, similar to that in New South Wales. Under the Queensland Act, communities were required to contribute one-third of the cost of construction of new school buildings. Pupils at schools were also subject to payment of fees. At its commencement in 1860, the Board acquired four schools; 73 schools had been opened by 1868, and by 1874, 203 schools were open.
Many of the schools were conducted in buildings that were of primitive construction, the first Warwick school being constructed of timber slabs.
Warwick was settled early and soon became an important regional centre. The Warwick National School quickly became overcrowded and, as development in Warwick spread westward, was no longer centrally located. In 1873 subscriptions were opened for a new school. In August, three lots of land on the corner of Guy and Percy Streets were purchased from George Clark of East Talgai for £150. The firm of Suter and Voysey submitted plans to the Board of Education on 20 September 1873 at a proposed cost of £1800.
Architect Benjamin Backhouse employed Richard George Suter in 1865. In 1864 Backhouse had prepared a model plan for the Queensland Board of Education, to be used for country schools. Whilst employed in Backhouse's office Suter prepared designs for school buildings, which later lead to the Board commissioning Suter for the design of timber schools and teacher's residences. From the end of 1868 until 1875, Suter undertook almost all of the Board's work, which involved approximately 30 National Schools. He described the plans for the school as being draw up with 'the strictest view to economy and consistency with the accommodation required.' This accommodation provided for large classrooms with galleried seating where several classes would be taught at the same time under several teachers and pupil teachers.
The Mayor of Warwick, at a ceremony attended by 2000, people laid the foundation stone on 25 June 1874. The stonework was contracted to John McCulloch at a cost of £1055. John Keleher carried out the timber structures and joinery. The roof was originally shingled. It was completed by the end of March 1875 and was known as the Warwick Central School, the Warwick National School being renamed the Warwick East School. A dividing fence was constructed in the following year to separate the girls' and boys' sections.
Architect Richard Gailey, reporting to the Board of Education on 12 November 1875 criticised the design for its poor lighting and ventilation and commented on the ill fit of the windows. He recommended the construction of playground shelter sheds.
It was usual for parents to provide one fifth of the cost of such sheds and money was collected for them. They cost £140 each and were built by Keleher and completed by 5 February 1878.
In 1884 Johann Guntz bequeathed land adjoining the school and further land was added to the grounds in 1892 from the estate of Carl Brell.
The Warwick West School was divided by gender, the Girls and Infants School and the Boys School being conducted in identical wings of the school separated by walls and by a dividing fence down the centre of the school grounds. This division of the sexes remained in place until 1 January 1933 when the two schools where finally amalgamated to become the Warwick Central State School.
In 1909 both the main school building and toilet block required re-roofing. In 1910 a timber addition was made to the north of the main building. A report at the time also made mention of the poor lighting in the main building. In 1914 dormer windows in the main building were inserted.
In 1919 an open-air annexe was erected at a cost of £1167. While the annexe did relieve some of the over crowding its open nature was a cause of some concern with numerous reports to the Department of Education on it deficiencies as a classroom.
In 1929 Bert Mitchell planted a Bunya pine seedling at the front of the building in honour of this son, Walter who attended the school as a 5 year old.
In 1939 the school and playsheds were reported to be in bad order and the Superintendent of Works from the Education Department recommended a new brick building replace the exiting main building, but this did not eventuate.
In 1956 and 1961 two new schools were built in Warwick and they relieved the overcrowding issue at Warwick Central State School.
In 1959 a new wing with six classrooms was constructed and two further classrooms were added in 1968-1969. When the new classrooms were built, the original school building was converted to convert to administrative use, a library and music rooms.
","criteria":"As a substantial and early government primary school, the former Warwick West School demonstrates the development of the education system in Queensland. The building was constructed in 1874-5, a period of expansion for educational facilities in Queensland. It is an early example of a masonry school building designed by prominent architect RG Suter who was responsible for the design of many school buildings in Queensland from the late 1860s to the mid 1870s.
|The school is uncommon as an early and substantially intact school building and as one constructed of local stone, rather than brick or the timber later in common use.
|The building demonstrates the principal characteristics of early schools such as the provision of large classrooms for teaching by the Lancastrian system and in its gender division, separating class and play areas for girls and boys.
|The Warwick Central State School has aesthetic value as an early example of Gothic revival school architecture and as a prominently sited building, pleasing in form and material, makes an important contribution to the character of Guy Street.
|The Warwick Central State School has provided primary education to generations of Warwick children and continues to be valued in this role.
|The Warwick Central State School is significant as an example of the work of influential architect Richard Suter, who made an important contribution to the design of schools in Queensland. It is the only stone State school building designed by him in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 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 | 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":19653,"place_ref":602530,"name":"St Denys Anglican Church","alternate_name":"Church of St Denys | St Deny's Anglican Church | St Denys Church","street_address":"17 Trevethan Lane","suburb":"AMIENS","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-08-03","description":"St Denys Anglican Church is located on a level block that backs on to a low granite boulder strewn hill, immediately east of the church is another outcropping of boulders with some local eucalypts.
\nThe church is a small single-stored timber building, rectangular in plan, set on low, circular sectioned concrete posts. It has a steeply pitched gable roof clad in short lengths of corrugated iron. The entry porch is located at the rear of the building and has a small steeply pitched gabled roof, accessed by recently added timber steps set into a steel staircase on the left-hand side of the entry porch. The building has three small lancet windows along both sides of the building.
\nA single arched door way connects the entry to the church. The interior is simple and austere with the ceiling and floor lined with stained cypress pine. The altar is on a low platform and holds a brass cross, two candlesticks and a lectern. The sanctuary also contains a wooden cabinet and a bench seat and desk. The altar cloth included in the nomination was not present during the site inspection but is considered a significant component of the altar furnishings for its connection between St Denys Anglican Church and the battlefield Church of Le Harve.
","history":"The Church of St Denys is a small timber church built in 1923 to serve a Soldier Settlement at Amiens
\nUnder the provisions of the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act 1917, land was resumed or set aside for returned soldiers. The intent of the act was to create a 'land fit for heroes' and promote a yeomen farming class to aid in the more intensive farming and closer settlement of regional Australia. The schemes, while well intentioned, failed on the most part because block were too small to be economically viable. In the Stanthorpe shire about 17400 acres was set aside for this purpose in the parishes of Pikedale and Marsh. Over 700 returned soldiers were allocated blocks in what become the Pikedale Soldier Settlement area. At the time the area consisted mostly of a number of small railway sidings with a store and/or post office.
\nIn 1922 the Church of England Diocesan and the Soldiers' Church of England Help Society provided a grant to assist a the Reverend C D Gillman, a returned soldier, residing in Amiens to work on the Soldier Settlements. A church was built in 1923 from £335 sourced from the Soldiers' Church of England Help Society. The altar ornaments and frontal cloth came from the Australian base at Le Harve and are believed to originate from the Cathedral in Amiens, presented to the Church at Amiens, Pikedale as a token of gratitude for the part played by Australian soldiers in France during the 1914-18 war. Additionally both the altar and credence table were donated to the Church from the Ladies Guild, Palmer Green, London in 1923.
\nThe modest nature of the church matches the modest means of the area and the fortunes of those soldier settlers who moved to Amiens. The church in this respect reflects the community it serves. The link between the church in Queensland and the wartime service in France of many of the congregation is reflected in the dedication of the building to the patron saint of France, Saint Denys. This link is further reflected in the gifts made to the church and demonstrates the lasting effects of this experience on those who returned.
\nMaintenance of the church has been undertaken by the St Denys guild, volunteers, many of which are decedents of the original soldier settlers. Currently the church does not have a resident priest, but is serviced as part of the Stanthorpe parish. Church services are irregularly held via public notice in the local Stanthorpe Border Post newspaper.
\nThe church is very intact with only a new set of steps to the entry porch recently added approximately 10 years ago.
","criteria":"As a soldier settlement church with direct links to France, St Denys Anglican Church is important as evidence for the soldier settlement movement following the First World War and for the closer settlement of the Pikedale area.
The church is significant for its association with those who took up property under this scheme and their descendants. It is directly linked to Australian war service in France through the dedication of the Church to St Denys, the Patron Saint of France, but also through the frontal cloth and altar ornaments, which originate from the Cathedral in Amiens, France and used in the military church at the Australian base at Le Harve.
|St Denys Church has a strong association with the people of Amiens and the surrounding area for spiritual and cultural reasons having provided pastoral care and social contacts in the region for over eighty years.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650062,"name":"Warwick State High School","alternate_name":"Warwick Technical College / Warwick Intermediate School","street_address":"Palmerin Street","suburb":"WARWICK","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-06-28","description":"Warwick State High School occupies a large (2.6ha) site fronting east to Palmerin Street, the main thoroughfare in Warwick. It is bounded on its other sides by Victoria Street to the north, Guy Street to the west, and other community buildings to the south.
\nThe seven significant buildings within the school complex are:
\nThe buildings form a cohesive family complex through their shared material palette, scale, and well-considered arrangement around an open bitumen courtyard.
\nThe open courtyard affords the surrounding buildings natural ventilation and light, views between, to, and from the buildings, and clear space for pedestrian circulation. Later covered steel-framed walkways and shade structures are not of state-level heritage significance.
\nAttractive views to the buildings are had from Palmerin and Victoria Streets and the buildings are highly visible within the townscape from surrounding vantage points. The grounds are well-established and include a mature front garden on Palmerin Street symmetrically laid out in front of Block A, and featuring concrete paths and garden beds with original granite edging, twin cypress pines at the front boundary, lawn, and shrubbery.
\nBlock A: Technical College classroom building (1915)
\nBlock A is a highly-intact symmetrical, two-storey masonry teaching building. H-shaped in plan, it has well-composed elevations comprising a granite base, face brick walls on the lower level and a stucco upper level. It has a tall hipped roof clad in tiles with ventilated eaves and a prominent metal ventilation fleche. Large, timber-framed, double-hung windows with stone lintels are regularly spaced around all sides. The front entrance is emphasised by elaborate sandstone dressings and a striking carved stone school emblem. A small entrance vestibule retains an early iron security shutter, encaustic tessellated floor tiles, and a large clear-finished timber and glazed front door with glazed fanlight.
\nThe internal layout of both levels is similar, retaining original rendered partitions and wing walls with scribed skirting board line and timber ceiling lining and cornice. Timber window and door architraves, as well as window hardware survives. The ground floor layout comprises a short entrance hall which leads to a perpendicular hallway with teaching rooms opening on either side. A wide concrete stair stands at the rear (west side) of the building with an iron balustrade and moulded, clear-finished timber handrail. It provides access to the first floor, which has a similar layout. Few openings have been made in the original plaster partitions on both levels, however, lightweight partitions (not significant) have been inserted to make former large classrooms into smaller administration and teaching spaces. The building has timber floor framing generally with suspended concrete slab floors in the circulation spaces with Linoleum and carpet floors (not significant) placed over.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nA highly-intact, two-storey toilet block stands to the rear (west) of Block A, connected by a short first floor timber-framed walkway. The walkway retains V-jointed (VJ) timber board ceiling lining, post brackets, balustrade and lattice. The toilet block has face brick and stucco walls, highset timber-framed windows and a hipped roof clad in tiles. An original metal fire escape stair is attached to the rear (west) wall, and a half-buried concrete septic tank (1923) stands immediately south of the toilet block.
\nModern additions including the floor lining, urinal trough, toilets, basins, and cubicle doors are not of significance.
\nBlock B: Workshops Block (1914)
\nBlock B is a highly-intact, two-storey, symmetrical, masonry building, formerly used for manual training workshops. It has face brick and roughcast stucco walls with brick quoining to the corners and a tall hipped roof clad in tiles with vented timber louvered gablets. Timber-framed double hung windows with stone sills are regularly-spaced on all sides: some have been closed up to accommodate construction of the North Connecting Wing. The ground floor is a suspended concrete slab and the first floor is timber-framed, supported on large steel I beams stamped DORMAN LONG + CO LTD - MIDDLESBOROUGH - ENGLAND. The building includes an early roughcast stucco and brick chimney, a gantry crane on the roof above the large first floor doors, and white tuck pointing survives on some walls.
\nA timber-framed verandah runs along the east side (front) with original small weatherboard-clad enclosures at the south end on both levels (originally lavatory rooms). The enclosures have early but not original timber-framed casement windows. The remaining verandah has been enclosed and a wide stair added on the first floor: these later alterations are not of state-level heritage significance.
\nA small single storey face brick annexe with skillion roof (the former kiln room) is attached to the building on its west side.
\nThe internal layout of the building comprises a single large former workshop space on the first floor, whilst the ground floor has been divided into smaller spaces.
\nThe original stairs have been demolished and access to the first floor is via a stair in the adjacent North Connecting Wing and via a recent external stair on the west side of the building. A stage has been inserted at one end of the first floor. The external stair and stage are not of state-level heritage significance.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nBlock C: Intermediate School Building (1932)
\nBlock C is a highly-intact, two-storey, symmetrical masonry teaching building with a tall hipped roof clad with tiles, ventilated eaves, and a prominent metal ventilation fleche. It has a granite base, face brick and roughcast stucco walls, and smooth-finished concrete dressings with ground floor quoining to corners and windows. The building faces north and has a projecting central bay, which accommodates toilets and teachers rooms. This is flanked by two entrances sheltered by tiled awnings with large timber doors with glazing. The north and south elevations feature large regularly-spaced banks of timber-framed casement windows with awning fanlights. Toothed bricks on the south corners indicate planned but unbuilt extensions. The building has concrete floors in the circulation spaces and toilets, and timber-framed floors in the classrooms and teachers rooms.
\nThe internal layout of both floors comprises a central corridor that runs from east to west and provides access to rooms on either side: a series of standard width classrooms (21ft) on the south side, and bathrooms and teachers rooms on the north. At either end of the corridor is a concrete stair with iron balustrade and timber handrail. The classrooms of the ground floor have had the folding partitions between classrooms replaced with fixed partitions, which are not of state-level heritage significance. Doors and windows in the ground floor verandah wall have been removed.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nSouth Connecting Wing (1958)
\nThe South Connecting Wing is a highly-intact two-storey teaching building linking Blocks A and C. It is L-shaped in plan and has a tall hipped roof clad with tiles, and has ventilated eaves. It has a hybrid concrete, steel I-beam, and timber structure. It faces east to Palmerin Street with face brick and roughcast stucco walls, a recessed ground floor entrance with panelled timber doors emphasised by freestone quoining, and pairs of timber-framed double-hung windows.
\nThe south elevation has face brick walls and is extensively glazed with banks of timber-framed awning windows with fanlights and crimped metal sheet spandrel panels.
\nA timber-framed first floor verandah runs along the inner side (north and west) of the building, connecting with the circulation spaces of Blocks A and C. Bagracks form the balustrade which is clad in crimped metal sheets and has been enclosed later with aluminium-framed windows that are not of heritage significance. The verandah wall is rendered and has timber-framed double-hung windows with brick sills.
\nThe layout of both floors comprises classrooms and former storerooms to the south of the verandah, with a former medical room (ground floor) and teacher’s room (first floor) to the east. A short front entry hall with concrete floor has a concrete stair with steel balustrade and timber handrail up to the first floor. One partition between classrooms on the first floor has been removed.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nNorth Connecting Wing (1959)
\nThe North Connecting Wing is a two-storey teaching building connecting Blocks A and B. It is a long narrow building with a shallow-pitched skillion roof clad with metal sheets. Its long sides face north and south and are extensively glazed with banks of timber-framed awning windows with fanlights and a crimped metal sheet spandrel. At the west and east end of the building is a face brick stairwell with large steel-framed windows with wired glass. The building fronts Victoria Street with an entrance comprising a concrete apron and timber-framed double doors with glazing. An original entrance awning has been demolished and replaced with a larger steel awning. This and other awnings and an adjacent fence are later and not of state-level heritage significance.
\nThe first floor is supported on steel open-web trusses on concrete columns exposed within the ground floor rooms, however, some columns have been removed. The layout is not intact, with its original partitions mostly demolished and new partitions inserted to a different configuration. Wall linings and first floor ceiling linings are not original.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nBlock D: Science and Toilet Block Extension (1968/69)
\nBlock D is an intact two-storey teaching building extending from the west end of Block C. It is long and narrow with its long sides facing north and south and has a gable roof clad with metal sheets. The first floor is supported on a hybrid system of steel open web trusses on concrete columns (1964) exposed within the ground floor spaces, and steel beams and posts (1968/9). The ground floor comprises an open play area and a large toilet and showers block. A stair at the west end of the building provides access up to the first floor. The first floor comprises a verandah running along the north side providing access to a series of former science classrooms on the south side. The verandah has square timber posts and a solid balustrade clad with flat sheets. The ground floor has face brick and roughcast stucco walls between concrete columns with high-level windows of glass louvres with face brick sills. The play area has a concrete floor and is shielded by a patterned breeze block wall. The first floor walls are flat sheets with cover strips and the long sides are extensively glazed with louvres and fixed glass. The eaves are ventilated.[33]
\nThe layout of the ground floor toilets and showers is highly intact, with masonry partitions dividing the large space into separate boys and girls toilets, change rooms, and showers, staff toilets, janitor room, and cleaner room. The floors are concrete. The ceilings and trusses are lined with recent corrugated metal sheets, which are not of heritage significance.
\nThe first floor classrooms are separated by narrow former preparation rooms which directly access classrooms. Partitions and the verandah ceiling are lined with flat sheets. A suspended celling has been installed in the first floor rooms, which is not of state-level heritage significance.
\nFeatures of state-level heritage significance also include:
\nBlock F: Former plumbing workshop building (1963)
\nBlock F is an intact one-storey brick veneer plumbing workshop building. It has a concrete slab floor and a steel portal frame. Its roof is clad with metal sheets and has an east facing clerestory window with metal-framed glass louvres. The eaves are lined with flat sheets. The end walls (north and south) are face brick with large double doors. The side walls (east and west) are extensively glazed with banks of steel-framed awning windows with louvre or fixed glass fanlights and crimped metal sheet-clad spandrel panel. A small gable-roofed block projects from the north elevation, accommodating a staffroom, a narrow pipe store room with door, and a materials store with double doors. Two extensions (c1978 and c 2001) have been added to the west side of the building. The windows along this side are mostly retained but are now internal.
\nThe layout is intact, comprising two large workshops connected by a double door with glazing. The floors are concrete and walls are lined with flat sheets with D-shaped cover strips. The workshops’ ceilings have been lined with corrugated metal sheet, which is not of state-level heritage significance. The workshops retain early timber-framed work benches.
\nFeatures not of State-Level Heritage Significance
\nFeatures of Warwick State High School not of state-level heritage significance include all other features not previously mentioned, including:
\nWarwick State High School opened on this site in 1914 as the Warwick Technical College and High School, accommodated in new buildings; having relocated operations from an earlier site in Guy Street. It grew to include Queensland’s first intermediate school in 1929, accommodated in a new building in 1932, and developed further to cater for increased high school enrolments in the 1950s and 1960s in new buildings. The buildings were purpose-designed by the Department of Public Works (DPW) and form an attractive cohesive group of state educational buildings from the early to mid-20th century. These are:
\nPrior to non-indigenous occupation, the open country of the Darling Downs, named by Allan Cunningham in 1827, had been carefully and deliberately maintained by its Aboriginal owners[1] in an annual pattern of controlled burns to preserve pasture for native grazing animals. Non-Indigenous occupation of the Darling Downs, began in 1840 with the Leslie Brothers who were closely followed by other graziers. The town of Warwick, which grew to become the business centre for the southern Darling Downs, was surveyed by James Burnett in 1849, with the first sale of crown land in July 1850. Warwick was declared a municipality in 1861 and was subsequently transformed from a squatters' town into the principal urban centre of this prosperous pastoral and agricultural district. The construction of the railway linking Brisbane, Toowoomba, Warwick and the tin mines of Stanthorpe reached Warwick in January 1871, and fuelled further development. As Warwick grew, its local industries remained related to primary production including: flour milling, butter and cheese production, bacon processing, sawmilling, coach and wagon works, followed in the 20th century by motor repairs and engineering works. All of these industries required a skilled workforce.[2]
\nThroughout the 19th century, the only avenue for technical education in Queensland was through the local schools of arts where courses in trades were conducted. The quality and variety of instruction depended on the competence and enthusiasm of committee members. During the late 1880s, several committees established technical colleges in existing school of arts buildings, but as the range of courses and number of students increased, separate accommodation was necessary. Queensland’s first purpose-built technical college opened in Ipswich in 1901 [QHR 600586], followed by Warwick (1906), Mount Morgan (1909) [QHR 600005], and Toowoomba (1911) [QHR 600851]. Reflecting the importance of the mining industry to Charters Towers, a school of mines was established in there in 1901 [QHR 600402], which fulfilled a similar role to a technical college.
\nIn the early 1900s the Queensland Government began to take a more active interest in technical colleges. In the late 1890s through to 1914, Queensland's manufacturing sector grew substantially, creating a need for a more skilled workforce in a variety of trades.
\nThe Board of Technical Education was established in 1902, replaced by a Technical Education Branch within the Department of Public Instruction in 1905, and the Technical Instruction Act 1908 empowered the government to take over existing technical colleges. Locally managed technical colleges gradually came under departmental control and the government also established new colleges in several centres, including Maryborough, Bundaberg, Rockhampton and Mackay.[3]
\nTechnical education in Warwick began with the formation of a school of arts, which initially met in the courthouse before establishing itself in a building in Palmerin Street in 1869. A technical college began in the School of Arts boardroom in 1895. This space was soon inadequate and a site was acquired on the corner of Fitzroy and Guy Street where a new building was opened in 1906, financed through local subscriptions. A two-storey extension facing Guy Street was completed in 1909.[4]
\nConcurrently, an approach had been made to the Minister for Public Instruction to offer high school education in Warwick at the technical college. This phase of education was referred to as a Day School. The Warwick Day School began classes in the Guy Street technical college on 1 July 1910. Warwick was the first town in regional Queensland to have a technical high school under government control. The Warwick Technical High School was officially opened on 8 August 1910. It was noted that during the previous 4.5 years, £5812 had been spent on technical college works in Warwick, £2450 of which were raised locally and that the college had been handed over to the government free of debt.[5]
\nDemand for further education was high and by December 1910 it was evident that a new site was needed for a larger technical college and high school. After a local referendum in September 1912, two acres (0.8ha) of land was resumed from Cunningham Park in 1913 for a new technical college and high school.[6]
\nQueensland prosperity grew in the first decades of the 20th century from a mineral boom and agricultural pursuits, enabling the government to implement a campaign of construction of large public buildings.[7] This included substantial brick or timber school buildings. From the beginnings of purpose-built education buildings until the 1950s, brick school buildings were far less frequently built than those of timber. If brick was employed, it was only in prosperous urban or suburban areas with stable or rapidly-increasing populations. Like Queensland’s private schools, technical colleges and schools of arts, rather than being built to a standard plan, all brick and some timber school buildings were individually designed with variation in style, size, and form. These few were given generous budgets, resulting in impressive edifices. Light and ventilation was still a primary concern for the architects but compared to contemporary standard education buildings, these buildings had a grander character and greater landmark attributes.[8]
\nQueensland Government Architect Thomas Pye called tenders for the new Warwick Technical College and High School buildings in July 1913. HD Miller’s £11,500 tender was accepted in August, but the contract was later awarded to Donald James Hutchings. The foundation stone was laid 28 February 1914 by the Queensland Governor, Sir William McGregor.[9]
\nThe main Technical College and High School building (in 2018 named Block A) was a two-storey masonry structure on a Greymare granite base, with a Marseilles tiled roof with a fleche. The walls were face brick and roughcast stucco with Yangan freestone dressings. A carved sandstone coat of arms over the doorway featured the motto of the school: ‘Virtute et Labore’ (by hard work and excellence), carved by the Art Master Charles Astley. The interior, with its wide entrance hall with reinforced concrete staircase, provided teaching space for commercial subjects, chemistry, and a lecture and examination hall. The building included a two-storey toilet block joined by a first floor walkway. The block had an iron fire escape stair and a concrete septic tank was added to the rear (western side) of the block in 1923.[10]
\nA separate two-storey Workshops Block (in 2018 named Block B) was built prior to Block A, standing to its west. It was completed in May 1914 when classes commenced, while earlier Technical College in Guy Street, remained in use for some time. Block B housed a blacksmithing and plumbing workshop and two forges on the ground floor, with a carpenter and joinery workshop and a geometric drawing room on the first floor.[11]
\nBoth buildings were heated by gas, and served by electricity, with synchronised clocks. The buildings cost in excess of £12,000 and were officially opened by the Queensland Governor, His Excellency Sir Hamilton John Goold-Adams, in October 1915. The school buildings complemented existing substantial masonry structures in Warwick, many also built using Yangan freestone.[12]
\nEducational reforms between 1909 and 1914 resulted in the introduction of high schools, expansion of technical colleges, inauguration of the University of Queensland, and initiation of a teachers training college. Warwick was fast becoming a ‘school town’, with the opening of a number of private boarding and day schools from 1912 offering primary and secondary education. These included: Our Lady of the Assumption College (1893, high school from 1912) [QHR 600953], St Joseph’s Christian Brothers College for boys (1912); Church of England Girls School (1917); Presbyterian Girls’ College (1918); Scots College (1919) and the Slade School (1926). The Queensland Country Women’s’ Association provided hostel accommodation to students attending Warwick State High School from January 1928. [13]
\nArt Master of the Warwick Technical College from 1908 was Charles Astley (1869-1929), an accomplished artist and musician. He learnt woodcarving from Edith Robinson and taught art classes on behalf of the technical college at Milton Ladies College (Pringle Cottage) [QHR 604945], Tannymorel, Clifton, Stanthorpe, and Killarney. He began teaching china painting in 1914, which required kiln firing, so he also initiated pottery classes. Warwick acquired a pottery kiln in May 1918, prior to Brisbane’s Central Technical College where pottery had been taught since 1916. The first kiln was located on the ground floor of the workshops block but Astley had difficulties with this kiln. A new imported kiln was purchased in 1922 and a small brick lean-to room was added to the rear (western side) of the workshops block, costing £75 and built to accommodate it. This kiln was connected into a pre-existing chimney.[14]
\nWarwick Technical College, under Astley’s direction, pioneered the teaching and production of pottery in Queensland. This was more than a decade prior to the inclusion of ceramics courses in institutions such as the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Astley’s students’ pottery work was exhibited in the Brisbane Exhibition in 1921 and 1923 and he submitted a display to the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium in 1924, for which he received a bronze medal. Astley’s health failed, and following a brief time during 1925 when he established the art department at the Rockhampton Technical College, he was forced to retire at age 56, and died in 1929. Many of his works are retained in private collections, and some are held in the Queensland Art Gallery and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. [15]
\nThe next phase of the development of the school campus came with the introduction of an intermediate school. This concept emerged in Queensland during the late 1920s, as a transition between primary and secondary schooling. Intermediate schools catered for years six and seven, and offered vocational subjects as well as a transition towards the Junior (Year 10) and Senior (Year 12) Certificates. Junior Certificates were available for General, Commercial Industrial, Home Science, Agriculture or Art. The completion of Senior could lead to enrolment at the University of Queensland, which at that time offered 25 scholarships per year. The intermediate system operated until the early 1960s. [16]
\nThe first state intermediate schools were established within existing school facilities at Warwick, Charters Towers, Mount Morgan and South Brisbane from 1928. In February 1929, the Minister for Education, the Hon. TW Wilson, opened the first intermediate school in Queensland at the Warwick Technical College and High School. The first group of 98 students were housed in the top storey of the workshops block. The top floor of the old Technical College in Guy Street was used for manual arts training. Queensland’s first purpose-built intermediate school was opened in Roma in December 1929.[17]
\nA new purpose-built Intermediate School building, the second in Queensland, was erected at Warwick Technical College in 1932 (in 2018 named Block C). It was designed by DPW architect Harold Parr and built by Thomas R Porter for £7866. It was situated at right angles to the existing buildings, overlooking Cunningham Park, and was built to a complementary design. The two storey building had a Greymare granite base with face brick and roughcast stucco walls, stucco quoins, bands and architraves, and a tall hipped roof clad with tiles with a central metal ventilation fleche. The ground floor comprised four classrooms separated by folding partitions to allow conversion for assemblies, teachers room, and toilets. The first floor had two classrooms, a drawing, and a science room, teachers room, and toilets. The classrooms on both levels, were on the southern side of the building with banks of large casement windows enabling high levels of southern light and natural ventilation. The Minister for Education, the Hon. FA Cooper, officially opened the building on 7 October 1932, and classes began in November.[18]
\nBy 1937, there were intermediate schools established in Brisbane South [QHR 601222] (1929), Mount Morgan [QHR 650005] (1929), Roma (1929), Charters Towers (1929), Gatton (1933), Gympie (1933), Bundaberg (1933), Mackay [QHR 601911] (1933), Brisbane North (Kelvin Grove) (1935), Maryborough Girls and Boys [QHR 600697] (1936), and Ayr [QHR 601574] (1936). Most were accomplished through re-use or remodelling of existing buildings. Six buildings at Roma, Warwick, Mackay, Bundaberg (demolished), Ayr, and Brisbane North (Kelvin Grove) were purpose-built structures.[19]
\nFrom 1948, land parcels approximately 300m to the north of the school, close to the river, were gradually resumed to provide new school land separate from the main campus. From 1950, a committee of parents, staff, and past students had fund-raised to convert this paddock into a sports field; named Hamilton Oval in 1951. In 1954, further land was acquired to establish an agricultural school. Both land areas were later amalgamated.[20]
\nThe campus was connected to the town’s sewerage system in 1943. This necessitated a number of changes of fixtures and fittings of most plumbing items throughout the school.[21]
\nIn the late 1950s, two two-storey connecting wings were built; a north wing between Block A and B and a south wing between Block A and C, within the school’s restrained 2 acre (0.8ha) site. This created an enclosed courtyard campus. From 1 July 1957 construction began on the South Connecting Wing between Blocks A and C at a cost of £19,693. The project included the re-use of freestone removed from the window openings of the technical college building, cut and dressed to be reused in the new wing, and was designed to have ‘sympathetic consideration of the aesthetic relationship’ to the existing structure in order to ‘preserve its integrity’. It housed science labs on the ground floor and classrooms on the first floor. It was completed by 1 March 1958.[22]
\nWork began immediately on the North Connecting Wing between Block A and B. This link, with large banks of awning windows, was designed by consulting architect Jim Leven. The wing, built in brick and timber, cost £28,064 and was likely completed by December 1959. It did not repeat all design elements of the early structures but was consciously designed so as not to detract from the existing structures. Three classrooms were provided on the ground floor with art, drawing, and dressmaking accommodated on the well-lit first floor. Both connecting wings illustrate DPW’s commitment to improved lighting and ventilation for schools at this time. The upper floor of Block B was used for woodworking with bench accommodation for 32 students. Timber was stored in the loft. The ground floor was to be converted for welding, plumbing and metalwork.[23]
\nCunningham Park, occupying the land adjacent to the school, was used for sporting activities by the public and school community. The school constructed a tennis court and cricket pitch within the park during the 1930s (in 2018 two multi-purpose courts remain). The EJ Portley Olympic Pool opened in October 1957 in the southeast corner of Cunningham Park. In August 1964, the two acre (0.8ha) site was gazetted as a Reserve for School Purposes (R. 484). In 1966, the Warwick State High School Parents and Citizens’ Association (P & C) requested control over this land, because Hamilton Oval was too far away for lunch-time sport and recreation.[24]
\nFurther additions were made to the school in the 1960s. A Plumbing Workshop (in 2018 named Block F) was completed at the commencement of the 1963 school year. The 98 ft (30m) by 38 ft (11.5m) slab on ground brick veneer and steel portal frame building, with east-facing skylight cost £17,500 and comprised two large workshop rooms, one for metalwork and one for plumbing. This was built to a standard type developed by the DPW. The north-south alignment of this building provided easy access for materials delivered directly from Victoria Street into a large door facing the street. Concurrently, the intermediate school ceased to exist with the demise of the Scholarship exam.[25]
\nThe Education Act 1964 was a turning point and the first major update of Queensland education's governing legislation since 1875. Effectively, a new era of state education evolved, requiring new architectural responses. The Department of Education (as it had been renamed in 1957) continued to give the responsibility of building design to the architects of the DPW. In 1964 construction began on a new brick and timber Science and Toilet Block extension with (in 2018 named Block D) extending from the west end of Block C. Extensive ground floor toilets and showers were built first (1964-65), costing £20,475, and science laboratories with preparation rooms were subsequently added to the first floor (1968-9) costing $70,420. The series of south-facing classrooms had large banks of windows to provide ample natural light and ventilations and were accessed by a long northern verandah. Minor alterations were made the west end of Block C for connecting access. The new building was built to a standard DPW plan, which included steel open web floor joists to provide unencumbered space underneath. This space was generally open for recreation, but at Warwick’s small site it had to accommodate much needed toilets and showers.[26]
\nThe construction of Block D highlighted the diminishing recreational space on the school campus. The P & C sought the allocation of Cunningham Park to the school, which led to: the cancellation of the Recreation Reserve (R.269 – Cunningham Park); extension of the school reserve (R.484) and creation of a new reserve on the south western side of the park. The swimming pool was in a separate reserve. These were all gazetted in November 1968. The extension of the school reserve 8.9m to the west allowed for the construction of a new science wing at that time.[27]
\nIn July 1977 Warwick State High School officially acquired the adjacent land (Lot 2 W30131 – previously reserve for playground) as part of the high school and the campus grew into this space. With new educational philosophies from the mid-1960s-1980s, government policies and functional requirements combined with new architectural styles, materials and technologies, the evolution of standard designs became more fragmented. Rather than ‘improving' on the previous designs, architects began to design with inspiration drawn from new precedents. Fundamentally, timber construction was no longer favoured and buildings were no longer predominantly highset.[28]
\nFund-raising began for the construction of a hall in the early 1970s. The Great Hall was completed in 1977 and a First Year Centre in 1978. This was built on vacant land between Block C and the council swimming pool. This building blocked any views of Block C to and from Palmerin Street and the former Cunningham Park, which it originally overlooked. The beautification of the school grounds during the late 1970s and early 1980s have been credited to the principal Bob Rasmussen and his family; particularly the maintenance of the gardens facing Palmerin Street.[29]
\nIn c1978 Block F was extended to the west and the ground floor of the North Connecting Wing was altered to accommodate additional art classes, including the demolition of columns and the wall between classrooms and the corridor. A new library building was completed in 1986.[30]
\nWarwick State High School continued to provide technical education evening classes for tradesmen into the 1980s, until the establishment of the Warwick TAFE College in 1988. The conversion of the upper floor of Block B into a drama theatre in the early 1980s saw the carpentry work shop benches transferred to Block F. In c2001 a second extension was made on the west side of Block F to accommodate increased manual training facilities. A new art/science block was completed in 2006. In 2004 the school site merged Lots 1 W30106 (school site) and Lot 2 W30131 (its playground reserve acquired in 1977) creating Lot 3 SP171821.[31]
\nThe school celebrated its centenary in 2002 with a significant publication acknowledging the history and achievements of the school. In 2016, the school enrolments for Warwick State High School were 893. In 2018 Warwick State High School continues to operate from its original site and retains its two storey brick Technical College and High School building, Workshops Block, Intermediate School and 1950s North and South Connecting Wings, and former Plumbing Workshop and Science Wing with Toilet Block extension. It remains the only state high school in Warwick and is a key social focus for the community, as generations of students have been taught there and many social events held in the school’s grounds and buildings since its establishment. [32]
","criteria":"Warwick State High School (opened on this site in 1914 as the Warwick Technical College and High School) is important in demonstrating the provision and evolution of state and technical education and its associated architecture in Queensland. It retains excellent, representative examples of government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies.
\nWarwick State High School is an early example of a state funded education institution of regional importance, which has been at the forefront of the provision of secondary and technical education in Queensland, as demonstrated by Technical College and High School Buildings, Main Building, Block A (1915) and Workshops Block, Block B (1914); and Queensland’s second purpose-built intermediate school building, Block C (1932).
\nLater high school buildings (South Connecting Wing 1958 and North Connecting Wing 1959, Block F 1963, and Block D 1968/9) are excellent representations of the continuum of years of experimentation with natural light, classroom size, and ventilation by the Department of Public Works (DPW) to produce an ideal educational environment.
|Warwick State High School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state high school and technical college complex developed from the early to the mid-20th century. The principal characteristics include: high quality, durable buildings designed by the DPW; separate buildings for specialist departments with subject-specific classrooms; classrooms and buildings for vocational education; classrooms with high levels of natural light and ventilation facilitated by open space around the buildings; separate toilet blocks/areas; and prominent gardens on the main street close to the centre of town.
\nBlock A (1915), the Technical College and High School classroom building, demonstrates the principal characteristics of an early 20th century state technical college and high school teaching building in Queensland. It is highly intact retaining its: custom design in a confident classical style; landscaped front grounds and grand facade prominent on Palmerin Street; high quality materials and craftsmanship; a variety of classroom spaces designed for specialist classes; an attached separate toilet block.
\nBlock B (1914), the Workshops Block, demonstrates the principal characteristics of an early 20th century state technical college and high school workshops building in Queensland. It is highly intact retaining its: restrained style and material use complementary to the main building; location standing separate from the main building to minimise noise disruption and dissipate heat from the forges and kiln; large open workshop spaces with minimal and durable internal finishes; large door access and gantry crane to the first floor; and kiln room (c1922) with chimney.
\nBlock C (1932), the Intermediate School building, demonstrates the principal characteristics of a state intermediate school building from the interwar period in Queensland. It is highly intact retaining its: confident classical style with well-composed elevations; high quality materials and craftsmanship; a series of south-facing classrooms of a standard size with high levels of southern light and natural ventilation; and teachers rooms.
\nBlock F (1963), the high school Plumbing Workshops building, demonstrates the principal characteristics of a state high school vocational training building from the mid-20th century in Queensland. It is highly intact retaining its: location standing separate from the main building to minimise noise disruption; brick veneer, concrete slab on ground, and steel portal frame construction with vented clerestory; large open workshop spaces with minimal and durable internal finishes; large door access; and high levels of natural light and ventilation.
|Warwick State High School (Blocks A, B, C, and the North and South Connecting Wings) is highly intact and has external aesthetic significance for its beautiful attributes. This well composed complex of two-storey masonry buildings is unified by the harmonious form, scale, materials, and fine craftsmanship, laid out around an open courtyard setting with views between buildings. Blocks A and C have dominant roof fleches.
\nThe DPW sought to convey a sense of progress and permanence through the designs, which provide a notable streetscape contribution to Palmerin and Victoria Streets.
\nThe school is an important local landmark, highly visible within the townscape from surrounding vantage points, including views from the northern entry to the town and along Palmerin and Victoria Streets. Over many years Block A has been the subject of photographs showcasing the beautiful masonry buildings of Warwick.
|Schools and technical colleges 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.
\nWarwick State High School and its precursor institutions, have been at the forefront of technical and post-primary education in Queensland since 1895. Local fundraising supported the construction of the new purpose-built Technical College and High School (1914-15), boosting the importance of Warwick as an education centre for the southern downs region.
\nWarwick State High School has educated generations of students from Warwick and the surrounding districts for more than a century, and it remains a focus for the community, which continues its support of the school.
|Warwick State High School has a special association the life work of nationally renowned and accomplished artist Charles Astley (1869 -1929), who pioneered the teaching of pottery in Queensland technical colleges.
\nHis close association with this school is the result of his employment as Art Master from 1908 to 1925. Astley is responsible for the carved sandstone emblem above the entrance to Block A, and the kiln room of Block B.
","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":null,"place_ref":650092,"name":"Allan State School (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"280 Sandy Creek Road","suburb":"ALLAN","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2019-05-03","description":"Allan State School (former) occupies a 8094m2 largely flat site in the locality of Allan (formerly known as Sandy Creek), approximately 8.5km northwest of Warwick in the Darling Downs. Fronting and accessed by Sandy Creek Road to the southwest, the site is bounded on all other sides by agricultural properties. Now a residential property, the place retains a complex of former school buildings and structures, remnants of play equipment and spaces, and landscape elements.
\nThe features of State-level cultural heritage significance within the complex are:
\nMost of the buildings and structures are located at the southeast end of the site, with the playing field forming the western portion of the site and the Shed and Enclosure standing in the northwest corner. The Suter Teaching Building and the Suter Teachers Residence are aligned parallel to and facing Sandy Creek Road to the southwest. North of the school buildings, the Playshed stands adjacent to the former tennis court. The grounds are divided by fences into sections: the school to the east, the residence yard in the centre, and the playing field to the west.
\nSuter Teaching Building (1872, extended 1886)
\nThe Suter Teaching Building is a highly-intact, lowset, timber classroom building (former), sheltered by a steeply-pitched gable roof with a broken-back over front (southwest) and rear (northeast) verandahs. Accessed via central stairs, the verandahs are largely open, with the rear verandah semi-enclosed at each end.
\nThe interior comprises a single classroom (former), accessed by central doors from the front and rear verandahs.
\nFeatures of the Suter Teaching Building of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of the Suter Teaching Building not of state-level heritage significance include: double-hung sashes within gable end wall windows; door leafs within original opening to front verandah wall; V-jointed (VJ) timber-lined store room enclosure at west end of rear verandah; rainwater tanks and associated PVC pipework; metal stumps; timber stairs; metal handrail to rear stair; and boarding over an original window opening in southeast gable end wall.
\nSuter Teachers Residence (1872, extended 1886 and 2017)
\nThe Suter Teachers Residence is a lowset, timber residence that has an open verandah to the front (southwest), an annexe and a 2017 addition to the rear (northeast), and a mostly-detached 2017 extension to the side (northwest). The building has a dual-gable roof, with a broken back over the front verandah, and perpendicular gables over the rear annexe and addition.
\nThe various stages that the building was constructed and extended include:
\nFeatures of the Suter Teachers Residence of State-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of the Suter Teachers Residence not of state-level heritage significance include: 2017 extension and addition; interior plaster wall and ceiling linings; linoleum floor lining; aluminium-framed windows; replica rounded metal window hoods at north end of southeast elevation; modern kitchen fitout; and non-original electrical, sewerage and gas fittings, and associated ducts and grills.
\nPlayshed (1954)
\nThe Playshed is a 6-post, timber-framed, rectangular sheltered play space. It has a corrugated cement sheet-clad hip roof, and the roof framing is exposed to the interior.
\nFeatures of the Playshed of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of the Playshed not of state-level heritage significance include: corrugated metal-clad enclosure (southeast side); and concrete slab floor.
\nLandscape Features and Play Equipment
\nThe Suter Teaching Building and Suter Teachers Residence are highly visible and prominent features of Sandy Creek Road. With vistas from the road across an open front lawn, the buildings read as a pair, set within a rural landscape.
\nThe Playing Field, located directly south of the Shed and Enclosure, is an open grassed area, separated from the former school buildings by a fence.
\nAn early netball hoop is located at the north end of the Playing Field. It comprises a roughly-hewn timber post, with a metal hoop fixed to the top.
\nThe timber frame of an early swing is located between the Suter Teaching Building and Playshed. The framing includes two tall, roughly-hewn timber posts connected with a timber beam. Some early metal fixings and chains are attached to the beam.
\nRemnants of the tennis court include two timber net posts, with metal hooks. The extent of the former tennis court is now grassed.
\nFour early timber posts along the east boundary mark the original extent of the grounds: two are located at the corners of the lot boundary, one is adjacent a chicken coop and one is near the swing set. Other early timber fence posts are along the playing field section of the Sandy Creek Road boundary. The two-rail timber fence with wire mesh along Sandy Creek Road has been reconstructed to match its c1929 design.
\nA commemorative stone (1992) is located near the entrance gate from Sandy Creek Road to the school yard, marking the 120th anniversary of the school, and its opening and closing dates.
\nA mature silky oak tree (Grevillea robusta) survives between the residence yard and playing field.
\nFeatures not of State-Level Heritage Significance
\nFeatures within the grounds of Allan State School (former) that are not of State-level cultural heritage significance include: other buildings and structures not previously mentioned (including timber wash house, chicken coop / shed), recent water and sewerage tanks and associated pipework, recent fences, driveway and its surface; and trees and vegetation not previously identified.
","history":"Allan State School (former) was originally named Sandy Creek and established in 1872 on a 2 acre site (0.8ha). Situated approximately 10 km west of Warwick, on the Darling Downs, the school retains an excellent and highly intact example of a Suter-designed school building. The teachers residence, also Suter-designed and constructed at the same time as the school, is considered to be the only known example to survive in Queensland. Prior to the school being closed in 1967 and sold to private owners, it had been in continuous use since its establishment and was the focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activities.
\nThe traditional owners of the Warwick District were the Githabal language group.[1] Early European explorer and botanist, Allan Cunningham, first visited the the Darling Downs, in 1827. Thirteen years later, grazier Patrick Leslie, with and a large party, set out from Penrith to explore the Darling Downs. In 1840, he pioneered the first pastoral runs on the Downs, Toolburra and Canning Downs, and established the important wool industry in the region.[2] Agriculture was also introduced to Sandy Creek in this era when closer settlement began, and a small, but thriving, farming community emerged.[3]
\nBy 1869 there were almost 200 people residing in the Sandy Creek district including families with small children.[4]The closest schools were in Warwick, a considerable distance for a child to travel each day. To overcome this problem, the community made a request to the government for a school, ‘if there was a school established here it would not only offer a chance for educating our little ones, but we might retain their services at home, which are found to be so valuable on a farm, both in the early morning and after school hours at night’.[5] Sandy Creek farmer, Michael McKone, donated 2 acres (0.8 ha) of his 37 acre (15 ha) property for the school, with frontage to the road to Sandy Creek from Warwick (Sandy Creek Road in 2019). McKone and other community members donated funds to assist with the construction of a school.[6]
\nThe request was successful, and in November 1871 tenders were called for the construction of a school and teachers residence for Sandy Creek.[7] The successful contractors were Warwick carpentry partnership, William Wallace and William Marshall who were to ‘perform, execute and complete all the works required in erecting and finishing a school house and teachers residence at Sandy Creek in accordance with certain plans and specifications prepared for the purpose by Richard George Suter of Brisbane, Architect, and to provide furniture and also a tank and pump for the same’.[8]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. Following the introduction of the Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland’s national and public schools grew from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875.[9] Locals often donated land and labour for a school’s construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[10]
\nSuter was a private architect commissioned from 1865 by the Board of General Education to design school buildings. After 1868, Suter was responsible for most of the Board's buildings until 1875. In his timber school designs, Suter incorporated an ‘outside studding’ - construction technique whereby a building with timber stud framing was clad only internally, creating a distinctive exterior of exposed framing similar in appearance to half-timbered construction. Suter recognised that in a relatively mild climate a timber wall essentially half an inch thick would provide adequate enclosure and permit quick dissipation of interior heat. To achieve architectural pretension, the hardwood frame and softwood linings were stained and oil finished in different colours and diagonal or crossed bracing members were introduced not only for structural integrity but for expressive and decorative effect. Suter is credited with being the first to use this technique in Queensland.[11] Outside studding for school architecture was continued by Suter’s successors for another 50 years[12] and the technique was transmitted throughout the colony, becoming popular and used in countless non-education buildings. As an architect in the early years of the colony, Suter was prolific despite only practicing for approximately 10 years in Queensland and had a strong influence on the establishment of Queensland architecture.[13] Suter’s standard designs were widely used by the government as an easy way to provide education facilities in the face of limited budgets and a growing population. The reuse of designs diminished the need to pay Suter additional architectural fees and the relationship between Suter and the government became strained. Suter continued as approved architect until 1875 when he was replaced.[14]
\nAlthough Suter’s Brisbane school buildings were of brick construction, in rural areas Suter designed timber-framed school buildings. Initially, his designs were simple, lowset, structures with gable roofs, rectangular in plan with a small porch. When first built, the Sandy Creek school (Allan State School) was a one-room timber school, with externally exposed timber framing, hardwood shingle roof, and small entrance porch facing the road, with no verandahs or rear door.[15]
\nMost Queensland state schools incorporated a teachers residence on the site, particularly in rural areas. In Australia, only Queensland offered free accommodation to teachers, the government policy applying to male teachers (only) from as early as 1864. This was partial recompense for a low wage, an incentive for teacher recruitment in rural areas and provided onsite caretakers. From the outset, teachers residences were built to standards regulated by the Board of General Education rather than to specific designs which varied according to the architects responsible.[16] These residences were similar to the vernacular Queensland house with few, if any, education-specific requirements or features.
\nResidences designed by the Department of Public Works’ architects, and constructed to the high standard demanded by the state, were typically of a higher-quality in design, materials and construction than most similarly-scaled private residences. The detached teachers residence was located within the school grounds at a distance from the teaching buildings, usually with a separate, fenced yard with gardens and trees. The teachers residence at Sandy Creek was built to the west of the school and originally shared the same distance from the front boundary as the school. When first built, it was a small timber two-room house with rear kitchen, including fireplace, a hardwood shingle roof and front verandah.[17]
\nThe school was opened on the 13 May, 1872 with an enrolment of 24 students. Both buildings had cost £304 to construct.[18] In December 1872 tenders were called for the construction of a fence around the playground and a fireplace for the teachers residence.[19] In October 1873 it was recorded that 41 children were on the roll. [20] By 1878 this increased to 60 children and the school inspector reported ‘the pupils are clean, pretty steady and attentive, well-behaved and docile’. [21] The paddock west of the residence became the playing field with a cricket pitch, netball hoop and shed and enclosure added at a later date.
\nDespite the general acceptance of Suter's designs, they did receive some criticism from school inspectors, particularly the exposed studding, as many schools had to be clad externally later or have verandahs added to protect the walls. Hand basins were rarely supplied in rural schools, a much criticised design flaw. A rear door leading to the verandah was not provided, requiring one to be cut later. Suter’s design was also criticised as being uniformly defective in ventilation. Inspector John Anderson complained in 1875 of the ventilation quality and suggested new techniques. Inspector AJ Boyd was critical of the lack of appreciation of tropical requirements, claiming that all school buildings were designed for cold climates. [22]
\nSome of these problems were addressed when Suter introduced an ‘improved plan’ of his school building and teachers residence designs in 1873. The ‘improved plan’ added front and rear verandahs, which provided hat rooms and additional play and classroom space to the teaching buildings. This began a distinctive design solution of “classroom and verandah” that continued through evolution until at least the 1960s. [23] Other problems with Suter designs would be addressed in subsequent designs by other Department of Public Works architects, and typically, existing Suter buildings were altered to provide better internal conditions. [24]
\nAs the original design of the Sandy Creek school had not included a verandah, it became apparent that one was required to help reduce the heat during the summer months, give protection to the children from the sun and wind, and improve light and ventilation. In 1878 the school inspector reported to the Colonial Architect’s Office that the school ‘has a porch in front of the school which must be taken down … there is no door to the back of the building’.[25] Additions recommended were for the construction of front and rear verandahs and the inclusion of a back door.[26] This work, however, did not take place at this time and in 1883 the school committee made a request to the Department of Public Instruction (the department) for the construction of verandahs and stated that ‘we were now prepared to contribute our share towards their erection’.[27] It was not until 1886, however, following further requests from the school committee that the improvements were carried out and tenders were called.[28] Subsequently, the front porch was removed and front and rear verandas with timber balustrades and stairs were built. A door was also introduced to the back verandah. By 1878 the school was known as the Sandy Creek State School.[29]
\nIn 1885 the school committee requested additions to the teachers residence for the construction of two new rooms. The committee had been successful in raising £21 to contribute to the cost of the extensions.[30] This, and the addition of a new chimney had been completed by June 1886.[31] The two new rooms were added to the front of the residence, with the original two rooms becoming the rear gabled section of the building. The front verandah was shifted from the original section to the front of the new addition.[32] In 1896 both the school building and residence had their roofs sheeted with corrugated iron. In 1930 the teaching building’s timber floor, which was in great need of repair, was replaced.[33]
\nSandy Creek remained a bustling agricultural centre in the late nineteenth century with three hotels.[34] In 1899 a small, timber Anglican Church, St Matthews, was constructed adjacent to the school.[35] When the railway line was extended from Warwick to Goondiwindi in 1904 a railway siding was built to Sandy Creek. It was, however, named Allan Railway Station rather than Sandy Creek. Its namesake was William Allan (1840-1901), successful Sandy Creek district pastoralist and well-respected Parliamentarian.[36] In 1917 a community hall, the Allies Hall, was constructed in Sandy Creek which became the centre for social activities in the district for several decades.[37]
\nIn 1929, at the request of the school committee, the department approved the school’s named change from Sandy Creek to Allan. Prior to this, the school committee expressed their concerns to the department in relation to the school’s name; ‘Sandy Creek’ was often confused with other districts of the same name, causing mail delays, and as the railway station was called Allan, the school should be also.[38]
\nArbor Day had been an important event in the school calendar at Allan State School. Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.[39] In September 1928, the curator of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, William Ernest Bick, supplied six trees for Allan State School, at the request of the head teacher, Austin Corcoran, for that year’s Arbor Day celebrations.[40] Continuing with the tradition, in September 1948, it was reported in the Warwick Daily News several trees had been planted at the school for that year’s Arbor Day, and one was planted by an original Sandy Creek pupil, Mr Dippelsman, aged 76.[41] The mature silky oak tree (Grevillea robusta) situated behind the teachers residence may be an Arbor Day planting.
\nA major event in the history of the school was the celebration of its Diamond Jubilee in May 1932. It was reported in several newspapers at the time, including the Warwick Daily News and the Queenslander that it was attended by up to 400 people, 200 of which were past pupils. A souvenir booklet, outlining the history of the school and listing past teachers and pupils was distributed to all who attended. The celebrations included a luncheon held in a marquee erected for the occasion at the school, a picnic, sports program and an evening ball in the Allies Hall. The school building itself was described at the time, ‘the original school building, to which verandahs and a porch only have been added since its erection 60 years ago’.[42] Dignitaries, such as the Mayor of Warwick attended and photographs of past and present pupils were taken at the front of the school.[43] Subsequent celebrations were held at the school in 1947 for the school’s 75th anniversary and in 1951 for its 79th anniversary.[44] In 1992, the 120 year anniversary of the school was celebrated, and commemorated with a history booklet and a commemorative plaque placed at the front of the school, which lists its opening and closing dates.[45]
\nIn 1954 a playshed was built in the school grounds. This followed several requests from the school committee to the department from the 1930s to the 1950s.[46]The Queensland education system recognised the importance of play in the school curriculum and, as school sites were typically cleared of all vegetation, the provision of all-weather outdoor space was needed. Playsheds were designed as free-standing shelters, with fixed timber seating between posts and earth or decomposed granite floors that provided covered play space and doubled as teaching space when required. These structures were timber-framed and generally open sided, although some were partially enclosed with timber boards or corrugated galvanised iron sheets.[47] Playsheds were a typical addition to state schools across Queensland between c1880s and the 1950s, although less frequently constructed after c1909, with the introduction of highset school buildings with understorey play areas. Built to standard designs, playsheds ranged in size relative to student numbers.[48] One year after its construction, the Allan State School playshed was enclosed to protect the children from the strong westerly winds in the winter months.[49]
\nIn 1956 electricity was installed in the school building and the residence.[50] In 1960 alterations were made to the residence when the front verandah was enclosed, providing an extra two rooms. In 2017 this was reopened and elements including the balustrade and verandah posts were reconstructed. Other than that, very little change has occurred.[51]
\nBy the 1960s enrolment numbers had dropped to fewer than 26 pupils and in 1966 there were only 11 students attending.[52] The department reported that ‘consideration is at present being given to the possibility of the closure of the Allan State School as a result of transport of children to a Warwick school’.[53] In 1967 the school was closed and the following year the property was sold into private ownership and was subsequently established as a farm.[54]
\nIn 2017, the Allan State School (former) changed ownership and during that year, renovations were undertaken to the Suter Teachers Residence. These renovations included a gable-roofed extension to the southeast of the rear annexe, and an addition to the northwest side of the building. The bathroom was converted into a hallway, and the kitchen to a bedroom; and a new kitchen and pantry was installed. The dividing wall between the 1886 addition’s rooms was removed, with bulkhead retained. Most wall and ceiling linings were plastered, except for a beaded board ceiling to the 1886 addition’s rooms. A c1952 enclosure of the front verandah was re-opened, and the verandah was largely reconstructed to the early detailing. The following year, in 2018, the Suter Teaching Building was re-levelled, with original timber stumps retained where viable. [55]
\nIn 2019 there were only three Suter-designed timber teaching buildings entered in the Queensland Heritage Register: Waterford State School (QHR 602672), Mutdapilly State School (QHR 602840) and Morayfield State School (QHR 602839). The teachers residence is the only known surviving Suter-designed teachers residence in Queensland.[56]
\nThe school site has changed little since the school was first established in the 1870s. In 2019 it remains in private ownership, the house is used as a private residence, and the teaching building is used as an office. The former school evokes a sense of the past and is a reminder of the way generations of Allan State School children went to school. Operating from 1872 to 1967, Allan State School, has played an important role in the Allan district. Generations of students have been taught there and many social events held at the school since its establishment.
","criteria":"Allan State School (former) (established in 1872 as Sandy Creek Provisional School) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education, and its associated architecture, in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies and later became standard. These buildings are: a Suter Teaching Building (1872, extended 1886); a Suter Teachers Residence (1872, extended 1886); and a Playshed (1954).
\nThe Suter Teaching Building and its extensions represent the early development of standard Queensland school classroom building types by the Department of Public Works architects, and the commencement of years of experimentation with light, classroom size and ventilation.
\nThe Suter Teachers Residence is important as early, representative evidence of the Queensland Government’s policy to provide accommodation for married male teachers as an inducement to teach in rural areas and to provide a resident caretaker on the site.
\nThe Playshed, playing field and sporting facilities are representative of Queensland Government’s recognition of the importance of play in the education of children.
\nReserved for school purposes in 1872, the place demonstrates the establishment and development of closer settlement in the Warwick district, an early agricultural and pastoral area in Queensland.
\n|
Highly intact, the timber Suter Teaching Building at Allan State School (former) is rare as one of four known surviving intact examples of the approximately 65 buildings of this type constructed.
\nAs a pair, the Suter Teaching Building and Suter Teachers Residence are rare as the only known surviving example of a Suter-designed timber school building and teachers residence complex in Queensland, and as the earliest known surviving pair of a school building and teachers residence built concurrently by the Queensland Government. Together the pair are exceptional, demonstrating a high degree of integrity through their retention of historical form, configuration and setting.
|Allan State School (former) is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of early Queensland state schools, including building designs by the Queensland Government, set in a generous site with play areas, sporting facilities, and a mature tree.
\nThe Suter Teaching Building is an excellent, highly intact and rare example of its type, with typical early alterations for improved light and ventilation. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of a Suter teaching building, including: its lowset form with gable roof; single-skin, timber-framed construction with externally exposed studs and bracing; and single-room classroom space with narrow windows. The early alterations, including front and rear verandahs (1886), exterior cladding in timber weatherboards, and corrugated metal roof sheets, are typical modifications made to this building type following the introduction Suter’s ‘improved plan’ in 1873.
\nAs the only known example of its type surviving in Queensland, the Suter Teachers Residence is a rare example of its type, with typical and early alterations. The building demonstrates the principal characteristics of a Suter teachers residence, through its: lowset form; interior layout comprising a core of sleeping and living spaces, with a rear kitchen annexe; and coved ceilings to interior rooms. Early modifications include: the 1886 extension for increased accommodation; weatherboard and chamferboard exterior cladding; and corrugated metal roof sheets.
\nThe Playshed is a good, intact example of a standard 6-post Department of Public Works-designed playshed. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of its type through its hipped roof with exposed timber framing; timber posts and braces; timber perimeter seats; and partially enclosed sides.
|As a cohesive pair of timber buildings from the 19th century, Allan State School (former) is important for its contribution to the locality and its evocative qualities.
\nSet back from and aligned with the adjacent road, the Suter Teaching Building and Suter Teachers Residence possess an ordered simplicity and unified composition of scale, form and materiality; which are complemented by the rural landscape setting.
\nThe former school buildings, largely unchanged from their 19th century form and preserved in their original configuration and setting, evoke a sense of nostalgia for the simplicity of Queensland’s rural schooling experience in the past.
|Allan State School (former) has a strong and ongoing association with past pupils, parents, staff members, and the surrounding community through sustained use from its establishment in 1872 until its closing in 1967. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of the Sandy Creek / Allan district, with generations of children taught at the school. It has served as a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social events, with widespread community support.
","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":null,"place_ref":650225,"name":"Allan Cunningham Monument","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Cunningham Highway (Ipswich to Warwick)","suburb":"CUNNINGHAM'S GAP","lga":"SOUTHERN DOWNS REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2022-04-29","description":"The Allan Cunningham Monument (1927) is located on the northern side of the Cunningham Highway at Cunningham’s Gap, a mountain pass through the Great Dividing Range between Mount Cordeaux and Mount Mitchell. Situated at the peak of the pass surrounded by the sub-tropical rainforest of the Main Range National Park, part of the World Heritage-listed Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, the monument faces south to the road and is visible from the final bend of the eastern ascent.
\nThe monument occupies a gently sloping elevated site, with a steep embankment down to the road on its southern side, and is accessed via walking tracks. It comprises a stone cairn in the form of an obelisk on a stepped cement-rendered base, standing within a low-fenced enclosure. Eight mature hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii, remainders of 11 planted in 1935) border the north, east, and west sides of the small clearing around the monument.
\nThe monument stands approximately five metres high and is three by three metres at its base. Three marble plaques fixed to the southern face of the obelisk and base commemorate the establishment of the monument and recognise the achievements of colonial explorer Allan Cunningham.
\nFeatures of the Allan Cunningham Monument of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Allan Cunningham Monument not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nThe Allan Cunningham Monument, located 40km northeast of Warwick, was constructed in 1927 to commemorate the centenary of the explorer Allan Cunningham’s achievements in traversing the Great Dividing Range and documenting a pass through the mountains in 1828. Cunningham’s Gap, as it became known, had long been important to the Traditional Owners, the Yuggera Ugarapul People, of the Fassifern Valley, and would become the main connecting link between the Darling Downs in the west to southeast Queensland and its coast in the east. The monument’s construction coincided with the opening of a road through the pass, and it quickly became a tourist attraction, standing amidst the rainforest of the Main Range National Park.
\nThe valley between Mount Mitchell and Mount Cordeaux, today known as Cunningham’s Gap, had long provided a pathway for the Traditional Owner groups from the Darling Downs in the west and the Fassifern Valley in the east below. A Dreamtime story tells of the Yuggera Ugarapul People of the Fassifern Valley rounding up all the kangaroos and holding them in a fenced enclosure so no other clan could catch them. However, an old woman released the captured animals and as they bounded west across the range, they tore the gap between the two mountains.[1]
\nPrior to the arrival of Europeans in Queensland, the elevated and verdant grass plains of the southern Darling Downs, below what was to become known as Cunningham’s Gap, were the traditional lands of the Githabal People. Githabul were known for their careful and deliberate use of fire for the management and maintenance of the grasslands of the Darling Downs (often termed fire stick farming). The traditional method they used ensured the grasses and other plant species would regenerate and supply a reliable food source for the Githabal People as well as for game animals such as kangaroo and wallabies.[2]
\nAllan Cunningham (1791-1839) was an experienced, British explorer and botanist in Australia from 1817, joining both terrestrial and nautical expeditions with other explorers, such as John Oxley and Phillip Parker King, before leading his own expeditions through the country north of Bathurst and west of the Blue Mountains.[3] He made important contributions to both Australian exploration and to botany, and was highly respected by his contemporaries. He died in 1839 and five years later an obelisk memorial was dedicated to him in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, reflecting this esteem. Later, in 1901 his remains were moved from a Sydney cemetery and interred within this obelisk.[4]
\nIn April 1827, after gaining the support of General Ralph Darling, the new governor of New South Wales, Cunningham led a team of six men and eleven horses north. By early June 1827 they had reached the south-eastern edge of what became known as the Darling Downs and were immediately impressed by the lush plains that stretched far to the north, bounded by forested mountains to the east. Cunningham reported to the governor that:
\nFrom these central grounds, rise downs of a rich, black, and dry soil, and very ample surface; as they furnish an abundance of grass, and are conveniently watered, yet perfectly beyond the reach of those floods … they constitute a valuable and sound sheep pasture.[5]
\nThe British exploration party did not recognise that the grassy plains were the result of the Githabal People’s careful management of the southern downs country over generations.[6]
\nOn this journey, Cunningham named the Condamine River, one of the major waterways on the Darling Downs. He also identified a possible pass over the dividing range to the coast, which would later be known as Spicer’s Gap (QHR 601732). The party returned to Sydney in mid-June 1827. Just over one year later, in August 1828, Cunningham headed another expedition, with two bullocks, two servants and a driver, from Ipswich (then known as Limestone) and followed the Bremer River, a tributary of the Brisbane River, southwest. The expedition’s main purpose was to locate the pass that they found the previous year, but from the east side of the Great Dividing Range.[7]
\nAfter travelling for several days, the expedition arrived at the foot of the mountain range where they camped. Cunningham noted the presence of aboriginal people’s camps in the distance, ‘the smoke of natives’ fires was seen curling above the trees a little to the eastward of us, but these people kept themselves very quiet, not a voice heard, or a person seen’.[8] Cunningham and his men reached, what they believed, was the gap they identified the previous year from the west (Spicer’s Gap), but was, in fact, the pass known today as Cunningham’s Gap. On 25 August 1828, Cunningham climbed to the summit of the pass and beheld the Darling Downs below to the west; he later wrote:
\nWithout the smallest difficulty, and to my utmost surprise, we found ourselves in the highest part of the Pass, having fully ascertained the extent of the difficult part, from the entrance into the wood, to this point not to exceed 400 yards. We now pushed our way westerly through this extraordinary defile, and, in less than half a mile of level surface, clothed with thick bush of plants common to the Brisbane River, reached the opposite side of the main range, where I observed the waters fell westerly to Millar’s Valley beneath us.[9]
\nIn an 1832 Royal Geographical Society’s Journal article he wrote, ‘should the Gap, which had been discovered in the main dividing range … admit of a passage through that chain of mountains, the readiest point of access to the very desirable country on their western side would be from the shores of Moreton Bay and Brisbane River’.[10] Having achieved their goal to find the pass, the expedition returned to Limestone.
\nTwelve years later, grazier Patrick Leslie, with a large party, set out from Penrith to explore the Darling Downs. In 1840, he pioneered the first European pastoral runs on the Downs, Toolburra and Canning Downs, and established the important wool industry in the region. Other graziers (often called squatters) soon followed, with further pastural runs dividing and changing the traditional grass plains of the Githabal People. Agriculture was also introduced in this era when closer settlement began.[11] Increasingly, the traditional lifestyle of the Githabal People, as well as the other Traditional Owner groups throughout the Darling Downs, was disrupted and people were soon dispossessed, often violently, from their ancestral land.[12]
\nThe town of Warwick, which grew to become the business centre for the southern Darling Downs, was surveyed by James Burnett in 1849, with the first sale of Crown land occurring in July 1850. Warwick was declared a municipality in 1861 and was subsequently transformed from a squatters’ town into the principal urban centre of this prosperous pastoral and agricultural district.[13]
\nFrom the 1840s, Darling Downs pastoralists were faced with an expensive 800 kilometre trip to Maitland to carry wool to port and return with supplies to the stations. A direct route to the Moreton Bay settlement was needed. Leslie and fellow pastoralist, Arthur Hodgson, were able in 1840 to obtain permits from Governor Sir George Gipps, to have supplies sent to Brisbane; however, they still had problems with getting their stores from Brisbane over the Dividing Range to the Darling Downs. Several passes across the range to the Darling Downs had been cut from the 1840s: Gorman’s Gap was a short-lived crossing north of Toowoomba in the 1840s; Toowoomba’s Toll Bar Road provided a dray route up the range to Toowoomba from the 1850s; and a dray route over Spicer’s Gap (QHR 601732) was cut in the late 1840s.[14]
\nA rough road over Cunningham’s Gap, east to the Fassifern Valley below had also been made from the 1840s for drays carrying wool to Ipswich. To cater for travelling dray teams an inn, known as Jubb’s Woolpack Inn, was established in the early 1850s a few miles from the western ascent in Maryvale. However, by the mid-1850s this road was rarely used due to the steepness of the incline on the eastern side of the pass.[15] In 1854, Herbert Marshall wrote an account of his visit to the Darling Downs, over which they travelled through the Spicer’s Gap road, ‘The old road used to go over a place called Cunningham’s gap which was so bad that they had to lower the drays down with a rope, but now they have cut a new road south’.[16] Consequently, Spicer’s Gap became the preferred dray route over the range from Warwick until the early twentieth century, although it, too, proved to be a difficult one.
\nThe lush sub-tropical rainforest on the elevated slopes of Mount Mitchell and Mount Cordeaux, and through Cunningham’s Gap, had been appreciated by nature enthusiasts as early as the 1840s. Increasingly, timber-getters logged the slopes for valuable timbers such as red cedar (Toona ciliate). Inspired by the national parks movement, by the turn of the century many in the district began lobbying the government to protect these forests.[17] A national park movement was initiated in Queensland after 1879 by pastoralist, businessman and politician Robert Martin Collins following his visit to the United States of America, where the movement had commenced in 1870. This movement called for governments to reserve land in its natural state for the benefit of all people. Collins was instrumental in establishing Queensland’s first national park at Witches Falls, Mount Tamborine in 1908.[18] In July 1909 it was announced that 3100 acres (1254ha) at Cunningham’s Gap was to become a national park, and it was noted that ‘the area is on the western side of the range … many excellent specimens of staghorns and native vegetation exist within the area’.[19] The new national park, initially called Cunningham’s Gap National Park, included both Mount Mitchell and Mount Cordeaux.[20]
\nThere had long been debate regarding a preferred trafficable route to Warwick over the Great Dividing Range. By the early twentieth century, with the increased popularity of the motor car, Spicer’s Gap often proved dangerous and impassable[21] At this time, Cunningham’s Gap could only be reached by a bridle trail.[22]
\nAlthough railways were the priority, the rise of the motor car increased the need for an expanded and improved road network. The Queensland Main Roads Act 1920 provided for responsibility for roads and bridges to be shared between state and local authorities. The mission of the Main Roads Board, formed under this Act, was to develop a cohesive network of ‘main roads' partly funded by the state. Local authorities would fund half the cost, and would be the construction and maintenance authorities where possible. The priority for road construction was to join towns not linked by railways; to link farming areas to existing railways; and to build developmental roads to open Crown lands for closer settlement.[23]
\nThe interwar period saw a massive increase in car registrations and the revision of the Main Roads Act. By mid-1923 nearly 17,000 cars were registered in Queensland (rising to nearly 92,000 by 1934). As more people took to the car, the need for serviceable roads for motor vehicles became apparent. The Main Roads Acts Amendment Act 1925 abolished the Main Roads Board and formed the Main Roads Commission (MRC), and the board was replaced by John Kemp (formerly the Board's Chairman) as the Commissioner.[24]
\nIn the early 1920s the Cunningham’s Gap Road Committee was formed, made up of community leaders and residents from throughout the Warwick district. Their intention was to find means for the construction of a proper road from Warwick to Cunningham’s Gap and ultimately down the east slope of the range to Brisbane. The committee lobbied the State government to fund the project; however, this initially proved unsuccessful.[25] Preliminary investigations for a possible road to Cunningham’s Gap were undertaken by several locals, concerned that Warwick’s commercial prospects may be lost to Toowoomba if a direct and reliable road was not constructed.[26]
\nOn the Easter long-weekend of 1926, a working-bee took place following a call for volunteers by the road committee. Over 100 volunteers participated, with financial help donated through subscriptions. By the Monday, a drivable 3 mile (4.8km) road had been cut through the forest from the western base of Cunningham’s Gap to its precipice on the eastern side. On the Monday afternoon several of the district’s dignitaries visited the newly formed road by car and it was reported:
\nThat this meeting of citizens of Warwick and district, held at Cunningham’s Gap, this 5th day of April, 1926, desires to express its high appreciation of the efforts of the great band of voluntary workers who, in a spirit of devoted self-sacrifice and enthusiasm, have demonstrated the practicability of a road being constructed to the historic point which marked the crossing of the range by Allan Cunningham and the discovery of the Darling Downs about 100 years ago, and thereby making it further possible for the true realisation of the construction of the via recta route [direct route from Brisbane to Warwick].[27]
\nAlthough the forming of the road (as an unsurfaced track) was an achievement, it did not give free access to those wanting to visit Cunningham’s Gap, as permission was needed from owners of the properties at the base of Cunningham’s Gap in order to reach the new Gap road.[28]
\nIn conjunction with the road movement, the Allan Cunningham Centenary Committee, based in Warwick, was planning a fitting tribute for the 100-year anniversary of Cunningham’s crossing of the Gap. An extension of the Cunningham’s Gap road over the eastern side of the range to connect with the Fassifern Valley below was deemed appropriate. Additionally, a monument was to be erected at the top of the road to commemorate Allan Cunningham’s achievement of crossing the pass. The date for the opening event was 11 June 1927, incorrectly believed to have been the centenary date of Cunningham’s crossing (this was the date of the crossing of Spicer’s Gap, with Cunningham’s Gap being crossed one year later). Once again, subscriptions for funds were called for, as well as volunteers to construct the road extension.[29]
\nWarwick-based architects, Dornbusch and Connolly, were responsible for the design of the monument. This enduring, successful and productive partnership began in 1910 when architect, Conrad Dornbusch (1867-1949), joined the experienced builder and architect Daniel Connolly (1867-1948) in partnership, with their office in Palmerin Street, Warwick. The firm designed many of the district’s buildings including St James' Hall (QHR 600954); Langham Hotel (QHR 600957); St Mary’s Church in Warwick (QHR 600959); Johnson's Building (QHR 600960); Criterion Hotel (QHR 600962) and the shelter shed at the General Cemetery (QHR 602152). Connolly and Dornbusch were among the first architects registered by the Queensland Board of Architects in 1929, with their long running partnership ending with their retirement in 1945.[30] Both partners were active participants in the community with Connolly serving on the Warwick City Council for 25 years, including as Mayor in 1910 and from 1924-32 when the monument was constructed.[31]
\nBy April 1927 the plans for the monument’s construction were well advanced, with the Main Roads Commissioner, John Kemp, having chosen the site for its construction at the summit of the pass. Drawings of the monument were published in various newspapers at the time, which reported that:
\nIt would be on a rock foundation of rustic design and formed of the spalls [broken stones] over which Cunningham had walked. It would be erected on a spot in the pass from which a glorious survey could be made.[32]
\nThe foundation stone of the monument was laid on 7 May 1927 by Mayor Connolly and attended by a small group of dignitaries, district residents and the men working on the construction of the road. It was claimed that ‘the cairn will break with startling suddenness on the wayfarer who has accomplished the climb or is on the eve of descending’.[33] Embedded within the concrete was a jar containing documents such as current newspapers, lists of serving dignitaries of the local councils and the Queensland Government at the time, a list of names of the volunteers and contractors who were working on the project, as well as coins. There were also two gifts of several pounds to be placed under the stone.[34]
\nThe monument was complete by June 1927 and officially unveiled, as planned, on 11 June. Up to 700 people attended the opening ceremony which included dignitaries such as the Acting Premier, William Forgan Smith, and the Main Roads Commissioner, Kemp. The tall obelisk was clad in locally sourced stone spalls, said to symbolise the ground on which Cunningham traversed. Prominent at the height of the pass, the monument was described as ‘definite and rugged. It stands within an almost complete circle of trees, its grey shape sharply contrasting with the greens of the forest’. Several memorial plaques were included on the plinth, in particular a plaque dedicated to Allan Cunningham and his ‘discovery’ of the Gap.[35] In photographs taken at the time of the unveiling, the monument was situated approximately one metre above the road’s edge, which enabled visitors easy access to see it and its views.[36]
\nAlso, as planned, the road over the eastern side of the Gap was opened that afternoon, connecting the Fassifern Valley to the Darling Downs. Prior to the opening, another Easter working-bee had volunteers construct approximately 500m of road from the top of the pass down the steep incline to the east. The connecting part of the road to the bottom of the range had been contracted out.[37] Following the Acting Premier’s declaration that the road was open, the enthusiastic crowd cheered as the first car drove over the edge of the Gap and down the range.[38]
\nIn Queensland, during the interwar period to the mid-20th century, there was an enthusiasm in local communities for celebrating feats of colonial exploration which had facilitated European settlement of districts. The most popular way of marking these achievements at this time was the erection of commemorative objects dedicated to explorers and pioneers; these would often celebrate a centenary of the event.[39] These community-based commemorative objects reflected the inextricable link between exploration and the economic development of regions such as the Darling Downs.[40] They were simpler in form and decoration than statues and other monuments from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which predominantly celebrated the British monarchy and political figures from the Federation period and were built in prominent public spaces by the government seeking to bolster state and civic authority. Until 1970, such commemorative plaques, statues and cairns reflected predominantly Eurocentric views in their topics and designs.[41]
\nA widely adopted form of monument to colonial exploration built during the interwar period to the mid-20th century was the masonry monument, with shared characteristics including formalised cairn in an obelisk, pyramid or rectilinear form, made of stone and/or concrete, and including one or several commemorative plaques.[42] Humble in comparison to their late 19th to early 20th century predecessors, they were distinctively geometric and consistent compared to the relatively diverse range of monuments from the 1970s onwards. The Allan Cunningham Monument at Cunningham’s Gap proved to be one of the largest of these types of monuments from this period. Others include: another to Cunningham in Ipswich’s Queens Park (1934); one to Burke and Wills at the Dig Tree at Thargomindah (QHR 601073) (1937); the Captain Cook Monument at 1770 (QHR 601614) (1926); the John Oxley monument in Brisbane’s CBD (1928); in Bowen there is a monument to Henry Sinclair (1934); and several to Edmund Kennedy in Cardwell (1948), Cooktown (1948), and Mission Beach (1948). Monuments such as these do not tell the whole story of post-invasion history; increasingly monuments dedicated to colonial exploration have been contested, as the devastating impact of European settlement on Traditional Owner groups’ culture, traditions and ancestral lands is acknowledged more broadly in Australian society.[43]
\nIn July 1930 the road to Cunningham’s Gap was gazetted as a tourist road by the Queensland Government. This was welcomed by the local authorities in the district, aware that the Main Roads Commission would fund further road improvement projects. Tourist roads were introduced by the Main Roads Commissioner in 1930 to provide safe vehicular access to beauty spots such as ‘National parks, waterfalls and camping grounds at high elevation at various parts of the state’. The tourist road to Cunningham’s Gap was one of the earliest introduced in Queensland under this scheme. Others included the Bunya Mountains road and that to Tully Falls in North Queensland.[44]
\nAttracting tourists to the Gap and Warwick benefited the district’s economy. As a tourist road, the Main Roads Commission could employ workers from the Unemployment Relief Scheme to work on its construction and maintenance.[45] By 1932, a working party consisting of over 20 unemployed relief workers was making progress with the construction of the road from the base of the Gap, south-west to the intersection of the Warwick-Toowoomba Road, ‘[which] when complete a gravel road of nearly eight miles will lead to the top of the Gap’.[46] The Queensland Government gradually resumed land for the road from the private landowners through which the original track traversed.[47] By this time, the road on the eastern slope of the range ascending from the Fassifern Valley had become difficult to drive over, with the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ), which provided weekly Saturday reports to motorists, recommending caution before attempting the ‘rough and bumpy’ road over the Gap, and suggesting it would prove easier to cross the range via Toowoomba’s Toll Bar Road.[48] However, in 1935, the Main Roads Commission declared the road the Cunningham Highway.[49]
\nThrough the 1930s, the Forestry Department made improvements to the facilities in the national park adjacent to the monument. These included the clearing of an area near the monument for a carpark, installation of toilet facilities, shelter sheds and picnic areas, and the introduction of paths from the cairn up to both Mount Mitchell to the south and Mount Cordeaux to the north. Nature enthusiasts and tourists alike visited the Allan Cunningham Monument, which not only marked an historical event, but became the focal point from which bushwalks in the national park started and finished.[50]
\nIn 1935 members of the National Parks Association planted eleven hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii) on three sides of the monument. The pines were intended to further recognise Cunningham’s contributions to exploration and botany. On his explorations into Queensland, Cunningham was the first to scientifically describe the hoop pine as a species; it was later named after him. The pines were planted to the west, north and east of the monument in a rectangular alignment.[51] In 2022 there are eight of these mature hoop pines remaining.
\nA sealed and reliable road from Ipswich to Cunningham’s Gap was constructed incrementally from the 1930s to the 1940s by the Main Roads Commission, and by 1949 had been completed, achieving the longed-for via recta route from Brisbane to Warwick.[52] To accomplish this, the steep grade in the road on the eastern side of the range to the apex at Cunningham’s Gap had to be reduced. Consequently, the cut was deepened forming large banks either side of the road and the monument now stood several metres above the road below. The sloping bank below the monument was clad in stone and a concrete and stone staircase was constructed approximately 10m east of the monument, to allow for pedestrian access to it from the road below. The road was declared open on 5 November 1949, in a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by many dignitaries, including the Mayor of Warwick, Alderman McCahon, and the Minister for Public Works, Housing and Local Government, William Power. Up to three hundred spectators also attended.[53] With the reliable and safer road, the Mayor of Warwick stated that ‘it will prove a magnet that will draw thousands of visitors in Warwick and districts each year, and that people residing in the south and south-west will not fail to avail themselves of this road and will travel via the historic and attractive city of Warwick when visiting the capital city and surrounding seaside resorts’.[54]
\nThe monument attracted visitors passing over the Gap as well as those enjoying bushwalks and picnics in the national park (later named the Great Range National Park). Over the years improvements have been made to the pathways and visitor facilities near the monument by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The monument has landmark qualities being easily seen when driving up to the high pass of Cunningham’s Gap, as it looks out to the Fassifern Valley below. In 2021, the Department of Transport and Main Roads undertook restoration and cleaning work to the monument, which included repairs to and re-finishing of the cement-rendered base and painting of the obelisk-shaped enclosure posts. In 2022, the Allan Cunningham Monument remains in its original location and continues to draw tourists.
","criteria":"The Allan Cunningham Monument (1927), built to commemorate the centenary of the first European to locate Cunningham’s Gap, is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland history, as it marks the place where explorer and botanist, Allan Cunningham (1791-1839), traversed the Great Dividing Range in 1828. The passage he documented, from the southeast coastal plains, over the pass through to the Darling Downs, enabled its pastoral and agricultural development from the early 19th century.
\nThe construction of the Monument was driven by the local community who contributed half the cost of the memorial and the adjacent roadway, and assisted as volunteers in opening the roads to and past Cunningham’s Gap.
|The Allan Cunningham Monument is a highly intact example of a monument to colonial exploration built in Queensland between the interwar period and the mid-20th century. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of its type, including: visible location marking an important site in colonial exploration; freestanding, formalised cairn in an obelisk, pyramid or rectilinear form, in this instance a spall-faced obelisk, and surrounded by open space; durable stone and concrete construction; and commemorative plaques listing the name/s of explorer/s and a record of its construction.
|Situated at the peak of Cunningham’s Gap and visible from the final bend of the eastern ascent of the Great Dividing Range, the Allan Cunningham Monument marks the transition into the Darling Downs and is of aesthetic significance for its landmark and architectural qualities. An excellent work of the regional architectural partnership Dornbusch & Connolly, the visual appeal of the tall masonry obelisk, with its simple rustic qualities, is enhanced by its landscape context setting, enclosed within a memorial grove of hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii), named for Allan Cunningham who collected the first specimens, surrounded by the mountainous sub-tropical rainforest of the Main Range National Park, part of the World Heritage-listed Gondwana Rainforests of Australia.
|The Allan Cunningham Monument, including the memorial hoop pines, has a special association with the colonial explorer and botanist (1791-1839) who was the first European to document a pass in the Great Dividing Range from the southeast coastal plains through to the fertile plains of the Darling Downs in 1828. Erected in 1927 to commemorate the centenary of his finding the pass, and when a motor vehicle road through it was opened, the monument is located at what became known as Cunningham’s Gap.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | 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 special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"} ]}