Unara is a large, low-set timber residence constructed in 1906, that has elements of the Federation Bungalow style and is now part of a larger complex of buildings. The former residence has two wings added, a northern wing in 1954 and a southern wing in 1962, and an extension to the kitchen wing at the back. Until recently there was also a brick building that was constructed in 1974 but has now been demolished and only the floorslab remains. There is also a separate laundry and workshop building.
The original planning of the house is substantially intact and later additions are clearly articulated. Verandahs on the north and east have been enclosed and the building is entered from a doorway on the north-eastern elevation. Many of the rooms have been lined with hardboard and fibro. Several large, well proportioned rooms with high ceilings have elements of original fabric remaining, these include pressed metal ceilings, leadlight windows, tiled fire places and other decorative elements. There are original doors throughout, these are generally four panel doors with Art Nouveau style finger plates and lock furniture. There are a number of styles of windows, including many timber sash windows and a variety of recent styles such as sliding and casement windows.
Basins have been added in a number of the rooms, along with built-in cupboards and some new partitions. Two kitchens have been added and are generally equipped with basic timber joinery and stainless steel benches.
The exterior of the building is characterised by the large multi-gabled roof clad in corrugated steel with projecting gable ends with timber and roughcast infill and cupola-like corner treatment. There are also a number of large bay windows, one of which has multi-paned coloured glass windows. There are three red brick chimneys with high level square openings. The verandahs have been enclosed with fibro, however, the rest of the building is clad in chamferboards. The house is set on concrete stumps and is accessed via timber stairs. The stair on the northern elevation appears to be the original entry stair and has a timber balustrade and handrail. A concrete path leads from the entry gate on Tourist Road to these stairs and then along the eastern side of the house and 1954 wing.
Vehicle access to the site is provided on the southern end of the site and a large expanse of gravel driveway occupies this end of the site. Also on this side of the site are mature trees including a Kauri Pine and other pines and a Liquid Amber. Along the Eastern elevation is a tall camellia hedge and two large camellia shrubs flank the entry path. At the rear of the site are a large Magnolia tree, oak tree, long leaf pine and a timber tank stand covered with wisteria.
","history":"Unara is a substantial timber residence built in c.1906 for Sir Littleton Groom and prominently located at the top of the Range on Tourist Road near the junction of the Warrego Highway.
Groom acquired the site on the edge of the Toowoomba Range overlooking the Lockyer Valley in 1904 and named the property Unara. The planning of the house was typical of the period, with a central hallway providing access to the principal rooms including a drawing room, study, dining room and bedrooms. The kitchen, pantry and servants quarters were located in a rear wing. A verandah surrounded the front section of the building. The main entrance, with a projecting gable roof, was situated on the northern side of the building.
When the residence was built for Groom, he was a prominent figure on the Darling Downs. He was born in Toowoomba on 22 April 1867, son of William Henry Groom, who had various political offices including Mayor of Toowoomba and member of the Legislative Assembly. Henry Groom won the seat of Darling Downs in the first Commonwealth Parliament but died soon after taking office. Littleton Groom took over his father's seat in a by-election and held it until his death in 1936 with the exception of the period 1929-32. Prior to entering Parliament, Littleton Groom practised as a lawyer, having studied arts and law at Melbourne University. He was admitted to the Queensland Bar in 1891. During his time in Federal Parliament Groom held various portfolios including attorney-general, home affairs, trade and customs and external affairs. He was knighted in 1924 and Groom served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1926 to 1929.
Following Groom's death in 1936 the residence was vacated by his wife and rented. It was later sold and converted into a guest house. In December 1945 the Division of Maternal and Child Health in the Department of Health purchased the property for £7682 for use as a Mothercraft Home. Similar homes were established during the 1940s at Clayfield, Sandgate, Ipswich and Rockhampton. These homes were intended to provide care for premature babies and for mothers requiring more intensive assistance in caring for infants.
Additions and alterations were undertaken to suit the new use. Many of the internal walls were sheeted with hardboard. The ceilings were also sheeted with the exception of the principal rooms which had pressed metal ceilings. In 1954 a wing was erected on the northern side of the building for staff quarters. This wing was completed for a cost of £12,000. Another wing with nine rooms was erected on the southern side in 1962. A new laundry and workshop was constructed in 1974. The mothercraft Home was closed in 1977 and the buildings were utilised as office accommodation by other divisions of the Health Department. The property was fully occupied and demand for additional accommodation resulted in the erection of a demountable block in 1986 at the rear of the site. The property was occupied by a variety of community health and allied health services until 1999 when the building was vacated.
The grounds are landscaped with mature shrubs, trees and hedges, lawn and pathways. It is probable that the pattern of landscaping, particularly the mature trees, date from the Groom period.
","criteria":"Unara, a substantial timber residence built in c.1906 is significant for its strong association with Sir Littleton Groom who was a prominent figure in the Darling Downs for more than 30 years. For many years, he was the most senior Queensland conservative politician in the Commonwealth Parliament during its first decades and was well known at both state and federal level.
Unara is important in demonstrating the development of Toowoomba and in particular the desirability of the Range as a location for the residences of prominent and affluent citizens of the city.
|Unara has aesthetic significance which derives from it's pleasing design and setting within a large garden with mature trees, hedges, lawn and shrubs.
|The significance of Unara and its association with Sir Littleton Groom is enhanced by its location in the city and in relation to the Groom Memorial immediately opposite the property in a small park at the junction of the Warrego Highway and Tourist Road.
","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":15165,"place_ref":600390,"name":"Greenmount War Memorial","alternate_name":"War Memorial Greenmount","street_address":"Ramsay Street","suburb":"GREENMOUNT","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Greenmount War Memorial (c1921) consists of a 'Digger' monument centrally located in a memorial park (c1985) which slopes gently to the west. The monument comprises a lifesize grey sandstone Digger statue surmounting a tall, finely carved sandstone blocked pedestal which is about twice the height of the statue. It is encircled with garden beds, shrubs and small palms, and is impressively set against the backdrop of the adjacent valley and hills. A tall steel flagstaff is located to the west of the monument.
The monument rests on a concrete platform encircled with small sandstone newels and a steel rail. The stepped sandstone base has a sloping face to the north which bears a leaded marble plaque, and is inscribed with the mason's name. The lower portion of the pedestal has leaded marble honour rolls on each face, and a floriated cornice. The upper portion has curved panels in relief bearing small marble "in memoriam" plaques, surmounted by a white sandstone tapering block with wreaths and crossed guns in relief. This section is topped with a small pediment and steps, upon which the statue is mounted. The grey sandstone Digger statue faces the road, standing with his right foot forward, holding the top of the rifle barrel in his right hand.
The monument in its park setting with a backdrop of hills and valley makes a strong aesthetic contribution to the Greenmount townscape, and is in very good condition.
","history":"The Greenmount War Memorial was erected c1921, originally located near the railway station in Pilton Street, the main road between Toowoomba and Warwick. The mason for the monument was WP Prout of Warwick, who was also responsible for monuments in Allora and Killarney.
Greenmount was one of a number of small localities which developed as farming areas when portions of the Eton Vale, Felton and Pilton pastoral estates were resumed by the Government for closer settlement from the late 1860s to the 1880s. Greenmount developed as a township centred on the Greenmount railway station and local store, and grew during the early 1900s.
Although the newly-formed Cambooya Shire Council decided to erect an Honour Roll for the soldiers of the area in 1915, it was not until January 1921 that the Council decided the money raised should go towards the erection of the Shire memorial at Greenmount. No completion date for the memorial was recorded, however in 1922 the Council expressed its gratitude to the ladies of Greenmount and district for the supervision and care of the memorial. Records show that a memorial in the form of an obelisk was also constructed in Cambooya c1921.
In August 1952 the Council took over the trusteeship of the monument from the
Greenmount Progress Association. It was also around this time that the Council donated money towards having the names of Second World War servicemen included on the monument.
In 1985 the Greenmount Bicentennial Memorial Park was established in Ramsay Street adjoining the Returned Soldiers Hall. The monument, which is believed to be the only intact Digger monument by Prout in Queensland, was re-sited in the park which was officially opened in February 1986.
","criteria":"The Greenmount War Memorial is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, as evidence of an era of widespread expression of Australian patriotism and nationalism, during and following the First World War.
|As a 'digger' statue, it demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event.
|It exhibits aesthetic characteristics which are valued by the community, in particular the fine craft work of the sandstone carving, and its park setting with a backdrop of hills and valley, which makes a strong aesthetic contribution to the Greenmount townscape.
|The place has a strong association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historical event.
","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":15166,"place_ref":600391,"name":"Eton Vale Homestead Ruins","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"New England Highway","suburb":"CAMBOOYA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Sited on a slope that falls gently towards Hodgson Creek, the Eton Vale homestead would have once overlooked the fields to its west, assuming prominence when viewed from this aspect. A single brick chimney now dominates the ruins, which also include two sets of stairs made of cement-rendered brick on stone and mortar foundations, several hearth beds consisting of stone and mortar foundations, timber stump remains, and scattered fragments of building materials. A well is located to the north-west of the house site.
The location of the ruins' elements indicate the orientation of the house, with the principal entry stairs and a retaining wall located to the west, secondary stairs to the north, and a large chimney stack (probably associated with the kitchen) at the rear of the site to the east. Five timber stump remnants mark the northern edge of the house. The hearth beds are located between the stairs, stumps and chimney.
The site is littered with bricks, stamped Toowoomba, as well as steel fixings and fragments of glass and terracotta. Two bunya pines, one each immediately to the north and the south of the house site may have been part of the homestead garden. The well is marked with remnants of a steel pulley on a timber frame.
","history":"The ruins are of Eton Vale homestead, parts of which dated from the 1840s and which was destroyed by fire in 1912.
Eton Vale Station was selected in 1840 by Arthur Hodgson who had followed the Leslie Brothers onto the Darling Downs. It was the second run selected in Queensland. At the time it covered an area of 268 sq km. Originally a grazing property, wheat was grown from 1846 and it became a sheep stud in 1850. The slab house, erected soon after 1840 formed the core of a larger brick residence which continued to be added to up to as late as 1880.
At its peak the station complex was a village complete with workers' cottages and a school in addition to a number of outbuildings. Hodgson modelled Eton Vale on the English village style, taking a paternalistic interest in the affairs of the estate workers.
Hodgson's manager and eventual partner was John Watts. Watts' share was later bought by Robert Ramsay. All three men were prominent in local affairs as well as being members of parliament and cabinet ministers. They all retired to estates in England, Watts in 1867, Hodgson in 1870 and Ramsay in 1883.
The various land acts from 1863 onward slowly reduced the size of the property, although Hodgson still held 130 square kilometres under numerous tenures and titles in 1897. In that year Eton Vale was partitioned between Ramsay and Hodgson, Ramsay's half was renamed Harrow.
Following the death of Hodgson in 1902, the estate was broken up. In 1906 the homestead and surrounding freehold property were sold to Christian Barth, a German saddler. The homestead was destroyed by fire in 1912. In 1932 Eton Vale was sold to Frederick Robotham whose family still own the property. Robotham built the present farmhouse nearby. The ruins of the earlier homestead have deteriorated over the years.
","criteria":"Eton Vale Homestead Ruins on the eastern Darling Downs is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, being the surviving remnants of a number of station buildings which were once located on the second oldest and leading property in the area.
|The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history, as the ruins give a clear indication where the house was sited and where key elements of the house were located.
|The landscape and garden remnants exhibit aesthetic characteristics valued by the community.
|The ruins have a special association with prominent parliamentarian and early settler, Arthur Hodgson.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important 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":15189,"place_ref":600414,"name":"Victor Denton War Memorial","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Nobby Cemetery","suburb":"NOBBY","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The First World War Memorial is situated in a cemetery located away from the town centre. The cemetery is on a sloping site in a sparsely treed landscape, making it a dominant local landmark.
The concrete and stone memorial is located within the Denton family plot alongside the grave of Victor Denton's parents. The plot is surrounded by a low fence comprising concrete tapered plinths which are joined by a steel rod. The elevated surface is laid with octagonal pavers.
The memorial itself sits on a base which is square in plan with a chamfered top edge. From this projects a short pedestal, also with a chamfered top edge. The front face has a marble plaque with an inscription in memory of Victor Denton in cut and blackened lettering.
The pedestal is surmounted by a broken column with a simply moulded base.
","history":"The Victor Denton War Memorial at Nobby was erected in 1915 and was made by Bruce Brothers, monumental masons of Toowoomba. Funds for the memorial were raised by local residents of the district, making it an uncommon example of a public memorial erected in a cemetery. The memorial honours Private Victor Denton who was killed at the Dardenelles on 16 June 1915 and is the first known memorial of the First World War erected in Queensland.
The town of Nobby is located on the Darling Downs. The first white settlers arrived on the Downs in search of rich grazing land and by the 1840s, led by the Leslie brothers and John Campbell had established over twenty stations. These stations prospered until their expansion was curbed due to the pressures of selection legislation and land was resumed for agricultural use. The area, which had previously been a primary producer of wool, diversified into wheat and dairy farming. By the 1920s, wheat had become the primary crop with State experimental farms providing the area with superior varieties of wheat.
Australia, and Queensland in particular, had few civic monuments before the First World War. The memorials erected in its wake became our first national monuments, recording the devastating impact of the war on a young nation. Australia lost 60 000 from a population of about 4 million, representing one in five of those who served. No previous or subsequent war has made such an impact on the nation.
Even before the end of the war, memorials became a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief. To those who erected them, they were as sacred as grave sites, substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East. British policy decreed that the Empire war dead were to be buried where they fell. The word 'cenotaph', commonly applied to war memorials at the time, literally means 'empty tomb'.
Australian war memorials are distinctive in that they commemorate not only the dead. Australians were proud that their first great national army, unlike other belligerent armies, was composed entirely of volunteers, men worthy of honour whether or not they paid the supreme sacrifice. Many memorials honour all who served from a locality, not just the dead, providing valuable evidence of community involvement in the war. Such evidence is not readily obtainable from military records, or from state or national listings, where names are categorised alphabetically or by military unit.
Australian war memorials are also valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time, not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste. In Queensland, the soldier statue was the popular choice of memorial, whereas the obelisk predominated in the southern states, possibly a reflection of Queensland's larger working-class population and a lesser involvement of architects.
Many of the First World War monuments have been updated to record local involvement in later conflicts, and some have fallen victim to unsympathetic re-location and repair.
There were many different types of memorials in Queensland, however the broken column was more commonly used as a funereal monument, symbolic of life cut short. When the erection of memorials became prolific in Queensland, it was unusual for them to be located in graveyards, as this one is. They were more likely to be erected in more publicly accessible places such as gardens or intersections.
","criteria":"War Memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state. They provide evidence of an era of widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism, particularly during and following the First World War. The monuments manifest a unique documentary record and are demonstrative of popular taste in the inter-war period.
|It is of particular significance as the first known memorial to the First World War, as well as being one of the few memorials dedicated to a single person and erected in a cemetery.
|The monuments manifest a unique documentary record and are demonstrative of popular taste in the inter-war period.
Erected in 1915, the war memorial at Nobby demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event. This is achieved through the use of appropriate materials and design elements.
|The memorial in its cemetery setting is of aesthetic significance for its landmark qualities.
|It has a strong and continuing association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and as the focal point for the remembrance of that event.
|It also has special association with the masonry firm of Bruce Brothers as an example of their workmanship.
","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":15211,"place_ref":600436,"name":"Argyle Homestead","alternate_name":"SEQ-8F 10; Argyle","street_address":"New England Highway","suburb":"GEHAM","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Located at Geham on the New England Highway, Argyle Homestead is a picturesque chamferboard residence with corrugated iron roofs set amongst a variety of mature trees and timber and corrugated iron outbuildings.
The residence is a simple rectangular building with a steeply pitched gabled roof containing attic rooms, and a covered verandah on three sides. It rests on timber stumps, and has an annex to the rear with hipped and skillion roofs.
The residence has a symmetrically composed front elevation to the east, with a central steeply pitched dormer window with an arched opening, over a barrel-vaulted central entrance portico with timber stairs. Tall chimneys rise either side from the ridge of the roof. The gable ends to the east and west have paired timber windows with shutters.
The verandah, which is partially enclosed to the rear, has square timber posts with decorative capitals and valances, and double posts at the corners, supporting a convex corrugated iron awning. The timber verandah balustrade is cross-braced.
The exterior has fine decorative timberwork, including curvilinear fretwork fascias to the dormers, gables and principal roof. The barrel vault has shaped battens with decorative holes. The dormers, barrel vaults and gable ends also have timber finials.
Internally the house has four intact rooms opening from a central entry corridor, with variously renovated rooms forming an L-shape to the rear, including the stairs and window of the former Geham Post Office. The front entrance to the house has a substantial timber door framed by sidelights. The four rooms at the front of the house are fully-lined with horizontal timber boards, and each has a fireplace with timber mantelpiece, and glazed double doors opening onto the side verandahs. Steep narrow timber stairs lead to upper level rooms. The plaster and lath render around the chimneys bear the signatures of former occupants of the house, including members of the Munro and Kahler families.
The grounds contain various surviving mature trees, which include local and exotic species: cedars and pines marking the boundary, cypresses framing the front entrance, and holly bushes to the north encircled by a driveway, interspersed with large shade-providing pines and cedars.
The farm structures on the property include a timber slab and corrugated iron shed with pitched and skillion roofs on hand sawn timber pole framing, and a set of timber carcass gallows, both located to the north-west of the residence.
Argyle Homestead has aesthetic quality as an intact picturesque residence set in a complementary landscape of a variety of mature trees and modest outbuildings. It also retains clear evidence of its development as a homestead and farm.
","history":"Argyle Homestead was erected probably in the 1870s for Duncan Munro, a timber merchant and prominent Toowoomba businessman who established the Argyle Saw Mills at Geham in the Highfields area north of Toowoomba. Munro was granted several parcels of land around Geham Creek; in 1868 he acquired the land on which Argyle stands. He is first recorded as living at Argyle Farm, Highfields, in 1874. It is likely that Argyle was named after Munro's birthplace, Argylshire in Scotland.
Extensive stands of timber in the Highfields area stimulated the timber industry and provided the impetus for the establishment of saw mills from the late 1850s. The population of the area grew rapidly as a result of settlement during the late 1860s/early 1870s. As land was cleared of timber, a thriving dairy industry developed, which was assisted by the opening of the former Highfields (later Spring Bluff) Railway Station.
Munro and his brother Archibald established the Argyle Saw Mills near Geham Creek and opened a timber yard in Toowoomba during the 1870s. Munro was also responsible for the expansion of the timber industry in the Perseverance, Ravensbourne and Cooyar areas. Although Munro's partnership with his brother was dissolved in 1887, he carried on the business under the name of A&D Munro. Munro was chairman of the Highfields Divisional Board from 1888-1913, and of the Highfields Shire Council from 1915-1917.
In 1897 the Governor visited Munro's new saw mills at Ravensbourne and Perseverance Creek, staying at Argyle Homestead. At this time, Munro was also constructing a tramway which would connect the timber country with the Crows Nest branch line at Hampton and enable the area to be further opened up for timber milling. Munro travelled to the United States c1904, where he acquired a locomotive for use on his tramway. It is possible because of his interest in the timber industry, that he acquired some of the exotic tree species planted around the homestead while in the United States.
Munro moved to Toowoomba early in the 1900s, and remained there until his death in 1926. From 1903, Argyle was leased to a number of people until Munro sold the property to Johann J Kahler in 1920. The Kahler family had been among the early European settlers in the Geham district, and members of the Kahler family worked at Munro's mill on Geham Creek.
During the late 1930s, Argyle Homestead also served as the Geham Post Office. Kahler died in 1942, and the property was transferred to David John Kahler.
David Kahler died in 1983, bequeathing an area of 4 acres, including Argyle Homestead, to the National Trust of Queensland, which subsequently sold the property at public auction. Argyle Homestead was renovated in the late 1980s to provide guesthouse accommodation, and was acquired by the present owners in 1993.
","criteria":"(Criterion under review)
|The picturesque homestead and grounds, which include a variety of mature trees, have aesthetic quality.
|Argyle Homestead is associated with prominent Toowoomba businessman Duncan Munro, who was active in the development of the timber industry in the Highfields 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":15408,"place_ref":600633,"name":"Jondaryan Woolshed","alternate_name":"Jondaryan Station","street_address":"264 Jondaryan Evanslea Road","suburb":"JONDARYAN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Jondaryan Woolshed is located about 3 kilometres south of the town of Jondaryan on a flat area close to Oakey Creek. It is now a focal point within the Jondaryan Woolshed Historical Museum and Park. In addition to the woolshed and associated shearers' quarters (now separated from the remains of the original Jondaryan Homestead by Evanslea Road), the complex is home to a number of relocated buildings from the district.
The woolshed is a large T-shaped building consisting of a main section running approximately east west, with a short stem of the T facing north. It is constructed of timber with a gabled roof clad in corrugated iron and is set within a system of timber yards.
The main section of the building houses the pens, board and wool classing areas. It has a central space with side aisles and timber trusses support the roof. The walls are clad with timber slabs, both original and recent replacements for the vertical corrugated iron sheeting which clad the walls of the west wing. The floors are timber with spaced boards in the pens to allow sheep droppings to fall through. The wool classing area has a rolling table for the fleeces, and has been extended over time.
The central section to the north has a small projecting gable formed by an extension of the roof which houses the pulleys of the wool-bale loading hoist. This area was a wool storage area that led from the classing bins and the wool presses in the same wing.
The shearers' quarters is a rectangular timber framed building to the rear of the woolshed. It has a gabled roof clad in corrugated iron and walls clad in vertical corrugated iron sheeting. It has a verandah running the length of one side supported on timber posts. Doors open onto this. At the rear are top hinged corrugated iron shutters. It is used for accommodation.
","history":"The Jondaryan Woolshed was built in 1859-60 to replace an earlier, smaller woolshed and was part of the complex of buildings comprising Jondaryan pastoral station. Jondaryan was established in the early 1840s during the first European settlement on the Darling Downs. In 1972, the then owner of the property offered the woolshed and 12 acres of land to the people of Jondaryan. As a result the Jondaryan Woolshed Historical Museum and Park Association was formed in 1976 and since that time the place has been developed as a tourist attraction.
The Darling Downs was visited in 1827 by botanist and explorer Alan Cunningham. A demand for land was growing as free settlement increased and Cunningham reported favourably on the potential of the area for grazing. European settlement was delayed for some years, however, because the presence of the penal colony at Moreton Bay restricted access to the area. In the 1830s pastoral settlement in New South Wales pushed northwards as graziers looked for new land and in 1840 the first sheep run was established on the Downs, to be rapidly followed by others. Henry Dennis chose land between Oakey Creek west to Myall Creek as a pastoral run in 1840. Although he had come to the Downs looking for suitable land for others, he failed to register this run, which he had reputedly wanted for himself, and in 1842 Charles Coxon took it up. Coxen sent his nephew Henry to run the property and it was he who named the place 'Jondaryan', thought to be a corruption of the Aboriginal name for a large lagoon. Henry Coxen established the first simple homestead in 1844, but built a new one later that year on the site of the present homestead, now separated from the woolshed by Evanslea Road, to avoid the lightning strikes experienced at the first location. He also constructed other buildings including a small shearing shed.
In 1845, the Coxons gave up the property and for some years southern investors owned it. The run originally consisted of 13,000 acres but land was added and by 1855 it comprised 128,000 acres. Robert and Edwin Tooth, who were also founders of the Tooth brewery, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company and the Bank of New South Wales, purchased Jondaryan for £30,000 in 1856. The Tooths began to buy large sections of the run under their pre-emptive rights to purchase their leased land. In 1858 the partnership of Kent and Weinholt, which owned adjoining properties, sub-leased Jondaryan, managed by James C White.
It was an era when wool prices were high and the pastoral industry was buoyant. Kent and Weinholt began a program of extending and improving facilities on Jondaryan. Between 1859 and 1861, 7 men worked for a total of 40 weeks cutting slabs and shingles. Large quantities of timber was also pit sawn into planks. A considerable amount of building was undertaken including that of a small church to serve the station community, called St Anne's (c1859), shearers' quarters (1860), a new station store (1862), a butchers shop, a hide and tallow house and a stable and coach house (1862).
J C White, who had at one time worked as a Clerk of Works for the Colonial Architect's office in New South Wales Government, designed the new woolshed. T Jones, a carpenter, carried out the construction, which was commenced in 1859. The roof was originally intended to be shingled, but in 1860 it was decided to use imported corrugated iron sheeting instead. The building was T shaped, comprising a short central section for baling and loading the wool, with two long wings set at right angles to this. Sheep moved into the building from each end, processing through pens to a shearing board with 52 stands on the perimeter and thence to counting out pens. The first shearing was conducted in 1861 and after this alterations were made to improve the design by builders Charles Hines & Co. These included excavating under the woolshed, gutting and refitting the building, and levelling and paving the yards with cobblestones. In 1863, Kent and Wienholt purchased the property for £108,000. The partnership had interest in other pastoral properties and also acquired adjoining stations to Jondaryan using it as a head station responsible for the distribution of pay, equipment and rations. Stations at the time had small 'village' communities for employees, there being a considerable number of people living on Jondaryan apart from the manager and his family. Accommodation for workers and their families and facilities such as a store, blacksmiths and other trades essential for running stations in an isolated area were built.
In 1867 the railway passed through Jondaryan land and reached Dalby in 1868. A settlement developed around the railway station at Jondaryan, taking on the same name, and by the 1870s had about 100 inhabitants. A Divisional Board was formed in 1879 and a Council in 1913, the importance of Jondaryan station to the area being reflected by the participation of its managers as Chairmen.
Sheep from other stations were sent to be sheared at Jondaryan woolshed. In the 1873 season, 24,000 sheep shorn were from other properties. In 1891 machine shearing was brought in at Jondaryan and the number of stands reduced to 36.
Jondaryan continued to expand with the acquisition of land and reached a maximum size of 300,000 acres. It was at one time the largest freehold station in Queensland with 155,000 acres of freehold land. It played a part in the struggle for improved wages and conditions in the pastoral industry that culminated in the Barcaldine Shearers' Strike of 1891. The owners and managers of such large stations as Jondaryan had considerable power to dictate terms to an itinerant workforce recruited for the shearing season. In 1887 the Queensland Shearers' Union was formed at Blackall. Within a year it had 1300 members, indicating a perceived need for collective bargaining to obtain fair pay and working conditions.
Jondaryan became an early test case because in 1888 its management used non-union labour and the union shearers refused to sign on for the following season. In 1889, the graziers banded together in response to union demands and moved to reduce pay rates. Jondaryan manager, Charles Williams, was a foundation member of the United Graziers Association. Many workers now joined the unions, pushing membership of the Shearers' Union over 3000 and the Labourer's Union to 2,250. At Jondaryan, no union members were employed for the 1889 season and in retaliation the shed was placed under union ban in 1890. The sheep were sheared by non-union labour but the clip was held up at each stage of its shipment, as members of other unions would not handle it. Bales of Jondaryan wool stood on the wharves until a compromise was negotiated. It was the first occasion on which unions had worked in federation, although the graziers did not abide by the negotiated arrangements on a wider scale, leading to the Barcaldine strike of 1891 and the subsequent formation of the Labor party.
In 1894 the Kent and Weinholt partnership was dissolved and a new company called Jondaryan Estates Company of Australia (Pty) Limited was formed, comprising Jondaryan and other properties. From the 1890s much of the leasehold land was resumed for agricultural use and wheat and lucerne was grown on Jondaryan for its own use. In 1906, the sale of the freehold portions was compelled by new land regulations, although by the early 1920s it was still one of the biggest of the Darling Downs properties and still shearing sheep for other stations.
In 1937 the homestead building burnt down and was rebuilt, but in the 1940s land sales continued to reduce the property. It was decided to voluntarily sell land directly, giving preference to former employees and men with previous farming experience, rather than allow the land to be disposed of through government ballot. From 1 January 1946, Jondaryan ceased to exist as a station and the company was wound up, though the homestead and 2000 acres on the southern bank of the creek were retained. It was at this time that the block containing the woolshed was sold and it is thought that part of the western wing was removed to be used as farm machinery shed. One of original blocks of shearers' quarters remained to the rear of the woolshed.
In 1972, following the success of celebrations held at the Jondaryan woolshed to mark the centenary of the Jondaryan State School, the owner of the property offered the woolshed and 12 acres of land to the people of Jondaryan. As a result the Jondaryan Woolshed Historical Museum and Park Association was formally established in October 1976 and since that time the place has been developed as a tourist attraction. Considerable renewal and reconstruction work has been carried out on the woolshed including the reconstruction of the western wing. From 1977 an annual Australian Heritage Festival has been held at the woolshed and the remaining shearers' quarters were adapted in 1978 to provide backpacker accommodation.
A considerable number of buildings from the surrounding district have been moved onto the site. Some were built on Jondaryan or its outstations, but have been relocated, such as an 1850s blacksmith's shop (relocated 1977); a shepherd's hut from Mt Moriah (relocated 1978); the 1880s Lagoon Creek homestead (relocated 1982) and a shepherds hut (relocated 1978);
There are also a number of buildings from other places such as the Woodleigh Cheese factory (relocated 1994); the Jondaryan Railway Station (relocated 1998), a shepherd's hut from Cecil Plains (relocated 1994); a police lockup from Peranga (relocated 1980); the Evanslea bagged grain shed (relocated 1979); the Oakey Bank of New South Wales (relocated 1986) and a railway building from Bongeen, now used as a 'barber's shop'.
An array of buildings has also been constructed including a dairy, sulky shed, hayshed, sawmill, barn, and shepherd's hut, together with various display pavilions, machinery sheds and yards. In addition a number of sheds have been erected for storage purposes. There is a large collection of farm machinery and tractors on the site. The new and relocated buildings are not included in this Register entry.
","criteria":"Jondaryan station, established in the early 1840s, was one of the earliest and largest pastoral enterprises on the Darling Downs. It preceded the settlement of towns and acted as a catalyst for closer settlement by providing employment and facilities for a large number of employees and their families in the area. The woolshed, which was erected in 1859-60 as part of a programme of expansion on Jondaryan, reflects the growth and prosperity of the wool industry in the decade between the mid 1850s and 60s. In its materials, construction methods and the way in which it has been designed to facilitate rapid processing of sheep to be shorn, it illustrates a number of aspects of the Australian wool industry in the nineteenth century. Changes, such as the extension of the wool table to accommodate fleeces from larger breeds of sheep, are also important in demonstrating changes within the industry. Jondaryan played a part in the early stages of the conflict between owners and labour in the pastoral industry that culminated in the Barcaldine Shearers' Strike of 1891 and the formation of the Labor party.
|The Jondaryan Woolshed is rare as a large and early woolshed in Queensland and is believed to be one of the earliest surviving woolsheds in this state.
|The area surrounding the Jondaryan woolshed is important for its potential, as an archaeological site, to reveal information about the way in which the shed was used and therefore on the early operation of the pastoral industry in Queensland.
|The Jondaryan woolshed retains much of its form and fabric and provides good examples of the design, construction methods and materials used for this type of building in the mid 19th century.
|Its large scale and position on a flat plain make it a striking building in the landscape. Its form and materials as a vernacular building of a type characteristic of the Australian countryside have aesthetic qualities demonstrably well liked by the community.
|Its importance to the people of the local area is shown by community efforts to preserve it as the centrepiece of a complex presenting the history of the area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15409,"place_ref":600634,"name":"St Anne's Anglican Church, Jondaryan","alternate_name":"St Anne's Church of England; | Jondaryan Homestead church | St Annes Anglican Church","street_address":"Evanslea Road","suburb":"JONDARYAN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Anne's comprises a four bay nave with a clerestory. It is entered by a small gabled porch and has a chancel with a raised floor and a lower independent gable roof. The vestry on the south has a lower floor level than the church and is reached by steps. The building is on timber stumps and the roof is clad with corrugated iron and has a small belfry at the western end. There are scalloped barge boards to the front and rear of the building. The construction is largely of vertical slab and batten construction with the chamfered timber slabs of the east and west clerestory walls, the vestry and the lower gable walls laid horizontally with the upper section clad in weatherboards. The windows are narrow lancets and the clerestory lights are set in square frames. The Sanctuary window is set with borders of coloured glass.
Inside, the roof is supported by kingpost trusses and square hardwood posts. The walls of the clerestory and chancel are lined in horizontal beaded pine boards. The adzed ironbark slabs of the walls are exposed in the aisles. It is simply furnished with an altar table, lectern, altar rails and timber pews.
","history":"The timber slab church of St Anne's is one of Queensland's oldest churches and was constructed in 1859 as a private chapel originally located at Jondaryan Station.
Jondaryan was originally taken up in 1842 by Charles Oxen and was first run by his nephew, Henry. After changing hands several times, it was purchased in 1856 by Robert and Edwin Tooth, who were also involved in establishing the Tooth brewery and the Colonial Sugar Refining Company. In 1858 it was leased by Kent and Weinholt who owned adjoining properties and was purchased by them in 1863 following Tooth's bankruptcy. Jondaryan was managed for them by James C. White. Stations at the time had small 'village' communities for employees, there being a considerable number of people living on Jondaryan apart from the manager and his family. Pastoral stations provided accommodation for workers and facilities such as a store, blacksmiths and other trades essential for running a station in an isolated area. By 1870 Jondaryan had over 500 employees.
The first itinerant minister for the Downs was the energetic pioneer clergyman Reverend Benjamin Glennie. In 1848 he was appointed to serve Moreton Bay and could only make infrequent visits, but from 1850 he was based at Drayton. He conducted services at a number of stations on the Downs as the first church was not built until 1856 in Toowoomba.
Churchgoing was important to the social structure of the community as well as spiritually and in 1859, James White is said to have arranged for an unknown Melbourne architect to provide a design for a church for Jondaryan. The station underwent an extensive building program from 1860 including building a new homestead, and the construction of the church may have been a first step in this upgrading of facilities. It was constructed by an Irish carpenter called Hugh Bradford and used materials from Jondaryan and ordered in from Toowoomba. The first service in the new church was conducted by the Reverend Benjamin Glennie, on 23 October 1959, an event recorded in his diary. A Sunday school was also run by Mr White's wife, Anne, for children living on the station. Though Glennie was Anglican, the church was available for the use of other denominations amongst the Jondaryan workers.
A township developed nearby also called Jondaryan and became more important after the coming of the railway in 1868. Even so, its fortunes were closely tied up with those of the station and the station church of St Anne's remained the town's place of worship.
During the severe floods of 1893, the church was the only building on the station above water level. Later in that year it was decided to move the church to its present site, about 1.6km from the Jondaryan township to a site donated by Thomas Taylor who owned the hotel there and also presented a carved lectern to the church.
When the building was re-located, a vestry was added, the ceiling and sanctuary were lined and the nave floor was lowered. It passed from private ownership to the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane and was dedicated on 18 December 1893. A carved Bishop's chair of Queensland beech was presented at the time. The pine pews and silky oak prayer book case were made by the Jondaryan station carpenter.
In 1988-90 reinforced concrete piers were introduced along the north and south walls to support steel beams inserted above the original timber stumps, which are no longer load bearing.
Regular services are still held at the church, which is also a tourist attraction.
","criteria":"St Anne's Church demonstrates the pattern of Queensland history by providing evidence for the way in which early pastoral runs were run as small communities. Jondaryan, run by the Tooths, an important pioneer pastoral family on the Darling Downs, had a 'village' for its employees and their families
|St Anne's is the earliest surviving church on the Downs and one of the oldest in Queensland.
|It preserves examples of early building techniques using locally available materials.
|It has considerable aesthetic appeal.
|It has a long association with families of Jondaryan and the community in and around Jondaryan township.
|It is also associated with the life and work of the Reverend Benjamin Glennie, the first incumbent Anglican clergyman on the Downs.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | 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 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":15410,"place_ref":600635,"name":"Jondaryan Homestead","alternate_name":"Jondaryan","street_address":"Evanslea Road","suburb":"JONDARYAN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Jondaryan Homestead property is located on Evanslea Road, about 3.5kms south-west of the township of Jondaryan, which is approximately 45kms west of Toowoomba along the Warrego Highway. The property is partly bordered to the north by Oakey Creek. Significant structures of the Jondaryan Homestead Complex include a kitchen, butcher's shop, shearers' quarters, stables, dairy, toilet block and store. The present house was built after the original one was destroyed by fire in 1937. There are remnants on the site of a number of other structures, including horse stalls, a killing shed, hide store and Chinese gardener's glasshouse. There are also a number of gravestones on the property.
House
The present house is essentially rectangular in plan. Its sits low to the ground and has a hipped roof clad in corrugated iron. Its long facades are oriented east and west. The walls are clad in chamfer boards. A long verandah extending approximately three quarters of the length of the house opens to the east. Its edge is defined by square timber columns, between which are fitted canvas blinds and low timber benches. Two sets of casements windows open off this façade; one has four sashes, and the other three. All sashes have four lights. Three sets of French doors open onto the verandah, each door having five lights. There is a bank of awning windows on the western façade. Each column has three awning sashes in it. The covered walkway leading to the kitchen building connects to the house on this façade. To the north of this point are a series of large timber-framed double-hung sash windows.
Kitchen
The kitchen building, adjacent to the western side of the house, has a gable roof, with separate skillion roofs attached to one long and one short side. A further skillion verandah roof wraps around the remaining sides. This joins the covered walkway described above. All roofs are clad in corrugated, galvanised iron. The gable roof has timber finials at each end. A brick fireplace and chimneystack fits between the main gable-roofed core of the building and the area under the long skillion roof. The exterior walls are clad in weatherboards, while the interior ones are partly lined with horizontal, beaded, tongue-and-groove boards. The ceilings are lined to match the walls, and under the skillion roof, follow its slope. The floors are lined with shot-edge timber boards.
Butcher's Shop
The Butcher's shop is located to the south-west of the house. It is rectangular in plan, has a gable roof and sits on low timber stumps. Surrounding this core structure on all sides is a skillion verandah roof, the supporting posts of which bear directly into the ground. A proportion of the walls of the core are made of horizontal slabs slotted into vertical posts, while the remainder is open timber framing. The gable ends are clad in rough-sawn weatherboards, and pierced by timber-bladed vent panels. The bargeboards and fascias to the gable roof are simply scalloped, and a timber finial is attached to one end. All roofs are clad in corrugated iron.
On the interior, the roof framing to both the gable and skillion roofs is exposed. A number of horizontal roof ties are in place. The edges of the corrugated iron cladding to the verandah roofs extend, for a short distance, inside the wall line. The interior space is divided by a number of partial walls made either of framing alone, timber doors, or horizontal slabs. The height of these walls matches the top-plate height of the exterior walls. The floor is lined with shot-edge timber boards.
Shearers' Quarters
The quarters for the shearers have a broken-backed, hipped roof clad in corrugated iron. Sitting on timber stumps, the building is adjacent to the north-eastern corner of the house. A chimneystack pierces the roof sheeting at a central point along the ridge. Some of the structure's walls are clad in weatherboards, while the remainder are made of corrugated iron insulated with charcoal (according to both the NTQ & AHC descriptions). Between timber columns with capitals, the balustrading to the verandah is made of timber frames in which wool bail straps are fitted diagonally.
Stables
The stable building is located south of the house. It forms a long, narrow rectangle in plan, and has a gable roof clad in corrugated iron. The gable ends are clad in weatherboards, while the remaining walls are made of vertical slabs fitted between timber posts, which are positioned at corners, openings, and other structural intervals. One short wall, below the gable weatherboards, is open. All timber appears to be hand-worked or split, except the northern end's bargeboards, which are simply carved. The other gable end has a timber-framed, fixed-glass window, with six lights. A number of wide timber doors open into the adjoining timber-fenced yard, above which are hinged timber-paling gates. A window opens from the opposite elevation, which also has a number of wide, doorless openings. The building sits directly on the ground. Inside the roof framing is exposed. The long space is divided by a slab wall at one end, and a number of timber stalls. Two gabled coach sheds are located adjacent to the open façade.
Dairy
In 1999, the dairy was covered in creepers, but its interior was still accessible via a side door. Located on the northern end of the kitchen, it has a pyramid roof, on the underside of which shingles are still visible. Corrugated iron may be the exterior roof cladding. Part of the floor is lined with shot-edge timber boards. The floor to the entrance area appears to be made of flagstones. The walls, some of which appear to be at an angle, are lined, both on the interior and exterior, with timber weatherboards. There are also a number of openings in the walls. There are remains of vents fitted into the ceiling and floor.
Toilet Block
The toilet block, located about 7m to the north of the kitchen, is a narrow rectangle in plan. Its roof is hipped and clad in corrugated iron. The fascias are simply scalloped timber. The building sits on low timber stumps and its interior can be accessed, on one long side, via a short flight of timber steps. On the other long side, the ground is essentially level with the floor of the building. The wall framing is exposed, and chamfer boards line the interior. There are a number of small timber-framed windows, one of which has a single awning sash. A concrete encased sewerage line attaches to one short end of the structure.
Chinese Gardener's Glasshouse
This small structure sits adjacent to the eastern end of the toilet block, in the vicinity of the northern elevation of the house. Its gable roof is clad in corrugated iron, and covered by a flowering vine. There is a timber board door in the eastern façade. On the northern and southern facades are a series of square glass panes in timber frames. The sill height for these windows is approximately 1.2m high. Below this level the walls are made concrete, in which the outlines of formwork are still visible. On the eastern and western building faces, the gable ends above this level are filled with painted brick. The timber bargeboards are also simply scalloped.
Store
The store is an L-shaped building, with gable roof projections clad in corrugated iron. It is located between the butcher's shop and stables, to the south of the house. The walls are clad in weatherboards. The building has a small number of doors and double-hung sash windows, all of which have six lights in each sash. Two small timber-slated vent panels are fitted into the gable end of the short wing of the structure. Two timber-board awning windows open out of one of the short wing's façades. The wall and roof framing is exposed on the interior. The floor is lined with shot-edge timber boards.
Horse Stalls
There are two horse stalls located next to one another. Each has a gable roof clad in corrugated iron. The gables are clad in hand-worked weatherboards, while the walls are made of vertical timber slabs fitted between timber posts.
Killing Shed
This structure consists of two gable-roofed components, the larger of which has the line of its ridge positioned perpendicular to the other. While the larger, steeply pitched roof is constructed to correspond to the general height of people, the secondary roof is set above this by almost a metre. The larger, lower roof is supported by four timber posts, but the smaller one is supported by only two. Between the timber posts are fitted a number of timber slab rails.
Grounds
The zone occupied by the house, kitchen and shearers' quarters has a number of established trees in it, including a tall palm. This area also has a tended lawn. A dirt roadway separates it from the butcher's shop, store and stables. Some fencing is visible to the north of the toilet block and 'glasshouse'.
","history":"Jondaryan station was originally taken up in 1840 by Henry Dennis and the homestead site today includes a number of early buildings, including the kitchen from the original homestead erected in 1844 and several outbuildings constructed during the early 1860s.
In 1840 the search for pastoral land in New South Wales extended north to the Darling Downs. The Leslie brothers followed the path of Allan Cunningham onto the Downs in 1840 and established at Canning Downs the first station in the district. Other squatters soon followed. Jondaryan station was taken up by Henry Dennis, an employee of Sir Richard Todd Scougall of Liverpool Plains station in New South Wales, during this initial push into the region. Along with the Jondaryan lands he claimed the Jimbour and Myall Creek properties for Scougall. However, he failed to register the claim to Jondaryan and in 1842 Charles Coxen took up the estate.
Coxen was born at Ramsgate in Kent, England, in 1809 and arrived in Sydney in 1834. He had a strong interest in natural history and was a founding member of the Queensland Museum in 1862. Coxen was also active in the Queensland Philosophical Society, which was formed in 1859, and held several public offices during his career. Although chiefly known as a naturalist and politician, Charles was also associated with a large number of pastoral properties in southern Queensland. His initial pastoral experience was at Yarrundi station in the Hunter River valley, the property of his older brother, Stephen Coxen. From there he moved to a property on the Peel River as manager and in 1842 instructed his nephew, Henry William Coxen, to move to Jondaryan as superintendent. Henry Coxen was to become one of Queensland's most prosperous landowners, with an interest in at least 17 grazing leases, and at Jondaryan he was responsible for overseeing the initial improvements to the station.
By November 1843, when the Commissioner of Crown Lands for New South Wales visited Jondaryan, the site included 3 huts reputedly built by James Chatman, a convict carpenter who accompanied Henry Coxen on the trek from Yarrundi to Jondaryan. At this time there were just 7 residents at the station, but by the following year that number had doubled. The Commissioner of Crown Lands records for 1844 indicate that the number of huts on the site had decreased to 2, but 4 stables had been erected by that time and work began on the first house at Jondaryan. Chatman, who had obtained a ticket-of-leave in March 1844, was again employed to build what was believed to be a rudimentary slab or bark structure. However, the ironstone ridge on which this house was built attracted lightening strikes during storms and in late 1844 it was decided to erect a new residence 2 miles upstream, where the present homestead now stands. It was constructed from sturdy iron bark slabs and floors, and remained in use as the main house at Jondaryan until 30 December 1937 when it was destroyed by fire. The kitchen, which remains on site, is the only surviving part of the original house. At much the same time that this house was being built, other slab structures were erected to support the workings of the station, including a small shearing shed and yard.
The physical development of Jondaryan in the mid-1840s is also reflected in the increase in the station's holdings. By 1845, the size of the property had risen from the original 13,000 acres to 65,000 acres, and was stocked with both sheep and cattle. At this time, the land was owned by the Crown and occupied by licence. In 1847, the regulations regarding land settlement were changed and the lands of Jondaryan were converted to leasehold tenure. After Charles Coxen disposed of his interests in Jondaryan in 1845, the property passed to James Macabrieu Andrews and Robert Tertius Campbell. Campbell was grandson of Robert Campbell, one of Australia's earliest settlers, and was Director of the Bank of New South Wales and Bank of Australasia. He never resided at Jondaryan, preferring instead to stay in Sydney and to leave Andrews in charge of managing the property. In 1850, Campbell transferred his interest to John Gilchrist, Andrews' brother-in-law, before the leasehold was sold in 1854 to Donald Coutts and Walter Gray. In c1855 Coutts and Grey applied to purchase the freehold on a block comprising the homestead and woolshed.
Further leasehold land was added to Jondaryan by the mid-1850s, with its total area covering around 125,000 acres when brothers Robert and Edwin Tooth acquired the leasehold in 1856. They also made the last payment on the freehold block purchased in c1855. The Tooth brothers were merchants and brewers, with an interest in the bank of New South Wales as well as the Colonial Sugar Refining Company established in 1855. They resided in Sydney during their tenure of Jondaryan. James Charles White was manager of the property and continued there for 12 years after William Kent and Edward Wienhold became sub-lessees of Jondaryan in 1858. For the next ten years, Jondaryan entered a phase of prosperity and growth as conditions on the Darling Downs allowed pastoralists to accumulate previously unparalleled profits. Some of these profits were used to purchase portions of the leaseholding. By 1867, more than 22,000 acres of Jondaryan's 154 square miles of land had been purchased under pre-emptive right, making Jondaryan one of the largest freehold properties of the district at that time.
Profits from pastoralism were also used by Jondaryan's owners to improve the homestead site and station records indicate significant building activities were being carried on during the early 1860s. In 1860, the main residence was renovated, perhaps in anticipation of Governor Bowen's visit the following year, and quarters for the station's shearers were erected. A new butcher's shop, store, hides and tallow house, stables and church were erected around this time, and the woolshed (QHR 600633), was also completed during the early 1860s. As a homestead complex, Jondaryan had reached a state of completion during the 1860s, which was reflected upon in The Queenslander in 1922: 'cottages for employees, stables and enclosures for stud stock, and other buildings make quite a little township of themselves, and add to the completeness of the station'. For an earlier visitor to the site, who is quoted in Jondaryan Woolshed (1998), the head station 'was a very comfortable residence, very similar to the country gentlemen's house in England, except that it was all on one floor with a verandah all round and built of wood, and therefore covered a considerable extent of ground. It was surrounded by a vineyard, a garden full of flowers and fruit and vegetables, with a nice stream of water flowing past the front garden, where one could indulge in the luxury of a swim'.
In 1863, Kent and Weinholt acquired Jondaryan station from the Tooth brothers for £108,000 and they formed a company, which they ultimately called Jondaryan Estates. With an interest in some 40 holdings in southern and central Queensland, Jondaryan Estates became one of Queensland's largest pastoral companies. Jondaryan station continued to grow through the 1870s and 1880s, with a combined area of more than 300,000 acres of leasehold and freehold land. During the 1890s, despite the increase in freehold land to over 162,000 acres, the size of the leasehold area was reduced by government resumptions. From that time, the size of the run was continually decreased. In 1908, the first subdivision of Jondaryan was carried out and in the 1920s further sales of land occurred. By the time Jondaryan Estates entered voluntary liquidation in 1946, 184 individual parcels of land of Jondaryan station had been sold to 220 different owners. William Kent junior, grandson of the founder of Jondaryan Estates, retained the homestead site, which comprised some 2,000 acres of land, but as a result of the subdivisions the woolshed site was in the hands of different owners. The homestead property remained in the possession of the Kent family until 1974.
","criteria":"Jondaryan station was one of the earliest runs taken up in the Darling Downs region at the beginning of the 1840s.
|Despite the destruction of most of the original homestead by fire, a number of early buildings remain substantially intact on the Jondaryan site. These include a kitchen from the original homestead erected in 1844, and a butcher's shop and stables constructed during the early 1860s. They clearly demonstrate the operation of a large pastoral holding in Queensland from the earliest days of such activity in the area. The stables, horse stalls and killing shed are fine examples of slab construction from the early 1860s.
|Jondaryan has a special association with the Kent family, who owned the homestead property for over 100 years. The family became sub-lessees in 1858, and co-owners of the property in 1863. The company the Kents helped found, Jondaryan Estates, of which the Jondaryan run was a significant component, developed into one of Queensland's largest pastoral companies.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a 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":15411,"place_ref":600636,"name":"Westbrook Homestead","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Coupers Road","suburb":"WESTBROOK","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Westbrook Homestead comprises two single storey stone buildings set on a slight rise above Westbrook Creek.
The main house is rectangular in plan and is constructed of Toowoomba basalt in rough dressed coursed blocks. The exterior walls are very thick, being double, with a rubble fill, and have rendered brick quoining. The roof is hipped with a central valley and is clad in English slate and corrugated iron sheeting. The building is surrounded by a wide verandah with a separate concave roof of corrugated iron supported on timber posts. Wide sandstone steps at the front and sides of the house approach the verandah and the majority of rooms still have access to this verandah through French doors. On the rear verandah, several utility rooms have been formed by enclosing sections with timber walls and sliding glass doors. The verandah floor to the front and sides are timber, while that at the rear is concrete. Attached to the northwest wall of the house is a timber bathroom annexe.
The house has five double brick chimneys with cedar or marble fireplaces. The interior has plastered walls and timber ceilings, with extensive cedar joinery.
The former detached kitchen is a rectangular building to the rear of the house and is also constructed of basalt with brick quoins. It has a hipped roof clad in corrugated iron and there is an open carport on the southern side. Sections of the north and west walls have been extensively reconstructed using bricks. The brick chimney and fireplace have also been reconstructed. Inside there are five rooms, which have rendered walls and timber ceilings as in the main house. The entrance is on the western side, which was once sheltered by a verandah.
The gardens retain terracing and traces of a circular drive. There are some mature plantings including large bunya trees. The site of the oval and building foundations are located to the north west of the house.
","history":"Westbrook Homestead was constructed in 1867 on land taken up by John 'Tinker' Campbell in 1841 as one of the first pastoral runs on the Darling Downs.
\nAllan Cunningham, botanist and explorer, first visited the region in which Westbrook is located, the Darling Downs, in 1827. He considered the discovery of this fertile pastoral land as one of his greatest achievements. Thirteen years later, grazier Patrick Leslie decided to look for land north of Penrith where he was renting a farm. With his brothers and a large party, he set out for the Clarence River district, and then, with one convict, set out to explore the Darling Downs. In 1840, he established the first pastoral runs on the Downs, Toolburra and Canning Downs.
\nOther squatters, including John 'Tinker' Campbell, who had arrived from Scotland about 1833, soon followed him. After selling tinware in Sydney, Campbell set up an inn at Muswellbrook and acquired two small runs, one on the Hunter River and one on the Gwydir in 1839. As this run was in dispute, he looked for land further north in 1840. After an abortive attempt to settle at Kittah Kittah near Goondiwindi, he moved to the Darling Downs in 1841, taking up Westbrook. However, Campbell then had the misfortune to experience bad seasons followed by the collapse of several commercial ventures, including the establishment of a boiling down works at Brisbane. This led to his selling Westbrook to John Stevens in December 1843 for £300 plus 12/6 a head for the stock. In mid 1844 the Campbells quit Westbrook and in late 1846 the run was sold to Hughes and Isaac, owners of Gowrie Station, and was reduced by 5000 acres to 45,000 acres in 1850. In 1853 Westbrook changed hands again, passing to John Donald McLean for £12,000. In 1855 McLean married and toured Europe for three years and William Beit, who had become McLean's partner, moved to Westbrook to manage it in 1856.
\nIn 1860 McLean leased a house in Sydney and in 1865 built a large mansion at Edgecliffe for his family, although in 1862 he became a Member for the Eastern Downs in the Queensland Parliament. By this time, he had acquired a financial interest in many runs throughout southern and western Queensland. The partnership made a number of improvements to Westbrook and by the early 1860s planned a more substantial homestead to replace the existing slab building, which had probably been erected by Campbell.
\nThe new homestead was built to the south of the previous one, which was well located in an elevated position overlooking Westbrook Creek and by then had a small 'village' of working buildings and accommodation around it. It was constructed of bluestone quarried on Westbrook land at a location near Toowoomba. The roof was of imported English slate and cedar was used for most of the joinery. William Beit married Mary Kellett in 1864 and McLean appears to have spent at least some of his time residing at Westbrook. The number of bedrooms and size of reception rooms in the new Westbrook homestead would have made the home appropriate for both Beit's planned family and to allow McLean to accommodate visitors and family members. However, Mary Beit was killed in a carriage accident in September 1865 and McLean was thrown from his horse on 16 December 1866 and killed, after briefly serving as Colonial Treasurer. He was buried at Westbrook and a parish nearby was named in his honour.
\nThe house was completed in 1867 and a freestone block above door is carved with 'McL & B 1867'. Given the prior deaths of both McLean and Mrs Beit, this may have been intended as a form of commemoration.
\nIn 1871 Beit married Sarah Kellet, possibly a relative of his previous wife, but he died on the return voyage from an overseas trip in 1872 and his son was born posthumously. Westbrook was sold by auction in Sydney and was purchased by the firm of Shanahan and Jennings who owned several large stations in New South Wales. J H Davidson, brother-in-law of Sir Patrick Jennings, past Premier of New South Wales, took up residence at Westbrook with his family. The second Mrs Beit moved to a large house that she had built in Toowoomba and which she named Westbrook Hall after the station.
\nAlthough Westbrook, like many early runs, had originally covered a huge area, land had been resumed in 1855, some of which became part of Drayton. After Queensland became a self-governing colony in 1859, frequent subdivisions occurred as various land acts sought to break up large runs for agriculture and closer settlement. McLean and Beit managed to maintain control over waterways by presumptive selection and converting land to freehold. In 1868, a reserve was resumed from the property that later became the town of Oakey.
\nShanahan and Jennings maintained possession of Westbrook until 1898 and planted 60 acres close to the homestead with vineyards, chestnuts, olives, peaches, and other fruit. The station was also well known for cattle and horse breeding. In 1898 nearly 10,000 acres of Westbrook land were acquired by the government under the Agricultural Lands Purchase Act of 1894, subdivided and sold as farm blocks. The blocks were eagerly purchased and the value of the land quickly rose. The rest of the estate was then privately surveyed, subdivided and sold and the homestead block, containing 9000 acres, was sold to Messrs Couper and Raulston, when it was cut into three dairy farms.
\nFGG Couper died in 1938. In 1942 children from the Tufnell Home at Nundah were evacuated to Westbrook and remained there until 1945, when Ralph Couper converted Westbrook into a boarding school for boys. It was intended that the pupils should receive agricultural as well as academic training. Work carried out at Westbrook included adapting and renovating the building and erecting two classrooms. A sports oval was cleared and two tennis courts created. During Westbrook's use as a school, large sections of the roof slates were replaced by corrugated iron. The school closed in late 1948 and most of the buildings were sold for removal. Hector McPhie purchased the property in 1949 and carried out renovations, including the subdivision of a bedroom into bathrooms. Westbrook was run as a dairy and stud farm until 1954 when it was sold again and further subdivided. In 1966 the house was divided to run as two separate households, so that two new kitchens were built into the original verandahs at the rear at this time. In 1969 the kitchen building contained three rooms; a large kitchen with a chimney that extended out from the wall, a pantry and a servant's room. This building was renovated as guest quarters soon afterwards, when two more rooms were created, the chimney was rebuilt and a carport was added to the side. In 1981 the property was sold and ran as a guesthouse. During this period the slab and stone sheds and stables were demolished.
\nWestbrook is now on 23 hectares of land and was purchased by the current owners in 1999.
","criteria":"In 1841, John 'Tinker' Campbell was one of the first squatters to settle on the Darling Downs; taking up a large run he named Westbrook. Subsequent owners built a substantial homestead at Westbrook in 1867 following a period of considerable prosperity. Westbrook Homestead illustrates the pattern of early European exploration and settlement of Queensland where the development of pastoral properties preceded agriculture and the establishment of towns. As an early homestead on the Darling Downs, it has associations with the development of the pastoral industry in Queensland.
|Westbrook Homestead is uncommon as an early grand homestead and detached kitchen constructed of locally quarried bluestone.
|Westbrook Homestead and its grounds, on which other buildings once stood, have the potential to reveal information about the history of one of the earliest pastoral stations in Queensland.
|This criterion is under review.
|It has aesthetic significance as a well designed and constructed homestead residence that is pleasing in form, materials and detail.
|Westbrook Homestead has special associations with the community as the residence of one of the earliest pastoral stations established on the Darling Downs.
|Westbrook Homestead has associations with the life and work of its early owners who were important in the establishment of the pastoral industry on the Downs, including John 'Tinker' Campbell who established the station, and the homestead builders, John Donald McLean, also a politician and Colonial Treasurer in 1866 and William Beit, who was a founding committee member of the Darling Downs Agricultural Society.
","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":15412,"place_ref":600637,"name":"Westbrook War Memorial","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"114 Main Street","suburb":"WESTBROOK","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The First World War Memorial is situated directly adjacent to the Westbrook Public Hall in a paved area. It faces the Toowoomba - Milleran Road; the main road between the two towns.
The memorial stands 4.2 metres high and comprises a pedestal surmounted by a digger statue.
The memorial sits on a rock-faced, stepped sandstone base which bears a dedicatory inscription. Surmounting this is the slightly tapered pedestal, which is of smooth faced white sandstone. It bears the cut and blackened names of the ten local men who died during the First World War on the front face and the 37 who served on the side faces.
Above this is a sandstone capital comprising a rough hewn vertical face, margined and chiselled, which culminates in a concave cornice, also rough hewn.
Surmounting the capital is a large smooth-faced torus moulding, square in plan and a stepped base on which the digger statue stands.
The life-sized digger statue stands with head erect and hands resting on top of a reversed rifle which sits on top of his left boot. A tree stump is located behind the right leg for support.
","history":"The Westbrook War Memorial was unveiled prior to June 1922 by local M P, the Hon L E Groom. It was designed and executed by Bruce Brothers (successors of Walter Bruce) of Toowoomba, The memorial was erected by the residents of the district. It honours the 47 local men who served in the First World War, including the 10 fallen.
About half of the families listed are represented by more than one member, two families by four members, indicating the impact of the war upon the small community.
The town of Westbrook is located on the Darling Downs. The first white settlers arrived on the Downs in search of rich grazing land and by the 1840s, led by the Leslie brothers and John Campbell had established over twenty stations. Westbrook was the site of John Campbell's run. These stations prospered until their expansion was curbed due to the pressures of selection legislation and land was resumed for agricultural use. The area, which had previously been a primary producer of wool, diversified into wheat and dairy farming. By the 1920s, wheat had become the primary crop with State experimental farms located at Westbrook and other places providing the area with superior varieties of wheat.
Australia, and Queensland in particular, had few civic monuments before the First World War. The memorials erected in its wake became our first national monuments, recording the devastating impact of the war on a young nation. Australia lost 60 000 from a population of about 4 million, representing one in five of those who served. No previous or subsequent war has made such an impact on the nation.
Even before the end of the war, memorials became a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief. To those who erected them, they were as sacred as grave sites, substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East. British policy decreed that the Empire war dead were to be buried where they fell. The word 'cenotaph', commonly applied to war memorials at the time, literally means 'empty tomb'.
Australian war memorials are distinctive in that they commemorate not only the dead. Australians were proud that their first great national army, unlike other belligerent armies, was composed entirely of volunteers, men worthy of honour whether or not they paid the supreme sacrifice. Many memorials honour all who served from a locality, not just the dead, providing valuable evidence of community involvement in the war. Such evidence is not readily obtainable from military records, or from state or national listings, where names are categorised alphabetically or by military unit.
Australian war memorials are also valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time, not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste. In Queensland, the soldier statue was the popular choice of memorial, whereas the obelisk predominated in the southern states, possibly a reflection of Queensland's larger working-class population and a lesser involvement of architects.
Many of the First World War monuments have been updated to record local involvement in later conflicts, and some have fallen victim to unsympathetic re-location and repair.
Although there are many different types of memorials in Queensland, the digger statue is the most common. It was the most popular choice of communities responsible for erecting the memorials, embodying the ANZAC myth and representing the qualities of the ideal Australian.....loyalty, courage, youth, innocence and masculinity. The digger was a phenomenon peculiar to Queensland, perhaps due to the fact that other states had followed Britain's lead and established Advisory Boards made up of architects and artists, prior to the erection of war memorials. The digger statue was not highly regarded by artists and architects who were involved in the design of relatively few Queensland memorials.
Most statues were constructed by local masonry firms, although some were by artists or imported.
When first unveiled, the memorial stood in front of open fields however in recent years, a hall has been constructed around the memorial. Although executed by Bruce Brothers, it is thought that the statue was obtained from Batstone's of Brisbane. The pedestal was a standard design, also used by Bruce Brothers for war memorials at Dulacca (Queensland) and Amosfield (New South Wales).
","criteria":"War Memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state. They provide evidence of an era of widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism, particularly during and following the First World War.
|The monuments manifest a unique documentary record and are demonstrative of popular taste in the inter-war period.
Unveiled in 1922, the memorial at Westbrook demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event. This is achieved through the use of appropriate materials and design elements. As a digger statue it is representative of the most popular form of memorial in Queensland and is of aesthetic significance for its high level of workmanship and design.
|As a digger statue it is representative of the most popular form of memorial in Queensland and is of aesthetic significance for its high level of workmanship and design.
|The memorial has a strong association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and also with Toowoomba masonry firm, Bruce Brothers as an example of their work.
|The memorial has a strong association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and also with Toowoomba masonry firm, Bruce Brothers as an example of their work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15497,"place_ref":600722,"name":"All Saints Anglican Church and cemetery Yandilla","alternate_name":"All Saints Church of England","street_address":"Gore Highway","suburb":"YANDILLA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Located on the road between Toowoomba to Millmerran, All Saints church is highly visible in a flat landscape. It is a Gothic influenced timber building on low stumps clad with pit sawn weatherboards. The roof is steeply pitched, clad with corrugated iron and topped by a louvred belfry and slender spire at the western end. It is painted white outside, as it originally was. The church is entered by a porch on the southern side of the building. On the northern side is a small vestry sheeted in vertical timber boards. The interior is oiled timber and is lit by plain lancet windows, with a set of three lancets windows set with stained glass in the chancel. This is connected to the eastern end of the church through a Gothic arch and is visually separated from the main body of the church by its smaller scale. The stained glass windows in memory of Reverend William Gore are above the altar and depict Christ the King. Two oak prayer desks and chairs heavily carved with cherubs, lions etc are set on either side of the chancel. The church is otherwise simply furnished.
There are 95 burials ranged around the church dating between 1864 and 1982. The earliest burial is that of Yandilla manager and partner, Charles Owen, who was murdered at Owen's Scrub, Yandilla on 29 April 1864. Some of the graves have railings and memorials include the work of masons R.C. Ziegler, Bruce Brothers, J.H. Wagner and Bailey (Toowoomba). The most elaborate grave, which has ornate ironwork, is that of Harriet Gore, wife of Francis Gore. There are some mature trees in the grounds, including a bunya. The churchyard is surrounded by a simple post and top rail fence.
","history":"All Saints Church is a timber church erected at Yandilla Station by the Gore family about 1878 on the site of an earlier church, which it closely resembles. The graveyard around the church is believed to have been established in 1863 supplanting the previous custom of burial close to the homestead.
The Gores were from a family of Irish landowners. They came out to Australia as a family, largely for reasons of health, following the death of their father, a clergyman, and the youngest son. Another son, William, became the Rector of All Saints Parramatta, while Ralph and St George Gore travelled to the Darling Downs in 1841 with sheep purchased from the Macarthurs. They established a run at Grasstree Creek, later known as Yandilla, and were joined soon after by brothers, Robert and St John and their wives. St George sold out his share in 1846 and took up Bodumba and Canning Creek. Later he became a member of Queensland's first Parliament and the first Minister for Lands. In 1846 Tummaville station adjoining Yandilla was acquired by the Gores.
The family were devout Anglicans and had a paternalistic sense of responsibility towards the welfare of their workers, there being a considerable number of people living on Yandilla apart from the Gores. Pastoral stations provided accommodation for workers and facilities such as a store, blacksmiths and other trades essential for running a station in an isolated area. In 1843, the visiting Commissioner for Crown Lands reported that 30 people were in residence and a woolshed and 11 huts had been built. At the time, Yandilla was part of a parish which extended in theory from the Hawkesbury River to Cape York. Visits by a minister were rare and irregular, the first service at Yandilla is thought to have been in 1843. The first itinerant minister for the Downs was the energetic pioneer clergyman Reverend Benjamin Glennie. His first visit to Yandilla was on 28 August 1848. From 1850 he was based at Drayton and visited Yandilla regularly. At the same time, a Sunday School was conducted by the ladies of Yandilla for children living on the station. There is thought to have been a chapel there from the earliest days though this may have been part of the homestead.
Reverend William Gore had visited Yandilla from time to time and conducted services during his visits. In 1860 he bought into the family firm and eventually became the major shareholder. The 'village' at the station by then had over 100 inhabitants and a new church was built close to the homestead in 1863. It was described in the Darling Downs Gazette as being of sawn timber and the dimensions 30 feet by 20 feet, with a very little chancel and porch attached. The roof is an equilateral triangle and has a very fine effect. A splendid stained glass window is being prepared and is intended to be placed in the eastern end of the building. In 1861, a minister had been appointed to serve 8 stations in the area, but the first service was held by Reverend Gore, who seems to have held services when the regular minister was not available. The church was, however, used by workers of all religious denominations on the station. Catholic services were held there from 1862 and Presbyterian services from 1891.
The present church was built in 1878, during the management of William Gore's eldest son Francis, who ran the property from 1866 until his death in 1904 and who was deeply involved in local and pastoral affairs, serving on a wide range of boards and committees. During this period large sections of pastoral runs were resumed for selection and this increased settlement in the area, some selectors having previously been station employees. This church is on the same site and echoes the plan and form of its predecessor, so that it may well contain some shared material. The work was undertaken by local carpenter and Yandilla storekeeper John Baillie, who is thought to have also built the courthouse and St Augustine's church at Leyburn. Baillie reputedly received assistance from station workers and from Aborigines living on Yandilla at the time.
The Reverend Gore died in 1885 and on 15 November 1887 the church and graveyard were consecrated as All Saints Church of England at the request of Francis, Gerard and Robert Gore. On this day Madame Blumenthal, formerly Leonie Gore, and a major shareholder in Yandilla, presented 3 stained glass windows to the church. They were made in England at a cost of £600 in memory of her uncle, Reverend William Gore. These were placed in the chancel of the church on the condition that the church was consecrated by the Church of England and that all burials in the churchyard were conducted by an Anglican minister. However, Catholic services were still held at All Saints and were financially supported by Mme Blumenthal.
The church provided services for more than the Yandilla residents and during the shearing season many shearers and seasonal workers attended. These were people whose itinerant work made it hard for them to attend church services and in 1888 a special Christmas service was held for them. In this year a pipe organ which had been made by the Rev Gore was installed. It was built of oak from a tree at Feniton Court, a Gore family home in Devon, England. At about this time two heavily carved oak chairs with reading desks were installed. One is believed to have been made in Florence and the other a copy made in 1886 by John Baillie.
In 1890 a professional gardener from London, Hartley Moore, was appointed to care for the grounds of the homestead and developed beautiful gardens around it. He also acted as caretaker and churchwarden, during which time he planted shrubs and kept the church grounds in good order.
Although the congregation dwindled due to a decline in the industry and the building of other churches in the area, a new spire and belfry were erected and a bell was imported from America. in 1900. In the early 1900s plans were made to subdivide Yandilla and to sell it piecemeal. In 1906 it was sold to the Lomax Pastoral Company. In 1910 a new vestry was added to the church and in 1913 a stone font carved was placed in the church in memory of Gerard Gore who had died the year before. He had been the churchwarden for many years and continued to provide financial support, though living in Melbourne. £1100 was also given to the Synod of the Church in his memory so that the interest could be used to assist All Saints. In 1914 the organ made by Reverend William Gore was sold and replaced by a smaller one.
The congregation declined over the years and in 1919 a fire destroyed the Yandilla station office taking with it the records pertaining to the church and cemetery. In 1923 the church enjoyed something of a revival when the Reverend T Bird became the minister to Millmerran and Yandilla and John (Jack) Rademy was appointed manager of Yandilla by new owners William Naughton & Co. Rademy and his wife were active in church affairs and continued their support of the church, even after purchasing another property in the district. In 1924 the parish of Millmerran was formed with services held at Millmerran, Yandilla, and Leyburn. In 1925 new brasses and hangings were installed in the church. In 1936 the Cowlishaw family took over Yandilla and took an interest in the church, maintaining its links with the property.
Other later work includes an altar presented in 1957 by Mrs Hazel Fysh of Pampas. In 1958, fourteen of the oldest headstones were renovated by Bruce Bros monumental masons of Toowoomba. Around c1968 the main Toowoomba to Goondiwindi road was relocated to pass close to the church between it and the homestead site. Any remaining trees from the pine avenue which connected the church with the homestead are thought to have vanished at this time. None of the homestead buildings have survived and the church is now the oldest building in the shire of Millmerran. The Gore family still retain an interest in the church with family reunions and christenings being held there in recent times.
In 1970, a new Deed of Grant was issued to the Anglican Church for the area containing the church and graveyard. In 1975 All Saints was listed on the Register of National Estate. In 1988 a cairn was unveiled in memory of the Gore family as a bicentennial project by the Tummaville branch of the QCWA.
","criteria":"The church demonstrates the pattern of Queensland history by providing evidence for the way in which early pastoral runs were run as small communities. Yandilla, established in 1841 by the Gores, an important pioneer pastoral family on the Darling Downs, had a 'village' complete with a school and church. The church, its memorials and the graves of family, employees and early selectors which surround it are now the only visible evidence of this settlement.
|All Saints is a good and early example of a church and accompanying graveyard, an arrangement common in Europe, but much less so in Queensland.
|The church building itself and the stained glass and furnishings of the interior have considerable aesthetic appeal.
|The church has a long association with the local community and the graveyard contains the burials of pioneers of the area.
|The building itself, the family memorials it contains and the burials in the churchyard have a strong association with the Gore family who were important in the establishment of the pastoral industry on the Downs and in the early political life 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":15600,"place_ref":600825,"name":"Cooyar War Memorial","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"McDougall Street","suburb":"COOYAR","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The First World War memorial is situated in Hack Menkins Park which is located beside the main highway through the town of Cooyar. The memorial comprises a monument and a separate plinth recording the soldiers names. Both are surrounded by a white painted cast iron picket fence with fleur-de -lis finials.
The monument stands 5.10 metres high and comprises a pedestal surmounted by a digger statue.
The marble memorial sits on a double stepped base of painted smooth-faced stone. Two steps of a smaller scale support the pedestal itself which comprises a recessed section with a column at each corner. The front face bears the leaded names of the Brave Boys who fell in the Great War. Each column has carved foliated capitals and simply moulded bases. The four columns support a frieze and cornice surmounted by a concave section with pediments on each face. The pediments are plain except for the front one which displays a relief carved wreath and ribbon design.
Surmounting the pedestal is the life-sized digger statue. The soldier stands with his head bowed and his hands crossed on top of a rifle. The rifle is reversed and resting on the top of his left boot. A tree stump is located at the rear and to the right of the statue for support.
A smaller plinth is located on the south-eastern side of the main monument. This is a painted stone structure similar to a gravestone. It sits on a concrete pad and is surrounded by a red painted cast iron picket fence with fleur-de-lis finials. Both the plinth and the fence are located in the confines of the main fence. A leaded marble plaque on the front face records the names of the local men who served in the First World War.
","history":"The Cooyar War Memorial was unveiled on July 14 1923 by A E Moore (MLA). It was designed and produced by R C Ziegler and Son and cost £413.10.0. Funds were raised by public subscriptions and revenue raised from entertainments. The memorial comprises two pieces, the pedestal surmounted by a digger statue, on which the names of the 25 fallen are recorded, and a smaller plinth which records the names of the 110 local men who served in the First World War.
Australia, and Queensland in particular, had few civic monuments before the First World War. The memorials erected in its wake became our first national monuments, recording the devastating impact of the war on a young nation. Australia lost 60 000 from a population of about 4 million, representing one in five of those who served. No previous or subsequent war has made such an impact on the nation.
Even before the end of the war, memorials became a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief. To those who erected them, they were as sacred as grave sites, substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East. British policy decreed that the Empire war dead were to be buried where they fell. The word 'cenotaph', commonly applied to war memorials at the time, literally means 'empty tomb'.
Australian war memorials are distinctive in that they commemorate not only the dead. Australians were proud that their first great national army, unlike other belligerent armies, was composed entirely of volunteers, men worthy of honour whether or not they paid the supreme sacrifice. Many memorials honour all who served from a locality, not just the dead, providing valuable evidence of community involvement in the war. Such evidence is not readily obtainable from military records, or from state or national listings, where names are categorised alphabetically or by military unit.
Australian war memorials are also valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time, not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste. In Queensland, the soldier statue was the popular choice of memorial, whereas the obelisk predominated in the southern states, possibly a reflection of Queensland's larger working-class population and a lesser involvement of architects.
Many of the First World War monuments have been updated to record local involvement in later conflicts, and some have fallen victim to unsympathetic re-location and repair.
Although there are many different types of memorials in Queensland, the digger statue is the most common. It was the most popular choice of communities responsible for erecting the memorials, embodying the ANZAC myth and representing the qualities of the ideal Australian.....loyalty, courage, youth, innocence and masculinity. The digger was a phenomenon peculiar to Queensland, perhaps due to the fact that other states had followed Britain's lead and established Advisory Boards made up of architects and artists, prior to the erection of war memorials. The digger statue was not highly regarded by artists and architects who were involved in the design of relatively few Queensland memorials.
Most statues were constructed by local masonry firms, although some were by artists or imported.
The pedestal for this memorial was produced in Queensland by monumental masons, R C Ziegler and Son of the Downs Electric Monumental Works, Toowoomba, however the digger statue was imported from Italy.
The firm of R C Ziegler and Son was established in Toowoomba in c1902 and produced many memorials throughout south western Queensland. The family company moved to Bundaberg where it was still operating in the mid 1980s.
There were originally two German machine guns situated near the monument, but these have been removed at some stage.
","criteria":"War Memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state. They provide evidence of an era of widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism, particularly during and following the First World War.
Unveiled in 1923, the memorial at Cooyar demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event.
|The monuments manifest a unique documentary record and are demonstrative of popular taste in the inter-war period.
Unveiled in 1923, the memorial at Cooyar demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event.
This is achieved through the use of appropriate materials and design elements. As a digger statue it is representative of the most popular form of memorial in Queensland.
|This particular statue is of aesthetic value for its high degree of workmanship and design and is an uncommon example of a memorial still situated in its original and intact setting. It is of an extravagant scale in comparison to the size of Cooyar and is a dominant landmark within the town.
|It has a strong association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and also with Toowoomba monumental masons, R C Ziegler and Son as an example of their work.
|It has a strong association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and also with Toowoomba monumental masons, R C Ziegler and Son as an example of their work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15601,"place_ref":600826,"name":"Goombungee War Memorial","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Hartwig Street","suburb":"GOOMBUNGEE","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The First World War Memorial is situated at the intersection of the two main streets in Goombungee.
The painted sandstone memorial comprises a pedestal surmounted by a digger statue.
It sits on a large square based of smooth-faced stone. Projecting from this is recessed square section with leaded marble plates on each face. These bear the names of the 29 local men who fell in the First World War and the 8 who fell in the Second World War. Also projecting from the base, at each corner are free-standing columns with Doric order capitals and bases. These support a large cornice consisting of a series of steps and mouldings.
The digger statue stands above this on a base of three steps, square in plan, of decreasing size. His head is bowed and his hands rest on the top of a rifle which is reversed.
","history":"The Goombungee War Memorial was unveiled on 11 December 1920 by Major General Sir Thomas W Glasgow. It was designed by Henry James (Harry) Marks and produced by masons RC Ziegler and Son of the Downs Electric Monumental Works. The stone memorial honours the local men who fell in the First and Second World Wars.
Australia, and Queensland in particular, had few civic monuments before the First World War. The memorials erected in its wake became our first national monuments, recording the devastating impact of the war on a young nation. Australia lost 60 000 from a population of about 4 million, representing one in five of those who served. No previous or subsequent war has made such an impact on the nation.
Even before the end of the war, memorials became a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief. To those who erected them, they were as sacred as grave sites, substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East. British policy decreed that the Empire war dead were to be buried where they fell. The word 'cenotaph', commonly applied to war memorials at the time, literally means 'empty tomb'.
Australian war memorials are distinctive in that they commemorate not only the dead. Australians were proud that their first great national army, unlike other belligerent armies, was composed entirely of volunteers, men worthy of honour whether or not they paid the supreme sacrifice. Many memorials honour all who served from a locality, not just the dead, providing valuable evidence of community involvement in the war. Such evidence is not readily obtainable from military records, or from state or national listings, where names are categorised alphabetically or by military unit.
Australian war memorials are also valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time, not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste. In Queensland, the soldier statue was the popular choice of memorial, whereas the obelisk predominated in the southern states, possibly a reflection of Queensland's larger working-class population and a lesser involvement of architects.
Many of the First World War monuments have been updated to record local involvement in later conflicts, and some have fallen victim to unsympathetic re-location and repair.
Although there are many different types of memorials in Queensland, the digger statue is the most common. It was the most popular choice of communities responsible for erecting the memorials, embodying the ANZAC myth and representing the qualities of the ideal Australian.....loyalty, courage, youth, innocence and masculinity. The digger was a phenomenon peculiar to Queensland, perhaps due to the fact that other states had followed Britain's lead and established Advisory Boards made up of architects and artists, prior to the erection of war memorials. The digger statue was not highly regarded by artists and architects who were involved in the design of relatively few Queensland memorials.
Most statues were constructed by local masonry firms, although some were by artists or imported.
In 1919, the residents of Goombungee wrote to the New South Wales Memorials Advisory Board for advice regarding its proposed memorial. The board referred their request to the Queensland Institute of Architects and Toowoomba architect Harry Marks subsequently prepared the design.
Henry (Harry) James Marks was born in Toowoomba in 1871. After training with his father James, also an architect, he entered into partnership with him in 1892. He was considered a creative designer and was responsible for many buildings on the Darling Downs as well as two Roman Catholic Churches in Brisbane. In 1925 he became an Associate of the Queensland Institute of Architects, becoming a Fellow 1929. He died in Toowoomba in 1939 after spending his entire career there. The memorial is an unusual example of his work.
Although the monument was produced by well known Toowoomba masons RC Ziegler and Son, it is likely that the digger statue was imported from Italy.
The firm of RC Ziegler and Son was established in Toowoomba in c1902 and produced many memorials throughout south western Queensland. The family company moved to Bundaberg where it was still operating in the mid 1980s.
","criteria":"War Memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state. They provide evidence of an era of widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism, particularly during and following the First World War.
Unveiled in 1920, the memorial at Goombungee demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event.
|The monuments manifest a unique documentary record and are demonstrative of popular taste in the inter-war period.
Unveiled in 1920, the memorial at Goombungee demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event. This is achieved through the use of appropriate materials and design elements. As a digger statue it is representative of the most popular form of memorial in Queensland.
|This particular memorial is of aesthetic significance both as a dominant landmark and for its high degree of workmanship and design.
|It has a strong association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event.
|It also has special association with Toowoomba architect HJ Marks as an unusual example of his work, and with monumental masons RC Ziegler and Son.
","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":15612,"place_ref":600837,"name":"St Matthew's Church of England","alternate_name":"St Matthews Church of England | St Matthews Anglican Church","street_address":"Beatrice Street","suburb":"DRAYTON","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Matthew's Church is located on an elevated, approximately 0.42ha, rectangular site bound by Beatrice Street to the southwest, Lynch Street to the northeast and residential properties to the northwest, in the town of Drayton, 6km southwest of Toowoomba. The complex, comprises a church situated at the southeastern end of the property, a timber hall at the northwestern end, a freestanding bell tower and established trees, and has expansive views of the surrounding area. Primary access to the church is via Beatrice Street, through a gate within a low stone wall, with secondary access to the site available from Lynch Street at the rear.
Addressing Beatrice Street, St Matthew's Church is a four bay stone structure comprising a nave, porch, sanctuary and vestry. It has a gable roof clad in corrugated iron with gabled vents to the sanctuary roof. The walls are of hammer dressed square rubble bluestone laid in random courses. The vestry is built of basalt and sandstone and has a flat roof concealed by a parapet. Facings to the gable capping, externally exposed buttresses, doors and windows are Murphy's-Creek sandstone. Windows are lancets, some with decorated leadlight glass. Entry to the church is via the southwestern arched sandstone porch, through a pointed-arch timber door with cast iron detailing. Secondary access is through rear timber pointed-arch doors into the nave and vestry. A sandstone cross is positioned above the porch, centred with the front door, and axially aligned with two sandstone crosses at the apexes of the gable ends. The foundation stone is located on the eastern side of the front elevation and details the dedication of the church on the 19 August 1886, as well as the church's architect, James Marks, and contractors, JH Scott & Co. A plaque in the centre of the northeast elevation is dated 20 August 1993, and commemorates the work of Archdeacon, Benjamin Glennie, and the 85th anniversary of the church's first service.
The entrance porch, nave and sanctuary are on a southwest-northeast axis; the vestry bay is located adjacent the eastern side of the sanctuary. The southwestern front porch has a concrete floor, is reached by sandstone steps and opens into the nave of the church. The nave has an open, timbered ceiling supported by timber king posts and hammer beams resting on stone corbels. A timber pulpit is located at the northern end. The northeastern sanctuary is separated from the body of the church by a large pointed-arch opening. It is raised, rectangular in form, and features timber panelled walls and a segmental timber vault. The interior walls throughout the church are painted plaster and the floors are timber.
The hall, located on the northwestern side of the site and facing St Matthew's Church, is a simple timber structure with a gable roof clad in corrugated metal, and a central gabled porch on the southeastern elevation. Small crosses stand at the apexes of each gable end. The building is clad in weatherboards and the gable end walls feature trimmed flat panelling above wall height. A skillion roofed addition extends northwest from the rear of the building. The windows are generally lancets, both double-hung and fixed, and a triplet of windows on the northeastern gable end wall has decorated leadlight glass insets.
Other elements of significance on the site include a stone wall, established plantings and a freestanding belltower. The stone wall is parallel to Beatrice Street at the front of the site and tapers in towards a central entrance gate that is aligned with the church entrance. The wall is low, constructed of the same bluestone as the church walls and has sandstone pillars. Two well-established palm trees stand behind the wall, either side of the gate. The original church-bell is located in the southern corner of the site and is supported by a modern freestanding structure-the supporting structure is not of cultural heritage significance.
All other structures within the heritage boundary, including the new rectory at the northern end of the site, are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"St Matthew's Church of England is a small bluestone church constructed in 1886-7 to the design of James Marks and is the second church of this name in Drayton, replacing an earlier 1859 church. It is complemented by a timber hall built in 1913 which was moved to this site in 1930, a modern belltower housing the original church bell and established plantings.
The site is part of a continuing tradition of Anglican worship established during the first years of European settlement on the Darling Downs. At this time the Downs were part of New South Wales and fell within the Diocese of Newcastle. The Reverend John Gregor visited the area, holding services in camps and private homes from 1840 until his death in 1848. The energetic Reverend Benjamin Glennie succeeded him and in 1850 was appointed the first Incumbent for the Darling Downs, having previously made yearly trips to the area. His first service on the Downs was held in the parlour of the Bull's Head Inn at Drayton in 1848, there being no church. In 1850, Glennie arranged for a parsonage to be constructed on land he had purchased on what is now Rudd Street. Glennie also used the parsonage for church services. By this time, the focal point of activity on the Downs was swinging some six kilometres northwards to an area known as 'The Swamp', later to become Toowoomba. Glennie approached his Bishop for permission to buy land for a church there. He envisioned four churches, each dedicated to one of the evangelists, in the four major towns of the Downs. This he eventually accomplished with St Luke, Toowoomba (1856), St Mark, Warwick (1857), St Matthew, Drayton (1859) and St John, Dalby (1866).
The first St Matthew's church constructed at Drayton was a simple slab building, the erection of a church proper being delayed by the cessation in 1852 of state aid for the construction of church buildings. In February 1853 Glennie sought permission to collect subscriptions for buildings at Drayton, Warwick, Dalby and Toowoomba on his tours throughout his parish. In April 1856 two acres of land north of the parsonage were acquired and the first service was held in the new church on 23 January 1859. The building was denounced by the Brisbane Courier as "neither pretty nor an ornament to the town" and the congregation was criticised for failing to support the building of a better quality church. Nevertheless, it served as a place of worship for many years being enlarged in the late 1860s.
By 1884 the church had again become too small and it was agreed to build a new one. On the advice of the architect, James Marks, a hilltop site with better conditions for the foundations was acquired for the new church. After considering costs in several different materials, it was decided to build a stone church and the tender for £850 by builders Seath, Hobart and Watson was accepted on 26 March 1886. The foundation stone was laid on 16 August by Bishop Webber in company with the Hon W.H. Groom, Mayor of Toowoomba and Rev. J. McCleverty, Incumbent of Drayton at the time.
The architect for the new church was locally based and the founder of a remarkable family firm of architects which had a lasting effect on the appearance of Toowoomba, being responsible for a large number of public, private and commercial buildings. James Marks arrived in Queensland in 1866 and first set up in practice in Dalby, moving to Toowoomba in 1874. He entered into partnership as James Marks and Son with his eldest son Harry, who joined his father's practice in 1903, and was to later work on the Rectory, and Reginald who joined in 1910. Charles Marks, James grandson, also worked as an architect in Toowoomba.
In order to reduce costs as much as possible, the church was built with a timber chancel and was dedicated on 22 December 1887. The original bell had been replaced in 1880 with a larger and heavier one purchased from Brisbane for £18 and in August 1889 it was suggested that the belfry should be removed and the bell placed on the porch of the new church, to which a sandstone bell turret was added. By 1892 this and a temporary vestry were completed.
The original church was used as a Sunday school and in 1901 was taken down, moved slightly and rebuilt, the shingles being replaced by corrugated iron. In 1903 a new rectory was built opposite the original church site to the design of William Hodgen, another noted Toowoomba architect and founder of an architectural dynasty, who undertook work throughout southern and western Queensland. The rectory was a single-storey timber structure standing on low stumps with a roof clad in corrugated iron. It was approached through a gabled porch and a small open verandah. A central hallway opened onto bedrooms on the southeast, and a drawing room with a corner fireplace and a bedroom on the northwest. At the rear of the house the hall opened onto a service area comprising laundry and study.
By 1910 it was apparent that the weight of the turret and bell were causing structural damage to the porch of the church. To strengthen it, the north and south sides of the porch were closed in and the bell was removed to the present free-standing bell tower.
In 1913, a new Sunday School hall was built on the old site. It included flooring from the demolished former St Matthew's church and re-used its 1901 roofing.
Between 1923 and 1935 the Reverend Samuel Atherton was Rector at St Matthew's and was responsible for a series of major projects to improve and extend the church. In 1930 the rectory and hall were moved from the old site and relocated close to St Matthew's. Addressing Beatrice Street, the hall was located at the northwestern side of the site. The rectory, positioned on the adjacent, southeastern lot faced northeast and was set back from the corner of Lynch and Glennie Streets. In the process the rectory was made more convenient by relocating the previously detached kitchen, pantry and bathroom to the rear (southwestern side) of the rectory. Plans for this were drawn up by Harry Marks. The verandah to Glennie Street was later built-in as a sun room.
In 1933 extensive work was undertaken to remove the old timber sanctuary and replace it in bluestone as originally intended. Between 1933 and 1935 this was panelled and other works were carried out including the removal of the bell turret from the porch. Various items were donated to the church following its extension, including the door knocker from the Royal Bull's Head Inn at Drayton, which was placed on the vestry door. The two palms at the front of the church were planted on 20 April 1935 in memory of Mr and Mrs Searle. In spite of the severe financial strictures of the Depression, the work was paid for in full by May 1934, a remarkable achievement. The contribution made to the parish by Rev. Atherton is remembered in the name of the park opposite the church.
In 1986 repair work was undertaken for the centenary of the church including the replastering and painting of the interior. In 1987 the temporary timber vestry was replaced in masonry. Around the same time many parishioners took part in a working bee to refurbish the rectory, which had previously undergone extensive work in the 1950s and 60s as an alternative to building new accommodation. A new rectory was constructed between 1993 and 1995, while further work was carried out to the 1903 rectory in 1995. The 1903 rectory was demolished between 2001 and 2004.
In 2015, the site retains the church building, timber hall, front stone wall, church bell and established palm trees. St Matthew's Church is important to the Anglican community, having operated on this site since 1887. The site of the original church, on the corner of Cambooya and Rudd Streets, Drayton, is now marked by a stone cairn.
","criteria":"St Matthew's is associated with the early development of Drayton and of the Anglican church in Queensland, being the oldest parish on the Darling Downs. It is the second church of this name in Drayton, replacing a timber slab church and illustrates the growth of the area. The Sunday school hall on site was built in 1913 and incorporates material from the original 1859 church.
|The stonework of St Matthews is well constructed and the building is a rare example of a church built in the local bluestone.
|The stonework of St Matthews is well constructed and the building is a rare example of a church built in the local bluestone.
|The site has had strong links with the Anglican community of the parish for many years.
|St Matthew's Church has strong associations with the life and work of James Marks, one of a family of prominent architects in Toowoomba. It is also an outcome of the work of the Reverend Benjamin Glennie, an important figure in history of Drayton/Toowoomba who laid the foundations for the development of the Church on the Darling Downs and with subsequent Rectors of the church, especially Rev. S. Atherton.
","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":15613,"place_ref":600838,"name":"Royal Bull's Head Inn","alternate_name":"Bull's Head Hotel | Royal Bulls Head Inn","street_address":"Brisbane Street","suburb":"DRAYTON","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Royal Bull's Head Inn is situated on a slight rise addressing Brisbane Street. It is a two storey timber framed building with weatherboard and chamfer walls outside and brick nog dividing walls inside at ground floor level. There are ten rooms downstairs and five upstairs. The enclosed section of the verandah which contained the 1950s bathroom and kitchen is now used as a kitchen and tea room. The roof is clad by corrugated iron and pierced by four dormer windows which are a striking and well recognised feature of the of the building. The building is set on a 1970s concrete slab which replaced the original bed logs.
The early kitchen remains in a ruinous condition at the south west corner of the main inn building. A well, possibly from the hotel period, is close to the back wall of the inn.
Much of the original area of the grounds survives and contains garden and agricultural structures added by the Lynches and some early plantings. Parts of the stone pitched terracing from the hotel period remain. Picket and post and split-rail fences have been reconstructed. A new, free-standing toilet has been constructed in the paddock to one side of the inn.
The building contains Lynch family furniture and fittings. It has some original finishes such as wallpaper on calico scrim stretched between studs and joists upstairs. Most of the joinery is original and some is painted with decorative scenes. The pressed metal ceiling in the parlour survives.
","history":"The Royal Bull's Head Inn, a two storey timber and brick building, was constructed in 1859 as a major extension to William Horton's well-known 1847 hotel at Drayton.
In the early 1840s, squatters first began to take up pastoral runs on the Darling Downs, thus initiating European settlement of the area. In 1842, Thomas Alford set up a store near the boundaries of Westbrook, Gowrie and Eton Vale runs and at the junction of two routes which led through Gorman's and Hodgson's gaps in the Range. The place was known to the Aborigines as chinkerry (water springs up) and to Europeans as 'The Springs'. In 1844 Alford gained a license to sell liquor and a cluster of buildings belonging to artisans and other businesses developed at 'The Springs' to serve the needs of pastoralists, bullock drivers and travellers.
In 1847, an inn of superior quality was built by William Horton at what was by then called 'Drayton'. Horton (sometimes referred to as Orton), was an ex-convict who had come to the Downs to work for Henry Stuart Russell of Cecil Plains, by whom he was highly regarded. Horton had run a hotel for George Thorn at Ipswich in the early 1840s and, with this experience, set out to make his new hotel a by-word for comfort and service on the Downs. He called it the 'Bull's Head' after 'Champion' a prize Durham bull on Cecil Plains station. The hotel soon became an important meeting place for squatters and also had a thriving bar trade. It offered lodging, a staging place for animals and was used for auctions, meetings and other social functions.
In 1848, Drayton was surveyed to allow builders to secure title to their property and Horton purchased lots 8 to 11 of Section 1, on which his inn was built, at the first land sale in 1850. Drayton continued to thrive as a service town, but faced persistent problems with its water supply which could not reliably keep pace with the number of people and animals who were using it. Wells were sunk, but did not cure the problem. Drayton's situation in a gully also made expansion something of a problem. In 1851 Horton purchased lots 15 and 16 on the hill behind his hotel, as a paddock, which were marked on the survey as unsuitable for building. At the same time, the area known as 'The Swamp', 6.5 kms away, which had been intended as suburban lots for Drayton, was developing quickly.
'The Swamp had a more reliable water supply than Drayton and soil well suited to farming. It was also closer to the new Toll Bar road over the Range which had a gradient better suited to dray traffic. By 1852 Horton was already arranging to build another hotel at 'The Swamp' and by 1855 was offering the 'Bull's Head' for sale with a three year lease in place. A rivalry between the two settlements had developed which would eventually result in Drayton's eclipse by Toowoomba, as 'The Swamp' was to be called.
In 1856 Horton sold his still unlicensed 'Seperation (sic) Hotel' at Toowoomba to Russell and James Taylor. He moved back to Drayton in 1858 and expanded the Bull's Head by a major extension constructed along Brisbane Street adjoining the original inn building. The new work was completed for the visit of Sir George Ferguson Bowen, Queensland's new governor, in March 1860 when he stayed at the inn following Drayton's public banquet there.
Improvements to the inn, now called the 'Royal' Bull's Head Hotel, continued with a installation of a billiard room with a first class Thurston table and new stables in 1861. In 1864, however, Horton died. He had been a genial and popular host and without his personal touch the hotel gradually faded along with Drayton during the 1860s. The hotel was leased to several different licensees over the next few years but none succeeded financially. In 1865, and again in 1867, the contents of the inn were sold by auction.
In 1875 Horton's estate was wound up and the older part of the inn and its outbuildings were sold for removal. At this time the inn complex consisted of the 1847 and 1859 inn buildings, a cottage, stables, butcher's shop, kitchen and billiard room. There was also a paddock for horses behind the hotel.
In 1879, the Royal Bull's Head finally ceased trading as a hotel and was purchased by Richard Lynch as a family home which he named 'The Terrace'. His family conducted a post office from part of the building between 1892 and 1952 and enclosed a section of the verandah as a bathroom and kitchen in the 1950s. When A.C. Lynch died in 1973 the former inn was purchased by the National Trust of Queensland. After extensive restoration and reconstruction it was opened to the public as a place museum based on its original usage as a wayside inn. Archaeological surveys have been carried out on the grounds and former kitchen, which may contain material from the 1847 building. Pathways, terracing and other early features have been revealed. Information gained from such surveys, including the cataloguing of quantities of bone fragments from food animals, are expected to expand understanding of the operation of such inn complexes from the early European settlement period.
","criteria":"The Royal Bull's Head Inn represents that early period of European settlement on the Darling Downs when Drayton was an important settlement located on a major trading route between the Downs and the coastal cities.
|As a pre-Separation inn it is a rare building in Queensland and its construction methods provide evidence of early and uncommon building methods. There are also rare intact finishes upstairs.
|As a pre-Separation inn it is a rare building in Queensland and its construction methods provide evidence of early and uncommon building methods. There are also rare intact finishes upstairs.
|The inn retains much of its grounds and the building, room layout and archaeology demonstrate its use as an inn complex.
|The building in its setting has aesthetic qualities which are recognised by the community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place 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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15614,"place_ref":600839,"name":"Harlaxton House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"6 Munro Street","suburb":"HARLAXTON","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Harlaxton House (constructed 1869-70, extended by 1879 and by 1915) is a stone residence set in generous grounds with mature trees and remnant landscape features.[32] It is located in the north Toowoomba suburb of Harlaxton, to the east of the Harlaxton Quarry. The place occupies a 0.76ha site that slopes down towards Munro Street to the north and is bounded on its other sides by Prince Street (east) and residential properties (south and west).
\nThe residence stands near the centre of the site, with the terraced lawn to the north facilitating vistas overlooking the Toowoomba Range to the north and northeast. Within the largely cleared grounds are mature trees and remnants of an early carriage drive and entry stair.
\nFeatures of the place of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nResidence
\nThe residence is a lowset, single-storey stone house featuring a well-composed, largely symmetrical front elevation that looks out over a terraced slope to the Toowoomba Range at the north. The building is L-shaped in plan and is comprised of three main sections, constructed at different times. These are the:
\nThe original hip-roofed core is rectangular in plan, with its long elevations facing north and south. The eastern extension lengthens the building, continuing the hipped roofline and turning south to form a gable-roofed projection. The timber rear (south) wing has a separate hip roof and encloses the space at south side of the building’s L-shape.
\nThe west, north and east elevations are wrapped with a separately roofed verandah, which provides access to various interior rooms. The verandah is supported by slender timber posts featuring decorative cast iron brackets (brackets added c1885-90), and metal supporting rods (added by 1879) evenly positioned between the timber posts. To the north side of the verandah, a slight change in stone colour and a grey-coloured stepped mortar line (between the third and fourth doors from the east) indicates the division between the original core and eastern extension. The rear half of the western side of the verandah is enclosed with timber weatherboards and red brick.
\nThe interior of the original core is arranged around a central entrance hall, which runs north-south and is divided into two spaces. Doors along the western side of the entrance hall lead to two bedrooms, and doors to the east open into a large living room (Formal Room 1). Further to the east is another large living room (Formal Room 2). Formal rooms 1 and 2, the entrance hall and the northern bedroom open onto the front verandah.
\nThe eastern extension is orientated around a central hallway, which runs east-west, connecting the eastern verandah and Formal Room 2. It is divided in half by a partition. The central hallway accesses two northern living rooms (formerly a single room, divided c1930s into Formal Room 3, west; and Formal Room 4, east) at the front of the residence. These living rooms have doors to the front verandah. South of the hallway is two bedrooms, with a small southern lean-to, and the rear wing. There is an attic to the gabled roof space.
\nThe timber wing attached to the rear of the stone section of the house accommodates an eastern laundry and bedroom, central bathroom, western kitchen, and an externally-accessed toilet. Along the north end of the wing, a hall runs beside the former external wall of the original core of the residence (the stone has been painted in this section). The westernmost bedroom (within the lean-to) (added c1936-51) is not of State-level cultural heritage significance.
\nSome remnants of an early detached service (kitchen) structure to the south of the residence (east end), removed c1938-51), are visible in the ground surface.
\nFeatures of the residence of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Residence not of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLandscape / Setting and Views
\nThe residence is located on high, level terrain cut into the slope of a hill. It is surrounded by an open setting of spacious grounds, which allow views to be gained from the residence, across a northern terraced slope and out towards the Toowoomba Range. A concrete stair (formerly timber) runs down the slope to the north of the house and is aligned with its front entrance.
\nAt the base of the stair, a wide flat terrace indicates the early location of a carriage drive (formerly entered from what is now Munro Street and extending in front of the Residence). Part of the drive, on the Prince Street side, is no longer apparent due to the construction of a modern road. The steep slope below the former carriage drive is largely cleared (formerly planted with gardens).
\nFormerly a combination of open paddock space and orderly house gardens, the generous grounds retain some mature trees, including a tree in the southwest corner of the site, and a row of three trees east of the residence.
\nFeatures of the landscape / setting of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the landscape / setting not of State-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nHarlaxton House was constructed in 1869-70 for Francis Thomas Gregory and his family. Gregory played a role in Australia’s exploration history, particularly in Western Australia, and also held important positions as Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Maranoa, Warrego, and Darling Downs districts in the late nineteenth century, helping to facilitate pastural and agricultural settlement. The stately villa residence was constructed from locally quarried stone and situated high on the Main Range, close by to the railway line. Once surrounded by luxurious gardens, the finely appointed home was frequented by several Queensland governors. From 1891 Harlaxton House became the summer retreat for the Perry family, successful Brisbane ironmongering and retail family. In 1916 the Cook family purchased the property and resided at Harlaxton House until the early 1980s.
\nEuropean settlement of the Toowoomba area, traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, commenced in 1840 when squatters first occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. Near the boundaries of Westbrook, Gowrie and Eton Vale runs and at the junction of two routes to Gorman's and Hodgson's gaps through the Main Range, the small settlement of Drayton (originally known as ‘The Springs') evolved from 1842 as a stopping place servicing pastoralists and travellers. From the late 1840s, the Drayton Swamp Agricultural Area (‘The Swamp'), six kilometres to the north-east, began to be considered a more desirable location for settlement. Better land for market gardening, improved water supply, the support of squatters and land speculators, and, from 1855, a better route to Brisbane (The Toll Road), were all advantages over Drayton.[1]
\nThe name ‘Toowoomba' had gradually taken over from ‘The Swamp' by 1857 and the settlement continued to expand. At the time of its incorporation into a municipality in November 1860, Toowoomba was on the way to supplanting Drayton as the principal service centre for the upper Darling Downs. Prior to 1859, Toowoomba's population was around 1500. Five years later this figure had doubled. The rapid economic and social development of Toowoomba in the 1860s was influenced by local residents who strongly promoted the prospects of the town, and political representatives who successfully lobbied for government funding for civic improvements. In July 1865 the first section of railway line in Queensland was opened from Ipswich and by April 1867 the line reached Toowoomba, securing the town's future development and making it the hub for the Southern and Western railways.[2]
\nDuring the 1870s Toowoomba consolidated its status as the main urban centre of the Darling Downs. The economy diversified to include numerous small-scale manufacturing outlets, while the majority of administrative, service and other government and education functions for the surrounding region were centred on the town. Toowoomba's progress was reflected in improvements to the physical environment. Important capital works were commenced or completed including the draining of the swamps, improved water supply, gasworks for lighting, extensive tree plantings and the initial development of Queen's Park.[3]
\nThe district in which Harlaxton House was built was initially called Irishtown, as Irish navvies working on the construction of the Main Range railway lived there. In 1862 Martin Meldon purchased 130 acres (53ha) of land in the area, and in 1869 Francis Thomas Gregory acquired the northern portion of this property.[4] The newly bought land was in an ideal position, on the summit of the Main Range with extensive views to the north and situated only a few miles from the centre of Toowoomba. With the railway line from Ipswich to Toowoomba having been opened in 1867, the line passed only a short distance from the property.[5]
\nFrancis Thomas Gregory (Frank Gregory) played a significant role in European exploration and surveying in Australia. He arrived in Western Australia from England in 1829 with several members of his family, including his older brother, Augustus Charles Gregory, who also played a significant role in Australia’s, and more specifically, Queensland’s exploration and surveying history. By the mid-1840s Frank Gregory was working as a surveyor with the Western Australian Survey Department with his brother Augustus Gregory, and in 1847 was appointed as staff surveyor. In this position he headed several important expeditions to explore the northern regions of Western Australia and made the first European discovery of several rivers and large tracts of possible pastural and agricultural land. In 1862 he moved to Queensland, where his brother, Augustus Gregory, had preceded him. In the same year he was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Maranoa and Warrego regions, followed by the Darling Downs. Also in 1862, he was awarded the prestigious gold medal by the Royal Geographical Society for his exploration and survey work. He remained in the role of Commissioner of Crown Lands until his retirement in 1872. Two years later he became a member of the Queensland Government’s Legislative Council, and under the McIlwraith government was appointed Postmaster-General for a short time.[6]
\nHarlaxton House was constructed between 1869 and 1870 for Frank Gregory and his family. Prior to this, in 1864 he had married Marion Hume, sister of Walter Hume and sister-in-law of Katie Hume (Walter’s wife). In a letter written by Katie Hume in early 1870, the construction of Gregory’s house was described:
\nIt is a really lovely situation! At the top of a sort of gorge, where the railway climbs up the Range. The ground falls away gently in front of the house for about 100 yards then drops away abruptly … the house … is substantially built of rough red stone found close by … They talk of adding to the house in the future … they expect to move into their new home in a few weeks.[7]
\nThe Gregory’s were residing in the house by early 1871, as their fifth son was born at Harlaxton House in January 1871.[8] The house was constructed using locally quarried stone. It was constructed by prominent Toowoomba builder, Richard Godsall, who was also attributed with building other buildings in Toowoomba including Weetwood (QHR 600870), Wesley Uniting Church (QHR 601695), and St James Church (QHR 601298), and the Toowoomba Railway Station (QHR 600872).[9]
\nFrom the 1860s ‘villa estates', located on the periphery of larger urban settlements in then semi-rural settings - on elevated locations such as along ridgelines - became an increasingly popular type of dwelling for Queensland's more affluent residents. This demographic included higher-ranking public servants, professionals and successful business people. The flight to residential villa estates by the well-to-do was a development pattern that occurred internationally during the Victorian era. Key elements of villa estates included large and comfortable houses, associated outbuildings such as servant's' quarters and stabling and expansive garden settings.
\nFrank Gregory was close friends with the owner of Westbrook Homestead (QHR 600636), William Beit. In 1872 Beit died on returning from an overseas journey. His widow, Sarah Beit, heavily pregnant, moved into Harlaxton House following this tragedy, and in November gave birth to a son. As one of William Beit’s trustees, Gregory and his family moved to Westbrook Homestead to run the property, where Marion Gregory gave birth to another son that year.[10]
\nSarah Beit resided at Harlaxton for several years; the house was described in a Darling Downs newspaper in 1874:
\nLeaving Toowoomba by the Highfields road, the first object that particularly drew my attention was Harlaxton, a fine stone building, the property of the Hon FT Gregory, MLC, and at present in the occupation of Mrs Beit. This residence commands a view of perhaps some of the wildest mountain scenery in the colonies, situated as it is on one of the summits of the Main Range.[11]
\nFollowing the sale of Westbrook Station in the mid-1870s, Sarah Beit had a fine stone residence constructed on a small portion of the Westbrook Station land, called Westbrook Hall (no longer extant). Subsequently, the Gregory family moved back to Harlaxton House.[12]
\nBy 1879 extensions to the eastern end of the house had been made, as evidenced in historic photographs. The additions included a lounge room, two bedrooms, a hallway and another chimney. A surrounding fence, with timber gates at the western side of the house had been erected by this time. By 1886, the western verandah had also been extended and an extensive garden had been established at the front.[13] Additionally in the late 1870s, a railway platform was built at Harlaxton at the summit of the range, close by to Harlaxton House.[14]
\nIn 1883, Harlaxton House was advertised for lease for twelve months by Gregory, describing the property as:
\nThis desirable family residence is situated on the summit of the Range, close to Toowoomba. It contains 10 rooms, 2 bathrooms, storeroom, pantry, kitchen, and 2 servants’ rooms, laundry, cottage for coachman and groom, extensive stabling, loose boxes, and coach houses, large garden, lucerne paddock and grass paddocks, and every other convenience. Every train to and from Brisbane will pick up or set down passengers at the gate.[15]
\nIt is unclear whether the home was leased at this time, but by 1884 the Gregory family were once again residing at the property. In the first of several vice-regal visits to Harlaxton House, in January 1884, Sir Anthony Musgrave, Governor of Queensland between 1883 and 1888, and his wife, Lady Musgrave, stayed with the Gregory family at Harlaxton House, ‘Sir Anthony Musgrave and suite will arrive at Harlaxton about four o’clock this afternoon by special train, and will be the guests of the Hon FT Gregory until Saturday next’.[16]
\nFrank Gregory died at Harlaxton House in October 1888, aged 68, and at the time was remembered as ‘one of the old pioneers to whom the colony owes so much’.[17] The property was subsequently put up for sale by the family and sold in 1891. Mrs Gregory and her youngest son moved to England.[18]
\nHarlaxton House was purchased by successful Brisbane retail business owner, William Perry, of Perry Brothers’ Imports. The Perry family were well known in Brisbane as ironmongers since 1860, and a building, Perry House (QHR 600183), at the corner of Albert and Elizabeth Streets in Brisbane, still bears the family name. The wealthy Perry family resided at ‘Folkstone’, a large residence on the heights of Bowen Hills, Brisbane (now the site of Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church (QHR 601585)).[19] William Perry was also a member of the Queensland Legislative Council. In June 1891, only a few months after purchasing Harlaxton House as the family’s summer residence, William Perry died, ‘the name of Mr Perry has been honourably associated with the commercial life of the city for fully 30 years, and he has always been regarded as one of the most reputable, worthy, and wealthy citizens of Brisbane’.[20] His sons continued to run the business after his death.
\nFrom mid-1891 Mrs W Perry was residing at Harlaxton House which became the family’s mountain retreat, with Folkstone continuing to be the main family home in Brisbane. In the summer of 1899-1900, the property was leased to Sir Samuel Griffith, who at the time was Lieutenant Governor of Queensland. Griffith was an important figure in Queensland’s political and legal history, having been Premier for two terms, 1883-1888 and 1890-1893, and appointed Chief Justice of Queensland between 1893 and 1903, followed by Chief Justice of Australia between 1903 and 1919.[21] Harlaxton House was leased to Sir Griffith and his wife, Lady Griffith, for three months from November 1899, with several Executive Council meetings being held there while he was in residence.[22]
\nProsperous Darling Downs landowners, business-owners and professionals established residences in Toowoomba; and from the 1880s, the town acted as a summer resort for those seeking a cooler climate, including Queensland Governors. Toowoomba was first advocated as a location for a summer residence for the Queensland governor in 1877, because of its mild summer climate. Governor Sir Arthur Kennedy leased Lindenberg’s Freemasons Hotel in 1877 and from late-1878 leased ‘Fernside’ (QHR 600843) each summer until 1883. Almost immediately, local properties offered for sale were promoted for their proximity to the governor’s residence. Lord Lamington leased Westbrook Hall from 1896-99. In the interwar years, Sir Matthew Nathan leased Glen Alpine (QHR 600842) for the summer of 1921-22. The summer Vice-Regal residences in Toowoomba served to enshrine the town as a fashionable resort for the wealthier classes, and places like Harlaxton House were amongst those elite houses to have served that purpose.[23]
\nIn early December 1900, Lord and Lady Lamington leased Harlaxton House for the summer months. Lord Lamington served as Governor of Queensland from 1896 to the end of 1901.[24] It was reported at the time that ‘Harlaxton, Mrs Perry’s house at Toowoomba, has been taken this midsummer for the vice-regal party. The Governor and Lady Lamington and family will probably leave Government House for their sojourn at Toowoomba at the end of the week’.[25]
\nIn 1911 Mrs Perry died and the property was subsequently subdivided into smaller lots. In 1912 the Trustees Quarterly Review reported that:
\nA number of important property sales have taken place in Toowoomba during the last few months. One very important one was the subdivision of the late Hon W Perry’s Harlaxton Estate, comprising as are of 150 acres within two miles of the city. Under instructions from Queensland Trustees Limited, this property was subdivided into allotments ranging from a quarter to one acre, and at the two auction sales held, practically the whole of the property was disposed of … Harlaxton was however not sold and still remains open to the purchaser.[26]
\nThe majority of the original estate was sold to various owners over the next few years. In 1916 George and Dorothea Cook purchased Harlaxton House which remained on three and a half acres of land.[27] George Cook was a successful horse dealer. In the 1920s the Cooks had several subdivisions of the property made, dividing the property into eight separate lots, with the largest lot retaining the main house and auxiliary buildings. The other seven smaller lots were located to the south of the main house. These lots, with frontage to Gregory Street, remained vacant, however, until the 1960s and 1970s.[28] By 1968, two more subdivisions were made to the property at the southeast side with frontage to Prince Street.
\nIn 1946 an article was written about the history of the area in the Downlands Magazine and featured Harlaxton House. The article describes the house’s interior features, including the intact and original wallpapers, ‘the fittings of the house interior are of cedar. The original cedar doors are still in use – the walls are papered with the beautifully designed paper from Gregory’s day – as fresh and as lustrous as the day it was put on’. The numerous chimney mantle pieces were also made from cedar.[29]
\nVarious auxiliary structures were built on the property such as stables and a coach house in the nineteenth century, however, all nineteenth-century auxiliary structures have been removed. Two timber sheds remain on the property. The shed to the west is likely to have been constructed between 1936 and 1951, according to photographic evidence. The shed to the east was built ca.1951-55.[30]
\nIn 1965 the Women’s Historical Society of Queensland placed a plaque on the front of Harlaxton House to recognise the importance of the house to Queensland’s history. Dorothea Cook lived in the house until her death in 1982. In the following years the property remained vacant for several years, and in 1995 it was bought as a commercial investment by Sanbeg Pty Ltd., and remained vacant.[31]
\nIn 2009 the front verandah was repaired and reconstructed (stabilisation works), including the removal of the front section of the western verandah enclosure and installation of a new timber and wire handrail in its place. Timber floorboards were also replaced. Excavation under the verandah and the replacement of verandah stumps, bearers and joists was also undertaken at this time.
\n
","criteria":"
Harlaxton House (1869-70), first built for Francis Thomas Gregory, is an early, representative example of a substantial villa residence in Toowoomba. It is important in demonstrating the development of Toowoomba as a major regional centre of southern Queensland, where affluent members of society built substantial homes reflecting their wealth and status.
\nAs one of many houses used as the summer residence for governors of Queensland in the late-19th and early-20th century, Harlaxton House is important in demonstrating the pattern of summer Vice-Regal retreats in Toowoomba, dating from 1877.
|Harlaxton House is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a late-19th century villa residence in Queensland. Through its elevated siting in generous grounds with mature trees and vistas over the Toowoomba Range, formal plan layout, and high-quality interior aesthetic treatment (including the use of clear-finished timbers such as cedar, and decorative wallpaper), it reflects the wealth and status of the early owners, and the prosperity of Toowoomba, a major regional centre in colonial Queensland.
\nDeliberately sited in an elevated location overlooking the Toowoomba Range, the residence retains its formal plan including entrance hall, generously sized bedrooms and living (formal) rooms, with an early eastern extension (by 1879) and remnants of the original rear kitchen wing. The high-quality workmanship and materials used in its construction are evident in its stone walls, timber joinery and framing, and decorative finishes of cast-iron and cedar timber. Wide timber verandahs surrounding the stone core are accessed by French doors and provide a generous space for entertaining and enjoying the surrounding views. The eastern extension (by 1879) and the rear (south) timber wing (by 1915) demonstrate the evolving character of villa residences, many of which were extended for additional accommodation, from the late 19th to early 20th century.
|Harlaxton House has aesthetic significance for its beautiful attributes, expressed through its well composed design that features high-quality materials, details and finishes, both externally and internally. Encircled by verandahs on three sides, the balanced form of the stately stone and timber residence is complemented by its austere exterior details and the symmetry of its front (north) elevation. The residence’s elevated siting, set back from the street and surrounded by spacious grounds, increases its prominence within its setting and allows views out over the grounds towards the Toowoomba Range to the north and northeast.
\nHighly intact, Harlaxton House’s fine architectural quality, arrangement of generous and refined formal and informal spaces, early finishes (such as stone, cedar timber joinery and mantlepieces, and original patterned wallpaper), and attractive setting with elevated vistas overlooking the Toowoomba Range, evoke a sense of an earlier, gracious lifestyle.
|Harlaxton House has a special association with the life of Francis Thomas Gregory, as his family home from 1870 to 1888. Gregory was a notable Australian explorer, surveyor, Commissioner of Crown Lands, and Member of the Queensland Legislative Council, who played a significant role in the history of Toowoomba and the Darling Downs, and who is an important figure in Queensland’s history.
","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":15615,"place_ref":600840,"name":"Gabbinbar","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"344-376 Ramsay Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Located in the southern Toowoomba suburb of Middle Ridge, Gabbinbar is a large villa residence set in picturesque grounds with mature trees, landscaping features and outbuildings. It occupies an L-shaped, 5.7ha property bounded by Ramsey Street to the west and Nelson Street to the south. Residential development lies to the north and east, while land to the south and west of the bounding streets is largely bushland.
\nSignificant features of the property include:
\n· A gatehouse (c1877)
\n· A tree-lined entrance drive (established c1875)
\n· Gabbinbar house (established 1866, extended 1877 and 1920s)
\n· Mature trees and remnants of early gardens (established 1875)
\n· A bowling green/croquet lawn (established 1878) and tennis court (pre-1894)
\n· Remnant fences, earthworks, ruined structures and other early grounds features
\nThe house stands near the centre of the site and occupies a high point in the terrain, which slopes gently away to the north and east, and steeply to the southeast and south. The southern and western areas of the grounds are largely bushland, while the northeast area contains the gardens. The property is accessed via a formal driveway entrance at the northwest corner of the site and a secondary service driveway further south along Ramsay Street. Service areas including parking, sheds and staff facilities are located on the southern and western sides of the house.
\nThe grounds also contain three buildings that have been relocated to the site – a gable-roofed timber building known as the Billiards Room or School House, located west of the house (relocated here c1932); a timber barn and stables building, in the northeast corner of the grounds (relocated here from the Toowoomba property Wyallah in the mid-1970s); and a timber cottage, south of the house (relocated here from Jennings Street, Toowoomba, in 1992). These buildings make an important contribution to the aesthetics of the grounds.
\nGatehouse (c1877 with additions)
\nThe gatehouse stands at the entry to Gabbinbar from Ramsay Street in the northwest corner of the site. It is a lowset single-storey timber building with corrugated metal roof set within an area bounded by the entrance drive to the north and east, and to the west by an early timber fence and hedge that runs along Ramsay Street. The early four-room cottage, later extended to the west has an L-shaped verandah truncated to address Ramsay Street and the entrance drive and is distinguished by a corner gable with diagonal boarding.
\nThe house has a hipped roof with battened eaves, a simply detailed brick chimney and a curved verandah roof supported on stop-chamfered timber posts and beams decorated with brackets (capitals and astragals have been removed). There is no balustrade and the timber verandah floor is unpainted. At the rear, on the southern side of the house, there is a small lean-to addition with a low-pitch skillion roof.
\nThe building is clad in weatherboards with mitred external corners and its timber joinery comprises single-hung sash windows of various sizes and panelled doors. The north elevation of the original cottage features an entry door at its centre, flanked by windows either side. Set back from the north elevation, the western addition is accessed via a door from the verandah and a bay window that faces Ramsay Street is finished with fine timber glazing bars. The building is supported on timber stumps, concealed at the front by dark painted timber battens. The stonework base to the fireplace is also intact.
\nInternally, the layout comprises four rooms in the original cottage, a large room in the western addition (fitted out as a kitchen in 2016), and a double-sided brick fireplace between the two sections. The ceilings and walls of the original cottage are lined with beaded boards, with wall linings fixed vertically on internal partitions and horizontally on external walls. The fireplace in this section has an arched opening and features a decorative frontispiece of moulded timber. The western addition has beaded boards to the ceiling and eastern walls, and vertical, V-jointed, tongue-and-groove (T&G) boards to other walls. Its painted brick fireplace is simply detailed with a shallow arch on a metal lintel and a tiled hearth. Early door and window hardware is retained, and the floors throughout are lined with wide timber boards. Internal doors have been removed. Non-significant elements include the kitchen floor lining, and modern lighting and curtain fixtures.
\nThe gatehouse setting is defined by mature plantings that include a large Cypress (Cupressus sp.) at the front, a large Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia) to the southeast, hedging and mature trees along Ramsay Street to the west, and a clearing to the south, defined by a row of trees along the southern edge. More recent landscaping of ferns, shrubs and low sculpted hedges to the front and sides is not of heritage significance. A modern brick paved pathway provides access from the entrance gates to the front verandah.
\nEntrance drive (established c1875)
\nThe main access to the property is via a pair of reproduction timber gates at the northwest corner of the property. A dense planting of mature Bamboo stands behind the gates on the northern side. The formal entrance drive skirts around the gatehouse and heads south, before curving around to the southeast to reveal the principal view of Gabbinbar house. The drive culminates in a turning circle in front of the northern side of the house. The entrance drive has a recent gravel surface and is densely lined with both recent and mature plantings. The most significant plantings are tall, mature trees of a variety of species including Hoop Pines (Araucaria cunninghamii), Bunya Pines (Araucaria bidwillii), Cypresses (Cupressus sp.); Jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia), Figs (including Moreton Bay Figs, Ficus macrophylla), and Silky Oaks (Grevillea robusta).
\nGabbinbar house (established 1866)
\nGabbinbar house is U-shaped in plan and orientated to face northeast. Lowset on stumps, it is largely timber-framed and -clad, with the exception of the brick kitchen wing, and has a variety of roof forms, all clad in painted corrugated metal sheeting. Gabbinbar house comprises four main sections constructed at different times. These are:
\n· An 1866 kitchen wing in the southwest corner
\n· The main 1877 house along the northern side
\n· A ballroom (constructed by the 1890s) on the southern side of the east end of the house
\n· A 1920s addition on the southern side of the ballroom
\nEnclosing the centre of the U-shaped plan and adjacent former verandah spaces is a c2000 glazed structure forming a function room known as the Conservatory. This structure is not of heritage significance, however it is physically joined to early, significant elements of the house.
\nKitchen wing (1866)
\nThe kitchen wing is rectangular in plan, with a brick core and chimney and a broken-back hipped roof. The north and south verandahs are partially enclosed and the eastern verandah has been demolished for the construction of the Conservatory. The walls of the core are load-bearing red brick laid in Monk bond, with arched lintels over original door and window openings.
\nThe wall dividing the core into two rooms has former fireplaces on each side. The larger eastern room (used as a kitchen in 2016) has a tall fireplace with exposed brick surrounds, while the western room (used as an office in 2016) has a brick oven with a cast iron door above a smaller fireplace, and a brick-enclosed laundry tub in the northeast corner. Walls are painted brick and ceilings have been re-lined in flat sheeting.
\nThe northern verandah enclosure (used as a bar in 2016) has a large opening in the eastern wall for a counter. The walls and raked ceiling are lined with modern V-jointed (VJ) tongue and groove (T&G) boards, except for the northern wall which is clad in wide timber chamferboards.
\nA store room and food preparation room occupy the enclosed southern verandah, which has modern interior linings. Externally, these rooms have been re-clad in modern chamferboards.
\nEarly joinery (much of which has been relocated) includes: low-waisted, part-glazed timber doors with early hardware; low-waisted panelled timber doors with early hardware; six-light, double-hung windows; timber vertical board doors, and two sets of double-hung, leadlight windows.
\nNon-significant elements include: timber posts and decorative elements to the verandah; kitchen, office and bar fitouts; modern doors; modern wall and ceiling linings; modern floor linings including tiles and linoleum; and a skylight in the kitchen roof.
\nMain house (1877)
\nThe 1877 house is a long, symmetrically arranged building featuring prominent gables at either end of the main, northeast-facing elevation. Wrapping around three sides are stepped, skillion-roofed verandahs, with a gable over the wide, centrally-located, concrete entrance steps. External walls are clad in wide timber chamferboards. Two brick chimneys ornamented with bands of concrete render project from the ridgeline. Both are topped by a pair of terracotta chimney pots. The eaves of the main roof feature paired, ornamental timber brackets. The two main gables are detailed with boarded gable panels, large braced finials and bargeboards with a curvilinear pattern. The small gable over the entrance is infilled with diagonal timber boards and topped with a finial.
\nThe verandahs have a timber floor; paired timber posts ornamented with stop-chamfered edges and cornices; simple valances between posts, ornamented with circle cut-outs; and raked ceilings lined with wide, beaded timber boards. Opening onto the verandahs from each room are low-waisted, part-glazed French doors with rectangular, two-light fanlights. French doors along the northern elevation and one in the western wall are protected by louvred timber shutters. The main entrance has double, low-waisted, panelled doors with central door knobs, surrounded by a fanlight and part-glazed side panels.
\nAn early verandah enclosure survives on the western verandah, featuring double-hung, multi-pane leadlight windows and accessed by a part-glazed, low-waisted door fitted with matching leadlight panes. Identical leadlight windows from a similar early verandah enclosure (recently demolished) on the eastern verandah have been relocated to the kitchen wing.
\nThe layout of the 1877 house comprises a central entrance hall with two large rooms on each side, linked by a rear passageway. All rooms have timber floors; stained timber door architraves and wide skirtings; plastered walls (some covered with modern wallpaper); and VJ board-lined ceilings, with a variety of ceiling roses and timber cornices. Each of the four main rooms has a fireplace with early bell-pull levers attached to the sides.
\nBeneath the entrance hall is an excavated area, measuring approximately 1.5m square and 1m deep, formerly used as a wine cellar (inaccessible from the house interior). The doorway between the entrance hall and passageway features a semi-circular archway with capitals.
\nThe room on the western side of the entrance hall (known as the Drawing Room) features a marble mantelpiece and arched, cast iron firebox. A narrow picture rail runs around the room.
\nThe far western room (known as the Dining Room) has a mantelpiece of carved black stone and a cast iron firebox. This room also has picture rails and some walls have timber belt rails.
\nBoth the room on the eastern side of the entrance hall (known as the Library) and the far eastern room (formerly a bedroom, used for storage in 2016) have replacement timber mantelpieces.
\nInternal doors are single, stained timber, panelled doors with timber fretwork fanlights and early door hardware. The passageway doors to the two western rooms feature hand painted flowers on the rear face, reportedly painted by a daughter of one of the past owners. The door from the passageway to the rear of the house has side panels and a fanlight, similar to that of the main entrance but with a single leaf door. A door at the eastern end of the southern wall of the passageway leads to the ballroom.
\nRooms within the enclosed western verandah have raked ceilings and a variety of internal linings, including wide timber chamferboards to former verandah walls and wide beaded boards to one section of ceiling. A small enclosure on the eastern verandah (containing a toilet) is a modern addition and not of heritage significance.
\nBallroom (constructed by 1890s)
\nThe ballroom comprises a single long, rectangular room with its eastern wall aligned with the 1877 verandah. It is clad externally in wide chamferboards and has a hipped roof. Paired timber brackets ornament the eaves, and a skillion-roofed hood shelters two tall windows symmetrically placed in the eastern wall. These timber-framed, vertically-sliding windows feature semi-circular tops and borders of patterned and coloured glass.
\nInternally, the room has wide timber skirtings, plastered walls, and a plaster ceiling (date unknown) with a decorative border, cornice and round ceiling roses. In the southern wall, a panelled timber door with glazed fanlight and early door hardware leads to the 1920s addition. A similar door in the north wall leads to the passageway of the 1877 house.
\nNon-significant features include the double doors and glazing to the western wall; and pilasters, belt rails, picture rails and fixed frames attached to the walls.
\n1920s addition
\nThe 1920s addition comprises three former bedrooms linked by a passageway along the northern side. It is clad in timber weatherboards with a hipped roof and has a verandah with a stepped skillion roof along the southern side. Partly sitting on bare rock, excavated areas on the south and east sides of 1920s addition are evidence of the location of the original 1866 house.
\nThe verandah has a timber floor; timber verandah posts with stop-chamfered edges and cornice decoration; and an unlined raked ceiling. The verandah wall is clad in timber chamferboards. Opening to the verandah are three sets of part-glazed, low-waisted French doors with rectangular fanlights and early door hardware. A single, part-glazed, low-waited timber door at the western end of the verandah leads to the conservatory. Windows in a wing wall at the east end of the verandah are modern replacements.
\nThe eastern elevation is characterised by a rectangular bay window with timber-framed double-hung windows, sheltered by a hip-roofed hood that is supported by curved timber brackets. In an alcove to the north of the bay window is an entrance door leading to the passageway. Surrounded by glazing and a rectangular fanlight, all fitted with patterned glass, the single door is a low-waisted, panelled timber door with early hardware.
\nA decorative timber archway forms the entrance to the passageway from the conservatory. The passageway has a high, flat ceiling, and both walls and ceiling are lined with flat sheeting with cover strips. A timber picture rail aligns with the top of the door openings. Three doors open off the southern side of the passageway, all panelled timber doors with rectangular fanlights and early door hardware, including reeded timber handles.
\nThe eastern and western rooms both retain wall and ceiling linings of flat sheeting with cover strips and picture rails. The western room has been converted into ‘ladies toilets’ and has two toilet cubicles along the northern wall. Early features retained in this room include the timber-framed, double-hung window in the western wall, and lambs tongue-profile skirtings. The eastern room retains built-in timber seats on each side of the bay window.
\nThe centre room has been divided into two rooms –‘men’s toilets’ accessed from the passageway, and an ensuite bathroom and toilet accessed from the east room. The added partitions and internal fitout of these rooms are not of heritage significance. The ensuite door is a panelled timber door with fanlight, similar to the passageway doors.
\nConservatory (c2000)
\nThe conservatory is a large room with a hipped, glazed roof and enclosed by glazed walls at the southern end. The space is edged by the kitchen wing to the west, the main house to the north, and the ballroom and 1920s addition to the east. The verandahs which previously edged this space have been demolished and replaced by a raised, flat ceiling and rows of timber verandah posts. All structures relating to the conservatory beyond the building line of the surrounding house are not of heritage significance.
\nVisible from within the conservatory is a surviving early feature mounted on the southern wall of the 1877 house - a series of brass bells and cords, formerly part of the internal bell system. Traces of the location of former verandah walls are also visible on the exposed brickwork of the eastern kitchen wing wall.
\nNorthern gardens
\nThe gardens to the north and east of the house, between the entrance drive and the eastern boundary, comprise lawn areas, pathways and a wide variety of trees and plantings, some of which are very mature. Of particular note are two very large trees: a Moreton Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla) to the north of the entrance drive turning circle; and a Camphor Laurel (Cinnamomum camphora) north of the east end of the house. Other mature tree and plant species represented include a variety of Pines (including Hoop, Bunya, Brown (Podocarpus elatus) and Norfolk (Araucaria heterophylla) species), Cypresses (Cupressus sp.); Eucalypts; Jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia), a Magnolia tree (Magnolia, sp.), Palms (Arecaceae, sp.) and Bougainvilleas (Bougainvillea, sp.). Stumps of three large Camphor Laurel trees are located in the northeast corner of the grounds, on the south side of the barn and stables building.
\nA set of old timber gates (date unknown) stands to the north of the house, comprising thick, square posts supporting wide, battened gates. A second set of timber gate or fence posts stand to the northwest, close to the entrance drive. Near the northern boundary is a timber-framed, hip-roofed gazebo (date unknown) with glazed walls. In 2016, the blades from a former windmill are propped against a tree in the northeast corner of the gardens.
\nA lawn on west side of house contains a garden bed in the centre, which was the former location of a very mature fig tree (removed c2011).
\nNon-significant elements of the northern gardens include: low concrete walls forming the edges of pathways and the driveway turning circle; a fountain in the centre of the driveway turning circle; a large, recently-constructed, open-sided shelter shed known as the Pavilion; modern gravel and concrete pathways; modern garden ornaments, including an oversized chessboard; and recent garden beds, plantings and hedges.
\nEastern grounds, including tennis court (pre-1894) and bowling green/croquet lawn (1878)
\nNortheast of the house and close to the eastern boundary is a tennis court, established prior to 1894. The court has been resurfaced. The southern end is cut into the terrain and the sloping banks are planted with vegetation. An early gate is located near the southwest corner of the court. Non-significant elements include modern fencing around the court, the tennis net, and an adjacent timber shelter shed (constructed c2000).
\nOn the east side of the house is a built-up rectangular lawn area edged by hedges. Formerly used as a bowling green and croquet lawn (established 1878), it is a very early feature of the grounds. A set of stone steps ascends the eastern sloping bank, in line with an entrance to the 1920s section of the house.
\nOther features of the eastern grounds include: traces of a former carriageway in the terrain, which extended from the turning circle in front of the house, around the bowling green, and continued in a southwest direction; mature trees; and remnants of fencing.
\nSouthern grounds
\nExtending from the house to the southeast corner of the grounds is a steeply sloping lawn area, interspersed with a few large trees. A single Bottle tree (Brachychiton rupestris) stands on the eastern boundary. To the south of the house are a large clump of mature bamboo and a line of timber posts that are likely remnants of a former fence line.
\nFurther to the south the house, within an area largely overgrown by bush and scrub, are remnants of former outbuildings. These include segments of a collapsed, timber-framed structure with a corrugated metal-clad roof; sections of a timber fence and gate; sheets of metal; and what appears to be a concrete drinking trough. To the southwest of these, is a large pile of white-painted, weathered timber pieces. Two corrugated metal, cylindrical water tanks, lowset on timber and stone stumps, are located to the north of this pile, in a separate section of dense vegetation.
\nAn old timber gate remains in the fence line of the southern boundary.
\nWestern grounds
\nSouthwest and west of the house are driveways (including two driveways exiting to Ramsay Street), car park areas, pathways, modern sheds, a septic tank, and modern plantings including hedges. None of these features are of heritage significance.
\nViews
\nSignificant views of Gabbinbar house are obtained from the entrance drive and northern gardens, and are enhanced by its setting of mature trees, lawns and gardens. Numerous picturesque vantage points are encountered when walking through the gardens. The 1870s entrance drive also provides a deliberately dramatic arrival point, as the curve at the southern end of the driveway provides a long view, past the screening vegetation, to an oblique view of the house. Views of the entrance gates and gatehouse from Ramsay Street are also an important part of the arrival sequence and hint at the grandeur of the house itself.
\nThe view corridor from the house and grounds towards the east and southeast was an important influence on the layout of the property, as it was in this direction that views of the wider landscape of the Range and valleys below were obtained. In 2016 these views have been obscured by trees and neighbouring residential development.
","history":"Gabbinbar house is a substantial timber residence built in stages from 1866 to the 1920s, including a large addition in 1877 by architect Willoughby Powell, set within landscaped grounds. The property was established by the Reverend Doctor William Lambie Nelson, a foundation member of the Presbyterian Church in Queensland, who also had grazing interests. It was also occupied by the Rev Dr Nelson’s son, Sir Hugh Muir Nelson, who managed his father’s grazing properties as well as his own near Dalby, and later became Premier and Lieutenant Governor of Queensland. Gabbinbar is symbolic of the success of the early Queensland pastoralists who established their grazing properties, often served in local, colonial and state governments, and built fine homes in major towns such as Toowoomba. From 1877, various Queensland governors leased houses in Toowoomba during summer, including Gabbinbar from 1906 to 1909. Toowoomba was enshrined as a fashionable summer resort for the wealthier classes, with Gabbinbar one of four surviving Toowoomba houses utilised as Vice-Regal summer residences.
\nEuropean settlement of the Toowoomba area, traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, commenced in 1840 when squatters occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. The small settlement of Drayton evolved from 1842, but was soon surpassed by a more desirable location six kilometres to the northeast, known as Toowoomba from the 1850s. Better suited to market gardening with an improved water supply and the support of squatters and land speculators, Toowoomba was incorporated as a municipality in 1860. Its rapid economic and social development was influenced by local residents who strongly promoted the prospects of the town, and political representatives who successfully lobbied for government funding for civic improvements, including churches.[1]
\nThe first Presbyterian Church, St Stephen’s, was built in 1855 with the first service delivered by Rev Dr William Lambie Nelson (1807-1887).[2] Rev Dr Nelson had served as acting Presbyterian Minister at St Stephen’s Edinburgh and Inveresk in Scotland, before immigrating to Australia. He served as the minister for the district of Ipswich from 1853 to 1860, extending his pastoral visitations to Toowoomba and Drayton. He was a member of the original Body Corporate of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland in 1876. Rev Dr Nelson also had a number of grazing properties, which were managed by his son Hugh Muir Nelson (1833-1906).[3]
\nIn 1864 a number of small farms on the southern outskirts of Toowoomba were surveyed and offered for sale. Rev Dr Nelson acquired a 42 acre (17ha) farm (Portion 505) and employed William Kirk Cumming to build a small timber house with a detached brick kitchen there, completed in 1866.[4] The property was named ‘Gabbinbar’, which has been variously reported to mean ‘big view’[5] or ‘great joy’[6] in the local Aboriginal language, as the house is situated at the highest point of the Toowoomba range.[7]
\nIn 1874, Rev Dr Nelson purchased 84 acres (34ha) to the west of Gabbinbar (Portions 503 and 504) which he immediately subdivided and sold.[8]
\nIn January 1876, Rev Dr Nelson commissioned architect Willoughby Powell to design a substantial addition to the house.[9] Powell (c1848-1920) trained as an architect in England before immigrating to Queensland in 1872. He worked for Brisbane architect Richard Gailey, joining the Queensland Public Works Department in 1874. Powell won a competition for the design of the Toowoomba Grammar School (1875) [QHR 600850]. He then established his architecture office in Toowoomba in 1875, to supervise the project. Powell claimed to have erected all the principal buildings in Toowoomba and Dalby between 1875 and 1877. Gabbinbar was the first of seven private residences he designed in the Toowoomba district.[10] Of those identified, only Clifford House [QHR600857] and Gabbinbar remain. Powell later worked in Brisbane and Maryborough, designing many fine buildings throughout Queensland, including Baddow House in Maryborough [QHR 600690], Warwick Town Hall [QHR 600961] and Toowoomba City Hall [QHR 600865].[11]
\nThe Gabbinbar addition designed by Powell and built by Richard Godsall was completed in January 1877. It comprised a long, north-facing range that linked the original house and kitchen wing buildings. Symmetrically arranged and ornamented with decorative timberwork, the addition contained four generously-sized rooms and a central entrance hall, with 9 foot (3m) wide verandahs with French lights and Venetian shutters to each room. A cellar was constructed beneath the addition, and new outbuildings built to the rear (south) of the house.[12]
\nFrom the 1870s Gabbinbar’s gardens were laid out and maintained by professional gardeners. These gardeners were responsible for establishing features such as a tree-lined entrance drive and orchards. Rev Dr Nelson employed gardener John Wenzel at Gabbinbar from late-1875,[13] who had extensive experience in Brisbane.[14] Wenzel was later replaced by W Davidson,[15] who remained at Gabbinbar until at least 1879.[16]
\nIn February 1876 ownership of Gabbinbar was transferred to Nelson’s son Hugh (HM) Nelson.[17] While HM Nelson continued to manage his own property, Loudon Station near Dalby, his wife and three children lived at Gabbinbar from April 1876.[18] In May 1877, HM Nelson expanded the Gabbinbar property further by purchasing the land immediately to the south, across Nelson Street (Portion 563), comprising 34.75 acres (14ha).[19]
\nGabbinbar was visited by a news reporter in 1878 and described in detail: The entrance was through large white gates, with the gardener and lodge-keeper’s residence just inside. A driveway about 200 yards (183m) long and 18 feet (5.5m) wide was fringed by trees, shrubs and flowers. A gentle curve in the drive led to the entrance of the house through a circular turning space at its entrance, and extended around to the stables at the rear (south) side of the house. The property was planted with fodder crops, although it was described a ‘gentleman’s seat’ and not a farm. The Gothic-styled house had large and lofty rooms with a bowling green and croquet lawn on the eastern side of the house, where the views were unsurpassed.[20]
\nGabbinbar was one of many fine estates established throughout Toowoomba in the late-19th century. Toowoomba in the late-1870s was considered to be the capital of the Darling Downs with well laid out streets and fine architecturally designed masonry buildings demonstrating the town’s prosperity. Historian Duncan Waterson attests that ‘Toowoomba’s history is one of utmost uninterrupted progress, one of the great urban bourgeois success stories of Queensland.’[21]
\nTenders for alterations and additions to Gabbinbar were called in April 1881 by local architect James Marks (1834-1915). The exact nature of the work carried out is unknown.[22]
\nFrom the 1880s the social and political influence of the Nelson family increased significantly. HM Nelson began his political career in 1880 when he became chairman of the Wambo Divisional Board. He served the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1883 until 1888. His parliamentary roles included Secretary to Railways and Public Works, and Treasurer. Gabbinbar became his principal home following the deaths of his mother in 1885 and father in 1887 and he sold Loudon in 1892. HM Nelson served as Premier between 1893 and 1898. [23]
\nIt was during HM Nelson’s premiership in 1896, that newspapers first mention a ballroom at Gabbinbar.[24] A long, rectangular room, the ballroom was constructed in the verandah space between the original 1866 house and the 1877 addition. Gabbinbar was the venue for many social events, including tennis, croquet and horseriding,[25] and a place of meetings for politicians. NSW Premier George Reid came to Gabbinbar in late December 1896 to convince Sir HM Nelson to support Federation.[26]
\nHM Nelson was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1896. Then, while representing Queensland with T J Byrnes at the Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Celebrations in 1897, he was made privy councillor, Hon DCL Oxford, Hon LL D Edinburgh and freeman of his hometown Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.[27]
\nHis Excellency the Governor, Sir Herbert Chermside, was a guest of the Nelsons at Gabbinbar in October 1904, at the time of his departure from Queensland,[28] and prior to the arrival of Lord Chelmsford. Sir HM Nelson was appointed Lieutenant Governor in the interim.
\nSir HM Nelson, KCMG, died at Gabbinbar on 1 January 1906. His funeral which departed from Gabbinbar was attended by His Excellency the Governor, Lord Chelmsford. He arranged to rent Gabbinbar later that year,[29] initiating another chapter in the history of the house as the summer residence of the Governor; part of a pattern of Vice Regal summer residences in Toowoomba.
\nToowoomba was first advocated as a location for a summer residence for the Queensland governor in 1877, because of its mild summer climate. Governor Sir Arthur Kennedy leased Lindenberg’s Freemasons Hotel in 1877[30] and from late-1878 leased ‘Fernside’ [QHR 600843] each summer until 1883.[31] Almost immediately, local properties offered for sale were promoted for their proximity to the governor’s residence.[32] Lord Lamington leased Westbrook Hall near Drayton from 1896-99,[33] and Harlaxton House [QHR 600839] for the summer of 1900-01.[34] In the interwar years, Sir Matthew Nathan’s leased Glen Alpine [QHR 600842] for the summer of 1921-22.[35] The summer Vice-Regal residences in Toowoomba served to enshrine the town as a fashionable resort for the wealthier classes,[36] and places Gabbinbar amongst those elite houses to have served that purpose.
\nLord Chelmsford leased Gabbinbar for the summer months from December 1906,[37] and during 1907/8 and 1908/9.[38] A bore was sunk in November 1908, to water Gabbinbar’s gardens prior to the governor’s arrival,[39] remnants of which remain about 160m to the north of the house. A photograph taken in 1908 during the Governor’s visit to Gabbinbar shows a timber servants’ quarters building and stables somewhere in the grounds, most likely to the south or southwest of the house.[40]
\nBy the 1920s, Gabbinbar was a well-established property with mature trees and formally laid out flower and vegetable gardens, pathways and a tennis court. In the early-1920s Lady Nelson had the original 1866 house demolished, and a new wing added in its place by February 1924.[41] A large sale of building materials occurred in 1920; possibly from the demolition of the 1866 house.[42] The 1920s addition contained three bedrooms linked by a passageway along the northern side and a verandah along the southern side. A bay window projected from the eastern wall, to capture the southern views. The addition was not as wide as the demolished house, revealing areas of excavated rock on the southern and eastern sides where the 1866 house stood.
\nFurther changes of occupants of Gabbinbar occurred through to the early-1940s. Lady Nelson died at Gabbinbar on 2 April 1927.[43] Her son Duncan and his wife Colina (nee Munro)[44] occupied Gabbinbar from June 1927.[45] A small timber, gable-roofed building was moved to Gabbinbar in the early-1930s, to serve as a billiards room.[46] Following the death of D Nelson in 1938,[47] ownership of Gabbinbar and the property on the southern side of Nelson Street was transferred to his wife.[48] During WWII, the 2/1st Corps Field Survey Company, AIF, occupied Gabbinbar between May 1942 and July 1943. The unit was engaged in survey drafting and map production.[49] Local architect MC Williamson was reputedly employed to repair the house before Mrs Nelson’s return in December 1944.[50]
\nIn the mid-20th century the extent of Gabbinbar’s estate was reduced. The corner of Nelson and Ramsay Streets was truncated in 1955.[51] A five acre allotment was excised on the southeast corner in 1967,[52] which was further subdivided in the early-1970s. Portion 563 on the southern side of Nelson Street was sold in 1968.[53]
\nGabbinbar was purchased by Treveren and Joan Liesegang in 1970, who undertook extensive restorations. In the early-1970s they purchased a timber barn/stables and shearing shed building from the property Wyallah (since demolished) and relocated it to Gabbinbar.[54] Further subdivision to the east of Gabbinbar house reduced its land area to 9.8ha by 1974.[55]
\nIn 1992, a cottage that had formerly been the home of Toowoomba’s ‘spider man’, Pat Walker, was relocated to Gabbinbar from Jennings Street, Toowoomba. He had previously collected funnel web spiders from Gabbinbar’s grounds, which he provided to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory to develop a vaccine.[56]
\nGabbinbar was sold by the Liesegang’s in May 1995.[57] Extensive restorations were undertaken from 1997, with the intention of establishing a wedding venue. In c2000 a large glazed structure, known as the Conservatory in 2016, was built in the central courtyard area of the house, which necessitated the demolition of the enclosed rear verandahs. Other alterations included: the installation of new bathrooms and ensuites; the renovation of the ballroom, including new access doors; and other alterations to verandahs, particularly in the kitchen wing. At some point an early verandah enclosure on the eastern verandah of the 1877 house was removed and its leadlight windows relocated. In the grounds, the driveway turning circle was reformed, surrounded by new low concrete walls and garden beds, and the tennis court was resurfaced with a new timber shelter shed constructed c2000. In 2016, some early timber joinery removed from the house is stored on site.
\nWhile some weddings were held in 2003, there was local opposition to this use,[58] and council approval was not gained until 2011. Also in 2011, the property was subdivided into two lots, (Lots 65 and 66, SP248455). Changes to the grounds were also made, including the construction of a visitors’ car park to the west of the house.[59] From December 2013, Gabbinbar has operated as a specialist wedding venue, and an open-sided wedding chapel was added to the site during 2015.[60]
","criteria":"Gabbinbar, a substantial villa residence (established 1866), set within landscaped grounds, is important in demonstrating the development of Toowoomba as a prosperous regional centre of southern Queensland, where successful pastoralists and businessmen built substantial homes reflecting their wealth.
\nAs one of many houses used as the summer residence for governors of Queensland in the late-19th and early-20th century, Gabbinbar is important in demonstrating the pattern of summer Vice-Regal retreats in Toowoomba, dating from 1877.
|Gabbinbar is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a late-19th century villa residence. Through its large size, high quality design, aesthetic treatment and landscaped grounds, it reflects the wealth and status of the owners, and of Toowoomba, a major regional centre in colonial Queensland.
\nConsciously sited in an elevated location on a high point on the Toowoomba Range, the house retains its formal plan, with entrance vestibule, generously-sized rooms, large ballroom, and brick kitchen wing. The high quality workmanship and materials used in its construction include decorative timberwork to the exterior, fine timber joinery, marble and slate mantelpieces, and leadlight windows. Wide verandahs accessed by French doors provide a generous space for entertaining and enjoying the surrounding views. Changes and additions to the house such as the ballroom and servants’ bell system demonstrate the way of life of its occupants over time.
\nGabbinbar’s extensive grounds retain a gatehouse residence; tree-lined entrance drive; numerous large mature trees; a bowling green/croquet lawn; and a tennis court.
\nThe 1877 section of Gabbinbar is a fine example of the work of noted architect Willoughby Powell, displaying his characteristic use of symmetry and finely-detailed exterior ornamentation.
|Gabbinbar has aesthetic significance for its picturesque qualities, created by the relationship between the house and its carefully-composed landscape design. Picturesque vantage points are encountered throughout the gardens, which contain a wide variety of mature trees. Dense vegetation secludes the house from its suburban surrounds, creating an atmosphere of tranquillity and exclusivity. The arrival sequence, from the gatehouse at the point of entry, along a tree-lined entrance drive to arrive at an attractive vista of the house, is an important landscape feature.
\nThe house has beautiful attributes due its elegant composition and high quality materials, details and finishes, both internally and externally. The main elevation is complemented by its setting, set back from surrounding formal gardens and trees so that vistas to and from the house are maintained.
|Gabbinbar has a special association with the community of Toowoomba as a well-known early residence of Reverend Doctor William Lambie Nelson, a foundation member of Presbyterianism in Queensland; Sir Hugh Nelson, one of Queensland’s premiers; and as the summer residence of Queensland Governor, Lord Chelmsford, from 1906-1909. The Nelson family regularly hosted social and charitable events at Gabbinbar; a tradition continued by subsequent owners.
|Gabbinbar has a special association with the family of Reverend Doctor William Lambie Nelson, a foundation member of the Presbyterian Church in Queensland, who established the property in 1866. The substantial enlargement of the house in 1877 and its occupation by Sir Hugh Nelson, a successful grazier and later government minister and Premier, enshrined the house as a venue for social and charitable events, leading to Gabbinbar’s function as a summer residence for the Governor, Lord Chelmsford, in the early-20th century. The Nelson family’s long and close association with Gabbinbar lasted for more than 100 years.
","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":15616,"place_ref":600841,"name":"Whyembah","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"80 Campbell Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-06-11","description":"Whyembah is a picturesque weatherboard house with a corrugated iron roof. It is located next to the Botanical Gardens, on a street with an avenue of mature trees and other timber houses, some of which are similar in form to Whyembah. The house is single storeyed, with a recent two storeyed extension to the rear which meticulously imitates the original in external detail.
The exterior is an assemblage of projecting bays and verandahs, with roofs intersecting at the base of a flat-top pyramid roof. The eastern elevation has a projecting hipped roof bay, adjacent to a closed in verandah with a curved roof. The street elevation has a small balcony at the end of the closed in verandah, which sits next to a projecting bay window. The street entrance, consisting of a projecting barrel vault supported on paired timber posts, is centrally placed. An L-shaped verandah links the street entrance to a less formal side entrance to the west, and contains a projecting corner bay window. Another bay window extends out from a projecting hipped bay at the southern end of the western frontage.
The house is rich in its decorative detailing. The verandah posts are chamfered, and have curved valances. The balustrades are cast iron. The main roof has curved eaves brackets, and sheet metal cresting adorns both the flat top of the main roof and the ridges of the smaller roofs. A polychrome brick chimney rises to the rear. The bay windows have small curved lead awnings, and the barrel vaulted entry has arched timber fret-work.
The house has timber sliding sash windows, and timber doors. The street entry door has stained glass set in timber surrounds. The house contains some fine pressed metal wall and ceiling sheeting.
Whyembah sits on the northern end of a block of 1942 sq metres; the garden contain mature palms to the rear of the block, and a timber gatehouse to the south west corner.
An internal inspection was not undertaken.
","history":"Whyembah was built c1896 for John Rosser, a commercial traveller with the Brisbane firm of Thurlow and Co. Whyembah originally stood on approximately 1r 29p of land, adjacent to the Toowoomba Botanic Gardens in Campbell Street. Rosser was a keen lawn bowler, and the grounds of Whyembah included a bowling green at one time.
The house was renovated and enlarged in 1906, and the ceilings and walls lined in pressed metal.
After Rosser's death in 1925, his widow Margaret Ferrier Rosser remained at Whyembah. The property was acquired by William Ross Mackenzie in 1943 with the condition that Margaret Rosser could continue to reside at Whyembah until her death.
The property changed hands a number of times. During the 1970s it was turned into flats.
Whyembah was acquired by the present owners in 1979, who have subsequently renovated and extended the house.
","criteria":"Whyembah, erected c1896, illustrates the pattern of Toowoomba's development as a regional centre for southern Queensland.
|It demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1890s ornate timber house in Toowoomba, and as a particularly picturesque house in a tree-lined street which includes a number of decorated timber houses, it exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community.
|It demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1890s ornate timber house in Toowoomba, and as a particularly picturesque house in a tree-lined street which includes a number of decorated timber houses, it exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community.
","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":15617,"place_ref":600842,"name":"Glen Alpine","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"32-36 East Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-06-11","description":"Glen Alpine, built into an eastern slope on the edge of Main Range, appears single-storeyed from the west, on the East Street frontage, but is two-storeyed from the east. The timber residence, the grounds of which fall away to the east and to Redwood Park beyond, faces east to the expansive view of the Brisbane Valley and Table Top mountain.
The building has a hipped ribbed metal roof with projecting gables and verandahs to both levels around the southeast and northeast, with chamferboards to verandah walls and weatherboards to exposed walls. The gables have flat sheeting with timber cover strips and eave brackets. Both the east and west elevations are symmetrical.
The west elevation, sitting on a brick base with exposed piers, has projecting gabled rooms to the southwest and northwest with shuttered sash windows and a central projecting bay shaped porch. The porch has a hipped roof, eave brackets, batten railing and arched timber brackets with a concrete stair to a landing which splits into twin steps to the ground. The panelled timber entry door has a fanlight and two side sash windows with rose and clear glass with red glass borders. Low level windows in the brick base, to either side of the porch, light a service corridor behind.
The east elevation has a central projecting gabled bay. The upper floor of this bay has a large fixed picture window, divided into three and broken into smaller square panes, with a red glass border, and the ground floor has arched timber casement windows. These windows have metal hoods with deep curved timber brackets.
French doors with divided fanlights open onto the verandahs which have timber posts with batten railing to the upper floor and solid timber arched valance and a concrete floor to the ground. The north end of the upper and lower verandahs, and a section of the upper south verandah, have been enclosed with glazing and timber panels.
The south elevation has an enclosed gabled room to the upper floor with an arched timber valance and casement windows. This sits on the brick base, the rear retaining wall of which continues south forming a three car garage with a fernery between. The garage has an extended timber front and a skillion roof.
Internally, the timber floors are mostly carpeted and the tongue and groove walls and boarded ceilings are painted. The west entry has an arched timber colonnade to the stair and north bay, with a wide hallway running northsouth on the west side of the building. At either end of this hallway is a door with patterned glass fanlight and sidelights. Bedrooms, the north room of which has early wallpaper and others have Masonite cladding, open off this hallway with the bathroom at the north end. The stair has timber fretwork railings and leads to the ground floor.
The ground floor has a concrete floor service corridor running under the upper hallway, with a brick retaining wall to the west and a single skin timber wall to the eastern rooms. A sitting room is located on the southeast with a remodelled kitchen and sunroom are on the northeast.
The grounds include a fenced garden to the west entry with a low brick pier and wrought iron fence; the remains of a carriage drive entering from the southwest and sweeping around the north and east of the building to the garages at the south; a fish pond with brick paving to the east; mature trees along the south, west and north boundaries and sections of hedges along the east.
","history":"Glen Alpine is a two-storey timber residence which is believed to have been built c1918 for Albert Rowbotham, of the Toowoomba firm Rowbotham and Co., bootmakers. The house was possibly designed by prominent Toowoomba architect, Harry J. Marks.
The land was granted to Thomas Perkins in 1875, then acquired by William Shaw in 1876. It appears that there may have been a previous dwelling also named Glen Alpine on the same site, possibly as early as 1882-83 when Richard Cobb, a Toowoomba builder and contractor acquired the land. Cobb was recorded as living at The Range between 1883 and 1887. The land was acquired by David Laughland Brown of the softgoods firm Messrs. D. L. Brown and Co in 1887. Between 1887 and 1910 there were various references in the Post Office Directories and Toowoomba newspapers to Brown and his family at Glen Alpine, Main Range. Rowbotham acquired the land in 1918.
The house was purchased in 1931 by Neal Macrossan, then a Barrister-at-law and later a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It appears that Neal Macrossan and his wife Eileen (daughter of T.C. Beirne) purchased Glen Alpine as a holiday home, indicative of the way in which Toowoomba was viewed as a 'summer resort' for heat-oppressed coastal Queenslanders (including the Governors), and a weekend escape for day trippers from Brisbane.
A swimming pool was built at Glen Alpine in 1931, designed by William Hodgen Jnr. It was one of the first domestic swimming pools built in Toowoomba.
Glen Alpine was temporarily occupied by the Army, c1940-42.
Macrossan died in 1955 and his daughter purchased Glen Alpine from his estate in 1957.
","criteria":"The house and grounds of Glen Alpine, erected c1918, are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the development of the Toowoomba Range as a prestigious residential area.
|It exhibits a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Toowoomba community, in particular the formal symmetry of the building and its siting in relation to the view to the east, and the contribution of the building and grounds to the streetscape of East Street and to the Toowoomba townscape.
|It has special association with the life of Chief Justice Neal Macrossan as his Toowoomba holiday house.
","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":15618,"place_ref":600843,"name":"Fernside","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"4-6 Fernside Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Fernside is built on a levelled area rising from Fernside Street to the west, the levelled area falls away to an escarpment to the east. The siting of Fernside provides spectacular views from the Great Dividing Range to the east. Fernside's well established garden setting incorporates a carriage drive located at the front, or western side of the house and native and exotic conifers.
The house is a low, symmetrical, rendered brick building, with a hipped roof clad with colourbond sheeting and gutters. The house has verandahs, under a separate roof, located on the western and eastern sides. Two moulded, rendered brick chimneys are located at the northern and southern elevations of the house.
The original section of Fernside was constructed c1876 with several additions at later stages, including an enclosed verandah along northern elevation, a bay window and dormer window added to the eastern elevation, possibly c1915 and an extension to the southern elevation during the 1990s.
The western elevation, the facade to Fernside Street, faces the carriageway, and is accessed via a set of wide concrete steps. The centred porticoed entrance, topped by a timber fretwork gable, supported by paired timber posts with timber brackets, leads to the front entrance, a timber panelled door, with sidelight and fanlight assemblies. Bay windows with simple timber architraves and a verandah rail with wrought iron balustrading, not originally from Fernside, are also located along the western elevation. A second panelled timber door, with sidelight and fanlight assemblies is located at the southern end of the western elevation.
The eastern elevation faces magnificent views from the Great Dividing Range. The verandah is supported by timber posts and brackets and the brick is marked out to resemble ashlar. The centred bay window with gabled roof has a french door and three sets of elongated windows with small square paned glass and breezeways. Two other timber, panelled french doors are located in the eastern facade. The dormer window is located to the north of the gabled bay window.
The northern elevation is timber framed and enclosed with glass windows and french doors, and houses service facilities. The southern elevation, extended during the 1990s, is timber framed with large windows with breezeway, french doors and a corrugated iron roof.
Internally, Fernside's core remains reasonably intact. Some original detail remains, including moulded pressed metal ceilings in the living and dining rooms. Fireplaces, one with moulded timber surrounds and another with marble surrounds and consoles, are situated in the living and dining rooms.
A number of doorways retain original cedar joinery including a door from the living room to the dining room which also has a breezeway with diamond shaped timber panels surrounded by decorative glass.
Fernside has a concrete fence with moulded concrete pillars with a non-original cast iron gate at the front.
","history":"Fernside, a low symmetrical brick building, was built c1876 for John Alexander Boyce who arrived in Toowoomba from Brisbane in August 1870.
From the mid 1870s, JA Boyce accumulated land around what are now Fernside, Arthur and Curzon Streets, including the transferral of two acres on 1 July 1876 and a further two acres on 20 August 1877.
JA Boyce was Clerk of Petty Sessions in Toowoomba from 1870 until at least 1893. In 1895, Boyce was appointed relieving Police Magistrate in Winton and in 1896 was stationed at Thargomindah and Muttaburra. Boyce travelled further afield in later years, holding positions at Barcaldine, Roma and Cunnamulla from 1897 and was appointed Police Magistrate at Townsville in 1903. In 1909, Boyce retired to Sandgate and died in 1927. His obituary was placed in the Brisbane Courier on 8 December 1927.
The house remained in the Boyce family for over 100 years, six generations of the family living there over the period of time, from William Boyce, father of JA Boyce to Lesley Anne, Colin, Rodney and Michael, the children of Peter Boyce, JA Boyce's great grandson.
JA Boyce sold Fernside to his daughter-in-law, Margaret Annie Griffiths, in February 1902. Annie owned it until she died in 1969, aged 100 years. Annie Griffiths was the daughter of George Washington Griffiths who established the Toowoomba Foundry in 1871. The Brisbane Courier reports on June 8, 1886 that 'three or four years after starting, Mr [George W] Griffiths took in his brother and brother-in-law to the business.' At this time the Foundry was known as Griffith Bros and Company, later, c1884, the name was changed to the Toowoomba Foundry Company Limited.
Annie married Gerard Boyce, JA Boyce's son in Toowoomba on 21 May 1896. News of the couple's marriage was printed in the Toowoomba Chronicle on June 4 1896. Annie Boyce took out a mortgage on the property in 1915, it is likely that renovations to the eastern elevation were undertaken at this time. By 1955, the street was known as Fernside Street, having been formerly known as Curzon Street.
After Annie's death, Fernside passed to her grandson, Peter Boyce, who owned the property until 1978. In 1978, Fernside was sold to people outside the Boyce family. The current owners have resided at Fernside since 1993.
The grandeur and position of the house were recognised as desirable from very early on. Sir Arthur Kennedy, Governor of Queensland from 1877 to 1883, used the house as his summer residence. The use of the residence as a summer retreat for the governor continued the trend of using several Toowoomba residences in this manner. Harlaxton House [600839] was rented by Lord Lamington, the eighth governor of Queensland (1896-1901). From 1906-1909, Gabbinbar [600840] was used as a place of summer residence by Lord Chelmsford, Governor of Queensland from 1905-1909. Vernon Redwood, Mayor of Toowoomba, MLA, rented Fernside in the early part of this century, as did other Toowoomba notables.
","criteria":"Fernside follows the pattern of the construction of substantial houses on the Darling Downs which came to be used as summer resorts by various Governors, demonstrating the development of the Darling Downs from a sparsely populated pastoral region to one of prosperity.
|Fernside is significant as an example of well-to-do domestic building from the 1870s, reflecting the wealth and status of a public servant in Toowoomba, a major regional centre in colonial Queensland.
The siting of the house and subsequent landscape works are highly significant. Its location and verandahed design provide spectacular views from the Great Dividing Range, demonstrating the importance of topography for early settlers when choosing a suitable site on which to build.
|(Criterion under review)
|Fernside has special association with the community of Toowoomba and surrounding area as a well-known early residence and summer resort of Sir Arthur Kennedy, Governor of Queensland from 1877 to 1883.
|Fernside has special association with the community of Toowoomba and surrounding area as a well-known early residence and summer resort of Sir Arthur Kennedy, Governor of Queensland from 1877 to 1883.
","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":15619,"place_ref":600844,"name":"St Patricks Cathedral","alternate_name":"St Patrick's Church School | St Patrick's Cathedral","street_address":"154-156 James Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Patrick's Cathedral is located on the corner of James and Neil Streets in Toowoomba, less than half a kilometre to the south of the city centre. The substantial stone building has a strong presence on James St, which carries the Warrego Highway's traffic through the city. When approaching from the west, the long ridge of its main roof and the stone of its gabled front façade become visible from a distance of approximately half a kilometre. The Cathedral is a fine example of the Victorian Gothic architectural style, the distinguishing elements of which include steeply pitched roofs, buttresses, pinnacles, tracery and pointed arches. Also included in the Queensland Heritage Register's entry is the Presbytery, with walls of face brick and a tiled roof, which is sited on the eastern side of the Cathedral building.
St Patrick's is cruciform in plan, and almost 61m long and 31m wide (200ft x 100ft). The main gabled roof contains the nave and features a stone cross at its apex of the front gable parapet. It intersects with the gabled roofs over each transept. All are steeply pitched. To the south, there is a further high roof, which becomes a faceted half-dome over the sanctuary and apse. All roofs are currently clad in metal sheeting, which resembles what was originally installed. The current roof cladding was put in place during the renovations conducted in 1972. The original cladding was 'rolled and pan' galvanised iron in short 1800mm lengths. The Cathedral's 2001 Conservation Plan recommends that, when it is necessary to replace the building's roofing, the effort be made to return to the original, and also to reinstate the distinctive roof vents that were not incorporated in 1972.
The Cathedral's stonework is 'hammer dressed square rubble'. The pointing of whitish mortar was originally flush with the stone, however some areas were raised to form a large bead during the 1972 renovations. The dressings to the openings, buttresses, pinnacles, piers and quoins are sandstone from Murphy's Creek.
The aisles are flanked by a series of buttresses, with two short, tall ones on the front façade to James Street. These are terminated in octagonal pinnacles, while the design of the shorter two to the front ends of the aisles match the pinnacles on the entry gate's twin stone columns. Over the front doorway on the northern gable is located a large leadlight window with three lights and bar tracery head. Above this is a very small multifoil, circular window with leadlight. The leadlight windows to the aisles are divided in two by a central mullion with plate tracery and pointed arch above. Those in the upper level walls of the nave consist of a set of three lancet windows with label mould above. The leadlight windows in each transept gable are similar to the main one on the northern gable facing James Street, however the bar tracery is of a simpler pattern. The five apse windows in the facets of the south-facing drum are divided in two by a central mullion with plate tracery above.
The 1927 Presbytery is located within ten metres of the Cathedral's east transept. Its main gable roof, the west end of which is half-hipped, has two large gables projecting from it on the north façade. Under one of these, a smaller gable projects over a faceted, chamferboard-clad bay window. There are both timber-framed casement and double-hung sash windows on this façade. The glass is leadlight and the gable ends are timber battened. A brick chimneystack protrudes through the roof at the western end of the building. One large, timber battened gable end projects off the main roof at the east end of the southern façade. At the west end of this façade the roof is hipped. The gable end projecting east is clad in chamferboards. A space only 4m wide at its narrowest separates the Presbytery from a recently constructed brick Parish Centre to the south. Inside, a large room on the northern façade has a coffered plasterwork ceiling. It opens onto a smaller room in the north-west corner through a polished timber-framed opening with relief pillars and two narrow Doric-style columns on either side. This room has a polished timber mantelpiece and fireplace.
Interior of Cathedral
Entry to St Patrick's Cathedral can be gained from a number of points around the building, including on the front façade, centrally through either external wall to the aisles, and through the transept gable ends. Two doors allow the priests and other church personnel entry to the vestry on the north-east corner of the building. The nave and aisles to each side are separated by a series of pointed archways supported on octagonal piers with capitals. The arches throughout are fluted. This arcade supports the wall of clerestory windows above, each of which corresponds to the location of an archway. The walls throughout are painted plaster, however the octagonal piers are exposed stone. Large parts of the Cathedral's floors are carpeted, but in a number of locations polished tongue and groove boards remain exposed.
The stained timber roof to the nave is somewhere between an elongated arched-brace and hammerbeam. The ends of the arched braces connect to long curved brackets, which connect back to posts fixed against the walls. The meeting point of these two elements is connected back to the wall with a carved hammerbeam and bows out into the ceiling space. The columns or brackets fixed to the wall bear on a small extrusion of stone. At the apex of the roof, where the principal rafters meets, a carved drop-finial is fitted. Above the single tie beam the rafters have scalloped edges. The roofs to the aisles feature a principal rafter supported by an arched brace fixed to columns against the walls. At the Crossing's roof, two perpendicular arched-brace sets intersect. In each transept's roof a single arched-brace set features. The lining to all these ceilings, formed by a diagonal pattern of timber tongue and groove boards, is fixed behind a series of butt purlins. Above the sanctuary and apse the ceiling is arched and plastered. The multi-angular apse's facets are picked out with relief lines of plastered stonework that extend to the floor.
The organ is currently situated in a corner of the west transept. It and a gallery surround the entry door. They did occupy the sanctuary before the 1972 renovations. From the Cathedral's original fitting-out a great number of pine and cedar polished pews and book rails remain to line two sides of the nave and the transepts. A series of steps and a marble altar rail divides the Crossing from the sanctuary, and a marble pulpit stands in the south-west corner of the crossing. Both of these were donated and installed in during the donations made in the 1930s. The five windows over the apse were donated at this time by Downlands College and depict Sacred Heart lancets. Small chapels with marble altars and rails flank the chancel (the Sacred Heart and Lady Chapels). The leadlight windows, altar rail and pulpit are the strongest Gothic design elements on the interior of the Cathedral, aside from the overall shape and proportion of the spaces.
Grounds
The site fence to Neil and James Streets consists of sandstone piers and low walls, in-filled with iron railings. It was constructed in 1931. An entry gate and stairs align to the Cathedral's front door on James Street. A large open space at the corner of Neil and James Streets is formed by the eastern extent of the Cathedral and the north façade of the Presbytery. Before 1928, this area of lawn was occupied by a two-storey timber Presbytery and a number of mature trees, which were demolished and removed. A smaller area of lawn separates the Cathedral from the western site boundary it shares with a school. A line of well established pines provide a useful screen here. In the south-western corner of this space is situated the steel belfry and its bell.
To the south of the Cathedral and Presbytery are located a large parking area and storage shed, a preschool, St Patrick's Hall and the Parish Centre. These are recent additions to the site and are not considered to be of heritage significance.
","history":"St Patrick's Cathedral is a dominant Victorian Gothic church built from basalt and located on James Street, Toowoomba. It was designed by James Marks for the then Catholic Toowoomba Mission and was built between 1883 and 1889.
Early church services in the Darling Downs were often an itinerant affair conducted from private houses, inns or courthouses, and the origins of Roman Catholic worship in the region are to be found in the transient rituals conducted during the early 1840s. In 1843, Australia's first Catholic Archbishop, John Bede Polding, accompanied by Benedictine abbott, Dr Henry Gregory, toured the pastoral stations in Moreton Bay and Darling Downs with a portable altar. Along the way they preached to the shepherds they met and it was recorded in June 1843 that they "carried their own blankets with them and preferred sleeping on a sheet of bark on the floor . . . the custom of the Catholic priests . . . was, after a little desultory conversation, to ask if there were any Catholics present and that was all. In the morning the priest would walk out into the bush, accompanied by whoever was of his persuasion and there they would say what they had to say to each other". Five years later, Polding again visited the Darling Downs and that same year Father W. McGinty was appointed parish priest of Ipswich and the Downs. Although McGinty regularly toured the Darling Downs to celebrate Mass, parishioners of the area became more vociferous in their call for a resident priest after Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859.
By that time, Catholics constituted about a quarter of the population of the Darling Downs and the weight of their collective voices ultimately saw the establishment of the Toowoomba Mission (forerunner of the Diocese of Toowoomba) and the appointment of Father Fulgentius Hodebourg in September 1862 as parish priest for the area. The following year the first Catholic church in the region, which also served as a school and was known as St Patrick's Church School, was built in Toowoomba on the present site of St Patrick's Cathedral. It was located on a two-acre parcel of land at the corner of James and Neil Streets, which had been set aside in September 1858 for the specific purpose of erecting a Catholic church, school and priest's residence. Although the church was a modest timber building, it marked the start of an institutional presence on the Darling Downs for the Roman Catholic faith.
In 1868, Father Robert Dunne was ordained parish priest and it was during his time in Toowoomba that St Patrick's began to flourish. His flock increased steadily and in 1877 his plans included the erection of a cathedral. Father Dunne's grandiose vision for St Patrick's, however, was not immediately realized and extensions only were carried out to the existing church, which were completed on 5 June 1880. The next day St Patrick's Church School was destroyed by fire and the church's services were temporarily transferred to the Hibernian Hall in Ruthven Street. Reputedly, under the supervision of builder Robert Godsall and through the labour of volunteers, a new timber church was erected within two weeks of the old one being destroyed.
When Father Dunne left for Ireland in 1881, even the new timber church was envisaged as merely a temporary substitute for a much grander building. Father Thomas O'Connell was appointed parish priest of Toowoomba to replace Father Dunne and was immediately charged with chairing the Building Committee for the new church. On 13 August 1882 a meeting was held to discuss plans for the church and Archbishop Dunne, who had returned from Ireland and was by that time the Archbishop of Brisbane, suggested the use of stone for construction and beseeched the parishioners to "erect a portion to accommodate the congregation of today, and possibly for the next ten or fifteen years, and that portion might afterwards be added to, making a complete and harmonious whole". A subscription was enthusiastically embraced by those present, with nearly £1260 pledged before the end of the meeting. Four months later, £900 of the money promised had been collected and it was decided to call for plans for the church and to aim for St Patrick's Day on 17 March 1883 as the day for laying the foundation stone.
In March 1883, despite the receipt of two plans for the church and £1050, Father O'Connell decided it was expedient to delay the laying of the foundation stone until Whit Sunday on 13 May 1883, on which day the ceremony was duly conducted by Archbishop Dunne. That same month, a call for designs and specifications to be submitted with a construction cost of no more than £5000 was posted in the Toowoomba Chronicle as well as in Brisbane and Sydney papers. The design of James Marks was the one favoured by the Building Committee and he was awarded a prize of £25 for his submission.
Marks was born in Somerset, England, in 1834 and from the age of 16 he was employed by a Westminster building contracting firm. He eventually trained as a carpenter and worked in the trade until his migration to Queensland in 1866. Marks first established himself as a builder and architect in Dalby before moving to Toowoomba in 1874 where he established the first professional architectural practice on the Darling Downs. The reputation of the firm grew rapidly and in partnership with his sons (and later under their directorship) the Marks practice continued to flourish until 1962 when the business was discontinued. Although St Patrick's Cathedral is one of James Marks's most notable designs, his other significant works in Toowoomba included the Royal Bank of Queensland building, the Imperial Hotel, St Stephen's Presbyterian Church and several grand private residences.
St Patrick's was a large project, which was delayed by a shortage of materials and labour as well as by the desire of Father O'Connell to open the Cathedral free of debt. It took six years to complete during which time the builder, Richard Godsall, died, and the work was completed under the guidance of his firm, Godsall & Mayes. The Cathedral was completed in 1889 and consecrated on 17 March of that year at a ceremony presided over by Archbishop Dunne and witnessed by some 2000 people. The original projected costing of no more than £5000 had by completion blown out to a total of £8500, much of which had been funded by the continual raising of funds amongst the local community.
The Cathedral's walls and foundations were built from blue stone while the buttresses, pinnacles and piers were of freestone, which was mostly acquired from Murphy's Creek quarries. It was a dominant building within the Toowoomba townscape, measuring 124 feet in length, 60 feet in width and 56 feet in height. The newspaper press of the time resounded with praise for the new cathedral. The Brisbane Courier described the façade as having a "majestic and stately appearance" and the Toowoomba Chronicle reflected upon how St Patrick's was "stately yet elegant in appearance, at once handsome and massive, and by its beauty adds very much to the amenity of the town . . . . clergymen and parishioners alike may feel proud in the highest degree at the most praiseworthy and satisfactory result of their labours". Yet the Cathedral was not fully complete and plans were in place for the enlargement of the chancel and the addition of an eastern and western transept. Still other items were only temporarily in position, including the chancel window, the pulpit, and an Estey organ on loan from W.H. Paling & Co.
It was not until the 1930s that the Cathedral was fully completed and in the interim plans had been made by Reverend Monsignor Denis Fouhy to employ James Marks in designing a new tower for St Patrick's. While these plans did not come to fruition, Fouhy's successor, Father McKenna, was able to achieve his goal of building a new Presbytery in place of the old timber one. In 1927, the architect John Donoghue designed the new brick Presbytery, which was built by H Cheetham and consecrated on 12 February 1928. Also included in the building contract was the construction of a maid's quarters, a laundry, an underground tank, a brick belfry as well as some landscaping works for a total cost of £8863, funded by donations, loans from parishioners and the estate of Monsignor Fouhy.
Following the creation of the Diocese of Toowoomba in May 1929 Dr James Byrne was ordained as Bishop of the region. He immediately set about expanding St Patrick's and in 1930 the architect Arthur Bligh was employed to design a tower adjoining the front façade to the east with a belfry and spire as well as the construction of a mortuary chapel under the Sanctuary and sacristies for the Bishop, Priest, Sisters and altar boys. The total cost was to be £25,000 and the final result was to be a cathedral in cruciform measuring 200 feet long by 100 feet wide with a capacity to seat some 2000 people. The 1930s were difficult times marked by a severe economic depression and a decline in agricultural prices. Nevertheless, Toowoomba parishioners rallied to the cause and, by April 1932, £5000 had been collected. By that time, the first sod had been turned and the foundation stone laid on 24 April 1932. Work on the Cathedral's extensions then began in earnest under the direction of local builder, John O'Connell, who had earlier supervised the construction of St Joseph's Church in Dalby. On 24 March 1935, St Patrick's was completed and a ceremony, attended by 7000 people, was conducted by Archbishop Duhig.
Although the Cathedral benefited during this period from the generous donations of parishioners and local societies, which included furnishings, a new pipe organ and a new bell, the grand building works had left a debt of £8500 by December 1937. Although the parish debt had not been released by the early 1970s, the then Bishop, William Brennan, commissioned W A Durack of the architectural firm Durack & Brammer to carry out a report on the Cathedral's condition. Restoration was deemed necessary, including the replacement of the roof and guttering, sealing and re-pointing the outer walls, replastering the internal walls and various cosmetic works. J H Wagner & Sons were the main contractors for the job, which was started in May 1972 and scheduled for completion in February 1973. Father Patrick Doyle, as Administrator of St Patrick's Cathedral, was charged with facilitating the renovations, which included the removal of a polished timber choir gallery located below the main tracery window on the front façade and the separation of the marble altar from its reredos for repositioning in response to liturgical changes sanctioned by the Second Vatican Council. It was also during his time in the parish that a hall was built behind the Cathedral and the St Patrick Parish Centre behind the Presbytery was constructed in 1979 as a conference venue.
During the 1980s, the Cathedral's stained glass was replaced and parishioners invited to purchase a commemorative window pane in honour of a deceased relative and to help defray the $100,000 cost. In 1989, to mark the centenary of the opening of St Patrick's, a new bell tower was constructed by Bill Walsh and the Toowoomba City Council donated 35 trees for the cathedral's grounds as a civic gift.
More recently, restoration work was carried out to the Presbytery in 1991, and eight years later a new storage shed was constructed and alterations made to the Parish Centre. In 2001, a major conservation plan for St Patrick's was published for the Diocese of Toowoomba and the following year work began on stabilizing the leadlight windows.
","criteria":"St Patrick's Cathedral was built between 1883 and 1889 and represents the ecclesiastical development of the Toowoomba area at this time. St Patrick's was originally a modest timber church but following its destruction in 1883 by fire, work began on St Patrick's Cathedral. The building of the Cathedral was an indication of the emerging importance and institutional presence of the Roman Catholic Church in the Darling Downs region, and the development of St Patrick's following the creation of the Diocese of Toowoomba in 1929 reaffirmed the permanency and strength of Catholicism in the region.
|St Patrick's is also important because of its aesthetic significance. It remains a fine example of Victorian Gothic architecture and reflects the continued growth of Toowoomba as well as the Catholic Church between the 1880s and 1930s. The Cathedral stands as one of the most recognizable and most substantial stone buildings in Toowoomba and as such it continues to be a landmark within the Toowoomba townscape.
|The Cathedral is constructed from basalt, which was obtained from the local Corporation Quarry and which was commonly used for kerbing and channelling. It was less frequently used for buildings owing to the difficulties in applying it to construction. As such St Patrick's is a rare example of a basalt building and demonstrates a high degree of technical achievement for the late 19th century.
|Since its consecration, St Patrick's Cathedral has served as the symbolic and spiritual centre of Catholicism in the Toowoomba region. Its buildings and grounds have a special association with the life and work of the clergy who served at St Patrick's as well as with the Catholic community who contributed greatly to its development.
|It also has a special association with its designer, James Marks, whose prolific experience as an architect in Toowoomba saw him dominate local architecture during the late 19th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | 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 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":15620,"place_ref":600845,"name":"Bishop's House","alternate_name":"Kilallah | Dalmally | Bishops House","street_address":"73 Margaret Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Bishop's House, located opposite Queen's Park on the corner of Lindsay Street fronting Margaret Street to the south, is a single-storeyed masonry building with rendered quoining and detailing. The building has a corrugated iron roof with projecting gables, a central clerestory surmounted by a cross, and three HJ Marks patented pot bellied chimney stacks.
The symmetrical south elevation has a central enclosed loggia consisting of five arches with rendered voussoirs, keystones and columns, supporting a parapet wall surmounted by two small triangular projections either side of a central gable with the name BISHOP'S HOUSE in raised lettering. The loggia is flanked by projecting bays at either end, and is enclosed with arched sash window units and masonry panels on the western side, and sliding aluminium window units on the eastern side of the entry. The central entry has steps leading to a timber door with leadlight panel insert, sidelights and fanlight depicting a crest. The projecting bays have sash windows, but evidence of the original HJ Marks patented extendable casement windows is visible. The bays are surmounted by projecting boarded gables, above which are semi-circular windows with rendered voussoirs in the gable to the roof.
The north elevation has an enclosed verandah with an accommodation wing attached at the northwest corner, which consists of a masonry section with a timber framed and fibrous cement clad addition with concrete stumps. The verandah is enclosed with vertically jointed boarding to sill height and multi-paned sliding timber windows with fixed green glass panels above. The east and west ends have a projecting five-sided bay room with masonry to sill height and extendable casement windows above. These windows have been replaced by aluminium sliding windows on the west bay. A small brick addition with a parapet wall and sash window has been constructed on the southern side of the east bay room.
Internally, the building has plastered walls with wide east-west and north-south halls which intersect below a central clerestory. Principal rooms open to the south enclosed loggia, with french doors and an arched sash window with rendered voussoirs. However, the original loggia wall to the west of the entry has been removed to create one large office into the loggia space. Secondary rooms open to the north enclosed verandah which is lined with fibrous cement and has a sash window painted to imitate stained glass opening from the former chapel. A large arched doorway containing a timber door with leadlight sidelights and fanlight opens to the rear of the central hall. The foyer has timber wall panelling, and throughout the building many of the doors, architraves and skirtings have an obscure grained finish. Ceilings are pressed metal of various designs, most of the doors and windows have patterned glass panels, and fireplace surrounds are of narrow face brick. At either end of the east-west hall are panelled timber doors with leadlight panel insert, sidelights and fanlight. The east bay room has coloured glass door and windows, and a partition wall has been constructed to create a hall leading to the south addition.
The northwest accommodation wing contains an office and kitchen in the masonry section, with a bedroom and bathroom in the fibrous cement section. The masonry section has rendered walls with boarded ceilings, and the addition has timber framed fibrous cement walls and ceiling.
The site has a low brick fence along the south and west boundaries, with driveway access at the southeast and to the northwest of the building. A metal front gate is located at the corner of Lindsay and Margaret Streets, with a path leading to the main entrance. The grounds contain substantial mature trees to the south and southwest, with a bitumen carpark to the southeast and carports to the northwest.
The site also contains the Marian Community Centre, a single-storeyed masonry building to the northwest, and a two-storeyed masonry residence for the Bishop to the northeast of the building.
","history":"Bishop's House, designed by Henry Marks, was constructed in 1911 as the home of Toowoomba businessman, William Charles Peak. In 1939 the house was purchased by the Roman Catholic Church and became home to the Bishop of the recently created Toowoomba Diocese.
Settlement of what was to become the Toowoomba area commenced at Drayton, now a suburb of Toowoomba, in the early 1840s. Thomas Alford opened a general store in the area in 1843. In the same year, residents of Drayton petitioned the Governor to form a township. A survey of the town was prepared in 1849. In laying out Drayton, Government Surveyor JC Burnett was instructed to mark out "suburban allotments for Garden and Agricultural purposes". The ideal site for what was known as the "Drayton Swamp Agricultural Reserve", later to become Toowoomba, was an area approximately three to four miles northeast of Drayton where two swampy creeks joined to form the headwaters of Gowrie Creek. The Agricultural Reserve included 12 allotments bounded by the left bank of the west swamp, and the present Bridge, West and Stephen streets.
Six of the 12 "Swamp allotments" were first offered at auction in November 1849, however some were not sold until 1853. By late 1857, the name "Toowoomba" had gradually taken over from "The Swamp", as the town continued to expand. At the time of its incorporation into a municipality in November 1860, Toowoomba had well outgrown Drayton. Toowoomba continued to develop as the service centre for the upper Darling Downs. It became the urban home of many pastoralists and businessman during the early twentieth century.
One of the many people who constructed houses during this period of expansion was William Charles Peak, born in Drayton in 1867 as the eldest son of a local councillor WJ Peak. In 1881 William Peak entered the company of Wilcox Bros, general merchants of Toowoomba and within fifteen years was the owner. He took an interest in the development of Toowoomba and held many positions in local industry and development including President of the local Chamber of Commerce (1914-15); Chairman of the Toowoomba Permanent Society; as well as being the instigator of the Greenmount Dairy Factory Co Ltd, who established one of the first cheese factories in the state. He was involved with the foundation of the Anderson Malting Company, the Darling Downs Building Society; the Toowoomba Steam Laundry and the Security Trust Company. Peak's other local involvements included the Royal Agricultural Society; the local Cricket Union and the Traders' Association. Today, two memorials to Peak are found in Toowoomba, one at the Toowoomba showground and another in Queen's Park where a drinking fountain is named in his honour.
In about 1910 as a reflection of his importance in the local community, WC Peak commissioned local architect Henry J Marks to design a house, initially known as Kilallah, for the Peak family at the corner of Lindsay and Margaret Streets, Toowoomba, adjacent to Queen's Park.
Henry Marks was a member of a prominent Toowoomba architectural family. James Marks, Henry's father, arrived in Queensland from England in 1866 and practised as an architect and builder in Dalby before starting his successful family practice in Toowoomba in the 1870s which remained active until 1962. Henry joined his father in practice in 1892 when the business became known as James Marks and Son.
Henry Marks was an innovative and creative architect, who invented and patented several products including pot-bellied ventilation flues and chimney shafts, windows and a walling system. He employed his inventions on many of his buildings and this helps to identify the buildings for which he was responsible. Several of these innovations are found at Kilallah, now known as the Bishop's House, including window openings and chimney stacks. Marks designed windows which allowed maximum opening capacity and also directed airflow around the opening. The windows designed for the end bays of the Bishop's House were extendable casements. Also on the house were several of Marks' patented design for "Improved Chimney Top and Ventilator" introducing a rounded base to the shaft of the chimney top directing air flow and with a V-shaped catchment plate and run-off for rainwater.
The planning of the Bishop's House reflects Marks' concern with air flow and natural lighting; a large ventilated roof light over the intersection of the entrance hall and the transverse corridor terminated at the east and west ends of the building with semi-open octagonal bays.
In her thesis on the Marks family architectural practice in Toowoomba, Morag Papi, describes the building as "one of the best examples of Harry Mark's work." Certainly the sophistication of the detailing, the composition of the exterior and regard to environmental issues suggest that this is a well considered building. His other numerous Toowoomba buildings include the halls at both St Luke's and St James' Churches (St James hall is known as the James Taylor Memorial Institute) St Mary's Christian Brothers building; Holy Name Convent; buildings at the General Hospital; White Horse Hotel; Union Bank and City Chambers.
The Peak family remained at Kilallah for only a few years when the house was purchased by a Mr Horrigan who sold it to the Fletcher family. The house was then rented out to a number of people until its purchase by the Roman Catholic Church of Toowoomba as a Bishop's residence in 1939.
The Catholic Church was established in Toowoomba in the early 1860s when a pastor was appointed. Robert Dunne, later Archbishop of Brisbane, was appointed as a parish priest in Toowoomba in 1868. The Roman Catholic Church in Queensland developed with the population increases and by 1928 Archbishop Duhig announced that two new dioceses, Toowoomba and Townsville were to be created, raising the number of diocese to four, alongside Brisbane and Rockhampton.
The first Bishop appointed to Toowoomba was James Byrne, born in Ireland in 1840 and educated at St Patrick's College, Thurles. Byrne was ordained by the Archbishop of Cashel on 21 July 1896 and volunteered to work in the Archdiocese of Brisbane. After work in Brisbane for many years he was appointed Domestic Prelate in 1923 and then was appointed as the Bishop of Toowoomba in 1929. St Patrick's Church in Toowoomba, constructed in 1883-89 to a design by James Marks, was consecrated as a cathedral on 1 September 1929.
The residence originally used by James Byrne was the brick presbytery alongside St Patrick's Cathedral, constructed in 1927 for a parish priest before the archdiocese was formed, to a design by Jack Donoghue. This was deemed too small to house both the bishop, parish priests and administrators of the growing parish and therefore a dedicated residence for the bishop was found in "Unara" in 1939. Previously, Unara was the residence of Sir Littleton Groom, Federal Member for the Darling Downs and was leased from Lady Groom by the Diocese for one year with the option of purchase at the end of this time. However, because the location of Unara, near the eastern boundary of the Diocese, was considered inconvenient the purchase option was not exercised.
Instead the Diocese bought WC Peak's 1911 residence, then known as "Dalmally", along with a timber house on property adjoining the main house on Lindsay Street. The house was called Dalmally by a lessee, Captain Serisier, in remembrance of a village in Scotland.
To facilitate the use of the house as a Bishop's residence extensive internal alterations and some external renovations were carried out to a design by local architects, Messrs Hodgen and Hodgen, a partnership of William Hodgen Jnr and his son. Hodgen was born in Toowoomba where he did an apprenticeship in the building trade before joining the Colonial Architect's Office as a cadet in 1886. He then travelled to London to broaden his professional experience and returned to Queensland in 1896 and began private practice in Toowoomba in February 1897 where he remained until his death in 1943.
The alterations designed by Hodgen for the Bishop's House, as it became known after its purchase by the Roman Catholic Church, were principally internal. Pressed metal ceilings by Wunderlich used in most of the rooms were retained along with the general floor plan of the building. Changes introduced included forming an entrance vestibule on the front loggia/verandah; alterations of the semi-octagonal end bays with the removal and bricking up of several sash windows; a room was planned as a chapel; a bathroom was added to the eastern end of the house in an extension designed for that purpose and some internal rearrangement of existing walls and doors was carried out to facilitate access to this extension. External signage, "BISHOP'S HOUSE" was added to the pediment above the entrance doors and sections of the front verandah/loggia were enclosed with glazing. Internally almost every room of the house was wall-papered to the picture rail.
Alterations to the grounds around the house included the demolition of the stables and replacement with a skillion roofed garage and construction of new entrance gates off Lindsay Street for motor-car access. A timber and concrete laundry was erected to the northwest of the house.
The various Bishop's of Toowoomba remained at Bishop's House until recently, when another residence was constructed to the rear, northeast side of the building. Bishop's House has been refurnished as offices for the diocesan administration and the Catholic Education Office.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1911, Bishop's House is a substantial brick house which demonstrates the growth of this area of Toowoomba during the 1910s, a period of commercial and social expansion for the town following closer settlement. The building's use by the Roman Catholic Church illustrates the development of the church in Queensland, in particular internal growth which saw the establishment of another two dioceses in 1929.
|The building is a very good example of the work of architect Henry Marks, combining much of his innovative detailing with a general concern for ventilation and natural lighting.
|Bishop's House, together with its mature plantings, makes a significant aesthetic contribution to the Margaret Street streetscape and Toowoomba townscape. The form and fabric of the building illustrate a creative and skilled design approach, and the detailing of the materials and finishes reflects a fine quality of workmanship.
|The use of the extendable casement window and pot-bellied chimney stacks, as patented designs, are important in demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement by the architect Henry Marks during the early twentieth century.
|The building is important to members of the Roman Catholic community in Toowoomba as the home of the Bishop of their Diocese for many years.
|The building is associated with Henry Marks, a prominent and prolific local architect; with WC Peak an important early Toowoomba businessman for whom it was constructed, and with the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in Toowoomba who have owned the building as their principal residence since 1939.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | 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 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":15622,"place_ref":600847,"name":"Toowoomba Post Office (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"136 Margaret Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-01-24","description":"The Toowoomba Post Office is located on Margaret Street, near one of the main intersections in Toowoomba. It is sited adjacent to the Court House [600848] and complements it in style, form and material. These two building, together with the Police Station in Neil Street form a precinct of Government buildings, creating a landmark in the streetscape.
The Post Office comprises a two-storeyed front section with rear wings at either side which are also two-storeyed. Single storeyed extensions project from the rear of each of the wings. The originally open space formed by the U-shape of the front section and wings is covered with a flat roof with a sky light in the centre.
The front of the building is symmetrically designed around a central clock tower which displays four faces. The front facade and the external side of the western wing are faced with pale yellow sandstone, whilst the rear wings are rendered.
The building dominates the site which is asphalted at the rear and paved with gardens down each side.
The front section comprises the central projecting bay of the clock tower flanked by arcades with projecting sections at each end forming corner entrances. A series of arches divided by engaged pilasters with egg and dart moulding to the capitals are located across the face of each arcade. Simple metal balustrades with square profile balusters are located within each arch, and keystones are located above, at the centre of each arch. The end and central bays also have arched openings, with drip moulds above those at each end, and a key stone above the central arch. Quoins are located on the corners of each of the bays.
There are three entrances into the building; two which are set diagonally at each corner, and a central one under the clock tower. All comprise double timber doors with large arched fanlights above. All doors lead into the post office service area which has been substantially altered. It now consists of a service counter running along the east west axis with a display area in front.
The first level repeats the pattern of the ground level, with verandahs supported by stone columns with egg and dart moulding, separated by the end and central projecting bays are, which are enclosed. The end bays have a pair of tall, thin windows and the central bay has a more decorative arched window surrounded by a series of carved mouldings.
The main section of the building has a corrugated iron hipped roof, with decorative stone and timber brackets evenly spaced underneath the eaves. The central clock tower projects through the roof and comprises three sections. The base has decorative panels featuring a carved repetitive arch pattern. This is surmounted by the central section in which the clockfaces are located and an upper section of cornice and pierced parapet. Engaged pilasters rise through the base and central sections and are capped with carved acanthus leaves.
The eastern facade is rendered and has a side entrance contained within a recess which has a verandah at the second level. Arched timber valances are located above the ground and first floor levels and a balustrade the same as those at the front is located on the first level. Apart from this section, the eastern side is enclosed, with a variety of windows located along its length.
The western facade has an arcade at ground level which contains post boxes and private mail boxes. The sandstone of the front facade wraps partially around the western facade, with a rendered finish to the remainder of the wing. The double timber doors and winch of an early loading bay survive on the first level.
Internally the building has been substantially altered. The most intact areas are the rooms at the western end on the first level and the clock tower, which still contain early joinery details.
All details to other areas of the building have either been removed or are covered by subsequent additions, making it difficult to define the original layout.
","history":"The Toowoomba Post Office, of which construction was completed in 1880, is one of three extant post offices built in the Classic Revival Style, with the other two at Maryborough (1866) and central Brisbane (1871). The fourth building of this type was at Dalby (1867), but is now demolished.
The opening and closing of 'Postal Stations' reflected the fortunes of some of the more precarious settlements and indicates some of the difficulties faced by the Postal Department in providing services. Where the establishment of towns was closely connected with the opening of a railway, Post Offices were often at the railway station, where mail was received and sent, and where the Telegraph Office could benefit by the sharing of equipment with the Railway. The Post Office was one of the first Government functions to be established in a locality, and the need for regular communication was closely followed or sometimes preceded by the Police Station.
The period between 1859-1879 marked the separation of the Post and Telegraph Departments and a wide range of buildings appeared throughout Queensland to accommodate both functions. It was also the principal period of colonisation, with Government architect F. D. G. Stanley in charge of design and construction of post offices from 1872 - 1880, when a series of grand Post and Telegraph buildings were erected in both masonry and timber in the major provincial centres, of which Toowoomba was one.
The first postal service on the Darling Downs comprised a pack-horse mail service from Brisbane to Drayton in 1845, which was subsequently upgraded to a horse-drawn coach. By 1864 there were 42 mail services in Queensland, and the following year, Cobb and Co. were appointed the official carriers of the state's mail.
The first Electric Telegraph from Brisbane to Toowoomba was established in 1861 as part of the intercolonial route. Subsequent connections extended the line to Dalby, Roma, Charleville and the far north-east. Toowoomba was located at the junction of a number of telegraph routes and subsequently grew in importance. At this stage, the Telegraph office was located in a room in the 1865 Post Office on the corner of Ruthven and Russell Streets. The current Post Office replaced this structure to accommodate the need for both Post and Telegraph services.
Tenders for a new building to house both the Post and Telegraph offices adjacent to the new courthouse were called in 1877. The tender of John Gargett (also the contractor for the adjacent Court House and Mayor of Toowoomba) for £7250 was accepted. The original tender was for a building constructed of bond brick, however this was later altered to allow for the front tower and one wing (the Court House side) in cut stone at a new price of £8100. The stone used was pale yellow sandstone quarried from Highfields and was similar to that used in the construction of the courthouse, also quarried from Highfields. The new building opened in 1880, with delays due to wet weather, and provided separate facilities for each service, and residential quarters for both the Postmaster and Telegraph Officer. The contract for fitting up the clock was awarded to Mr Schoenle of Ipswich at a cost of £105.
The Toowoomba Post Office is a typical example of the Classical Revival style of architecture popular during this period and forms part of a government precinct which includes the Court House and Police Station. This was a frequent occurrence due to the Queensland Colonial Government's practice of acquiring, or retaining for itself, land suitable for government uses.
Since its construction in 1878, the Toowoomba Post Office has undergone substantial alterations due to changes in communication technology. The original layout comprised a two storeyed front section with single storeyed rear wings forming a U-shaped structure. The ground floor housed the post office and quarters for the Postmaster on the western side, and the telegraph office and quarters for the Telegraph Officer on the eastern side. Additional residential rooms were housed in the front section of the first floor. In 1896, bathrooms were added to both Living Quarters. More substantial additions were made in 1899, when a new mail room and battery were added to the rear of the building and an additional level was constructed over the Telegraph Officer's Living Quarters.
Later additions were also carried out which included the re-arrangement of the ground floor layout and the partial enclosure of the arcade in 1905, and the construction of a new telephone exchange on the first floor over the former Postmaster quarters in 1908. At this stage, the Living Quarters were transformed into workshops and the entire first floor was altered to house the Telephone/Telegraph operations.
In 1960, the first of the newly developed cross bar automatic system in Australia was installed in the Post Office.
The most substantial alterations occurred in 1968 when much of the original fabric, including external cast iron balustrades, timber valances, chimneys and hearths, and 1904 glazing to arcades, was replaced or removed. Everything apart from the 1908 and 1915 telephone exchange sections were removed from the rear of the building and replaced with a flat roofed mail room and loading dock. Little work, apart from general maintenance has been completed since this stage.
The Australian Postal Corporation has recently purchased new premises in Toowoomba and it is expected that the Post Office building will be sold in the near future.
","criteria":"The Toowoomba Post Office is located in Margaret Street and was constructed between 1878 and 1880. As a major staging point on the intercolonial telegraph, is demonstrative of the development of the state of Queensland.
The Toowoomba Post Office is evidence of the importance of the town as a major inland centre, and of its recognition as such by the government.
|The Toowoomba Post Office is one of three extant post offices built in the Classic Revival Style. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of this building type with the use of masonry construction, and classical form and detailing.
|Located near one of the main intersections in Toowoomba, it is a landmark in the town and a strong feature in the streetscape. A precinct of Government buildings is formed by the Post Office, the adjacent Court House [600848] and the Police Station in Neil Street.
The Toowoomba Post Office is of considerable aesthetic significance due to its landmark qualities and for its high degree of design and workmanship, including the exterior stonework.
|The place has strong associations with past and present residents of the Darling Downs as the primary centre for communication, by mail, telegraph or telephone since 1880.
|It also has special associations with Government architect F D G Stanley who was responsible for the design and construction of Queensland post offices from 1872 - 1880.
","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":15623,"place_ref":600848,"name":"Toowoomba Court House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"46 Neil Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Toowoomba Court House is located at the corner of Margaret and Neil Streets, one of the main intersections in Toowoomba. It is sited adjacent to the Post Office [600847] and complements it in style, form and material. These two building, together with the Police Station in Neil Street form a precinct of Government buildings, creating a landmark in the streetscape.
The Court House building comprises the main section facing Margaret Street which is constructed of sandstone. At the rear of this are three additional wings, of which the two end ones are connected to the main section and the central one is freestanding. Although constructed of a different type of stone, the wing facing Neil Street is similar in design to the main section. The remaining two wings are of a more simplistic design and are of a rendered finish which is painted.
New landscaping surrounds the front of the building, whilst the rear of the site is asphalted for use as a carpark. The original stables, reconstructed as a garage, are located at the rear of the site behind the eastern wing.
The building is accessed by a set of shallow steps which lead to a central projecting bay with three open arches at the front and one at each side, creating an open portico at ground level. Within each of the three front arches are sets of wrought iron gates. The pillars between the arches have bases of rock-faced stone, margined and chiselled with simple mouldings above. A keystone is located at the centre of each arch. Entry into the building itself is via two sets of cedar doors with glass panels and side lights. They sit on either side of an arched panel recessed into the wall. The doors on the eastern side enter into a ground floor office, whilst the western doors open into an entrance space in front of the central staircase.
The first level is enclosed, with three sets of double hung windows with fanlights positioned above the three archways at the front and above the archways at either end. The solid sections between the windows form engaged pilasters with decorative relief carved capitals and simply moulded bases. Smaller decorative panels are located between each window at the height of the window head. A triangular gable is located over the projected bay with 1878-1979 in bronze within the gable and the words COURT HOUSE in bronze lettering across the entablature. Behind the central gable is an octagonal light lantern which internally, is located over the court house gallery.
The pattern of windows separated by engaged pilasters continues across the front of the building, with keystones above each fanlight. The side elevations of this section of the building are similar in detail to the front, with similar windows, but no pilaster detail. Doors are located on the eastern side and comprise two narrow leaves which are panelled, with a fanlight above.
The ground level of the Neil Street wing is constructed of a darker stone, which is ?-faced. A centrally located door with a semi-circular protruding hood is flanked by three deeply recessed arched windows. The door itself is recessed within a timber lined section and is of glass with an aluminium frame.
The upper section of the wing is rendered and painted with seven evenly spaced rectangular windows, deeply recessed with aluminium frames. An entablature divides the ground and first levels and another is located at the top of the first floor, surmounted by a parapet. The southern elevation of this wing is rendered and painted on both levels, with arched windows on the lower level and corresponding rectangular windows on the upper level.
The remaining two rear wings are similar in design to the rendered section of the Neil Street wing, with the eastern most wing having an external timber stair at the rear.
The building has a gabled roof, the main part of which runs east west and is intersected by the gable of the porch and the hipped roofs of the rear wings.
Internally the building has been substantially altered. The most intact areas are the central staircase and the court room, now used as a lecture theatre. The court room retains many original features including decorative cast iron columns supporting the gallery, timber trusses, cedar joinery and an octagonal light lantern.
Original details such as joinery and fireplaces are evident in some areas, but new partitioning and reconfiguration of the spaces to connect with the rear wings has reduced the original spaces. Features of interest but not part of the original fabric include 1943 balustrades and stairs which are concrete, natural in colour at the sides and red in the centre.
","history":"The main section of the Toowoomba Court House was erected between 1876 and 1878. At the time of its construction, the Colonial Architect responsible for the design of public buildings was F D G Stanley.
Toowoomba is the principal town on the Darling Downs which was first discovered by explorer Allan Cunningham in 1827. It was later settled by pastoralists in search of rich grazing land and by the 1840s, led by the Leslie brothers and John Campbell over twenty stations had been established. The first township which evolved to support these stations was Drayton, west of Toowoomba. Within ten years, the town had been established as a 'government town', with much support from the local squatters. As with other government buildings, the first court house on the Downs was constructed at Drayton.
However the success of Drayton did not last. The site now known as Toowoomba was eventually considered to be in a more suitable location for access down the range and in 1852, a town survey was secured.
The establishment of a new town was strongly supported by the squatters and Toowoomba challenged Brisbane as the new capital of Queensland. Although this status was not achieved, the town rapidly developed and by the 1860s had become the centre of pastoral development on the Downs.
Construction of the new Toowoomba law courts and public offices began in 1876. They replaced an earlier, smaller building, also located in Margaret Street, which was constructed in 1863. The new building was much larger than the previous one and of a more imposing design, indicative of the sense of prosperity and permanence felt by the town.
The building was erected in stages, the first of which was completed by 1878. The contractor for this section was J Gargett and the building was erected at a cost of £6 870. It was constructed of locally quarried cut stone from Highfields.
In 1913, a single storey building was erected at the rear of the site, for use as the Lands Office. It fronted Neil Street and adjoined the existing building. Although of a different stone, it was of a similar style to the original building, costing £1963-10 to erect.
Further additions were made to the site in 1943, including the addition of another storey to the 1913 building and two more two storeyed buildings behind the 1877 building. Of these, one was located at the eastern end of the existing building and attached to it, forming a 'U' shaped structure. The second building was freestanding and located in the centre of the 'U' shape. The additions were constructed at a cost of £28 799 and were designed by government architect R C Nowland.
In 1979, a substantial refurbishment was undertaken. The Court House is now used by a number of organisations, including the Police Department and the Department of Sport and Tourism. The interior layout bears little resemblance to the 1878 or 1943 layouts.
","criteria":"The Toowoomba Court House is located at the intersection of Margaret and Neil Streets and was constructed between 1876 and 1878. It is the third known Court House to be constructed on the Darling Downs, the first of which was at Drayton. As such it demonstrates the development of the district and consequently, the evolution of Queensland's history.
|The Toowoomba Court House demonstrates the principal characteristics of a building of its type, externally as a substantial government building of classical style, and internally by the retention of the Court Room space.
|Located at one of the main intersections in Toowoomba, it is a landmark in the town and a strong feature in the streetscape. A precinct of Government buildings is formed by the Court House, the adjacent Post Office [600847] and the Police Station in Neil Street.
The Toowoomba Court House is of considerable aesthetic significance due to its landmark qualities and for its high degree of design and workmanship. This includes the exterior stonework and detailing of joinery, both internally and externally, and the sensitive quality of the additions.
|The place has strong associations with architect J C Nowland who was responsible for the design of the 1943 additions.
","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":15624,"place_ref":600849,"name":"Strand Theatre","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"159 - 167 Margaret Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Strand Theatre, fronting Margaret Street to the south, is a three-storeyed rendered brick building with a hipped corrugated iron roof concealed behind a shaped gable parapet.
Framed by pilasters, the decorative symmetrical street facade consists of a large semi-circular arch at the first floor level with a quatrefoil window to either side, and is surmounted by a deep cornice, giving the impression of a heightened entrance. This is bisected by a large turret, with three circular leadlight windows, which projects over the entrance and is supported by four large rendered brackets surrounding a statue of a female figure holding a lamp. Lunette windows to either side have leadlight panels.
The second floor has five arched windows with Art Nouveau style leadlight panels, above which is a deep cornice, with rendered relief work to the shaped gable above which is surmounted by three large finials. The street level has display arches either side of the entrance, with a recent cantilevered metal awning above.
Internally, little remains of the 1916 decor apart from the pressed metal ceiling and cornices of the auditorium, tessellated tiling in the ground floor foyer, and the finishes to the former hotel rooms on the second floor. The latter are partitioned in four inch vertical tongue and groove boarding and have pressed metal ceilings. Rooms open off a central corridor previously accessed from the former neighbouring hotel, now demolished. This area is now sealed off. The floor is supported by spanning steel beams which divide the auditorium below into seven bays. The original balcony remains intact although this is now used only as a link between the projection rooms of the new cinema.
Many of the 1933 decorative elements, such as the attached pilasters constructed of rendered canvas over a timber frame, are simply fixed over existing surfaces. Lyrebird motif grilles of gilded timber were adopted to cover the former window openings, and a mechanical ventilation system was installed. Art Deco banding which once surrounded the proscenium remain only as a frieze, following widening of the stage in the late 1950s to accommodate a cinemascope screen. The mezzanine floor foyer features an intact 1933 ceiling and wall grilles.
","history":"This three-storeyed brick picture theatre was erected in 1915-16 for James Patrick Newman, a Toowoomba City alderman.
It was constructed during the early and enthusiastic adoption of cinema by Australian audiences in the first two decades of the 20th century, when the new nation boasted a truly vibrant local film industry which competed healthily with imported British and American product. Its construction was illustrative of the early 20th century attempt to legitimise cinema as a respectable middle-class entertainment in Australia.
In 1915 Newman commissioned established Brisbane architect George Henry Male Addison to design a picture theatre on a site in Margaret Street adjoining the Crown Hotel. This site had operated as the Crystal Palace Picture Gardens since early 1914. Addison called tenders in July 1915, and the contract was awarded to Luke Halley.
The American-derived design was similar to picture theatres erected in other Australian cities during the 1910s. In particular, the large semi-circular glazed arch was reminiscent of the Majestic (1912) and Britannia (1913) in Melbourne and the Pavilion (1913) in Brisbane. It was, however, unorthodox in that the top level was designed as additional accommodation for the Crown Hotel, which was also owned by JP Newman. This third storey was accessed via a staircase from the hotel.
Newman leased the theatre to moving picture exhibitor Senora Spencer, who named the venue the Strand, like her theatres in Brisbane and Newcastle. The first screening, which was accompanied by the Strand Symphony Orchestra and an opening ceremony performed by the Mayor of Toowoomba, took place on the evening of Saturday 15 April 1916.
In 1918 the lease was taken over by Union Theatres, an early Australian distribution-exhibition conglomerate, who repainted and redecorated the theatre early in 1919, when the building was closed temporarily during the Spanish influenza epidemic.
From the mid-1920s the Strand was leased by independent exhibitors.
In mid-1930 sound projection equipment was installed and the theatre was host to some of Toowoomba's earliest 'talkies'.
In 1933 the owners of the Strand arranged with Birch Carroll & Coyle for Sydney architect and theatre designer Guy Crick, who was then designing Toowoomba's rebuilt Empire Theatre for Birch Carroll & Coyle, to revamp the interior of the Strand in art moderne (Art Deco) style. At the same time the first floor foyer and office space was extended to the upper level of a newly constructed two-storeyed building along the east wall.
So popular were movies during the depression that the Strand continued evening screenings throughout the renovations, although most of the daily matinees were cancelled. The newly refurbished theatre was opened officially in early December 1933, with the local newspaper claiming that the Strand was the first picture theatre in Australia to be refitted completely in the art moderne style.
The Strand flourished during the 1930s, proudly advertising 'Always first with the latest and the greatest', and screened premier features from Fox, Paramount, Warner Brothers and United Artists to large audiences.
In 1957 the current owners acquired the theatre and introduced a wide screen format, and renovated the main foyer in the 1960s and again in the 1970s.
A major redevelopment of the theatre and the adjoining buildings was completed in 1992. The adjoining Crown Hotel and the amusement centre were demolished and four small cinemas were erected around the original cinema which was stripped of seating and refurbished to become a large foyer for the new cinema complex.
","criteria":"The Strand Theatre at Toowoomba, erected 1915-16, is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the emergence of cinema as a 20th century social phenomenon.
|It demonstrates rare and uncommon aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage, in particular as a rare, purpose built picture theatre of the early 20th century, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of early 20th century picture theatres.
|It demonstrates rare and uncommon aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage, in particular as a rare, purpose built picture theatre of the early 20th century, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of early 20th century picture theatres.
|It is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Toowoomba community, in particular its prominent siting and contribution through scale, form and materials to the streetscape of Margaret Street and to the Toowoomba townscape; and the quality of its 1930s interior decoration.
|It has a special association with cinema audiences of Toowoomba and the Darling Downs.
|It has a special association with the work of noted Brisbane architect, GHM Addison, and with important cinema architect, Guy Crick.
","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":15625,"place_ref":600850,"name":"Toowoomba Grammar School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"24-60 Margaret Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The School House is a three storeyed brick building with a two storeyed timber verandah in the centre of the front facade. On the south western end, adjoining the School House, is the Old Hall. Formerly the main school room, it is a single storeyed, gable roofed building constructed from brick with concrete and stone trim. Sited on a rise in spacious grounds the building overlooks garden beds, large trees, lawns and ovals to the north and west.
The front facade of the building, described as "Domestic Gothic" in style, features contrast concrete and stone trim, label mouldings, hood moulds, and decorative banding. The vertically proportioned timber casement and double hung windows are rectangular or with pointed facade forming an axis which is reinforced by the placement of a decorative gable with central oculus and an octagonal fleche above the line of the doors. The fleche and three brick chimneys are located along the main ridge of roof. The verandah, which has paired timber posts and a simple timber balustrade on the first floor level, runs between projecting gable fronted bays. Ornamental timber work, such as decorative barge boards and valances, has been replaced by simpler timber members. The roof overhang is supported on timber eaves brackets.
The focus of the front facade of the old hall is a group of pointed arched windows. These windows, with the bulls eye and eight pointed star shaped openings above, form a single composition framed by a hood mould. Stepped or keyed edges provide a contrast in render around window openings and on the chimney and gable end which forms an entry porch on the south western elevation.
The original building, roughly H shaped in plan, has been extended several times. On the north eastern end is the 1906 extension, in a style similar to the original, and the 1941 extension, in a contrasting style. The three storeyed 1941 extension, a rectangular masonry structure with parapet walls concealing the roof, has pilasters with stepped tops ornamenting the external walls. Built onto the rear of the original building, in line with the main entrance, is the shower and toilet block. It is a gable roofed brick wing with concrete banding at the head of horizontally proportioned windows. A timber staircase, with a timber panelled balustrade and brass handrail, built around the same time as the shower block connects it to the original building.
Two other wings are attached to the rear of the building. The south western wing is three storeys tall with a gable roof. It has brick arches over casement windows to the lower and upper floors and banding at the line of the sill of ground level windows. The two storeyed brick wing, nearer the north eastern end of the building, has a hipped roof.
Internally the school house has rendered masonry walls on the lower levels and painted brick work on the upper level. A number of rooms have pressed metal ceilings. Timber wainscotting of modern design has been added to some ground floor rooms, including the Old Hall. On the second floor the building contains mostly dormitories, large spaces divided by partitions. Ceilings are partly raked and lined with timber boards or pressed metal. Metal tie rods and portions of timber roof trusses are visible below the line of the ceiling.
In the Old Hall the steeply pitched roof is lined with diagonal tongue in groove boards to form a raked ceiling above timber purlins and queen-post trusses. On the walls of this large room hand numerous timber honour boards. A fireplace with a stone mantelpiece is located in the centre of the south western wall. External access to the room is via a porch located adjacent to the southern corner of the room.
","history":"The Toowoomba Grammar School was the third Grammar School to be constituted under the Grammar Schools Act 1860-1864 following the establishment of Ipswich Grammar (1863) and Brisbane Grammar (1869). The foundation stone of the school house was laid by the Hon Charles Lilley on the 7 August 1875 and the school was officially opened on the 1 February 1877 by the Hon James Taylor, Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Toowoomba citizens took the first steps to establish a local Grammar School in January 1874 when a letter was sent to the Colonial Secretary, HH Massie, seeking approval for the project and a subscription list was opened in the Darling Downs Gazette. More than 2700 pounds was raised within weeks from both large and small donations, securing a government grant of 5333 pounds and further loan of 2000 pounds.
The Board of Trustees, elected during June of 1874, selected the Old Queens Park as the site for the school. Thirteen acres of this 50 acre site was granted by the government and the remainder was secured by the Trustees at 10 pounds an acre as part of the government endowment. The initial board consisted of seven members, three subscribers representatives; W Graham MLA, GH Davenport and SG Stephens and four Government representatives: J Taylor MLC, JF McDougall MLC, G Elliot and CJ Anderson.
On the 21 October 1874 architects were invited to submit designs for the proposed Grammar School and a premium of 50 pounds and second prize of 25 pounds were offered. The proposed building was not to exceed 5000 pounds in cost and was to house one large school room, at least 4 classrooms, dormitories for 30-40 boarders, quarters for the headmaster and his family, toilets, bathrooms and servants quarters. A terrace was to be build in front of the main facade and future extensions were to be indicated.
The winning design "Veritas" was by the Brisbane architect Willoughby Powell, then a draftsman in the Queensland Public Works Department and previously in the employ of Richard Gailey. Powell moved to Toowoomba to supervise the construction of the school buildings and practiced there until 1877. During this period he designed a variety of buildings including churches, residences and a flour mill. Powell had a further impact on Toowoomba when in 1899 he won the competition for the design of a new Town Hall, the construction of which was supervised by J Marks and Sons.
Separate tenders were called in January 1877 for the erection of a lodge, gymnasium, stables and entrance gates designed by Powell. These structures were subsequently erected at the cost of 530 pounds. The main entrance to the school was at the corner of Herries and Mary Street.
The first headmaster of the school was J Macintoch of Camden College, near Sydney, a graduate of Edinburgh University with honours in classics and mathematics. The initial enrolment was forty-four students including twenty boarders with numbers rising to 60 by the end of 1877. Macintoch died accidentally when thrown from a horse on 12 April 1879.
During the next 31 years Toowoomba Grammar had seven headmasters. Over this period the school experienced financial difficulties as enrolments declined to a record low of 29 in the year 1900. From this low point numbers began to rise so that by August 1906 tenders were being called for additions in Brick by J Marks and Son. These additions may have been part of Willoughby Powell's original design. Marks and Son supervised Powell's design for the Toowoomba City Hall, the winner of a design competition in 1899. A small timber building was also erected in 1906 at a cost of 105 pounds for use as a science laboratory. These funds were raised by public subscription, an initiative of Dr Hamlyn-Harris, the science master who in 1910 became the Curator of the Brisbane Museum. Additions to the school, referred to in a 1908 prospectus, included the boy's sitting room, a new classroom, a special dormitory for boys under 12, gas lighting, a new dining room, a headmaster's residence, servants quarters and a new library of 400 volumes.
By 1910 when GP Barbour was appointed headmaster the future of the school was no longer in doubt. He remained as headmaster until 1935 and was responsible for building up Toowoomba Grammar's academic reputation. This was considerably assisted by the achievements of his son RRP Barbour who in 1920 became the first graduate of the school to receive a Rhodes Scholarship. Improvements to the school between 1925 and 1928, intended to celebrate the school's jubilee, were concentrated on the grounds. Sporting facilities including an oval, swimming pool, new tennis court and an oval pavilion were established. A new chemistry building was constructed in 1925.
A library in memory of AG Stephens, the first student enrolled at Toowoomba Grammar and the literary editor of the Bulletin, was opened in 1937. In 1941 an addition was made to the eastern end of the School House to accommodate the increasing numbers of boarders. In 1947 the architect and planner Karl Langer prepared a master plan for the school which guided building at the school until 1968 which it was superseded by the tenth decade development plan. Buildings constructed during this period include the headmaster's residence, three boarding houses, an assembly hall, new science laboratories, opened on November 2 1962 by Sir Mark Oliphant, a small hobbies room and a resident master's house. A bathroom and toilet wing and new staircase was added onto the rear of the School House, probably between 1947 and 1953.
New buildings since 1970 include a number of classroom blocks, a new gymnasium, an additional boarding house and an arts building. The most recent building, built in 1989, is the WM Dent Library which is adjacent to the north east end of the school house.
","criteria":"Toowoomba Grammar School was the third grammar school to be built in Queensland and demonstrates the impact of the Grammar School Act 1860-64 on the developing of education in Queensland.
\nThe School House and old Hall, the original buildings built between 1875 and 1877, served for many years as the main buildings of Toowoomba Grammar School. They are a strong representation of the aspirations of the original subscribers and Board of Trustees.
|(Criterion under review)
|An Australian adaptation of an English grammar school, the \"Domestic Gothic\" style buildings were placed in a spacious park like setting. This is still discernible today in the open grounds and substantial trees located to the north and west of the School House and the original terrace located in front of the School House.
\nThe buildings are accomplished designs of the architect Willoughby Powell. Prominently located, they are the visual and organisational centre around which the subsequent planning of the school has evolved.
|A project enthusiastically supported by the local community when first conceived, the new school was a status symbol for the town and surrounding district when it opened and remains a focus in a city noted for the quality and quantity of its educational establishments.
|The buildings are accomplished designs of the architect Willoughby Powell. Powell, who came to Toowoomba as a result of winning the competition for the Toowoomba Grammar School, contributed a number of notable buildings to the town and surrounding centres including the Toowoomba City Hall.
","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":15626,"place_ref":600851,"name":"Toowoomba Technical College (former)","alternate_name":"Southern Queensland Institute of Technical and Further Education (SQIT), Hume Street Campus","street_address":"124 Margaret Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Toowoomba Technical College is located on the corner of Margaret and Hume Streets Toowoomba. The building occupies a prominent position in the towns centre. It is situated opposite Queens Park (601607) and marks the eastern entrance to the Toowoomba township.
The Toowoomba Technical College Building, Block A, is a two storey brick structure, relieved with sandstone dressings and some stucco, such as the pebble-dash balustrades marking the colonnade facing Margaret Street. All natural stone dressings are painted and the face brickwork has been coated with a clear finish. The eastern end of the north wing is equipped with saw tooth skylights facing south .
The building has an "L" shaped floor plan, with an internal staircase located approximately centrally on each wing. Many of the rooms still function as classrooms and fittings such as blackboards have been retained. Both floors of the college feature high ceilings with a 'Ripple Iron' finish. This finish has also been used in the two brick toilet blocks that were built at the same time.
A number of temporary internal walls have been installed on levels 1 and 2 to create office space and additional classrooms and a kitchen has been installed in what was once the clerks office on level 1 and the commercial room on level 2.
Apart from Block A, the other buildings on the site include two brick toilet blocks contemporary with the main building though partially altered; a timber building from 1913, now shifted and elevated (Block B); a brick classroom/workshop built in 1931 (Block D); and a temporary wooden building, built in 1955 (Block C). Apart from the toilet blocks, the later additions are substantially different in style and form to the original building (Block A).
","history":"The former Toowoomba Technical College, constructed in 1911, was purpose built for the provision of vocational education and training for the people of the Toowoomba and the Darling Downs region. Designed by the Department of Public Works employee, Thomas Pye, the building is a large two-storey brick structure and is a good example of the style of education facilities that government architect's were producing at the time.
Vocational education had been established in Toowoomba at least by 1898. Such education was in the form of the Toowoomba School of Arts. This building was substantially damaged by fire on 21 June 1898, an event that was reported in the Toowoomba Chronicle on 22 June 1898. Following the fire, the City Council decided that a new Town Hall should be built on the School of Arts site. The new City Hall [600865], constructed in 1900, incorporated a public hall, municipal offices and chambers as well as rooms for a school of arts and technical college.
The Technical College remained in the City Hall until the construction of the new building in 1911. The site for the Toowoomba Technical College building, now known as Block A, was acquired in 1908 and the building was constructed in 1911, the foundation stone being laid by Sir William MacGregor, Governor of Queensland. The development of a purpose built Technical College in Toowoomba followed the formation of the Department of Public Instruction in 1905, established to centralise the control of technical education in Queensland. Prior to this, technical eduction in Toowoomba had been organised by local committees, often associated with the School of Arts. With the intervention of the Government, funding improved and a number of new purpose-designed buildings were constructed.
The Toowoomba Technical College building was designed by the Department of Public Works and built by Alexander Mayes, a Toowoomba contractor and later Mayor of Toowoomba from 1916-1917. At this time, the Under Secretary for Public Works, Government Architect and Engineer for Bridges was A. B. Brady. The building was designed by architect Thomas Pye and in style, illustrates the most substantial type of educational institutions coming from the Government architect's office at the time. The solid, free-classical design is surmounted by a hipped room, covered with "rolled iron" and topped with a ventilation fleche; the signature of a public building from this age. The urban nature of the site is reflected in the corner pavilions, with cornices and parapets, that are built up to the street alignment of the property. The design also responded to the sun by minimising western windows and providing south light for the "art room" - two major studio style rooms that were situated on the first floor.
Pye's approach to the site was to design a large two-storeyed building with two smaller detached single-storey buildings to be used for a chemical laboratory and a carpentry workshop, and two buildings containing earth closets. The main building as built in 1911 substantially follows the original sketch design, however, the brick chemical laboratory and carpentry workshop were deleted. In 1913, a timber carpentry workshop was built in the position envisaged by Pye. In 1929, the need for additional space for Domestic Science was met by moving the timber carpentry workshop closer to the main building, raising it and building in underneath to form a two-storeyed block (Block B). In 1931, a brick workshop building (Block D) was built on the site of the original timber carpenters workshop, which had been relocated in 1929. A "temporary" timber building containing two classrooms was constructed between the two brick buildings in 1955 (Block C). When the main building was extended in 1939, a design sympathetic to the 1911 design was used.
The main building underwent minor alterations in 1940 and again in 1979 with few changes to the original layout of the building. The college and the high school remained combined until 1962, when the high school separated and moved to another site. The restrictions of the Margaret Street site, even for the technical college alone, became apparent and in recent years development has concentrated on other sites in Toowoomba. As a result, the context of the Margaret Street site is still clear and is not obstructed by later buildings.
","criteria":"The former Toowoomba Technical College was built in 1911 and holds a special association with the establishment of vocational education in regional Queensland and the development of Toowoomba as a regional centre.
The development of a purpose built Technical College in Toowoomba is associated with the formation of a branch of the Department of Public Instruction in 1905, established to centralise the control of technical education. With the intervention of the Government, funding improved and a number of new purpose-designed buildings were constructed, including the Toowoomba Technical College in 1911.
|The overall style and form of the building is also a good example of the style of educational facilities that government architect's were producing at the time.
|The building holds a prominent position in the town, marking the eastern entrance to the central city area and is similar in style and form to a number of other Government buildings in the Toowoomba township.
|The former Toowoomba Technical College holds a special association with the establishment of vocational education in regional Queensland.
|Designed by Thomas Pye, architect for the Department of Public Works and built by Alexander Mayes, Mayor of Toowoomba from 1916-1917.
","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":15627,"place_ref":600852,"name":"Toowoomba Maltings","alternate_name":"William Jones and Son (Maltsters) Ltd | State Wheat Board | Redwood's Maltings | Queensland Malting Company Ltd | Northern Australia Brewers Ltd | Carlton Maltings | Queensland Brewery Co | Paterson Redwood and Co | Darling Downs Malting Company Ltd | Black Gully Malthouse","street_address":"11 Mort Street","suburb":"NEWTOWN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-01-21","description":"The Toowoomba Maltings is located in a mixed industrial and residential area in Newtown, north of the Toowoomba CBD. The site is bounded by Mort Street to the east and Black Gully on the north. Between the gully and the malt house is a disused siding which links to the railway line on the opposite side of Mort Street. The malt house, consisting of a long rectangular building orientated approximately east-west, is set back from the Mort Street frontage and stands on a flat platform of land cut into the sloping site.
The malt house is composed of a number of sections. Closest to Mort Street at the far eastern end of the building are the two 1899 kilns. Next to them are the 1907 kilns, with a cross-shaped malt dressing building running between and linking all four kilns. The largest part of the malt house is a two storey, rectangular, gable roofed shed at the western end, which contains the former germination floor on the ground floor and storage bins and steeping tanks on the first floor. Generally, the building has concrete foundations, load bearing brick walls, and timber internal and roof structures. All roofs are clad in corrugated metal sheeting. The numerous windows and doors are of a variety of sizes with shallow-arched lintels and are generally finished with original timber joinery, including window shutters and louvres. In 2014, original tools and machinery remain in the buildings.
A large 1980s shed located adjacent to the 1899 kilns on the eastern and southern sides is not of cultural heritage significance.
The two 1899 bluestone kilns are of coursed rubble construction with the lower level partly below ground. A central furnace once provided the heat for the drying process which took place on an upper level. Timber staircases, walkways and radial, timber framed floors within the kilns have been partially demolished. In 2014, one kiln roof has been demolished.
The two larger 1907 kilns are constructed of brick with brick arches on the lower furnace level and steel framed floors of perforated cast-iron tiles above. The kiln roofs are steeply-pitched, pyramidal roofs clad in corrugated metal sheeting. Ventilators located at the peak of the roofs have overhanging flat metal tops.
A gable roofed brick malt-dressing building runs between all four kilns. Machinery for processing grain (cleaning, moving, grading) is located on timber platforms at different levels connected by timber stairs. Sky lights over this area have rolled iron roofs. Rooms for the collection of dust are located on the upper level.
The large brick shed, measuring approximately 58m long and 25m wide, is accessed through doors at the eastern end of the northern side. The gable roof comprises a timber propped purlin and rafter roof frame clad in corrugated galvanised steel sheeting. The roof is punctuated by decorative galvanised steel ventilators and skylights. A dormer loading bay with double timber doors is located in the centre of the northern slope and a stepped tower element is located adjacent to the 1907 kilns.
The ground floor of the shed has a polished concrete germinating floor and is ventilated by timber louvred windows. Round cast-iron columns in a grid of 14x6 bays support the timber floor and floor framing above.
The first floor level, which occupies the roof space of the shed, has large, timber framed malt storage bins lined with pine boards on a malthoid paper backing. A central corridor running east-west along the length of the shed allows access to the storage bins and the dormer loading bay.
Above the central corridor under the ridge of the shed roof is a timber walkway and conveyor belt. The conveyor belt is connected via metal chutes with the storage bins. At the western end of this reversible conveyor belt, opening onto the germinating floor below, are two large steeping tanks supported on steel girders. Grain elevators are located at the eastern end of the conveyor belt in the malt dressing area.
To the north of the malt house the site is relatively open with large areas of concrete and bitumen and some grassed areas. The railway siding tracks remain in situ. Views of the northern side of the building and the prominent kiln roofs are obtained from Mort Street and the opposite side of Black Gully.
","history":"The Toowoomba Maltings, located on Mort Road, Newtown, comprises bluestone rubble kilns erected in 1899 and a two storey brick malt house and kilns erected in 1907 for the purpose of turning barley into malt using the floor malting process. The 1899 phase of the building (of which the kilns are the only remnant) was constructed for Paterson Redwood and Co. and was designed by Brisbane architect William A. Caldwell. The 1907 malt house and kilns were designed by notable Toowoomba architect Harry Marks for English maltsters William Jones and Son Ltd, who had purchased the operations in 1904. The site was used for malting purposes since the first malt house was constructed there in 1897 (no longer extant) and the complex was expanded and modernised in the 1960s. The 1907 malt house and kilns remain substantially intact and are the best preserved example of a floor maltings building in Queensland.[1]
European settlement of the Toowoomba area, traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, commenced in the 1840s when squatters first occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. Located at the intersection of three large runs, the small settlement of Drayton (originally known as ‘The Springs') evolved from 1842 as a stopping place servicing pastoralists and travellers. From the late 1840s, the Drayton Swamp Agricultural Area (‘The Swamp'), six kilometres to the north-east, began to be considered a more desirable location for settlement. Better land for market gardening, improved water supply, the support of squatters and land speculators, and, from 1855, a better route to Brisbane (The Toll Road), were all advantages over Drayton.[2]
By the time Queensland separated from New South Wales in December 1859, Drayton Swamp had become the town of Toowoomba, with municipal status granted on 19 November 1860.[3] Toowoomba became the principal centre of the Darling Downs, fostering early agricultural development and claiming most of the service, administrative and educational functions of the region.[4] A railway line between Toowoomba and Ipswich was opened in 1867, followed by railway links to Dalby (1868), Warwick (1871) and Brisbane (1875), opening up the Downs to greater communication and transport of goods.[5] As the regional capital expanded, its industries diversified beyond primary production, with specialised plants and factories making a range of goods. These included tanneries, flour mills (such as the Defiance Flour Mill, 1898, QHR601306), a bacon factory, butter and cheese factories, the Toowoomba Foundry (1871, QHR 601300), breweries and malt houses.[6]
Malt is germinated grain (usually barley), used in brewing and distilling.[7] The first breweries established in Australia used imported malt from England, but by the first decade of the nineteenth century, a number of breweries included malt houses, for converting local barley to malt.[8]
The first stage of the floor malting process involved soaking the grain in a large tank or cistern, frequently termed the ‘steep', to raise its moisture level. The next stage was the artificial germination of the grain to a specific point by the control of heat within the grain. This was done by emptying the barley onto the germinating, or malting, floor. The barley was heaped up to enable it to gain some heat to encourage the germination process. It would then be spread out across the malting floor to a depth of from 4 to 8 inches (100-200mm) to grow. It would be raked and turned on a regular basis to control the heat. The final stage was to stop the germination process by drying the grain in a kiln. The ‘green malt' was laid on the perforated floor of the kiln to a depth of between 8 to 12 inches (200-300mm), and was turned to aid the drying process. After kilning, the malt was cleaned, or dressed, and either stored in bins or bagged.[9]
To produce malt using the floor malting process, a malt house required a large level germinating floor; a steep for soaking the grain; a kiln to dry the green malt; and storage areas. While there were variations, in Queensland all malt houses were two storeys with the malting floor at ground level and storage above. The layout usually comprised a large rectangular germinating floor of smooth concrete, with a steep at one end and kilns at the other end. The first floor was used for storing and cleaning the barley before delivering it to the steep below, as well as for receiving the green malt for delivery to the kiln and for dressing and storing the malt. As the soaking of the grain and its germination is critically dependent on temperature, the requirement for temperature control influenced the design of malt houses. Thick brick or stone walls were used to provide an even temperature to the germinating floor, while air flow was controlled by rows of shutters or louvres to the side walls.[10]
Producing malt by the floor malting process was difficult in Queensland's warm climate. The elevated Darling Downs area, where the average temperature is between one and two degrees cooler than southeast Queensland, became the most sought after location for establishing malt houses in the state. Access to a potential supply of barley and railway connections to Ipswich and Brisbane were also important factors in determining the location of the malting industry.[11]
The first malt house in Queensland was constructed in 1871 at the Perkins Downs Brewery, Margaret Street, Toowoomba (no longer extant). Due to a lack of adequate barley supply, however, it closed in 1878, and over the next 20 years it operated intermittently under different owners. Despite this, in 1897 new malt houses were constructed in Toowoomba and Warwick. This optimism about the future may have been due to the general improvement in the economic situation between 1895 and 1897, which saw beer production rise by 29% and imports of malt by 21%. Import tariffs on malt and malting barley also provided protection to the infant industry.[12]
The new Toowoomba malt house was erected at Black Gully, about 1.6kms north of the town centre, for the Darling Downs Malting Company Ltd. It was operated by the Redwoods, a famous New Zealand malting family who were instrumental in developing the malting industry on the Darling Downs and in encouraging Downs' farmers to grow and harvest barley for malting. Alphonso H Redwood was the managing director. The site had ready access to a water supply (Black Gully is a tributary of Gowrie Creek) and to transport (a railway siding known as Redwood's Siding was constructed to link the malt house with the adjacent main south and west railway lines). The malt house was designed by architects J Marks and Son and was located close to the creek at the northern edge of the site.[13]
James Marks (1834-1915) was one of the most influential architects in Toowoomba from the late 1860s until the early twentieth century. He and his son Henry James (Harry) Marks (1871-1939), with whom he entered into partnership in 1892, came to dominate the architectural profession on the Darling Downs for more than half a century.[14] James Marks' works included homesteads (with their associated woolsheds and farm buildings), churches, shops, school buildings, residences, hotels, banks, offices and grandstands. His son Harry Marks was a highly creative designer who invented and patented numerous fittings for providing good ventilation and natural light to his buildings, including ventilators and reversible casement windows. As J Marks and Son (which practised between 1892 and 1910) the firm designed a wide variety of residential, religious and commercial buildings, while their industrial buildings included Dominion Flour Mill, Russell St (1897-98, demolished), Crisp and O'Brien's Defiance Flour Mill, Russell St (1898, partially extant) and Perkins Malt House, Margaret St (1900, demolished).[15]
The Black Gully site expanded in 1899 with the construction of a second malt house (known as the big malt house) to the south of the 1897 malt house (which became known as the small malt house). Designed by Brisbane architect William A. Caldwell, the big malt house consisted of a long, rectangular building fronting what is now Mort Street with two kilns at the rear (western) end.[16] The new building was operated by Paterson Redwood and Co. Later called the Queensland Malting Company Ltd, members of the Redwood family were also associated with this company as minor shareholders, with the directors and major shareholders being Francis J Paterson (later Town Clerk of Toowoomba) and Townsville merchant, Samuel Nesbitt Allen.
In 1901, both malt houses were purchased by Vernon Redwood and P O'Brien, with Redwood buying out O'Brien later that year. The business was then operated under the name Redwood, by Vernon (who had been chief maltster for Perkins and Co in Toowoomba and who later served as Mayor and a Member of the Legislative Assembly) with his father and brothers.
The business was purchased in 1904 by English maltsters William Jones and Son (Maltsters) Ltd with Vernon Redwood as general manager (1904-13). William Jones and Son, described as one of the foremost maltsters in the world,[17] was responsible for importing most of the English malt coming into Australia. After federation and the imposition of duty on malt, the company needed to establish themselves in Australia to maintain their business. In addition to the two malt houses at the Black Gully site at that time was a brewery tower (erected c1898) and residential accommodation.
In 1906 William Jones & Son embarked on a major expansion program at the Black Gully site, calling tenders in September for the erection of a new malt house.[18] Costing £6,999, the new building was designed and supervised by architect Harry Marks. The works comprised the erection of a new 240ft (73m) long malt house and kilns linked to the 1899 malt house, and the conversion of the existing brewery tower to a high water storage reservoir. The new malt house included steeping tanks, a large polished cement germinating floor, two kilns, malt dressing rooms, and a number of pine storage bins. Elevators and a conveyor belt, which traversed the length of the building, transported the grain in its various stages. The malt storage chamber was fitted with 38 Marks-patented reversible casement louvred windows and a number of Marks's roof ventilators. Special kiln top ventilators were also designed by Marks. The new complex, described as having the largest malting floor area in the Commonwealth,[19] was opened on 1 June 1907. The contractor was Montague Ivory with the plastering (including the cement germinating floor) by WJ Waldron, ironwork by the Toowoomba Foundry Co, and plumbing by Partridge and Co.
Poor barley seasons put a strain on the finances of William Jones & Son and the company ceased operating in Queensland after the 1914 season. The closure of this company reduced the malting capacity in Queensland from 260,000 to 60,000 bushels (4718 to 1089 tonnes). The extensive facilities vacated by William Jones & Son were used in 1916 by the Government to store, process and distribute wheat, and in subsequent years were leased.[20]
In 1923, the site was purchased by the Crown. In 1930 the maltings were repaired and reopened by the newly formed Queensland Barley Board, which had been established by the government in response to agitation by barley growers to resuscitate the malting industry. Malting continued at the site until 1942 when it was taken over by military authorities. After World War II, the maltings laid idle until 1951 when Northern Australian Breweries, part of Carlton United Breweries, took a seven year lease on the malt house to produce malt for its Queensland breweries. From 1958 it was the only active maltings in Queensland, due to Castlemaine Perkins Limited closing its Toowoomba brewery and selling the Margaret Street site for redevelopment.[21]
A new period of investment in mechanised malting technology began in the 1960s in Queensland. Automated methods for producing malt increased production and overcame the effect of Queensland weather on the malting process. In Toowoomba, Carlton United Breweries undertook a $1 million expansion of the Black Gully site. This included new buildings to house automatic malting technology, increasing its production capacity from 130,000 to 500,000 bushels (2359 to 9073 tonnes). The redevelopment involved the demolition of the 1897 malt house, the 1898 brewery and all but the stone kilns of the 1899 malt house. The 1907 malt house was retained and used for storage.[22]
In 1973, the maltings were transferred to Carlton United Brewers (NQ) Ltd. In 1987, the south-east portion of the site, formerly containing the water tower and other associated buildings, was sold. Ownership of the remainder of the site, containing the floor maltings and the automated maltings, has been transferred a number of times since. Further building extensions took place in the late 1980s.
Of the eight malt houses constructed in Queensland prior to the introduction of mechanised malting technology in the 1960s, all but two have been demolished. The 1897 malt house in Warwick still exists but has had the kilns removed. According to expert Ray Osborne, the surviving 1907 malt house in Toowoomba is one of the most intact floor maltings in Australia, and is an important part of Queensland's industrial and engineering heritage.[23]
In 2010, the sudden partial collapse of one of the 1899 kilns necessitated the controlled demolition of the kiln roof. Since 2011, malting has ceased to be carried out at the site and some modern equipment and structures attached to the 1907 building have been removed.[24]
References
[1] Ray Osborne, "The industrial and engineering heritage of the floor malting industry in Queensland: The former William Jones & Son (Maltsters), 1907 Malt House, Toowoomba", Australian Journal of Multi-disciplinary Engineering, Vol 3, No.1 (2004).
[2] Maurice French and Duncan Waterson, The Darling Downs: A Pictorial History 1850-1950, Toowoomba: Darling Downs Institute Press, 1982, p.17, 130.
[3] QHR entry for 602718 Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery
[4] French and Waterson, The Darling Downs , p.130-131.
[5] French and Waterson, The Darling Downs , p.110-112.
[6] French and Waterson, The Darling Downs , p.87-89.
[7] Macquarie Dictionary online, www.macquariedictionary.com.au
[8] Osborne, "The industrial and engineering heritage of the floor malting industry in Queensland," p.43.
[9] Osborne, "The industrial and engineering heritage of the floor malting industry in Queensland," p.43-4.
[10] Osborne, "The industrial and engineering heritage of the floor malting industry in Queensland," p.44.
[11] Osborne, "The industrial and engineering heritage of the floor malting industry in Queensland," p.44.
[12] Osborne, "The industrial and engineering heritage of the floor malting industry in Queensland," p.44.
[13] Photo, Queensland Agricultural Journal, October 1903, p.317, in French and Waterson, The Darling Downs, p.102.
[14] QHR entry for 600854 Smithfield House
[15] Donald Watson and Judith Mackay, "Queensland Architects of the 19th Century", Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994, p.121-123; Martin Butterworth, "Russell Street Study: a heritage survey of twenty buildings and their street", 1994.
[16] The Brisbane Courier, Saturday 25 June 1898, p.3; Photo, Queensland Agricultural Journal, October 1903, p.317, in French and Waterson, The Darling Downs, p.102.
[17] The Brisbane Courier, Friday 16 December 1904, p.13S.
[18] Osborne, "The industrial and engineering heritage of the floor malting industry in Queensland," p.45.
[19] The Brisbane Courier, 20 December 1906, p.23.
[20] Osborne, "The industrial and engineering heritage of the floor malting industry in Queensland," p.46.
[21] Osborne, "The industrial and engineering heritage of the floor malting industry in Queensland," p.46-7.
[22] Osborne, "The industrial and engineering heritage of the floor malting industry in Queensland," p .47.
[23] Osborne, "The industrial and engineering heritage of the floor malting industry in Queensland," p.47.
[24] ‘Historic city firm to shut doors', The Chronicle, 28 April 2011; EHP site visit photos, April 2014
","criteria":"Toowoomba Maltings is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the development of the malting industry on the Darling Downs and the use of floor maltings.
|The Toowoomba Maltings is a rare and intact example of a Queensland malt house designed for the floor malting process. Of the eight malt houses constructed in Queensland before the introduction of mechanised malting technology in the 1960s, only two survive, of which the Toowoomba Maltings is the most intact.
|As a collection of structures and equipment associated with the technology of floor maltings, the Toowoomba Maltings is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a malt house, a building type that has made a strong contribution to Queensland's barley growing, malting and brewing history. The building contains all of the elements of a malt house operation, including a large, flat germinating floor on the ground floor; kilns at one end; steeping tanks at the other end; storage bins and malt dressing rooms on the first floor; and early plant and equipment.
The building also demonstrates methods used to adapt malt house designs to the warm Queensland climate, with thick brick walls providing an even temperature to the germinating floor and the inclusion of louvred windows and custom-designed ventilators to control heat and airflow.
|It is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular as an example of a functional industrial aesthetic.
|The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement in an early 20th century floor malting complex.
|It has a special association with the life and work of Toowoomba architects James Marks and Son, in particular Harry Marks, and is a good example of their industrial work.
","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":15628,"place_ref":600853,"name":"Ascot House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"15 Newmarket Street","suburb":"NEWTOWN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Ascot House is a single-storey timber residence with an attached two-storey timber extension, referred to as a folly. The house has a verandah around three sides under a separate roof, supported by slender double columns with decorative cast-iron capitals. Parts of the verandah have been enclosed.
The original section of the house is a simple U-shaped plan with verandahs extending beyond the length of the house. The folly stands within the central space created by the plan of the house, protected on each side by the enclosed verandahs and has external access at the rear of the house. Internal access to the folly is gained from the end of the large central hallway in the old house.
The folly is of a unique design with an intricately modelled façade of eclectic styles. The external timber features are reminiscent of neo-classical, neo-gothic and Dutch design. The folly is a tall narrow structure with layers of pediments, window and door frames, trimmings and brackets giving the façade a textured appearance.
The top of the façade is marked by two flying gables with triangular pediments and semi-circular valances with a central finial. The gables are supported by decorative timber brackets and they frame vertical timber panelling on the face of the building. The gables surmount small, elongated oriel windows with narrow rectangular glass panels. In the centre of the façade is a neo-classical triangular pediment which surmounts a Dutch-style pediment with a decorative timber 'heart' motif in the centre. On ground level, a protruding set of doors framed in Gothic style arches are protected by a double awning, the top layer convex and the bottom layer concave. The two awnings are separated by a large facia board decorated by rectangular panels.
The house is set on a large piece of land extending from the western side of the house towards Tor Street. The grounds contain mature trees, walking paths and fish ponds. A large palm on the north-west corner of the house is an original planting.
The front door to the house is surmounted by a fanlight with coloured glass and displays the initials 'WB' in the central panel (WB stands for William Beit, a previous owner and builder of the folly). The front door is flanked on either side by large step-down bay windows which are repeated along the sides of the verandahs.
The floors are carpeted internally except for the front living room and the dining room where the timber boards are exposed and polished and a decorative boarder design has been painted on the floor.
The front door accesses a long and wide hallway which leads off to bedrooms and formal rooms. At the end of the hall the ballroom of the folly extends perpendicular to the hall. It is a large room with timber vaulted ceiling. The original decorative painted stencils are still visible on the ballroom ceiling. On the eastern side of the ballroom is a guest bedroom built in an enclosed section of the original verandah. On the western side is the kitchen also in an enclosed part of the verandah.
Directly behind the ballroom is the former billiard room, now a public tea room, which is oval-shaped and features heavily panelled ceilings including square panels on the top of the ceilings and gothic arches around the cornices. On the eastern side of the tea room is the former maids' quarters accessed by a small set of steps. This area originally featured three very small bedrooms built into the enclosed verandah. The area has now been opened into one space but still demonstrates timber VJs and joinery. On the western side of the tea room also accessed by some steps through a gothic arch way is the commercial kitchen situated in what was originally the scullery.
The second storey of the folly rises only above the former billiard room area and is accessed by a curved timber stairway from the ballroom. This upper level contains two bedrooms with fireplaces and views to the surrounding area from the oriel windows.
","history":"Ascot House, a single-storey timber residence with an attached two-storeyed timber extension, referred to as a folly, has been called the largest and most extensive of the grand Toowoomba residences. While the exact construction date is unknown, Ascot was possibly built in the 1870s as a private residence for Frederick Hurrell Holberton, a Toowoomba storekeeper and later Member of the Legislative Council. The architect of Ascot house remains unknown. When built, the house stood on about 32 acres of land near the Toowoomba racecourse. The grounds of Ascot contained a glasshouse, stables, croquet greens, tennis courts and extensive gardens, which included trees and shrubs bought from overseas.
Holberton sold the property to William Beit Jnr in 1894. William Beit Snr died suddenly in July 1872 before the birth of his son. The Register of the Queensland Parliament, 1860-1927 states that Francis Gregory, the owner of Harlaxton House [600839], resigned as mining Commissioner for Stanthorpe in November 1872 to take over the administration on the Estate of his late friend William Beit, and the family moved to Westbrook. Gregory appears in the Post Office Directories as Station Manager, Westbrook, Toowoomba by 1874. By 1876, however, he is not listed as such. (The Toowoomba Chronicle, on 30 November 1875, reported a court case between Sarah Beit, as plaintiff and a number of defendants including, Henry Beit (William Beit's brother) and FT Gregory (as Trustees) as the Defendants.
It is thought that William Beit named the house Ascot, reputedly because of his interest in horse racing. In the 1890s, Beit added a two-storeyed extension with a large billiard room, designed by Harry Marks to the original U-shaped house. The extension was a very elaborate design, suggestive of the superstructure of a ship, and was known as Beit's Folly. Beit was reputed to have had a distinctly artistic temperament which was reflected in the buildings he owned. The folly has become the distinctive architectural characteristic associated with Ascot House.
The architect of the "folly", Harry Marks, was a prominent Toowoomba architect noted for his highly creative work. Harry Marks was born in Toowoomba in 1871. After training under his father, architect James Marks, Harry entered into partnership with him in 1892 and spent his entire career in Toowoomba. During his career he invented and patented numerous ventilators, reversible casement windows and a method of stucco construction. He continued the practice into the 20th century and his son Charles Beresford Marks became a partner in 1925. Harry Marks became an Associate of the Queensland Institute of Architects in 1925 and Fellow in 1929. Harry Marks died on 1 March 1931.
Information from Anthony Battams thesis on William Hodgen states that, in 1899, plans were drawn by William Hodgen for extensions to the kitchen and stables. The builder for both of these projects was T. Olsen. There is also mention of a new cottage built for Beit in the same year, by G Gazzard and designed by Hodgen. It is not clear whether this cottage was built on the same property as Ascot House.
The Trustees Quarterly Review, April 1912 states that:
Queensland Trustees Limited, as attorneys for Mr William Beit, also placed on the market the beautiful house and park lands known as "Ascot", and though the house property itself failed to find a purchase, the remainder of the estate found great favour with the public, and the whole lot was sold at the auction sale from 275 to 450 pounds per acre.
Ascot was sold to Frederick Ernest Bennett in 1915, and has subsequently had a number of owners, being used for flats for many years. Articles in the Courier-Mail dated 21 March 1985, claim that American troops were stationed at Ascot House during World War Two.
The property has been progressively subdivided from the original 32 acres and it now stands on just over 2 acres of land. The house also suffered from the effects of vandalism during the 1970s. The current owner purchased Ascot House in 1984. Following extensive renovations, the two-storeyed extension of Ascot House, Beits' Folly, was opened as a tea room and house museum in 1994.
","criteria":"Ascot House is significant as one of the largest and most elaborate of all the grand residences of Toowoomba. Ascot follows the pattern of the construction of substantial houses on the Downs, demonstrating the development of the Darling Downs from a sparsely populated pastoral region to one of prosperity.
Ascot House is significant for its association with American troops stationed at the house in World War Two.
|Ascot House is also associated with the work of Harry Marks, who designed the 1890s folly, probably the most recognised architectural feature of the house and significant for its rarity amongst such residences.
|(Criterion under review)
|As one of the largest and most extensive of the grand Toowoomba residences, Ascot House high aesthetic value. The ornate decoration of the folly contributes significantly to this aesthetic value.
|(Criterion under review)
|Ascot House is significant for its association with prominent Toowoomba architect William Hodgen, who designed 1899 alterations to the stable and kitchen. Ascot House is associated with Frederick Holberton and William Beit Jnr, son of William Beit Snr, the Westbrook squatter.
Ascot House is also associated with the work of Harry Marks, who designed the 1890s folly, probably the most recognised architectural feature of the house and significant for its rarity amongst such residences.
","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":15629,"place_ref":600854,"name":"Smithfield House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"8 Panda Street","suburb":"HARRISTOWN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Smithfield House is located on the corner of Panda and Cheviot Streets, Toowoomba sited on a flat parcel of land. The site is composed of well manicured gardens which constitute what remains of the historical setting of the house.
Smithfield itself is a single storey residence of stone construction. The 0.6 metre bluestone foundations extend 4 metres deep into the ground. The sandstone was transported form England and the bluestone was quarried locally. The external walls are distinguished by bluestone blocks with rusticated sandstone quoins to door and window openings. The core of the building has a complex roof structure of corrugated iron with four prominent decorated sandstone chimneys. The bracketed eaves on the main roof impart an Italianate quality to the house.
Verandahs surround the north, east and west elevations of the house and are 3.6 metres deep and constructed of crow ash timber. Sandstone steps lead from the front garden to an elaborate portico which extends through the verandah at the front. Two large bay windows project onto the front verandah at the sides. These large windows consist of one multi-paned fixed upper sash and one sliding lower sash. The verandah roof is separate from that of the main house and is supported on decorative twin timber posts. The centrally located front door is framed between the two bay windows, whose forms are echoed in the main roof form. Decorative leadlight panes also surround the front door.
The front entrance leads into a wide hallway which runs the length the original house and is flanked on either side by symmetrically placed rooms. The hallway features two moulded arch archways as well as moulded cornices. The front easterly room is the main bedroom which includes a fireplace with decorative mantle and features timber inlay borders on the timber floors. Directly opposite this room is another large room used as a lounge with similar features. These rooms gain access to the front verandah via the large bay windows.
Internally the walls are finished in plaster and feature high quality timber joinery, while the floors are of wide hardwood boards.
A recent addition has been constructed to the rear of the original house during the period it was used as a restaurant and entertainment venue in the 1970s. This rear addition is externally clad in weatherboard and is not visible from the front elevation of the house. The original rear external bluestone wall now sits internally and marks the commencement of the addition from inside the house. Internally the addition is characterised by plasterboard cladding and includes a spacious dining and entertaining area, kitchen, bathrooms and laundry.
","history":"Smithfield House was designed by James Marks & Son in 1895 for James Taylor, a wealthy Darling Downs landowner. The contractor was Sydney (Harry) Andrews.
James Taylor is considered to have been the driving force behind Toowoomba's development, as he invested heavily in land in Toowoomba particularly during the late 1850s. Taylor took a leading role in encouraging the social, cultural and economic development of Toowoomba, donating land to various groups and churches, and he became known as 'the King of Toowoomba'. Taylor was Mayor of Toowoomba in 1890 and was a Member of Parliament between 1860 and 1893. Smithfield was the third house built by James Taylor. It was built on a 300-acre section of land on the southern side of the Toowoomba border, at the edge of the township of Drayton. Taylor planted and tended a fine stand of trees flanking the long carriageway, which, it has been suggested, have been preserved in parkland across from the homestead, though this has yet to be determined.
James Marks was one of the most influential architects in Toowoomba from the late 1860s until the early twentieth. He and his son Harry Marks with whom he entered into partnership in 1892 came to dominate the architectural profession on the Darling Downs for more than half a century. James Marks' own works include St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral in James St, Toowoomba [600844] and St Matthews' Church, Drayton [600873]. Smithfield House was designed under James Marks & Son whose works also include the Bandstand in Toowoomba Botanical Gardens, Ascot House [600853] and Vacy Hall c1900 [600858]. James and Harry marks have left a significant visible legacy in the buildings of Toowoomba of which Smithfield House is an important example.
James Taylor never lived at Smithfield house; he stayed at Clifford House [600857]. Smithfield's first occupant, ca. 1907, was Oscar Flemmich. Flemmich has been described as both a German industrialist and an Austrian Nobleman. He built extensive stables in the grounds, but left Smithfield during World War I. His reasons for leaving have been attributed to pressure from anti-German communities in the area.
Part of the Taylor estate was sold to Darcy Winton; a Charleville Grazier in 1908, and during the Second World War, the house was used as part of a private school. It was sold to the Anglican Church to house the Glennie Memorial School until 1962. Between 1962-1966 the property was leased by the Minter family from the Church of England
In 1966 it was sold for sub-division and during this time suffered a period of decay and attacks by vandals before restoration in the 1970s.
In 1974, Smithfield Homestead was bought by Barwick and Ceisolka. Initial plans to turn the property into a restaurant were objected to by Toowoomba residents, as indicted by letters to the editor in the Toowoomba Chronicle. However, any objections were unsuccessful as Smithfield Homestead was opened as a restaurant in 1975. In 1978 was sold to Kelvin and Thelma Roche, who continued to operate Smithfield Homestead as a restaurant. From 1975 until it was sold in the early 1990s, Smithfield Homestead was one of the most popular restaurants in Toowoomba, hosting many functions including weddings and receptions.
In 1994, the house was again up for sale. The current owners are Tracey and Gregory Wagner.
","criteria":"Smithfield House is reflective of the pattern of affluent settlement which occurred in Toowoomba in the late 19th century, demonstrating the transition of the Darling Downs from a sparsely populated rural district to one of prosperity and prominence. It is one of the many fine residences which reflect Toowoomba's leading position during the development of the rich Darling Downs. It is typical of a residence built for wealthy landowners on the Darling Downs during the period.
Also of historical significance is the land on which Smithfield house its. The relatively large property located amongst small suburban blocks is reflective of the pattern of land settlement in Toowoomba prior to sub-division and close urban settlement which occurred from the mid 20th century onwards. Smithfield originally occupied 300 acres and the current lot is the remnant of this early property.
|It also demonstrates the principal characteristics of a substantial affluent domestic building of late 19th century in Queensland.
|Smithfield House demonstrates significant aesthetic value as a substantial, well-composed house displaying fine workmanship and detailing. Its spacious gardens complement the house creating a sense of the balance between the substantially sized house and its surrounding environment.
|Smithfield House has special association with the work of prominent Toowoomba architect J. Marks as well as special association with the life of James Taylor who was a prominent figure in Toowoomba's development and Mayor of Toowoomba in 1890.
","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":15631,"place_ref":600856,"name":"St James Parish Hall","alternate_name":"Taylor Memorial Institute | St Jame's Parish Hall","street_address":"112 Russell Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-03-28","description":"St James' Parish Hall, fronting Russell Street to the north, is located opposite St James Church. The site is bounded on either side by single-storeyed buildings; a brick store built to the boundary on the east and a timber building and bitumen driveway to the west, with Baty Lane to the south. A single-storeyed timber and iron cottage is located to the southeast and a toilet block is located to the southwest. (The cottage and toilet block do not form part of the Entry in the Heritage Register.)
The building exhibits a strong arts and crafts influence in its design, with its picturesque terracotta tiled roof and prominent eaves, rough cast exterior, heavy base and stylised signage on the north wall.
The single-storeyed building has a brick base and utilises a 'hollow wall' construction system, consisting of a metal frame lined with chicken wire and a stucco render; a smooth finish trim with rough infill externally and smooth finish internally. A marble memorial plaque is located to the base of the north wall.
The building has a fanciful steep pitch terracotta tiled roof with sprocketted eaves and projecting gables to the east and west. Three turrets, to the centre, and the north and south bays, have been formed by the ridge being deleted between them and a curved capping piece inserted. The centre turret has a 'pot bellied', sheet metal roof ventilator, the other two have rounded finials.
The building has 'extendable casement' windows, only three of which are still intact with the remainder having been modified into standard casements. These consist of a metal track above and below the centre of the window, perpendicular to the wall, on which the window slides away from the opening and can pivot at 360° for optimum ventilation. The windows in the hall have fanlight and sidelights, and in the end bays have hopper windows above, all of which have green and obscure glass panes.
The northeast porch has decorative timber arched brackets and balustrade. These have been removed from the northwest porch, which has a ramp for disabled access. Double timber doors with fanlights open into the hall.
A shallow corrugated iron gable roofed kitchen and store, which has been added to the south of the building, has fibrous cement cladding with timber cover strips, large sash windows with green and obscure glass panes, timber and iron window hoods to the south and brick stumps.
Internally, the building has a raised timber stage to the south bay, and a central hall with side aisles from which the kitchen and store is accessed. The building has rendered walls, timber posts with decorative brackets and arches, exposed trusses and boarded timber ceilings. Diagonal boarding is a decorative feature used throughout the building, including the ceiling, panels in doors and partition walls.
The kitchen and store have metal trusses, a fibrous cement sheet ceiling with timber cover strips and tongue and groove walls. A section of timber floor following the line of the stage bay, and abutting the kitchen and store floor, is visible. A section of folding partition wall with a metal roller divides the store area and in its detailing appears to be originally from the hall.
A brick fence with a central gateway is built along the Russell Street boundary, and features piers with crucifix shaped concrete trim.
Status of 1950 Extension: The rear kitchen extension (c1950) does not contribute to the cultural heritage significance of St James Parish Hall (1912). It does not contribute in scale, form or materials to the Russell Street streetscape or the Toowoomba townscape. The extension is unremarkable in terms of quality or craftsmanship and is unlikely to be valued by the community. The rear extension is included on the Register only for the purpose of ensuring that its future demolition or renovation would result in an appropriate treatment of the rear wall of the original hall building, or that any building which replaces it, is sympathetic to the hall proper.
","history":"St James' Parish Hall was built in 1912 opposite St James' Church (c1868) in Russell Street. James Taylor donated the land and erected the Hall designed by architect Harry J. Marks, to stand as a memorial to his parents, the Hon. James Taylor and his wife Sarah. The Hon. James Taylor had given the land for St James' Church as a gift to the Parish some forty-five years earlier, and is credited with taking a leading role in the early development of Toowoomba.
The hall features Marks' unusual construction methods and details, including his patented "hollow wall" construction to give the appearance of a solid wall whilst being cheaper to construct than brickwork. Another interesting feature of the building developed and used by Marks is the extendable casement window which provides optimum directional ventilation. Only three of these windows remain in working order.
At the opening ceremony, the Hall was described as "a model of architecture" with ample facilities for the uses it was to be put to, including reading rooms and library, a lounge, and as a venue for Sunday school and meetings.
The Hall was repainted and minor repairs were undertaken in 1923-24, mostly to remedy damage from water penetration under the roof.
The brick fence at the front of the hall is thought to have been designed (c1940) by Charles Beresford Marks (Harry Marks' son), and bears a small plaque in memory of James Taylor as benefactor and foundation member of St James' Parish.
The building was substantially extended to the rear to form a large kitchen area c1950. Work was undertaken in 1991 to repair water damage to the roof and ceiling of the Hall.
","criteria":"St James Parish Hall, erected 1912, is significant historically for its association with St James Church and the development of the Anglican Church in Toowoomba.
|It is a picturesque example of an Arts and Crafts inspired church hall in Toowoomba, and exhibits a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Toowoomba community and congregation of St James church, in particular the contribution of the building in its design, scale, form and materials to the streetscape of Russell Street and to the Toowoomba townscape; and the quality of, and craftsmanship displayed by, the interior, including the timber joinery.
|It is a picturesque example of an Arts and Crafts inspired church hall in Toowoomba, and exhibits a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Toowoomba community and congregation of St James church, in particular the contribution of the building in its design, scale, form and materials to the streetscape of Russell Street and to the Toowoomba townscape; and the quality of, and craftsmanship displayed by, the interior, including the timber joinery.
|The use of the 'hollow wall' construction technique, the extendable casement window and pot-bellied roof ventilator, as patented designs, are important in demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement by the architect, Harry J Marks, in the early 20th century.
|As the parish hall for St James Church, one the oldest churches in Toowoomba, it has a special association with the Toowoomba community for social and cultural reasons.
|It has special association with the life of the Hon. James Taylor, who played a prominent role in the early development of Toowoomba, and his family; and with the work of Toowoomba architects Harry J Marks and Charles Beresford Marks, who were responsible for the design of many Toowoomba buildings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | 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 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":15632,"place_ref":600857,"name":"Clifford House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"120 Russell Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Clifford house is a substantial sandstone, brick and timber building set in picturesque gardens on a block bounded by Russell St, Clifford Lane and Isabel St. It comprises a two storeyed residence with a brick and sandstone base and core, timber verandahs to the first floor, and a single storeyed brick Billiard Room to the west. The residence has single-storeyed brick and weatherboard buildings to the rear, either side of a two-storeyed brick water storage tower. The buildings have corrugated iron roofs, with several substantial chimneys rising above the roof lines. The gardens contain mature trees, which contribute to the streetscape of Russell Street.
The residence is set back from the street, and the formal, symmetrical northern frontage is approached via a circular drive. It has a sandstone and vine-covered square entrance portico, with arched openings, and an arcaded sandstone loggia (now enclosed). The verandah above has chamfered posts with square capitals, and timber balustrades with arch patterns, and diamond glazed windows to the eastern edge and north-west corner. The northern elevation is surmounted by a substantial parapet with a central panel with the words "Clifford House", flanked by a decorative balustrade.
The southern frontage of Clifford House comprises brick and timber service buildings. On the western side, a weatherboard and brick building extends out to the south; it contains the kitchen and former servants quarters, and has an enclosed verandah to the east, and a broad verandah to the west with timber stairs covered with a corrugated iron barrel vault. The brick water tower has a pitched corrugated iron roof, and is accessed by steep timber stairs, leading to a windowless room containing steel water tanks. A weatherboard building with a hipped roof, which has been extensively refurbished, adjoins the residence and water tower to the south east.
The Billiard Room adjoins the main building via a (now enclosed) walkway covered with a corrugated iron roof barrel vault with a pressed metal ceiling, which links to an ogee shaped awning supported on decorative fretted brackets to the northern face of the Billiard Room. The building has a simple rectangular form with a pitched roof, with a raised curved portion, and a chimney to the southern end. It has rectangular timber windows with timber louvred shutters, scalloped barge boards to the gable ends, and a scalloped timber trim to the awning. The northern gable is further embellished with projecting brick patterns which trace the outline of the gable, and form three central diamond patterns.
Internally, the house comprises major rooms to the north opening onto the loggia spaces, either side of central corridor and stair, with smaller service rooms to the south. Upstairs has a similar floor plan. The rooms have a range of fine decorative finishes. The ground floor entrance has black and white chequered marble tiles, whilst the loggia has polished timber floorboards with truncated corner patterns, and ripple iron ceilings. The loggia is accessed via timber double doors with louvres. Internal doors to the grand rooms have delicate hand-painted floral and pastoral scenes. The front rooms have fireplaces with tiled hearths and carved timber surrounds. The north-western room has gridded sheeted ceilings and a pressed metal cornice with elongated floral motifs. Beyond the entry portico, the entrance hall has timber doors with rich coloured glass surrounds, and an arch at the foot of the stairs. The stairs are decorated with carved panels to the sides of the stairs, and have a spiral handrail over the newel post. The half-landing has coloured glass windows.
Upstairs has been extensively refurbished, but retains its arched windows, and verandahs with timber lined ceilings which access onto the roof of the portico.
The Billiard Room is an elegantly proportioned room with timber floors and raked timber lined ceilings, lit by a raised central skylight.
The gardens contain many mature trees, including Jacarandas, Camellias, maples, pines, Plane Trees, oaks, Magnolias and Macadamia trees. The western garden has a lawned area defined by smaller trees, and a sunken garden defined by a rock wall. Out buildings in the garden include a shed and a water tank.
Whilst Clifford House has been extensively refurbished internally, the exterior remains largely intact, retaining its quality as a substantial residence with a finely detailed Billiard Room, in a picturesque garden setting. Some fine internal features remain, including fireplaces, rare handpainted doors, coloured glass windows and the well-proportioned skylit space of the Billiard Room.
","history":"This two storeyed building, intended for use as a Gentlemen's Club, was erected in the mid-1860s on land owned by the Hon James Taylor in Russell Street, Toowoomba.
The land on which Clifford House stands had been granted to William Horton in 1852, and was acquired by Taylor and his partner in Cecil Plains station, Henry Stuart Russell in 1855. Taylor is considered to have been the driving force behind Toowoomba's development, as he invested heavily in land in Toowoomba particularly during the late 1850s. Taylor took a leading role in encouraging the social, cultural and economic development of Toowoomba, donating land to various groups and churches, and he came to be regarded as 'the King of Toowoomba'. Taylor was Mayor of Toowoomba in 1890, and was a Member of Parliament between 1860 and 1893.
The first Congregational Church in Toowoomba was built on this site in 1860, when Taylor and Russell gave land to the Rev JT Waraker for building a school house and church. By 1863 the church had outgrown the Russell Street building, and a new Congregational Church was built in Margaret Street and opened in 1864. The land in Russell Street was sold back to Taylor.
In 1865 Taylor sold the land to a group of squatters (which included himself), who wished to start a club similar to the Queensland Club in Brisbane. The building appears to have been erected shortly after, however the club fell into financial difficulties, and the land and building were eventually sold back to Taylor in 1870. FT Gregory and his family lived at the Club House from 1867 until early 1870 when they moved to Harlaxton House [600839]. The building was believed to have been used as the District Surveyor's Office for a number of years prior to 1870, and it is also understood that Taylor used Clifford House as the Lands Office in his position as Secretary for Public Lands from January 1869-May 1870.
In 1870 Taylor had the Club House reconditioned as Clifford House, named after his father's birthplace in England. Richard Godsall, a prominent Toowoomba builder and later Mayor of Toowoomba carried out the alterations, which were described as being of a very grand scale, and Clifford House was also referred to as 'St James' Palace'. A billiard room, designed by architect James Marks, was added to Clifford House in 1883.
Taylor died in 1895, and his wife Sarah remained at Clifford House until her death in 1908. The property passed to her son James, who lived there for a number of years, during which time much of the grounds surrounding Clifford House were subdivided and sold. After James Taylor's death in 1939 the property passed to Henrietta Lethbridge, Taylor's cousin. Upon Henrietta's death the property passed to the Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane.
Clifford House was acquired by the present owners and converted to a restaurant and reception centre during the 1970s. In 1993 the ground floor of Clifford House was refurbished and leased to the Queensland Government.
","criteria":"Clifford House was erected as a Gentlemen's Club, then acquired and renovated by Taylor who entertained wealthy squatters from the surrounding district.
|The house contains rare late 19th century handpainted doors.
|The buildings, including the adjoining Billiard Room, have aesthetic quality and the grounds form an integral part of the mature streetscape of Russell Street.
|Clifford House is a substantial 1860s masonry building, which is associated with the life and work of the Hon James Taylor, who played a prominent role in the development of Toowoomba from the 1850s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 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":15633,"place_ref":600858,"name":"Vacy Hall","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"135 Russell Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Vacy Hall, set back from Russell Street to the south on a site sloping gently east, is surrounded by gardens and mature trees to the south and east with single-storeyed hostel buildings to the northwest.
\nThis single-storeyed building, L-shaped in plan, has a twin hipped corrugated iron roof with a central box gutter, hipped projecting bays, a gable pediment to the south entrance and a central curved roof section to the northwest wing. The building is encircled by verandahs with lower skillion roofs, fluted square timber verandah posts and timber floors. The south elevation is symmetrical, and the entrance pediment, the central section of which is glazed in leadlight with the inscription VACY HALL, is supported by two large, rendered, square fluted columns framing concrete steps. Step out bays with sash windows and shutters open onto south, west and east verandahs from principal rooms. The panelled entrance door has a fanlight and sidelights with leadlight glazing.
\nThe building has English garden wall bond brickwork, with decorative glazed brickwork features including quoining to corners, bays, windows and doors, arched headers to doors and windows, a circle pattern above the entrance door and stretcher courses to the base, below the sills and below the eaves. The building has six decorative brick chimney stacks and brick eave brackets.
\nThe building has been refurbished for guest rooms and associated facilities. Internally, the building has cedar joinery including panelled doors with fanlights, architraves, bays with seats, fireplace surrounds and skirtings. The octagonal shaped central hall has ornate plaster mouldings and cornice, faux marble finish to arches and wall panels and a radiating parquet which continues into the front and rear halls. Walls are plastered masonry with wallpaper to dado or picture rail height. Ensuite rooms have been added.
\nAlong part of the northern property boundary is a single-storeyed, partially rendered concrete block building.
\nA single-storeyed weatherboard reception building, with a hipped corrugated iron roof and concrete stumps, is located adjacent to the building on the west.
\nThe grounds include a gravel drive from Russell Street with a turning circle and brick edging, mature trees to the south and east, hedges along the south and east boundaries and an expanse of lawn with gardens to the southeast.
","history":"Vacy Hall, a single storeyed substantial brick residence was erected in 1899 for Gilbert Gostwyck Cory and his wife Ann Sophy, daughter of the Hon. James Taylor. It is one of a number of substantial residences erected along Russell Street, including Taylor's own residence, Clifford House (QHR 600857). Designed by notable/prolific Toowoomba architect James Marks, and built by Alexander Mayes, a prominent Toowoomba builder and three-times Mayor of Toowoomba, it was the second residence to be erected on this site.
\nEuropean settlement of the Toowoomba area, traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, commenced in 1840 when squatters occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. The small settlement of Drayton evolved from 1842, but was soon surpassed by a more desirable location six kilometres to the northeast, known as Toowoomba from the 1850s. Better suited to market gardening, with a more reliable water supply, and supported by squatters and land speculators, Toowoomba was incorporated as a municipality in 1860. Its rapid economic and social development was influenced by local residents who strongly promoted the prospects of the town, and political representatives who successfully lobbied for government funding for civic improvements.[1]
\nToowoomba expanded rapidly from the late 1860s, becoming the main urban centre of the Darling Downs by 1888. The arrival of the railway in 1867 secured the town's development and subsequently made it the hub for the Southern and Western railways. The Selection Act 1868 brought selectors to the district, improvements to freehold estates, and revived trade with western areas. Toowoomba’s economy diversified to include numerous small-scale manufacturing firms, while the majority of administrative, service and other government and education functions for the surrounding region were established in the town. Its progress was reflected in improvements to the physical environment, through important capital works projects, including the draining of its swamps, improved water supply, gasworks for lighting, extensive tree plantings and the initial development of Queen's Park. Earlier temporary structures were replaced with more permanent and impressive buildings.
\nToowoomba experienced an urban land boom throughout the 1870s and 1880s. Newtown, its first working-class suburb, was created in the 1880s, while speculators extended the ‘shopkeepers’ residential areas to the north east of Ruthven, Russell and Margaret Streets, the commercial core of the town. Prosperous Darling Downs landowners, business-owners and professionals established residences in Toowoomba; and from the 1880s, the town acted as a summer resort for those seeking a cooler climate, including Queensland Governors.[2]
\nGilbert Gostwyck Cory arrived in Toowoomba in the late 1850s, and was employed by James Taylor at Cecil Plains Station. Cory later became Taylor's partner and was involved in other pastoral ventures in Queensland. Cory was an active member of the Toowoomba and district community, serving on both the Jondaryan Shire Council, Toowoomba Municipal Council; Mayor of Toowoomba in 1891; a longstanding member and President of the Royal Agricultural Society; member of the Toowoomba Hospital committee; and a founding member of the Toowoomba Turf Club.
\nThe land on which Vacy Hall stands had been granted to William Horton in 1852, and was acquired by Taylor in 1868, as part of a number of allotments purchased by Taylor and Henry Stuart Russell in the late 1860s. A residence is believed to have been erected in the mid 1870s, possibly as a present from Taylor to his daughter on her marriage to Cory in 1873.
\nTaylor died in 1895 and the property passed into the hands of trustees, which included Taylor's widow, two of Taylor's sons, and Cory. In 1897 the property was transferred to Ann Cory. The 1870s house was destroyed by fire in late 1898.
\nThe house had been insured for £1400 and in 1899 Toowoomba architectural firm, James Marks and Son, was commissioned to design a new home. James Marks and Sons were comprised father and son architects James Marks (1834-1915) and Henry (Harry) James Marks (1871-1939). It operated from 1892 until 1910. James had commenced practice as James Marks, Architect in Toowoomba by the early 1880s and was successful, being responsible for notable and high profile buildings in the Downs region. Born and trained in Toowoomba, his son Harry was a highly creative and inventive designer, and together, the practice continued James’ success and was responsible for a variety of further impressive buildings. These included Rodway (QHR 600868), St James Parish Hall (QHR 600856), St Luke's Church Hall (QHR 600866), additions to the Toowoomba Maltings (QHR 600852), and Harry’s own family home ‘St Rest’ (known as Gladstone House in 2020 (QHR 601303)).[3]
\nAnn died in 1909, and the property passed to Cory, who remained at Vacy Hall until his death in 1924.Following Cory's death, Vacy Hall had a succession of owners. It remained a private home until the 1950s when it was converted to apartments, offices and finally a boarding house/hostel. By 1977 interconnected single-storeyed, concrete block hostel buildings had been constructed adjacent to the original building on the northwest side and along part of the northern property boundary.[4]
\nFollowing the sale of the property to new owners in 1986, Vacy Hall was refurbished for guest accommodation. The hostel section adjacent to the original building on the northwest side was demolished by 1994 and a timber cottage, constructed of materials recycled from three derelict timber houses, was erected on the site between 1988 and 1989, which is used as the Reception office and manager's residence.
\nIn 2004 the property was sold and in 2021, Vacy Hall is in use as a boutique hotel.
","criteria":"Vacy Hall, erected in 1899, is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the development of Toowoomba as a prestigious residential location for Darling Downs pastoralists.
|It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial, late 19th century masonry Toowoomba residence, and exhibits a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the contribution of the building and grounds, through form, scale, materials and plantings, to the streetscape of Russell Street and to the Toowoomba townscape; and the quality and crafting of the materials and finishes, including decorative brickwork, parquet floor, cedar joinery, plasterwork, and step-out bays.
|It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial, late 19th century masonry Toowoomba residence, and exhibits a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the contribution of the building and grounds, through form, scale, materials and plantings, to the streetscape of Russell Street and to the Toowoomba townscape; and the quality and crafting of the materials and finishes, including decorative brickwork, parquet floor, cedar joinery, plasterwork, and step-out bays.
|It has a special association with the work of prominent Toowoomba architect, James Marks, who designed a number of residences in Toowoomba; and with James Taylor and Gilbert Cory who were influential in the early development of Toowoomba as a major rural centre.
","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":15634,"place_ref":600859,"name":"Toowoomba Permanent Building Society (former)","alternate_name":"Toowoomba Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society | Cleary and Lee Solicitors","street_address":"2 Russell Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former Toowoomba Permanent Building Society building is a single storey, facebrick building constructed in 1934 with later extensions to the western side, located in a prominent position on the corner of Russell and Neil Streets, Toowoomba.
The northern [front] elevation of the building, facing Russell Street, has a prominent, projecting, rendered front portico with a set of stairs leading to the entry, which has terrazzo tiles and timber framed french doors and a breezeway assembly with decorative glass. Double hung sash, timber framed windows are located along the front façade, including in the extensions of the western side of the property, and also along the eastern elevation, facing Neil Street. All the windows have a breezeway assembly with glass panels. A second entrance, with timber french doors, is located at the western end of the northern elevation, forming part of the later extensions. The rendered pediment is located right around the building and conceals the hipped roof clad with tiles. Raised lettering reading 'CLEARY AND LEE SOLICITORS' is located along the top of the projecting portico and along the eastern elevation.
Along the northern and eastern elevations, the building has decorative rendered and painted mouldings and a dentilled cornice. The facebrick western elevation has no windows or entrances. The southern [rear] elevation has timber framed, double hung sash windows along the elevation.
The original, detached facebrick garage located in the south-western corner of the site, now attached to the main building, is still apparent. The parapet concealing the hipped roof clad with corrugated galvanised iron is still extant.
Internally, the former Toowoomba Permanent Building Society has a large open area which forms the main section of the building. The large space has been divided in to a number of workspaces using partitions. The plaster ceiling in the room is divided into panels which have decorative plaster dentilled cornices and mouldings. The rendered walls have a timber dado rail located around the room. Doric pilasters are located on all internal walls in the main part of the original section.
In the original section, offices are located along the eastern side of the building. The walls in the offices have been rendered and each have a timber dado rail and picture rail. Most of the offices have a dentilled plaster cornice, however, one, at the southern end of the building has only a moulded plaster cornice, without dentils. The original strong room is still extant and is located on the southern side of the building. An office on the western side of the building, forming part of the original section, has been refurbished, including the lowering of the ceiling. A panelled, timber door, with sidelights, located in the north-western corner of the office, opens to the main office area. Toilets and kitchen facilities, with recent renovations, are located on the southern side of the building.
Brick extensions have been undertaken on the western side of the building. In this section, a number of offices open from a central corridor. These offices are austere with simple, decorative plaster cornices. The decorative plaster ceiling in the front office, which faces Russell Street are slightly more detailed. The original garage, which functioned also as a store room, located in the south-western corner is now divided into two offices. Similar to the other offices, these spaces are austere with simple, decorative plaster cornices.
A low, brick fence with rendered capitals on the plinths is located along the northern and eastern sides of the building and along part of the western side.
","history":"The former Toowoomba Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society building was designed as a solid and austere edifice of red face brick. It was constructed in 1934 by contractor WR Smith, at a cost of £4390. The design was by prominent Toowoomba architect, William Hodgen. The building was Hodgen's last major work produced by him before his death in 1943. The building was extended on the western side in 1982.
\nThe Toowoomba Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society was established in 1875 in offices in Margaret Street. As the business expanded larger accommodation was sought in 1906 in Russell Street. In 1934 a decision was made to build an office on another site in Russell Street and these premises were opened in October 1934. The Toowoomba Permanent Building Society remained in this building until 1979.
\nThe Toowoomba Permanent Building Society was the third permanent building society to be established in 1874, the other two societies being established in Brisbane in July and August. The establishment of a permanent building society had come about following the formation and subsequent closure of a number of terminating societies. Evidence suggests that the first terminating society was formed in Toowoomba late in 1862, on the initiative of WH Groom, the first Mayor of Toowoomba. The permanent society differed to the terminating society in that its system accredited interest annually rather that at termination.
\nMost Australian building societies were larger in size and function than the British societies with a tendency to evolve into building companies, land and mortgage banks or estate companies. They also tended to rely on small overdrafts from the trading banks in times of financial crisis or economic recession. Hence, in Australia, building society interest rates were frequently subject to the prevailing rates set by the banks, and the bank crash of 1893 was even the ruin of a number of dependent societies.
\nOn 16 Sept 1874, the Toowoomba Chronicle's Brisbane correspondent published an editorial comment on the principles of co-operation and self-help reflected in the building society movement. The article emphasised how 'an industrious man [has] an excellent opportunity to shake himself...free of his landlord...it facilitates the settlement in and around the settlement of trade of a....body of people who, having secured a stake in a place...are not tempted to migrate upon every trivial occasion...'.
\nThe benefits of retaining an itinerant workforce in or near a town meant increased population and, accordingly, increased prosperity. Such increases ultimately benefited the local building and agricultural industries, as well as commerce and trade. Greater government revenue became available through taxation and could be channelled into public works to the advantage of the town. The formation of the building society played an integral part in such economic growth. If wage earners could be encouraged to secure their own piece of land, they would make a contribution to the prosperity of the town.
\nSince 1876 the office of the Toowoomba Permanent Building Society had been located in a suite of rooms in Beirne's Chambers in Margaret Street. With the increased workload associated with the expansion of the business at the turn of the century, these premises became too cramped. By September 1905, the Directors began looking for new premises. In January 1906, rather than tendering for a new building, and declining Beirne's offer of the current premises for £1 per week, the Society called for offers of existing buildings. Within a week, the Society had six offers. On 15 January 1906, the Society accepted half of Bernard Dowd's offer for £1500 for premises situated on the southern side of Russell Street. Marks and Sons architects prepared plans and specifications for the renovation of the premises. The lowest tender, by HC Olsen for £260 and eight weeks, was accepted on 13 March 1906.
\nSeveral modifications of this office occurred, particularly in the 1920s. These included modifications to the office balcony, installation of iron bars on rear windows, the installation of a telephone, and later, plans were initiated to connect the office to the sewerage system. In 1928, no action was taken by the Society on the request from the City Electric and Radio Service to improve the lighting of the building and to install 'electric advertising'.
\nGiven the many modifications to the building, the Society began to consider moving to larger premises. In October 1929 the Board appointed a sub-committee to consider the question of new office premises and equipment. Failing to report by mid-1930, the sub-committee was urged to consider the alteration of the existing office to accommodate new equipment. In August it reported that no further alterations should be made, 'but that a suitable site be procured, and a building erected, that will meet the requirements of the Society for the next 25 years and that the foundation of the building be of sufficient strength to carry a two-storeyed building'. The matter, however, was not dealt with for some time while the Board was preoccupied with the requirements resulting from the Depression.
\nIn July 1932, the question of office accommodation was revived and the search for a site recommenced. Several possibilities were discussed including a site at the corner of Neil and Little Russell Streets. In June 1933, a new sub-committee comprising Director, HE Brown; an accountant, HJ Parsons and WR Smith, a builder-contractor, was given the brief of finding new premises or land within three weeks. On 20 July 1933, the sub-committee reported the purchase of the a property on the corner of Neil and Russell Streets from Mrs DE Campbell for £1500, including the existing dwelling valued at £300, which was sold at public auction in October. The Board ratified the purchase and engaged architect William Hodgen, a former Director, to draw up plans and estimates. On 18 October 1933, with Hodgen's estimate of £4390 and twenty-six weeks, was successful. Over the next few months there were several 'extras' brought before the Board, including sums for doors, steps and porch gates (£36); fanlights (£7-10-0) and a dwarf wall (£75). There was also the question of fences, lawns and cementing the driveway from the street to the garage.
\nThe new premises were ready for occupation in mid-October and the Society celebrated the move with a photograph and publicity piece in the Toowoomba Chronicle. The Board held its first meeting in the new Board Room on 18 October 1934.
\nBetween 1934-1979 the building served as the office and public symbol of the Toowoomba Permanent Building Society. Its corner position at the intersection of Neil and Russell Streets ensured that the building and its grounds were prominent in the streetscape. In August 1977, a special meeting of members authorised a change in name from the Toowoomba Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society to the Toowoomba Permanent Building Society. The Society moved to new premises in Ruthven Street in March 1979.
\nExtensions to the building were carried out in 1982, when the building was occupied by Cleary and Lee Solicitors. Extensions included placing a second entrance, a french door bordered by Doric pilasters, on the western side of the main entry. Part of the fence along Russell Street was demolished, following extensions to the building, to provide for a parking area.
\nWhen the Toowoomba Permanent Building Society vacated the premises in 1976 a time capsule was placed behind the plaque on the south wall of the plaza in the interior of the building, to be opened in 2026. The legal firm of Cleary and Lee Solicitors leased the building for a number of years from March 1980. Since this time the building has been used as office space by a number of occupants.
","criteria":"Designed in 1934 by William Hodgen, former Director of the Toowoomba Permanent Building Society and noted Toowoomba architect, the former Toowoomba Permanent Building Society, is significant as an example of a purpose-built commercial premise. The building is the last major work designed by Hodgen before his death in 1943, and served for many years as a public symbol of the Toowoomba Permanent Building Society.
|A good example of a typical monument of 1930s commercial enterprise, the former Toowoomba Permanent Building Society building is single story and austere building with classical Georgian elements. The fence and grounds of the building are significant as elements of the original concept portraying domesticity rather than a commercial enterprise.
|Located at the corner of Russell and Neil Streets, with its specifically designed low, brick and iron fence, the former Toowoomba Permanent Building Society building is significant for its contribution to the streetscape.
|This place is significant in relation to Criterion G.
|The former Toowoomba Permanent Building Society building is significant for its association with one of Toowoomba's oldest businesses and one of Queensland's longest-operating permanent building society's, and for its association with the members of the Society.
","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":15636,"place_ref":600861,"name":"Pigott's Building","alternate_name":"Piggott and Co | McDonnell and East | Pigotts","street_address":"381-391 Ruthven Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Pigott's Building is comprised of two connected buildings, an older two-storeyed structure which fronts onto Ruthven Street and a single storeyed brick building on Margaret Street. Rear entry to both buildings is via a carpark to the west accessed from Victoria Street. The Ruthven Street building, a large rectangle in plan of approximately 30m x 82m, is built to the site boundary on the street frontage and on the north and south alignments where it abuts the neighbouring buildings. The present structure is an agglomeration of the surviving parts of the first Pigotts Store built on the site and extensive additions and renovations carried out at various times.
The Ruthven Street building consists of two main storeys, a basement in the northeast corner and a smaller third storey at the rear. A predominantly masonry structure with parapet walls the building is roofed by a series of hipped corrugated iron or asbestos cement roofs with numerous skylights and sheet metal ventilators mounted along the ridges.
The symmetrical two-storeyed Ruthven Street facade retains the 1935 remodelling above the pavement awning. This painted and rendered masonry wall with stepped parapet and coloured leadlight windows features pilasters and mouldings embellished with floral and geometric patterns. The name of the store in plaster relief is positioned above a central arched window. Other first floor windows are rectangular sash windows with transom lights. Emblems ornamenting the facade advertise the Pigott's enterprise. The window glazing incorporates a decorative "P" for Pigotts insignia in a diagonal leaded pattern. The "P" also appears in the parapet and was
once flown from the facade's three flagpoles. The modernised ground floor of the facade has a wide central entry with plate glass shop windows on either side.
The oldest part of the building is the southeast corner facing Ruthven Street with subsequent extensions made to the west and the north. The ground floor of this southeast section has been extensively remodelled with most decorative features removed and original columns replaced by round steel columns. The first floor retains much of the 1910 interior including timber posts and an elaborate pressed metal ceiling. This coved ceiling is divided into three vaulted bays which run east to west. Each vault is roofed by a corrugated iron hip roof and illuminated by skylights with rolled corrugated iron roofs.
An area of a similar size to the west of the southeast section is independently roofed with similar triple hip roofs with box gutters and skylights. The first floor in this area has a boarded timber ceiling which rakes up around the skylights. A further area to the west retains, on the ground floor, the original columns and pressed metal ceiling in a wide variety of patterns and has a diagonal boarded ceiling on the first floor.
A 1935 extension to the north has been modified by the addition of a mezzanine to the ground floor and the removal of much of the previously external wall to create a more open plan. The two-storeyed extension has a corrugated asbestos cement hip roof and four hipped roofed skylights. Plaster ceilings with art deco cornices are raked up around the skylights on the first floor.
A 1956 extension to the rear of the 1935 extension incorporates a basement floor and roof level. A concrete staircase with a metal balustrade that connects the four floors is lit via a recessed window wall. The building is serviced by two lifts, one on the north wall adjacent to the stair and one on the southern wall, and two centrally located escalators. A distinctive curved desk providing complex storage facilities is located at the front of the General Office on the first floor.
A two-storeyed brick addition to the northwest corner contains toilets and a staircase and connects the Ruthven Street building to the Margaret Street building.
","history":"This two storeyed brick store was erected in several stages, the first in 1909-10, for MD Pigott, a successful Toowoomba draper.
The first Pigott's store was established by Michael Daniel Pigott at South Brisbane in 1886 and was run in partnership with TC Beirne. After the dissolution of the partnership, the two Irishmen opened rival drapery stores in Fortitude Valley. In 1896, Pigott opened a branch store in Russell Street, Toowoomba, which, after the sale of the Valley store to James McWhirter, in 1898, became his principal store. Branches were also opened at Warwick and other Darling Downs towns.
In 1902, Pigott and Co moved to rented premises on the present Ruthven Street site and extensive alterations and additions costing some £2,000 were carried out by local architects J Marks and Son in 1908. Following the fire on 8 July 1909, which substantially destroyed the two storeyed building, Pigott's was rebuilt with double the floor space and the Ruthven Street facade reinstated. The works, again carried out by J Marks and Son, included two light wells sited beneath roof skylights at the back and front of the store as well as roof ventilators patented by Harry Marks.
The site was purchased by Pigott and Co in 1914 and extensive additions by J Marks and Son were commenced. Three floors, connected by electric elevator, were added by contractor A Mayes to the southern side of the building enabling, on the ground floor, the extension of the manchester and dress departments, general office, and mail order department. The first floor contained the furniture department and tailoring and dress making work rooms; the smaller second floor was used as a bulk store room. A pneumatic cash cashier system, reputedly the first in Australia, and a complete sanitary system were installed.
In 1934 Pigott's acquired the adjoining block of land on Ruthven Street housing the Queen's Hotel. Part of the land was sold and on the remaining frontage to Ruthven Street was erected a two story addition with a new facade unifying the new work with the 1910/1914 building. The work was completed in 1936 at a cost of £16,000 included the installation of island windows and a Lamson pneumatic tube cash service. Architects were Brisbane firm, Hall and Phillips prominent in department store design in the 1920s and 1930s and builders, Kell and Rigby.
By the 1950's the family business had become Toowoomba's largest retail store. Country clients remained a major part of the store's business with regular mail order catalogues published until this time. In 1950, interior remodelling was carried out and in 1956, Pigott's diamond jubilee year, a four storey extension costing some £100,000 was added to the rear of the building, allowing the department store to expand into new areas of merchandising.
In the 1960's, as part of a strategy to compete with changes in local retailing, Pigott's purchased the former Gordon Motors site, and later the adjoining Palmer's Garage, enabling the store to not only expand into other activities, such as the sale of foodstuffs and the opening of a coffee lounge but also giving access to Margaret Street, becoming Toowoomba's first three street store.
The store was leased in 1983 to McDonnell and East, who vacated it in 1990. The property was sold by Pigott and Co Pty Ltd in 1988.
","criteria":"Pigott's Building, Toowoomba, constructed in a number of stages between 1910 and 1956, is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, with the growth of the store reflecting the development of Toowoomba as a major commercial centre.
|As a surviving example of an early 20th century department store interior with intact lighting and ventilation systems, it demonstrates a rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a developing department store, in particular: the 1910, 1914, 1935 and 1956 fabric demonstrates changes in retail practice from compartmentalised department store to open plan trading; and the facade is an example in both the detailed ornament and overall image of the 1930s strategy of the department store facade as advertising emblem. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the commercial work of Toowoomba architects James Marks & Son and of Brisbane architects Hall and Phillips.
|The place has a strong and special association with Toowoomba and the Darling Downs, with Pigott and Co servicing both the town and country communities, via the mail order service.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15637,"place_ref":600862,"name":"Karingal Chambers","alternate_name":"Rowbotham Chambers | Krimmers Chambers","street_address":"386-388 Ruthven Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-04-28","description":"Karingal Chambers is a two-storeyed rendered masonry building with a pitched corrugated iron roof which occupies a corner site bound by Ruthven Street, Bell Street Mall and Bank Lane. The Ruthven Street facade is parapeted, and decorated with classical elements. The building has a long rectangular C-shaped plan running east-west, which wraps around a centrally located service core of toilets, corridor and stairs. A passageway bisecting the eastern end of the building links to the adjacent Karingal Arcade, and gives access to the service core. The ground floor has been extensively refurbished (circa 1987), and contains six shops. The upper floor contains offices, workshop and storage areas. Changes in brickwork, roofline, lintels and internal linings suggest that the building was built in three stages extending to the east.
The western end of the upper floor consists of a series of offices (some now used for storage) surrounding a large central storage area which are lined with thin VJ timbers, fine picture rails and timber trims forming panels. The rooms overlooking Ruthven Street have arched timber-framed windows with coloured glass in gridded panes to the upper lights, except the centre room which sits behind a recess in the facade which has new aluminium windows. An office overlooking Bell Street Mall has a triangular shaped bay window which also has coloured glass in gridded panes.
The central storage area has a substantial skylight with clerestory lighting, and a smaller, chimney-like skylight. These skylights appear to be unrelated to the organisation of the rooms below them, suggesting that the timber walls are part of an early twentieth century refurbishment. Two larger workrooms extending further to the east are lined with sheeting and coverstrips, and a large workroom to the rear appears to have been refitted circa 1970s.
The elevation to Ruthven St is a symmetrical composition with a central trabeated alcove flanked by tall windows and pilasters, and spanned by a pediment set in a parapet with a balustrade. The pediment has a cornice with dentils, and a ribbon in relief, framing a badge with "1913" on it. The columns and pilasters have corinthian capitals, and meet a substantial cornice decorated with square and rectangular motifs, which is inscribed with the words "Karingal Chambers". The four central windows are arched, with exaggerated voussoirs, while the two outermost windows are surmounted with small pediments.
The Bell Street Mall elevation is divided into three by changes in the detailing, brickwork and roofline. The western end has arched doorways with keystones to its base, and flat arched windows with exaggerated voussoirs either side of the triangular bay window above. The rest of the facade has more modest flat arched windows.
The building contains some fine interior features, in particular the windows and VJ linings and panels to the western end of the building. The Ruthven Street frontage contributes to streetscape in scale and detail as one of a series of decorative early twentieth century facades on Toowoomba's main street.
","history":"Karingal Chambers is a two storeyed rendered masonry building erected c1913 on the corner of Ruthven and Bell Streets for Charles Rowbotham. It is attributed to Toowoomba architects, James Marks and Sons.
Rowbotham was a business man, whose family manufactured and imported all classes of shoes. For some years he was a Toowoomba councillor and was Mayor from 1901-02. He acquired the Ruthven Street site, on which a building apparently already existed, in 1906 and mortgaged the property to the Bank of New South Wales for £5,000. The first recording of the name, Rowbotham Chambers, occurs in 1910, however according to the facade the date of the building is 1913. It is believed that Harry Marks, who used the distinctive triangular bay window on his own home erected in 1906, St Rest (now known as Gladstone House), was responsible for the design of the building. Additions along Bell Street may have been added after 1913.
The ground floor contained shops whose tenants included the Frankfort Sausage Co and baker and confectioner, David Webster and later Toowoomba confectioners, caterers, and pastrycooks, TK Lamb and Co Ltd, who operated tea rooms there. The first floor contained offices, including for a number of years, dressmaker, Miss E Rynne and dancing and physical culture teacher, Miss C Marson.
In 1925, the property was acquired by William Charles Krimmer and the building became known as Krimmer's Chambers. It remained in the Krimmer family until 1974, when it was transferred to members of the Sklavos family and later to Western Properties Pty Ltd. In c1987, alterations were undertaken which involved work to the ground floor of Karingal Chambers so as to form an arcade with the adjoining property, which became known as Karingal Arcade. In 1991 the property was acquired by the current owners. The ground floor is leased to a number of shops owners and the upper floor to a women's clothing manufacturer.
","criteria":"The place is one of a number of buildings, including Pigotts [600861] and White Horse Hotel [600863)] contributing to the streetscape of Ruthven Street and demonstrating the development and continuing importance of Ruthven Street.
|Karingal Chambers in Toowoomba is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the contribution in scale and detail of the Ruthven Street frontage to the streetscape; and the interior which contains some fine decorative elements, including the windows and VJ linings and panels to the western end of the building.
In addition, Karingal Chambers forms an important townscape element of the Bell Street Mall.
|It is an example of the eclectic range of the commercial work of Toowoomba architects, James Marks and Sons.
","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":15638,"place_ref":600863,"name":"White Horse Hotel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"456 Ruthven Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-12-17","description":"The White Horse Hotel is a double storeyed parapeted brick building with a street facade which is richly decorated with white cement render trim. It is comprised of two wings which form a T shape; a north-south running wing which fronts onto Ruthven Street, with an adjoining east-west wing extending to the rear. The roof is corrugated iron, made up of a combination of gabled and hipped roofs, with pot-bellied shaped ornamental chimneys and ventilators. The ground floor has been extensively refurbished (c1988) and contains two shops either side of a central entrance, a shop to the rear, and a now disused annex in the south east corner. The upper floor contains now mostly unused hotel rooms and offices.
On the ground floor, a central entrance passage leads to an entrance hall containing a finely turned and carved silky oak staircase. Both the passage and the entrance hall have pressed metal ceilings, and the stair soffit is decorated with a pressed metal panel. The shop at the rear contains a carved timber fireplace, and to its southwest corner, a room with a large fireplace recess and a pressed metal ceiling.
The stairs lead to a generous foyer on the upper floor which links the two wings of rooms, and has pressed metal ceilings. Arched timber double doors to the south of the foyer lead to a corridor with a delicately patterned plaster ceiling. The corridor gives access to small rooms, each with similar ceilings to the corridor, and metal ceiling roses.
The northern wing contains substantially larger rooms accessed by an east-west corridor which also has delicate decorative plaster detailing. The doorways to the corridors are framed in rendered masonry with cement scrolls. The rooms to the north retain their fine plaster decoration and metal ceiling roses, and are well lit with rectangular casement windows with square fixed-light timber windows above them. The southern rooms retain none of these features. The south and northern rooms are linked by a small entry hall with timber french doors opening onto a balconette, and square timber windows above.
The white cement render elements to the facade form a rich tracery over the brickwork. Pilasters rise above the street awnings, finishing in small arches over square windows. These are spanned in groups of three by larger arches bisected with finial-like pilasters. Central paired windows are surmounted by a curved pediment which also has a finial-like projection, and the words "White Horse 1912" inscribed upon it. The white render pattern is elaborated with curls, scrolls and floral motifs, and the parapet is decorated with varied acroteria. The facade makes a picturesque aesthetic contribution to Ruthven Street.
","history":"The White Horse Hotel is a two storeyed brick building on Toowoomba's main street, Ruthven Street. It was erected in several phases with major alterations c1912, including a new facade and internal refurbishing, attributed to Toowoomba architects, James Marks and Sons.
A hotel known as the White Horse Hotel is known to have existed on the site since 1866 when it was operated by Daniel Donovan. It was a two storeyed brick building with verandahs to Ruthven Street. In 1873, the property was acquired by Toowoomba storekeeper James Tant. After Tant's death, the hotel passed to his family and was operated by a number of licensees. In 1878, Louis Phillips is reported as running the White Horse Hotel, described as a well known and centrally located Hostelry with commercial rooms fitted with every convenience. Later licensees included John Long, who later built the Imperial Hotel, Daniel Schultz, and Edward Brosnan. In 1897, works costing £200 were undertaken by Toowoomba architect, William Hodgen and in 1906, tenders were called by James Marks and Son for improvements to the hotel.
The c1912 work is thought to be that of Reginald Marks, who from 1910-1917 worked with his father, James and brother, Harry. Reginald Marks is believed to have been responsible for the Taylor Building and Gaydon's Building in Toowoomba. Marks's building had a deep covered verandah which ran the length of the Ruthven Street elevation. Similar to the facade, it was ornately detailed. In common with many other Marks buildings it used ventilators designed by Harry Marks. Other substantial alterations to an earlier building appear to have been undertaken contemporaneously with the facade. Differences in ceiling treatments, some windows, chimneys, and detailing suggest that both wings of the hotel were remodelled at this time.
In 1914, the hotel was leased to William Hart, who advertised the hotel as the most central and comfortable hotel in the Queen City of Queensland with hot and cold baths and first class cuisine. In 1925, the hotel was acquired by John Donaghue. From 1924-1930 the hotel was leased to Albert George Callaghan. After Donaghue's death in 1930, the pub was run by his family.
By 1978, the verandah overlooking Ruthven Street had been removed and an awning was in place. About this time an extra ground floor room was created by enclosing the space between the Ruthven Street wing and the kitchen wing onto the rear lane, Jessie Street. In 1986, the hotel was closed. Extensive work was undertaken by the new owners to turn the pub into office and retail facilities. Work included the building of shops at ground level. The current owners acquired the property in 1988. Two ground floor shops fronting Ruthven Street are leased as clothing stores, whilst the rear kitchen area is used as a hairdressing salon.
","criteria":"There has been a White Horse Hotel on this site since 1866, and the place is significant historically for its association with the growth of Toowoomba as a regional rural centre since that time.
|It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an early 20th century hotel, in particular the flamboyant facade and interior elements such as the main stair, pressed metal ceilings, doorways, and fanlights.
|It is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular the rich decorative detail of the facade makes a picturesque contribution to Ruthven Street; it also contains some fine decorative elements, in particular the pressed metal and plaster ceilings and silky oak staircase.
|It has a special association with the work of Toowoomba architects James Marks and Sons, as a good example of their commercial work.
","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":15639,"place_ref":600864,"name":"Tyson Manor","alternate_name":"Strathmore | Craig Furth | Downlands College","street_address":"64 Ruthven Street","suburb":"HARLAXTON","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"Tyson Manor is a two-storey bluestone and polychrome brick building, located within the grounds of Downlands College.
\nThe building footprint comprises a square core (c1880 ground floor, 1905 first floor), with a two-storey wing (1905) to the east. The external walls of the original ground floor are bluestone, with sandstone quoining (painted). The first floor and wing extension are dark-brown, glazed, English bond face-brick, with contrasting brick quoining. The exterior stone and brickwork has tuck pointing and displays quoining to all corners of the building, around all windows and doors. A brickwork bay, with double-hung sash windows, protrudes from the ground floor on the north elevation.
\nThe house has open verandahs on three sides. Verandahs on both levels are supported by slender columns with cast iron brackets, frieze and valance. The upper level verandah has a cast iron balustrade; with a timber boarded valance below. Former verandahs to the rear of the house are enclosed, clad with chamferboard and featuring timber framed casement windows. The corrugated metal clad roof is a complex design, with a single gable protruding from a simple pyramidal core on the western side, and a gable to the eastern extension. Four dark-brown brick chimneys, with contrasting quoining and terracotta chimney pots, are visible from the ground.
\nThe front elevation is symmetrically composed, with the exception of the protruding gable and associated first floor fenestration at the northern end. The main entrance is centred and accentuated by a protruding bay. The panelled front door is surrounded by a quoined arch, with decorative panes of leadlight to the arched fanlight and sidelights. Windows are double-hung sashes, with six-panes to the upper sashes on the first floor.
\nInternally, much of the joinery and fittings dating from the alteration of the house in the early 20th century, are still evident. The entrance foyer displays coloured encaustic tiles on the floor and has a large timber staircase on the northern side with two flights accessing the first floor. The ground floor foyer leads onto a central hallway with timber doors accessing entertaining rooms on either side. The door from the rear of the ground floor hall leads to an enclosed space (former verandah) between the house and the attached school building to the rear. A staircase in the enclosed space provides access to the cellar below. The first floor is arranged with rooms off the central hallway, with a central door accessing the front verandah.
\nGround floor rooms retain decorative pressed metal ceilings, and pressed metal dados feature in both the ground and first floor hallways. Fireplace surrounds vary, with decorative timber mantles to the ground floor and simple timber mantles to the first floor. The ground floor room to the rear of the 1905 extension has a tongue-and-groove lined ceiling, and retains evidence of a wide opening (possibly a fireplace) with carved timber surround.
\nFeatures not of significance in relation to the Tyson Manor building include: extensions attached to the south and east elevations (Hyland Wing and Jubilee House); clotheslines; metal antennae; recent pavers to footpaths, driveway and southeast yard; recent signs; and recent landscaping (hedges and shrubs).
","history":"Tyson Manor is a substantial stone and brick residence, constructed in phases between c1880 and 1905. Now standing within the grounds of Downlands College, Tyson Manor retains its grand appearance, a testament to the prosperity and optimism surrounding the late 19th century development of Toowoomba as a regional centre.
\nEuropean settlement of the Toowoomba area commenced in 1840 when squatters first occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. Near the boundaries of Westbrook, Gowrie and Eton Vale runs and at the junction of two routes to Gorman's and Hodgson's gaps through the Main Range, the small settlement of Drayton (originally known as ‘The Springs') evolved from 1842 as a stopping place servicing pastoralists and travellers. From the late 1840s, the Drayton Swamp Agricultural Area (‘The Swamp'), six kilometres to the north-east, began to be considered a more desirable location for settlement. Better land for market gardening, improved water supply, the support of squatters and land speculators, and, from 1855, a better route to Brisbane (The Toll Road), were all advantages over Drayton.[1]
\nThe name ‘Toowoomba' had gradually taken over from ‘The Swamp' by 1857 and the settlement continued to expand. At the time of its incorporation into a municipality in November 1860, Toowoomba was on the way to supplanting Drayton as the principal service centre for the upper Darling Downs. Prior to 1859, Toowoomba's population was around 1500. Five years later this figure had doubled. The rapid economic and social development of Toowoomba in the 1860s was influenced by local residents who strongly promoted the prospects of the town, and political representatives who successfully lobbied for government funding for civic improvements.[2] In July 1865 the first section of railway line in Queensland was opened from Brisbane to Ipswich and by April 1867 the line reached Toowoomba, securing the town's future development and making it the hub for the Southern and Western railways.
\nDuring the 1870s Toowoomba consolidated its status as the main urban centre of the Darling Downs. The economy diversified to include numerous small-scale manufacturing outlets, while the majority of administrative, service and other government and education functions for the surrounding region were centred on the town. Toowoomba's progress was reflected in improvements to the physical environment. Important capital works were commenced or completed including the draining of the swamps, improved water supply, gasworks for lighting, extensive tree plantings and the initial development of Queen's Park.
\nAs Toowoomba developed as the leading centre of the Darling Downs and surrounding areas, its prosperity was translated into impressive commercial, civic and residential structures. A new town hall, befitting Toowoomba’s improved status, was designed by Sydney architect, Albert Myers, and opened in 1880.[3] During the late 1880s and early 1890s, the residential area of Toowoomba was rapidly expanding, with large holdings in the smaller surrounding shires subdivided for residential allotments.[4]
\nTyson Manor was erected c1880 as a single storey residence by local builder Richard Godsall. The residence was reportedly built for the Mattinsons.[5] John William Mattinson was a merchant and commission agent in early Toowoomba, and his wife Elizabeth Mattinson (nee McIntyre)[6] was the sister of Lady Nelson, the wife of Sir Hugh Muir Nelson, owners of Gabbinbar [600840]. However, ownership of the original residence is unclear as the Certificate of Title for the land on which the house was built (current Lot 1 on RP17507) was in the name of Mary Meldon, wife of Joseph Meldon, from 1868 until a Trust was established over the property in June 1878, with Hugh Muir Nelson and Joseph Sharp McIntyre as trustees.[7] The land directly to the south was also in the Meldon’s name, until Nelson and McIntyre became trustees in July 1879[8]. In September 1879, the Trustees borrowed 1,000 pounds against both lots, possibly to fund the construction of the single storey residence.[9]
\nThe second owner of Tyson Manor was William Sly, a pastoralist from the Burnett District who purchased the property in 1882. Sly also purchased the adjacent lot to the north in 1883[10].
\nThe property was known as ‘Strathmore’ until 1902, when John Tyson Doneley purchased the house and 40 acres of land from the Slys and renamed it ‘Tyson Manor’. Tyson Doneley, according to French and Waterson in Darling Downs: A Pictorial History, had the Beauaraba Hotel built, around which a farmers’ service township grew in the 1880s.[11] Beauaraba was later to become known as Pittsworth. Tyson Doneley was a near relative of the millionaire pastoralist James Tyson. James Tyson was born on April 11th, 1823, and with other graziers who Duncan Waterson in Squatter, Selector and Storekeeper, describes as “big men”, Tyson dominated the Darling Downs’ great export industries, such as sheep and cattle.[12] In 1905, Tyson Doneley built a second storey of brick to add to the bluestone portion, and a brick wing was built at the rear of the house, providing more accommodation for the family and for the entertainment of guests. The second storey was designed by William Hodgen and built by J. France at a cost of 2,378 pounds.[13]
\nThe son of a building contractor, William Hodgen Jnr became a cadet in the Colonial Architect's Office in 1886. In 1891, he resigned and travelled to London to broaden his experience. He enrolled at the Architectural Association and worked for a variety of architects in London, becoming an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1895. He returned to Queensland in December 1896 and established his Toowoomba practice with an advertisement in the Darling Downs Gazette of 6 February 1897, announcing himself as a new Toowoomba architect.[14] Hodgen’s initial achievements include a major commission for Brisbane retailer, T.C. Beirne, and winning the competition to design a new wing of the Toowoomba Hospital in 1898.[15] Growth and development in both Toowoomba and the Downs and his own efficient work meant he soon had a busy and successful practice.
\nWhilst trained in Queensland, his London experiences and knowledge of the Arts and Crafts movement and Edwardian Classicism were expressed in some of his buildings. He tended to employ a ‘free’ style, modifying the prevailing Queensland vernacular by introducing individualist elements.[16] Hodgen’s architectural career spanned 46 years and he designed a large number of buildings varying from small cottages to more substantial residences, sporting facilities, halls and large complex hotels in Toowoomba and on the Darling Downs.[17] Notable designs include: Kensington for George Pitlow Merry [QHR 601322]; the third Toowoomba City Hall [QHR 600865]; the Toowoomba Permanent Building Society [QHR 600859]; Tor [QHR 601325]; Wislet [QHR 601324]; and the Hotel Corones [QHR 601282]. Remaining in practice with his sons until his death in 1943, he was the founder of an architectural dynasty.
\nThe Tyson-Doneley family was one of Hodgen’s major clients; engaging him as architect for a total of eight new works, and nine alterations and additions.[18] Hodgen documented approximately 335 residential works[19] and Tyson Manor was one of his most substantial residential commissions. Other extensions to Tyson Manor designed by William Hodgen included a meat house, constructed by R. Hodgen in 1903 for a cost of £55.[20] A bush-house was formed as was an extensive water scheme.[21] Both of these structures no longer exist on the site.
\nTyson Manor was the centre for many social gatherings. As a home to the Tyson Doneleys for 19 years, Tyson Manor ‘continued to be the most popular and hospitable rendezvous for the elite of Toowoomba and the Darling Downs, and many notable guests were entertained there, among them being Lord Northcote and Earl Dudley, during their terms as Governors-General of Australia’.[22] Tyson Doneley, described as an outstanding figure, a good Catholic and esteemed citizen, died in 1915.[23]
\nFollowing the death of her husband, Mrs Tyson Doneley assumed the responsibility of running the manor estate, along with the role of general manager of pastoral properties Devon Park, Yarrandine, Goondoola, Fairy Mount and Boondandilla.[24]
\nIn 1921, Dr Alexander Horn acquired the property from the Tyson-Doneleys and named it ‘Craig Furth’. Horn donated 30 acres of the property for a public park, and sold other portions of it with large acreage remaining.[25] The Corporation of the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart purchased the property in 1930 for the purpose of establishing a college. Tyson Manor was occupied by Fr. Hyland, Fr. Smith and Br. South in September 1930, and the school was made ready for the arrival of the first students in 1931 by the addition of a large wooden dormitory (the old maternity wing of the Toowoomba General Hospital) relocated behind the main building and the construction of a modest chapel alongside.[26]
\nDuring WWII, Toowoomba became a military town and the Downlands College was utilised as a military hospital, accommodating the 117th General Hospital, Australian Medical Corps, between 1942 and 1943.[27]
\nExtensions to Tyson Manor have been constructed to the east (rear) and south of the building. These extensions are connected with the use of the site as a secondary college and include the Hyland Wing (1934), comprising a dining room on the ground floor and a multi-purpose open-plan space on the top floor. Also connected to Tyson Manor is Jubilee House (c1981), a single storey accommodation wing for members of the religious community.
\nIn 2018, the ground floor of Tyson Manor is utilised as a meeting space for Downlands College, and the first floor is a residence for members of the religious community.
","criteria":"Tyson Manor, constructed in phases between c1880 and 1905, is representative of the pattern of affluent settlement which occurred in Toowoomba in the late 19th/early 20th century, demonstrating the transition of the Darling Downs from a sparsely populated rural district to one of prosperity and prominence. It is one of the many fine residences which reflect Toowoomba’s growth and development as a major regional centre in Queensland.
|In its form, fabric and layout, Tyson Manor is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a fine residence from the late 19th/early 20th century. An important intact example of the residential work of architect William Hodgen, it comprises a substantial building of quality design and materials, with entrance foyer and ground floor entertaining rooms.
|Tyson Manor is of aesthetic significance for its highly intact picturesque architectural qualities. The substantial brick and stone residence has considerable architectural value as a building of well-composed features and high-quality materials, detailing and finishes, both internally and externally.
|Tyson Manor has a special association with former owner John Tyson Doneley, who is connected with the establishment of Pittsworth (formerly Beauaraba), and who was responsible for the additions to the house and its role as a centre of social activity.
\nTyson Manor is associated with the work of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, who purchased the property in 1930 for the purpose of founding a college. It was the original building in what is now a large school complex and continues to provide accommodation for members of the religious community.
","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":15640,"place_ref":600865,"name":"Toowoomba City Hall","alternate_name":"Toowoomba Town Hall","street_address":"541 Ruthven Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Toowoomba City Hall, a two-storeyed masonry building with a central, square tower and corrugated iron gabled roof to the rear, is located in the centre of Toowoomba fronting Ruthven Street to the east. The Hall has tuck-pointed masonry with rendered classical detailing. The roof of the front facade is concealed behind a facebrick parapet with decorative rendered accents to the skyline.
The form of the 1900 Hall is still reasonably intact with meeting rooms situated at the front of the building and the auditorium at the rear. Renovations and alterations, predominantly to the theatre, were undertaken in 1937, part of the northern elevation was also infilled at this time. In 1972-3, further refurbishment to the theatre was completed. In 1995, a link between the Hall and the adjoining Commonwealth Offices was constructed.
The Ruthven Street section has a symmetrical, ornately decorated facade with classical detailing to the street, consisting of a wide, projecting, central bay with narrower bays to either side. The building is framed by curvilinear gables at the northern and southern ends of the parapet.
The ground floor has three arches to the central section, with rendered, rusticated columns and squared Corinthian pilaster decoration. The central arches open to an entrance portico accessed via wide steps.
The first floor is composed similarly, with three central arches with decorative motif to the centre of the arch and a crowning triangular pediment. The central arch is flanked by paired circular Corinthian pilasters with square Corinthian pilasters at the corner of the projecting bay.
The clock tower, with extant clock faces, is square in plan, with square Doric pilasters at each corner. The tower has arched mouldings surrounding each clock face. The top portion of the clock tower is painted brown and the bottom portion is cream. Square ventilation openings are situated on each side at the bottom of the tower, and grouped, arched ventilation openings are situated at the top. The tower is topped by a balustraded parapet.
Bays on the ground level on either side of the central entrance have sash windows surrounded by rendered architraves. Ramp access is situated at the southern end of the front facade. The bays to either side of the first floor balcony have oriel windows with decorative mouldings. The oriel windows are framed by rendered, squared Corinthian pilasters. Windows flanking the central arches are surrounded by rendered architraves with a centred decorative moulded motif.
Tuck pointed brickwork continues along the eastern end of the northern elevation. Both the ground and first floors have two double hung sash windows and a single, narrower window along the eastern end of the facade. The infill undertaken during the 1930s refurbishment is evident along the facade. The staircase at the western end of the facade, originally external, has been infilled and roofed in corrugated iron. As part of the 1970s refurbishment, arches along the western end of the elevation were infilled and replaced with windows and doors.
The rear of the hall, the western elevation, has a corrugated iron gabled roof with ridge ventilators. A steel fire stair has been added to the northern end of the facade. Door and window openings which have been infilled are evident along the entire facade. Access to the rear of the building is via three doors associated with the fire exit and via a doorway in a square, brick extension, built during the refurbishments in the 1970s, at the southern end of the building. The face brickwork facade is divided by piers at regular intervals.
The front entrance, paired, panelled timber doors in a moulded, arched entrance, with fanlight assembly, opens to a central lobby. The paired, glass doors in the foyer have timber panels at their base and open to a foyer with an arched hall. The turning timber staircase, in its original position and adapted with stainless steel handrails to conform to regulation heights, leads to the first level. The square-based turned newels are topped by a moulded capital. The shafts have decorative, circular, moulded motifs at the top, the remainder is chamfered with recessed moulded detail.
Internally on the first floor, offices flank the central foyer opening off corridors running north and south. From the foyer, the offices are accessed via paired timber doors in arched entrances. The reception area, to the north of the foyer, (which is also accessed via a door in the lobby), includes a strong room which formed part of the original design of the building. The rooms are simple in design and decoration and are connected via two separate, panelled, timber doors with architraves. One doorway is topped by a single-pane fanlight. The rooms have a plastered cornices and a back to back fireplace with timber surrounds and mantle.
To the south of the foyer, the rooms are similar to those situated to the north, comprising simplicity in design and detail. The one exception is the largest meeting room on the ground floor, which is the original council chambers. The ornate plastered ceiling is decorated with moulded panels and a ceiling rose. The timber fireplace, with timber panels in the lintel, has a tiled register grate and decorative timber consoles.
Internally, the second floor has a reception area created by the addition of free standing walls. Large, paired, panelled timber doors with fanlights, open, on the eastern side to the a large function room, and, on the western side, into the bar area. The rooms on the eastern side of the floor open off a corridor.
The large function room, which can be closed off via a timber partition, has a fireplace located at southern end of the room and three french doors opening onto the first floor balcony. The room has a skylight with clerestory windows. The skylight is lined with timber panels and has a circular ventilated opening, with decorative fretwork. The ornate plaster ceiling is decorated with panels and a ceiling rose.
Other meeting rooms on the first floor are similar to those on the ground floor with plaster cornice detail and timber architraves. The Mayor's office is located at the southern end of the floor. A bay window faces the east and a timber fireplace is located along the southern end of the wall. The plaster ceiling has moulded designs around the light fittings. The adjoining office has a timber ceiling with a plaster ceiling rose, surrounded by a ventilation grate.
The auditorium is lined with non-original timber panelling. The seats are tiered and are covered in non-original black upholstery. Fire exits are located along the western wall. Other doorways are located in the northern wall and the eastern wall. The door in the eastern wall leads to a staircase to the ground floor lobby area.
Internally, in the area that was infilled in the 1930s, toilets are located along the northern end of the ground floor. A small corridor leads to the pre-function room which joins the auditorium foyer via a folding partition. On the first floor, on the western side of the building, also part of the 1930s infill, is a large meeting room.. The room has three regularly spaced ceiling panels comprising glass sections with fluorescent lighting behind the panels. A similar ceiling panel is situated in reception area on the first floor.
Internally, to the rear of the ground floor, a second turning timber staircase, part of the 1970s refurbishment, leads to the auditorium. A set of swing doors, also part of the 1970s renovations, lead to the auditorium foyer. Openings to the southern side of the section lead to a lift lobby and out to the covered courtyard.
On the first floor, located on the western side of the floor is the function area including a bar and kitchenette. Amenities blocks are located along the western side of the link. A lift is also located along the western side of the wall. This section of the floor leads through to the glazed, steel-framed link to the Commonwealth Offices on the adjoining block. The link is constructed over a courtyard.
The Hall has a fence at the front of the building with non-original cast iron railings and original moulded concrete pillars. The rear of the site has a bitumen surfaced carpark.
","history":"Toowoomba City Hall, the city's third town hall, was built in 1900 to a design by Willoughby Powell on the site of the School of Arts. When first constructed, City Hall incorporated municipal offices and council chambers, rooms for a school of arts, a technical college and public hall.
A settlement was established on the present site of Drayton in 1842, and a mail service commenced in December 1845. A survey of Drayton in 1850, the third to be carried out, followed a severe drought at the end of the 1840s which taxed Drayton's water supply. This shortage prompted many residents to consider moving to the Drayton Swamp Agricultural Area (The Swamp), where water was plentiful.
In 1853 a survey of the swamp area was carried out and land sales took place in November in the same year. The Swamp was subsequently named Toowoomba in 1858. On June 30 1860, a petition by Toowoomba residents seeking incorporation as a municipality was successful and proclamation occurred on 24 November 1860. Local government was established in November 1860, and elections were held in January 1861. One of the first projects undertaken was the construction of a town hall. Built in James Street, the simple timber structure was completed in January 1862.
In July 1865 the first section on railway line in Queensland was opened to Ipswich and by April 1867 the line reached Toowoomba, securing the town's future development. The 1860s saw the rapid expansion of Toowoomba with the founding of the Toowoomba Chronicle; the establishment of the first banking business, the construction of a gaol, the opening of the School of Arts and a Court House. The 1870s witnessed the opening of the Toowoomba Grammar School, the commencement of the foundry, the draining of the swamps and the commencement of waterworks. In 1887 Toowoomba was proclaimed a town.
As Toowoomba developed as the leading centre of the Darling Downs and surrounding areas, the prosperity was translated into impressive commercial and residential structures. The Council decided a new town hall was necessary and the first town hall was demolished and the new building, designed by Sydney architect Albert Myers, opened in 1880. The land on which the second town hall was built was later sold to the State Government who built the South Toowoomba Boys' School on the site in 1906.
When the second town hall was constructed, the form of Toowoomba as a town had not been firmly established, in particular the town centre was not well defined. Commercial activities tended to focus on the lower end of Russell Street, near the railway station, while government activities centred on the courthouse in Margaret Street, north-east of the town hall. By the 1890s it was evident that neither government or commercial activities were interested in moving. As a result of the increasing isolation of the town hall from the commercial centre, the Council began examining the feasibility of building another town hall in a more central location. A major problem was the acquisition of a suitable block of land, which, by this stage, would have meant considerable expense for the Council. A proposal that a new hall be built on the site of the School of Arts in Ruthven Street, a site acquired by the Toowoomba Council in 1887, was rejected on the basis that such an action would involve building a new School of Arts.
Later, however, when the School of Arts building was badly damaged by a fire on 21 June 1898, the proposal to build a new town hall on the site was again raised in a Council meeting and the motion was approved.
Prior to acquiring the site in Ruthven Street, the Council proceeded with a competition, with a prize of 30 guineas, for the design of a new town hall. Following approval to build a hall, a sub-committee examined the entries and recommended that William Hodgen be awarded first prize. However, Toowoomba Municipal Council Minutes from 3 October 1898 report that the recommendation was rejected. A new competition, with a prize of 25 guineas, was announced. Five entries were received and first prize was awarded to Willoughby Powell for his design entitled 'Sincerity'.
Willoughby Powell was born c1848 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England and died in Queensland in 1920. Powell emigrated to Australia in 1872 and worked for Brisbane architect Richard Gailey before joining the Queensland Public Works Department as a draftsman in 1874. From 1875 to 1877 he maintained a busy practice in Toowoomba, later claiming to have erected 'the majority of the principal buildings' there and in the surrounding district. Powell was eventually appointed to the permanent staff of the Works Department in 1899. Powell had to give up supervision of the construction of the Hall to Toowoomba architects, James Marks and Son, to receive his permanent appointment. Some of Powell's designs in the Toowoomba area include Toowoomba Grammar School [600850] and master's residence in 1875; Jewish Synagogue, corner Herries and Neil Streets (1875-76); Gabbinbar [600840] for Rev. William Lambie Nelson (1876) and additions to Clifford House [600857] for the Hon. James Taylor in c1877 and the Warwick Town Hall [600961]. In its exterior form, Toowoomba City Hall is similar to the smaller and less elaborately decorated Warwick Town Hall, built of sandstone in the late 1880s.
Alexander Mayne's tender of £6440 was accepted on 22 November 1899, and on 20 February 1900, the Foundation Stone was laid by His Excellency Lieutenant-Governor Sir Samuel Griffiths. Officially opened by the Mayor of Toowoomba, Alderman Matthew Keefe, on December 12, 1900, City Hall was originally divided into three parts.
The School of Arts and Technical College on the first floor included class rooms and Committee Room at the southern end, a large Reading Room opening out to the first floor balcony and a Ladies' Reading Room and another class room at the northern end. A corridor led to another classroom and the Library located towards the western side on the first floor. The Public Hall or Theatre was at the western end of the building. There were a number of entrances to the Gallery including a ground floor Lobby and staircase on the northern wall of the building.
Contemporary publications describe the Hall as 'a spacious hall ten feet in width, and running right through to the theatre...on the ground floor are the municipal offices, those on the right being occupied by the Town Clerk and the Mayor. On the left hand side...comes the Rate Collector's Office and another for the Town Engineer....the Municipal Chamber...in finish and appointments...is very fine...The ceiling is particularly artistic, being stamped metal and picked out in soft and suitable colours'.
'Ascending the grand staircase...here [upper storey] are located the suite of rooms for the School of Arts and Technical College...Four rooms are provided for Technical College purposes, one being a particularly large classroom...the theatre [at the western end of the building]...carries 231 reserved stall seats, 108 second stall seats and 450 seats in the pit...The auditorium is a very handsome piece of work, being of stamped metal...underneath the stage are the dressing rooms'. There are a number of fireplaces located on the ground floor in the Council Chambers and in other offices, and on the upper level in the Reading Rooms and the Committee Room.
The original plans for the building did not provide for a public clock and the tower was planned as a much lower structure with a spire. During construction of the building, the matter of installing a clock was raised and at the council meeting of June 4, 1900, it was decided that a clock should be imported from England. The tower clock was installed in the early 1900s at a cost of about £400. It was made by Billett and Johnston, still one of Britain's great turret clock manufacturers. Its installation remains a monument to Toowoomba watchmaker Mr H. Walker, who for many years conducted business as Henry Walker and Son Ltd in Ruthven Street almost opposite Bell Street. Devonshire, it is believed, was the ship which brought the clock and bells to Australia. On one of the two bells that chime the quarter hour, the words S.S. Devonshire can still be seen. Of the original four ornamental pillars used in the external landscape works to City Hall, two were removed and installed at the old Toowoomba Showgrounds in Campbell Street as gates posts in the 1940s. On the closure of the showgrounds in 1985, when the Royal Agricultural Society moved to its current premises at Glenvale, the two pillars were dismantled and re-erected outside City Hall.
After its construction in 1900, City Hall was the venue for many uses. For more than sixty years the main administrative functions of the Toowoomba City Council were located in the hall. It has been an important venue for educational activities and housed for over 50 years, Toowoomba's main lending library. Situated on the first floor, the library began as the School of Arts Library.
A School of Arts committee was established in Toowoomba in the late 1850s, and the first School of Arts was erected in 1861 on land donated by Arthur Hodgson. This was the same site on which City Hall was erected in 1900. According to Toowoomba City Council records, a second and more substantial building was erected in 1877. This was the building that was demolished following a fire in 1898, to make way for the new town hall. For over 20 years, the library was well patronised, however, by the 1930s, the School of Arts committee began to have difficulties maintaining the collection. Lack of government funding, the growth of local circulation libraries and a diminishing number of subscribers added to the problems. Eventually, the library was taken over by the city council and remained in the hall until 1951. The School of Arts also conducted classes in technical and general education, one of the few avenues available to those wishing to pursue higher education. The hall was the venue for technical education for more than a decade. As the number of students increased, accommodation became a serious concern. In 1911, a purpose-built technical college [600851] was erected in Margaret Street and the State government assumed responsibility for technical education from the School of Arts committee.
Added to City Hall's municipal and educational events, were the cultural and social events, which have been one of the building's most enduring functions. Such activities included public meetings, concerts and other musical events, drama and even sporting events, such as boxing and wrestling. Over time different requirements and standards have resulted in various alterations and additions to the building. The theatre has undergone more changes than any other part of the building. Prior to renovations in the 1940s, the raked floor and fixed seating of the auditorium limited its use. Whenever there was an audience facing the stage, the gentle fall was not a problem, however, it could not be used for dances or balls.
By the mid-1930s the need to improve the facilities became urgent. In early 1935 the Toowoomba Art Society was formed and one of their first activities was to lobby the Council "to make provision in their plans for a room suitable for the display of works of art." Space had become available in the City Hall following the relocation of the Technical College to its own building [600851] at the corner of Hume and Margaret Streets in 1911. After Council decided to renovate the theatre and provide space for an art gallery and additional offices, work was undertaken in two stages. The first stage involved extending the building to provide a room on the first floor for an art gallery and office space on the ground floor for council staff. This extension was completed in 1937 at a cost of £2400 and was designed by the local firm of W Hodgen and Hodgen. It was an unobtrusive addition and involved the enclosing of the open space between the front section of the building and the theatre on the northern side. Skylights were installed to provide lighting to the art gallery and also to the main stairwell.
The second stage, in the 1940s, involved major alterations to the theatre, at a cost of £5200. The existing gallery was demolished and replaced with a smaller gallery. In the main auditorium the seats were rearranged to provide easier access and better sightlines to the stage, but reducing seating capacity. Other work involved remodelling the interior decoration, the installation of a new proscenium, improvements to the ventilation, raising of the roof above the stage and gallery and the fitting of new seats.
In 1972-73, further major alterations were undertaken to City Hall principally involving the theatre. Carried out under the direction of local architects Durack and Brammer for a cost of more than $300 000, the work included the removal of the main floor and balcony and the construction of a new floor to improve sight lines, new seating which again reduced capacity, refurbished foyer, refreshment facilities, new dressing rooms, and wider stage and improved backstage facilities. The theatre was re-opened in July 1973 by the Mayor, Alderman Nell Robinson.
When opened, the council chambers and offices were situated on the ground floor, however, as staff numbers increased, so did the demand for extra space. When the technical college moved out in 1911, council staff took over their rooms. More space was available for council staff when the former School of Arts library vacated the building in 1951. By the early 1950s, both the ground and first floors of the front section of the building, with the exception of a room on the first floor for the art gallery, were devoted to council offices. Eventually it was necessary to construct a new office complex, and in 1963 a three storeyed building, the Council Administration Building, was constructed in nearby Herries Street. In late 1963, when the Board of Education moved in, City Hall was again the venue for educational activities. The Board have subsequently relocated.
The Toowoomba Art Gallery moved out of City Hall in March 1994 into their own premises nearby in the former SWQEB building. Commencing in 1995, City Hall has undergone major refurbishment by Allom Lovell Marquis Kyle Architects. Provisions were made to enable Councillors, staff and others to move from City Hall to council offices located in the adjoining Commonwealth Building. The symbolic seat of local government has returned to its original place of residence as the Council Members once again meet in City Hall.
","criteria":"Toowoomba City Hall is significant as the focus for local government in Toowoomba for more than ninety years. Its generous size and grand character provide evidence of the prosperity and importance of Toowoomba as a major regional centre at the turn of the century.
|Toowoomba City Hall is significant as a good and intact example of an early twentieth century civic building in Queensland incorporating eclectic stylistic elements in its design.
|With its east elevation facing Ruthven Street, Toowoomba City Hall makes an important contribution to the streetscape and provides a focal point for that part of the street with its landmark tower.
|As the site of the first School of Arts, prior to the construction of the hall, and with the hall housing a School of Arts and Technical College during its early years, the place demonstrates the continued public use of the property for over 100 years. The building continues a long association with the people of Toowoomba and surrounding areas as a focal point for social, and community functions.
|Toowoomba City Hall is associated with the work of architect Willoughby Powell, as one of a number of substantial public buildings in Queensland designed by Powell during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The building is also associated with prominent Toowoomba architect William Hodgen, who designed the 1937 alterations.
","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":15641,"place_ref":600866,"name":"St Luke's Church Hall","alternate_name":"St Lukes School and Parish Hall | St Luke's Church Hall | St Lukes Hall | St Luke's Hall","street_address":"152 Herries Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"St Luke's hall stands at the corner of Herries and Ruthven Street to the south of the church and parallel to it. It is an unusual building and has a number of Marks trademark features and innovations including the use of extensive provision for light and ventilation, a patented construction method and flamboyant decoration.
The hall is single storey and is 80' long and 40' wide with a plan suggestive of that of a church, having a nave and side aisles. There are bays at each end which are flanked by pairs of gable roofed porches. The foundations are brick and the building is constructed of cement applied over chicken wire on a timber framework. This technique was also used by Marks for the Taylor Memorial Institute at St James' Church and the main building at the Glennie School, both contemporary with this hall. The main roof is hipped, clad with corrugated iron and has ventilating gables spaced right around the roof edge and along the side aisles. The ridge of the roof is capped with unusual ventilators reminiscent of Byzantine cupolas surmounted by crosses. Shallow triple casement windows are placed under the eaves beneath the gables forming a clerestory and larger sets of triple casements line the side aisles. Those in the western bay have flat heads with arched mouldings above them. The eastern bay has been extended to incorporate toilet facilities and a store. The four entry porches are supported on timber columns with elaborate capitals and are reached by low steps.
The interior of the hall is a large and well lit space with a timber floor and vaulted ceiling lined with timber. The nave has square timber posts on each side supporting the clerestory and is continuously arcaded. There is a modern kitchen in the western end and a stage at the other.
","history":"St Luke's Church Hall, constructed in 1911, is a large, single-storey building, designed by H.J. (Harry) Marks of the prominent family of Toowoomba architects. It forms part of a church precinct at the corner of Herries and Ruthven Street.
The site is part of a continuing tradition of Anglican worship established during the first years of European settlement on the Darling Downs. At this time the Downs were part of New South Wales and fell within the Diocese of Newcastle. The Reverend John Gregor visited the area, holding services in camps and private homes from 1840 until his death in 1848. The energetic Reverend Benjamin Glennie succeeded him and was appointed the first Incumbent for the Darling Downs in 1850. A parsonage was built at the "Springs" (Drayton) in 1851 but by then the focal point of activity on the Downs had swung some six kilometres northwards to an area known as 'The Swamp', later to become Toowoomba. Glennie approached his Bishop for permission to buy land for a church there. He envisioned four churches, each dedicated to one of the evangelists, in the four major towns of the Downs, St Matthew's at Drayton, St Mark's at Warwick, St John's in Dalby and St Luke's at Toowoomba. In 1854 he purchased two acres of land in Ruthven Street for £8/4/- at one of the first land sales held.
In 1856 a 2 room schoolmaster's house was built on the land, followed soon afterwards by a slab building which combined the functions of church and school. The first service was held in March 1857. The building was soon inadequate and was extended, but a new and larger church, named St James, was built on land donated at Mort Street in 1869 and became the main Toowoomba church by default, although St Luke's had been intended as the parish church. Services were conducted alternately at the two churches and St Luke's was used for the Sunday School until 1883 when weekly services were recommenced and the church was again extended. The school function ceased in 1880 when state aid to denominational schools ceased.
In 1891, because of the growth of Toowoomba, St Luke's was established as a Parochial District and a new incumbent was appointed by the Bishop. The Reverend T. St. J. P. Pughe immediately set out to raise funds for a more suitable church. Plans were commissioned from Diocesan Architect J.H. Buckeridge for a stone church in 1892 and the new building was dedicated in February 1897. The old St Luke's continued in use as the parish hall, but must have seemed inappropriate to the enhanced status of St Luke's as well being inadequate in size.
The provision new parish hall had become urgent by 1908 and a venue to conduct classes for primary school children was also needed. A building committee was appointed and by August 1909, architect Harry Marks had submitted plans for a building which would act as both a hall and primary school, the drawings for which were carried in the October Parish Paper. Tenders were called in January 1910 and subsequently, a contract was signed by H. Andrews for the sum of £1436.
H.J. (Harry) Marks was one of a remarkable family firm of architects which had a lasting effect on the appearance of Toowoomba, being responsible for a large number of public, private and commercial buildings. James Marks arrived in Queensland in 1866 and first set up in practice in Dalby, moving to Toowoomba in 1874. He entered into partnership as James Marks and Son with his eldest son Harry, who joined his father's practice in 1903, and Reginald who joined in 1910. Charles Marks, James grandson was also an architect working in Toowoomba and died in 1966. Harry Marks was innovative in his approach to design and patented several ideas for building systems and components. He was interesting in providing good ventilation and natural lighting and these are features buildings designed by him.
The foundation stone for St Luke's hall was laid by the Archdeacon of Brisbane on 28 May 1910 in the presence of a large and representative assembly of people and is inscribed 'To the Glory of God and in memory of Benjamin Glennie, B.A., sometime Rector of Toowoomba.' The Rector's Warden, Mr Frank Hooper, referred to the devotion of Canon Glennie who was virtually the founder of St Luke's from a material and temporal point of view. The late Canon Glennie had, he said, 54 years before purchased for £8 the two acres of land, and that day they saw the outcome of his foresight. The completed hall was opened on 11 April and dedicated on 15 May 1911 by the Archbishop of Brisbane at a cost of £1554.
","criteria":"As a large and elaborate Parish Hall designed by Toowoomba's most distinguished architectural firm, St Luke's Hall is a demonstration the development of the Anglican Church on the Downs and the importance of Toowoomba in the early twentieth century.
|The hall forms part of the St. Luke's church group consisting of St. Luke's Church, the Hall, Rectory and Bell Tower and has high aesthetic value in its own right, making an important contribution to the character of the city of Toowoomba.
|The hall features a number of Harry Marks innovative and patented design features from its basic construction method to finishing details such as ventilators.
|It has strong social links to the Anglican community in Toowoomba as the venue for many functions over the years.
|St Luke's Hall has strong associations with the life and work of Harry Marks, one of a family of prominent architects in Toowoomba, and is also an outcome of the work of the Reverend Benjamin Glennie, an important figure in history of Drayton/Toowoomba who laid the foundations for the development of the Church on the Darling Downs.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | 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 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":15642,"place_ref":600867,"name":"Geeumbi","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"1 South Street","suburb":"RANGEVILLE","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Geeumbi is a substantial and complex four-level residence of concrete construction set in expansive cultivated grounds on the northern side of South Street, Toowoomba. The property is situated close to the escarpment of the Southern Toowoomba Range and the house is oriented to take advantage of the easterly views. The allotment covers an area of 1.69 hectares and the relationship between the house, gardens, garden structures and the expansive views are critical to the significance of the place.
The South Street entrance to Geeumbi is marked by two low concrete walls flanking a central driveway, with mature hedges extending along the front boundary creating a distinctive fence line. The circular driveway is constructed of decorative concrete slabs, and is distinguished by a round garden bed in front of the entrance to the house. The circular drive area is surrounded by tall mature hedges, making the entrance to the house a secluded space.
The house is constructed of solid concrete about 30 centimetres thick. It is built on four levels which include the ground floor, the common room, bedrooms and living areas on the second floor, the "den" on the third floor and a flat roof with solid concrete railings containing an observatory as the fourth level. It is asymmetrical in plan and elevation, and has two distinct sections which differ in style. The front portion of the house is distinguished by the imposing octagonal tower and walled open roof and presents the appearance of a Mediterranean Villa with a rendered concrete finish, while the rear of the house is reminiscent of the Arts & Craft style popular at this time with a steeply pitched complex tiled roof and dormer window among other features. The rear section of the house also incorporates some weatherboard cladding. There is a clear line where the two different design styles meet which is visible from the eastern elevation.
The eastern side of the house is distinguished by the garden terraces that lead down to a flat, open grassy plain which in turn leads into bushland. The orientation of the house towards the easterly outlook is demonstrated by the large, now enclosed, verandah running along the eastern elevation as well as the octagonal tower which also comprises a large portion of the eastern elevation. The domed roof structure visible on the tower, once housed telescopic equipment.
Close to the rear of the house is a concrete tennis court with red pigment, part of the original lay out of the grounds. The rear garden also comprises a wide terrace extending north into bushland and is bordered by formal plantings.
The western side of the house still retains the original vegetable gardens, fruit trees, grape vines and utilitarian structures such as the large concrete water tank and concrete retaining walls and drains. A pathway leads from this part of the garden to a side entrance door on the western elevation of the house which gains direct access to the kitchen, reflecting the practical purpose of the 'kitchen garden' in the daily working of the house.
Internally, the house is highly intact, retaining many of its original design features. The front portion of the house contains the formal entry and formal lounge and dining to the eastern side and the kitchen to the western side. Entry to the tower is gained from the formal lounge at the southeast corner of the house and comprises a narrow spiral staircase leading to what was Dr Price's den. This den is constructed in a mezzanine style and overlooks the internal lounge below.
","history":"Geeumbi (the Aboriginal name for Table Top Mountain, which the house overlooks) was built between the years 1914 - 1918 by Ernest Pottinger for Dr T.A. Price and his wife. The house is a substantial concrete structure of unusual design set in extensive mature gardens on the southern Toowoomba Range commanding wide-ranging easterly views. It is situated amongst other substantial properties including Rodway [600868] across South Street constructed in 1904. The owner, Dr Price, designed Geeumbi himself having been an architecture student for two years in Brisbane before leaving Australia to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh.
Dr Thomas Price arrived in Toowoomba in 1903 to take up a position at the Willowburn Mental Hospital. He later went into private medical practice but following World War I started a practice as an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist at both the Toowoomba General Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital. From the time of his arrival in Toowoomba Dr. Price had been concerned for the health of the community as mosquitoes were a major problem due to the swamps and open drains that ran throughout the town. Despite campaigning for the appointment of a Government Inspector to control the mosquito problem he was not successful until he stood and was elected to the City Council in 1912. After he was elected Mayor in 1918, Dr. Price stepped-up his campaign and was eventually successful in draining the swamps and eradicating the mosquito problem in Toowoomba. He was similarly interested in the welfare of the youth of the city. He was a Scout Leader and with the assistance of his wife started the Boy Scouts and Girl Guide movements in the city using his own property for camps and orientation exercises. In the 1930s at the height of the Great Depression, Dr. Price organized a self-help camp at Redwood Park for the itinerant unemployed. Much of the fresh vegetables to feed the men in this camp came from the kitchen garden around Geeumbi. Shortly before his death in 1957 Dr Price sold Geeumbi and retired to live in Sydney. His wife Hester had passed away at Toowoomba in 1944. The Dr Price Memorial Mothercraft Centre perpetuates his memory in Toowoomba.
The land on which Geeumbi sits has been transferred and subdivided a number of times since the original deed of grant was proclaimed on 25/9/1889. William Tirril was the first owner of the land which comprised 200 acres of steep, heavily timbered land on the escarpment of the range. Tirril cleared much of the land and established a dairy farm on the site. The farm had originally extended from the present Rowbottom Street in the west to the boundary of Hartmann's land to the north and had South Street as its southern boundary. (Hartmann's land eventually became the Picnic Point parklands.) At this stage much of the land on the Southern Range was sparsely populated and devoted to farming and timber getting.
The land passed through several hands until Dr Price purchased a sub-division of the original farm in 1912 on which the old timber farmhouse and several out buildings were situated. Before and during the construction of their new home, the Price family lived in the original farmhouse just a short distance away from the building site. Evidence of this first house can be found in the concrete pathway leading from an opening in the hedge on the South Street frontage and in a low wall, once a portion of the foundations. This wall has been incorporated in the garden terracing to the southwest of the front entrance of Geeumbi.
At the beginning of the twentieth century many of the houses built on the escarpment of the Range in Toowoomba were substantial and affluent places intended as summer residences eg. Harlaxton House [600839] and Rodway [600868]. A trend had developed by the end of the 19th century for wealthy Squatters and prominent Brisbane businessmen and politicians to take advantage of the spectacular views and natural environment of the Toowoomba Range as well as the 'invigorating' climate. The construction of Geeumbi from 1914-1918 followed this pattern of affluent settlement in the area which established the Range as a prime residential precinct in Toowoomba.
Construction of the house was commenced in 1914. The foundations and walls of the new house were constructed by pouring concrete into box framing made from timber and flattened tin, an innovative approach for the time. Dr Price was a keen astronomer and the tower end of the building was designed for viewing the night skies from a clear vantage point above the tree line. The house was positioned to take advantage of the distinct view of Table Top Mountain and the night skies as opposed to the immediate views. The unusual appearance and construction of Geeumbi was clearly a result of the creativity of Dr Price, who designed the house with his particular needs and desires in mind, making the building a departure from the standard residential development occurring at the time. Minor alterations have been carried out on the most noticeable of these being the enclosure of the southern verandah for protection against the wind.
Dr Price, a keen gardener and bush walker collected native plants from around the local ridges and planted them in the garden that he developed after the completion of the house. Terraces were formed close to the building to act as extensions to the living areas of the house. Lower terraces were formed further down the hill and planted with various forms of hedge plants. A hedge was planted on the South Street frontage and the along the eastern edge of the land adjoining the escarpment reserve. To the western side of the house an extensive kitchen garden was established again on terraces stabilised by the construction of concrete walls. Fruit trees were also cultivated in this area. Whilst the garden about Geeumbi was large, it was mostly free from as opposed to the controlled shapes and designs that were popular in the earlier stages of the development of Toowoomba gardens. The largest proportion of the grounds remained as open grassland or patches of scrub were left. The Price children owned several horses and had walking tracks through the area.
Following the retirement of Dr Price the house and accompanying five acres of land first passed to the Price children and then in 1954 was sold to Francis Bushby who in turn sold to Cyril Conroy. The property remained in the hands of the Conroy family until 1972 when it was sold to Dr. John and Mrs Judith Noble. At this stage the house and gardens were in a rundown state. Although the form of the Price garden remained, many of the original plants had been allowed to die and ivy had covered a large portion of the tower of the house.
In 1972 the land was subdivided into two sections with the western section being sold off as five residential lots. This section included a portion of the kitchen garden. In 1973 Drs Mary and Godfrey Gapp, purchased Geeumbi and further subdivided the land into two blocks and more recently another block was sold from the southwestern corner of the garden. The remaining 1.69 hectares of land was resurveyed as Lot 1 on RP 142232.
The gardens around Geeumbi have basically retained their early form with the remaining portion of the vegetable garden still used in the same way. The terraces and other features such as the tennis court and old concrete water tank have remained. A structure understood to be a swimming pool was removed a number of years ago. The front garden has been maintained despite the loss of a large tree that was a feature of the round bed in the centre of the driveway.
","criteria":"Geeumbi is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the development of Toowoomba as the service centre for the Darling Downs Region and the development of the Range area as a prime residential precinct in Toowoomba.
|Constructed from 1914 - 1918, Geeumbi is an unusual example of a substantial residence from the period in Queensland. Its poured-concrete construction and distinctive design principles distinguish Geeumbi from contemporaneous development in Queensland and bears testament to the creativity of its owner and architect, Dr T.A. Price, as a residence of great individuality and innovation.
|Geeumbi is aesthetically significant as an unusual and interesting building set in extensive grounds with expansive views to Table Top Mountain from its position on the Toowoomba Range. Its design and setting make a strong visual impact to South Street and the surrounding area and its external and internal detailing and fittings are all significant in contributing to the aesthetic importance of the place. The grounds contain many mature trees and other plantings, such as grapevines and hedges and flowers, which are also highly aesthetically significant.
|Constructed from 1914 - 1918, Geeumbi is an unusual example of a substantial residence from the period in Queensland. Its poured-concrete construction and distinctive design principles distinguish Geeumbi from contemporaneous development in Queensland and bares testament to the creativity of its owner and architect, Dr T.A. Price, as a residence of great individuality and innovation.
|Geeumbi has special association with the life and work of Dr T. A. Price who was an influential member of the Toowoomba community, having been Mayor from 1918 - 1919 and a prominent medical practitioner who contributed highly to the local community. His memory is commemorated by the Dr Price Memorial Mothercraft Centre and by his association with Geeumbi as the house he designed and where he resided and conducted some of his work until 1954.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 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":15643,"place_ref":600868,"name":"Rodway","alternate_name":"Sylvia Park","street_address":"2 South Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Rodway is a single-storeyed chamferboard residence with a corrugated iron hipped roof and projecting north gable. The building, located on the Toowoomba Range, is situated on a south sloping site, overlooking the Brisbane Valley to the southeast, with a border of mature camphor laurel trees to the west boundary and Norfolk pines to the north.
There are verandahs to the south, east, northeast and northwest, and a kitchen wing and an attached enclosed tankstand to the west. The south and northwest verandahs have been enclosed, and the building has timber stumps with batten panel infill, except to the kitchen wing which has a brick base enclosing a laundry and store. There are three brick chimneys, of which the eastern two are cement rendered.
The symmetrical east elevation has a central porch with an ornately shaped timber surround and a wide flight of timber steps. The open verandahs have an unlined corrugated iron ogee shaped awning with timber posts, brackets and grid-like balustrade. A bay to either side of the entry, and one to the north, pierce the verandah awning and are hipped at the eaves. These bays, and at either side of the dining room, contain HJ Marks' step-out 'disappearing' sash windows. The north projecting dining room bay is surmounted by a gable with timber brackets to either side and decorative timber bargeboard and finial, with an awning and timber brackets to the bay window below. The northwest enclosed tankstand is taller, and has a shallow hipped roof and pressed metal window hoods.
The main entrance has a panelled cedar door with leadlight fanlight and sidelights. Internally, there is a wide central hall with a timber arch, walls are of tongue and groove boards with painted timber architraves and skirting, and doors are panelled cedar with fanlights. The northeast room has arched divides to the bays, and later fibrous cement ceiling and brick fireplace. The southeast room has an arched divide to the bay, a white marble fireplace surround and more recent ensuite. The dining room has plastered walls and ornate, pressed metal ceiling and cornice. Pressed metal ceilings also feature in the enclosed verandah rooms off the south bedroom and ensuite.
The western verandah enclosures include a guest bedroom and storeroom in the tankstand, with the original verandah posts still in place. The kitchen has been remodelled and a bathroom added to the west end of the verandah, with the verandah having an ogee shaped boarded ceiling. Stairs lead down to the laundry, which contains the original copper, and store below.
A chamferboard double garage with a corrugated iron gable roof is located on the boundary to the northwest, with iron gates to the west which originally led to an avenue which accessed the former property to the southwest. The western border of camphor laurel trees remain, the southwest section of which is fenced off to form a horse paddock. The north garden contains two large jacaranda trees with pine trees along the boundary and a timber and wire fence. Garden beds with terracotta tile surrounds and brick drains border the north garden and the grassed driveway to the east. The southeast area of the site is lower and contains the remains of the original tennis court.
","history":"Rodway is a single storeyed timber house erected in 1898 for John Long, to the design of architect Harry Marks, on a 40 acre site on the Toowoomba Range.
\nThe site was acquired by Long, a hotel keeper, in 1896. He had previously commissioned Marks' father, James Marks in 1885 to design the Imperial Hotel in Ruthven Street, which Long operated for a number of years.
\nIn April 1898 the Darling Downs Gazette reported Long's 'splendid new house' on the Range was in the course of erection. The house was built by August of that year, when Queensland Premier TJ Byrnes and his touring party visited the Long's residence, during a visit to Toowoomba. The property became known as Sylvia Park.
\nIn 1910, the property was acquired by grazier, John Oliver Frith and his wife Annie Peek Frith as a town residence. Frith lived in semi-retirement but maintained his Augathella property, Toolmaree Station. Renamed Rodway after his birthplace in Somersetshire in England, the house was described as one of the most picturesque and beautiful homes in the vicinity of the city. A gabled north projecting dining room bay may have been undertaken by Frith, and was certainly in existence by 1919. Interior alterations to the dining room may also have been carried out at this time. It is thought that the kitchen wing was added after 1904.
\nMembers of the Frith family are recorded as living at Rodway until 1940 although it is believed the house was rented and used as a boarding house during the 1930's. About this time new fireplaces were installed in the living and dining rooms as well as a new ceiling in the living room. After the death of Annie Frith in 1952, the property was transferred to PJ Seymour, LH Corser, and Leo and Isabel Lynch. The property was subdivided and later sold, with the Lynches retaining the house on a 5 acre block, later reduced to 4 acres to allow for the provision of new roads.
\nThe property was again subdivided in the mid-1990's, and the land the west of the house beyond the border of camphor laurel trees was removed from the heritage register in 1998.
\nInformation note:
\nOn 2 April 2015 revisions to the statement of significance (criterion A, replacing c1904 with 1898), and history contained in the Queensland Heritage Register entry for Rodway, were made by the Department to update information in accordance with the Queensland Heritage Act 1992.
\n","criteria":"
Rodway, erected in 1898, is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the development of Toowoomba as the service centre for the Darling Downs Region, and the development of the Range as a prime residential area.
|It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial federation period timber house.
|It is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Toowoomba community, in particular the form of the house and its relationship to the expansive southeast view, and the layout of the gardens and mature trees and their contribution to the streetscape of South Street and to the Toowoomba townscape.
|It has a special association with the life of Toowoomba architect Harry Marks as an example of his domestic work.
","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":15644,"place_ref":600869,"name":"Concordia College Administration Centre","alternate_name":"Redlands","street_address":"154 Stephen Street","suburb":"HARRISTOWN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Redlands, a two-storeyed brick building, is located on a level site facing a formal garden and is approached via a long avenue of mature pine trees to the north. The building has a U-shaped hipped corrugated iron roof with a central valley, paired eave brackets and verandahs on the east, north and west with unlined curved corrugated iron awnings.
The symmetrical north elevation has a projecting double storeyed porch, with a flight of stone steps, surmounted by a cross. The verandahs have timber posts with cast iron balustrade, brackets and valance. The northeast and northwest corners of the ground floor verandahs have decorative coloured glass and pressed metal screens and infill panels.
The building has flemish bond brickwork with painted quoining, step-out sash bay windows on the ground floor and a central arched entry to the north with stained glass fanlight and sidelights. The first floor also has a central entry of french doors with stained glass inserts, featuring painted birds, fanlight and sidelights. The south elevation has been cement rendered.
Internally, the building has a central hall with a carved cedar staircase at the south. The ground floor has rendered walls, elaborate pressed metal ceilings of varying designs and cedar joinery. The northwest room has a black marble fireplace surround with hand painted tiles depicting birds. The northeast room has a white marble fireplace surround and other rooms have carved timber surrounds, all with painted tiles. The foyer has an arched internal doorway with patterned glass fanlight and sidelights. The first floor has papered walls, panelled or boarded ceilings and cedar joinery.
The formal garden to the north forms a turning circle and consists of a central fountain, flagpole, hedge border, garden beds in the form of the school's initials and areas of lawn.
A covered path links the building to a more recent classroom and staff block immediately to the south. Other school buildings built since the late 1950s, predominantly of two-storeyed brick, are built to the east, south and west. Playing fields are located either side of the entrance drive to the north, leaving the building's northern outlook open.
","history":"Redlands, a two-storeyed brick residence, was designed by Toowoomba architect James Marks and built by Henry Andrews in 1889 for Edmund Wilcox, a merchant and prominent citizen of Toowoomba. Redlands was originally built on about 28 acres of land near the Drayton Road, approximately 1½ miles from Toowoomba.
Wilcox received his early business training with the firm of Messrs Cribb and Foote of Ipswich and with Holberton's of Toowoomba. Later, Wilcox together with his brother Robert founded the firm Wilcox Brothers merchants, located in Ruthven Street for a number of years. Wilcox Brothers eventually sold out to Messrs Laidlaw and Peak.
The outbuildings originally included a 3-stalled stable, harness room, carpenter's shop, two bedrooms, fodder room, coach house and hay loft; battened fowl house, piggery, and cow pens, to accommodate Wilcox's interest in farming pursuits as a hobby at Redlands.
The foundations of Redlands are reputedly of local bluestone, the bricks supplied by the local brick and tile company, the glass by Exton and Gough of Brisbane, and the iron railing for the balcony and cresting by the Toowoomba Foundry Company. Redlands is said to still have the original corrugated iron roof which was imported from England and which bears the stamp of its producer on every sheet.
The avenue of Norfolk and Bunya pines lining the approach to Redlands was planted when the house was constructed. It is thought that Wilcox also created the "teardrop" garden at the front of the building, complete with fountain, at around the same time. The original fountain has since been replaced.
In 1919, some time after his retirement, Wilcox sold Redlands to Dr Alexander Horn. In 1921 Redlands was sold to Mr Edward Farmer, a grazier. In 1945 the Lutheran Church resolved to purchase Redlands from Farmer's widow, for a sum of approximately £5 000.
In 1946 Redlands was dedicated as Concordia College, a co-educational Lutheran Boarding School.
Since the establishment of Concordia College, Redlands has served a number of purposes including a residence for the first Headmaster and his family, offices and other uses associated with the College. A major building program commenced in the 1960's with the addition of several school buildings in the grounds of the College. Redlands is presently used as the central administration block for the College.
","criteria":"Redlands, erected in 1889, is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the pattern of Toowoomba's growth during the late 1880s.
|It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a large, late 1880s residence.
|It is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the Toowoomba community, in particular the decorative composition of the building's facade; the quality and craftsmanship of the cedar joinery, pressed metal ceilings, marble fireplace surrounds and stained glass; and the formal layout of the building, north garden and avenue of pine trees and their contribution to the streetscape of Stephen Street and to the Toowoomba townscape.
|Redlands has a strong association with the development of the Concordia College, as the college's original building and site of dedication.
|It has a special association with the life of prominent Toowoomba businessman Edmund Wilcox; and with Toowoomba architect James Marks as a major example of his residential work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15645,"place_ref":600870,"name":"Weetwood","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"423-427 Tor Street","suburb":"NEWTOWN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Weetwood is situated on the corner of Tor and Higgins Streets on two large allotments in West Toowoomba. They are each 4047 m2 in size and abut the Clifford Park Racecourse to the west. Tor Street has two lanes of traffic running in each direction and is therefore very busy, particularly with a number of large vehicles. The Toowoomba city centre is located approximately 2.5km to the east.
The single storey residence is sited close to the western boundary with the Racecourse, approximately straddling the common boundary of the allotments. This provides a wide buffer of space between it and the road traffic. All exterior boundaries are lined with established trees and planting, allowing only partial glimpses of the house. There are two entries onto the site from Tor Street, however only the one toward the north-east corner is currently in use. The allotments are largely flat, and the house is founded on a base of raised ground, approximately half a metre high. This provides a 1.5m wide skirt of flat ground around the house, the edges of which slope steeply away. The sloped edge is less prominent at the south-east corner. The front façade best reflects the principles of unforced symmetry to which the design of the house largely adheres.
Weetwood's main hipped roof is U-shaped and surrounded on three sides by a curved verandah roof. This is penetrated by a barrel-roofed entry porch and elaborately framed timber pediment. A ridged roof joins the main one on the north-west corner of the building. The exterior walls to the main house are face brickwork. Along the length of the house's west face, is attached a skillion-roofed extension. This is clad externally in chamferboards. Located between the house and the western boundary is a large gable-roofed carport area. At the south-west corner this roof has been halted to allow for a pergola and small gable-roofed shed clad in weatherboards. These recent structures run the full length of the original house.
All roofs are clad in corrugated Colorbond steel and the main one is decorated with acroteria. The small overhang to the main U-shaped roof is supported by a series of double, carved timber brackets. These rest on a lip of brick extruded from the external wall. The brackets do not feature on the rear western façade. The eaves of the main roof are lined with painted, shot-edge timber boards. Two double and two single chimneystacks protrude through the main roof, and all are rendered and painted brickwork.
The verandah edges rest on 25cm high brick walls and are capped with painted timber boards. The posts are divided into two parts by stop chamfering, and have astragals, capitals and carved timber brackets. On the east-facing edge, a low timber seat fits between each post and forms a simple balustrade. The verandah area's floor is clad in narrow shot-edge timber boards and is approximately 3m wide. The exposed underside of its curved roof is not supported by rafters, except where a hip occurs, such as where the barrel-roofed entry porch intersects with it. The verandah area looking north is partially enclosed by timber framing that supports some fixed glass, a sliding glass door and a low weatherboard-clad balustrade. All timberwork, except that lining the floor, is painted.
A short flight of stairs brings the visitor under the entry portico up to the front door of the house. The portico's pediment timberwork is elaborately framed in a style that James Marks & Sons became renowned for, while the front door has leadlight glass and timber panels to each side and a full-width, semi-circular fanlight above. All rooms overlooking the verandah have one or two sets of double doors with rectangular glass fanlights opening onto it. These double doors are all low waisted. A corbelled pattern of light brickwork, differentiated from the predominant dark speckled brick, surrounds all door and window openings. A large timber panel-clad bay window projects from the northern face of the house into the verandah space.
Interiors
Contained beneath the main U-shaped roof are six rooms opening off a central hallway, which is accessed via the front door. This hall is divided in two by an arched opening. The semi-circular arch rests on plasterwork relief capitals. Two rooms open off the first segment of the hallway. These are currently used as bedrooms. The room to the right is extended by the bay that looks onto the north-facing verandah. This bay has two double-hung sash windows in its front face, and one on each of its angled sides. The sill height matches the low waist of the double doors. On the wall it shares with the adjoining room, this room also has an ornately carved timber mantelpiece and fireplace lined with ceramic tiles. A metal fire grate sits on the hearth, which is also lined with ceramic tiles. These walls only feature a plaster picture-rail fixed at approximately 3.5m. The room opening to the left off the central hallway has a mantelpiece and fireplace without ceramic tiles, also in its west-facing wall. The mantelpiece is decorated with simple, applied timber shapes and the hearth is edged with a low timber rail. A door opens from this bedroom into the next room along the hall.
Four rooms open off the second segment of the hallway. The first on the left is used as a bedroom. It has a mantelpiece and fireplace in the wall it shares with the next room towards the rear of the hall. This mantelpiece and fireplace match those in the bedroom described earlier, however there is no timber guardrail. The last room to open to the left off the hallway again has a simply decorated timber mantelpiece. However, its fireplace does feature an ornate rim and grate. Its guardrail, hearth and sides are lined with tiles, but only a few matching those in the first bedroom remain in place. A full-height, built-in cupboard has been attached to the wall between the fireplace and the exterior wall. It is lined with fibrous cement sheeting and is clearly a later addition as it disturbs the pattern of boards on the floor. In this room's west-facing wall there are a double-hung sash window and a door. These open onto the space contained by the rear skillion roof.
The first room that opens to the right off the second segment of the central hallway is used as a living room. Its fireplace and hearth, back-to-back with that in the first bedroom, are made of brick, while the mantel is of timber. Its walls have a painted timber picture rail fixed at 2.5m. The second room off this side of the hallway is used for dining. The design of its mantelpiece and fireplace matches the geometry of those found in the three rooms to the left of the hallway. It is centred on this room's northern wall, which it shares with the kitchen. The skirting in the dining room differs from those found elsewhere. Doors open from this room into the living room, the kitchen and a study to the rear of the house.
The floors throughout the main house are lined with wide, tongue and groove Pine boards. In the dining room and kitchen tiles have been laid over these. The floor to the fourth bedroom, in the south-west corner of the main house, is encircled with three rows of timber boards. The central line of boards is finished with a dark stain. There are eight-inch skirtings throughout, as there are six-inch architraves. All joinery and mouldings are of polished Cedar. The ceilings in each of the six main rooms and in the hallway are approximately 4m high. The kitchen, which sits under the ridged roof, also has a ceiling this high. The walls throughout are plaster. The original plaster ceilings in all the main rooms have been lined with fibrous cement sheeting and decorated with simple timber beading. The cornices in the second and third bedrooms, and in the living room are simple scotias. Those in the other rooms are simply timber boards fixed to the ceiling. Square, lattice grills are centred in the ceilings of the second and fourth bedrooms, and the dining room. Metal ones are featured in these and other rooms.
At the rear of the central hallway, a door with plain glass side panels and rectangular fanlight opens onto the space contained under the skillion roof. This opens into the carport area with a door and a number of small double-hung sash windows. The bathroom is situated at the southern end of this corridor of space. And at its northern end are a study opening with two double doors into the dining room, and a laundry opening into the kitchen. The brickwork remains exposed on the rear wall of the main house, which it shares with this corridor. The carport area consists of a very large covered space running the full length of the house and two storage sheds, which sit between it and the rear boundary to the Racecourse. This is where the original service wing would have been located.
Grounds
Weetwood is surrounded by a large garden with low planting and many established trees. To the north between the house and the boundary are located a large area of paved driveway and a small gable-roofed shed clad in weatherboards. A vine hedge separates this from a fenced swimming pool. Along the boundary to Tor Street, on either side of the currently unused entry, stand two Norfolk Island Pines (Araucaria heterophylla). Between the house and its boundary with Higgins Street stands a large Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii) in an area fenced off from the rest of the property. There is also a large Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea spectabilis) between this tree and the house. In the south-western corner of the second allotment is a smaller fenced-off pen with a timber and iron shelter, which may be the original fowl yard. All boundaries have timber-paling fences.
","history":"Weetwood, a residence at 427 Tor Street, Toowoomba, is a brick house built in 1888 for Richard William Scholefield.
The allotments on which this residence is situated were originally a part of the land purchased in 1862 as Portion 176, parish Drayton, county Aubigny [160 acres], by James Taylor, politician and Mayor of Toowoomba in 1890; Thomas George Robinson, stock and land salesman and first Australian-born Mayor of Toowoomba in 1865; and James Watts Grimes, a local auctioneer.
During 1873, the title to Portion 176 was transferred to George Beresford King before it was again sold four years later. Thomas George Robinson was once more registered as a joint owner of the land along with James Williams and Gustavus Hamilton. On 28 March 1883, Robinson passed away and the following year Hamilton died, soon after which Williams subdivided the land for sale. Subdivisions 11 to 14 comprising 6 acres were sold to Richard William Scholefield for £200 and registered in his name in December 1884. Scholefield was born in England in 1844, the son of William Scholefield and Charlotte Hay. He arrived in Australia in 1862 and went to Westbrook Station (600636) for 'Colonial experience'. Between 1868 and 1873 he managed 'Avington Downs' and 'Alice Downs' on the Barcoo until they were sold. Francis Thomas Gregory, who moved to Queensland in 1862 and subsequently served as a member of the Legislative Council and as Commissioner of Crown Lands in Toowoomba, then offered Scholefield the job of managing Westbrook Station. He remained there until 1878 when Westbrook was sold and then entered into a partnership with Gregory in a stock and station firm located in Russell Street, Toowoomba.
In Toowoomba, Scholefield quickly acquired a prominent profile. He served as a Justice of the Peace and was a distinguished member of various local clubs, including the Downs Club and the Toowoomba Turf Club. His land in Tor Street adjoined the racecourse (now known as Clifford Park Racecourse), and between 1878 and 1890 Scholefield held four positions with the Turf Club, which instituted the Weetwood Handicap to honour his work. This race is still held annually in March. Scholefield was also a committee member of the Toowoomba Hospital and the Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland.
In the 4 years after acquiring the land on which Weetwood now stands, Scholefield was continually stumping and burning off but it remained unimproved until 1888 when tenders were called for the construction of Weetwood. Scholefield kept meticulous records pertaining to the house, which was designed by James Marks and built by Robert Godsall. Both Marks and Godsall had previously worked together on the construction of St Patrick's Cathedral in Toowoomba (600844) and were well known in the area for their work. Marks was one of Toowoomba's most prolific and experienced late-19th century architects and his most significant buildings include the Royal Bank of Queensland building, the Imperial Hotel, and St Stephen's Presbyterian Church.
Of the several grand private residences in Toowoomba designed by Marks, Weetwood remains one of his best. It was constructed to exacting standards, with Marks advising contractors to "take care that no paint or other stains are left on the floors or walls" and that "any damage done . . . by the contractors or the man in his employment will have to be made good at his (the contractors) own cost". This exactness was as much a reflection of Marks's professional application as it was an indication that Weetwood was intended to be the perfect home for Scholefield, his wife, Eva Louisa Scholefield, and their three children who were all born at Weetwood. No expense was spared, with the house costing a total of just under £2350 to build and Scholefield having 21 cases of fine furniture for his new house shipped from London on board the Taroba during 1888.
Construction ran smoothly during the latter half of 1888 and Scholefield recorded that he "commenced to reside" at Weetwood on 1 January 1889. The house was named after his father's home in Leeds, England, and the premises included a lawn tennis court and stables described by Scholefield's daughter as "beautifully built with tongue and grooved hardwood timber, and [consisting] . . . of three horse stalls, a large buggy shed for two buggies, a harness room, a feed room, and a man's room". On the 6 acres of land the Scholefields also maintained a paddock for horses and cows as well as a fowl yard. The large garden included a variety of fruit trees and vegetables, which was attended to by a full-time gardener, George Smith, who was with the family for 20 years.
Following Scholefield's death in March 1902, his wife continued to reside there until her death in 1939. However, it was not until July 1945 that title to the property was registered in the joint names of Hector Kitchener McPhie and Victor Alexander Carpendale McPhie. Two years later Hector Kitchener McPhie became the sole owner of the estate and in 1948 transferred subdivisions 11 and 12, which left Weetwood standing on the present parcel of 2 acres.
In 1952, title to Weetwood was transferred to Campbell Stuart Jiear and since that time has passed to 2 further owners. The house has been well preserved and its grounds well maintained, with the recent addition of an in-ground swimming pool, shed and new boundary fencing. The horse stables, however, are no longer in existence.
","criteria":"Built in 1888, Weetwood is one of Toowoomba's grander private residences of the late 19th century and remains important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history and in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. The house was constructed during a period of economic boom in Queensland and during the development of the Darling Downs as an important regional centre. The grandeur of the house reflects the burgeoning strength of Toowoomba during the 1880s and it remains a significant example of late-19th century domestic architecture.
|Built in 1888, Weetwood is one of Toowoomba's grander private residences of the late 19th century and remains important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history and in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. The house was constructed during a period of economic boom in Queensland and during the development of the Darling Downs as an important regional centre. The grandeur of the house reflects the burgeoning strength of Toowoomba during the 1880s and it remains a significant example of late-19th century domestic architecture.
|Toowoomba abounds with buildings and residences of cultural heritage significance and Weetwood remains an important and well-preserved element of the local streetscape. In this way, Weetwood contributes to the overall historical character of Toowoomba and its individual aesthetic appeal makes it a valued part of the area.
The aesthetic significance of Weetwood is characterized by a number of general and specific qualities. The specific qualities include the use of patterned face brickwork, and the proportions of the barrel-vaulted entry porch with elaborately framed timber pediment, the latter being a distinguishing element in the design work of the architectural firm James Marks founded with his sons. On the interior, the attributes of Weetwood's aesthetic significance include the finely crafted timber mantelpieces, and the quality and condition of the timber joinery throughout.
","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":15647,"place_ref":600872,"name":"Toowoomba Railway Station, Honour Board and Railway Yard Structures","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Russell Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Toowoomba Railway Station, Honour Board and Railway Yard Structures complex is located on Railway Street, within walking proximity of the Toowoomba town centre. The Railway Station complex comprises the main station building, awnings and outbuildings, and several yard structures. The station building consists of adjoining two-storeyed rendered masonry buildings with single storeyed annexes and outbuildings with corrugated iron roofs. The buildings line the edge of a concrete platform, which is covered with corrugated iron canopies, and which extends out beyond the main buildings to the north and the south. The buildings comprise the central Station Building (1874) connecting to the Railway Refreshment Room Wing (1902), the Tea Room extension (1915) and Honour Roll pavilion (1918) to the north, and annexes and platform outbuildings to the south. The yard structures, located to the north-east of the station building, include a substantial corrugated iron and timber Goods Shed, a two-storeyed signalling shed known as Cabin A, modest timber and corrugated iron structures associated with maintenance and worker accommodation, the brick Westinghouse Brake Examination pit and corrugated iron shelter, a wagon weighbridge and timber shelter, and a cast iron water crane. The complex also includes two WWII bomb shelters.
The Station Building (1874) is a substantial symmetrical building with an elongated rectangular plan with gabled bays to the east and west, and hipped roofs to the north and south. The building is finely detailed externally: the corners have pilasters formed by projecting quoins; floor and sill levels are articulated with string courses; the western ground floor openings have arched heads with keystones framed by continuous mouldings, and include a wide arch over a centrally placed entrance to the platform; the eastern ground floor windows have square heads and projecting quoins; the upper floor windows are framed with scrolled brackets supporting moulded projecting heads; the cornice has dentils and the gable ends have cartouches. Later alterations to the western elevation include concave awnings over the upper gable windows, and an enclosed timber verandah running between the two gabled bays with a corrugated iron awning projecting from the soffit. Two cast iron queuing rails are located outside ticket windows adjacent to the western entrance.
The upper floor of the Station Building contains currently disused offices, while the ground floor contains station operations rooms, offices and store areas. Timber stairs with cast-iron balusters are located on the western side. The first floor interiors retain some vertically jointed timber lined walls and a small timber service window. The ground floor interiors retain some masonry arches and timber columns with decorative timber capitals. The annex to the southern end contains store-rooms and toilets, including a Ladies Waiting Room of generous proportions. A small timber lined kiosk (1936) with timber roll-down louvred shutters opening out onto the platform is located at the northern end.
The Railway Refreshment Room wing (1902) is a two storeyed rendered masonry L-shaped building with a single-storeyed addition to the north (1915 tearoom), and hipped corrugated roofs which rise above those of the Station Building. It contains the Railway Refreshment Room on the ground floor (which is still in operation), and officers on the upper floor. A steel and timber framed pavilion attached to the north of the dining room wing houses a fine timber Honour Roll. The building has rusticated piers at the corners, arched openings with profiled surrounds, expressed piers with decorative capitals and circular motifs at ground floor level, and windows with flat heads and keystones to the upper storeys.
The Railway Refreshment Room is an impressive and generously proportioned space containing timber serveries at both ends, and round timber tables and timber chairs. The walls are decorated with large black and white photographs of local beauty spots, and the tables are set with monogrammed silverware and crockery. The interior is finely detailed with pressed metal ceilings with elaborate roses, cast iron columns with floriated capitals, and decorative pressed metal cornices and beam encasings. The adjacent Tea Room (1915 - now used as offices) also has a high pressed metal ceiling.
The finely crafted Honour Roll is housed at the northern end of a steel framed and timber pavilion with open sides. The Honour Roll is set on diagonal boarding, and has a central panel with a broken pediment on scrolled brackets, divided from side panels with pilasters. Carved into the broken pediment are the Australian Coat of Arms and the words Roll of Honour, 1914-1919, Queensland Railways Toowoomba Employees. The side panels are also framed by pilasters crowned with decorative motifs of the Queensland Railways emblem, scrolls and shells. The pilasters also frame lighter timber plaques with names in gold point. The Honour Roll is flanked by smaller memorial plaques with gold lettering and motifs.
The platform canopies have been constructed at different stages, in different forms and materials. The canopy attached to the Station Building and Refreshment Room Wing is framed in timber and has an arched corrugated iron roof. The roof rests on timber trusses with arched top cords and is stabilised with lateral trusses. The roof structure is supported on steel posts (which have replaced timber ones) with curved brackets and valances. Extending out to the north are two canopies with butterfly roofs on open-webbed steel frames with central supports (1910). Immediately to the south is a cantilevered canopy also on an open-webbed steel structure (c1911).
The station environment also contains intact structures associated with former railway operations.
The Porter's Shed and Guard's Hut (1908-15) are located to the south of the main station buildings. These modest weatherboard buildings are connected by a battened store, and have pitched corrugated iron roofs with awnings supported on timber brackets.
Cabin B is a weatherboard clad room adjoining the main entry to the platform which contains intact safeworking and interlocking equipment - comprising several steel levers, a yard diagram, and electrical staff equipment with shaped red painted steel and brass encasing mounted on a concrete pedestal.
Located within the railway yard, The Goods Shed (1896) is a long rectangular building with substantial timber trusses and bracketed central columns. It is clad in corrugated iron, and has a pitched roof with bracketed eaves and a raised central roof light. It also has timber platforms supported on large cut logs.
Also located within the railway yard is the Westinghouse Brake Examination Pit and shelter. It comprises a modest corrugated iron building with a barrel vaulted corrugated iron roof covering a long rectangular brick-lined pit. The building contains boards detailing brake examination schedules, and a workbench.
Other yard structures include Signal Cabin A, a water crane and a wagon weighbridge. Signal Cabin A is a two-storeyed chamferboard-clad building with pitched corrugated iron roofs, a cantilevered timber catwalk overlooking the railway at first floor level. The building contains intact but disconnected mechanical signalling equipment. The first floor contains a large frame of colour-coded mechanical steel signalling levers, timber and brass track indicators, and a yard diagram. The Water Crane comprises a cast iron hollow tube surmounted by a rotating cast iron feeder arm with valve controls and a canvas tube attached, mounted on a concrete pedestal and adjacent to a concrete drain. The Wagon Weighbridge comprises a large steel scale housed in chamferboard-clad building with a pitched corrugated iron roof, and a large metal balance plate.
The station also has two WWII air raid shelters: a brick and concrete shelter adjacent to the front entry stairs on Railway Street, and a smaller concrete shelter located on the northern platform near the honour board, which was designed for the use of QR employees.
The Toowoomba Railway Station contains intact evidence of its growth, development and workings in its Station Building, Refreshment Room Wing, Goods Shed, annexes, platform outbuildings, Honour Roll, canopies, and yard structures It also contains finely detailed architectural elements in the exteriors of the Station Building and Refreshment Room Wing, the Honour Roll, and Refreshment Room interior, furnishings and fittings .
","history":"Toowoomba Railway Station represents an important site in the study of the railway network of Queensland. As the focal point of one of the major railway routes in Queensland the Toowoomba station has reflected the growth and decline of railway passenger traffic in Queensland.
Conceived originally as an imposing two-storeyed structure the Toowoomba station was designed by Sir Charles Fox in England in mid-1866. As designed the building was to be prefabricated in England and shipped to Queensland. It was anticipated that this building would act as the administrative centre for the railways centred on Toowoomba.
After the collapse of the Agra bank in 1866, this contract was cancelled and a replacement structure erected instead. This was of a similar design to Laidley station. The building rapidly outgrew its usefulness and in 1871 the decision was taken to construct a new station. Delays occurred, but by March 1873, R. Godsall of Toowoomba, was awarded the contract. This building designed by FDG Stanley, the Colonial architect, was eventually handed over on October 26 1874. As designed by Stanley and built it was the first masonry station building to be erected in the Queensland country area.
The original station design featured a refreshment-dining room area but by the turn of the century it was apparent that larger facilities would be required. Construction of a new Railway Refreshment Room Wing began in 1901, and was completed in 1902. Two major extensions were added on to these facilities; the Tea Room in 1915 and two extensions in the Dining Room area in 1920 and 1926.
A further addition was made to catering facilities c1937, with the provision of a kiosk. This is of interest as in 1930 the uniform gauge railway link had been opened from Kyogle to Brisbane effectively by passing Toowoomba as the interstate link.
Extensions have been made progressively to station canopies and platforms as well within the station block itself. In 1906 the platform was extended towards Russell Street, and canopies followed this extension in 1911.
During this period, a wrought iron overbridge was provided for pedestrian access in 1905 at the cost of 4000 pounds. Two subsequent extensions followed in 1937 and 1949. In 1985 the overbridge was relocated to a sports ground near Grantham.
The station out buildings form as important a part of the history of this station as passengers' amenities. In the period of 1908-15 timber out buildings were provided South toward Russell St. These included parcels rooms as well as luggage rooms. Accommodation for guards and porters were provided in two smaller buildings. Of these extensions only the Guards and Porters buildings remain. Whilst of a standard design they reflect on the conditions worked under by Departmental workers.
The two world wars are also reflected within the station environment. From 1914-19 a magnificent wooden Honour board at the north end of the station pays tribute to the role of Toowoomba railway workers. Of interest is the fact that it was crafted at the North Ipswich railway workshops, and unveiled by commissioner Charles Evans, a former Toowoomba railwayman himself. The station also has two WWII bomb shelters: one near the Honour Board built as protection for railway employees; the second lies outside the main station entrance and was constructed to protect the general public from bomb splinters.
Part of the present assistant station-masters office comprises the Toowoomba B signal cabin, one of two in the Toowoomba yard. It was installed during the 1950s to replace the original tower cabin B. Although now disconnected (May 1993) the interior of this cabin illustrates older methods of safeworking and train control now superseded by automatic signalling.
A series of ancillary structures and servicing facilities evidence the development of the station environment. The Watering Crane standing alongside the tracks was originally used as a water replenishing point for steam locomotives. Worker's huts and accommodation are also located within the yard; it is possible that both of these structures were erected in the 1920's as part of the station yard re-organisation. These huts at present are in use as accommodation as shunters and train examiners shelters. At the Eastern edge of the shunting yard a mechanical balance scale is still extant, housed in a weighbridge shelter shed. The weighbridge balance scale bears a foundry plate marker on it. Slide balances were used to measure wagon weights for train marshalling.
The Westinghouse brake examination pit and shed, possibly constructed circa 1900 is also located in the outer areas of the yard. The brake inspection pit appears to be constructed of local bricks. This is unusual as most surviving locomotive/carriage inspection pits tend to be of concrete construction. Of particular significance is the checkboard placed on wall of interior of this shed, listing passenger car brake examinations and overhaul dates. Most vehicles listed have now been withdrawn or disposed of as railway items.
Also associated with signalling and safeworking in the Toowoomba yard is the A signal cabin, taken out of use mid 1993. This cabin possibly dates from the 1920's. The cabin interior is still intact, and includes signal levers, safeworking instruments and Toowoomba yard diagram. Associated with this structure are the now dismantled semaphore signals from the signal gantry.
The Toowoomba Goods Shed dates from 1896, although a smaller goods shed was constructed with the 1867 structure. Plans had been prepared for this replacement shed as early as 1884, the new plans called for a shed 250 by 75 feet of timber and galvanised iron on pile foundations with two 150 by 15 foot platforms and two 5 ton cranes.
The artefacts and structures listed above all form an important role in providing an overview of the working environment not only of the station, but also of the railway yards themselves. They are significant because they add to the understanding of both the station as a separate entity, and as a fully operational working railway environment.
","criteria":"The Toowoomba Railway Station, Honour Board, and Railway Yard Structures are important in demonstrating the development in the 19th century of the first main line railway in Queensland, and the growth and decline of railway passenger traffic in Queensland. The station building, erected in 1867, is the oldest extant masonry railway station in Queensland, and the Railway Refreshment Rooms are the last remaining commercially operating public refreshment rooms at a railway station in Queensland.
The intact yard structures are evidence of the development of railway operations since the turn of the century.
|The Honour Roll is a rare example of a memorial element crafted in railway workshops.
|The place has a strong community association as the site of the Toowoomba railway station since 1867, and as the railway station building since 1874, and a special association with colonial architect FDG Stanley,
|The fine detailing of the exterior of the Station Building and Refreshment Room Wing, the impressive interior and fine detailing of the Refreshment Room and its internal furnishings and fittings, and the finely-crafted Honour Roll have aesthetic quality.
|The place has a strong community association as the site of the Toowoomba railway station since 1867, and as the railway station building since 1874, and the Queensland Government, in particular the Railway employees.
","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":15753,"place_ref":600978,"name":"Empire Theatre (former)","alternate_name":"Empire Theatre","street_address":"56 Neil Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1994-05-31","description":"The Empire Theatre is located in Neil Street, Toowoomba, and is bounded on its north side by the Wesley Uniting Church, and by the Masonic Lodge on the south side. Both these buildings, which have historic value, are set well back off the street. This accentuates the Empire Theatre's dominant form in the streetscape. Directly to the east of the theatre are located contemporary single-storeyed brick buildings associated with the TAFE College use. Further to the east of these is a three-storeyed teaching block c1970 and behind this a single-storeyed teaching block which runs through to Hume Street.
The Empire Theatre's elevation facing Neil Street is in a 1930s Art Deco style finished in plain plaster work over brick. The form of this section of the building is a simple cube with a step back at the front to form a parapet. The height of the building is accentuated by the use of equally positioned projecting pilaster elements running across the front, down the sides and across what was the front of the 1911 theatre. The tops of these pilasters are finished in a pattern resembling palm fronds, the trunk of which extends down the face of each pilaster. In the panels between the pilasters are located two narrow windows at first floor foyer level which are divided by a projecting decorated mullion that extends above and below the windows. Geometrically decorated panels are located in these positions. Above this is a large rectangular panel with border, and above this at parapet level a further decorative panel divided by a profiled projecting truncated dummy pilaster. The front wall to the bio box is set back and is detailed in the same fashion with windows and decorative panels between palm frond topped pilasters. Above the parapet is the Empire sign, a linear jazz detail in ironwork, with neon lettering.
The awning which originally ran down the sides of the foyer and across the northwest and southwest exists now only over the footpath. Both sides of the foyer have been infilled by later development. Other than this change the integrity of the building remains high. Below the awning are the original timber and bevelled glass front doors which are intact as are the show cases at each side.
The external walls of the building are brick and incorporate some of the 1911 theatre that was destroyed by fire. These include the side walls, part of the front wall, and a substantial part of the rear wall of the auditorium. The 'baroque' detailing of the 1911 theatre windows in the side walls can still be observed.
The fly tower which extends to a height of 90 feet is constructed in timber with corrugated galvanised iron cladding. The roof is divided in two sections with the highest level having a hipped roof and lower half a gable form. The tower only extends to threequarters the width of the auditorium with the remaining area taken up by a skillion roof. The original working drawings show a single structure as wide as the auditorium with a skillion roof and a glazed ventilated cupola, but changes occurred during the construction phase.
The deep profile corrugated fibrous cement main roof is supported on single span steel trusses which have a segmentally curved bottom chord and have been manufactured from riveted angle iron sections. The bottom chord of the trusses are clad in fibrous plaster that sweeps down the walls and over iron supporting stanchions. The ceiling which follows the curve is lined with Craftex, a proprietary fibrous board. This material has been used extensively on the walls and ceilings inside the auditorium for its sound absorption qualities. Perforated fibrous plaster vents are located down the centre of the auditorium ceiling that connect to five ridge vents.
The Dress Circle is supported on a riveted truss that spans 70 feet supported at the side isles by steel stanchions and provides an uninterrupted view of the stage. Six cantilevered girders extend 24 feet beyond the line of the truss and connecting girders slope back from it to the rear wall of the auditorium. This steel frame carries a timber floor and Craftex ceilings below, with the fibrous plaster covering the beams and two stanchions. The steel construction was notable at the time and reported on in the October 1934 edition of Building.
The proscenium arch is constructed in a perforated pattern of fibrous plaster over a timber frame. It is noted for its size and the lighting effects that were a feature.
The theatre retains evidence of the original lighting system, including lighting switchboards at front of house and in the bio-box, large porcelain dimmers, and the proscenium arch lighting grid. Several original lighting fixtures also survive.
","history":"The present Empire Theatre consists of two layers of development, with the bulk of the fabric and design dating to 1933, but incorporating substantial sections of an earlier theatre which was erected on the site in 1911. Essentially, the Empire Theatre is a large, 1933, purpose-designed, Art Deco picture theatre.
The first Empire Theatre, a large masonry picture theatre with a seating capacity of 2,200, was opened on 29 June 1911, and proved enormously successful. It was built for an association of six Toowoomba businessmen and Brisbane entertainment promoter EJ Carroll (later one of the principals of Queensland's home-grown Birch, Carroll & Coyle picture theatre chain), who had commenced screening films in Toowoomba's large Austral Hall, Margaret Street, in 1909. The screenings were so popular that the erection of a purpose-designed picture theatre was inevitable. Titles to the Neil Street site were transferred to members of the association in 1910, and ultimately to Empire Theatre Ltd in 1911.
The 1911 theatre was designed by architect George Lane, formerly employed by Toowoomba architects James Marks and his son Harry James Marks from c1900 until 1906, and in partnership with Harry James Marks in 1909-10. The contractor was Henry Andrews. The design incorporated a proscenium stage, and the movies shared early programmes with vaudeville acts. The building was renovated in 1928, and in the following year sound equipment was installed. The first 'talkie' seen in Toowoomba - The Jazz Singer (US, 1927) - was screened at the Empire Theatre on 2 September 1929. By 1933, Dan Carroll had replaced EJ Carroll in Empire Theatre Ltd, and it would appear that the Empire was associated with the Birch, Carroll & Coyle theatre chain.
The first Empire Theatre, to which the Toowoomba community had developed a strong attachment, was destroyed by fire on 22 February 1933. Almost immediately a design for a new Empire Theatre, to cost approximately £30,000, was commissioned by the owners. In the interim, Empire Theatre Ltd leased the Town Hall for their film screenings.
Designs for the new theatre were prepared by the well-known Brisbane architectural firm of TR Hall & LB Phillips (1929-48). Tenders were called in April 1933 and the contract was let Kell & Rigby, of Sydney, Brisbane and Toowoomba, in May. Substantial sections of the 1911 brick walling had survived the fire, and much of this was incorporated into the new building. Accommodating 2,500 patrons, the second Empire Theatre was Queensland's largest provincial theatre, and second only in seating capacity to Brisbane's Regent. Nationally, the Empire was exceeded in size only by the State, Regent, and St Kilda Palais theatres in Melbourne, the State and Capitol theatres in Sydney, and the Brisbane Regent.
Of particular note was the use of 70 tons of structural steel to frame the large gallery which spans the width of the theatre. The structural engineer was CW Alexander of Hurren, Alexander and Langman of Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide, and the fabricators were Evans Deakin & Co. Ltd of Brisbane. The steel members were fabricated in sections in Brisbane, transported by Queensland rail to Toowoomba, and assembled (riveted) on site. At the time of construction, it was considered an exceedingly intricate piece of structural engineering, unique in Queensland, and a 'triumph' in steel construction.
The new theatre blended contemporary art deco style with picture palace ethos, much of the romantic atmosphere being conveyed by European-styled diffused lighting. Of particular note was the fact that not a single column interrupted audience view of stage or screen. The bio box was the largest in Queensland; acoustics were excellent; and the theatre contained one of the largest provincial stages in Australia, attracting all types of performance from vaudeville to opera. To accommodate large stage productions, the new design incorporated a large stage, fly tower and dressing rooms.
Edward Gold, the theatre's chief electrician and founder of Radio 4GR at Toowoomba, was responsible for the most striking of the interior features: the illumination of the grand proscenium arch in constantly changing colours. This was achieved by reflecting diffused light from the wall behind the arch, which was constructed of plaster open-work, and changing the colours via a complex dimmer system. As well, a huge central lamp of wrought iron and obscure glass ran much of the length of the main ceiling, distributing a soft even light throughout the auditorium. In 1933, local press claimed the Empire Theatre employed the most extensive use of diffused lighting in any theatre in the British Commonwealth, and was unlike anything else in Australia. In 1942, when the threat of Japanese air raids was a perceived reality, the large central ceiling light was removed as a safety precaution, and has never been recovered. Similarly, three fittings, in the same design, below the Dress Circle, were removed.
Empire Theatre Ltd advertised proudly that most of the contractors and materials were of local (Brisbane and Toowoomba) origin. The decorative fibrous plaster work was carried out by Brisbane's Stucoid Modelling Co., terrazzo work by Melocco Brothers of Brisbane, and cork flooring and tiling supplied by the Decorative Tile Co., Brisbane. Joinery and furnishings were supplied by Toowoomba firms. Cemuro art stucco, a new product to Queensland, was supplied Dyne & Co. of Brisbane.
Billed as the 'theatre supreme', the new Empire Theatre opened on 27 November 1933.
It was tied into the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer exhibition network in Australia, screening in the 1930s the films of Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy, Laurel and Hardy, and the Flash Gordon serials.
In the 1950s a CinemaScope screen was installed, with no widening of the stage necessary. Audiences declined, however, in the 1960s, mainly due to the impact of television. The last film was screened in the Empire on 1 April 1971.
In 1973, Empire Theatre Pty Ltd sold the Empire to two Toowoomba businessmen. The front shop additions were erected in 1973-74, and the building was occupied for about a year by Waltons Pty Ltd, a departmental retailer. In 1975 it was acquired by the Queensland Government for Technical College purposes, and has been used more recently as a TAFE facility.
The auditorium seating was removed when the theatre closed, but most of the Dress Circle seats remain.
","criteria":"With the fly-tower intact, the Empire Theatre is important in exemplifying the early symbiosis of stage and film theatre.
The building is important historically for its close association with the expansion of mass entertainment in Queensland in the first half of the 20th century, and survives as rare and important evidence of the increasingly sophisticated expectations of interwar cinema audiences.
|The building is important historically for its close association with the expansion of mass entertainment in Queensland in the first half of the 20th century, and survives as rare and important evidence of the increasingly sophisticated expectations of interwar cinema audiences.
|Nationally, it remains one of the largest and one of the most intact Art Deco provincial picture theatres, and is the finest Art Deco picture theatre surviving in Queensland.
It has technological significance for the use of riveted steel girders in the construction of the Dress Circle, and retains evidence of theatre lighting and film projection technologies of the interwar period.
|The Empire Theatre is an outstanding example of Art Deco theatre architecture in Australia, exhibiting fine exterior and interior Art Deco detailing of aesthetic importance.
The building makes a major contribution to the Neil Street streetscape, and is a Toowoomba icon and landmark.
|It has technological significance for the use of riveted steel girders in the construction of the Dress Circle, and retains evidence of theatre lighting and film projection technologies of the interwar period.
|The theatre has had an important and special association with Toowoomba as a major entertainment venue from 1911 to 1971, being particularly important in the development of film culture in the Toowoomba district.
|It demonstrates the range of expertise of established Brisbane architects TR Hall & LB Phillips, and survives as a monument to Queensland craftsmanship and local technology.
","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":15928,"place_ref":601161,"name":"Baillie Henderson Hospital","alternate_name":"Toowoomba Mental Hospital | Toowoomba Lunatic Asylum | Toowoomba Hospital for the Insane","street_address":"1 Hogg Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-09-27","description":"The Baillie Henderson Hospital Complex occupies a 133.4 hectare site about three kilometres north-west of the city of Toowoomba in the suburb of Cranley. It is located on an elevated picturesque site on an east facing slope. The complex comprises over forty buildings, ten of which were constructed between 1888 and 1910 to the master plan of architect JJ Clark and five between 1915 and 1919 influenced by the principles upheld by Dr HB Ellerton.
\nEntry to the site is gained from the east via Mort Street or the south via Tor Street. The main access road encompasses the pre 1910 site with branches providing access to the staff accommodation at the western end of the grounds and to later hospital building to the west and north. The roads are lined with impressive avenues of mature trees including Bunya Pines.
\nThe symmetrical layout of the hospital is still evident although obscured from some views by well developed landscaping and the large scale of the recreation and therapy complex located to the west of McDonald Hall.
\nThe buildings, grounds and walkways connecting the buildings of the Baillie Henderson Hospital are of cultural significance and descriptions of individual elements follow.
\nJofre House (Ward A - Male) and Ray House (Ward 1- Female)
\nHistory
\nJofre House and Ray House were constructed in 1888 as identical two-storey face brick masonry L-shaped convalescent wards, mirror reversed on opposite sides of the central administration and service area and forming the eastern corners of the original plan for the hospital complex. They were symmetrical in plan form about their entries at 45 degrees to the wings of the buildings. Verandahs surrounded the ground floor.
\nOn the elevated site, both wards were afforded views over the valley toward the city and surrounding area. The buildings housed a central lounge, dormitories, single rooms and attendants rooms on both floors with the dining room, servery and bathroom facilities located on the ground floor. These buildings are largely intact and continue to house patients.
\nDescription
\nThe convalescent wards are two storey masonry buildings with hipped corrugated iron roofs. The red-brown English bond facebrick walls are relieved with banding at sill and floor level, contrasting lintels and multi-paned sash and frame windows. The first floor retains its symmetrical L-shape but later single storey masonry wings containing additional bathroom and recreation areas have been added to the east and south elevations (the north elevation of Ray House) breaking the continuity of the original surrounding ground level verandahs and restricting views.
\nThe interiors, with the exception of the bathrooms are generally intact and contain original joinery including staircases and doors with observation windows.
\nRush House (Male Ward B) and Pinel House (Female Ward 2), Clouston House (Ward D) and Female Ward 4 (Museum)
\nHistory
\nThe original plan for the Toowoomba asylum included six general pavilion wards, of identical design - two storey face brick masonry I shaped buildings with hipped corrugated iron roofs, symmetrical in plan form about a north-south axis, with verandahs at ground level to three sides and a covered way to the inside elevation.
\nThe ward buildings contained lavatories, stair, store and attendants room with fireplace in the wing adjacent to the covered way. The outside wing contained the dining room which had two fireplaces and the wing in between along the north-south axis of the building housed an 18 bed dormitory with 10 single 8'x9'cells and a stair and scullery adjacent to the dining room. The layout on the upper floors was similar with the exception of dormitories over the lavatories and dining room and an attendant's room above the scullery.
\nFemale Ward 2, Pinel House, was the first general ward constructed in 1888 and Male Ward B, Rush House was completed in 1892. Male Ward C and Female Ward 3 were constructed in 1898, and Clouston House and Female Ward 4 were completed in 1902.
\nLater wings containing bathroom facilities were added to the eastern elevation of each of the ward buildings and semi-detached wings for recreation areas were added to the eastern elevations of Rush House and Pinel House.
\nMale Ward C and Female Ward 3 were demolished in 1971 and Rush House has been more recently refurbished and continues to house patients. Female Ward 4 houses the hospital's museum and Clouston House is vacant. Shelter sheds and fencing that formed part of the original plan no longer survive.
\nDescription
\nThe general ward buildings are two storey I-shaped masonry buildings with hipped corrugated iron roofs. The red-brown English-bond face brick walls are relieved with banding at sill and floor levels, contrasting lintels and multi-paned sash and frame windows. Subtle differences between the construction periods of the pairs of wards is evident in the joinery treatment, window shutter details and ventilation grilles.
\nPinel House is vacant and is very intact with the exception of the painting some time ago of the external face brickwork. Female Ward 4 now houses the hospital's museum and is in a very intact condition. Clouston House is also in an intact condition and is vacant and used for storage.
\nRush House has been more recently refurbished and includes the removal of roof ventilator fleches and chimneys, the replacement of the roof sheeting in colorbond sheeting and the painting of the brickwork. Changes to the interior include the addition of partitions to dormitory areas, the replacement of joinery, lining of floors and the addition of suspended ceilings and air conditioning.
\nMacDonald Hall
\nHistory
\nMacDonald Hall was first constructed in 1888 as a T shaped single storey masonry building with a double gabled roof over its central volume and hipped roofs over the outer wings, all surrounded by timber framed verandahs and connected to kitchen, bathhouse and store behind and to the wards by the continuous covered walkway. Whilst designed as a recreation hall, the building was also used for hospital administration until the new administration building was completed in 1910. In 1913, the recreation hall was modified with the walls of the main hall increased in height to create a larger volume lit by high level sash windows to all elevations and a hipped roof was added.
\nDescription
\nThe Administration building is a single storey T-shaped building with verandahs to its east north and south elevations. The walkway connected to its west elevation has been removed.
\nIt has red-brown English-bond face brick walls relieved with banding at sill levels, contrasting lintels and six pane sash and frame windows. Four pane centre pivoting sash windows are housed in the auditorium walls above the surrounding verandah roof and have contrasting lintels and sills. The hipped roof of the main hall is supported on impressive timber trusses and the raked ceiling lined with panels of v-jointed tongue and groove boards laid diagonally to the walls. The sewing room in the northern wing has had a roof light added and a small semi detached wing containing toilets has been added to the south elevation.
\nThe main hall houses a large pipe organ and contains a stage with decorative pressed metal proscenium supported on v jointed tongue and groove walls. The single volume of the northern wing (the former sewing room) has been partitioned off into two rooms and only the north-western room was accessible from the stage. The southern wing was also not accessible. Fireplaces between the main hall and the wings have been bricked in. The later toilet addition is of stretcher bond masonry red-brown brick with a skillion roof.
\nAdministration block
\nHistory
\nThe construction of the Administration Building in 1910 completed the plan for the first stage of the Toowoomba Lunatic Asylum. The two storey masonry building with hipped roof, clock tower and detached toilets differed from the original building illustrated in an 1888 perspective of the proposed hospital but is located in the same position along the site's central axis overlooking the circular drive and surrounding gardens.
\nThe main entry to the building was via a central hall that opened from the front arcade into a stairhall intersected by a passage connecting the north and south side entrances to the building. Offices for the Medical Superintendent, the Assistant Medical Superintendent, the Steward, Matron, Chief Attendant, Dispensary and Hall Porter were contained on the ground floor with male visitors and female visitors' rooms located at the south and north ends of the arcade respectively. The first floor housed the Matrons' bedroom, sitting room, servant's room and kitchen as well as a library and photography and pathology room. The matron's bathroom was located on the northern end of the rear verandah and a dark room on the southern end. A stair from the western verandah led to the verandah at ground level.
\nDescription
\nThe Administration block is two storey brick masonry building with hipped corrugated iron roof and centred clock tower. Whilst its general architectural expression, its materials and detailing complement the hospital complex it clearly expresses the stylistic differences from the period in which it was built.
\nIt has a symmetrical layout about its east west axis and is located centrally between Ray House and Jofre House and along the same axis as McDonald Hall and is connected to these buildings by a covered timber framed walkway with gabled roof.
\nThe front elevation of the Administration building presents a formal public face raised on a plinth of quarry faced stone above which an arcade of semi circular and flat arches of red-brown face brick are relieved with quarry faced stone banding, voussoirs and keystones. The corners of the arcade have parapets of ashlar stonework with curved copings which rise to form the solid corner balustrading of the verandah above. Timber verandah posts support curved verandah beams and eaves brackets and are of a scale and detail that suggest the domestic function of the first floor.
\nThree of the first floor verandah bays have been enclosed by a half high wall with aluminium windows above, replacing the original timber balustrading. The verandahs to the north and south have been enclosed with weatherboards and casement sash windows. The two storey timber verandah at the rear has been enclosed on the first floor with weatherboards and aluminium windows. A single storey, one room masonry addition with hipped roof has been added to the south-west and north-west corners of the building.
\nDetached lavatory buildings for males and females are located outside the south and north entrances. These are identical single storey red-brown English bond facebrick structures with hipped corrugated iron roofs and louvred windows with contrasting sills.
\nBrowne House (Male Ward E) and Whishaw House (Female Ward 5)
\nHistory
\nBrowne House and Whishaw House were erected between 1917-1919 to the west of Wards 4 and D as a pair of male and female ward buildings providing additional accommodation for patients needing comparatively less supervision. The buildings were part of the second stage of development of the hospital complex during Ellerton's period in office and were sited east-west facing the grounds and views.
\nThey were constructed as two storey masonry buildings with projecting gabled wings at each end and a larger central projecting gabled wing with bay window to both levels. The ground floor comprised a large, central dining room, sitting room, dormitory, scullery, lavatories, bathroom and stores were built in a one storey annexe at the rear of the dining room centred between two semi detached masonry stairwells. The first floor comprised three large open dormitories.
\nDescription
\nThe substantial two storey buildings with corrugated iron roofs have red-brown face brickwork to first floor level and rough-cast render above relieved with contrasting lintels and multi-paned sash and frame windows. The projecting central wing on the front elevations was finished on both levels with rough cast render relieved with contrasting quoining, banding, copings and lintels. Two storey timber verandahs provided the infill between the projecting wings of the front elevation.
\nThe single storey annexe at the rear of Browne House has been replaced by a large two storey masonry addition constructed c1970 and another single storey semi detached masonry wing with skillion roof has been added to the western end of the north elevation.
\nWhishaw House remains relatively intact including early bathroom and linen areas on the ground floor. The dining room is currently used for recreation for patients and the first floor is vacant.
\nJames House and Hill House
\nHistory
\nJames House and Hill House (also known as Tuke Annexe) were constructed between 1915-1917 as complementary admission wards and formed part of Ellerton's building program. These buildings continued to follow the symmetrical layout of the site but are set further away from the central axis on the outskirts of the recreation ground which they overlook.
\nThey were a result of Ellerton's desire to provide more suitable accommodation for patients and provide more privacy and views. The buildings housed 10 patients in single rooms with bathroom in the western wing, a dormitory of 12 beds with bath rooms in the eastern wing, central sitting and dining rooms with bay windows opening onto a verandah over looking the recreation ground and semi detached kitchen and store.
\nDescription
\nJames and Hill Houses are a pair of single storey U shaped buildings with hipped corrugated iron roofs, red-brown facebrick walls relieved with contrasting sills and lintels and multi-paned sash and frame windows. The verandah connecting the kitchen wing to the main structure has been enclosed on both buildings.
\nJames House is intact and is currently being used as a site office for the redevelopment team. Hill House appears to be in an intact condition - access was not available.
\nTredgold - Hospital Ward
\nHistory
\nTredgold House was erected in 1917 as a hospital ward for treatment of patients with physical problems. It was one of three asylum hospitals built at the time which were all basically to the same plan. The smallest of these hospitals was built at Challinor and the other at Wolston Park which had a tile roof. Both of these are extant. Tredgold House continues to house patients.
\nDescription
\nTredgold House is a single storey red-brown face brick building of stretcher bond construction with large galvanised iron hipped roof. The building has a symmetrical plan form with a front entrance given prominence by a battened gabled end projecting above adjacent verandahs, a rough cast finish and roof fleche.
\nThe symmetrical floor plan contains central entrance hall and office areas with a wing opposite containing kitchen and scullery. A pentagonal activity room opens into two adjoining rooms beyond the kitchen area. The two wings that open off the corridor at an angle to the central portion provide dormitory accommodation and a large activity room with later additions to the end of each of these wings providing further accommodation.
\nAssistant Medical Superintendent's Quarters
\nHistory
\nThe quarters for the Assistant Medical Superintendent was built in 1898 as a single storey masonry residence with large hipped roof situated at the top of the slope on the western limit of the site for the hospital complex.
\nDescription
\nThe house is constructed of red-brown face brickwork with a hipped corrugated iron roof and projecting gables. It has an asymmetrical layout and includes an entrance hall, drawing room, dining room, three bedrooms, a bathroom and servant's bedroom. The pantry, kitchen and wash house are contained in a wing on the north west corner of the building with a masonry northern wall and timber framed and clad south and west wall. The house contains five fireplaces and has a verandah to the east and west.
\nThe house is the oldest one of five occupying the western end of site and overlooking the hospital complex. The other houses built from the 1930s-1960s for staff form a residential streetscape and edge at the west of the complex.
\nThe building is currently unoccupied but a tenant is being sought.
\nMedical Superintendent's Residence
\nHistory
\nThe quarters for the Medical Superintendent was built in 1888 as a single storey masonry residence with large hipped roof situated away from the complex to the south east. In its original form the main portion of the house had a T shaped symmetrical layout with verandahs to the north, south and east with a dining room, drawing room and two large bedrooms all with bay windows. Two small bedrooms were located at the rear of the house and a semi detached kitchen and pantry on the south eastern corner was accessible from a verandah. A later timber wing was added to the north west corner and a servant's bedroom and scullery was added to the kitchen in 1940.
\nDescription
\nThe house is constructed of red-brown face brickwork on a rendered base with a hipped corrugated iron roof with timber verandahs to the east and timber verandahs and bedroom wing to the west. The house was not inspected during the site visit.
\nThe building continues to be occupied by the Medical Superintendent.
\nRecreation Ground & Landscaping
\nHistory
\nThe landscape forms an integral part of the development of the Baillie Henderson Hospital complex as a major contributing element to the pleasant environment required for the treatment of patients in nineteenth and early twentieth
\ncentury asylum planning. Terracing of the site, the planting of trees, hedges, gardens and the incorporation of garden elements such as shelter sheds and fencing were designed to provide an attractive and restful environment whilst providing for the requirements of containment of patients within the complex.
\nThe recreation ground, located on the hospital plan's central axis formed an integral part of initiative of HB Ellerton for the second stage of the hospital development at Toowoomba providing a pleasant outlook from the complex of buildings erected at this time through trees to a large oval and beyond to more distant views.
\nDescription
\nApproached from the east, the Baillie Henderson Hospital becomes apparent at some distance as a tree covered sanctuary on the east facing slope of the valley set back from the approach roads in a rural setting. On the site, significant and mature landscaping elements are planted along the principal driveways to the hospital proper and residences, around the buildings to provide shelter and restful gardens, to create vistas, pathways and to frame the recreation oval. These plantings include Bunya pines (Araucaria bidwilli) and many other species.
","history":"Baillie Henderson Hospital is situated on the northwestern outskirts of Toowoomba. It was established as a lunatic asylum in 1890 and continues to provide psychiatric care with more than 400 patients and is the most intact nineteenth century asylum in Queensland.
The treatment of lunacy or madness underwent a reformation in the first half of the nineteenth century in America, France and Britain from physical restraint and bizarre procedures to management through the provision of a pleasant environment and work opportunities. The new approach was based on reforming an individual by placing them in a suitable environment and by the 1860s, asylums were accepted as the most appropriate place for the treatment of insanity.
Prior to Queensland becoming a separate colony in 1859, residents who were classified as lunatics or insane and required control were simply placed in the local gaol or sent south to an asylum at Sydney. Within thirty years of self-government, three asylums were operating in Queensland.
Queensland's first asylum was opened at Woogaroo in 1865. Within a decade overcrowding was a chronic problem and a Royal Commission in 1877 recommended the establishment of asylums at Toowoomba and Rockhampton. An asylum was established at Sandy Gallop (the Challinor Centre at Ipswich) in 1878 and operated as an annexe of Goodna until 1910 when it became a separate institution. The Rockhampton asylum did not proceed and plans for the Toowoomba institution were prepared by the colonial architect JJ Clark in 1885. These plans provided for a large complex with two rows of pavilion wards separated by service buildings.
The design and planning of the Toowoomba asylum was based on the principles of asylum design as enunciated by J Conolly in The Construction and Government of Lunatic Asylums and the original plan took more than 20 years to complete.
The power of symmetrical form with its inherent qualities of balance and order were used to great effect at the Toowoomba asylum in its master planning and building design. The site was laid out about an east-west axis on which service and ancillary buildings were centred with identical pairs of pavilion wards, males to the south and females to the north laid equidistant from the centre and from each other. The wards and service buildings were also of symmetrical design reinforced and connected by a continuous covered walkway. Each of the ward buildings had an associated outdoor area enclosed by a three metre high close boarded timber fence into which, shelter sheds and gates were set. The requisite requirements for a pleasant environment were enhanced by landscaping which including planting of gardens and perimeter trees to create vistas and more intimate areas for repose.
Construction commenced in 1886 and by 1890 sufficient building has been completed for the asylum to open. In 1891, the Toowoomba Lunatic Asylum comprised a male (Jofre House) and female (Ray House) convalescent ward, a general female ward (Pinel House), and a group of buildings comprising the administration building (now MacDonald Hall), kitchen, bathrooms, washhouse and store and the medical superintendent's residence which was situated adjacent to Hogg Street away from the main complex. The first patients were transferred from the Goodna asylum and by the end of 1890, the number of patients totalled 196. The second male ward (Ward B - Rush House), Pinel House's complement, was completed in 1892.
Construction continued throughout the 1890s and 1900s with additional pairs of male and female pavilion wards constructed in 1898 (Male Ward C and Female Ward 3) and 1902 (Male Ward D- Clouston House and Female Ward 4[now the Museum]), the assistant medical superintendent's residence (1899), nurses' quarters (1909) and administration block (1910). By 1910 the original plan was complete and the asylum accommodated more than 700 patients.
A second major building phase occurred in the period 1915-1919. In 1909 Dr HB Ellerton, an English trained medical practitioner was appointed Inspector of Hospitals for the Insane in Queensland. On his appointment, Ellerton immediately set about implementing changes and improvements to the asylums and re-ception houses in the state. Apart from numerous administrative changes, Eller-ton oversaw a major upgrading and expansion of the infrastruc-ture at Goodna, Ipswich and Toowoomba asylums.
At Toowoomba, five new buildings were erected as a result of Ellerton's initiatives. Ellerton was a strong advocate of the 'moral treatment' approach to insanity. This approach stressed the need for providing a pleasant environment for patients and useful employment and recreation. This philosophy was evident in a pair of new large blocks erected in 1917-1919 Female Ward 5 (Whishaw House) and Male Ward E (Browne House) set within landscaped grounds with views to the surrounding countryside. Also in this period, a pair of domestic scale wards (Male Admission Ward - James House and Female Admission Ward - Hill House) and a hospital ward (Tredgold House) were completed. These buildings faced a recreation ground centred on the east west axis of the original hospital plan. Throughout this period agriculture was important part of the asylum operations, partly to offset costs and also to provide employment for patients.
Few major building projects were undertaken in the subsequent decades. Improvements were limited to extensions to the nurses quarters (1934), new bathrooms, staff residences and laundrettes. The name of the institution was changed to the 'Toowoomba Mental Hospital' following the Mental Hygiene Act of 1938. This Act signalled a number of changes in the administration of mental health and coincided with new approaches to treatment, particular the use of drug therapies. A further name change to 'Toowoomba Special Hospital' followed the Mental Health Act of 1962. In August 1968 it was renamed 'Baillie Henderson Hospital' in honour of Dr John Hector Baillie Henderson (1902-1981), Assistant Medical Superintendent 1939-1950 and Medical Superintendent 1950-1969.
Following decades of only minor building works, a major program of upgrading and replacing existing facilities commenced in the mid 1960s. New service buildings included laundry (1968), canteen (1968), kitchen (1972) and artisan's block (1980). New wards and accommodation facilities included Conolly, Tuke and Digby (1974), Penrose and Maudsley (1977), and Gowrie Hall complex (1991). Most of these buildings were erected to the north and west of the existing complex. Male Ward C and Female Ward 3(1898) and the kitchen and laundry were amongst the original buildings demolished c1971 as part of this building program. The Recreation Complex located west of McDonald Hall was constructed during this later building program.
Since the 1980s, the number of patients has steadily declined with a greater emphasis on treating and caring for psychiatric patients in either community based facilities or facilities in general hospitals.
The Nurses' Quarters was demolished in 1997.
","criteria":"The Baillie Henderson Hospital is important for its association with the development of mental health care in Queensland since 1890.
Although altered and extended over the years, the Baillie Henderson Hospital represents an important era in mental health care in Queensland and is the most intact group of mental health buildings of the period.
|Of the three main asylums built in Queensland prior to 1920, Baillie Henderson Hospital at Toowoomba is the only mental hospital in Queensland to have formal symmetrical site planning and demonstrates most clearly through this symmetry and that found in its building forms and landscaping, an asylum based on a highly formal and systematic design. It also, is the only such institution to retain its rural setting. Wolston Park, by comparison, has developed in a more haphazard and less formal manner although there are groups of buildings that are arranged in a systematic manner. The Ipswich asylum was also well planned but the buildings were arranged in an arc along a ridge to maximise views to the countryside. The buildings were not arranged in a formal and systematic manner.
|(Criterion under review)
|The place demonstrates the nineteenth century principles of asylum design, enunciated in its planning, landscaping and the design of its buildings.
Baillie Henderson Hospital clearly demonstrates the principal characteristics of an asylum based on nineteenth and early twentieth century principles. The planning of the site and design of buildings was based on well established principles for asylum design as enunciated in John Conolly's The government and construction of lunatic asylums (first published in 1847). Another important publication concerning asylum design was the American Thomas Kirkebride, On the construction of asylums (1861). A common theme in both publications was the emphasis on the systematic arrangement of wards and service buildings and the high level of order and discipline required to control and manage a large number of patients. The buildings erected at Baillie Henderson between 1888 and 1910 were arranged in a systematic and formal manner. Despite the demolition of two of the earlier wards and some service buildings, and the erection of new buildings, the symmetrical planning is still clearly evident.
|Baillie Henderson Hospital is significant for the architectural qualities of its buildings, in particular those erected in the period 1888-1919. The buildings include the Administration Building (1910), McDonald Hall (1888-1913), Jofre and Ray Houses (1888), Rush (1892) and Pinel (1891) Houses, Clouston House and the museum (1902), Browne and Whishaw House (1917), James and Hill Houses (1915-17), Tredgold House (1919), the Medical Superintendent's residence (1888) and the Assistant Medical Officer's Quarters (1899).
The hospital complex is also significant for the aesthetics of its setting as a tree covered haven in a rural landscape with views afforded both from and to the site. Its mature plantings, including avenues of Bunya Pines, contained within its grounds and gardens and along its principal driveways and pathways and around its recreation oval contribute to the pleasant setting that was a principal characteristic of asylum planning in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
|(Criterion under review)
|The Hospital is important for its association with the work of Colonial Architect JJ Clark and the Architectural Branch of the Department of Public Works. Clark was responsible for the site planning and design of the first stage of hospital buildings. The period between 1900 and 1915 was arguably the golden era of the Branch in terms of the quality of its work and the second stage of hospital buildings was designed and constructed during this period and are significant examples of the work produced by the Works Department.
\nIt has added significance through its association with Dr HB Ellerton and his approach to treating insanity.
","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":15969,"place_ref":601205,"name":"Picnic Point and adjacent Parkland","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"168 Tourist Road","suburb":"RANGEVILLE","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-11-13","description":"As Toowoomba is approached by road from Brisbane along the Warrego Highway the bush-clad escarpment of the Great Dividing Range is sighted rising impressively above the Lockyer Valley. In recent years more cleared areas have been visible along the skyline of the escarpment and buildings are beginning to spill over this edge and dot the slopes with patches of unfamiliar colour. The well-established recreation facilities at Picnic Point are indiscernible from below to all but the informed visitor. This impression on approach conceals the intensity of the development of the recreation facilities and associated garden areas at the parkland from the visitor until the ultimate point of arrival is reached.
The final section of the roadway approach to Picnic Point and adjacent parklands is along Tourist Road through an avenue of mature hoop pine (Auracaria cunnninghamii) and South Queensland kauri (Agathis robusta) pine trees, conceivably the 'noble thoroughfare' anticipated by Holtze in 1910. The first substantial area of parkland, known as Lions Park, is on the northern side of the road. Its western edge is an open grassy area with both exotic and native tree species planted here. There is a children's playground here and a substantial bluestone shed which stores a children's train, operated on week-ends by the Lions Club. Strolling east through this parkland the waterfall area is reached but this is not visible from the road approach.
The visual cue to the traveller of arrival at Picnic Point is the gentle curve of Tourist Road to the left as it narrows and becomes limited to one-way traffic through the central area of the parklands. Traffic calming devices are also constructed across the carriage-way. Shrubs along the roadway to the north are heavily trimmed and shaped to a cylindrical form. Sweeping vistas over the escarpment to the north begin to open up. To the right (south of the roadway) is the area referred to in the 1995 Management Plan as the Central Precinct. This area is visually dominated by a dense canopy of mature Hoop Pines (Auracaria cunnninghamii) and Blakely's Red Gum (Eucalyptus blakleyii). There are a number of park fixtures installed under this canopy, including another children's playground, a band rotunda and strategically placed park bench tables and seating.
A small information shelter is situated on the left as the Primary Viewing Precinct is approached. Beyond this shelter a light eucalypt canopy and a new fence, designed to reflect the simple post and diamond placed top rail style of fencing which would have been used here earlier, mark the edge of the escarpment. To the right an access point pulls off this perimeter road to a car-parking area. Alighting from the car the visitor is drawn across the road and into the area which remains, and has been historically, the primary viewing precinct adjacent to the kiosk. A broad pathway leads to a stone cairn with a brass direction information plate on the top. Presumably this is the cairn provided by Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd. in 1930. It is from this vicinity that countless visitors over time have captured a signature photographic memory of Picnic Point against a backdrop of Tabletop Mountain. Early photographs indicate a lookout structure built out over the escarpment in this area but no immediately obvious evidence remains of this. Adjacent stairs descend to the pathway system along the face of the escarpment. Bluestone retaining walls in this area suggest that this path was part of the walkway system for which State Government loan funding was requested in 1954. Located prominently to the left of the stone direction plinth is the Puppy Memorial, erected in 1959, initially installed closer to the kiosk, and moved to its current location in recent times. This new location would appear to closely correspond with the preferred site indicated by the Toowoomba Thistle Pipe Band in 1959.
The kiosk structure itself forms the southern boundary of the primary viewing precinct. The relatively minimum visual impact of the current building on the site belies what, in reality, is quite an extensive function and day-tourist service facility. This illusion is achieved by the construction of a substantial part of the facility being under the brow of the escarpment with pedestrian access drawn down into the lower service level. To the west of the kiosk is the distinctive mushroom-shaped water tower, visually dominating the built environment and today a key reference point within the Picnic Point parklands.
The lower level of the kiosk structure, the main public eating area, leads out via a terrace to the north onto part of the escarpment walking track system immediately below the primary viewing precinct. At this point the path is fenced from the escarpment with chain-wire mesh fencing fixed to galvanized pipe posts and rails. Remnants of exotic vegetation, particularly of Bougainvillea creeper to the bank, are identified here. Walking northward along this track similar but more intimate vistas to the north are obtained to those from the primary viewing precinct above.
Further along the visitor enters the waterfall area on the site of the old quarry. This area is planted densely with tropical character foliage plants to both upper and under stories producing a cool shady pathway to the base of the waterfall. Large stepping stones are used to define the track around the base of the waterfall. A recent addition to the enclosed lawn area to the west of the waterfall is a small rotunda structure used as the focal point for celebrations such as weddings. Further westwards an informal track leads to the Bill Gould Lookout offering views down to the Warrego Highway below. To the south a lighted pathway and stairs, both paved with stone slabs, negotiate a series of low terraced garden beds through the shrubbery border to the enclosed lawn area, eventually leading the visitor along another formed pathway to the top of the old quarry and a viewing platform above the waterfall or across onto the Central Precinct area in the vicinity of the entry traffic island on Tourist Road.
The central precinct area is yet another component of these parklands with a particularly distinctive character arising from its designed landscape. As previously noted this area is visually dominated by a dense canopy of mature hoop pines (Auracaria cunnninghamii) and Blakely's red gum (Eucalyptus blakleyii) and there are a number of park fixtures installed under this canopy, including another children's playground, a band rotunda and strategically placed park bench tables and seating. Given the maturity of the dominant hoop pines and eucalypts here it seems reasonable to surmise that they are survivors of the "further ornamental trees" Curator Harding planned and planted at the park in 1913 for the Toowoomba City Council.
Returning to the car park at the top of the Central Precinct the visitor has the opportunity to explore the parklands further by car, along Tobruk Drive. This bitumen road is within the parklands and runs eastwards behind the kiosk along a gently dipping ridge, with a vegetation cover of predominantly open eucalypt forest. This area was grazed at least until the early 1960s. The ubiquitous natural bushland style of picnic facilities, popular since the raising of the awareness of environmental issues on the national consciousness, is installed in this area. Road edging is marked with low log barriers to prevent the entry of cars to the sweeping areas of shady lawn. Barbecues and park furniture are of a robust, basic and functional design as is the fencing and structure associated with the Bob Dodd's Lookout at the end of the roadway. To the south of the road a gully is being revegetated with rainforest seedlings with voluntary labour from the community and a small dam has been constructed at the foot of this gully to enable the seedlings to be watered as required. The Pardalote Walk meanders, as a graded track, along the bottom edge of the open northern picnic area here from the rear of the kiosk to the Bob Dodd's Lookout. From the Bob Dodd's Lookout the track leads around the ridge to the south to the rainforest gully and dam then joins the Fantail Circuit and eventually intersects with a Bridle Trail offering the enthusiastic hiker access to Tabletop Mountain. Other unnamed tracks criss-cross this escarpment area.
Returning along Tobruk Drive the visitor crosses Heller Street and enters the Heller Street Park precinct, part of the land acquired by the Toowoomba Council early in the twentieth century as an adjunct to the Picnic Point Reserve. This section of the parklands is not as intensively developed as other precincts however there is yet another large children's playground here offering a different range of activities to those available elsewhere in the parklands. The relatively open grassy expanse also offers the opportunity for informal ball games in this area. A new toilet block and parking area is located in the north-east corner of this precinct. To the west extensive views are enjoyed across the suburbs of Toowoomba. As the visitor leaves the park the avenue of mature trees along Tourist Road again closes in these vistas and completes the unique landscape experience of Picnic Point and its adjacent parklands as recognized and planned for over a century ago.
","history":"Picnic Point and its adjacent parkland is today a reserve of approximately 65 hectares (160 acres) situated on the crest of a prominent bluff along the top of the Great Dividing Range at Toowoomba. The site was selected by WH Groom, the first Lord Mayor of Toowoomba in consultation with WC Hume, the then Commissioner of Crown Lands on the Darling Downs as being "one of great beauty, easy of access, commanded splendid views of the deep gorges of the Main Range and the hills below it, and was the recreational resort of the people for a days outing."
The word "picnic" has entered the English language via the French term picque-nique, a term which, by the early 1700's, had come to describe "an informal communal meal to which guests brought their own food, or paid for themselves at a restaurant, but which increasingly took place outdoors". Picnicking became a popular leisure activity in Britain by the 1800s and British immigrants to Australia found that the mild climate, seemingly "boundless" opportunities for the provision of public open space, particularly in attractive settings, offered many opportunities to continue with this tradition. Picnics at public parklands or reserves offered people the opportunity to enjoy the company of large gatherings of families and friends in congenial surroundings, or for particular interest groups to socialize. It is of note that from the time the first portion of 38 acres (15 hectares) of this reserve was set aside in 1886 that the name given to the area was Picnic Point.
In 1888 the citizens of Toowoomba and surrounding districts petitioned Henry Jordan, the Minister of Lands to convey in perpetuity to the Municipal Council in Trust for the inhabitants of Toowoomba and district and to be devoted solely for the purpose of a public park, approximately 2000 acres of Main Range escarpment lands, at the time designated within the Toowoomba Town Common. The reserve at Picnic Point and the escarpment area below it were included in the lands identified by this petition. The petitioners described the land as follows,
"...a piece of land replete with beauty, and full of picturesque effects, such as, are most charming to the eye, and gratifying to the lover of landscape variety, - grassy slopes and rugged mountain gullies, clothed with verdant scrubs, and down which flow rippling streams from natural springs.
This spot is the favorite resort of pleasure seekers during the holidays, pic-nic parties and lovers of forest scenery: our children and hundreds of whom associate together for games and frolic may frequently be seen enjoying themselves and disporting on the grass and under the shade of the noble trees.
We are extremely anxious that this beautiful piece of land should be secured in such a manner as to remain an appendage to this town for the enjoyment of future generations.
Toowoomba is fast becoming a favorite temporary residence for our fellow colonists, especially from the north, for the purpose of renewing their health and vigour, and we are sure its reputation in this respect will be enhanced were it to become known that the town was in possession of so delightful a place for them to enjoy the gratification of such unrivaled scenery."
The wording of this petition strongly embodies two concepts emerging in British society (and consequently disseminated across the Empire) from the early nineteenth century. These concepts include a penchant for the seeking out and appreciation of the picturesque qualities of natural landscapes and a firm conviction that the general health of people could be enhanced if they spent more time outdoors. The petition appears not to have been acted on but nevertheless the initial reserve of 38 acres has been steadily added to over the intervening years.
Adjacent industry in the form of a quarry does not seem to have detracted from the scenic beauty of Picnic Point at the time the petition was presented, or perhaps the reason is that the location of the quarry below the escarpment meant that its workings did not visually intrude on the expansive outlook from the public reserve. Formal application was made to the Under Secretary for Lands by the Middle Range Shire in 1890 for permission to include 'the old quarry' in their application for use of "about five acres of vacant land near Picnic Point for the quarrying of suitable stone for roads". Council records indicate that in 1912 the Council works committee directed that 20 chains of Tourist Road be metalled using stone from the Picnic Point quarry. Quarrying operations ceased in 1940 and the area became part of the Picnic Point Park Reserve.
The elevated position of this land also saw it selected for the site of a Trigonometrical Survey Station between 1883 and 1891. This station was part of an ambitious plan set in train by Acting Surveyor-General Tully in response to the recommendation of an 1876 Royal Commission "that a comprehensive system of trigonometrical survey of Queensland would be economical and of benefit to the survey of the whole state". This survey work ceased due to lack of funding in 1891.
The first addition to the Picnic Point Reserve was made when the Municipal Council purchased two freehold allotments fronting both Heller and Rowbotham Streets in 1902. By 1906 the council had commenced tree-planting at Picnic Point under the supervision of Curator Harding of the Botanical gardens. A further expansion of the reserve was made in 1909. This resulted in a considerable flow of correspondence between the Toowoomba Town Council and the Lands Department concerning the boundaries of the addition as the initial gazettal had omitted to include a 'bluff point' along the northern brow of Picnic Point. This was rectified in 1910 and the whole of portion 364 and parts (the brow of the bluff) of Portions 365 and 366 were now included in the Picnic Point Reserve. Also in 1910 the Picnic Point reserve was proclaimed as a RESERVE FOR THE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF NATIVE BIRDS under the "The Native Birds Protection Acts 1877 to 1884" and a Proclamation dated the 25 October 1905. Alexander Holtze writing in a commemorative publication to celebrate the jubilee of the establishment of the town of Toowoomba in 1910 commented, " There are numerous picturesque spots surrounding Toowoomba, notably Picnic Point, situated at an elevation of 2,300 feet - where there is a recreation reserve of 32 acres and from which wonderful panoramas of mountain and valley scenes are visible. This point of vantage is reached from the city by a drive through tree-clad avenues, which in a few years will form a noble thoroughfare."
It is conjectured that the avenue of mature Hoop and Kauri Pine Trees planted along Tourist Road on the approach to Picnic Point Reserve were planted during this period. Curator Harding planned and planted further ornamental trees at the park in 1913 for the Toowoomba City Council.
Although the crest of the escarpment was now secured and used extensively as a public reserve a substantial area of the adjacent parkland area of Picnic Point continued to be used as a grazing lease. In common with much of Queensland's grazing country in the early 1920s the land suffered badly from the infestation of prickly pear, particularly on the face of the escarpment. Visitors to the area saw this as a major visual scar on the landscape. Despite this situation in 1920 permission was granted by the Toowoomba Council, to lease part of the reserve as a park and to construct the first substantial kiosk building here. This building was completed in 1921 and leased by J McIntyre, initially for a three-year period. One of the conditions included in this lease was "That the leasing of the land will not interrupt or obstruct the free use of the Park for purposes of Recreation.". The Council also constructed a lookout platform in the vicinity, cantilevered out over the escarpment. It offered direct views to Tabletop Mountain and out across the Lockyer Valley. Construction of such facilities to support the recreational use patterns of established picnic grounds was typical of the 1920s and 1930s era. Lookout structures were popular additions to the designed landscapes of public parks, particularly if their siting was able to take advantage of naturally elevated vantage points. Frequently these lookouts were the most basic of structures such as the construction of a simple fence, or a low stone wall, built to ensure the safety of visitors while they enjoyed the views, rather than to make a design statement in their own right. Other examples of public lookouts established in Queensland, particularly in proximity to large urban settlements, are those on Mount Coot-tha in Brisbane and Castle Hill in Townsville.
In 1930 the Toowoomba office of Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd approached the Toowoomba City Council requesting permission to erect a Cairn at Picnic Point on which would be mounted a brass plate indicating the names and direction of numerous geographical landmarks visible from the point. Permission was granted with appreciation. The list of landmark directions suggested by the council was as follows: "Crow's Nest, Ravensbourne (NationalPark), Mt Taylor, Helidon, Gatton, Laidley, Brisbane, Cunningham's Gap, Warwick, Mt Barney, Mt Lindsey". Placement was suggested on "the Magnetic Meridan to simplify the placing in position". At the time of installation of this cairn efforts were made to identify the site of the 1891 Trigonometrical Survey Station and perhaps erect the direction cairn on this site. It appears that these search efforts were not successful.
Guide books for visitors to the area published regularly by the Toowoomba Tourist Bureau from 1926 to 1938 included a number of photographs taken from within the Picnic Point Reserve. Also included were numerous testimonies regarding the beauty of the vista from Picnic Point mostly from eminent British gentlemen who were visiting the area.
As with so many public lands in Australia facilities at Picnic Point were improved using relief labour during the depression of the 1930s. An area of steep ground south-east of the kiosk was identified as a suitable site for leveling for a camping ground. The City Engineer's report of 1936 notes, "The area suggested, which is just SE from the kiosk yard, is very steep and consequently would provide shelter from the west when completed. From clinometer readings and paced distances, it appears that an area about 66' wide and 180' long could be leveled off. At some points the batters would be up to 15' in height and nearly 2000c.yds of excavation would be required.". A letter on file from a camper in 1938 congratulates Toowoomba Council for the provision of such good camping facilities at Picnic Point.
The site saw camping of another kind during World War II. The First Australian Army troops took over the lease of the kiosk and occupied the area in general from April 1942 to December 1943. In correspondence to Toowoomba City Council in September 1944 the Rangeville Progress association complained: "At the present time the reserve is still practically in the same state that it was when vacated by the military. The fences have not been repaired where they were taken down, and cars and trucks now run throughout the whole of the park. ...thereby spoiling the natural beauty of the park. The association suggests that the fences be repaired and campers be confined to the area previously reserved for them, before the military took control, and the large pits filled in and leveled off.".
It does appear however that these parklands largely escaped the fate suffered by many large public parks in Australia after 1945, during a period of municipal rationalization in terms of limiting ongoing financial commitments to community services. Extensive ornamental display gardens which had benefited from maintenance using public works programs during the depression years were either simplified or removed. Low maintenance "shrubberies" became popular in their stead and a good deal of the public open space was regarded as potential "development" sites and in-filled with the construction of various community facilities. Picnic Point continued as a popular destination for both residents of and visitors to Toowoomba. A new lease agreement was signed for the operation of the kiosk area in 1948. New lands were added to the parklands in 1949 with the resumption for recreational purposes of two blocks of land fronting Rowbotham Street by the Toowoomba City Council. This is the present day Heller Street Park Precinct. A report from a Land Ranger to the Land Commissioner in 1951 notes that the land is "...used extensively as a tourist attraction because of the wonderful view of the Lockyer Valley one gets from the high plateau." and that the grazing lease to the bulk of the reserve did not interfere with public use in that there was "evidence of many campfires and other picnic facilities all over the slopes and gorges."
Intensity of use appears to have increased over the ensuing decade, fuelled by a substantial increase in private car ownership. In 1951 the RSL developed a proposal in conjunction with architect MC Williamson for the erection of a memorial beacon on Picnic Point. This does not appear to have ever been constructed.
In 1954 the Council successfully petitioned for a State Government loan to fund substantial improvements to the parklands at Picnic Point., including the construction of paved and kerbed pathways:
i)\taround edge of cliff to lookout and open air cafes
ii)\tfrom about centre of parking area to lookout
iii)\tto existing sanitary block"
1955 saw requests for permanent band seating from the Toowoomba Municipal Band and a request for additional shade trees from the United Executive and Progress Associations. In 1956 application was made to State Treasury for loan funds for the construction of a new kiosk at Picnic Point. By May 1957 the loan had been raised and the plans for the building completed by the City Architect, L Grienfel. In conjunction with these new works a request from a Lions Club to construct and operate a Wishing Well in the vicinity of the new kiosk was agreed to. The newly formed Picnic Point-Rangeville Progress Association requested that the old kiosk be removed to a near-by site to be used as the Progress Association Hall. (The result of this request is not known). The new kiosk building was opened by Mayor Alderman JF McCafferty on 13 September 1958.
Picnic Point and its adjacent parklands continued their popularity as a function venue for businesses, organisations and community gatherings and celebrations but cars were no longer allowed to be parked on the lawn under the shade of the trees. The 'Puppy Memorial' to the mascot of the Toowoomba Thistle Pipe Band was erected in 1959 (not at its current location). Records indicate that a grazing lease over the bulk of the property was relinquished in 1959.
The 1960s saw more construction works at Picnic Point. In 1963 a special reserve for Water Supply Purposes was excised from the park and the distinctive 'mushroom' style water tower constructed. Tobruk Memorial Drive was opened and declared a road excised from the reserve. This allowed vehicular access to extensive undulating and shady grassed picnic areas with extensive views across the Lockyer Valley and to Tabletop Mountain. This extension of formal access into a bushland area of parklands to facilitate its use for recreation coincided with the general understanding developing at the time in the wider Australian community of the environmental value and quiet beauty inherent in the Australian bush. Over a number of years members of the Toowoomba West Lions Club have continued to maintain and enhance this area as a major bushland picnic facility. In stark contrast to this voluntary work to restore and enhance the natural habitat at Tobruk Drive more designed site beautification work was carried out to the Lion's Park in 1965 when a waterfall feature was opened at the site of the old quarry on the northern face of the escarpment at Picnic Point. The project was sponsored by the Carnival of Flowers Association.
Additions to the parklands continued in the 1970s. In 1974 application was made for the erection of a small television tower off Tobruk Drive. Construction was completed in 1975. The kiosk building was damaged by fire in 1976 and application subsequently made for substantial renovation and extension work on the building in 1977. This work again included associated external works of "hot water supply and barbecue at Picnic Point ($5,000)", "kerbing, pathways and beautification around Picnic Point toilet block ($3454)". Toowoomba East Rotary Club sought permission in 1977 to construct and operate an amusement park in the Tobruk Memorial Drive area of the parklands. This was refused by the Toowoomba City Council on the grounds that "the proposal by the Rotary Club is in effect a commercial enterprise and would deprive the general public of free and unrestricted use of this particular part of the reserve."
In 1985 Tobruk Memorial Drive was closed as a public road where it entered the parklands but remained as an access track to the picnic facilities established adjacent to it.
By 1988 the 1978 extensions to the kiosk building were considered no longer adequate to cater for the visitor demand on facilities being experienced at Picnic Point and once again Toowoomba City Council called tenders "for the redevelopment of the existing Picnic Point Restaurant incorporating catering and tourist facilities. It is also proposed to extend the present lease area of 1899m2 to 3500m2 ". Responses to this advertisement by potential developers for the new facilities triggered a long-running and bitter public debate within the Toowoomba Community. The redevelopment scheme supported by the then Mayor and a number of councillors involved the construction of high rise accommodation facilities along with supporting tourist facilities and function rooms. Headlines such as "Save Picnic Point from High Rise" appeared in the Toowoomba Chronicle in 1989. Debate was ongoing and the Picnic Point Preservation Group was formed in 1991. Lobbying of council and government concerns continued with the heading of an editorial in The Chronicle in May 1992 reading Picnic Point a 'sacred site'. Public outrage maintained its momentum with the presentation of a petition to the Toowoomba City Council from the Picnic Point Defence Group in December 1993 opposing construction of high-rise plans for new facilities at Picnic Point. By 1994 plans for the redevelopment of the site had been thoroughly revised and all talk of a high rise tower being built at Picnic Point had ceased. The 1958 kiosk facilities were finally demolished in 1995 to make way for the third kiosk building on the site. This was opened in 1996, a contemporary newspaper article noting that "...the building set into hill-top to avoid obstructing views from park behind." Further alterations to this building were proposed in 1998.
Once again in conjunction with the construction of a new kiosk building an upgrading of the external facilities in the park was undertaken. The furore over the plans for the new kiosk development had overshadowed ongoing improvements to the external areas of the parklands. New lookout platforms had been constructed on the escarpment walking tracks by the Toowoomba Rotary and Lions Clubs in 1990 and 1991. In 1995 Hassell Pty Ltd, a multi-disciplinary firm including the professional areas of urban design and landscape architecture, was commissioned to undertake a study of the parklands and propose a staged Master Plan to direct the scope and intensity of future landscape works in the park.
The Hassell Master Plan to date has overseen the implementation of a number of recent changes to both the built and vegetative fabric of the parkland. A number of the changes to the vegetation were a response to better managing the health of the more mature plantings. Changes to the built fabric have included the minor re-sitings of the stone directional cairn and the Puppy Memorial in the primary viewing precinct and the demolition of the Camera Obscura, then inoperable, which had been a feature of the parklands for a number of years.
","criteria":"Discreet areas within the parklands demonstrate the principal characteristics of a number of important principles and styles used in the design of public parks and gardens and broader scale recreational 'natural' landscapes since the time of European settlement in Queensland.
|Picnic Point has a strong association with the Toowoomba community and is well known in Queensland and other areas of Australia, as an attractive public recreation area offering wide views of outstanding scenic beauty from the top of the escarpment of the Great Dividing Range across the coastal plains to the east.
|The exceptional and expansive views available from Picnic Point encompassing a 180 degree view from north to south along the escarpment and foothills of the Great Dividing Range at this point, include views to the world heritage area of The Scenic Rim to the south and east of this point. The aesthetic significance of this place and its outlook has been attested to over time, as a tourist destination. Examples of the aesthetic significance of Picnic Point range from recognized literary and artistic accolades through to vigorous expressions of public sentiment.
|The sustained use of Picnic Point and adjacent parkland as a tract of contiguous land reserves devoted to the primary purpose of public recreation and to an appreciation of the natural landscape, demonstrates the enduring importance of this type of leisure and aesthetic activity for Queenslanders from the time of European settlement.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion D | Criterion G | Criterion E | Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16059,"place_ref":601296,"name":"Toowoomba Hospital","alternate_name":"Toowoomba Base Hospital | Toowoomba General Hospital","street_address":"Pechey Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"The Toowoomba Hospital is situated on an 11.3 hectare site bounded by residences and facilities to the north, Pechey Street to the east, West Street to the west and the rear of residences along Joyce Street to the south. The site is 2 kilometres from the central business district of Toowoomba and is elevated, making it visible from a distance. The site contains about 25 buildings, most of which date from the 1950s onward. Most of the early buildings are located at the south-west corner of the site and it is in this area that the heritage register boundary is located.
Freshney House (1912-13 Nurses' Quarters)\t
Freshney House is a symmetrically arranged two storeyed face brick building lined on both storeyed with wide timber framed verandahs. The building is located on the western boundary of the Toowoomba Hospital site, facing West Street, adjacent to the original entrance to the hospital. The building has a rectangular plan with central projecting bays on the northern and southern facades. Later additions have seen the floor plan further extended but these are distinct from the original building.
The steeply pitched hipped roof of Freshney House is clad with corrugated iron and is half gabled over the eastern and western ends and has projecting bays over the northern entrance wing. The entrance is emphasized on the roof with a large half timbered gablet with central ventilation panel. This gable detail is repeated at the half gabled ends of the building. Smaller ventilation gablets line the main hipped roof of the building. Two face brick chimneys project symmetrically from the roof over the entrance wing. The roof encompasses the upper storey verandah awning which is supported on timber columns with elongated art nouveau brackets. These columns are repeated on the ground level. Lining the first floor verandah is a timber balustrade of battened timber with central decorative timber panels within each verandah bay featuring an art nouveau motif. Forming the valance of the ground floor verandah and visually separating the two storeys is a wide fascia board clad with horizontal timber boarding which curves outwards, forming a skirt around the building.
Beneath the generous verandahs, Freshney House is a face brick building with stone quoining and rendered window and door surrounds. The building is lined with French doors, reflecting its original internal layout as separate bedrooms. The principal entrance to the building off West Street is expressed by a small balcony like projection in the first storey verandah supported on paired timber columns, and featuring a segmental arched opening in the fascia skirt, lined with dentils. Smaller entrances of this type are found on the other facades of the building.
The ground floor interior has been altered with the removal of original partitioning in the replanning of the floor. The first floor remains substantially intact, with original planning, and finishes including pressed metal ceilings.
There is a circa 1930s, timber framed and fibrous sheeting clad extension to the rear of Freshney House. Another, later annexe is found to the west of the building.
Cossart House (1927 Nurses' Quarters)
Cossart House is a large square planned, two storeyed, face brick building with a large central open courtyard. The building is lined on all external and courtyard facing facades with double storeyed verandahs. The hipped roof of the building is clad with corrugated iron and features eight large metal vents, one on each corner of the building and one at the mid-point of each wing. The vents are distinguished by their large size and number and have pyramidal roofs and corrugated iron clad faces. The roofs of the building encompass the verandahs which are supported on timber columns on the first floor and brick piers separated by a deep, arched timber valance on the ground floor. The upper storey verandah is lined with timber battened balustrade.
The face brick faces of the building are lined with French doors, originally giving access to the individual bedrooms. The planning of the building is typical of accommodation with central halls from which small bedroom were accessed. All of the rooms had further access to the encircling verandahs. Within the courtyard at ground floor level is a covered walkway joining the northern and southern wings.
1880 Kitchen (now specialist private clinic)
This is a two storeyed, face brick structure, with hipped corrugated iron clad roof and lined on all faces with square arched windows with rendered sills and heads. The building is sited at the rear of Freshney House and is linked via a series of covered walkways. This is the oldest building on the site and the only building remaining from the original complex. The building has been altered internally, but retains much of its external form and fabric with the exception of verandahs which have been removed.
Extending from the eastern side of the original kitchen is an early covered walkway, supported on a variety of columns, including two large masonry columns with moulded caps and bases which may have been part of the original 1880 hospital. The ceiling of the walkway is clad with fibrous cement sheeting.
1896 Morgue
A small, unusually richly decorated building on the southern end of the site, adjacent to Freshney House is an 1896 morgue designed by Henry Marks. The corrugated iron clad, truncated hipped roof of the morgue is lined with decorative barge board details. The building is situated at the western end of the site, near to a 1940 morgue. This building is now used as a store.
1916 Open Air Ward (now gardener's accommodation)
In the south west corner of the site is what was an open air ward comprising a small timber framed building on a concrete slab. The building is lined with fibrous sheeting and the hipped roof is clad with corrugated iron. The former ward is set diagonally on the most elevated corner of the site and comprises a T shaped plan. It is thought that the part of the building forming the upright of the T-shape was open to the weather and could be protected from the weather by canvas blinds lining the eaves of that section. Timber framed walls have been constructed replacing the blinds. The other part of the building was built in and provided bathroom facilities, and other ancillary facilities. The building remains substantially intact, with the erection of external walls the major alteration.
Grounds
Within the area defined by the heritage register boundary there are several features which contribute to the significance of the site. These features include the large established trees, fence along West Street and rendered masonry gates from West Street and the steam reticulation service. This, like many other hospital sites is characterised as a hospital by the extensive network of metal reticulated steam pipes, elevated from ground level on a series of metal columns.
1950s buildings
The 1950s buildings on the site are all two to four storeyed face brick modern structures, characterised by long thin plans, horizontal window bands, rendered concrete awnings, and flat concealed roofs. These buildings are not included within the heritage register boundary.
The largest 1950s building is located centrally on the site running from a medical block at the eastern end, with major extension housing surgery toward the western end. The 1955 maternity wing is a two storeyed face brick building in the south east corner of the site. The building is lined with horizontal window banks with cantilevered concrete awnings. A former thoracic block dating from 1957 sits on the north east corner of the site.
New work
The Toowoomba Hospital has recently been expanded to include a large new entrance and wards building, housing maternity and surgical services, a medical village for private practise and large administration and research buildings. Most of this development is at the eastern end of the site and is not included within the heritage register boundary.
","history":"The Toowoomba General Hospital was established on its present James Street site in 1880 as the third site of a public hospital in the city and its second permanent home. The Hospital has been altered since its establishment with major phases of development in the 1890s-1910s; 1950s-1960s and more recently in the late 1990s. Two buildings remain extant from the 19th century and several remain from the early part of this century. It is these earlier buildings that comprise the focus of this report.
Early public hospitals were established for the provision of health care services for those people who could not afford private medical attention in their homes or in private institutions. 19th century Queensland hospitals were established by local voluntary hospital committees, which usually experienced some difficulty raising funds for both the establishment and running of the hospitals. Government grants were commonly available for the construction of hospital buildings. It was not until the Hospitals Act of 1923 that hospitals and public health became basic responsibilities of the government, resulting in the creation of hospital boards throughout the state who assumed control of local hospitals. Toowoomba Hospital was established during the voluntary committee period and was taken over by the Hospital Board following the introduction of the 1923 Act. From that time, development of the site was largely controlled by the Board.
The idea of erecting a hospital in Toowoomba was discussed with the very early services to be provided in the town - reflecting the importance of a local health service for the early town. Discussions began in 1856 in the nearby town of Drayton which was soon overshadowed in development by the more dramatic growth of Toowoomba and therefore, by June 1859 a small house was rented in Russell Street for the purpose of providing hospital services. By 1864 a timber hospital was constructed at the corner of James and Ruthven Street on land granted by the Colonial Government. This building was destroyed by fire on 25 December 1867 and plans for a brick building on the same site were drawn up by Richard George Suter, a Brisbane architect influential in hospital design in the late 1860s. Suter was an advocate for hospitals based on the pavilion plan principle which maximized light and ventilation to all patients and this early Toowoomba hospital was one of the first examples of this principle which was to remain current for the design of hospital buildings through to the 1930s.
For many years discussions were held about the inappropriateness of the hospital site, thought to be too close to the centre of the growing city. Ideally, 19th century hospitals were sited away from the town or city centre on an elevated site which allowed enhanced ventilation of all buildings. The present James Street site was acquired in 1878, by which time Toowoomba was a large regional centre, servicing the requirements of a rich and fertile farming hinterland. The local Hospital Committee paid £870 for 29 acres of land on the present hospital site at the corner of James and Pechey Streets. £10 000 was provided by the Colonial Government for the erection of buildings at this time.
The early buildings on the site were designed by colonial architect, FDG Stanley and included a large two storeyed complex with four wards each containing 16 beds. Attached to this main block by covered ways was a two storeyed kitchen and laundry wing. The buildings constructed at this time were face brick with pointed arched sandstone detailing, in the manner of many of Stanley's other large public buildings including the Roma Street Railway Station and the Government Printing Office in William Street. Of the buildings designed by Stanley at the Toowoomba Hospital only the kitchen wing remains. The hospital was ready for opening in 1880.
Staff accommodation and a medical superintendent's residence was erected in 1889 and a Victoria Wing was added to the principal ward building in 1899 for a cost of £2250, designed by local architect, William Hodgen. An operating theatre designed by James Marks and Son was added in 1907. These buildings are not extant.
Henry Marks, from James Marks and Son also designed a small decorative morgue at the western end of the hospital in 1896. it was not until the construction of this building that the morgue services were removed from the original hospital site in Ruthven Street. The morgue is a one roomed building which was built for £158. Unlike the functional design of most morgues, the Marks designed morgue was richly decorated with timber fretwork on bargeboards, timber eaves brackets and roof detailing. This building remained in use until a new adjacent morgue was constructed in 1940. The 1896 morgue is now used as a store.
On 24 April 1912, Lady William MacGregor laid the foundation stone for a new nurses' quarters facing West Street, at what was originally adjacent to the entrance of the hospital. Now known as Freshney House and used as education and administration facility, this building was constructed for £5180 and designed by William Hodgen. Hodgen was born in Toowoomba and went to London to study architecture, returning in 1897 when he established private practice. He designed many fine Toowoomba buildings, mostly residences - integrating English derived Arts and Crafts motif with Queensland building traditions. The design of Freshney House follows this trend, integrating a traditional Queensland two storeyed building lined with deep double storeyed verandahs, with Arts and Crafts motifs including art nouveau column and balustrade details, half timbered gablets on the steeply pitched roof, and a pronounced entrance projection with over scaled classical detailing. Freshney House was constructed as a nurses' quarters and provided not only cellular accommodation, bathrooms and a dining room for nurses but also training facilities.
The open air, isolation ward was constructed in 1916. This building was constructed for the care of those with infectious diseases, on the principles of the miasma theory which suggested that because the germs were thought to be circulating in the air, health service accommodation should be isolated and maintained to allow the maximum flow of the air through the building dispersing germs. A report in the Darling Downs Gazette, of 1921 describes the isolation ward as being in a distant corner and under the shade of several large trees. Several similar wards were constructed at hospitals throughout Queensland, but very few survive. The buildings were a Queensland innovation. The building was designed to have a ward which be open to the weather and was protected by canvas blinds rolled down from the eaves. The blinds were replaced by timber framed walls due to the cold weather. A new open air ward, closer to the main building was constructed by the Commonwealth Government in 1921. This building does not survive.
By the 1920s the Toowoomba Hospital was one of the biggest and best equipped in the state Reflecting government reform and spending in the area of maternity and child welfare, a maternity wing was constructed in 1926. This building does not remain on the site and was replaced by a new maternity wing in the 1950s which is now used for the care of acute psychiatric patients.
In 1927 another nurses' quarters was constructed. This large brick building now known as Cossart House, was designed to supplement the nurses' accommodation at Freshney House. The building was constructed like many hospital buildings during this time which, following the introduction of the Hospitals Act of 1923 which caused the establishment of many new hospitals and the augmentation of many existing hospitals. In addition the introduction of the Hospital Nurses Award of 1921 initiated a statewide project upgrading nurses' quarters, regulating standards of accommodation and working hours. Nurses' quarters were constructed all over the state in response to this Award. The building was renamed Cossart House, in commemoration of a matron, Ethel Beatrice Cossart in the 1940s. With the construction of a new nurses' quarters in the 1960s, Cossart House was used for other purposes and now houses educational and administrative facilities. Alterations have been made to the ground floor to accommodate new services.
By the 1950s advances in medical technology and an increasing Toowoomba population saw additional demand for hospital services and the Toowoomba Hospital underwent major alterations with the removal of early buildings and the construction of a number of substantial brick buildings. The buildings removed included the original 1880 hospital building and the 1926 maternity ward. The buildings were based on the multi-storeyed hospital building principle and included a maternity hospital in 1955 (now the acute psychiatric ward); a thoracic wing in 1956; nurses' quarters in 1960; new boiler house; steam laundry; kitchen and a surgical wing in 1960. Much of this phase of the building work was designed by Brisbane architects, Donoghue, Cusick and Edwards.
During the late1990s another major building and development phase saw the construction of a breast screening clinic, a major new entrance wing to the medical block, multi-storeyed carpark and medical village to the east of the site. The medical village provides private consulting rooms for medical and associated para-medical practitioners. This new construction concentrates services and facilities on the eastern end of the site, in contrast to the early hospital which was mostly at the western end.
","criteria":"Toowoomba Hospital has historical significance as a good example of an operating public hospital dating from the 1880s, demonstrating phases of development reflecting changes in health care technology and public health conceptions. Freshney House and Cossart House, both former nurses' quarters are of particular historical interest in demonstrating the development of nursing education and the nursing profession in the state.
|The Hospital has two 19th century buildings, one from the original complex which are rare in Queensland. The former open air ward in the north-west corner of the site is a rare surviving example of this type of building demonstrating the early treatment of contagious diseases. The former 1896 morgue is a rare surviving 19th century morgue and an unusually decorative example of this building type.
|Individual buildings on the hospital site have architectural significance, in particular the 1912 Freshney House integrating Arts and Crafts detailing with traditional Queensland building characteristics; the circa 1927 Cossart House, a classically inspired residential building with large central courtyard and a hipped roof capped at regular intervals with unusual ventilation towers and the 1896 morgue, a small unusually decorative structure.
|Individual buildings on the hospital site have architectural significance, in particular the 1912 Freshney House integrating Arts and Crafts detailing with traditional Queensland building characteristics; the circa 1927 Cossart House, a classically inspired residential building with large central courtyard and a hipped roof capped at regular intervals with unusual ventilation towers and the 1896 morgue, a small unusually decorative structure.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16060,"place_ref":601297,"name":"Soldiers Memorial Hall","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"149 Herries Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-12-17","description":"The Soldiers' Memorial Hall is prominently located in Toowoomba's central business district, on the corner of Ruthven and Herries streets and adjacent to the Toowoomba City Council Chambers.
The Soldiers' Memorial Hall comprises two sections: a substantial, two-storeyed, face and rendered brick building whose principal façade addresses Ruthven Street [1923-24 building with 1930-31 extensions]; and a large, single-storeyed brick section with partial basement, addressing Herries Street [1957-59 extension]. The commemorative and formal functions of the RSL are housed in the front section; a dance hall, function and club facilities are housed in the rear.
The design of the front section of the Soldiers' Memorial Hall employs classical elements to reinforce its commemorative and traditional function. The symmetrically composed principal façade is dominated by a large central projecting gabled bay which is arcaded on street level and forms the principal entrance to the building. The ground floor arcade comprises three segmented archways to Ruthven Street and an archway on the returns. The archways, which are moulded with traditional keystone and corbel detail, are separated by square planned, partially reeded, columns which extend to the second floor of the building supporting an entablature beneath the pediment of the triangular gabled end section. The gable end is facebrick and decorated with rendered banding and a central ovolo opening with rendered surround from which four evenly spaced corbels emanate. Above the spandrel of the ground floor arches are face brick panels fitted between the columns. Above the face brick panels early openings have been enclosed with arctic glass window panels in timber frames. The entablature features lettering "SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL HALL" in relief and painted. The gable end projects from the face of this section and regularly spaced dentils line the eaves, this detail continues throughout the earliest part of the Soldiers' Hall. Flanking the projecting bay, on the facebrick face of the Hall is rendered banding at first floor and cornice level and sash windows on both the ground and first floor. The banding and window openings continue around the Herries Street façade of the building and define the earliest part of the Hall. The window openings are surrounded with rendered surrounds, with moulded sills and heads.
The building is of loadbearing construction. The hipped and gabled roof of the Memorial Hall is clad with corrugated iron and is penetrated by several slender face brick chimneys with rendered caps and decorative banding.
The Herries Street façade of the first section continues the detailing of the Ruthven Street façade, with two gables, a repeat of the Ruthven Street gable toward the corner of the building, and a smaller version over a doorway at the Herries Street end of the front section. To the west of this is a face brick extension with parapet walls concealing a hipped roof and dominated by large steel-framed 4x4 window panels providing natural lighting to the dance floor and the club beyond.
The principal entrance to the Soldiers' Memorial Hall is through the arcade of the projecting bay on Ruthven Street which aligns with the projecting entrance bay of the City Hall. On the face of the Soldiers' Memorial Hall, under the arched entrance are three openings, a double half glazed door at the southern end and two window openings. On the wall to the right of the entrance door is a plaque with the inscription: This stone was laid by MAJOR-GENERAL SIR T.W. GLASGOW, K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., V.D., K.C.B., Anzac Day, April 25, 1923. In Memory of the Fallen, And in appreciation of the living who took part in the great War, 1914-1918.
The entrance door provides access to a Memorial vestibule which is lined on the northern and southern walls with large timber Honour Rolls; that on the southern wall lists participation in the Second World War and that on the northern wall lists participation in the First World War. The Honour Rolls comprise a number of timber panels within frames on which is written in gold lettering the name of each soldier. The panels are framed with a moulded timber surround and surmounted by a broken pediment detail. The floor of the Memorial room is covered with fine grey terrazzo divided into panels with brass strips and featuring centrally located brass lettering 'RSL'. A large four panelled doorway provides access into the foyer beyond this room. The doors have high mid rails and are glazed above with a combination of arctic and clear glass. Surmounting the doors are transom lights, again with a combination of arctic and clear glass arranged in square and rectangular panels and with a central circular motif, recalling the circular motif of the Ruthven Street gable end. This timber glazed detail is repeated throughout the early part of the building. The walls of the Memorial room are lined with a flocked wallpaper with a design of Gothic inspiration.
The foyer and offices accessed from the foyer, beyond the Memorial room, have more simple detailing with timber skirting and picture rail. The ceilings throughout the ground floor have been covered with suspended ceiling systems.
The stair to the upper level is at the south end of the first section of the building, and comprises a large hall and a substantial timber staircase. The staircase has a heavy unpainted timber battened balustrade with simple art deco inspired newel posts. The underside of the stair is enclosed with fibrous cement sheeting.
The stair arrives at the first floor in a foyer which provides access to the major rooms of the upper floor. Along the Ruthven Street side of this floor is a large meeting room at the southern end and a former billiards room [now another large meeting room] at the northern end. Both rooms have French doors opening onto an enclosed verandah space, and each contains a fireplace. Generally the first floor rooms have plastered rendered walls, simple skirting boards and picture rails and ceilings sheeted with fibrous cement sheeting arranged into rectilinear patterns with simple timber moulded strips.
A change in level at the rear of the front section of the building marks the 1957-59 extension, which comprises a large timber boarded dance floor and club facilities on this level, and below this a partial basement with kitchen and supper/function rooms, accessed from Herries Street at the western end of the building. A feature of the bar area along the north wall of the upper floor of the extension is the use of several small leadlight windows depicting images or sentiments associated with returned soldiers and the war.
","history":"The Soldiers' Memorial Hall, Toowoomba was erected in three stages: 1923-24, 1930-31, and 1957-59, as a tribute to all those from Toowoomba and district who had served in the First World War, many of whom did not return, and for the use of returned servicemen and the citizens of Toowoomba. Local architect and Alderman William Hodgen junior and his firm designed all three stages of the hall.
The First World War [1914-1918], although fought in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, had a profound impact on Australia. At the outbreak of war Australia, as a former [and recent] British colony with strong ties still to the 'motherland', immediately entered the war in support of Britain and her allies. Over 300,000 Australians out of a population of 4 million volunteered for service overseas, with approximately 60,000 of these making the supreme sacrifice. Virtually every community in every Australian state lost young men in this war.
The idea of erecting a memorial hall in Toowoomba was first mooted at a meeting of citizens and returned soldiers held at the Toowoomba Town Hall in 1918. A committee to coordinate fund raising and the construction of the hall was appointed in 1919. The Citizens' Memorial Hall Committee purchased land for the hall in 1919 in Ruthven Street for £500, on the understanding that the Town Council acquired adjoining land at the corner of Herries Street. It was anticipated that the committee would facilitate construction and furnishing of the hall, which would then be handed to the Town Council, for lease to the Toowoomba Branch of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia (R.S.S.I.L.A.) - more commonly known as the RSL.
By November 1921 the Citizen's Committee was planning to invite competitive designs for club rooms and assembly hall, the price not to exceed £5000. Highly respected Sydney architect John Sulman was appointed as sole adjudicator of the competition in February 1922, but it is unclear whether the competition eventuated. By mid-1922, plans for a two-storeyed brick clubrooms with large assembly hall at the rear had been prepared by Toowoomba architect and Alderman William Hodgen junior. Tenders were called and in January 1923 a contract was let to Smith Brothers of Toowoomba for the front section only, the clubrooms fronting Ruthven Street. The Citizen's Committee planned to erect the second section of Hodgen's design, the assembly hall at the rear, as soon as sufficient funds had been raised. The assembly hall was to be used for large social functions, lectures, and public meetings, and was intended as much for the citizens of Toowoomba and district as for returned servicemen.
The foundation stone was laid on Anzac Day, 25 April 1923, by Major-General Sir William Glasgow, who reflected the patriotic fervour that still gripped Australia when he said of the intended memorial hall: May it forever remind us of the duty we all owe to our country and to the Empire to which we are all proud to belong. By this date the Citizens' Committee had raised in cash and promises, between £5000 and £6000, and another £1500 was required to finish and furnish the first section of the building.
The Soldiers' Memorial Hall was officially opened by the Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan, on 5 September 1924 in the presence of a large gathering. Earlier on the same day, the Citizen's Committee had vested the property in the Town Council, and the RSL was granted a 99 year lease at a 'peppercorn' rent of a shilling a year, if demanded. A provision in the lease allowed that should the hall not be required by the soldiers in the future, the use and control of the hall was to revert to the Council for the general use of all the citizens.
At the time of the opening, the building comprised two storeys, with a single gable to each side of the roof and an open, gabled colonnade across the Ruthven Street elevation. A narrow, single-storeyed brick section at the rear appears to have been erected at this time also, [possibly containing additional storerooms and public lavatories]; as was a pair of brick pillars, wrought-iron gate and small brick fence along Ruthven Street, between the club building and the adjacent Commonwealth Research Laboratory, also erected in 1923.
The top floor of the Soldiers' Memorial Hall, used exclusively by returned soldiers as a club, contained a club room, billiards room, card room and lavatories. The ground floor comprised an entrance vestibule, office, restaurant, kitchen and cloakrooms. The RSL utilised the downstairs office, but also let parts of the ground floor to the Country Women's Association and the Theosophical Society for their meetings. The hall was fitted with all modern conveniences, including a septic tank system, electric light, and telephone. Furniture was of maple, and situated in a prominent position in the club room was a writing desk presented to the club by the Mothers' Memorial Committee.
Use of the club rooms was open to all returned soldiers, with membership fees set at 5/- for League members and 7/6 for non-members. Visiting ex-soldiers were admitted as honorary members.
The Soldiers' Memorial Hall was built to serve a number of purposes: as a war memorial; to provide administrative facilities to assist returned soldiers with employment and welfare services; to provide an institute with library, reading room and recreation facilities for returned servicemen; and as a locale where the comradeship of the returned servicemen could find expression, and where all who were suffering from the war could find relief. The building was considered a handsome attraction to the Toowoomba townscape, and the planned hall was seen as being of benefit to the whole of the community.
In 1927-28 the Toowoomba Town Council acquired a fourth parcel of land at the rear of the site, with a 54ft frontage to Herries Street, which was leased to the RSL for memorial hall purposes, enabling them to proceed with construction of the assembly hall. Hodgen's initial design, which was for an enormous hall of two storeys in height with a verandah on the north side and a gallery at the eastern end, proved too expensive an undertaking. Plans were prepared [apparently by Hodgen] for a smaller, single-storeyed, pavilion-style hall, which was erected in 1930-31. It was built to the same width as the front section of the building, and internally contained a dais along the western end and another along the northern side of the dance floor. On the northern side of the dance hall was an external entrance, accessed from Ruthven Street via the side gate erected in 1923. A brick portico was added above this entrance gate, and the c1923 single-storeyed section of the building was remodelled to provide internal access from the front section of the building through to the dance floor behind. At this period also the single-storeyed rear section was raised to two storeys, with a separate gabled roof. The new upper storey of this section contained a lounge, bar and card room.
In the early 1950s, renewed interest in the RSL as an institution - following Australian involvement in the Second World War [1939-45], Korean War [1950-53] and Malayan communist insurgency of 1954 - encouraged the idea of extending Toowoomba's Soldiers' Memorial Hall to provide improved club facilities for members, and a larger dance hall for the citizens of Toowoomba and district. The firm of Hodgen & Hodgen was once again asked to prepare plans, c1954. The proposed scheme was for the 1930-31 hall to be replaced with a larger, two-storeyed building with partial basement and roof garden - the basement to contain kitchen and supper room; the ground floor to contain the dance floor; and the upper floor to contain a cafeteria and bar. Tender prices proved prohibitive, so the extensions were modified to contain only a single-storeyed dance hall with basement kitchen and supper room, omitting any new facilities for RSL members. In negotiations with the Toowoomba City Council on this matter in March 1956, Dr Furness, President of the Toowoomba Sub-branch of the RSL, explained that the modified plan was intended for the citizens of Toowoomba, to provide a centrally located dance floor which could be used for a variety of public functions. The RSL believed that they should build for the whole community, not just for returned servicemen.
After some difficulties experienced in the raising of a loan and the letting of the contract, Toowoomba architect Malcolm Just was appointed supervising architect of the revised extension, based on the Hodgen and Hodgen scheme, in April 1957. The new dance hall and basement supper room was opened in the second half of 1959. At the time it was the largest dance hall in Toowoomba, with an excellent suspended timber floor, attracting most of the principal dance events in Toowoomba, including the annual Piggots, Toowoomba Foundry, Defiance Flour Mill, Masonic, Post Office and RSL balls.
Unfortunately for the aspirations of the RSL, the advent of television in the late 1950s changed social habits significantly, and from the early 1960s public dances and balls declined. In 1964, the RSL applied to the Toowoomba City Council to convert the dance hall into club rooms, and to raise revenue by sub-leasing the existing clubrooms in the 1923-24 building to other community groups. Despite community disappointment, conversion was proceeded with in the mid-1960s. The dance floor was converted into three principal areas: a bar and dining room along the northern wall, a games room at the western end, and a billiards room and library at the eastern end. An additional office appears also to have been created at this time, and it is understood that the false ceilings were installed at this time.
At present the dance hall remains partitioned, but the billiard room and library are now one large space, still utilised for dances, dancing classes, and weekly Bingo, and the small dining area on the north side of the building now houses gaming machines. In 1993 the band shell at the western end of the dance floor was converted into a kitchen, and the games room into a dining room.
The building is still utilised by a large number of community organisations: besides several branches of the RSL, the local Veteran's Advisory Service, the Light Horse Association, the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces, and the War Widows utilising the main sections of the building, five Rotary clubs and Toowoomba Lions Club occupy the basement.
","criteria":"The Soldiers' Memorial Hall, Toowoomba, erected in several stages between 1923 and 1959, is important is demonstrating the pattern and evolution of Queensland's history, as a memorial to the participation, and loss of, members of the Toowoomba community in the First World War and later wars.
|The Soldiers' Memorial Hall is a rare example of an elaborate soldiers' hall in Queensland. While a number of halls were built for this purpose in the period after the First World War, very few were as substantial as this.
|The Soldiers' Memorial Hall demonstrates the principal characteristics of a building designed for the use, both recreational and administrative, of returned soldiers and their families, with its memorial vestibule, honour rolls, offices, meeting rooms, recreation rooms, dining rooms, and dance hall. The former large dance hall, although now partitioned into several public spaces, remains important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, with original timber flooring, original ceiling, and large banks of hopper windows to the street elevation.
|The Soldiers' Memorial Hall has aesthetic value and makes a strong contribution to the civic streetscape of this part of Ruthven Street. The form and massing of the front section of the building reflect the adjacent 1900 Toowoomba City Council Chambers.
|Construction of the hall is also illustrative of the patriotic fervour associated with the First World War, and the community's identification with the British Empire at this period in Queensland's history.
The Soldiers' Memorial Hall has a special association with the Returned Services League and with other allied groups. It has a strong spiritual and social association with returned service personnel, and the general community, as a focal point for Anzac and Remembrance Day commemorations. It also has a special association with the Toowoomba community because of its use by a variety of community organisations, most noticeably Rotary, and for many social functions, including many of Toowoomba's principal balls and dances until at least the mid-1960s.
","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":16061,"place_ref":601298,"name":"St James Church","alternate_name":"St James Church of England | St James Anglican Church","street_address":"145 Mort Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"St James Church is located on the corner of Russell and Mort Streets, Toowoomba and is adjacent to a recently constructed rectory. A timber framed bell tower sits to the rear of the church. Gardens, including mature trees surround the church.
St James is a modestly scaled building, reflecting the importance of early English gothic revival architecture in parish churches during the second half of the 19th century. The characteristic elements of that style are seen in the steeply pitched roof with timber framed steeple, polychrome brickwork, stained glass windows in pointed arched openings and, internally, use of hammer beam roof trusses and dark stained timber furniture including pews, reredos and other altar furniture.
Because the church has been altered a number of times with extensions and replacement, the brickwork and detail is not consistent externally. The earliest part of the building is distinguished by the polychrome brickwork and sandstone detailing. Subsequent extensions have been constructed in monochrome brick.
The church has a cruciform plan, the nave running east-west, with the eastern, altar end facing Mort Street. The nave has a gabled roof clad with zincalume (or equivalent). The transepts from the northern and southern faces of the church also have gabled roofs, slightly lower in height than the principal nave roof. The point at which the roofs of the nave and transepts cross is punctuated with a small timber framed steeple. The steeple has an open decorative timber body supported on a timber base structure and capped with an elongated pyramidal metal roof with small openings.
The eastern end of the building, facing Mort Street, is one of the areas which has been largely rebuilt. The chancel is a square planned and with centrally located tripartite window openings. The external face of this façade has brick buttresses flanking the window opening and another pair of buttresses supporting the corners. Flanking the eastern end of the building are smaller gabled roof extensions housing vestries.
The northern and southern transepts of the building form the principal entrances to the church, through centrally located porches. The northern porch is open, with a brick base and timber battened balustrade and arched opening around the entrance. Above the porch is a tripartite window opening with brick surrounds. The porch on the southern transept has been replaced with a closed vestibule from the c1970s. This differs from the original porch in size and roof pitch. Lining the nave of the building are small lancet window openings, separated by brick buttressing.
The western face of the building features a small gabled roof projection which is later than the actual face of this façade. Above the projection is a tripartite window opening.
The interior of the church is a single volume with white painted rendered walls. The ceiling space is divided into the bays of the nave with stained timber hammer beam roof trusses. The ceiling is lined with diagonally timber boarding.
A feature of the interior is fine timber screens and rails associated with the altar. Stained glass windows line the nave and western end of the building. Early timber pews lined are organised into two sections with central aisle.
","history":"St James Church of England was constructed in 1869 to the design of prominent Brisbane architect, Richard George Suter. The building which has a number of additions, was constructed as the second Church of England in Toowoomba.
The first Church of England was established on the site of the present St Luke's Anglican Church, at the corner of Herries and Ruthven Streets. St Luke's Church was established on this site in a small timber building in 1857, but it was not long with Toowoomba rapid growth that this small rudimentary structure was considered too small for the growing community. There was much debate about the location of a more permanent structure, some of the townsfolk and the Bishop felt that a brick building should replace the existing timber building on the same site, whereas other influential members of the community preferred to see the church re-located to a site near the Mort Estate where land was offered to the church by James Taylor MLA.
Designs for the new building were acquired, firstly from local architect Arthur Hartley in 1866 and then from Brisbane architect Richard George Suter in 1868. At a meeting of the Church Parish in September of 1868 the Suter plans and specifications of the new church were approved and yet there was still no agreement on the site of the new building. It was only after the Bishop in February 1869 changed his mind on the matter that the site near the Mort Estate was finally chosen. The bishop felt that there was larger population here, although he acknowledged that the site would be less convenient for some of the parish.
At a meeting of April 1869 the tender of local contractor, Richard Godsall for the construction of the building for £1400 was accepted and construction began. Suter's design of the church was in keeping with the design of small parish churches in England of the time - modestly sized Gothic Revival buildings with steeply pitched roofs, small ornate roof towers, well executed brickwork and pointed arched openings throughout. The polychrome striped brickwork of the original St James Church is particularly interesting and unusual in the Queensland context. The church is similar in proportion and massing to other Church of England buildings designed by Suter including St Mark's in Warwick (1867-1870). Suter was a strong supporter and warden in the Church of England and was a popular choice of architect for many of the Church's buildings from the mid 1860s until the mid 1870s.
The land on which St James Church was built at the corner of Mort and Russell Streets, was acquired by Mr James Taylor, a prominent churchman, on 19 January 1865 from a Mr William Horton. The land was formally acquired by the Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane on 8 February 1884 and trustees were later appointed. The Foundation Stone of the church was laid by the Governor of Queensland, Samuel Wensley Blackall in May 1869 and the church was completed before Christmas of that year. The opening of the church was reported in the Toowoomba Chronicle where the building was described as comprising a apsidal chancel, nave and transepts to the north and south, with bluestone foundation and freestone dressings. The transept and chancel roofs were set at a lower height than the nave roof with a spire at the crossing. The north and south transepts had small open timber porches.
The construction of this new building was thought by many, including the Bishop to have replaced the earlier St Lukes. However the building was named St James, after St James the Less, not St Lukes indicating a separate entity rather than a continuing tradition. In fact, those parishioners unhappy about the relocation of the site argued strongly for the retention of the early St Luke's site where services continued to be held in what was now regarded as a school room. Suffice to say, this debate raged for about 30 years and in the early 20th century, St Lukes and St James became separate parishes north and south of the Margaret Street dividing line.
By 1876, St James was considered inadequate and cracks appeared in the apsidal chancel at the eastern end of the building facing Mort Street. However money was restricted by the effective funding of two separate churches and it was not until 1882 that work was commenced on major additions to the church designed by local architect James Marks. The original apsidal chancel was replaced by a larger face brick extension which presented a new gabled end to Mort Street with a tripartite lancet window on the face of the wall known as the Davenport window. As well the nave was extended by two bays. During the 1880s an oak reredos (carved screen behind alter), altar rails and choir stalls were installed. Another major addition to the church was the installation in the northern nave windows of stained glass windows commissioned from English firm, Clayton and Bell and depicting the Nativity and the Agony in the Garden. The slate roof of the building was replaced in the 1890s with rib and pan iron sheeting.
As well as size restrictions, St James was faced with major structural problems and in 1904, the eastern wing of the building, facing Mort Street, was demolished. The chancel was rebuilt along with the northern transept and adjoining vestry. This work was supervised by Brisbane architect John Smith Murdoch and finished at a cost of £1000.
In 1953 the apsidal baptistery was demolished and rebuilt to the design of Toowoomba architect Charles B Marks.
More recent alterations have included the replacement of the southern porch with a brick gable roofed projection.
","criteria":"St James Anglican Church, an early surviving 1860s church, demonstrates the growth of the Church of England in south east Queensland.
|The original part of the Church is a uncommon example of a Gothic Revival building using polychrome brickwork, a common feature of equivalent English and churches of the southern states but rarely used in Queensland.
|It is a fine example of early English gothic revival architecture at the scale of a small parish church.
|St James is a good example of the work of prominent early architect, Richard Suter and is a fine example of early English gothic revival architecture at the scale of a small parish church. The original part of the Church is a uncommon example of a Gothic Revival building using polychrome brickwork, a common feature of equivalent English and churches of the southern states but rarely used in Queensland.
|The place has social and spiritual significance as a place of worship for 130 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":16063,"place_ref":601300,"name":"Toowoomba Foundry Pty Ltd","alternate_name":"Toowoomba Foundry and Railway Rolling Stock Manufacturing Company | Southern Cross Works | Griffiths Brothers and Company","street_address":"251-267 Ruthven Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-07-07","description":"The Toowoomba Foundry site is bounded by Ruthven Street on the eastern side, the Defiance Flour Mill on the southern side, the Toowoomba Railway Station on the western side and the Southern Cross site on the northern side. The site forms an integral part of the industrial streetscape of the northern end of Ruthven Street and has landmark qualities from both the western and eastern sides. A combination of mature trees and recent landscaping is planted in front of the Ruthven Street elevation.
The main entrance is from Ruthven Street, along which runs a face brick single storey building. The main section of this building is divided by engaged pilasters into twenty two bays. Each bay contains a fifteen paned window with painted concrete sills and lintels, apart from the seventh bay from the southern end, in which a door is located. This section is surmounted by a concrete rendered parapet which is painted with the Toowoomba Foundry logo and colours.
An additional section at the southern end of the building is constructed of similar face bricks and also divided by engaged pilasters into bays containing windows with painted concrete sills and lintels, although the bays and windows are wider than in the original section.
At the northern end of the site, the building steps back to form a 'U' shape surrounding a carpark, continuing the pattern of bays divided by engaged pilasters.
Internally, these buildings comprise a reception area, office and canteen space on split levels. Most areas have undergone major alterations, with little evidence of original fabric surviving.
The remainder of the site comprises machine, moulding and core workshops, which are steel framed and clad in corrugated iron, apart from the southern end of the machine shop, which is clad in corrugated iron, but has a timber frame. Other buildings on the site are of a smaller scale, and are a combination of timber and steel framed buildings clad with corrugated iron. Some contain remnants of now obsolete industrial equipment, such as cranes.
The areas between the buildings are recently sealed, with remnants of railways tracks in the south-western corner of the site.
","history":"The Toowoomba Foundry is located in Ruthven Street on a prominent site adjacent to the Defiance Flour Mill and the Toowoomba Railway Station. It was established in 1871 by George Washington Griffiths and has continually operated as a foundry since that time.
Owned by Griffiths family descendants until 1987 when it was purchased by National Consolidated, the Foundry is one of the last surviving 19th century industries on the Darling Downs. Among other products, it produced rolling stock for Queensland Railways, and the Southern Cross windmill, one of the most enduring icons on the Downs.
The present site of Toowoomba was initially known as the Swamp and during the 1840s was secondary to the principal Darling Downs township of Drayton.
European discovery of the Darling Downs occurred in 1828 when Alan Cunningham provided a route through the Great Dividing Range which separated the Downs from the Moreton Bay region. In 1840, Patrick Leslie became the first settler on the Downs, quickly followed by others and in 1842, a more accessible route through the Range was opened. Drayton evolved from a stopping place for those reaching the top of the Range, although by 1848 water shortages prompted moves to The Swamp, which was renamed Toowoomba in 1858.
George Washington Griffiths of Bristol, England arrived in Australia in 1870 with his wife, daughter and two sons. After attending a lecture given by J C White of Jondaryan, Griffiths decided to settle in Toowoomba where he gained work as a builder.
The following year, Griffith's father sent out a consignment of ironmongery, enabling him to establish a shop and repair foundry in Ruthven Street, with his brother-in-law William Atherton. In 1873, Atherton left the partnership and Griffiths was joined by his brother John who was 'an engineer with several scholarships and degrees.' By November of the same year, the Toowoomba Chronicle reported that the 'little machine shop of Griffiths Bros. & Co' was being enlarged. (November 1873)
In September 1874, Griffiths sold the ironmongery business to Holberton and Company and purchased 2 acres of land on the corner of Campbell and Ruthven Streets with the intention of concentrating solely on the engineering aspects of the business. The new foundry, named Griffiths Brothers and Company, opened in February 1876 and was described in the Toowoomba Chronicle as comprising an office, storeroom and four workshops containing the sawing department, the fitting and machine shop, the casting workshop, (where the first casting in iron on the Downs was recorded) and the blacksmiths and boilermakers section. (15.2.1876)
In the same year, John Griffiths left the business to become Assistant Engineer in the Construction Branch of the Queensland Railway Department, although he maintained a financial interest in the Foundry.
The Foundry struggled during its early years, with Griffiths receiving funding from his father to cover debts. However, by 1881 the business had improved and the foundry was 'making steam engines and boilers, wool and other presses, washpool requirements, spouting and soap tanks, pumps, windmills, troughing, castings - iron or brass, ironwork for verandahs, and also contracting to provide railway stock for the Queensland Government Railways.' The construction of windmills, which were later to keep the company afloat during difficult times also commenced.
In 1883, Griffiths bought out his partners (sisters, Harriott and Lilly, brother John and brother-in-law K L Marshland) to form a public company which was floated on July 4 1884. The new company was known as the Toowoomba Foundry and Railway Rolling Stock Manufacturing Company Ltd, with Griffiths as managing director, and many notable citizens as provisional directors, including A C Gregory, W H Groom and James Campbell. Despite the formation of a public company, the Griffiths family purchased sufficient shares to ensure the foundry remained under their control.
By 1886, the Foundry employed 72 men and comprised a showroom (60ft by 33ft) for imported goods; a foundry shop containing a central furnace, a dozen forges, steam hammers, a rolling machine and an iron cutting machine; a moulding shop; and a brass foundry. The production of windmills, which were described as 'the pride and glory of the place,' also continued.
The Foundry continued to prosper until the early 1890s, when business began to decline due to the economic depression of the period. Despite this, the Toowoomba Foundry was able to purchase the trade, plant and goodwill of its rival, the Reliance Foundry, which had been established in 1882 by Mr Porritt, former employee of Griffiths Brothers and Company. The survival of the foundry during this period is attributed to 'the manufacture of cheap wood and steel Simplex windmills which were necessary on the Downs to raise water from the sub-artesian reservoirs' and were 'sold in their hundreds to farmers all over the Downs.
Trade increased in the late 1890s due to new rolling stock contracts. Due to the construction of new lines between 1906 and 1908, Queensland Railways found it necessary to let external contracts to private firms to build the required additional engines. Between 1909 and 1910, ninety engines were ordered from private firms including the Toowoomba Foundry, and between 1912 and 1913, the Foundry constructed an additional twenty locomotives of the light PB15 class for Queensland Railways. A further fifteen C16 class locomotives were ordered from the Foundry during 1914 -15, one of which survives as part of the Queensland Rail Museum collection at Redbank.
In 1903, the Southern Cross windmill was designed by Griffiths's son, George. This saw the beginning of a prosperous period due to specialisation in the windmill and water supply business, and the subsequent use of the name Southern Cross as the Foundry's trade name.
In August 1924, G W Griffiths died. His sons, Alfred and George continued the management of the business, which expanded to encompass sales divisions in the Middle East and South Africa. The onset of the Second World War saw further expansion of the Foundry, with over 1000 people employed and the production of engines, generating sets and pumping units under contract to the Australian Government and the Armed Services of Britain and the United States.
Despite a shortage of supplies following the War, the company continued to grow, ensuring viable batch quantities were maintained by establishing the trade name through its many overseas outlets. This proved so successful that an export division was established in 1945, and additional sales offices were established in Charleville, Townsville, Rockhampton, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Tamworth, Moree, Lismore and South Africa.
The Griffiths family maintained ownership of the company until 1987 when it was purchased by National Consolidated. Due to operational changes, the Foundry site has decreased in size in recent years. The buildings at the southern end of the site, which were formerly used to assemble and package windmills, were sold to Defiance Flour Mills (who operate from the adjacent site) in 1993. The buildings at the northern end of the site are owned by Southern Cross, who now operate as a separate entity.
Most of the buildings on the site appear to date from the late nineteenth/early twentieth century and have been altered and extended during the two major periods of expansion in 1923 and the 1940s. More recent additions and alterations are also evident.
The site continues to operate as a foundry and machine shop and is currently owned by Austrim, who purchased it in 1998.
","criteria":"The Toowoomba Foundry was established in 1871 and commenced operations at its present site in 1876, and has remained in operation since that time. It is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history in particular:
- it is important in demonstrating the role of secondary industry, particularly in the provincial cities, within the State's economic and social fabric;
- the industrial precinct located in close proximity to the Toowoomba Railway Station (of which the Toowoomba Foundry and adjoining Defiance Mill are an integral part) is important in demonstrating the importance of the relationship between the provision of railway infrastructure and the development of Queensland secondary industry in the 19th century, particularly in the provincial cities.
|The Toowoomba Foundry is an uncommon example of an industrial site in Queensland which has had a continued use for nearly 130 years, and which remained in the same family for over 110 years.
|The Toowoomba Foundry has been in continual operation for nearly 130 years on this site and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an operational industrial site, which has evolved over time, and continues to do so. The site has undergone expansion and development according to fluctuations in demand for its various products, including rolling stock for Queensland Government Railways; windmills; and engines during the Second World War. The evolutionary nature of the site is evident in the location of the site as well as in the range of age, type, style and arrangement of buildings on the site.
|The place has aesthetic significance as part of the industrial streetscape along the northern end of Ruthven Street as well as being prominent in the wider industrial landscape, especially when viewed from the Toowoomba Railway Station. Its landmark qualities from the west are due to the massing of a number of industrial, corrugated iron clad buildings. The site presents a more formal face to Ruthven Street through the brick fronted office building and canteen.
|Established nearly 130 years ago, the Toowoomba Foundry, with its long history as a major employer in Toowoomba, has strong associations for past and present employees, and for the local community. The canteen erected during the Second World War is of particular significance, and company social occasions were also held here. The place also has a strong association with rural Australia as a well-known producer and supplier of windmills, which have become synonymous with the rural landscape.
","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":16064,"place_ref":601301,"name":"Tawa","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"9 Boulton Terrace","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1994-10-31","description":"Tawa, a small single-storeyed brick residence with a steeply pitched hipped corrugated iron roof, is located fronting Boulton Street to the east.
The building has a verandah to the east with a concave corrugated iron awning supported by cast iron columns, stamped BUBB & SON, and a timber floor. The central entry has a panelled timber door with fanlight, and is flanked by a french door to either side. There are two rendered chimney stacks on the southern side, and the building has timber sash windows with arched headers. The northern and southern elevations are face brick, the eastern is rendered, and the western is partly rendered showing evidence of earlier additions which have been removed. A timber passage with a corrugated iron gable roof connects to a recent free standing structure to the west.
Internally, the plan consists of four rooms with a central rear foyer. Walls are rendered brick with wallpaper (with some evidence of earlier wallpaper), ceilings are hardboard with timber cover strips below early plaster and lathe, and cedar joinery includes panelled doors, architraves and skirtings. The two fireplaces have timber surrounds, and the floors consist of pitsawn boards with carpet over.
A narrow driveway is located on the northern side of the house, accessing the rear of the property, and an iron fence consisting of security grilles from the Baillie Henderson Hospital in Toowoomba is a recent addition to the eastern boundary.
","history":"Erected reputedly during the mid 1850s, this single storey brick cottage survives as one of the earliest dwellings in Toowoomba.
In April 1849, Surveyor JC Burnett laid out 12 allotments on the left bank of the West Swamp. The allotments ranged in size from 27-40 acres, and were known as the Drayton Swamp Agricultural Reserve. Six of these "Swamp allotments" were offered at auction in November 1849. As there were no bidders for these allotments, they were resubmitted to auction in October 1850, at which time William Horton, a publican of Drayton, acquired allotments five and six. Allotments one to four and the remaining six allotments were auctioned in March 1851; allotments seven to nine were acquired by Horton and allotments 10-12 were purchased by Sydney businessmen Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and Alexander Campbell Brown, and their Toowoomba partner Thomas Ayerst. The remaining allotments one to four were sold in July 1857.
Tawa is located on part of allotment 11 acquired by Mort, Brown and Ayerst. By 1855, Mort had acquired the three allotments in his own name; this area of Toowoomba came to be known as the Mort Estate.
Mort had arrived in Sydney in 1838, and during the early 1840s, proceeded to establish his reputation as an auctioneer, and was particularly involved in wool sales. From 1850-51, Mort, who by this time was considered the premier auctioneer in Sydney, entered into a business partnership with Brown, as Mort and Brown. Mort's wealth multiplied during the 1850s as a result of successful speculation in pastoral properties. Mort's later business ventures were undertaken through Mort and Co, established in 1855, and which included Mort's brother, Henry.
In December 1862, Martin Boulton of Toowoomba acquired subdivisions 21-24 of allotment 11. Prior to moving to Toowoomba, Boulton had operated a General Store in Leyburn. Boulton, a brother-in-law of prominent Toowoomba businessmen Thomas Alford, Joseph King and James Taylor, was actively involved in the granting of municipality status to Toowoomba (1860) and was elected as a member of the first Toowoomba Council.
Boulton had commenced subdividing the land by 1864, and established a row of terrace cottages on the Mort Estate which came to be known as Boulton Terrace. Boulton took out a mortgage on the land in 1866, increasing his borrowing the following year. Boulton was declared insolvent later in 1867, and the property taken over by the Bank of New South Wales.
An application for the land to be bought under the Real Property system in 1881, mentioned Boulton, Alfred Smith, George Weale and Stephen H Wichello as tenants of the land. A lease was issued to Wichello, a Toowoomba tanner, from July 1882.
The property was progressively subdivided from November 1891 and changed hands a number of times. By 1970 the front of Tawa had been enclosed with fibro. Tawa was renovated in 1971, at which time the fibro was removed, and wallpaper replaced with paper to match the original wallpaper. Norman and Elizabeth Oliver, owners of Tawa from 1971 to 1974, opened Tawa to the public.
Tawa was acquired by the present owners in 1979. A two-storeyed extension to the rear of Tawa was completed in 1983, and constructed of brick recycled from the old Toowoomba General Hospital.
","criteria":"Tawa survives as one of the earliest dwellings in Toowoomba, and is important in demonstrating the pattern of development of Toowoomba as a residential location from the 1850s.
|The building, located in one of Toowoomba's earliest residential subdivisions, is important in demonstrating 1860s methods of design and construction and makes a strong aesthetic contribution to the Boulton Street streetscape.
|The building, located in one of Toowoomba's earliest residential subdivisions, is important in demonstrating 1860s methods of design and construction and makes a strong aesthetic contribution to the Boulton Street streetscape.
|Located in Boulton Street, Tawa maintains an association with Martin Boulton, a prominent Toowoomba businessman. Tawa is also associated with Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, one of the land speculators in Toowoomba during the 1850s.
","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":16066,"place_ref":601303,"name":"Gladstone House and Cottage","alternate_name":"St Rest","street_address":"1B & 3 Gladstone Street","suburb":"NEWTOWN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-01-13","description":"The property consists of Gladstone House, the Cottage and associated grounds.
Gladstone House
Gladstone House, a single-storeyed weatherboard residence with a multi-hipped corrugated iron roof and timber stumps with batten infill, is located on a northerly sloping site fronting Gladstone Street to the east. The building has a 1970s split-level addition at the rear.
The strong geometry of the building is reflected in the cruciform plan, consisting of a central octagonal living room with three bedrooms projecting to the northwest, northeast and southeast, and a dining room to the southwest. The inside corner of each projecting wing is infilled with a triangular shaped room, with the main entry to the east, bathroom to the south, bedroom to the north, and originally an open deck to the west which has been enclosed and extended to create a kitchen. The 1970s split-level addition is attached to the west of the kitchen.
Each projecting wing has a hipped roof with finial, the infill rooms have skillion roofs, and the central octagonal room has hipped dormer skylights to the north, east and south, and a central look-out which was originally accessed via a western stair which is no longer extant. The skylights have centrally pivoted hopper widows, and a pot-bellied rendered chimney stack is located above the southwest wing.
The east entry has a central octagonal hipped corrugated iron roofed turret, surrounded by a skillion roofed verandah. The verandah has diagonally patterned timber balustrading, chamfered timber posts and a batten valance, and is accessed via a concrete platform and steps with steel handrails and diagonally patterned balustrade. The entry door is to the side of a central projecting bay, which has a patented Marks' AUSTRAL window, and is flanked by the same to either side.
The eastern projecting wings, and northern infill bedroom, have projecting triangular bay units with sash windows and skillion awnings. The upper section of the walls, between window heads and eaves, is finished with hardboard sheeting with spaced vertical battens giving a horizontal band around the building and separating the higher and lower gutter lines. The southern bathroom has a patented Marks' AUSTRAL window, and the dining room has twin sashes.
Internally, the building has timber skirtings and cornices, with vertically jointed boarding to walls to all rooms, except the central octagonal room which has horizontal boarding to the fanlight head height and vertical boarding above. Ceilings are boarded, with the central room having skylights located above the ceiling line forming angled recesses. This room has timber doors with glass panes and glass fanlights located below the north and east skylights, and a fireplace located on the southwest wall with an ornate timber surround with tiled inserts and a boarded chimney stack with timber mantle. A doorway has been inserted to the west of the chimney, and accesses the southwest dining room which may have been the original kitchen. This room has a concrete slab which may have been the hearth of a fireplace backing onto the existing living room fireplace.
The corners of the triangular infill rooms are squared-off to create small cupboards which are accessed from the adjoining projecting wing rooms. The bathroom has been recently refitted, and the rear kitchen area has undergone a number of alterations and currently links into the 1970s addition and opens onto a deck on the northwest.
The Cottage
The Cottage, now a separate residence, is located at the northeast corner of the northerly sloping site fronting Gladstone Street to the east. This single-storeyed weatherboard structure with a multi-hipped corrugated iron roof with a tall central clerestory skylight, has timber stumps with batten infill, curved timber eave brackets, and sash and casement windows with timber batten brackets and corrugated iron hoods.
The building is symmetrical to Gladstone Street, and has an entrance porch at either corner with the main entry being at the northeast and accessed via a timber stair with metal handrail. A small verandah has been enclosed on the northeast corner, which was formerly a rear entry, and a lean-to laundry has been attached at the rear.
Internally, the building consists of a central living room dominated by a clerestory skylight, with a bedroom to either side and a kitchen and bathroom at the rear. Ceilings are of hardboard sheeting with timber coverstrips, walls have vertically jointed boarding, doors have timber frames with glass panel inserts and ventilation strips above, and the kitchen has early cabinets and fittings.
Grounds
A driveway accesses the property to the north of Gladstone House, and leads to a recent brick garage built adjacent to the house at the northwest. A chamferboard shed with a corrugated iron skillion roof and timber doors is located to the northwest of the house, and the site contains a number of mature trees, including a large tree to the southwest of Gladstone House.
","history":"This single storeyed timber house, also referred to as St Rest, was completed c1908, for prominent Toowoomba architect, Henry James (Harry) Marks. The Cottage, known also as the former Gate-keeper's Cottage, was probably erected at around this time.
Gladstone House is situated on part of Portion 86, originally an area of 93 acres northwest of the central business district of Toowoomba, located in the former Gowrie Shire. Portion 86, acquired by John Shipman, was one of a number of allotments ranging in size from 22-133 acres on the western side of Toowoomba, which were auctioned in February 1858. The sale of these lots was one of a series of land sales at Toowoomba from 1849, and the success of these early sales provided the stimulus for the development of Toowoomba as the principal town of the district.
Shipman's land was known as Eton Farm, described as the best cultivated farm in the district, on which he grew wheat, oats, barley, lucerne and corn. Shipman also established an orchard, a vegetable garden, a dairy, piggery, stockyards, and a small horse stud on his farm.
Shipman died in 1862, and his land was subdivided during the late 1880s. Thomas Jones acquired 90 acres of Portion 86 early in 1889. Jones further subdivided the land into two parts, one of which was transferred to Mrs Ada McDougall, a Toowoomba widow, later in 1889. Mrs McDougall took out several mortgages on the land, before it was acquired by George Wonderley, a Toowoomba solicitor, in 1898.
During the late 1880s and early 1890s, the residential area of Toowoomba rapidly expanded, as large holdings in the smaller shires surrounding Toowoomba were subdivided for residential allotments.
Wonderley commenced the subdivision and sale of the newly created blocks from early 1899. William Robinson acquired six of these blocks, comprising three acres in 1900. Between 1903-1904, Harry Marks and his wife Katharine acquired four adjoining allotments on the west corner of Gladstone and Jellicoe streets (subs 31-34), and three allotments on the opposite corner of Gladstone Street (subs 63-65). The Marks' sold subs 63-65 in 1907.
Born and trained in Toowoomba, Harry Marks had entered into partnership with his father James, in 1892. James had commenced practice as an architect in Toowoomba by the early 1880s, and he and Harry have been described as dominating the architectural profession for more than half a century. Although Harry Marks was responsible for designing a number of buildings on both the Darling Downs and in Brisbane, much of his work was in Toowoomba where he designed a variety of buildings including Rodway [600868], St James Parish Hall [600856], St Luke's Church Hall [600866], additions to the Toowoomba Maltings [600852], and the Darling Downs Co-operative Bacon Factory. Marks was also described as being gifted with inventive genius, and he devised and patented a number of architectural elements, including roof ventilators, windows and a method of stucco wall construction.
Marks incorporated examples of his inventions in the design of St Rest, triangular bay windows and the AUSTRAL window which he designed reputedly for the house.
The Shire of Newtown was formed in 1913, from part of the Gowrie Shire area. Marks was an alderman on the Newtown Council from 1913 until 1917, when it was absorbed into the Toowoomba City area.
Following Marks' death in 1939, Katharine remained at Gladstone House and commenced subdividing the grounds of Gladstone House during the 1940s. The land on which the Cottage stands was transferred to Marks' daughter KM Muir, in 1951. Katharine died in 1954, and her son Charles Beresford Marks, also a Toowoomba architect, was appointed trustee of the property.
Gladstone House was acquired by Theodore and Doris Hallop in 1955, and the property has since changed hands a number of times. Alterations undertaken to Gladstone House during the 1970s included the addition of a room at the rear of the house. Gladstone House was acquired by the present owners in 1990.
","criteria":"Erected in the early 20th century, in a then outer part of Toowoomba [previously Gowrie Shire], Gladstone House survives as evidence of the growth and residential expansion of Toowoomba from this time, as formerly large estates and farms were subdivided and sold.
|Designed by prominent Toowoomba architect HJ Marks as his private residence, Gladstone House and Cottage, erected c1908, display an individual inventiveness and creativity typical of Marks' work in their design. Gladstone House includes examples of the AUSTRAL window designed and patented by Marks. The buildings possess highly articulated geometry in plan, elevation and roof form, containing many design elements associated with Marks' work, and reflecting many of his design considerations including the use of natural light and ventilation.
|Gladstone House, the Cottage and the surrounding plantings make a substantial aesthetic contribution to the streetscape of Gladstone Street, and complement the considerable range of extant HJ Marks buildings in Toowoomba.
|Designed by prominent Toowoomba architect HJ Marks as his private residence, Gladstone House and Cottage, erected c1908, display an individual inventiveness and creativity typical of Marks' work in their design. Gladstone House includes examples of the AUSTRAL window designed and patented by Marks. The buildings possess highly articulated geometry in plan, elevation and roof form, containing many design elements associated with Marks' work, and reflecting many of his design considerations including the use of natural light and ventilation.
|Designed by prominent Toowoomba architect HJ Marks as his private residence, Gladstone House and Cottage, erected c1908, display an individual inventiveness and creativity typical of Marks' work in their design. Gladstone House includes examples of the AUSTRAL window designed and patented by Marks. The buildings possess highly articulated geometry in plan, elevation and roof form, containing many design elements associated with Marks' work, and reflecting many of his design considerations including the use of natural light and ventilation.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | 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 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":16069,"place_ref":601306,"name":"Defiance Flour Mill","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"269-291 Ruthven Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2002-02-26","description":"The Defiance Flour Mill site is bounded by Ruthven Street on the eastern side, the Toowoomba Foundry on the northern side, the Toowoomba Railway Station on the western side and a laneway on the southern side. The site forms an integral part of the industrial streetscape of the northern end of Ruthven Street and has landmark qualities from both the western and eastern sides.
\nThe main entrance to the site is from Ruthven Street. Included within the heritage boundary is: the 1911 mill building; flanked by two face brick buildings on its northern side and one face brick building on its southern side (refer to heritage register boundary map).
\nThe 1911 mill building is constructed of load bearing brick construction and the brick is laid in English bond. It is a three storey gable roofed building, with the gable end addressing Ruthven Street. This elevation is divided into two bays with pilasters at each end and in the centre. Each storey has a pair of timber double hung windows with painted concrete lintels which run the width of each bay. The words Defiance Milling Co. and Est. 1898 are painted on the gable end.
\nThe northern and southern elevations are also divided into bays by pilasters. Timber framed double hung windows with shallow brick arches are located within each bay on each level. The roof is of corrugated iron with regularly spaced transparent fibreglass panels on either side. Five ventilators are located along the ridge. Internally, the mill building has undergone alterations to accommodate new equipment. The building functioned as a flour mill over three levels, with an original set of stairs at the eastern end.
\nThe buildings on either side of the mill are also of face brick, with timber framed windows and painted concrete lintels. Each building has a regular fenestration pattern, although they vary from building to building. The office building to the north of the mill has a more ornamented façade than the other buildings on the site with a simply moulded parapet and string course, and glazed bricks surrounding the windows. The windows of this, and the adjacent building also feature shallow brick arches above the windows. The rear of these buildings are sheeted with fibro and have corrugated iron roofs. Most internal areas in the office buildings have undergone major alterations, with little evidence of original fabric surviving.
\n","history":"
The Defiance Flour Mill is located in Ruthven Street on a prominent site adjacent to the Toowoomba Foundry and the Toowoomba Railway Station. The company was established in 1898 by Patrick O'Brien, his wife Ellen, and George Crisp and initially operated from premises in Russell Street prior to moving to the present site in Ruthven Street in 1901.
\nEuropean discovery of the Darling Downs occurred in 1828 when Alan Cunningham provided a route through the Great Dividing Range which separated the Downs from the Moreton Bay region. In 1840, Patrick Leslie became the first settler on the Downs, quickly followed by others and in 1842, a more accessible route through the Range was opened. Drayton evolved from a stopping place for those reaching the top of the Range, although by 1848 water shortages prompted moves to The Swamp, which was renamed Toowoomba in 1858. From the 1860s Toowoomba prospered as a regional centre with the establishment of many industries.
\nPatrick and Ellen O'Brien were both Irish migrants who were married in Toowoomba in 1884. They established a produce and grocery store in Russell Street, near the Dominion Flour Mill which was managed by George Crisp. Crisp, who had migrated to Queensland in 1887, was an experienced miller and had also worked in other mills on the Darling Downs.
\nBy 1898, the O'Brien's produce store had developed into a successful business. They decided to finance a new flour mill in Toowoomba and entered into an equal partnership with Crisp, who became the manager and miller. At this stage, there were six other flour mills established on the Downs. Most of these were small operations using steam or water mills. In contrast, the Toowoomba Chronicle described the new Defiance Mill in Russell Street, which was designed by Toowoomba architects Marks & Sons as being 'fitted with the latest machinery from England and America by the celebrated firm of Thos. Robinson & Son Ltd, Rockdale England, capable of turning out 16 tons of flour in 24 hours.'
\nBy November 1901, business had substantially increased and the Defiance Milling Company purchased the former Gisler's mill in Ruthven Street. Crisp maintained management of both mills, with one of the Gisler brothers remaining as miller-in-charge at the Ruthven Street mill. Further expansion occurred in 1902 when Defiance purchased another a mill in the Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.
\nFollowing Patrick O'Brien's death in 1906, his wife Ellen continued to manage the business. Although Patrick had accumulated an impressive estate which included city properties, the mills and the store, Ellen required funding assistance to purchase wheat for the following season's milling. Raising money became Ellen's responsibility from this stage on, as 'Crisp would have nothing to do with [such] \"humiliating\" activities.'
\nIn 1911, a new milling building was erected on the Ruthven Street site. Designed by Toowoomba architect W Hodgen and built by WT Smith, it comprised a four storeyed brick building which was reportedly substantially damaged by fire less than two years later. The rebuilt building forms the core of the present site. New grain sheds equipped with handling machinery and a storage capacity of 28 000 bags were constructed to the north of the mill building in 1914.
\nCrisp's involvement in Defiance ended following the First World War when he sold his share to Ellen prior to retiring to Tasmania with his wife and daughter. The mill was then managed by Thomas Patrick, one of Ellen and Patrick's ten children. He was an experienced miller and upon discovering that the mill was in debt, set about producing the highest quality flour to become more competitive with other mills. Quality was a continuing passion, and Thomas often personally selected wheat directly from the farmers, even after the establishment of the Wheat Board in 1920.
\nIn 1923, the Brisbane Valley Mill was sold, and the Dalby Mill was acquired. The business continued to prosper and remained a family owned business until 1955 when the Defiance Milling Company Pty Ltd was formed with Thomas Patrick as Governing Director, sister Ellen McCafferty and brother EF O'Brien as Directors, and brother PW O'Brien as Manager.
\nThe 1960s saw much change and development in the flour milling business, largely due to the establishment of English based company, George Weston Foods in Australia. This brought about greater competition for flour sales, and the development of pre-mixed products for bakeries. In the late 1960s, Defiance constructed a mill at Rockhampton to protect their North Queensland business from other millers who were developing into the region. The 1960s also saw the construction of the first of the silos which now dominate the Ruthven Street site.
\nFollowing the death of TP O'Brien in 1969, the Directors decided to consolidate the shareholdings of the company. In 1975, Defiance Holdings Pty Ltd was converted to an unlisted public company named Defiance Holdings Ltd, and the company was floated as a listed public company known as Defiance Mills Ltd in 1976. During this stage, the Ruthven Street site underwent a full remodelling.
\nFurther expansion was made with the construction of a Melbourne mill to supply southern states, and by 1987 the fully owned mills at Toowoomba, Brisbane and Rockhampton, and the fifty percent owned Dalby mill were producing just over half of all the flour manufactured in Queensland, as well as soya bean and rye products.
\nWhen the Defiance Flour Mill was permanently entered in the Queensland heritage register in 2002, the main building, originally constructed in 1911, continued to function as a flour mill, with most of the flour used in other products produced by the mill such as pre-mixed cake and bread mixes. The remainder of the site comprised the pre-mix factory, retail factory and office.
\nAllied Mills operated the flour mill from 2002 until 2011, when the site sustained extensive water damage following the extreme weather event of January 10.
","criteria":"Established in Toowoomba in 1898 the Defiance Flour Mill is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history as an example of an early flour industry continually operating until 2011.
|The Ruthven Street site has undergone expansion and development reflecting the evolution of flour milling technology. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of an operational industrial site which evolved from the early 20th century with an early central core. The main 1911 milling building demonstrates the principal characteristics of an early 20th century industrial building. The site is located adjacent to the Toowoomba Foundry and demonstrates the development of the northern end of Ruthven Street as an industrial precinct in close proximity to the Toowoomba Railway Station.
|The place has aesthetic significance and is a landmark, both from Ruthven Street and from the western side of the Toowoomba Railway Station. The 1911 mill building is of architectural significance as a well composed early industrial building.
|Established in Toowoomba in 1898 the Defiance Flour Mill has strong associations for past employees, and for the local community.
|The place is also readily identifiable with a renowned Queensland product, Defiance Flour.
","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":16070,"place_ref":601307,"name":"Gowrie House","alternate_name":"Largo","street_address":"112 Mary Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-08-25","description":"Gowrie House is a large, low-set brick residence located on a large block on the corner of Mary and Arthur Streets, Toowoomba.
The core of this brick house has a symmetrical front facade; a central entrance porch separating bay widows which extend through the veranda roof and are surmounted by a finial. The steep hipped corrugated iron roof rises to a lace trimmed widows walk.
It is built of 23-32 cm thick cavity bricks on foundations of bluestone from Harlaxton quarry, and the limited subfloor has hit and miss brick infill. Wide concrete steps lead up to a prominent portico with Largo etched in the fretwork gable pediment which is supported by paired timber posts while the wide veranda is edged by intricate iron lace. Use of lighter coloured bricks for quoins framing windows and wall edges is also employed and this emphasises the separation of higher and lower gutter lines as do the timber brackets supporting the superior roof.
An arch with a timber panelled base and stained glass above frames the wide six-panel front door. The arch above the door consists of three arcs, stained glass separated by concrete. The U-shaped veranda is enclosed on the northern side, while on the southern side it terminates at a gable-roofed room. Concrete stairs from the veranda give access to the garden while a door surmounted by a fanlight give entrance to a bay-windowed room. The bay window has sash windows with concrete lintel and sill. Attention is drawn to the crenellated roof by the use of coloured brickwork. Above this is a flying gable with a finial.
As is typical with such houses, the service facilities are less ornate, so that the room on the other side of this gable-roofed room has the same double sash windows, lintel and sill but has a shallower hip roof. A small porch gives access to this room.
The three vented chimneys, unusual exterior sash windows and window decoration are typical of Harry Marks designs.
Internally, the building is largely intact. Apart from the modern kitchen, and a door opening between two of the former bedrooms, there are few changes. Surviving details in the house include doors, skirtings, all fire surrounds, plaster ceilings, coving, windows and stained glass. The original gas lamp remains in the entry.
Gowrie House is set back from the road and a new garden has been constructed around its western and southern elevations, while the grounds include several mature trees.
","history":"The low-set brick house, Largo, on the corner of Arthur and Mary Street was designed by HJ Marks for prominent Toowoomba businessman Alexander Mayes and built probably in 1901, and definitely by 1902.
Architect Harry Marks was born and trained in Toowoomba and he and his father James Marks have been described as dominating the architectural profession for more than half a century. While Harry Marks designed a number of buildings on the Darling Downs and in Brisbane, most of his work was in Toowoomba. He designed a number of buildings including Rodway [600868], St James Parish Hall [600856], St Luke's Church Hall [600866] and Gladstone House and Cottage [601303]. Marks was not only a good architect he was an inventive one, and he patented some of his innovative solutions such as his Austral window.
Alexander Mayes born at Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1859 came out to Queensland and established himself as a Toowoomba builder and contractor in 1886. He is known to have worked on the Town Hall, Post Office, Masonic Hall, Commercial Bank, Technical College and Vacy Hall and many private homes. He was mayor 1896, 1903, 1912 and was the first mayor of the enlarged city of Toowoomba 1916-17. He was also active in the community serving on the School of Arts and Technical College, East Toowoomba School Committee, was a staunch Mason and was honorary superintendent of the Toowoomba Fire Brigade for 42 years. He was also involved with the Austral Association [601315].
Successful and prosperous Alexander Mayes and his wife Helena Agnes, daughter of grazier William Grieve, had moved into their new architect designed home on the corner of Mary and Arthur Mary Street by 1902. This large masonry house reflected the status of the Mayes in Toowoomba's society. One of Mayes' sons described his boyhood home in the Toowoomba Chronicle of 4 July 1985. He remembered three large bedrooms, two at the front, the drawing room and dining room all opening of the central hallway. At the rear was a large room 'furnished with three beds and two long tables end-to-end', while the kitchen, pantry and maid's quarters were at the rear. Sons Emeritus Professor Bruce Toowoomba Mayes, Dr Alexander Mayes (involved with founding of St Andrew's Hospital Brisbane), Rev Charles Mayes and Hector Mayes were all born in this house.
In 1922 Mayes retired to northern New South Wales and Walter Watts occupied the house until Dr Albert Furness acquired it in 1936 and he employed noted Toowoomba architect William Hodgen for alterations. Hodgen's specifications include changes to the garage and laundry, adding panelling in the dinning room, installing electric light switches and polishing woodwork in the dining room, drawing room and master bedroom. Dr Furness sold it to the Young Women's Christian Association (YMCA) of Toowoomba in 1945.
The Young Women's Christian Association was founded in the 1850s in England to provide accommodation for women and girls. It soon spread to America and Europe, and is now an international organisation. The first Queensland branch was formed in Rockhampton in 1888 and Brisbane in 1890. A branch was established in Toowoomba in 1932 due to the initiatives of Lady Groom, wife of the local federal member.
During World War II the Toowoomba YWCA offered leave accommodation to servicewomen. The need for their own large premises saw the 1945 president, and South Girls School headmistress, Miss AM Wadley, with a deposit of £50 able to acquire a loan to purchase Largo for the YWCA.
Re-named Gowrie House, after Lady Gowrie the wife of the Australian Governor General, the site became the Toowoomba Young Women's Christian Association hostel. Mayor JD Annand officially opened it on 10 November 1945 as a hostel for young working and service girls.
The Toowoomba Chronicle of 12 November 1945 described the new hostel, saying how it was ideally situated on an acre of ground with mature shady trees and turf lawn and 'should provide a happy atmosphere for many students and Service girls away from home'. The solid brick house had a central hall off, which were four spacious rooms with fireplaces and large windows and doors which opened onto wide verandahs. These large rooms with cedar-framed windows, doors and mantle pieces had been converted into dormitories sleeping four to six girls. The veranda on the northern side had also been converted into a dormitory, just off this sleepout was 'the bathroom with gas heater, set-in basin, bath and shower'. Of three smaller rooms one would be used for the matron and the others for dressing rooms. At the end of the hall was a huge cedar-panelled dining room with eight tables each seating six girls. Facing east it opened onto a fernery and side garden. The staff room, servery and well-equipped kitchen opened off the south side of the dining room.
Increase in country girls wanting secondary education and needing accommodation in Toowoomba resulted in construction of Wadley Wing in the late 1950s. Increase in accommodation needs of business and secondary students necessitated further expansion, with a new wing named after past president Margaret Hofmann opened by 1971. It replaced a couple of army huts that had been used by senior girls.
With the Education Department's policy of building country high schools the number of girls requiring accommodation in Toowoomba reduced, however, there was a need for male apprentice accommodation, so in 1979 the branch adjusted to YWCA policy of admitting males and females to Gowrie House.
Due to the growth in tertiary education facilities and students in Toowoomba and disabled students needing accommodation in the late 1980s, the YWCA launched a major building appeal programme. The aim was to increase accommodation to 42, erect a new ablution and laundry block, and additions of kitchen, dining room and activities room plus wheelchair facilities. Fund raising, donations and a grant through the State Government Housing Accommodation Assistance Scheme enabled the expansion.
Extra facilities and accommodation have been added to the house over time, so that it could cope with pressure of changing times, for example wheel chair access and increased accommodation by adding new wings, as well as modernising and maintaining the complex. The Gowrie House complex is the association's Toowoomba headquarters and is the only remaining Queensland YWCA owned hostel that continues to provide accommodation to students, disabled persons, travellers and members with its 42 rooms that include single, double and twin rooms.
A 1995 survey of Toowoomba's heritage places, Toowoomba inner residential area heritage study, included Gowrie House as a place of special consideration sites.
","criteria":"Acquired by the Young Women's Christian Association of Toowoomba in 1945, it offered secure accommodation to young women working and studying in Toowoomba until 1979 when societal changes meant that both sexes could obtain lodgings in this old house. It is the only YWCA owned hostel still operating in Queensland. The use of the building and subsequent additions reflect the changes in accommodation needs for females and value of the YWCA to the community.
|Gowrie House displays the inventiveness and creativity typical of Marks' design work and is an excellent example of the architects work.
|It is one of a number of extant buildings designed by the Mark's family that contribute to the architectural character of Toowoomba.
|(Criterion under review)
|Gowrie House, a large low-set brick building designed by prominent Toowoomba architect HJ Marks for leading building contractor Alexander Mayes circa 1901. Mayes was a Mayor of Toowoomba and active in community organisations. Gowrie House is significant for its association with both these Toowoomba identities
","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":16071,"place_ref":601308,"name":"Carlton House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"3 Mill Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1994-10-31","description":"Carlton House, a single-storeyed with attic brick residence with a hipped corrugated iron roof, is located fronting Mill Street to the east with access from Beech Lane at the rear. The grounds contain the former kitchen house, stables and servants cottage.
The house is symmetrical to Mill Street, and is constructed of flemish bond face brickwork, with chamfered corners to openings and rendered courses at the base and above door heads. The building has verandahs to four sides, with the northern side and most of the southern side being enclosed, and the brickwork at the rear being painted. Verandahs have unlined corrugated iron skillion roofs and square posts, with some early chamfered posts with curved brackets surviving. French doors with fanlights open from most rooms, and the central main and rear entries consist of french doors with sidelights and fanlight.
Two dormer casement windows are located on the east and west, the sides of which are sheeted with corrugated iron. Moulded rendered eave brackets feature above the verandah roof, with the name CARLTON HOUSE in relief placed centrally on the east between brackets. Two rendered chimney stacks with similar bracket design are located within the hip on either side of the building.
Internally, the building has rendered masonry walls with a central hall from the front to the rear, a large room to either side on the east, and smaller rooms on the west. The main rooms have cedar joinery, including panelled doors with fanlights, architraves and skirtings, most of which has been painted. The building appears to have been substantially redecorated in the interwar period, with ornate light fixtures and pressed metal ceilings located in each room, and wallpaper with a hand-cut frieze in the hall and eastern rooms. Each eastern room has a marble fireplace surround which supports a decorative timber panel surrounding a mirror.
The western rooms have corner fireplaces, with a timber surround in the kitchen. A small bathroom has been inserted into a room under a stair, and has pressed metal ceilings and sheet metal shower surrounds. The stair is entered through an arch from the hall, and accesses the two attic bedrooms. These have timber boarding to the walls and ceilings, and timber fireplace surrounds. A bathroom is located in the northeast, and a kitchen in the southwest verandah enclosures.
Located to the west of the Carlton House, across a brick paved courtyard, is the former kitchen house. This single-storeyed, flemish bond brick building has a gable and hipped corrugated iron roof and sash windows. The western side has a skillion roof verandah with brick floor, and is enclosed with a variety of materials including lattice, hardboard, chamferboard and glazing. The northern wall is of hardboard. Internally, the building is used as a self-contained flat, with hardboard lining and partition walls.
On the northern side of the courtyard space, at the rear of Carlton House, is the former servants cottage. This single-storeyed weatherboard building, with a hipped corrugated iron roof and timber stumps, has an enclosed southern verandah and small, western lean-to addition. The building has sash windows with curved metal window hoods.
To the west of the former kitchen house, and adjoining the western property boundary, is the former stables building. This corrugated iron gable roofed structure is constructed of brickwork to three sides, with the eastern side enclosed with corrugated iron and two narrow timber doors. The floor consists of stone flagging, and each wall has deep timber shelving. A corrugated iron lean-to garage is attached at the southern end.
A tank stand constructed of tree trunk posts is located on the southwestern side of Carlton House. A large deciduous tree is located to the north of Carlton House, and a tall palm is located near the eastern boundary.
","history":"Carlton House, which overlooks the Toowoomba Railway yards to the east, was erected by 1877 for James Augustus Pearson.
Carlton House is located on allotment 10, part of the first subdivision of land in Toowoomba, surveyed by JC Burnett in 1849. Allotments 10-12 were purchased in March 1851, by Sydney businessmen Thomas Sutcliffe Mort and Alexander Campbell Brown, and their Toowoomba partner Thomas Ayerst
Allotment 10 was acquired by James Taylor in 1862, then by Robert Anthony in 1874. Later in 1874, part of the allotment was acquired by Pearson, recorded in the conveyancing documents as a Toowoomba Storekeeper.
Given the proximity of Carlton House to the Toowoomba Railway Station it has been suggested that Carlton House was erected by Pearson as a guest house for incoming railway passengers. The railway line to Toowoomba was completed in 1867, and a railway station subsequently erected. This station outgrew its usefulness, and in 1871 the decision was taken to construct a new station. The new building was completed in 1874.
In December 1877, Pearson advertised Carlton House in the Toowoomba Chronicle, stating that Families, Ladies or Gentlemen visiting Toowoomba for a few days [would] find superior accommodation at Carlton House, Mort Estate.
Carlton House was acquired by Jane Thomas in 1894. An auction notice for Carlton House in 1899 described it as being well built, and contains in the main building, Drawing and Dining rooms, 5 Bedrooms and Bath room; Kitchen and Servant's room detached. Good brick stable and buggy house... . It appears that additional accommodation for servants was erected during the early 1900s. Carlton House was acquired by Bridget Horan in 1909, then by John Luddy, a Toowoomba victualler in 1917, and by William Glover of Toowoomba in 1924. Post Office Directories suggest that Carlton House operated as a boarding house during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Glover rented Carlton House to Colin G Burn, a pawnbroker trading in second hand furniture, in 1924. It is understood that Glover and Burn were brothers-in-law, and that shortly after Glover had purchased the House, he left Toowoomba to join his wife in Sydney.
A drainage plan of Carlton House prepared in 1928 indicates a number of proposed plumbing connections. It is understood that half of Carlton House and some of the outbuildings were converted into flats during the 1930s.
Burn purchased Carlton House in 1937, and remained there until his death in 1965. The property was transferred to Burn's sons Eric and William as trustees for Burn, and was acquired by Eric Burn in 1991. Eric Burn died in 1994; G Hicks is presently the trustee of Carlton House.
","criteria":"Carlton House survives as an example of the pattern of the urban development of Toowoomba during the 1870s, in particular the development of the area adjacent to the railway yards.
|The building, with its former kitchen house and stables, is a substantially intact group which date from the 1870s and exhibit design and construction of that time. The main house includes intact interwar interior finishes and fittings.
","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":16073,"place_ref":601310,"name":"Millbrook","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"9 Phillip Street","suburb":"EAST TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-04-27","description":"Millbrook, a single-storey weatherboard residence with a bellcast corrugated iron roof, is set on a large block of land fronting Phillip Street to the east, with gardens on the east, north and west sides, and a long drive on the south side. The core of the house is rectangular in plan and contains the bedrooms and formal living rooms. There is an attached service wing at the rear.
\nTwo chimneys break the symmetry of the front elevation. The steeply pitched corrugated iron roof rises to a ridge, and on the front elevation is a projecting gabled mock attic with fretwork bargeboards and finial. Its small casement windows have been painted. A central gable pediment roofs the entrance lobby; on either side are two open verandahs.
\nExtending onto both front verandahs is a bay window. Verandah balustrading is cast-iron, and poles with astragals support the brokenback verandah roof. Short balustraded steps lead to the central front door which has glass sidelights. Another front door gives access to the central hallway which has two rooms on either side. The two front bay window rooms are smaller than the other two rooms.
\nInternally all walls are lined with narrow VJs and ceilings are wide VJs with central double-beading. Doors opening onto the central hall are cedar surmounted by fanlights. Fireplaces have cedar surrounds with iron grates.
\nThe southern front room is a bedroom with a door opening onto an enclosed verandah which is used as a storeroom. The larger southern room has a bay window to an open side verandah and a door to a small room that could be a bathroom or workroom. This large room shares a back to back fireplace with a museum type dining room.
\nThe northern two rooms have cedar fireplaces and are the former doctors surgery and a lounge room. Both open onto an enclosed verandah known as the glass verandah; a partition with a door separates these two rooms. A door gives access to the side porch and steps to the garden. The verandah off the lounge has been partitioned to create two rooms, the glass room and a small bedroom. At the western end of the lounge is a bay window with a door that provides access to another verandah and service wing.
\nThe rear of the house contains a wide room set up to include a dining room, pantry and kitchen on the southern side of the back closed-in verandah. Beside the kitchen and at the end of the verandah is the bathroom and to the north is a large sundeck. Opening off the southern side of the kitchen is the maid's room and a door to a porch with steps that provides access to the external toilet, driveway and stable yard.
\nAn old laundry abuts the rear of the kitchen. A semi-formal side entrance on the northern elevation links the glass room to the front side garden. This porch has a roof with a gable pediment on three sides and steps with cast iron balustrading.
\nAdjoining the drive on the southern elevation is a narrow garden. The drive leads to the old stables used as garage and storage rooms. This timber structure of four rooms has a gable roof with slightly-pitched skillion extension and is in a poor condition. Several mature Chinese Elms planted by Mrs Row, and separated from the back garden by a recent picket fence, shelter the stable yard.
\nThe northern side garden is divided into two sections. The front lawn with its early marble birdbath [reputedly brought from the Ruthven Street garden] in a small pool is secluded from the street by large mature trees. Various old trees shelter the overgrown rear garden with its gazebo. Separating the two garden areas is a former fernery or shade house and an abundance of dense growth. A hedge with a gate separates the two garden spaces.
\nA picket fence separates the small front garden from the driveway and footpath. A pathway from the drive and front gate leads to the front door and around to the northern porch entry.
","history":"Millbrook is a large timber dwelling capped with a high pitched, hipped galvanised-iron clad roof. It has a U-shaped verandah, broken at the front by a gable pediment over the entrance lobby and a gabled attic room facing the road. The house was probably built on Ruthven Street in the 1860s as the family home of William Henry Groom. Following his death his widow moved it, in 1902, to Phillip Street.
\nConvicted of stealing, thirteen-year old William Henry (WH) Groom was transported to News South Wales in 1849. In 1854 and 1855 he was charged with gold stealing, the first time he was acquitted but the second time he was imprisoned. Released in 1856 he moved to Drayton, becoming an auctioneer and storekeeper. The store was run in partnership with John Littleton, whose sister Grace he married in 1859. The Littleton’s had been born in Millbrook, Cornwall. Groom was a prime mover for the establishment of Toowoomba as a municipality and was elected the first Toowoomba mayor after municipal status was granted 24 November 1860. WH Groom was Mayor of Toowoomba, and his wife Grace the Lady Mayoress, seven times, in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1867, 1883 and 1884. Groom became the member representing Drayton and Toowoomba in the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1862. As the local member he ensured that state revenue assisted Toowoomba's physical and civic development and his consistent urging of agrarian land reforms were of immense benefit to small farmers throughout Queensland as well as the Darling Downs. He held his seat for 38 years, before standing and being elected as the district's first Member of the Australian House of Representatives. Groom was also a successful local business figure who was involved with the foundation of the Grammar School, School of Arts and Toowoomba Permanent Building Society. He was engaged in the Toowoomba Chronicle by 1874 and the sole owner from 1876. In 1900 he restructured the ownership to include his sons, with his eldest son Henry Littleton Groom becoming the managing director following WH Groom's death on 8 August 1901.
\nMr and Mrs Groom lived in Drayton after their marriage in 1859. Upon moving to Toowoomba they lived in a house on Ruthven Street, later the site of Dr Garde’s surgery and McKinney’s store, where their son Littleton Groom (later Sir) was born in 1867. It is believed that they established their family home further north along Ruthven Street near the Toowoomba railway station in the late-1860s; an 1874 photograph shows this large house with a well-established garden and Grace Groom holding a very young daughter. The house was known as Millbrook.
\nWH Groom died in Melbourne on 8 August 1901 (aged 67) while attending the first sitting of Federal Parliament. By February 1902, his widow, Mrs Grace Groom, had purchased from John Munro 2 roods 16 perches in Phillip Street, and had moved most of the Ruthven Street house to this site by June 1902. A reason given for this move was that she found Ruthven Street to have become too busy.
\nDue to the sloping terrain the house was set on higher stumps and new front stairs were constructed. It is thought that cast-iron balustrading replaced the original lattice verandah balustrading at this time. It appears that one wing of the house was not moved from Ruthven Street, as most of Mrs Groom's 8 children had married and established their own homes. Her youngest son, Leslie Walter (LW). LW Groom was a solicitor with Eden and Groom which became Groom and Lavers.
\nWidowed daughter Margaret Amelia Baynes and her sons Neville and Mervyn lived with Mrs WH Groom in the family home for many years and LW Groom's daughter Noela Brooks boarded at Millbrook for most of her school years. When Grace Groom died in 1932 her daughter, Mrs Baynes, was still living at Millbrook.
\nTwo Groom sons went into politics. Littleton Ernest Groom (later Sir) succeeded his father as the Darling Downs member of the Commonwealth House of Representatives. Henry Littleton Groom was a member of the Queensland Legislative Council from 12 July 1906 to 23 March 1922. As a parliamentarian's wife Mrs Groom had opened and laid the foundation stone for many of Toowoomba's public buildings, and as the mother of politicians she continued to play a role in politics. Mrs Groom was well known for her garden parties at Millbrook, and as a well-known figure she continued to present school prizes and open events until her final years.
\nGranddaughter Noela Brooks described the house and garden from memory in 1981. Mrs Groom not only grew prize-winning flowers but as was typical of the day her garden included useful kitchen plantings such as peach, apple, apricot trees, herbs and vegetables. The garden included a chicken run, well and stables.
\nMrs Brooks remembered various aspects of her life with her grandmother such as the glassed in northern side verandah used for morning tea and visiting close friends. Family afternoon tea was served in the dining room (now lounge room), except when the drawing room (front north eastern room) was used for important visitors. Fireplaces in the dining and drawing rooms shared a chimney, and beside the dining room fireplace was a tassel for calling the maid. The drawing room and Mrs Groom's room were carpeted, but all other rooms had highly polished linoleum.
\nAfter Mrs Groom's death in 1932, Millbrook was vacant only a short time before it was rented by Dr Allan Warren Row and his mother in 1933. Dr Row, the 1914 Queensland Rhodes Scholar, completed a year of medicine at Oxford before serving as a lieutenant with the British Army in World War I. After completing his studies he returned to Queensland in 1930 and joined a local practice for a few years before establishing his own surgery. Although he was a visiting surgeon to Toowoomba Hospital, like most doctors he established a surgery in his own house [Millbrook]. Dr Row used what had been the formal sitting room for his private medical practice. The closed-in northern verandah known as the glass room was partitioned and used as the surgery entrance and waiting room. He converted what had been Mrs Groom's ensuite into a workshop.
\nDuring World War II Dr Row served in the Australian Army Medical Corp. He was severely wounded at Tobruk and following his recovery in Toowoomba Lieutenant-Colonel Row was in charge of surgery at various Australian hospitals. In 1946-47 he was in charge of the Greenslopes army hospital. He returned to Toowoomba in 1947, and with Dr Woodhill and Dr Trennery set up the first blood bank transfusion service in Toowoomba. In addition to his private practice, Dr Row also worked as a senior surgeon at Toowoomba General Hospital, visiting surgeon at Baillie Henderson Hospital and Westbrook Farm for Boys, and Army Medical Officer for Cabarlah Signal Operations. He continued using Millbrook for his private practice until 1976.
\nIn 1948 Dr Row married Glennie schoolteacher Dorothy Lake. In 1955 the MJillbrook kitchen was modernised to her specifications. This included removal of an early stove, refrigerator and dresser and installation of a long workbench with built in cupboards that created two distinct areas; a kitchen and eating area. After Mrs Row had a serious accident in the outside laundry, modern facilities were installed on the enclosed verandah in a corner near the bathroom and kitchen in 1956.
\nDr Row died on 20 June 1979. During the 1980s Mrs Row started refurbishing the house. This included changing green kalsomine-painted walls to oil based pale coloured paints, and covering linoleum and timber floors with tiles and carpets. Front steps were replaced and the northern porch rebuilt due to aging. A small fish and frog pool in the back garden was created in what had been Mrs Groom's orchard. In 1983 a sundeck, able to accommodate 26 people, was constructed. Removal of 700 lead head nails in the roof occurred when rebuilding the roof space because of water damage. The following year the front fence was rebuilt using many of the original palings and an octagonal gazebo able to seat 8 persons built. Other improvements included enhancing some rooms by the addition of plaster ceiling roses and converting a bedroom into a dining room.
\nAlso known for her community activities, Mrs Row has been involved with SPELD (Specific Learning Difficulties), the National Trust of Queensland and the local repertory theatre.
\nAll of the trees in Mrs Groom's back-yard orchard have died and were not replaced, but many of the early garden plantings in the front and back yards survive, and the early 1900s stables remain.
","criteria":"Millbrook, erected c1860s in Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, and removed in 1902 to nearby Phillip Street, is important in illustrating the evolution of Queensland's history. It is one of Toowoomba's few extant 1860s houses, and its removal from a main commercial street to Phillip Street, in the early 1900s illustrates the growth and expansion of Toowoomba as a major regional centre in the second half of the 19th century.
|The place demonstrates the principle characteristics of a large, c1860s residence with 1902 renovations, including large rooms and substantial garden areas useful for entertaining, attached kitchen wing, and associated outbuildings. The place is illustrative of a way of life no longer common.
|The place has strong aesthetic appeal, engendered by the intactness of the timber house and its mature garden setting, and makes a significant contribution to the Phillip Street streetscape.
|The place has a strong and special association with the Groom and Row families, which is valued by the community.
|The place has a strong and special association with the Groom and Row families, which is valued by the community. Newspaper proprietor and politician William Henry Groom represented Toowoomba in the first Queensland and Commonwealth Parliaments. MLA Groom's main interests were land policy, agrarian reform and ensuring expenditure on roads and services within his electorate. Millbrook is important also for its association with Mrs WH Groom, wife and mother of politicians and active member of the community, who resided here for 30 thirty years. Dr Row was an important Toowoomba medical man who served in both World Wars. Lieutenant-Colonel Row was in charge of the Greenslopes Hospital 1946-47. From 1948 to 1979 he conducted his private practice from Millbrook while being a surgeon at most of the local hospitals and the Toowoomba Army Area Officer.
","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":16074,"place_ref":601311,"name":"Boyce Gardens","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"6 Range Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-01-25","description":"Boyce Gardens comprises a number of major component parts. These include, the rainforest, located in the north-eastern corner of the site, the pine forest along Mackenzie Street on the eastern side of the property, the avocado orchard, displays of Australian flowering shrubs, tennis court, swimming pool, specialist garden areas including collections of ericas, proteas, roses, native orchids, carmelias and azaleas, the walled garden, the compost pit, the house lawn, courtyard, rock gardens, the cut flower garden and the grassed areas to the south of the main garden.
These diverse component parts are woven into a composition which makes the excellent use of the changes in levels available on the sloping site and the canopy from the large remnant eucalyptus scattered across these slopes. The house is sited on the end of the dominant ridge in the property, offering an outlook to the garden from all aspects of the house. This position also establishes the house as a prominent visual reference point from a number of places within the garden.
Today the Fairy Glen Scrub, as it was known in the 19th century, is an isolated but healthy remnant of this type of environment on the edge of the Darling Downs. Approaching the property from Range Street the garden is shielded from view behind a screen of dense perimeter planting. As the driveway of the property is entered, the working parts of the garden can be seen. The water tank and windmill are essential for the life of the garden and sit within the garden layout and planting design.
Rainforest:
The Rainforest fills the entire north-east corner, about two-fifths of the frontage to Range Street and all the frontage along Mackenzie Street. The rainforest contains only native trees, shrubs, climbers and ferns. There are several varieties of fig, Queensland Lace Bark and other Brachychitons, Lilli Pilli, Red Cedar, Deep Yellow Wood, Ribbon Wood, Hoop Pine, Silky Oak. There are also Birds Nest Ferns, tree ferns and many varieties of ground fern.
Avocado Orchard:
On part of the property, sloping to the east between the tennis court and the western edge of the rainforest are planted a number of avocado trees. Planted in 1952, the trees are almost fifty years old. Also in this area are some citrus trees.
White Garden:
A circular hollow was developed as the White Garden, and is located to the north of the property. This garden has creepers, treeferns, staghorns, camellias and hydrangeas. It can be viewed from the west from the Azalea and Espalier beds. The Rose Bed has also been established on the northern side of the property.
House:
The house is two story brick with bricked courtyard. The house was extended on several occasions, but retains many intact elements, including the timber dado panelling and plaster ceilings with decorative cornice and ceiling details. The internal staircase also has original decorative ironwork extant. Some of the rooms have original cedar joinery details, which have been painted over.
Walled Garden:
At the rear, or south, of the house is located the terraced cut flower area, cottage garden and walled garden, including an undulating brick wall, to the west of this section is the compost area, the site of the old vegetable garden and the windmill. Along the western border and shrubbery a mixed border has been planted including hibiscus, peaches, cherries, crab apple, wisteria,lavender, bella donna, spider, crinum, day lilies and daffodils.
Tennis Court and Swimming Pool:
The tennis court is enclosed with netting, originally antbed, it is now grassed. The tennis court is flanked by a double row of Jacarandas to the east separating this area of the garden from the avocado orchard. On the east bank of the tennis court is a group of Doranthus, a giant red flowering native lily grown from a seed collected at Cunningham's Gap. To the west of the tennis court is the swimming pool where plaques in memory of Dr and Mrs Boyce have been placed.
A walking track has been established in the Gardens and takes into consideration the health and physical fitness of walkers. Visitors may stay on the upper, flatter route or, they may take the steeper route which takes the visitor through the rainforest, through the pine forest and up to the avocado orchard and terraced tennis court area. South across the open park are views to Jellicoe Street and the university buildings.
[The buildings fronting Jellicoe Street, the former gallery and external studies building, are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance].
","history":"Boyce Gardens was named for Leslie and Margaret Boyce, who established the garden following their arrival in Toowoomba after their wedding in April 1930. A number of extensions were added to the house in 1940 and in 1955. The tennis court was constructed in 1937 and a swimming pool was constructed in 1947.
Harriet Margaret Rose Hall, of Silverspur in southern Queensland, purchased Portion 601 in 1929 The six hectares of land was located in an area that was, at the time, the north-eastern outskirts of Toowoomba. In the same year, Margaret became engaged to Leslie Atherton Gerard Boyce, a business executive at the Toowoomba Foundry (now Southern Cross Corporation). The land that Margaret had bought comprised a spur of eucalyptus woodland running south from Mt Lofty on its northern border, a section of natural rainforest and a run-down dairy farm, including one cultivated paddock. Portion 601 formed part of an area which was originally covered by a dense forest of Eucalypts and Scrub Box trees. The Eucalyptus forest originally covered most of the area on which Toowoomba stands. In the 19th century, the rainforest area was known as the Fairy Glen Scrub.
When Margaret Hall purchased Portion 601, all of the rainforest had been cleared east of Mackenzie Street. Margaret had designed the house site, drive and surrounding terraces, the spur was remoulded, every metre of top soil was removed, stored and later re-spread over the shaped terraces. The house was built and the Boyces moved in after their wedding on 29 April 1930. They lived and gardened on their property for the rest of their lives, and after their deaths [Margaret in 1984 and Leslie in 1988] their ashes were scattered in the garden.
Initially, the Boyces did not have it mind to restore the scrub. The house was constructed on higher ground on the side of Tick Hill [now known as Mt Lofty], looking east down towards what was then around four acres of scrub. Much of the timber had been cut out and stumps from eucalypts remained. Much of the natural vine scrub was heavily infested with lantana, blackberry and trees such as camphor laurel, celtis and japanese laurel. The Boyces spent time in the mountain and rainforest country of south-east Queensland, including camping in the Canungra Valley and Lamington National Park. Following these visits, the Boyces made the decision to 'restore, regenerate and preserve' the remnant rainforest on their property.
The garden commanded much of the Boyces' activity and much of their leisure time. At first, the lantana and blackberry was cleared, however, not wanting to make too many sudden gaps, not all the camphor laurels, celtis and other exotics were removed. Instead, they were ringbarked and poisoned and let to die where they had sprung up. Seedlings began to sprout, these were then pulled out to keep them from reinfesting the rainforest.
Upon beginning the restoration and preservation of the remnant rainforest, the Boyces had questions such as whether such a small area of native forest could maintain itself and whether or not to introduce new native species to the area. In all, around fifteen new species were introduced, all native to Queensland, though not present in the scrub when the Boyces purchased the property. Before the Boyces' time, most of the orchids, stag and elkhorns and tree ferns, as well as larger trees, had been milled.
After the exotics were removed a canopy of only about 12 metres remained. A plantation of hoop pines was established on the eastern border to provide initial protection and the Boyces began reintroducing indigenous trees, shrubs, vines and ferns, encouraging their growth with a built-in rain-like fine spray watering system, many years before such devices were common. Today the rainforest canopy is more than thirty metres high.
Over the years, they established a sunken garden [now the white garden], a terraced flower garden, a western walk and shrubbery, a walled garden, lawned terraces, rockeries and a fruit and vegetable garden. An avid 'plantswoman', Margaret continually experimented with new species, trying dozens of varieties of daffodils and iris and many liliums and rhododendrons, to establish which did and did not 'do' in Toowoomba. Good records were kept and these experiments have proved to be of great value to Toowoomba gardeners. This is of significance, particularly as Toowoomba began to gain in importance as a noted 'garden city'. One important aspect of Toowoomba's garden city title was the annual Carnival of Flowers. In September 1949, a public meeting was held in the town hall to discuss the idea of a street carnival for the city. It was decided to hold an eight-day festival from 21-28 October 1950. The Carnival of Flowers has continued every year since 1950, making it Australia's longest running annual festival. Established in 1973 was the Toowoomba Chronicle Exhibition Gardens program. Since that time, the Exhibition Gardens have run every year, promoting a display of non-competitive gardens at Carnival time. The Boyce Gardens have been included in the Exhibition Gardens program as an example of an outstanding, beautifully prepared, private garden.
The Boyces also collected plants and gardening knowledge on numerous trips abroad. They pre-empted the vogue for South African proteas and leucodendrons, planting a grove of them near the tennis court after a trip to Africa in the early 1950s. They visited most of the great gardens of the world and Margaret read and indexed many gardening magazines, Australian and foreign, building up a formidable knowledge of plants and design.
In May 1969, the Boyces gave the estate to the University of Queensland in trust, to hold the land in perpetuity for educational purposes and to preserve and maintain the gardens and natural forest for use as a Botanic Garden and Natural Forest for the education of the public. In 1973, Leslie Boyce was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by the University of Queensland for his contribution to education. Until their deaths, the Boyces continued on as Curators of the property, which they also endowed to provide a perpetual maintenance fund.
The present intention and hope for the future is to continue the development of the garden, forest, wildflower garden and park as a pleasure and demonstration garden for the public and a tourist attraction in Toowoomba, the 'Garden City'.
","criteria":"Boyce Gardens is significant as it demonstrates early experimentations with the regeneration of endemic vegetation to a disturbed area. It is further significant as a intact example of a domestic residence from the 1930s sited in its original designed garden context and retaining the original curtilage of the garden. Boyce Gardens is also significant as an important garden within the city of Toowoomba, noted for its excellent gardens, well known throughout Queensland as the 'Garden City'.
Boyce Gardens is significant as a record of gardening history in Queensland in its design form, species selection and experimentation, and in the accompanying documentation recording the progress of the growth of the garden since its establishment.
Boyce Gardens is significant for the scientific value of an established and documented regenerated rainforest ecosystem and as a well-designed large garden open to the public for enjoyment and education. Over 100 species of trees, shrubs and vines and 25 species of ferns have been recorded in the rainforest. The Australian Garden History Society has recognised Boyce Gardens as one of paramount importance to the history of gardens in Queensland.
|With a pocket of rare, isolated, but healthy, remnant rainforest, including a 150 year old strangler fig, on the corner of Range and Mackenzie Streets, Boyce Gardens is significant for its strong streetscape value and the aesthetic contribution of the site to the area.
|With a pocket of rare, isolated, but healthy, remnant rainforest, including a 150 year old strangler fig, on the corner of Range and Mackenzie Streets, Boyce Gardens is significant for its strong streetscape value and the aesthetic contribution of the site to the area.
|Boyce Gardens is significant for its association with Leslie and Margaret Boyce, prominent citizens of Toowoomba for over fifty years and for the many visitors who have viewed the gardens over the years.
|Boyce Gardens is significant for its association with Leslie and Margaret Boyce, prominent citizens of Toowoomba for over fifty years and for the many visitors who have viewed the gardens over the years.
","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":16075,"place_ref":601312,"name":"Oak Lodge and Spreydon","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"7 Warra Street & 30 Rome Street","suburb":"NEWTOWN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-10-01","description":"Oak Lodge
Oak Lodge is a substantial, single storeyed timber dwelling designed in a picturesque style, located on a large block at the corner of Warra and Rome Streets, Newtown, a suburb of Toowoomba.
The dwelling is asymmetrical in form, with a steeply pitched roof, from which wide gables project on the main elevation and on the eastern side of the building. A corner bay window is carried through into the main roof and is expressed as a chamfered hip. Two tall brick chimneys protrude through the corrugated iron roof and the main section of the roof is capped with cast-iron ridge decoration. A short set of unbalustraded stairs leads to a wide verandah that wraps around to the northern elevation. The verandah is edged with a three-rail dowel balustrade and has a bullnose roof stepped-down from the main roof. The verandah porch is decorated with angular timber members in a pattern of triangles. This stick-style detailing is repeated on the main gable, which is decorated with an angular pattern of timbers which are held by brackets from the gable and barge boards. Under the gable is a bay window with a curved awning which is supported on large decorative timber brackets.
The mature Silky Oak tree [Grevillea robusta] from which the house derives its name still dominates the front corner, while mature and recent plantings around the house add to its the streetscape contribution.
Spreydon
Spreydon is a low-set, single storeyed timber dwelling facing north on a large block in Rome Street, Newtown, adjacent to but around the corner from, Oak Lodge.
The dwelling is asymmetrical in plan and form with a wide gable to the front and back projecting from a high-pitched roof. Single fretwork brackets support the roof either side on the front gable and eastern elevation. Above a bay in the front gable a rectangular box rises, decorated with timber stick infill. The bay has windows and doors opening onto a narrow bullnosed-roofed verandah which follows the shape of the bay. The skillion-roofed side and back verandahs are stepped down from the main roof and are enclosed with narrow weatherboards and glazing.
Either side of the front entrance porch are windows. That on the east is an 1890s double hung sash window with convex roof supported by fretwork brackets. The window on the west is a 1920s style rectangular bay window with hipped roof. Wide steps lead to the arched porch and recessed front door. Side and fanlights frame the low-waisted four-panel front door.
The front door opens into a passageway one room deep, from which, on the right, a door opens into a small front 1920s room. At the end of the passageway a door on the left opens into an arched, internal vestibule from which doors open to the large 1890s front room on the left, to the adjoining 1890s front bedroom on the north side of the vestibule, to the back verandah, and to a large 1920s room on the right. Dividing this space is a solid timber archway with central pendant. On the rear verandah side there is a skylight.
Internally all walls are lined in timber boarding, with the most complex timber detailing being found in the front gabled room [1890s construction]. Moulding above the dado, and framing the fireplace, door and windows, is intricate as are the deep cornices. The cedar corner fireplace has tiles surrounding the iron cob. The box-like bay window, which opens onto a small verandah, has two hinged doors either side of a central window and is surmounted by fanlights.
The 1890s vertically-jointed timber tongue and groove walls of the passageway and vestibule have a moulded belt rail and cornice that is repeated in the small front bedroom while the southern wall contains French doors with timber and glass panels on either side delineated by a chamfered doorframe. The eastern and northern 1920s walls have no mouldings. The 1920s long back bedroom has been converted into a stairwell and smaller bedroom with the roof space made over into an attic by the insertion of two rooms, both of which have new dormer windows.
The kitchen is located at the southern end of the 1890s gabled section, and shares a corner chimney with the main front room. It has an eastern facing casement window. The original door from the kitchen to the vestibule has been closed in with the same moulded belt rail as the rest of the wall. The core of the kitchen has the 13-foot ceilings found throughout the house. However, modifications have created two changes of ceiling pitch. The kitchen and skillion roof rear verandah stretches from the kitchen to a western room. This long room is an informal area with doors to the back verandah and laundry. Both the kitchen and back verandah open onto a rear timber deck.
The front yard has a painted picket fence with recessed gabled gateway, from which a path leads to the front door. At the Warra Street end a short drive leads to a later gable-roofed double carport near the back of the house. Behind this is a detached office and to the side is the large back garden.
","history":"Oak Lodge and Spreydon were erected in the 1890s as one house facing Warra Street, at the southwest corner of Warra and Rome Streets, Newtown. The house is believed to have been designed by the prominent Toowoomba architectural firm of James Marks and Son, for plumber and timber merchant Robert Walker Filshie. It was originally a large timber house with a steeply-pitched hipped roof and two projecting front gables in the Warra Street elevation. In the early 1920s, the house was divided into two sections, with the southern gabled section and hallway being moved around the corner to face Rome Street, and extended to the west.
Robert Filshie was born near Dumbarton, Scotland. He trained as a plumber and arrived in Queensland in November 1862. Having tried his luck unsuccessfully on the Gympie gold fields he moved to Toowoomba in 1868. In 1870 he established a Toowoomba plumbing business which he conducted for over thirty years. Filshie is better known for the timber merchandising business he established with James Broadfoot and James Marks in 1884, when they acquired the Hampton sawmill as Filshie, Broadfoot & Co. By 1912 this successful firm was one of the largest in Queensland. The Filshie connection with timber ended in 1987 with the closure of a 41-year-old cabinet making business by grandsons Earle and Ian Filshie.
Like many successful businessmen, Robert Filshie was involved with his local community, serving on the local council, and was active as a founder and prominent member of the Toowoomba Caledonian Society, and as a freemason.
In 1885, when sections of rural Newtown were subdivided for closer residential settlement, Filshie took the opportunity to acquire a number of blocks in the area, including over two acres fronting Warra, Rome and Russell Streets, title to which was recorded in his wife's name. Following Mrs Filshie's death in 1887, this property was administered by Robert Filshie until title was transferred to his eldest daughter, Janet Filshie, in January 1893. It is not clear from Post Office Directories or local authority rate books whether Filshie actually occupied any part of this property prior to c1904. His home was in Margaret Street in 1887, and he is listed as a Margaret Street plumber in the Directories throughout the 1890s, although this may have been his business address.
By the early 1900s Robert Filshie had erected two adjacent houses on Janet Filshie's property, both fronting Warra Street: the large gabled timber residence at the corner of Rome and Warra streets; and Auchentoshan, at the corner of Russell and Warra streets. Whether Filshie or his family resided in either of these places prior to the early 1900s is difficult to confirm, although he appears to be resident at Auchentoshan, which was also Janet Filshie's residence, by 1905, when he is first recorded in the Post Office Directories as resident at Russell Street, Newtown.
The house at the corner of Warra and Rome streets was a large, imposing, finely detailed timber residence with strong streetscape appeal, likely to appeal to middle class tenants. The distinctive architectural detailing, combined with Filshie's known business association with Toowoomba architect James Marks, suggests that the house was designed by Marks or by the architectural firm of James Marks and Son. James Marks was Filshie's partner in Filshie, Broadbent & Co., sawmillers, established in 1884, which firm likely supplied the timber for the construction.
James Marks was born in England, where he trained as a carpenter, and taught himself building construction, joinery and architectural drawing before emigrating to Queensland in 1866, where he immediately established himself as a builder and architect in Dalby, on the Darling Downs. In 1874 Marks moved to Toowoomba, where he practiced principally as an architect. On his elder son HJ (Harry) Marks becoming a partner in 1892, the firm of James Marks and Son was established. This firm dominated the architectural profession in Toowoomba and district for more than half a century. James Mark's residential work in Toowoomba includes Weetwood (1888) [600870] and Redlands (1888-89) [600869], and houses designed by James Marks and Son include Smithfield (c1895) [600854] and Vacy Hall (c1900) [600858].
From April 1893 2 roods at the corner of Warra and Rome Streets [now the site of Oak Lodge] were leased to Margaret Street musical instrument importer George Burnell for 3 years, at £85 per annum. It is possible that the house was constructed by this date, and that Burnell had occupied it as his private residence.
Nothing further is known of the occupants of the house until 1908. In 1907 sisters Elizabeth, Jessie and Margaret Thomson of Melbourne moved to Toowoomba, with the idea of establishing a girls' school conducted according to the standards of the Secondary Teachers' Association of Victoria. From its inception in the mid 19th century, Toowoomba had developed as a provincial education centre for southern Queensland, the first girls' school opening there in 1860. At Toowoomba, the Thomsons leased the Filshie house at the corner of Warra and Rome Streets, along with over an acre of land, and on 4 February 1908 opened the place as Spreydon Girls' College, a boarding and day school. The school offered classes from kindergarten to 'Sydney Senior Standard'. Elizabeth and Jessie Thomson were joint Principals, and Margaret was responsible for boarders. The building housed the Principals' and boarders' quarters, while a school room, kindergarten and tennis court were established facing Rome Street. Later the house was used for administration, dining and teaching.
The Thomsons sought the patronage of the Presbyterian Church in Brisbane, which was granted in May 1909. Steady growth in numbers necessitated new dormitories being erected early in 1911, with the school's boarding population nearing 16 out of the 60 pupils enrolled.
At Spreydon Girls' College the Thomson sisters established a school conducted on the lines of the Melbourne Presbyterian Ladies' College, with all teachers being specialists, students achieving high academic standards, and girls active in sporting interests and displaying the good manners and Christian standards insisted on by the Misses Thomson. At the end of 1914, however, financial difficulties forced the Thomson sisters to give notice of their intention to resign and return to Melbourne, prompting the Convenor of the Presbyterian Church in Queensland, the Rev. James Gibson, to give an undertaking that the Church would take full responsibility for the running of the school. A private company, The Presbyterian Ladies College Limited, was established and the name of the school was changed to The Presbyterian Ladies College, Toowoomba, which opened in January 1915.
Although school enrolments initially declined after the departure of the Thomson sisters the college directors negotiated a new ten-year lease with the owner of the property, Janet Filshie. While the new principal, Miss Amy Carson, faced difficulties such as drought, war and epidemics of influenza and whooping cough, the school grew rapidly in popularity and soon required a larger site. A new property, Fairholme, was acquired on the east side of Toowoomba, and a branch school was opened there in July 1917, under the full control of the Presbyterian Church. The remainder of the students and some of the Spreydon College buildings had been moved to Fairholme by the beginning of the 1918 school year. Miss Filshie, however, refused to cancel the 10 year lease on the Warra Street property, insisting on receipt of her monthly payments of £8/6/8 until the lease expired in December 1925.
Following Janet Filshie's death in January 1922 her property passed to trustees with the power of sale, who seem to have been responsible for converting the former girls' school into two detached houses, moving the southern gabled third of the building onto that part of the property which faced Rome Street [30 Rome Street] about 1923. This section contained two rooms under the gable, and an adjoining small front room, vestibule and hallway. Once shifted to face Rome Street, extensions, comprising two rooms and western and rear verandahs, were made on the western side of the hallway. The remaining two-thirds of the building still faced Warra Street, and was named Oak Lodge, apparently inspired by a large Silky Oak tree on the property.
During 1923 William Cattanach moved into Oak Lodge in May and Mrs Martha Hogg and Misses Jessie and Jean Hogg occupied 30 Rome Street in September. Oak Lodge was valued at £1,300 and both properties were subject to the Presbyterian Church lease until 19 December 1925.
Spreydon
Title to 30 Rome Street [Spreydon] on 1 rood 15.5 perches was transferred in October 1924 to William and Richard Hogg of Greenmount, who paid £800 for the property, which was still subject to the lease to the Presbyterian Church. It remained in the Hogg family until title was transferred in 1970 to Dr and Mrs James Syme, who refurbished the house and named it Spreydon. Since 1987 the house has had a number of owners. Verandahs have been enclosed and converted into rooms, including an ensuite bathroom off the main bedroom. The kitchen has been refurbished including walling in the door and fanlight into the hallway and extending the kitchen space to the back wall. A recent addition is a rear deck. Other additions include a skylight on the back verandah side of the hallway, and two rooms, each with a dormer window, created in the roof space in 2001.
Oak Lodge
Title to 7 Warra Street [Oak Lodge] on 1 rood 31.7 perches was transferred in May 1925 to Charlotte Cattanach, wife of William Cattanach, still subject to the lease to the Presbyterian Church. Dentist John Erskin Brown MacLean and his wife Laura acquired title to the house in October 1925 and it remained their family home until 1947. There have been a number of owners of Oak Lodge since
A Toowoomba Chronicle article of 12 September 1973 stated that Oak Lodge was about 35 squares, still retained beautiful cedar woodwork, three fireplaces and 13 foot high ceilings enhanced by solid timber cornices. The large living room, over 21 feet long, featured fine timber panelling which had no exposed joins. The wide verandahs facing Warra and Rome Streets had been closed in, and the original commodious pantry formed part of the modernised kitchen.
Another article published in The Chronicle of 5 December 1998 described Oak Lodge as a residence of imposing grandeur, the formal living room featuring fireplace and bay window with window seat and horizontal wall panels that extended its entire length. Either side of the main entrance were large bedrooms with VJ walls. The dining room opened to the kitchen while step-through windows led to the enclosed side verandah. The plethora of windows allowed ventilation and sunlight to shine on the polished pine floors.
Conservation architect David Roessler described Oak Lodge in 1999. He noted that when part of the house was removed it was carefully done and is not easily noticed. Having generous main rooms, the front gable-roof room was long ago divided into two. The hall and front rooms all feature timber wainscotting and deep cornices, architraves and skirting boards, while all mouldings are of timber and unusually large. The two front bay windows have timber-panelled ceilings and recesses. He particularly noted the impressive timber portal just inside the front door, reminiscent of a Greek temple with its classical entablature with rectangular pilasters and pediment. All of the three timber framed fireplaces are less elaborate than would be expected and all were painted. The building was renovated in 2000.
Oak Lodge was identified in the 1995 Toowoomba Inner Residential Area Heritage Study as a place of special consideration and the Rome and Warra Street precinct was included in the list of places and areas valued by the community.
","criteria":"Oak Lodge and Spreydon were erected in the 1890s as a single residence, commissioned by successful Toowoomba businessman Robert Walker Filshie and designed either by his partner in the Toowoomba timber merchandising firm of Filshie Broadfoot & Co., architect James Marks, or by the firm of James Marks and Son. About 1923 the large building was converted into two detached residences on adjoining allotments. As a place, Oak Lodge and Spreydon survive as evidence of the growth and residential expansion of Toowoomba, an important regional centre, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
|They are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of building: a large, well designed and carefully detailed, 1890s timber residence located in a late 19th century subdivision which attracted middle-class residents.
It is one of a number of extant buildings designed by the Marks family, who contributed significantly to the architectural character of Toowoomba and region. The same detailing is evident in the earliest section of Spreydon.
|Oak Lodge is a picturesquely articulated and finely detailed timber building, and with its mature plantings it makes a substantial aesthetic contribution to the streetscape.
|Oak Lodge and Spreydon are valued by the community for their aesthetic streetscape contribution since the 1890s and for their association with prominent Toowoomba architects James and Harry Marks, the Filshie family, and Fairholme College.
|Because of its size and prestigious location, the home was used during the 1910s as Spreydon Girls' College and The Presbyterian Ladies' College, Toowoomba, and the place is important for this association with the foundation of Fairholme College, an important Queensland school
","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":16076,"place_ref":601313,"name":"Cottage (68 Stephen Street)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"68 Stephen Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1995-02-20","description":"68 Stephen Street, a small single-storeyed rendered laterite stone cottage with a steeply pitched hipped corrugated iron roof, is located fronting Stephen Street to the north.
The symmetrical northern street facade has a verandah with a corrugated iron skillion awning supported by timber posts, with a timber floor and batten balustrade. The central entry has a timber framed door with glass panels, and is flanked by a sash window to either side. There is a single brick chimney stack on the eastern side, and the building has timber sash windows with arched headers. The laterite stone has been rendered and painted, but the southwest corner wall exhibits evidence of stone coursing and the rough pitted surface of the laterite stone. The walls display large bulges and variation and texture. A timber addition is attached to the rear of the building, and consists of a corrugated iron gabled roofed structure with another timber free standing structure to the south.
Internally, the plan consists of four rooms with a central rear foyer. Walls are rendered and painted laterite stone, and display large bulges and variation in texture. The building has boarded ceilings, narrow skirtings, and doors have timber frames. The northeast room has a large fireplace with recessed storage boxes either side, and the floors consist of boards with carpet over.
The rear addition contains a kitchen and bathroom, with an early recessed stove and a terrazzo bath and basin. The walls and ceilings are lined with hardboard sheeting with timber cover strips. The rear structure contains a laundry and toilet.
A driveway is located on the western side of the house, accessing the rear of the property.
","history":"Records indicate that this single-storeyed stone cottage was erected by the mid 1860s, replacing an earlier timber building. Erected on part of Portion 46, initially an area of 27 acres acquired by William Shuttlewood and Charles Taylor during the late 1850s, it survives as evidence of the development of Toowoomba from this time.
Settlement of the area commenced at Drayton in the early 1840s, Thomas Alford opening a general store in 1843. In the same year, residents of Drayton petitioned the Governor to form a township at Drayton, and a survey of the town was prepared in 1849. In laying out Drayton, Government Surveyor JC Burnett was also instructed to mark out suburban allotments for Garden and Agricultural purposes; his ideal site for the "Drayton Swamp Agricultural Reserve" was an area approximately three to four miles northeast of Drayton where two swampy creeks joined to form the headwaters of Gowrie Creek. The reason for Burnett's selection of this area has been attributed to an incident whereby Shuttlewood, a timber-getter then living in Drayton, was one of two men sent by William Horton to cut reeds from the nearby swamp, and who upon returning to Drayton, had gossiped ... about the potential of the area and been overheard by Burnett. The Agricultural Reserve included 12 allotments bounded by the left bank of the west swamp, and the present Bridge, West and Stephen streets.
Six of the 12 "Swamp allotments" were first offered at auction in November 1849, however not all the allotments were sold until 1853 at which time Shuttlewood acquired Suburban Allotment One [SA 1], the southernmost of the Swamp allotments. Further allotments at the Swamp were surveyed in 1856. Portion 46, described as a Suburban Farm, located parallel to, and on the southern side of Shuttlewood's SA 1, was acquired in July 1858 by Shuttlewood and Taylor.
By late 1857, the name "Toowoomba" had gradually taken over from "The Swamp", as the town continued to expand. At the time of its incorporation into a municipality in November 1860, Toowoomba had well outgrown Drayton. Shuttlewood appears to have been actively involved in the development of Toowoomba, in matters including the establishment of the boundaries of the town (possibly because his major land purchases were situated in the vicinity of the proposed southern boundary). In January 1861, Shuttlewood was one of nine aldermen elected to the first municipal council of Toowoomba. Following Shuttlewood's death in 1894, he was described as ...one of the first to arrive in Toowoomba and take up his residence here. From the earliest period of its existence he has known the town and has watched its growth and development. ... he took a very prominent interest in all pertaining to the welfare of the district.
Little is recorded about Taylor. He appears to have been acquiring land at The Swamp during the 1850s. In 1857, Taylor acquired from Shuttlewood, the western half (15 acres) of SA 1, opposite Portion 46. Taylor's name appears immediately below Shuttlewood's on a petition published in the local newspaper in 1859. Taylor's will described him as a well-sinker of Stephen Street.
Shuttlewood and Taylor entered into a Deed of Partition in November 1859, at which time Taylor acquired sub A of portion 46, the western portion of the allotment. Although there are no further references to Shuttlewood in the title documents pertaining to this land, rates records refer to Shuttlewood as the "owner" of the property until the mid 1860s during which period there appears to have been an earlier building on the land, described as a slab and shingle house.
Taylor took out a mortgage on the land in February 1866; according to the mortgage documents, the money was used to subdivide the land. Although money was taken for 26 of the 31 allotments auctioned in April that year, not all purchases were paid in full at that time. A deposit was paid on the allotment on which the cottage is located by James Jennings, whose name is recorded in the rate books for the property for 1868-69. Jennings however, does not appear to have ever paid the final balance due on the land.
A new building appears to have been erected by the late 1860s, at which time rates records refer to a four room stone cottage. The stone used for the construction of the cottage has been identified as laterite, a reddish rock material rich in iron and aluminium oxides which is produced through the processes of weathering. Laterite, a soft and easily cut material when quarried, dries and hardens with exposure to the atmosphere, forming an extremely durable brick. Extensive deposits of Laterite, which typically occurs in humid, tropical conditions as well as some drier areas, are found in Toowoomba, including visible deposits at the top of the "Old Toll Bar Road" on the east escarpment of the Main Range. Although no comprehensive survey of stone buildings has been undertaken to establish how many, if any, other dwellings constructed of laterite are extant in Toowoomba, it is considered that this is an uncommon building in Toowoomba.
Taylor died in June 1866, and Samuel George Stephens and Thomas Perkins were appointed as Trustees. The resolution of Taylor's estate was a complex process, and was not finalised until 1902, when the estate was bought under the provisions of the Real Property Act. Rate records indicate continuing occupancy of the cottage during this period from the 1860s to the 1900s, although it is unclear as to the claim the persons being rated may have had on the property. Sale of the allotments on the estate commenced in 1903.
The The allotment on which the cottage is located was acquired by Ellen Clubley in 1903, and has continued to change hands a number of times. The ceilings, originally calico, were lined during the early 1910s, and the exterior of the cottage was rendered at about this time. A new bathroom, and kitchen/dining area appears to have been added to the rear of the cottage during the 1920s. A toilet and laundry block has also been added at the rear of the cottage. (The cottage was acquired by the present owners in 1975).
","criteria":"The cottage survives as one of the earliest dwellings in Toowoomba, and is important in demonstrating the evolution of Toowoomba from an agricultural reserve to an important municipal centre, from the 1850s.
|The stone building, an uncommon example of a Toowoomba dwelling constructed of laterite, also represents an unusual use of laterite as a building material in Queensland.
Located in one of Toowoomba's earliest residential subdivisions, the cottage is important in demonstrating unusual 1860s methods of design and construction and makes an aesthetic contribution to the Stephen Street streetscape.
|Located in one of Toowoomba's earliest residential subdivisions, the cottage is important in demonstrating unusual 1860s methods of design and construction and makes an aesthetic contribution to the Stephen Street streetscape.
","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":16078,"place_ref":601315,"name":"Toowoomba Court House & Old Toowoomba Gaol Wall (former)","alternate_name":"Toowoomba Courthouse | De Molay House | Austral Museum","street_address":"90 Margaret Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-06-30","description":"The place consists of the former Courthouse and the Old Toowoomba Gaol Wall.
The former Courthouse
The former Courthouse is a large low-set hipped-roof hall close to the street at 90 Margaret Street, Toowoomba. It is composed of several sections. The core is rectangular in plan, and the English bond brick two-storey structure is capped by a hip roof with clerestory. The front is a hip-roofed closed-in verandah. On the rear southwestern corner is a timber extension and off the core on the southeastern corner is the small hip-roofed caretaker's cottage.
Facing Margaret Street is the closed in verandah with centered french door main entrance. The name of the building 'DeMOLAY HOUSE' is above this central entrance. The eastern elevation is composed of three parts. A long sunshade supported by brackets extends over the ground floor windows of the building core. Above these windows are smaller windows close to the eaves that provide lighting for the upper level. Near where a passage links the main building to the cottage is the sole brick chimney. The cottage is a low-set two-room brick building with closed-in verandahs. The third part is the closed-in front verandah. The western elevation is close to the fence line and has a small extension at the rear.
The former Courthouse is set close to the mature camphor laurel lined Margaret Street and opposite Queens Park and adds to the streetscape of this important thoroughfare connecting Brisbane and Toowoomba.
Narrow Austral Lane terminates at the rear of the place. The core building has a rough stubble subfloor. A modern carport with concrete floor abuts the rear of the core and caretakers cottage. The large expanse of land is uneven but does include mature trees. A remnant of the old prison wall forms part of the rear boundary.
Old Toowoomba Gaol Wall
Part of the stone of the external perimeter of the Toowoomba Gaol constructed in 1864 is still extant. Constructed of courses of blocks of a conglomerate rock, set in a finely divided sand and lime mortar. The rock appears to be made up of ironstone nodules set firmly in a sedimentary matrix, it is a dark oxidised colour throughout. This two feet thick wall is two blocks deep and, is without a rubble core.
A north-south section that meets an east-west section is still visible from Stirling Street. At about 6 feet, this Stirling Street corner is the highest point and there are on average five courses of blocks above ground level, varying in size from one to two feet in each dimension. The interior ground is level with the top of the wall and exterior ground level at street level. From this corner, the wall extends north towards and forms part of the boundary of the former Courthouse, while the eastern section acts as a retaining wall and eventually disappears under rising ground.
A block of townhouses have been constructed in Sterling Street, using the Old Toowoomba Gaol wall as part of the foundations of the site.
","history":"The central brick rectangular core of the former Courthouse was constructed as the first Toowoomba courthouse between 1861 and 1863. The section is a two-storey with a hip roof with clerestory. In front of this is a symmetrical closed-in veranda which also has a steeply pitched corrugated iron hip roof. A small single-storey cottage is located at the rear of the hall. The complex has been added to and modified to serve as a female reformatory, museum, boarding house and community hall. The external boundary wall of the Toowoomba Men's Gaol was constructed using local stone and bricks on government land behind the courthouse in 1864.
\nDrayton was surveyed as a town in 1849 and it was there that the assizes for the district were held, and the first courthouse in the area was located. While 'The Swamp', as Toowoomba was first called, was surveyed as an agricultural area, it soon proved more suitable for urban living and underwent rapid growth. In 1859 Judge Lutwyche found the Drayton Courthouse so dilapidated that he declined to use it. The Colonial Architect designed a new courthouse that cost £2,018/6/4 in Margaret Street, the road linking Brisbane to Toowoomba. Work commenced in 1861 and the building was opened in January 1863. This courthouse was low-set with a hip roof, rectangular in plan with a small entrance porch and had an internal U-shaped verandah. One chimney provided a back-to-back fireplace for the Magistrate and Clerk's rooms. A new courthouse, nearer the town centre, was built between 1876 and 1878.
\nWhen Toowoomba became an assize town there was a need for a gaol to house criminals arrested on the Downs, the Maranoa and Warrego awaiting trial and for those convicted. The Colonial Architect's plans for the new gaol to be erected behind the courthouse were completed by 12 February 1862. Godfrey and Johnstone started work on Toowoomba's new gaol in early 1863. By June 1864 the building was ready for occupation except for the completion of the boundary wall and its gateway, this was completed by September 1864. This external wall had a buttressed footings of roughly dressed stone about a foot each in dimension, upon which was built an unrendered brick wall two bricks deep, or about nineteen inches; similar dimension to the Administration Building erected at St Helena Gaol in 1886. The wall was about 12 feet high, with tapered buttresses that stop halfway up the wall, and a sloped coping made of bricks.
\nIn 1870, due to overcrowding of women prisoners in Brisbane and removal of male prisoners to St Helena, all female prisoners in Queensland were incarcerated in the former Toowoomba men's gaol. As there was no provision within the gaol for juvenile female offenders, in 1882 the government employed J Nock contractor to convert the old Toowoomba courthouse to a female reformatory. This work cost £993 and included adding the clerestory to provide more natural lighting, partitioning parts of the verandah to make a section with hand basins, office and storage room, and building a small detached hospital.
\nAn article on the Toowoomba Reformatory published in the Darling Downs Gazette of 25 February 1889 described the building as verandahed and spacious. It had a large detached kitchen with adjoining laundry. Off the dining room was a schoolroom that seated 22 girls and surrounding these two rooms were compartments with beds and shelves. The place had a bathroom and lavatory. Two cells or 'darkrooms' used for serious offenders were located under the rear of the building. Girls some as young as 4 or 5 were lodged in the reformatory, which was outside the gaol in its own fenced enclosure, and separated from it by a lane. Ten large tanks formerly at St Helena's provide water for the residents and laundry needs. The Victorian attitude required that these females work and the well appointed laundry with 7 or 8 big galvanised tanks was used by many local families for their washing and provided the institution with £12 to £13 a month.
\nAfter the new Female Division at Boggo Rd Gaol opened on 3 October 1903 all Toowoomba female prisoners were transferred to Brisbane and the reformatory outside the gaol walls was also closed. According to the 1903 Post Office Directories it was known as the Girls Industrial School.
\nPoet George Essex Evans inspired by the 1903 Maryborough eisteddfod enthused enterprising Toowoomba residents into developing a similar festival and initiated the creating of a cultural organisation that aimed at developing Toowoomba as the leading centre of music, art and literature. Prominent men soon formed a committee and the inaugural Austral Festival, held in the town hall in November 1904, was a resounding success. Albert Edward Harston, a music school proprietor, suggested purchasing the old gaol site for future festivals. Members of the committee formed the Austral Finance Company to purchase the site; as this involved closing part of Austral Lane they did not become the registered owners until 1909. The Austral Finance Company employed architect William Hodgen to design a hall that could seat thousands and they utilised the former reformatory building as a museum. While many of the gaol buildings were demolished, Hodgen's design utilised the massive stone-rubble external gaol wall to form two of the walls of this vast hall; hence the hall only cost £1,495 to construct. The complex became the Austral Association Hall and Museum.
\nAustral Museum opened in 1904. Exhibits included a donated collection of South Sea Islander artifacts, collection of polished samples of timber from Filshie Broadfoot & Marks and samples of all soils to be found in Queensland.
\nVarious reasons such as the death of George Essex Evans, an established Toowoomba poet and enthusiastic supporter, during the 1909 festival and death of the King whose birthday the festival celebrated led to the decline in the annual event, with the last festival held in 1911.
\nEarly in 1916 Albert Edward Harston, an active and founding member of the Austral Association, purchased the site. About 1919 he subdivided the site into three land parcels. The former museum subsequently operated as a private hospital under Nurse Curtis for a few years before becoming a boarding house in the early 1920s. Rutlands was the Thompson sister's guesthouse from about 1930 to 1960. An advertisement in a booklet published by the Toowoomba Tourist Board in 1935 claimed it was a recently refurbished mansion that offered every home comfort, first-class cuisine, internal sanitation with hot and cold water, good garden and garage. The Toowoomba Chronicle of 7 April 1960 stated that Miss Thompson made $5,500 when she sold the 19-room guesthouse to the Toowoomba DeMolay Chapter.
\nThe DeMolay Order founded in 1919 at Kansas City was initially based on Masonic ritual. It gradually spread through American and grew into an international organisation. This non-denominational, non-political society for males 12 to 21 year olds fosters public speaking, leadership, competitive sporting activities, community involvement and family commitment. Like Scouts and other youth organisations they hold annual conferences, however, a mothers group is an important aspect of the society and volunteer work such as raising funds for charities like the Blue Nurses and visiting the elderly is encouraged. After leaving the order most of the young men join service groups such as Lions and Rotary.
\nAn article about DeMolay celebrating its 21st birthday in The Chronicle of 3 October 1978 included a photograph of Rutlands and DeMolay House. The photograph shows that Rutlands' front verandah was closed-in on the right but on the left of the central opening was open and the verandah edged with a two-rail slat balustrade. The Chronicle of 13 May 1983 reported that Toowoomba's DeMolay Chapter was in urgent need of funds for refurbishing their building, which had been in a run down state when purchased in 1960. While maintenance work on the foundation had been completed and some flooring replaced, they needed to re-roof the building. The original core 'measures 20 metres by 10 metres and has brick walls 35 centimetres thick'.
\nAccording to a long time member of the organisation when DeMolay purchased Rutlands, the hall had a central passage with partitioned rooms off either side of it, these were removed. Many of the bathroom fittings have been replaced but some still have their original cast-iron pipes. Other changes include closing-in the front verandah and verandahs on the caretaker's cottage. Original roof shingles were found when the roof was recently replaced. The site does have archaeological evidence of earlier uses; while fixing floorboards they discovered various artifacts such as shoes and a little girls dress. When excavating prior to laying the concrete for the caretaker's carport in the back yard, they located the old laundry.
\nThe Toowoomba Chapter is unusual; they are the only Order in Australia and only branch in the world to own their building. Because the order is run as a self-supporting business they rent the hall to various local organisations to raise revenue for maintaining the building and financing activities.
\nLong gone is the reformatory's 1882 detached kitchen with large laundry that was erected between the main building and gaol wall. It is not known when the front verandah or extension was added to the rear southwestern corner.
\nOf the old gaol the only visible remains are part of the external wall. Most of the bricks that topped the wall have disappeared though it is said that some were used in the construction of the Boer War Memorial gateway to the Mothers' Memorial, now located in War Memorial Park, Margaret Street. Some stone blocks were missing from the top course, and others had fallen and lie at the foot of the wall. However, the top course has been carefully repaired during the course of the recent building works on the site, and the wall no longer has missing stones nor fallen stones at its base. A flight of concrete steps, constructed in the mid-twentieth century, are set in the west part of the wall, leading to a flat concrete pad inside the wall. While much of the gaol was demolished, foundations for some of the buildings are still extant a great deal of archaeological evidence still exists below ground level, in the form of foundations.
\nA motel and a 1998 townhouse development has been built on the former prison area. While most of the site had been built over, much of the north-south and east-west parts of the old gaol boundary wall are still evident.
","criteria":"The core of the former Toowoomba Courthouse, built by 1863, and the old Gaol wall (1864) are evidence of early government buildings of the colonial period and demonstrate the evolution and pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the development of Toowoomba as an important Darling Downs town. As does the Toowoomba residents wanting to develop cultural facilities who took the opportunity of the closure of the gaol in 1903 to acquire a large expanse of land to build a festival hall and open a museum. Cultural festivals, eisteddfod and museums were an important part of early twentieth century life. The former Courthouse, as a museum and community hall, has been an important building in Toowoomba's cultural scene.
Changes in prison philosophy and the need to house Queensland's juvenile female offenders led to modifications to the former Courthouse in 1882 for its use as a female reformatory. Internal modifications to adapt the building for usage as a museum, boarding house and community hall have not detracted from its external appearance and reflect the evolution of structures over time.
The former Courthouse is part of the Margaret Street precinct which has historic value for its association with early settlement as it was one of the town's main early thoroughfares.
|The core of the former Courthouse is a rare surviving example of an early colonial courthouse while the extant parts of the old Toowoomba Gaol wall are rare remnants of an 1860s country gaol.
|The former Courthouse's changes of usage from courthouse, reformatory, museum to boarding house and the remnants of the gaol wall and buildings have potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history.
|The former Courthouse has aesthetic visual streetscape because of the mature camphor laurels, bluestone kerbs, Queens Park and many grand 19th century houses.
|The survival of the wall demonstrates the a high degree of technical achievement for the 1860s.
|The Toowoomba DeMolay Chapter is part of a worldwide organisation that aims to develop the potential and individuality of young males and they are the only Australian Chapter to possess their own building.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | 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 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 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":16080,"place_ref":601317,"name":"Alexandra Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"451-455 Ruthven Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-10-16","description":"The Alexandra Building is a two-storeyed masonry building with an elegant street façade on the western side of Ruthven Street in Toowoomba. It is located on a long and narrow site and consists of a 1902 building (hall and two retail spaces) with 1905 rear addition (former pavilion). Ancillary outbuildings and decks, and an adjoining c1930s-1940s building are located at the rear of the site.
The c1902 building consists of shops on the ground floor and lofty, open-plan office spaces on the upper floor. It has two long gable roofs (concealed behind a brick parapet) which extend from the Ruthven Street boundary about half way back on the site. The two roofs are joined by a box gutter and each has three lantern lights along the ridge. External walls are smooth rendered brick and the roofs and floors are timber-framed. Behind the southern-most roof is the 1905 former Pavilion which has a simple hipped roof and external walls of rendered brick and corrugated iron. To the north of this structure (and immediately behind the northern gable) is a two-storeyed face-brick building (c1930s-1940s) with a parapet roof which faces on to Duggan Street and Lamb Lane at the rear.
The Ruthven Street façade of the Alexandra Building is a composition of red brickwork and contrasting rendered brick decoration which emphasizes the windows and other decorative elements. The parapet is the most ornate part of the façade and is divided into three pediments that reflect the internal design of the upper floor - two large triangular pediments concealing the gabled roofs each with three tall glazed openings either side of a smaller central pediment to which the words 'Alexandra Building' is applied. Arched steel-framed windows light the upper floor and rectangular windows are located above a c1930s cantilevered street awning allowing light into the ground floor shops. Below the parapet the exterior has been rendered and painted where a former two-storeyed verandah was located. Shop fronts have been recently fitted out.
Apart from the street façade only small sections of the exterior of the 1902 building are visible. At the rear the twin gable ends are visible and consist of smooth-rendered brick walls with three high-level windows matching those on the front elevation. Recent gable flashings have been added. A lean-to structure (post 1930s) has been added to the rear of the northern-most gable end which opens out on to the roof of the c1930s-1940s building which forms an open deck space. Side elevations are not visible, being concealed by adjacent buildings.
The lantern lights running along the ridge line of each gabled roof consist of box-like structures with curved roofs of corrugated iron. Three reversible casement windows face both north and south on each lantern. Walls to the east and west are clad in ripple iron. Gutters are quad-profile.
The 1905 former Pavilion to the rear of the main building has a timber framed roof and floor. Walls to the north and the rear are of smooth rendered masonry. Other external walls (south and west) are timber framed and clad in vertically fixed corrugated iron. Three sets of high level timber framed, reversible casement windows run along both the northern and southern elevations. A small deck-like balcony (date unknown) has been added to the rear of the former Pavilion and a steel framed staircase leads to outbuildings at the rear of the southern side of the 1902 building.
The frontage of the ground floor of the 1902 building is divided into two shops which have again been subdivided forming four separate tenancies. All of these have been recently fitted out. An ornate and colourful leadlight window formed from steel encompassing the letter 'A' is visible above the level of the street awning within the southern-most tenancy. Similar steel-framed windows with clear cathedral-patterned glass are located above a recess in front of the northern-most tenancy the shopfront of which is set back from the street. A central staircase formed in timber with timber wall linings opens on to the street and leads to a foyer space accessing the first floor offices.
Early internal fabric remains where later fit-outs have been inserted into the former Café Alexandra space on the ground floor including wall-paper, timber stairs, posts and balusters, timber wall linings and decorative cornices.
The first floor space, formerly the hall, has been divided in half along its length. Each space has a high vaulted ceiling. The space to the north remains an open plan area with the lantern lights running centrally along its length. Low level partition walls form office spaces. The space to the south has been partitioned with walls and glazing from floor to ceiling forming two separate tenancies. The vaulted ceilings though divided by the recent walls are still readable.
Much of the early internal fabric on the upper floor remains despite the southern side of this floor being subdivided into smaller tenancies with service areas. The ceilings, the internal walls of the lantern lights and high level walls on the upper floor are lined with v-jointed boards. Lower walls and the flat ceiling below the box gutter have been recently lined with plasterboard. Early timber posts and beams with arrissed edge details and which form buttress-like structures are visible along the length of the external walls which support the arched roof. Tenon joints showing the location of supporting timber brackets (removed) are visible on the posts. Metal stays brace the roof and are located at regular intervals within the open ceiling space. Timber stays are visible within the lantern light spaces. Early timber-framed stairs which access the street below have timber treads, risers and stringers all of which are clear finished. Timber newels with rebate details are located at the top of the stairs.
The former Pavilion is a large, open room with high ceilings. It is accessed via stairs from the one of the tenancies on the ground level. Walls have a smooth rendered finish to the north and part of the walls to the west. Other walls are lined in v-jointed boards. The lower sections of the internal walls are lined with plywood and timber battened sheeting. The ceiling is lined with decorative pressed metal sheeting with large pressed metal cornices finished with leaf-shaped cornice mitres in the internal corners. Two decorative circular pressed metal ceiling vents are located on the ceiling. Metal ceiling roses (former pendant fittings have been removed) are also located on the ceiling. Wall and window trims are clear finished timber. Floors are timber tongue and groove boards. A door formerly accessing a dumbwaiter is located in a small alcove on the southern side of the room. A concrete wash tub is located in the north-west corner of the room.
The stairs accessing the former Pavilion are timber framed with treads lined with early linoleum. Handrails and balusters are both turned timber with a clear finish. Part of a former balcony space with fretwork balusters is also accessed from the stairs. Stair walls are lined with plywood and v-jointed boards. The early ceiling fabric of the former café is visible from the stairwell space. Ornate timber posts and brackets, timber and sheet metal cornices, wallpaper, friezes and diagonally laid v-jointed ceiling boards are visible of the former above the suspended ceiling of the northern-most tenancies.
Other structures are located below the former Pavilion building at the rear. These include an extension to the southern-most tenancy to form a larger shop space and an early amenities block formed in brickwork. To the north of these structures are extensions to the northern-most ground-floor tenancy (c1930s) as well as a c1930s masonry lean-to building housing amenities for the upper floor. A flat-roofed two-storeyed c1930s-1940s face-brick and concrete building is located in the north-west corner of the site. It has steel-framed windows on the upper floor and recent timber-framed windows on the lower floor. The interior of this building has not been inspected. The building's flat roof forms an open balcony space accessed from the lean-to addition above. Another timber-framed balcony structure is located behind the former Pavilion.
A recent courtyard and service driveway are also located at the rear of the site.
","history":"The Alexandra Building, a two-storeyed masonry building in Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, was constructed in 1902 to a design by prominent Toowoomba architect Henry James (Harry) Marks (1871-1939) for local businessman Thomas Kelsall Lamb. Marks also designed a 1905 extension at the rear of the building. The building originally comprised a banquet/concert hall on the upper floor and two retail spaces on the lower floor.
By the end of the nineteenth century, Toowoomba had established its position as the administrative and commercial centre of the Darling Downs, one of the first regions to be settled in Queensland. Squatters entered the rich pastoral region even before Moreton Bay was opened for free settlement in 1842 and by the mid-1860s Toowoomba had eclipsed its main rival, Warwick, as the largest town on the Downs. Located on the main route to Brisbane, it was a conduit for produce being hauled to the coast and the main source of supplies for the western pastoralists. By 1891, Toowoomba contained nearly twenty per cent of the population of the Downs.
As Toowoomba developed, a commercial centre emerged in the blocks bounded by Russell, Ruthven and Margaret Streets. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century Ruthven Street was redeveloped with substantial masonry buildings and its pre-eminence as the centre of the city was confirmed with the construction of the third Town Hall in Ruthven Street in 1900. The Alexandra Building, erected in Ruthven Street between Russell and Margaret Streets in 1902, contributed to the consolidation of this street as the city centre.
The Alexandra Building was constructed for TK Lamb and Co., a well-established Toowoomba firm of confectioners and pastry cooks. Lamb had operated from at least two previous premises in Ruthven Street as a confectioner, baker and caterer with associated refreshment rooms, since 1885. Lamb also had a separate bake-house in Bell Street and a second confectionery shop in another part of Toowoomba. Like many merchants in Toowoomba, TK Lamb and Co. supplied not only the town of Toowoomba but the Downs and many other parts of western Queensland through a very successful mail-order business selling hams, small goods, dressed poultry and Christmas cakes. In the 1890s and early 1900s he also conducted a drapery business - TK Lamb & Co. (The Busy Drapers) - in addition to his catering, confectionary and baking concerns.
In 1901 TK Lamb acquired title to the Ruthven Street site of the future Alexandra Building and engaged HJ (Harry) Marks to design a building incorporating street-level shops and a hire-hall for balls, banquets and other large public functions such as public meetings, wedding receptions, parties and concerts. In addition he planned to build a new, modern cake factory and bakery at the rear of the building.
Harry Marks was one of a family firm of architects which had a lasting effect on the appearance of Toowoomba, being responsible for a large number of the city's public, private and commercial buildings. Born and trained in Toowoomba, he entered into partnership with his father James, in 1892. James Marks arrived in Queensland in 1866 and first set up in practice in Dalby, moving to Toowoomba in 1874. As James Marks and Son, Harry and his father dominated the architectural profession for more than half a century. Though Harry spent his entire career in Toowoomba and was responsible for designing many buildings on the Darling Downs including Rodway [600868] and St Luke's Church Hall [600866], he also designed St James Parish Hall [600856] at Coorparoo and another Roman Catholic Church at Bulimba in Brisbane. His brother Reginald joined the practice in 1910. Harry was made an associate of the Queensland Institute of Architects in 1925 and a Fellow in 1929. His son, Charles Beresford Marks, became a partner in 1925.
Harry Marks was described as being 'gifted with inventive genius'. He was particularly interested in providing good ventilation and natural lighting and these are features of buildings designed by him. He devised and patented a number of architectural elements, including roof ventilators, a reversible casement window which provides optimum directional ventilation and a method of stucco wall construction using a hollow wall to give the appearance of a solid wall, but cheaper to construct than brickwork.
The Alexandra Building was completed in 1902 by Toowoomba builder James Renwick. Various sub-contractors worked on the building including Wheatcroft and Co. (painters), TS Burstow (fittings) and Keogh and Co. (suppliers of the dining tables and other furniture). Its construction reflected local confidence in the continued prosperity of Toowoomba and the surrounding district during a period of widespread drought. It spanned two allotments and had a prominent two-storeyed frontage to Ruthven Street - considered 'uncommon, and particularly striking' at the time - with an upper floor verandah with cast-iron balustrade, over the street pavement, and a decorative three-gabled face-brick parapet with the words 'Alexandra Hall' in relief on the middle gable. The building was named in honour of Queen Alexandra, wife of Edward VII of Britain and of Australia. Edward had succeeded to the throne following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria, in January 1901 and the coronation of Edward and Alexandra was conducted in August 1902 around the time that TK Lamb's new building was opened.
The ground floor was divided into two shops, each 100ft (30.5m) long by 30ft (9.1m) wide, with plate-glass front display windows. The ceilings were high, and additional natural lighting was provided from high-level windows in the front and rear elevations. The northern shop was occupied initially by GP Merry's Drapery Emporium. The southern shop was occupied by TK Lamb and Co.'s Café Alexandra, which had counters and fittings in oak-grained pine, including a timber screen which separated the shop at the front from a dining room, 63ft (19.2m) by 30ft, at the rear, capable of seating 180-200 persons. Kitchens, pantries, storehouses and out-buildings were located beyond the dining room.
The Alexandra Hall, which occupied the entire first floor, was accessed via a 7ft (2.1m) wide timber staircase from a separate entrance off Ruthven Street, located between the two shop fronts. It was a high space, 60ft (18.2m) wide by 100ft deep, lit by windows in the Ruthven street and rear elevations, and from six large lantern lights in the roof. At night the hall was lit by gaslights with 'beautiful multi-coloured globes'. Reputedly the hall was capable of seating 900 persons, and when first opened seats for 600 were provided. Facilities included cloakrooms, dressing-rooms and water closets.
Four staircases led from the hall to front and rear verandahs, 12ft (3.6m) and 8ft (2.4m) wide respectively. These were located 4ft (1.2m) below the level of the hall, so that the retail spaces below were lit from windows front and rear, between the floor levels of the hall and verandahs. Another staircase led directly to the Café Alexandra dining room below, which could function as a supper room during concerts or other entertainments.
According to The Queenslander of 20 December 1902 construction of the hall supplied a much-felt want in Toowoomba, demonstrated by the almost continuous use of the hall in the first few months of opening. Toowoomba had lacked a large public assembly hall, and the Alexandra Hall's Ruthven Street location, in the centre of Toowoomba, made it especially attractive as a venue. The Alexandra Hall post-dated Toowoomba's third Town/City Hall [QHR 600865], constructed in 1900 in Ruthven Street on the site of the former Toowoomba School of Arts (destroyed by fire in 1898), but the City Hall theatre, with a seating capacity of 789, had a raked floor and could not accommodate banquets or dances. The Alexandra Hall pre-dated Toowoomba's Austral Hall, a large structure erected in 1904 by the Austral Association on the site of the Old Toowoomba Gaol in Margaret Street. It also pre-dated the Empire Theatre [QHR 600978] in Neil Street, which opened in June 1911 with a seating capacity of 2,200.
The Café Alexandra was said to be a great success and the Alexandra Hall was popular for dances, concerts and banquets. According to the Darling Downs Gazette rarely a night passed that it was not occupied. The venture proved so successful that in 1905 TK Lamb & Co. erected additions to the rear of the building, comprising a pavilion 32ft (9.75m) by 26ft (7.9m) and promenade balcony. The pavilion was accessed via a flight of stairs from the Café Alexandra on the ground floor, and could be used as a supper-room, banquet hall, or meeting room. The ceiling was of pressed metal and the room was lit by reversible casements (recently patently by Harry Marks). The promenade balcony was located at the rear of the pavilion.
In 1913 Thomas Kelsall Lamb passed away and title to the property was transferred to trustees: Queensland Trustees Ltd and Lamb's two sons, Arthur Kelsall Lamb and Herbert William Lamb. In 1947 title was transferred to TK Lamb & Co. Pty Ltd (TK Lamb Estates Pty Ltd from 1949).
A number of long-term tenants occupied the building. JM Harris (draper) occupied the northern shop from 1906 until 1935. In 1938 Gold Radio Service and 4GR broadcasting moved into the building, where they remained until 197X. The upstairs hall appears to have been sub-divided and used for offices by the late 1930s, but the Café Alexandra continued to operate on the lower floor.
Sometime between 1937 and 1943 the front verandah was removed and replaced by a cantilevered street awning, in line with a municipal policy that verandahs and street awnings supported on posts be removed as a road safety measure. Below the parapet the front of the building was rendered and painted when the verandah was removed. About this time the lettering on the building appears to have changed from 'Alexandra Hall' to the 'Alexandra Building'.
In 1973 title to the property was transferred from TK Lamb Estates Pty Ltd to the Master Builders Permanent Building and Bowkett Society. The Café Alexandra appears to have closed about this time.
When Brian Hodgen, grandson of well-known Toowoomba architect William Hodgen, purchased the building at auction in 1976 it housed Palmers Silk Centre, McKinstry and Somerville trading as Chas Sankey Fraser (optometrists), and Music Houses of Australia trading as Palings on the ground floor. The first floor was unoccupied. Brian Hodgen conducted his architectural practice, Hodgen & Hall, from the first floor space, later practicing with his son as Hodgen and Hodgen Architects.
","criteria":"The Alexandra Building with its highly decorated and articulated façade makes a substantial aesthetic contribution to the streetscape of Ruthven Street. Rising majestically above adjacent buildings it has a landmark quality generated by the imposing and ornate brickwork parapet facing Ruthven Street, and is one of a number of extant buildings designed by the Mark's family that contribute to the architectural character of Toowoomba. Interior spaces, designed to harness natural light and ventilation, are particularly fine.
|The Alexandra Building remains substantially intact and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an early twentieth century main-street commercial building incorporating a large hire-hall. These characteristics include: the imposing and decorative street façade; retail spaces on the ground floor; a large upper-floor hall with separate street entrance; the vaulted ceiling and decorative street-facing windows to the hall; and an attached former supper room with decorative pressed metal ceilings.
The building forms part of the body of work of prominent Toowoomba architect HJ Marks and displays the inventiveness and creativity typical of Marks' design work. His concern for natural light and ventilation in his buildings is demonstrated in the Alexandra Building through the use of his inventive, and later patented, window design together with the placement of windows above street awning level to allow natural light into the ground floor shops and the use of lantern lights on the first floor.
|The Alexandra Building, erected in 1902 and extended in 1905, was constructed for successful Toowoomba confectioners and caterers TK Lamb & Co. Comprising a large former public hire-hall on the upper floor and shops on the ground floor, it is important in illustrating the consolidation of Ruthven Street as the commercial and social hub of Toowoomba, one of Queensland's principal regional centres, around the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Although intimately connected with the business of TK Lamb & Co., the Alexandra Hall also was one of the earliest large public assembly rooms erected in Toowoomba, pre-dating the Austral Hall (1904). It was popular for a variety of social functions including concerts, banquets, wedding receptions, dances and other public entertainments and meetings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion E | Criterion D | Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16081,"place_ref":601318,"name":"O'Shea's Drayton Cottage","alternate_name":"OSheas Cottage | O'Shea Cottage","street_address":"56 Gwynne Street","suburb":"DRAYTON","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-04-27","description":"O'Shea's Drayton Cottage is a small, low-set, single-storey timber building capped by a corrugated iron short-ridge roof. It sits well back on the block and faces northwest towards the Drayton Warwick road.
\nThe L-shaped slightly pitched verandah roof supported by posts is stepped-down from the main roof. A short set of two front steps lead onto the unbalustraded verandah, and are opposite the front door which opens onto a central corridor. Either side of this entrance door is a pair of casement windows.
\nInternally all walls are lined and ceilings are beaded boards. All rooms have a mix of vertical and horizontal beaded boards while the kitchen also has adzed slabs. The central hall is post and rail and narrower in the back half of the dwelling.
\nThe principal bearers are adzed hardwood. Due to the terrain the rear bedlogs are set in the ground, but the rest are supported on 300 to 400 mm hardwood stumps. The external rear wall and part of the southwestern kitchen wall are post and horizontal adzed slabs while the stove recess has vertical adzed slabs. Other walls are timber-stud construction. The front exterior wall is very wide chamferboards and northeastern sidewall and part of the western wall have narrow weatherboards. This sidewall has one window under the return verandah and another protected by a sunhood. The other sidewall is broken by two window openings, both at different heights.
\nThree old timber posts mark what is the entrance to the property, two of which are shaped. The drive goes beyond the house to an old gable roofed timber garage, which has a rear corrugated iron extension on the north and north western side. The shed has vertical slabs along the south western and rear wall. All three parts have dirt floors. A stand of mature bunya pines and a silky oak shelter these buildings. There are also some pepperinas near the back fence.
\nWhile there is no boundary fence around the dwelling two solid, unpainted shaped gateposts remain. To the left of the drive is a small front fenced home paddock. Along the fenced southwestern boundary are a line of mature she oaks. Two mature hoop pines also stand at the rear of the cottage, creating a major landmark feature in the landscape.
","history":"O'Shea's Drayton Cottage is a small, low-set, single-storey timber and tin house with a short-ridge roof with back verandah and L-shaped front verandah. Built originally about 1874 as a two-room dwelling and enlarged to four rooms, this property is less than a kilometre from Drayton on the Drayton-Warwick road.
\nThe Darling Downs attracted squatters from the 1840s and Drayton became the district's social and commercial centre. In 1849 Drayton was surveyed, as was the Drayton Swamp (later Toowoomba). The latter was meant to become an agricultural area to service Drayton. However, settlers and entrepreneurs were more attracted to the Drayton Swamp as it was more level land, nearer the Main Range's timber stands and had a more reliable water supply. Toowoomba's growth was ensured with the development of a more suitable route down the range in 1853. With Toowoomba granted municipal status in 1860 Drayton lost it importance.
\nIn 1865 Patrick O'Shea, his wife Bridget and three children moved from Pilton to Drayton so that they could educate their children. Patrick had acquired the first part of his Drayton holding by November 1864 and the next portion in 1865. O'Shea obtained more land in 1888 and had purchased at auction the fourth land parcel by 1906.
\nAbout 1874 Patrick O'Shea built the first two rooms of his Drayton farmhouse. He used his axe and adze to cut and shape the timber for bearers, joists, walls and household furniture. He used massive bed logs in the ground, drop slabs for the rear wall and capped his cottage with a shingled gable roof. Additions to the house resulted in two front rooms under another shingle gable roof.
\nPatrick started farming but soon found the conditions not suitable so often did other manual work such as clearing, fencing, planting and cultivating. Patrick O'Shea was interested in his local community and in 1874 was appointed a trustee of the Drayton Commonage. In 1879 the O'Sheas and other Irish families, encouraged by parish priest Fr Robert Dunne, moved to Southbrook. Patrick took up Rockmount for himself and the adjoining property for his 18-year old son Daniel. Patrick soon built a double gable roofed home very similar to his Drayton cottage. Here he established a dairy farm with the O'Sheas becoming important members of the Southbrook community. Rockmount, Southbrook is still owned by an O'Shea descendant.
\nWhile Patrick and his sons were dairy farmers at Southbrook, the Drayton cottage was used as a type of 'town house' and was where many of the children were born. In 1911, Mr and Mrs O'Shea retired from farming and moved to their Drayton cottage. A photograph taken at this time shows this four-room house as having a double gable roof with L-shaped front verandah. The rear gable's shingles had been replaced by corrugated iron but the front portion still had shingles. A window in the roof space indicates that the family used this area. The boundary fence around the dwelling included a gate with gateposts carved by Patrick.
\nPatrick O'Shea's obituary under the heading Drayton News in The Catholic Advocate of 28 December 1916 mentioned that he 'was an exceptionally handy and industrious man, and the many fine and substantial buildings, fences, etc on his late holdings mark the thoroughness with which he did things. He always took a very keen interest in all matters affecting the country'. His widow and daughter Mary continued to live in this cottage on the Etonvale Road.
\nMary Honara Boland nee O'Shea inherited the property after her mother's death in January 1925 when she and her husband were living at Eddington Siding on the Cloncurry line. By 1931 they had move to the O'Shea's large Southbrook property Rockmount. It is not known if she or other members of the O'Shea subsequently ever resided permanently in this 'town house' on the Drayton Warwick Road. In 1960, Mary Boland moved to 42 Clifford Street, Toowoomba, where she died 25 July 1970. As she had not made a will the Drayton cottage and land passed to the Public Trustee. A great grandson of Patrick O'Shea acquired the property at public auction in 1974. By this time the cottage had a slightly pitched short-ridge tin roof and L-shaped front bullnose verandah. The end of the return verandah had been closed-in with fibro and on the northeastern end of the rear verandah was a bathroom.
\nDuring the 1980s the owners moved a small four-room house from Ruthven Street to the adjoining block. To prevent vandalism and help pay the rates the cottages were rented. Since that time the front bullnose verandah has been replaced as has some external side wall cladding and the fibro verandah room removed. A carport and recreational area have been added at the back of the cottage. As the place has not been inspected internal changes are not known.
","criteria":"O'Shea's Drayton Cottage survives as one of the earliest dwellings in Drayton. While Drayton was surveyed as a town in 1849, and 'The Swamp', as Toowoomba was first called, was surveyed as an agricultural area, it soon proved more suitable for urban living and underwent rapid growth and the importance of Drayton declined.
|Because of its age this place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history.
|O'Shea's Drayton Cottage and its construction techniques demonstrate the principal characteristics of the simpler houses lived in by pioneers and working class in the colonial period. Although originally built about 1874 as a two-room farmer's cottage it was subsequently enlarged to cope with a growing family. The foundations, timber profiles and enlargement demonstrates the technical achievements of colonial days and advancement in methods of early Queensland domestic architecture.
|The cottage has always been associated with the O'Shea family, and the original owner Patrick O'Shea was an early pioneer of the district.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | 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 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":16082,"place_ref":601319,"name":"Exchange Building","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"245-253 Margaret Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-10-27","description":"The Exchange Building is a two-storeyed building consisting of a row of four brick shops at street level with offices above. The façade is red brick with contrasting white rendered detailing to the windows and parapets. The upper façade is divided into four with a central section that indicates the central staircase. Each of the individual tenancies is marked by a pair of pedimented casement windows and a triangular pediment in the parapet. The parapet has EXCHANGE BUILDINGS 1, 2, 3 4 in raised lettering. The pattern of the paired windows, the pediments and interplay between the red brickwork and rendered architectural detailing results in a pleasing and economical composition for a commercial building.
Paired, timber, panelled doors lead to the central staircase which leads to offices on the first floor.
","history":"The Exchange Building a two storeyed row of 4 brick shops, constructed by at least July 1905 to a design by prominent Toowoomba architectural firm, J Marks and Son.
The Darling Downs was settled by European pastoralists in search of rich grazing land and by the 1840s. The first township which evolved to support these stations was Drayton, west of Toowoomba. However the success of Drayton did not last. The site now known as Toowoomba was eventually considered to be in a more suitable location for access down the range and in 1852, a town survey was secured. The establishment of a new town was strongly supported by the squatters and Toowoomba challenged Brisbane as the new capital of Queensland. Although this status was not achieved, the town rapidly developed and by the 1860s had become the centre of pastoral development on the Downs.
As Toowoomba developed a commercial centre emerged in the blocks bounded by Russell, Ruthven and Margaret Streets and the construction of a police station and post office near the court house (1877) firmly established the upper end of Margaret Street as a government precinct. By the 1890s the Russell, Ruthven Margaret Street block was pre-eminent as the commercial centre of Toowoomba.
Born and trained in Toowoomba, Harry Marks had entered into partnership with his father James, in 1892. James had commenced practice as an architect in Toowoomba by the early 1880s, and he and Harry have been described as dominating the architectural profession for more than half a century. Although Harry Marks was responsible for designing a number of buildings on both the Darling Downs and in Brisbane, much of his work was in Toowoomba where he designed a variety of buildings including Rodway [600868], St James Parish Hall [600856], St Luke's Church Hall [600866], additions to the Toowoomba Maltings [600852], and the Darling Downs Co-operative Bacon Factory. Marks was also described as being gifted with inventive genius, and he devised and patented a number of architectural elements, including roof ventilators, windows and a method of stucco wall construction.
The Deed of Grant for the land on which the Exchange Building was to be constructed was issued to William Handcock on 11 May 1854. Title to the property was transferred to Thomas George Robinson in April 1877. TG Robinson arrived in Toowoomba in 1859. He established himself as a stock and land salesman in 1860 under the firm name of TG Robinson and Co. He was elected at a bye election in 1864 as Alderman and became Mayor of Toowoomba in 1864. TG Robinson was connected with various progressive movements for advancement of the town and was instrumental in introducing stud stock to the town. TG Robinson's son, William Richard, was also involved with his father's business, taking over as sole proprietor following his father's death.
Following TG Robinson's death in 1883, title passed to Frederick Hurrell Holberton in August 1884. Holberton's wife was the Aunt of prominent Toowoomba architect, William Hodgen. Hodgen designed the Holberton's residence, 'Tor' [601325], in 1904. Title transferred to James Holmes Robertson in December 1897 and, following his death in July 1904, Transmission by Death was issued to James Campbell Robertson, the third surviving child of James Holmes Robertson, Gordon Holmes Robertson, a minor born on 20 February 1885 and Robert George Wonderly, on 15 July 1904. RG Wonderly was the son of Joseph Wonderly, Mayor of Toowoomba from 1868-1869.
It was during the time of James Campbell Robertson's ownership, that the Exchange Building was extended. It was built by at least July 1905, as, at this time, J Marks and Son, called for tenders for additions to No. 1 Exchange Buildings, Margaret Street.
James Campbell Robertson, stockbroker and soldier was born in Toowoomba in 1878. Following a distinguished miliary career, Robertson returned to Toowoomba where he set up a very successful stockbroking business. In 1936 he passed over the management of the firm to his son, Aylmer, resuming control again in 1939, when Aylmer was appointed to the 2/25th Battalion, AIF. Robertson died in Toowoomba in January 1951.
JC Robertson first appears in the Post Office Directories in 1929. He is listed as 'JC Robertson, Stock and Share Broker'. Street numbering appears in Margaret Street in 1931. At this time those listed at 249 Margaret Street are Hertzberg & Co (AM) Merchants; Downs Mercantile Finance Company Ltd; JC Robertson; Ocean Acct Corporate Ltd and GP Jackson, a jeweller and ironmonger.
Title for the property passed to Isabella Wonderly, wife of Robert George Wonderly, on 10 December 1905. Isabella held title to the property until her death in August 1956. Isabella leased the site to Robertson & Provan Pty Ltd. The terms were for five years from 2nd June 1941. Provan & Co were booksellers in Toowoomba. However, Provan & Co remained at their offices at 403 Ruthven Street from 1942 til at least 1949.
The Exchange Building continues to be utilised for commercial shops and offices.
","criteria":"Erected in the period at the turn of the century when Russell, Ruthven and Margaret Streets were being consolidated as the commercial centre of Toowoomba. The Exchange Building survives as evidence of the pattern of development of Toowoomba.
|Designed by prominent Toowoomba architect HJ Marks the Exchange Building displays architectural finesse typical of Marks' design work.
|The building has a decorative rhythmic façade which makes is a substantial aesthetic contribution to the streetscape of Margaret Street.
It is one of a number of extant commercial buildings designed by the Mark's family that contribute to the architectural character of Toowoomba.
|The Exchange Building is significant for its association with the Marks family, a prominent architectural firm.
","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":16085,"place_ref":601322,"name":"Kensington","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"126 Russell Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"Kensington is a single storey timber building located on a large block of land facing Russell Street, Toowoomba.
Kensington has a symmetrical front facade that combines Classical Revival and Arts and Crafts motifs. A central gabled entrance separates a pair of semi-octagonal corner bay widows that project above the roof. The steeply pitched corrugated iron hip roof rises to a widows walk which features a finial at corners and cast iron lace. This roof capping is repeated for bays and side gable. Tall chimneys are symmetrically placed. While low-set it has a 'hit-and-miss' brick subfloor.
Simple wide concrete steps lead up to a carefully detailed entrance bay, with the classical-style pediment resting on an arch supported by posts. The wide verandah, which wraps around to both sides, is edged with cast iron lace. Simple unadorned posts support the convex verandah roof that is stepped down from the superior roof with its pairs of brackets supporting the guttering. The eastern elevation has a projecting gable for the side entrance.
Connected to the house on the eastern elevation is the modern staff area which has a low-pitch hip roof. The extension at the rear of the house is a long rectangular building capped by a low-pitched roof. The encircling verandah employs the same decorative features as used on the older parts.
The front and side garden is landscaped and contains mature camellias, pines, palms and other trees, while low hedges edge paths. The long tree-lined drive on the eastern side leads to parking at the sides and rear of the property.
Kensington was not inspected internally.
","history":"
Kensington is a large, low-set, timber building at 126 Ruthven Street, Toowoomba. Toowoomba architect William Hodgen Junior designed Kensington in 1897 for successful draper George Pitlow Merry. Purchased in the early 1990s by a legal firm, Victorian architect Jack Clark was responsible for the refurbishment of the house and extension at the rear to create a building suitable for usage as a professional office.
\nWilliam Hodgen established his Toowoomba practice with an advertisement in the Darling Downs Gazette of 6 February 1897 announcing he was a new Toowoomba architect. Growth and development in both Toowoomba and the Downs and his own efficient work meant he soon had a busy and successful practice. While trained in Queensland, his London experiences and knowledge of the Arts and Crafts movement and Edwardian Classicism were expressed in some of his buildings. However, he tended to employ a Free style, modifying the prevailing Queensland vernacular by introducing individualist elements. His English experiences are reflected in the classicist detailing of entrance pediments using timber, joinery and internal fittings. Hodgen was in practice for 43 years and he designed a large number of buildings varying from small cottages to sporting facilities, halls and large complex hotels in Toowoomba and on the Darling Downs.
\nHodgen designed Kensington as a large timber residence of eight rooms costing £1,035. It was a variation on Hodgen's standard cottage plan with corner bay windows that were articulated in the form of the roof, the side elevations with a gable over the dining room bay window and secondary entrance and a box roof over the core. His design also included a butler's pantry, servery and outbuildings.
\nGP Merry established his millinery and dressmaking business in Ruthven Street in 1894. The Darling Downs Gazette and Toowoomba Telegraph of 22 December 1894 in an evaluation of Christmas offerings remarked that Merry had decorated his two windows in the Toowoomba Exchange for his first Christmas in Toowoomba. While he catered for men and women, his windows displayed millinery, dress material and all those articles necessary to complete a lady's toilet.
\nMerry took the opportunity of acquiring a large allotment when Kensington Estate with 38 cleared allotments between Russell, Margaret, West and Cecil Streets and close to the city, railway station, churches and schools was auctioned 25 March 1897. In his wife Sophia's name he acquired land adjoining the late James Taylor's Clifford House [600857] fence. While GP Merry was in trade, the Merrys were part of the Toowoomba social scene and used their home for entertaining friends. Irish born Mrs Merry a staunch member of the Methodist church was involved in various philanthropic work such as the Ladies Benevolent Society and Brodribb Home. GP Merry sold his business in 1905 and he and his wife took the opportunity to go 'home' for a visit.
\nDr David Horn and his wife Amelia moved into Kensington in 1912. Scottish born David and his brother Alexander established Carlton High School in Christmas Street, Toowoomba, in 1897, but in 1901 the brothers decided to return to Scotland and study medicine at Aberdeen University. On their return in 1907 both established medical practices in Toowoomba.
\nBetween February 1919 and August 1922 two different families occupied Kensington. Firstly Mrs Edith Pauline Brasnett wife of William Leslie Brasnett of Murwillumbah then George Harcourt Crowther.
\nSolicitor Arnold E Lavers, his wife Ruby (nee Wilcox) and family moved into Kensington in 1922. Arnold Lavers resigned his position of First Clerk in the Crown Solicitor's Office moving to Toowoomba to become a partner in Groom and Lavers in 1909. He was a prominent member of the Queensland legal profession and in 1977 celebrated 60 years as a solicitor. Lavers, a founding member of the Toowoomba Rotary Club, was actively involved with the community and served on the Toowoomba Ambulance Brigade, Toowoomba Choral Society, Toowoomba Grammar School Trustees as well as being busy with the legal profession. After his death on 9 December 1968, tribute was paid to his long legal service to the Toowoomba City Council and the community. A former chairman of the Downs and South-Western Law Association Lavers was held in high esteem by the legal profession. A friend of George Essex Evans and Hoey 'Steele Rudd', he supported the Ladies Literary Society and was well known for his love of poetry.
\nA new owner in 1973 refurbished this private residence. Sold again in 1977, the house became a family residence and doctor's surgery. Kensington was up for auction in 1984 and an article 'Links with past' in Queensland Grain Grower of 15 Feb 1984 stated that Kensington had been skilfully refurbished. While upgraded for modern living it retained its cedar doors and archways, marble, ebony and cedar fireplaces, and wide verandahs trimmed with lace panels, however, the kitchen had been modernised. The large master bedroom featured built-in robes and ensuite, the drawing room had a parquetry floor and was large enough for a grand piano. The large garden had exotic shrubs and native trees, while a mature oak tree provided privacy for the swimming pool.
\nKensington opened as one of Toowoomba's superior restaurants in 1987. Features of this new restaurant were the entrance with intricate stained glass panels, original cedar doors, windows, architraves and skirting boards, but alterations involved removing a wall and fireplace to create a dining room that could seat 70 comfortable. The size of the house meant the use the back of house for three bedrooms for the owner/manager and family, with family room, study, rear garden and swimming pool for private use.
\nIn 1990 two legal firms who combined to become one of the largest in Toowoomba purchased Kensington. They spent over $1,000,000 on restoration, expansion and landscaping using Melbourne architect Jack Clark. The firm moved into the 300 square metre house and rear extension of 450 square metres in July 1991, with the new premises officially opened by Governor-General Hayden on 28 August 1991.
","criteria":"Kensington a large timber dwelling was designed in 1897 by prominent architect William Hodgen as a private residence for successful draper GP Merry. Its usage as a family home for prominent Toowoomba identities such as solicitor Arnold Lavers, 1980s conversion to a restaurant and refurbished and extended in the early 1990s by Victorian architect Jack Clark for use as professional offices demonstrates the evolution of usage and form that occurs with Queensland houses.
Erected in the late 1890s Kensington, illustrates the pattern of Toowoomba's development as a regional centre for southern Queensland and demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1890s ornate timber Toowoomba house.
|Kensington is a well designed and finely detailed house. It is an excellent example of a large timber home designed by prominent architect William Hodgen which contributes to the architectural character of Toowoomba.
Erected in the late 1890s Kensington, illustrates the pattern of Toowoomba's development as a regional centre for southern Queensland and demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1890s ornate timber Toowoomba house.
|It is an excellent example of a large timber home designed by prominent architect William Hodgen which contributes to the architectural character of Toowoomba.
|It is an excellent example of a large timber home designed by prominent architect William Hodgen which contributes to the architectural character of Toowoomba.
","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":16087,"place_ref":601324,"name":"Wislet (Former Wesley Hospital)","alternate_name":"Wislet | Drynane","street_address":"127 Russell Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-05-30","description":"The former Wesley Hospital is a two storeyed rendered masonry building originally designed as a residence and surgery, located on Russell Street to the north of the rail line through Toowoomba. The house stands on a large allotment of about half an acre and is set back from Russell Street with an established garden. A large pine tree dominates the Russell Street frontage of the former residence.
The house is an imposing and stark addition to the Russell Street precinct which, in this area to the north of the business district, is characterised by more ornate residences. The more contemporary house on the eastern side of the former Hospital has been designed to complement the former hospital.
The floor plan of the original part of the former residence was rectangular with a one storeyed rectangular wing to the rear, with projecting windows and entrance vestibules from most of the façades. To the rear of the ground floor of the original footprint of the building, additions have been made over time and this wing is now an amalgam of differently aged and constructed sections.
The building is of loadbearing masonry construction, rendered with roughcast stucco. The openings of the building are generally timber framed casement windows, occasionally filled with leadlight or coloured glass. The window openings generally have face brick sills.
The hipped and gabled roof of the two storeyed part of the building is clad with red terracotta tiles and is punctuated by a number of chimney stacks. The rear one storeyed wing is clad with corrugated iron. The chimney stacks are rough cast, to complement the render of the façades of the building, and are evocative of Art Nouveau elongated chimneys with narrow cornices and high level square openings beneath the cornice.
The principal façade of the former Hospital, facing southward to Russell Street, is unusual in the asymmetry and loose control of the fenestration and projecting features. The façade addresses Clifford House on the opposite side of Russell Street and is similar in massing. The façade of the building has two ground floor projecting features; a gabled roofed projection housing a four panel casement window on the western end and a smaller hipped roofed, enclosed entrance porch on the eastern end. Between these elements on the ground floor is a three panel casement window and a smaller, more recent sliding window. The first floor is lined with a number of variously sized and placed windows on the principal façade, including a central four panel casement decorated with a window planter box.
The eastern, side façade of the building is dominated by a projecting oriel window of German influence at the northern end. The window sits above a ground floor projecting bay which features a large 3 by 4 panel of timber framed leadlight window on the face of the projection and similar panels on the returns. The leadlight panels in blue and warm grey shades demonstrate Art Nouveau influence. Some of the glazed panels have been replaced in plate glass. Surmounting this projection is the timber framed and horizontal boarded rectangular planned oriel window supported on large curved timber brackets. The timber element is lined with timber framed casement windows filled with arctic glass and, seemingly, later than the other window openings of the building. The oriel window is roofed under the main gabled roof which terminates at the window and has a stuccoed and battened gable end slightly projecting from the face of the projecting window bay and again, supported on curved timber brackets. The boarding and glazing may date from a more recent renovation. Extending from the southern side of the oriel window is a small timber balcony supported on a single timber column and surrounded on its open sides with a timber battened balustrade. An external narrow metal stair from the ground level terminates at this small balcony.
The western face of the building is almost devoid of openings, except for two square openings filled with coloured glass giving external expression to the stair hall. The one storeyed wing at the rear of the western side is lined on the northern and eastern sides with wide verandahs which have been enclosed and now form internal rooms. The rear, northern façade of the building has a hipped projection at the western end and is lined on the first floor with variously sized casement window openings.
Generally, the interior has a mixture of timber boarded and concrete floors on the ground floor and timber boarded floors on the first floor. The interior walls of the ground floor are rendered masonry and the internal walls of the first floor are mostly rendered masonry with some timber boarded partitioning. The ceilings of the ground floor are rendered plaster and plasterboard and the ceilings on the first floor are timber boarded. Generally, the interior of the ground floor has been altered both in finish and planning and the interior of the first floor is more intact. Features such as the ground floor fireplaces, coat of arms and the platform in the hall are no longer there.
The first floor is accessed internally via a stair on the western side of the building which is housed in a hall lit by two square stair hall windows, filled with orange and yellow leadlight panels. The dog leg timber stair has a timber battened balustrade with square timber newel and turning posts which are decorated with a simple carved border detail at the top. The stair terminates at the western end of a transverse hall on the first floor, from which the major first floor rooms are accessed. A section of the partitioning of this hall, adjacent to the stair is constructed from timber boarding. The first floor of the building houses a number of large rooms with intact joinery, including a simple skirting board, picture rail, high mid-railed timber doors with brass hardware and a number of fireplaces. The design of the fireplaces is clearly influenced by Art Nouveau, with elongated vertical proportions, simple detailing and oversized bracket elements.
The garden surrounding the building contributes to its setting, and in the case of the front garden reinforces the German influence. A large pine tree dominates the front garden and partially conceals the house from the street. Other features in the front and eastern garden include hedges and garden beds with shrubbery. The western garden comprises a large flat lawned area, possibly the remnants of an early tennis court.
To the rear of the house is a one storeyed timber framed and clad shed with simple gabled corrugated iron roof and several timber boarded doors and a large timber garage door.
","history":"The Wesley Private Hospital built in 1908, is a large, two storey, rendered masonry building designed by architect William Hodgen jnr. and located in Russell Street, Toowoomba. It is situated on a large block, originally part of suburban allotment 9 "at the swamp near Drayton". This parcel of land of twenty three acres, two roods and thirty six perches was purchased by James Taylor in 1868 from William Horton who held the original deed of grant from 1852. James Taylor began to subdivide the land and the blocks passed through the hands of several owners.
In April 1908, the Certificate of Title was transferred to Dori Helene Hinrichsen, wife of Dr Freidrich Hinrichsen. At the same time, the Hinrichsens purchased an adjoining easement of 3.3 perches. At the beginning of 1908, the Hinrichsens commissioned Toowoomba architect William Hodgen jnr. to design a combined residence and surgery. The tender amount was £2125 and the building contractor was Henry Andrews. The house was adjacent to a house known as "The Rosery" which was owned by Dr Freshney, medical superintendent of Toowoomba Hospital 1892-1927, and it appears that the Hinrichsens built their house on the rose garden of this house.
Hodgen's original drawings show that the house was carefully designed to accommodate both Dr Hinrichsen's medical practice and the family's residence. The medical suite comprised of three rooms - a waiting room, consulting room and operating room and had its own entrance on the western side of the front elevation. A large, arched porch on the eastern side marked the entrance to the residence. This lead into a vestibule that linked together the medical suite and residence. A grand, central "hall dominated the ground floor of the residence. The hall measured 22 by 16 feet with a raised platform of 14 by 6 feet at one end. This platform was enclosed with leadlight windows to the east. Extensive servants quarters and service areas were also located on the ground floor, including a servant's hall, bedroom and bathroom as well as kitchen, laundry, pantry and store. A stable building and wood-house to the back of the block were part of the original design.
The upper floor accommodated the family's living spaces. The southern side was occupied by a large bedroom, dressing room and bathroom. The northern side had another bedroom and night and day nurseries. The night nursery had a small balcony perched over the roof of the ground floor and the day nursery is connected to a large north-east facing porch. Both these spaces demonstrate the emphasis that was then placed on fresh air for good health.
The Toowoomba Chronicle reported in 1973 that the Hinrichsens had designed their home to resemble their former home in Germany and that the Toowoomba residence was "a stately 22 room house... ...In what was once the drawing room of the old home is still to be found a coat of arms depicting a hunting party scene with lean hounds on leashes. The crest of blue-green mosaic tiles stands above a marble fireplace and includes the initials F.J.H. The marble for the fireplace was quarried from Dr Henrickson's (sic) family estate in Germany... ...Dr and Mrs Henrickson were reputed to be very talented musically and were devotees of the arts."
It is not known when Dr Hinrichsen arrived in Australia, however, it appears that he was first registered as a doctor in Queensland in 1904. He was a well qualified man. The Medical Board of Queensland's registration records show that he passed the Staats Examen in Germany in 1897 and obtained his MD from the University of Roslock, Mecklenburg in 1899. He was formerly known by the name of Cohen. He worked as a surgeon in Munich, Leipzig, Rostock and Berlin. He is listed as Honorary Surgeon to the Toowoomba General Hospital and presented a paper at the Australian Medical Congress in Melbourne in 1908. In 1911, Loxton's Medical Directory listed Dr Hinrichsen in practice in Roma. In November 1914, he was struck off the roll by order of the Medical Board, which lends credibility to local stories that he had been forced out of Toowoomba as a result of anti-German feeling during the time of the First World War.
William Hodgen jnr had a long and prolific architectural career in Toowoomba. The son of a building contractor, Hodgen became a cadet in the Colonial Architect's Office in 1886. In 1891, he resigned and travelled to London to broaden his experience. He enrolled at the Architectural Association and worked for a variety of architects in London, becoming an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1895. He returned to Queensland in December 1896 and opened his practice in February 1897, remaining in practice with his sons until his death in 1943.
Hodgen's time in London coincided with a period of intense creativity and originality in English architecture, with the likes of CFA Voysey, WR Lethaby and ES Prior designing key works of Arts and Crafts architecture. Although Hodgen's work reflects more fully the influence of his Queensland training and the local timber tradition, he does integrate up-to-date Arts and Crafts features and details into his work, some of which can be seen in the house in Russell Street. His unbuilt work is more strident in its application of English styles of the 1890s. An unrealised design of 1897 for a theatre in Toowoomba has typical Arts and Crafts elements such as asymmetrical planning and massing, "green slate" roof, centrally located roof lantern and façade treatments such as stone dressing and carved stone decoration at first level.
In January 1910 the house was purchased by Thomas Connolly, also a medical practitioner . He named it "Drynane" after his birthplace in County Armagh in Ireland. The Connolly family held the title until 1948 when the house was sold to Dr John Hulme, a colleague of Dr Connolly's, who resided and operated his medical practice there until 1963. In 1963, the property was sold to the Methodist Church who initially established an acute care hospital. The title transferred to the Uniting Church of Australia in 1980. From 1979-1984, the Uniting Church purchased many of the properties around the site of the hospital. The Wesley Hospital operated until July 1998 when the Uniting Church announced that they could no longer operate the hospital as "there is little chance that the hospital could be viable in today's market". The Toowoomba Chronicle reported that some staff members had been at the hospital for more than 25 years.
","criteria":"The former Wesley Hospital is important in demonstrating the development of Toowoomba, in particular the development of the district to the north of the central business district where a number of doctor's residences and private hospitals were located in the first half of the century.
The former Wesley Hospital has a strong association with the medical profession in Toowoomba. A succession of local doctors operated their practices and resided in the house from 1908. As the Wesley Hospital, the building provided medical care to the Toowoomba community for 35 years.
|The former Wesley Hospital has a strong association with the medical profession in Toowoomba. A succession of local doctors operated their practices and resided in the house from 1908. As the Wesley Hospital, the building provided medical care to the Toowoomba community for 35 years.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | 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":16088,"place_ref":601325,"name":"Tor","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"396 Tor Street","suburb":"NEWTOWN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-05-28","description":"Tor is a low set timber residence bounded on the west by Tor Street, the east by Devon Street and on the north by Wombyra Street. The U-shaped residence is sheeted in chamferboard and has a corrugated iron roof. The house has a ridge roof extension above the dining room and a gabled roof kitchen extension at the rear. Verandahs enclose the house on three sides and the verandah roof is supported on timber posts. The rear (western) verandah has been enclosed. A section of the front verandah on the north-eastern side has also been enclosed. The entrance is centrally located under a projecting portico with gable. A staircase is positioned on the southern side of the entrance portico. A second staircase is located in the south-western corner of the verandah and a third along the western side. A timber finial and timber bargeboards decorate the portico, which has a pressed metal ceiling.
Internally, Tor contains a centrally located hall with rooms opening off from both the western and eastern sides. Similar to other rooms in the house, the hall has a pressed metal ceiling and extant cedar joinery. The hall has timber skirting timber cornices. The living room is located on the south-eastern side. The room has a bay window and an ornate pressed metal ceiling, with a recess located in the south-eastern corner. The recess also has a pressed metal ceiling. The room has two decorative moulded arches with moulded architraves and keystones. Originally enclosed, one of the archways has been opened up and is now a doorway.
A bedroom is located on the northern side of the entrance, the room has french doors opening to the northern end of the eastern verandah. This section of the verandah has been enclosed. The verandah returns on the northern side with french doors opening to the main bedroom. The bedroom has a high timber ceiling and fireplace with tiled surrounds. A walk-in wardrobe is located along the western side of the room. The pressed metal ceiling in the bedroom has been replaced with timber. On the northern side of the hall are located two bathrooms and a bedroom. The bedroom has a bay window opening to the enclosed western verandah.
The dining room, on the southern side of the building, opening from the hall, has an ornate pressed metal ceiling with a ceiling rose. The brick fireplace has a timber surrounds with decorative timber dentils. A bay window is located along the southern side of the wall. A door opens to the south-eastern corner of the verandah.
The kitchen, located in the south-western wing of the residence, was created when two smaller rooms were combined to become one large area in the late 1960s. A doorway in the north-western corner of the kitchen opens to the rear, or western, verandah. The verandah has been enclosed and contains a family room and bar area. This was closed over in the 1970s. Located in the north-western wing of the residence are four rooms. One larger room has been divided into three rooms and there is a bedroom located to the west of the three rooms.
Externally, Tor is located on top of a small elevation and is surrounded by a well-established garden containing mature boundary plantings. A carriage-drive beginning at the south-eastern corner, sweeps around past the entrance and finishes at the north-eastern corner. The driveway extends around past the southern side of the building leading to the modern garage and also to the original timber single-storey stable buildings, located in the south-western corner of the property. The front (eastern) elevation has views to the tennis court located in the south-eastern corner.
","history":"Tor, a single storey timber residence, was constructed in 1904 for Mrs Frederick Hurrell Holberton. The residence was designed by Toowoomba architect, William Hodgen, Mrs Holberton's nephew and built by John Sweeney.
The Deed of Grant for the land on which Tor was to be built was issued to Lucy Harriet Fletcher on 19 November 1860. The grant comprised Portions 155 and 156, an area of just over 60 acres. Title passed to William Lord in October 1861 who later subdivided the property in 1877. James Williams purchased subs 21-23 of section two of portion 155, in March 1877, which comprised just over eight acres. Title for the eight acres was transferred to Frederick Hurrell Holberton on 30 November 1888. The Holbertons subdivided their property again in 1915. John Mundell purchased three acres, on which stood the residence. Sophia Holberton held title to the remaining two acres, which passed to Edwin Chisholm Bernays in 1916, following her death.
Hodgen's first work on the site was in April 1903 when tenders were called for fencing. Sketch plans were prepared for the house before the end of February 1904 and tenders closed a fortnight later. John Sweeney's tender for £1,095 was accepted and a contract signed on 7 April 1904. Subsequent changes were made and further sketches were drawn. The extras for the changes (£53.4.0) was accepted on 6 June 1904 and the alterations added to the original contract drawings. By July, the roof framing was fixed.
While construction was proceeding, Hodgen had continued negotiations with his Aunt regarding many aspects of the house including, colour schemes and wall paper, as well as her requests for changes in window placements, verandah posts and mantles. At one point in a letter on 1 July 1904, Hodgen requests that his Aunt '...leave this to me to choose the best design I can for the money...'. Despite his efforts to please his Aunt, Hodgen was unsuccessful. At the end of August 1904, she humiliated him on the site and he requested that someone else supervise the completion of the house. Their dispute may have been resolved as she paid full fees for his services in December that year (5% on the contract sum of £1020.18.0).
The dining room, drawing room and hall were all built with tongue and groove pine boarding which was then stamped with pressed metal ceilings. A pressed metal ceiling was also placed in the first bedroom. The foundations of the chimneys and hearths, carried up to the underscore of the metal plates, were constructed using blue stone set with lime mortar. The inner and outer hearths of all the fireplaces were laid with salt glazed bricks. Hodgen also designed the stable buildings which are still extant. The specifications book provides details about stumps, floors, walls and ceilings, fascia boards, windows, the coach house doors and the stable doors.
Frederick Hurrell Holberton died less than three years after the construction of Tor, however, title for the property had passed to Sophia in May 1902. On 4 June 1915, Tor was sold to John Mundell, covering an area of just over three acres. At around the same time Sophia purchased land in Campbell Street and again had Hodgen design a new residence. A small part of the property was subdivided in October 1959 for road purposes. The property was sold and subdivided again 1960 and the area of land was reduced from three acres to its current area of just over two acres. The present owners of Tor purchased the property in April 1966.
Later renovations to the building include altering the south-western wing to allow a kitchen to built in the mid-1960s. The north-eastern and western verandahs were enclosed during the 1960s and early 1970s. Other changes include approval which was given in 1985 for the owners to build a garage at the southern end of the house.
In a study of the Toowoomba inner residential area prepared for the Toowoomba City Council in 1995, Tor was included in the section titled Places and Characteristics Valued by the Community.1
","criteria":"The architectural plans for Tor reveal the extent to which architects detailed their works c1900.
|Of particular importance are the stable buildings located in the grounds. Extant stable buildings forming part of the original layout of the property are rare and add to Tor's significance.
Extant architectural plans and documentation for domestic buildings from the early twentieth century are rare and add to the significance of the place. The material provides first hand information about the original design of the residence and its finishings and the stable buildings.
|Tor is significant as an example of well-to-do domestic building from the early twentieth century, reflecting the wealth and status of a public servant and his wife in Toowoomba, a major regional centre in Queensland. The residence is built in similar style to a number of other Toowoomba houses including Gabbinbar [600840], Fernside [600843] and Harlaxton [600839], combining large, low-set homes often surrounded by extensive landscaped areas.
|Tor is significant for its strong streestcape, forming part of a group of similar houses in the area including Weetwood [600870] and Ascot House [600853]. An elegant residence set on an elevation in a large garden with boundary plantings, tennis court and a sweeping carriage-drive, Tor has a high level of aesthetic significance.
|Tor holds strong social significance for Toowoomba residents and is highly valued by the community.
|Tor is significant for its association with William Hodgen, a prominent Toowoomba architect, who designed the residence for his Aunt, Sophia Hope Holberton, wife of Frederick Hurrell Holberton. William Hodgen was the founder of a Toowoomba architectural firm which continues to the present.
","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":16089,"place_ref":601326,"name":"Elphin","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"24 Anzac Avenue","suburb":"NEWTOWN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"Elphin is a large low-set single-storey weatherboard home, set well back from the road and located on a large block on Anzac Avenue, Newtown, Toowoomba.
Elphin is L-shaped in plan and asymmetrical on all elevations. A classical gable pediment in timber over the front steps separates a pair of gables that project from the medium-pitched corrugated iron hip core roof. The pair of gables have the 1920s half-timbered appearance, and both are enhanced with a turned-timber finial and pendant. There are four brick chimneys with double rendered tops.
The front of the house is nine veranda bays long. To the right of the entrance is it three bays in width and there are five bays on the other side. Simple posts with astragal and capitals support the skillion verandah roof which is stepped down from the main roof. The verandah is edged with a triple rail dowel balustrade and is open except for the end bay on the left side. This pavilioned room still has a type of metal sunhood. The entry has a five-panelled front door with fanlight and is flanked by sidelights above a timber panel. All windows opening onto the encircling veranda have step-through windows.
There are gables projecting from the core on both side elevations and these repeat the front gable's decorative features.
The large front garden contains a mixture of mature and recent plantings. A long paved drive down the right hand side leads to the old garage and shed at the very rear of the property.
Elphin was not inspected internally.
","history":"
Elphin on tree lined Anzac Avenue Toowoomba is large low-set single storey residence designed by prolific Toowoomba architect William Hodgen for Longreach pastoralist Andrew Crombie and his wife Ellen in 1907.
\nWilliam Hodgen established his Toowoomba practice with an advertisement in the Darling Downs Gazette of 6 February 1897 announcing he was a new architect for Toowoomba. Growth and development in both Toowoomba and the Downs and his own efficient work meant he soon had a busy and successful practice. While trained in Queensland, his London experiences and knowledge of the Arts and Crafts and Edwardian Classicism were expressed in some of his buildings. However, he tended to employ a Free style, modifying the prevailing Queensland vernacular by introducing individualist elements. His English experiences are reflected in the classicist detailing of entrance pediments using timber, joinery and internal fittings. His Toowoomba works include Kensington, Tor, Austral Hall, Glennie School [600853] and Flour mill, he was also responsible for buildings in Brisbane and other parts of the state such as the Allora grandstand, Oakey Post Office, Jondaryn Queensland National Bank, Hotel Corones, Charleville [601282].
\nHodgen designed an L-shaped house; the front core had a 9 foot 6 inches wide veranda on three sides. Either side of the 8-foot entrance hall was the main bedroom and drawing room. The drawing room and dining room shared a fireplace as did the master and second bedroom. Between the second and third bedrooms was a bay-windowed workroom, these rooms overlooked the side garden. Another bedroom, bathroom and boxroom were at the rear and opened off an internal central passageway. The 15-foot wide service wing stretching out behind the house contained the pantry, kitchen and laundry, extending of this was a storeroom and servant's room. The house cost £1,236/19/3.
\nHodgen also designed stables at the rear of the property for Crombie's Drayton Road property that cost £133. This weatherboard building had corrugated iron roof and gables and included a main room, coach house, harness room, feed room, workshop and cow shed.
\nBoth Andrew and Ellen Crombie were born in Tasmania, however, they started married life in New South Wales in October 1874, where he was managing a large property. In 1882 he and his partners purchased Strathdarr Station near Longreach. With his wife, governess, maid, two daughters and son, Crombie moved north to manage this new enterprise. While Longreach pastoral life was not easy with floods, droughts and bushfires he was very successful. Crombie in his book, After sixty years, or, Recollections of an Australian bushman, mentioned that he and CW Little of Coreena Station were the first to ship frozen sheep from Queensland to London on the owner's account. Crombie, in 1889, was a founder of the first graziers association of Queensland, the Pastoral Employer's Association of Queensland. Moreover, Crombie who was involved in the life of his locality also served on the local Aramac Divisional Board.
\nAndrew Crombie believed in preserving buildings from the past for future generations. In his book he reminisced that he was quite devastated when a pioneers' hut was needlessly destroyed by a property manager 'who was utterly devoid of sentiment in connection with pioneers and their great achievements'.
\nWhile Andrew Crombie retained his pastoral properties until the mid-1910s the family also had a town house in Toowoomba by the early 1900s. It was in 1907 that they acquired land on Drayton Road, Newtown, to build their own large home on over 3 acres of land. The house was named after Elphin near Launceston, where Ellen Crombie nee Richardson was born in 1849. The Crombies were part of Toowoomba's society and the house was eminently suitable for entertaining and for Mrs Crombie to hold her regular 'at homes'.
\nIt was during his retirement that Andrew Crombie wrote his reminiscences which were published in serial form under the title of 'Pioneering days' in The Queenslander during 1924 and 1925. Subsequently, Watson Ferguson published his work in book form, as After sixty years, or, Recollections of an Australian bushman in 1927.
\nBottle merchant and sports enthusiast Ernest James Busby became the owner/occupant in April 1937. He used the extensive back yard for his business. Facilities he developed included an office and bottle washing shed, while in the fenced off bottle yard were extensive racks for bottles and a boiler shed.
\nElphin was converted into flats by 1952. When Busby died in 1953 he was living in James Street and his children did not sell this revenue producing property until 1988. Because Elphin was put up for auction, various articles were published in The Chronicle during January 1988. Most called it a 'homestead' and stated that during World War II the house was home to US servicemen, had been divided into four flats and that it was in need of restoring.
\nAccording to The Chronicle of 16 January 1988 the house had 15 rooms, including four main bedrooms, two servants' bedrooms plus a guest room. Features included leadlight fanlights and windows, pressed metal ceilings and nine fireplaces.
\nThe house was sold before auction to a local businessman and his wife who refurbished it as a family home. Elphin was selected to be on the 1993 Heritage Building Society calendar because the society's chairman claimed, in The Chronicle of 25 November 1992, that they only desired 'those buildings which are examples of rich history of imaginative architecture for which Queensland is known'.
","criteria":"Andrew Crombie was a progressive pastoralist involved in promoting the export of frozen lamb and establishing the first graziers association. Elphin was built as the town house for his wife and family and was primarily entertainment. For pastoralists and other rural people Toowoomba was important as social and education centre and place to move to when retiring from the land.
That Elphin has been the large home of a wealthy pastoralist, home and business premises of a bottle merchant, used as flats and is again a home, demonstrates the changing usages of residential properties.
|Elphin is a large low-set timber house designed by Toowoomba architect William Hodgen in 1907 for Andrew Crombie. Elphin is an excellent example of a large Toowoomba timber home that was designed by prominent architect William Hodgen.
|The siting of the house, the design of the building, its fine classical detailing and layout of the garden with its mature plantings exhibited aesthetic characteristics of the early 1900s that are still valued by the community.
|(Criterion under review)
|(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":16144,"place_ref":601381,"name":"Men's Toilet, Russell Street, Toowoomba","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Russell Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1994-06-06","description":"The toilet is almost square in plan (approximately 4m X 4m X 3.5m high) built in brick, and with a concrete floor. The northern (Russell Street) facade has a central arched doorway set in a brick frame and flanked with corner pilasters. Above the door, the word MEN is moulded in cement. (This departs from the plan where the word is GENTS.) The top of this facade has a scalloped moulding which continues around the two sides. The immediate surrounds of the door are presently painted white. There is large patch of white plaster on the western wall which may be the remains of the abortive 1933 alterations. No roof was ever planned or built.
A small atrium is formed immediately inside the doorway by a screen, and access is gained to the toilet proper through arched openings at each end of the space. Four porcel-ain urinals and a water closet are situated along the back (southern) wall. The original plan shows three extra uri-nals placed against the screen, but these do not appear to have been built. There is now a hand basin here.
The original plan shows that the urinal stalls were connected to a main drain by a 4 inch pipe. The closet was an earth closet. A brick archway in the wall at the back of the closet and evidence of brick infill shows where access may have been provided for a pan service.
","history":"The urinal was built in 1919 and is situated in Russell Street opposite the railway yard. The immediate social context for the urinal is to be found in the relevant history of Toowoomba. By the late nineteenth century, the lack of sanitation in Toowoomba became a pressing local issue. Earth closets were in a disgraceful condition and typhoid fever was prevalent. It was in these circumstances that Toowoomba's health program, and that of Queensland generally, began to take shape. Boards of Health were established but no real success was achieved until the first years of the twentieth century. Despite improved sanitary services, Toowoomba had 98 cases of enteric fever (typhoid) in 1916 although by 1918 this had dropped to 17. The foremost mover in these plans was Dr T A Price, public health advocate and mayor of Toowoomba in 1919.
The lack of a sewerage system had a major effect upon the provision and type of sanitation, especially for public toilets. Until a sewerage system was installed, all public toilets either had to be in a location where they could be cleaned by a pan service or else operated purely as urinals where the urine could be flushed away to a drain as normal dirty water. A pan service could scarcely be provided in the middle of busy city streets. It is for this reason that women's toilets were located in buildings or some discreet spot, while men could enjoy the use of dedicated urinals in the streets. This was the situation in Toowoomba until 1919. Public toilets with closets were available at the Railway Station for both men and women and there were a number of iron urinals for men in the streets of the city. These iron urinals were equipped with a water tank for the purposes of cleansing. They operated successfully, but in 1918, the Council recommended their removal and planned better facilities. This is when the new toilet in Russell Street was planned and built.
The original plans are unsigned but were probably drawn by the Toowoomba City Engineer, Mr Creagh. The urinal stalls were originally connected to the nearby drain; the closet was cleaned by a pan changing service. The whole ensemble was only connected to the sewerage system in 1926. The manhole covers at the rear of the toilet may date from the time of the sewerage connection. In 1933 plans were made to alter the building but these were not carried out. The building was originally set in a 'rockery and garden' which may have been destroyed after the Second World War. Certainly nothing now remains of the original rockery except perhaps the palm trees at the rear of the toilet.
Several factors were involved in the choice of the site. The building was an independent and free-standing toilet which needed both a urine draining system and a pan cleansing service. It therefore had to be near a drain and there had to be space and cover for the pan-changing operation. This may account partly for the location and the associated garden. Not only was the toilet built practically on top of a main drain, it was an easily accessible location, both for users and for the sanitary service men, and with sufficient room for a little garden of modesty and salubrity. A second factor concerns urban design. Dr Price wanted '... a healthy city, a convenient city - good roads, good footpaths, and an easy way of getting about, a beautiful city with trees and parks and gardens.' This linking of urban health to urban beauty fits the urinal neatly into a scheme for making the area around the railway station more attractive. There were plans to improve the railway precinct and these may have influenced the decision to site the little building with its garden at the city end of the railway station. The street facade of the urinal is certainly handsome enough to suit an urban beauty program. Indeed, this secondary role of urban design may explain why the toilet has quite such a delightful facade. In this sense, urban beauty became a sign of urban health.
Being between the railway station and the main part of the city, the toilet was very handy for as many people as possible provided, of course, they were men. There were women's toilets in the city, but generally more public toilets were provided for men than for women. The Russell Street urinal, taken in this context, is a visible example of the difficulties women had in managing a public life. But the urinal also demonstrates something of the lack of impact of technology upon women's public lives. The Russell Street urinal served as a model of how a full sanitary service could be provided in an open public place; and when it was seen to be successful, calls were made to extend the service to women. But the calls were not heeded, and even when a sewerage service was fully operational in the second half of the 1920s, the Council provided no toilets for women. Women had to take the issue up themselves. In 1931 the Country Women's Association lobbied the Toowoomba City Council for provision of lavatory accommodation for women and children. The Council did nothing and the women had to provide for themselves by opening the CWA Rest Rooms in Margaret Street in 1931.
Up until the early part of the twentieth century, the design of dedicated urinals was commonly of the iron pissoir variety (properly called a urinoir) which comprised a decorated iron screen formed into an appropriate spiral shape for both convenience and modesty. They came in single or double versions. There were a number in Brisbane, one originally in Merthyr Road now relocated in Newstead Park. They were made in Brisbane by Evans, Anderson & Phelan. The Russell Street urinal represents a kind of transitional design between the iron pissoir and the fully fledged toilet building. Like the pissoirs, the Russell Street structure has no roof and is designed with a screen instead of doors for maximum convenience. (Only the internal closet has a door.) Public toilets erected immediately after the Russell Street urinal are complete roofed buildings as, for example, the splendid set of lavatories in Toowong Cemetery of 1924. Part of the impulse behind this transition from modesty screens to complete buildings may have been the desire to make the actual style and design of the toilets indicate something about health. The Russell Street urinal is the only known 'transitional' toilet design in Queensland.
The history of drainage, sanitary services, sewerage systems and public toilets takes its place within the general history of public health in Queensland. Improvements in drainage and sanitary services have done at least as much to procure good health and save lives as any other branch of medicine. This general trend can be traced in Toowoomba very clearly; and the little urinal in Russell Street, in the context of its site, provides much evidence of this achievement.
","criteria":"As the oldest known existing public urinal in Queensland, the Men's Toilet in Russell Street, Toowoomba, constructed in 1919, offers evidence of the development of public health in early 20th century Queensland.
The facade provides evidence of early ideas about urban improvement, especially the links between urban design and urban health. The lack of a corresponding toilet for women is evidence of the failure of sanitary technology to be extended to impact positively upon women's public lives.
|The evolving technologies of sanitation are evident in the changes in the fabric of the building. Designed without a roof, the building marks a transition between the simple pissoir and the fully fledged toilet building.
|The building takes its place in the rich social fabric of Russell Street.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | 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 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":16368,"place_ref":601607,"name":"Toowoomba Queens Park and Botanic Gardens","alternate_name":"Toowoomba Queen's Park","street_address":"43-79 Lindsay Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-04-27","description":"The Toowoomba Queens Park and adjacent Botanic Gardens are located on a large open L- shaped site bounded by Margaret Street to the south, Hume Street to the west, Godsall and Campbell Streets to the north and Lindsay Street to the east. The part occupied by the Botanic Gardens is a small rectangular section of the L-shape, extending north to Campbell Street from Godsall Street.
\nSubstantial remnants of early planting remain within both the Gardens and the Park, most prominently the Camphor laurel avenue traversing north south, from Margaret to Campbell Street and comprising a walkway bounded by mature Camphor laurels. Many early single individual trees also remain, among them Bottle trees, Bunya pines, Chinese elm, Cricket Bat willow, English oak, Himalayan pine, Jacaranda, Norfolk Island pine, Plane trees, Kauri pine, Silky oak, Silver maple and Swamp cypress.
\nThe Botanic Gardens is characterised by a more formal layout and planting, with large trees surrounded by garden beds in geometrical patterns, hedges and avenues. The focal point of the Gardens is the Thomas Memorial which sits in the middle of a large circular bedded area, more open than other areas of the Gardens. Adjacent to the Thomas Memorial in this area is a small cannon. Walks in the garden are gravelled and usually bordered by narrow flower beds.
\nThe gardens are surrounded by a low masonry fence which is broken to form entrances. A large, recent entrance gate is found on the Lindsay Street boundary of the Gardens. This large structure is made from rubble sandstone and has four circular sandstone motifs, and an entablature with Toowoomba Botanic Gardens Est'd 1875. Just inside this gate is another recent addition, a doorway feature from a local demolished building, comprising two granite columns with ionic caps joined by a sandstone entablature. A new toilet block has been constructed within the grounds of the gardens.
\nQueens Park is a more open, less formally arranged space. The most apparent plantings are those forming the Camphor laurel avenue from the Botanic Gardens and aligned with the Thomas Memorial and large established trees surrounding the eastern end and northern border of the Park. Several large playing fields are dotted over the Park and these are serviced by small one storeyed facilities buildings. In the southwest corner of the park is a more formal area, known as the Vera Lacaze Gardens containing a bridge between lawned mounds and toilet block. The park is more sparsely planted at this western end, which is closer to the Toowoomba CBD.
","history":"The Queens Park and Botanic Gardens, Toowoomba was gazetted as a public reserve in 1869. It was not until the mid 1870s that the Queens Park and Botanic Gardens were established as separate, but related, entities on this land. Queens Park was intended as a place of public recreation and the Botanic Gardens as a place for botanic research.
\nUrban public parks became a popular vehicle for 19th century movements concerned with public health - the park provided a place for the outdoor recreation of those unable to afford private gardens and improved the environment of crowded central city and town areas. Botanic Gardens were started as part of an increasing interest in scientific understanding of the natural world. A botanic gardens was established in Brisbane in 1855 in response to 19th century interest in botany which saw botanic gardens established around the world, particularly in those colonized areas of the world where little formal knowledge of the interaction between geography and botany existed. An integral part of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens was a series of branch gardens in provincial areas throughout Queensland which provided botanic data across the wide spectrum of Queensland ecosystems.
\nSoon after Toowoomba was proclaimed a municipality on 19 November 1860, William Groom, an early Toowoomba mayor and later Member of Parliament, lobbied the colonial government for an area of land for public recreation. A constant theme over Groom's long political career was his interest in the development of Toowoomba as a major centre and of the associated rural interests of the surrounding fertile farming area. In 1861 land was reserved for a Toowoomba recreation park but this was not the eventual site. By September 1869 the present site was surveyed and reserved for public reserve but many years were to elapse before any further progress was made of the layout or even rudimentary planting. The land chosen for the reserve was an L shaped block bounded by streets that were to become Margaret, Lindsay, Hume, Godsall and Campbell Streets very near the centre of the growing town. Until further development of the site it was variously used to graze cattle and horses, and as a source of clay for bricks for use in government buildings. These uses left the park in poor condition with holes pitted throughout and in no way like the public parks on which it was modelled. Although initially the reserve was under the control of the Colonial Queensland Government, by the end of the 1860s the Toowoomba Council was vested with the control of all parks in the municipality. However it was not until 1892 that the Council was formally vested with the title to the land, on the condition that the whole area remain a recreation ground and be used for no other purpose.
\nThe development of the site, by now known as Queens Park began with modest efforts - in 1873 the Council was granted £200 for the development of Queens Park which was used for the construction of timber rail fencing. Fencing was a significant stage in the development of the park because it prohibited itinerant and destructive cattle and also allowed regulation of hours of opening. The Council was also concerned with the draining of swamps throughout Toowoomba including swampy land on the western side of Queens Park.
\nAlthough it was not the stated intention of the Council at the establishment of Queens Park to develop a Botanic Gardens in conjunction with the public recreation park, Groom successfully lobbied the colonial government for £500 in 1874 for this purpose. Under the direction of Brisbane Botanic Gardens curator, Walter Hill, the Brisbane Botanic Gardens was establishing branch gardens throughout Queensland. After Ipswich, the Toowoomba Botanic Gardens was the second of eight branch gardens established in Queensland during the 1870s. Very early correspondence on the establishment of the Gardens suggests that Walter Hill was instrumental in deciding on appropriate locations for these branch gardens and lobbying on behalf of the various councils to the Colonial Government for their establishment. Certainly, in making his case to the Government for funding, Walter Groom mentions that Walter Hill would 'lay out our Queens Park - and he would like a portion to be allotted to him for testing the climate of the Downs for the growth (of plants) 'of commercial value'. That part allotted to the Botanic Gardens was at the northern end of the site, in the small rectangular section forming one of the arms of the L shaped block.
\nWith the establishment of the Toowoomba Botanic Gardens, a curator, Edward Way, was appointed and the gardens were well established in late 1875. The curator was essential to the success of the Botanic Gardens as a scientific research tool - Way was responsible for liaising with Walter Hill about the layout, planting projects and overseeing the construction of appropriate structures therein. The two local newspapers reported in October and November of 1875 that the Queens Park and the Botanic Gardens had been lately improved with walks, borders, flower beds, nurseries of exotic trees, specimen grass plantings from the Acclimatization Society, and a bush house. The latter part of the 1870s saw the planting and testing of structure trees and fruit trees and in 1880 climatic experiments were carried out on the extant garden. Periodically trees were removed and replaced from the gardens to allow continual testing of various species and types, the results from these tests were published in local papers and forwarded to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, thereby contributing to a rich volume of knowledge about Queensland botany.
\nWith the Botanical Gardens well underway, it was time for the Council to concentrate on the development of Queens Park which was still pitted with holes and without vegetation. By 1881 the site was used by the Caledonian Sports Association as a sports field with the erection of a small grandstand, sports ring and running track. Many societies and clubs established sports fields on Queens Park throughout its life and to this day there are many sports fields associated with the park, particularly on that more open area at the western end. The levelling of the park in the 1930s as part of the relief scheme aided its more extensive use by sporting associations.
\nAs well as sports fields, Queens Park was the home of municipal swimming baths from 1894 until 1964. The baths were first established on the southwest corner of the park, near the corner of Margaret and Hume Streets. As much as for public recreation, the establishment of the baths located in this position seems to have been part of a strategy to drain this area of what was known as the East Swamp of Toowoomba. In 1937, with the popular national swimming movement the baths were enlarged and upgraded. The baths were removed in 1964 and replaced with the Vera Lacaze Memorial Park, an interesting example of modernist landscape architecture in Queensland.
\nThe development of the Botanic Gardens continued in the 1890s with the construction of several buildings, including a curator's cottage, kiosk, bandstand and, in 1900, a zoo on the southern boundary of the park. None of these buildings are extant. One of the more prominent avenues associated with the Park and Gardens is the Camphor laurel avenue from Margaret Street to northwards to the Gardens. Although only parts of the avenue remain within the Gardens in 2000, it remains extant within the Park. This avenue was established by 1891. At about this time, the Alfred Thomas Memorial was relocated from the corner of Ruthven and Margaret Streets, to the centre of the circular part of the avenue, just inside the northern entrance to the Gardens off Campbell Street. Alfred Thomas supervised construction of the railway from Ipswich to Toowoomba, a major engineering feat. A cannon was sited near the memorial in 1900.
\nIn the 1920s Toowoomba become known as the garden city of Queensland, in recognition of the extensive network of well established gardens which dotted the city. Of these, the Queens Park and adjacent Botanic Gardens were the premier examples. By now a large iron framed glasshouse was featured in the gardens and the paths were gravelled. However Queens Park continued to be used as a garbage disposal until 1931 and leases for grazing horses were granted until the 1920s.
\nBy the 1940s a children's playground had been erected in Queens Park, following the tradition of children's playgrounds set up around the state from the 1920s and developed to allow the proper recreation and exercise of children.
\nDevelopment during the 1950s to the 1970s saw dramatic overhaul of the existing facilities within the park and the replacement of many of the earlier buildings. An amenities block was constructed in the gardens, the municipal baths were removed and replaced with a garden and toilet facilities. One of the most prominent changes that occurred during the 1970s was the replacement of the existing fence on the Lindsay and Campbell Street sides of the Botanic Gardens with a low sandstone footwall. As well the 19th century kiosk, conservatory/greenhouse, bush-house and bandstand were removed from the park.
","criteria":"The Toowoomba Queens Park and adjacent Botanic Gardens is significant as a substantially intact 19th century public recreation reserve. The Botanic Gardens is important in demonstrating the introduction of scientific centres associated with the development of economic and ornamental botany, the knowledge of which benefited the colony.
|The Park and Garden demonstrate the principal characteristics of 19th century public parks and botanic gardens, with early planting, avenues, memorials and remnants of the early layout.
|The Park and Gardens is significant for its considerable aesthetic value as a large urban park with both formal and informal sections all planted with early and substantial trees. The Park and Gardens have individual items of particular aesthetic merit, including a Camphor laurel avenue, other avenues and individual trees.
|The place has social significance as a long used and popular reserve for public recreation and as an early example of the history of the state government vesting local authorities with the maintenance and control of public reserves.
|The park and garden feature a number of memorials and gardens, commemorating well known local citizens, these including the Thomas Memorial and Vera Lacaze memorial. The place has significance for its association with Walter Hill, on whose advice the Botanic Gardens was instigated and laid out, and who was instrumental in the development of the regional network of botanic gardens and thereby contributing to early knowledge of the intersection between botany and Queensland geography. The place has significance for its association with William Groom who as Mayor of Toowoomba for six years was closely associated with the establishment and ongoing development of Queen's Park and Gardens.
","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":16451,"place_ref":601695,"name":"Wesley Uniting Church","alternate_name":"Wesleyan Methodist Church","street_address":"54 Neil Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-05-10","description":"The Wesley Uniting Church faces Neil Street to the west, directly opposite St Stephens Uniting Church. The building is located adjoining the former Empire Theatre [600978] to the south.
The church is constructed of Flemish bond brickwork with expressed coursing and rendered stone window surrounds and buttress caps, and has a rib and pan gable roof with ventilation gablets.
The west elevation is framed by rendered turrets surmounting a buttresses at each corner, and contains a large pointed arch stained glass window consisting of three lights surmounted by a large quatrefoil. Entry porches are located on the north and south at the western end, and consist of low rib and pan gable roofs supported by short columns on large square bases, with pointed arch paired timber doors. Windows to the nave are lancet shaped, and the north and south transepts have a large intersecting tracery window surmounting a gabled pointed arch doorway which is flanked by lancet windows.
The interior of the church has rendered walls scribed to imitate ashlar stonework, and the roof construction consists of arched brace timber trusses supported by stone corbels. These trusses have original metal ties, which were incorporated to overcome the need for heavy king-posts, and diagonal timber lining boards with quatrefoil fretwork panels at the cornice line. The east wall has a pointed arch recess behind a large pipe organ, which has a curved timber screen at the front of the organist's seat, which is flanked by pointed arch doorways to the vestry. A low timber and glass narthex has been constructed under the west window between the north and south entry doors, and supports the relocated pulpit rostrum rail. The seating has been rearranged to form a semi-circle facing the south wall of the transept.
A single-storeyed face brick addition is connected to the north transept via an open walkway and adjoins a timber hall located to the northeast of the church. This structure has brick buttresses, a parapet wall concealing the roof, lancet windows with sandstone surrounds and a foundation stone dated 1961. The timber hall has a corrugated iron gable roof, weatherboard cladding, and a single-storeyed brick addition along its southern elevation.
The northern brick addition houses a kindergarten with a kitchen connected to the western end of the timber hall. The hall is entered from the southwest corner, and has a hardboard panelled ceiling with a stage at the eastern end with a stylised proscenium arch. Backstage contains storage areas, and the southern addition to the hall contains various rooms.
The Neil Street frontage has a metal fence with driveway entrances at the north and south end, and central metal gates with English bond brick gate posts with rendered details and commemorative plaques. The church grounds contain a semi-circular drive to the west front, with various commemorative plantings, and a driveway along the southern side to the rear.
","history":"The Wesley Uniting Church was constructed in 1877 to the design of Willoughby Powell. In 1901 extensions designed by William Hodgen Jnr were made to the church which completed the building's cruciform plan. The building was the second Wesleyan Methodist Church in Toowoomba and, later, the head church of the Methodist church of the Toowoomba circuit.
Settlement of what was to become the Toowoomba area commenced at Drayton, now a suburb of Toowoomba, in the early 1840s. Thomas Alford opened a general store in the area in 1843. In the same year, residents of Drayton petitioned the Governor to form a township. A survey of the town was prepared in 1849. In laying out Drayton, Government Surveyor JC Burnett was instructed to mark out "suburban allotments for Garden and Agricultural purposes". The ideal site for what was known as the "Drayton Swamp Agricultural Reserve", later to become Toowoomba, was an area approximately three to four miles northeast of Drayton where two swampy creeks joined to form the headwaters of Gowrie Creek. The Agricultural Reserve included 12 allotments bounded by the left bank of the west swamp, and the present Bridge, West and Stephen streets.
Six of the 12 "Swamp Allotments" were first offered at auction in November 1849, however some were not sold until 1853. By late 1857, the name "Toowoomba" had gradually taken over from "The Swamp", as the town continued to expand. At the time of its incorporation into a municipality in November 1860, Toowoomba had well outgrown Drayton.
According to Maurice French, Toowoomba expanded rapidly in the 1870s as a result of the Selection Act of 1868 after which provisions and services for the new selectors were required. Many public buildings were erected or updated and a railway station, the "most-imposing in Queensland" was constructed.
By the 1870s the first Wesleyan Methodist Church in Toowoomba was too small for the growing congregation which was established in the early 1860s. The first Wesleyan Methodist services were held in Toowoomba in 1858 when Rev. Samuel Wilkinson visited the Darling Downs on a preaching tour. It was not until 1863 that a permanent minister was appointed to Toowoomba. In 1865 the Ipswich Wesleyan Methodist Circuit was divided forming the Toowoomba Circuit which comprised Toowoomba, Drayton, Ware's Farm, Jondaryan and Gatton.
To service the Wesleyan Methodist congregation in Toowoomba a stone church in Neil Street was constructed in 1864-65, prior to which services were held in a large building owned by the Presbyterian Church. A foundation stone for the first Wesleyan Methodist church, designed by James Cowlishaw, was laid by Mrs Groom on 19 October 1864. The church, a rectangular planned masonry building, was opened on 2 April 1865. This building was rendered inadequate for the growing congregation and temporary use was made of the School of Arts hall, but more permanent accommodation was sought.
The 1865 church and land was sold and another block, Suburban Allotment Thirteen of Section Seven, in Neil Street near the previous site was purchased on 13 April 1876 by trustees of the church for the sum of £550. Willoughby Powell was then commissioned to design a church for the site. Powell was in Toowoomba supervising the construction of the Toowoomba Grammar School. Earlier, Powell worked for Richard Gailey before joining the Queensland Public Works Department as a draftsman in 1874, when he won a competition for the design of the Grammar School. He maintained a practice in Toowoomba from 1875-77 designing many buildings including the Jewish Synagogue and several large houses.
The foundation stone of the Neil Street Wesleyan Methodist Church was laid by the Governor on 14 August 1877. As well, several smaller memorial stones were laid by ladies of the congregation and town. The contractor for the job was R Godsall, with a Mr Hudson responsible for internal fittings. The construction cost was about £2300.
The church was constructed of face brick with rendered masonry and freestone detailing and a high pitched gabled roof clad with timber shingles. The plan of the church was rectangular with entrance provided from two porches on either side of the western gable facing Neil Street and a small vestry extending from the eastern elevation. A tall broach spire surmounted the apex of the western facade. Internally, a semi-circular preaching rostrum, defined by curved timber balustrading was centrally situated adjacent to the eastern wall of the church. Evidence of this early arrangement survives in the church today.
The church was opened on 4 August 1878 and a report in a local newspaper, The Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Advertiser, provides a description of the ceremony and the building, which is described as "domestic Gothic very freely treated". This alludes to the simple design of the building in a Gothic revival style; a style widely employed on the churches of many Christian religious denominations during the second half of the nineteenth century. Among the elements which contributed to the style and which are found on the Neil Street Wesleyan Methodist Church is the steeply pitched roof, lancet window openings, stained glass panels, broach spire and internal fittings such as carved joinery, heavy timber trusses and, when constructed, a richly painted and gilded roof lining and internal decoration.
One of the particularly noteworthy features of the 1877 building was a large stained glass filled window opening in the western wall. This tracery window comprising three foiled lancets and a quatrefoil centred above them, was fitted with stained glass panels by Ashwin and Falconer of Pitt Street, Sydney.
Ashwin and Falconer were a Sydney partnership of Frederick Ashwin and John Falconer who formed by 1877 under the name Falconer and Ashwin, reversing the order of the names only later. Falconer was one of the earliest Sydney stained glaziers establishing his business in 1863 after his arrival in Australia from Britain in 1856. He continued in practice until 1892 when Ashwin and Falconer became known as Ashwin and Co. The company produced many outstanding windows including the glazed dome in the Sydney Town Hall.
At least three known commissions were undertaken in Queensland including two figured panels at Farrington House in Alderley (since removed from this house and in an unknown private collection); panels for St James' Church of England in Toowoomba which were designed by Edmund Blacket & Son as well as the window in the Neil Street Wesley Uniting Church.
In 1882 the Neil Street Church acquired a timber school room, designed by local architect James Marks. Early photographs of this building show a timber boarded structure with simple gabled roof to the north of the church. This building was extended in 1961 when a brick envelope was added, earlier alterations to this building include the addition of a stage proscenium in the first half of this century.
During the 1880s and early 1890s in Toowoomba many of the other religious denomination built permanent masonry churches, including the Primitive Methodist Church (1881); the Presbyterian Church built opposite and facing the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Neil Street (1882); the Roman Catholic Church (1883-9); and the Lutheran Church (c1887).
The local architect, William Hodgen Jnr, was commissioned in 1901 to extend the eastern end of the church with transepts and a vestry. This was four years after the unification of the Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist Churches. Primitive Methodism was established in the town in 1877 and was run from a church in Raff Street constructed in 1881. With the amalgamation, the Neil Street Wesleyan Church became the centre of Methodism in Toowoomba and the extension of 1901 may have been prompted by this reason.
In about 1924 a masonry fence and an iron gateway and gate were erected, replacing an earlier timber paling fence, to the memory of George Pitlow Merry who died on 30 October 1924.
Architecture, Engineering and Building Journal indicates that Cook and Kerrison, architects to the Methodist church, called tenders for the additions of a wall and porch to the church, however it is thought that this work was actually to be carried out on the adjacent school hall.
In 1977 when the Uniting Church was officially formed by the amalgamation of Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, the Neil Street Wesleyan Methodist Church became a Uniting Church known as the Wesley Uniting Church. At that time the land was divested from the, then defunct, Methodist Church to become the property of the Uniting Church who retain it to this day.
","criteria":"The Wesley Uniting Church demonstrates the growth of Toowoomba during the 1870s. The Church demonstrates the spread of Wesleyan Methodism throughout Queensland
|The Church houses a rare and fine example in Queensland of the stained glass work of the prolific Sydney stained glass manufacturers, Ashwin and Falconer.
|The Church with its early Gothic inspiration, simple form and internal arrangement demonstrates the principal characteristics of a Wesleyan Methodist Church of the 1870s in regional Queensland.
|Through its form, materials and siting, the Wesley Uniting Church makes a significant aesthetic contribution to the Neil Street streetscape and Toowoomba townscape. Together with St Stephen's Uniting Church, directly opposite to the west, the church is part of an important ecclesiastic group.
|The building has been the centre of firstly, the Wesleyan Methodist, then the Methodist religion in Toowoomba since its construction in 1877. Since 1977 it has been a Uniting Church. The building has special associations for the Uniting Church.
|The Church is associated with the architect Willoughby Powell, and is one of his few Toowoomba buildings.
","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":16462,"place_ref":601710,"name":"Toowoomba Police Station Complex","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"50-52 Neil Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-10-05","description":"The Toowoomba Police Station is a complex on a large block situated between Neil and Hume Streets, Toowoomba. To the north of the complex is the Toowoomba Post Office (600847) and the former Toowoomba Court House (600848). The Wesley Uniting Church (601695) and, beyond this, the Empire Theatre (600978) are on sites to the south of the building.
The Toowoomba Police Station complex comprises four buildings: a substantial two storeyed face brick Police Station addressing Neil Street; a one storeyed face brick Radio Maintenance building on the northern boundary of the site and, to the rear of this a watch house, comprising a former residence and purpose built watch house. At the rear of the site, addressing Hume Street is a c1980 Court House. Surrounding the buildings on the site are trees and remnants of early gardens.
The principal building on the site is a two storeyed Police Station located centrally on the Neil Street boundary of the site. The symmetrically arranged building comprises a two storeyed front section with a one storeyed wing running eastward from the centre of the rear of the building. To the south of this wing in the open space between the two wings is a recent one storeyed extension. The Police Station is flanked on the Neil Street elevation by face brick fences and gate posts, sections of which have been removed. The complex hipped and gabled roof of the police station is clad with terracotta coloured ceramic tiles. Projecting through the main roof of the building are four substantial face brick chimney shafts with concrete caps and overhanging shallow gabled concrete awnings. As well, a similar chimney shaft penetrates the roof of the rear wing. Generally the building is constructed from loadbearing brickwork and has rendered concrete detailing. The facades of the building are lined on both storeys with verandah loggias formed by large round arched openings. Most of these openings, although originally open have been infilled with glazing.
The principal elevation of the Police Station, addressing Neil Street, is symmetrically composed with a central entrance bay projecting from the face of the building and projecting above the roof line, terminating in a stepped parapet with a concrete fascia. This central bay has a large round arched opening on the ground floor, providing access to a small porch housing the entrance door. The arched opening is surrounded with rusticated concrete voussoirs and has a large corbelled keystone. This concept of an oversized keystone is repeated in a more simple concrete render on the moulded archway above on the first floor. Flanking the entrance bay are loggias on both the ground and first floor. These comprise round arched openings, heavily moulded with moulded keystones on the ground floor and more simply rendered on the floor above. The openings adjacent to the entrance bay on the ground floor have not been infilled and retain a simple painted iron balustrade comprising simple balusters and a central panel of cross braced rails. Flanking this section of the building are recessed end bays which house side entrance doors under a shallow round arched vaulted awning supported on moulded corbels. These openings which are accessed via a small concrete stair with simple iron balustrade, house single six panelled doors with round arched fanlight above. Across the face of the front façade, and the other façades of the building are concrete bands, coincident with the springing point of the arched openings on the ground floor and with the base of the arched openings on the first floor.
The side ends of the building, facing north and south, have many, variously sized round arched openings lining both storeys of the building. Like the arched openings elsewhere on the building, these have concrete rendered surrounds. The rear of the two storeyed section of the building continues the theme of arched openings with concrete surrounds forming loggias, now infilled, and also the concrete banding lining the building.
Extending from the rear of the building is a one storeyed wing with gabled roof. This is constructed from brick and is lined on the northern side with a verandah. The verandah, which would originally have been repeated on the southern side of the wing prior to the construction of a one storeyed extension on that side, is housed under the main roof of the wing. Supporting the roof along the verandah are face brick columns with concrete caps each surmounted by two squat timber posts which extend upward to the eaves line. Integrated with the timber posts is a shallow arched timber valance. A timber battened balustrade lines the verandah.
The principal entrance to the Police Station which is on the Neil Street elevation, is through a double multi-paned glazed door surmounted by a segmented arctic glass fanlight and all surrounded with tinted arctic glass side lights and arch surround. From the entrance access is provided to a small entrance vestibule with a public counter faced with timber panelling and housed in the northern wall. Separating this room from the hallway beyond is a shallow arched opening, recently infilled with painted timber panelling and a security door. The archway is lined with mouldings and features a large corbelled keystone. In the spandrels of the archway on the face of the eastern wall of this room are two plaster rondels. The hallway beyond the entrance hall runs from the northern end of the building to the southern end on both floors of the building. The various areas of the building are demarcated on each of the floors with concrete archways along the length of the halls. The stair hall is centrally located to the east of the entrance hall, on the other side of the central hall and separated by a moulded bulkhead resting on corbels. The concrete stair is a three quarter turn stair with iron balustrade.
Generally the interior of the police station has painted plaster walls, concrete floors lined with carpet, linoleum, and terrazzo in various sections and a ceiling of fibrous cement sheeting housed in a heavy exposed timber frame. The offices on the ground floor are accessed from the central hall way and are generally intact with corner fireplaces of glazed face brick. Lavatories and service areas are located at each end of both floors. The upper floor originally housing a number of larger room has been more altered with recent partitioning and ceilings inserted. The loggias on both floors of the building have been integrated as office space.
A now enclosed verandah and passage lines the rear of the two storeyed section of the Police Station and separates it from the one storeyed wings. The one storeyed original central wing houses a number of small rooms and a large open room toward the eastern end. Although linked at this end to the more recent extension an internal courtyard separates this from the recent extension which houses recreational space.
To the west of the Police Station and on the northern boundary of the site is a simple rectangular planned face brick building, originally constructed as stables but now used as a Radio Maintenance Building. The two ends of the building have pyramidal roofs and a hipped roof extends between these two end bays. The roof is clad with coated metal, clip lock profile, roof sheeting. The ends of the building project from the face of the principal southern façade and the corners of these ends on this face project upward through the roof and terminate in flat parapets. Between the end bays this façade is lined with three metal roller doors with another metal roller door in a concrete extension on the eastern end of the building.
To the east of this structure is a watch house comprising an early residence adjoining a watch house. Both structures are face brick and surrounded by a high face brick fence surmounted by barbed wire security railing. The residence faces westward toward the police station and is an assymterical building with a hipped and projecting gabled roof clad with metal sheeting. The gables features three panel window openings with multi-paned casement windows under an awning supported on moulded corbels. Timber battened bargeboards infill the gables. To the rear of the former residence is a square planned face brick watch house with a number of small high level openings.
A concrete pad to the south of the watch house provides evidence of an early garage recently removed from the site. Remnants of a garden to the south of this provide evidence of another recently removed residence on the site for which this was the garden. Centrally located on the site is an early steel framed awning with pyramidal roof, protecting petrol bowsers. At the eastern end of the site is a concrete and glass Court House dating from c1980. This building faces Hume Street and is separated from buildings at the Police Station complex by a fence and a carpark.
","history":"The Toowoomba Police Station Complex is located on a large site with frontages to both Neil and Hume Streets. It addresses Neil Street and consists of four brick buildings constructed in 1935: the police station, garage, a watch house and watch house keeper's residence.
Toowoomba is the principal town on the Darling Downs which was first discovered by explorer Allan Cunningham in 1827. It was settled by New South Wales pastoralists in search of rich grazing land and by 1844 over twenty stations had been established. The site now known as Toowoomba was eventually considered to be the most suitable location for access down the range and in 1852, a town survey was secured. The establishment of the new town was strongly supported by the squatters and Toowoomba challenged Brisbane as the new capital of Queensland. Although this status was not achieved, the town rapidly developed and by the 1860s had become the centre of pastoral development on the Downs.
A police presence in the form of a lock up and barracks for constables and officers existed from the early formation of the town. The 1880s, a time of economic boom in Queensland, saw an increase in the number of grand public buildings constructed by the Department of Public Works. The construction of the Toowoomba Court House [600848] at the intersection of Margaret and Neil street in the 1876-78 and the Post Office [600847] facing Margaret Street in 1880, were followed by a substantial two-storeyed U shaped brick Police Station, incorporating barracks, lock up and lock up keeper's quarters. It was completed in 1881 on the Neil Street site. Later, two stable buildings, paddocks, a separate lock up keeper's quarters and inspector's residence were added to the site.
In 1915, a simple single-storeyed timber building with an iron roof was constructed at the rear of the main building as quarters for the Senior Sergeant. It originally had an open front verandah, a small front hall, three bedrooms, a sitting room, a dining room across the width of the house, and a kitchen and bathroom at the rear. This modest building is a typical Public Works Department design for a residence within a provincial location, and reflecting the hierarchal importance of the Senior Sergeant in relation to other police personnel. The building was removed during 1997.
In 1935, the buildings on the Police Station site were demolished with the exception of the 1915 Senior Sergeants quarters which was retained in situ, and was used as the police station during the construction of the new building. The project was part of a substantial program of public work being carried out in Toowoomba and district at that time. From January until August in 1935, £15,000 had been spent in public works wages in the area. Prominent work included the new Police Station, improvements at Willowburn Mental Hospital and construction of Toowoomba East State School. Building was not confined to Public sector construction activity. The private sector followed the government's lead, with new construction, extensive remodelling and modernisation of many of Toowoomba's commercial properties.
The new complex of Police buildings was designed by Raymond Clare Nowland, Senior Architect of the Department of Public Works. Nowland studied at Sydney Technical College and the Architectural Association in London after which he was employed by the Commonwealth Government, 1920-26. Nowland then moved to Queensland, practicing as an Architect and Town planner in Brisbane, before commencing work in the Queensland Department of Public Works in 1933 remaining there until 1938. He designed a number of buildings for the Queensland Police including Fortitude Valley Police Station and the Police Barracks in Upper Roma Street. The Toowoomba Police Station Complex was designed as an integrated range of buildings and Nowland incorporated advice from the local constabulary. Suggestions and input were considered from all levels of the service, from the night watch house constable to the Senior sergeant and District Police Inspector. A number of the original designs were amended to accommodate the very specific requirements of the local police including the garage, the watch house and the recreation area of the main Police Station.
The Police Station, a two storeyed brick building with a single storey rear section, incorporated offices for police duties on the ground floor and police barracks on the upper floor. The design allowed for the various police specialty divisions that had begun to evolve in larger urban centres. Offices were provided for the criminal investigation branch, the traffic branch, uniform inquiry men's room, constables' day room, as well as office space for senior staff. A public counter and room for police enquiries incorporated into the design, provided special space for the public to access the police and the many extraneous services located within police jurisdiction.
The single-storeyed watch house and watch house keeper's residence were constructed as separate buildings of coherent design to the main police station. The watch house consisted of cells, charge rooms, laundry, toilet and shower and had an internal exercise yard, creating a compact and spatially introspective building precluding the need for fencing. The watch house keeper's residence was a single-storeyed brick and tile building with a verandah. In 1988 the two buildings were joined and the watch house extended to accommodate more cell space. These alterations allowed the residence to be used as office space and the capacity of the watch house to be increased. A brick fence with barbed wire top was added for further security at this time.
A combination garage/stables with a tile roof was built on the northern boundary to replace the old stables. It contained a garage, stalls, fodder and harness rooms. Cecil Carroll became commissioner of the Queensland Police Force in 1934 and then embarked on the motorisation of the police force. A central motor garage, with trained motor mechanics was established in Brisbane in 1938, making the Toowoomba building an early example of the incorporation of the motor car into the operations of the police force. The original design for the stables incorporated 5 small stables. On the advice from Senior Sergeant J. A. D. Bookless, they were condensed to three 9ft boxes with open fronts that could be used for motor cars and with the introduction of a rail, converted to stable. The placement of the roller doors in this elevation, created space for the secure housing of stolen vehicles after hours. The garage/stable, incorporating both old and new modes of transportation, provides evidence of this transitional period of transport for the police force and the pragmatism that forced the design to incorporate both forms of transport at this time.
Since the inception of the Police Force in the nineteenth century, the police lived and worked within the boundary of the Police reserve. The Toowoomba Police Station Complex reflected the arrangement of the living and working conditions that still prevailed in the 1930s. The location of barracks and other quarters on the same site as the police station provided an obvious law and order presence within the Toowoomba community at all times. This arrangement provided public access to the police force both day and night. The barracks and dormitories indicate the preference for single men in the position of constable
The close proximity of the Court House is indicative of the close relationship in the dual arms of law enforcement, and facilitating transportation of prisoners between the two arenas. The various buildings represent the complexity of services and facilities provided by this station since its establishment last century.
A building of the Justice department, the Toowoomba Court House, is located at the rear of the police reserve facing Hume Street.
","criteria":"The Toowoomba Police Station Complex consists of four brick buildings constructed in 1935; the police station, garage, a watch house and former watch house keeper's residence. The impressive form of the Toowoomba Police Station Complex is indicative of the importance of Toowoomba as Queensland's second city in the urban hierarchy of the state.
|The Toowoomba Police Station Complex demonstrates the multi-functional use of the police reserve to accommodate residences, official duties, remand facilities and transport requirements. It demonstrates the development of services and technologies related to the implementation of law and order in a large regional centre. The complex is an integral part of an important justice and government administration precinct which includes the former Post Office and Court House.
|The Toowoomba Police Station Complex has aesthetic significance and is dominated by a large Police Station, designed to promote the presence of the police in Toowoomba. The other buildings, including the one storeyed Police Station extension are designed to a domestic scale and influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement. The site is a precinct of well designed and congruous brick buildings with concrete detailing. The Police Station is a particularly well composed institutional building, with fine detailing.
|The Toowoomba Police Station Complex has a special association with Architect, Raymond Clare Nowland of the Queensland Department of Public Works, as an excellent example of his work during the 1930s.
The Toowoomba Police Station Complex has a special association with Queensland police, demonstrating the evolution of work practices and the changing nature of the lifestyle specifically associated with police force employment in a major regional centre.
","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":16615,"place_ref":601878,"name":"St Lukes Anglican Church","alternate_name":"St Luke's Church of England","street_address":"Herries Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"St Luke's Anglican Church is a substantial blue stone building prominently located on the corner of Ruthven and Herries Streets Toowoomba. The building is surrounded by large established trees, including several large conifers on the Herries Streets side.
St Luke's Church is a traditional Gothic Revival church of the late 19th century, bearing such characteristic elements as an (incomplete) cruciform plan, steeply pitched gabled roof and Gothic details including pointed arched openings, sandstone buttresses lining the building and projecting above the eaves line and terminated with triangular caps. The foundations of the building and base courses are of sandstone and a projecting course of sandstone forms the junction between the sandstone and bluestone of the walls.
The roof of St Luke's is gabled over the eastern altar end of the church, western entrance end and the completed northern transept and the incomplete southern transept. The roof is clad with corrugated iron sheeting.
The western façade of the building has a centrally located 5-sided projection which is only mid height of the façade and houses internally a baptismal font. This small projection is roofed with a rolled iron pyramidal roof from a sandstone wall capping. Sandstone quoining is found on the corners of this small projection and around several small lancets on each of the faces. This sandstone quoining is repeated on the façade of the building, around the tripartite lancet windows centrally located above the baptismal projection. Flanking the projection are attached sandstone buttresses tapering toward the roof and demarcating a change in roof line which is more shallow over the internal side aisles.
The principal entrance to the building is at the western end of the northern side of the church where a large double door is recessed in a pointed arched opening surrounded by sandstone quoining and mouldings. The paneled door features large decorative wrought iron hinges. The door is accessed via a short concrete stair with sandstone balustrade. Lancet windows with sandstone quoining line the nave of the church and are separated by the sandstone buttresses. The extension site for the southern transept which is yet to be constructed is clad with corrugated iron externally. The transept is aligned with the northern transept and the gabled roof line has been constructed.
Internally the church is organized with a central aisle separating two aisles of pews. The interior is divided by internal arcades running the length of the nave and supporting the roof on the line at which its pitch changes. The arcades comprise clustered sandstone columns from which pointed archways spring. The archways are lined with clustered sandstone mouldings. The aisles outside the columns are linked at both the western, entrance end of the building and at the eastern end to the rear of the altar area with a small ambulatory.
A carved timber altar sits at the eastern end of the building. The church is washed internally with a bright blue light filtering through the stained glass window of Mary Queen of Angels, a loose copy of a Chartres window, in the eastern end. A sandstone pulpit and brass lectern sit adjacent to and in front of the choir stalls.
In the northern transept of the church is a Warriors Chapel with carved timber altar and two 'colours' (flags from battle) above the seating. The church has a numerous assortment of memorials tablets, windows, stones, honour boards and other small usually donated relics commemorating a person or event.
","history":"St Luke's Anglican Church, a substantial bluestone building at the corner of Herries and Ruthven Streets, Toowoomba was constructed in stages between 1897 and 1959 to the original design of Church of England diocesan architect, John Hingeston Buckeridge. The present church replaced an earlier timber slab building constructed in the mid 1850s.
The church of England acquired land at the corner of Herries and Ruthven Streets, Toowoomba at land sales held in Toowoomba during October 1854. At this stage of development, nearby Drayton was a larger settlement than Toowoomba which had been surveyed in 1849. It was in Drayton that the first resident Church of England minister settled in 1850. Reverend Benjamin Glennie followed early settlers to the fertile Darling Downs region where small settlements had commenced in the late 1840s. As a result of Glennie's foresight, the land in what was to become Toowoomba was acquired by the church for their first parish church in the area.
Soon after land acquisition a building fund was established and by 1857 a small timber slab building was constructed for use as a church and school. By the late 1860s, Toowoomba became the centre of the Darling Downs and the Church of England acquired another central site for the construction of a brick church known as St James' on the corner of Mort and Russell Streets, Toowoomba. Services moved from the primitive St Luke's Church to the permanent new church. School facilities remained at the slab building. There was much debate at the time about shifting the parish from the original St Luke's site and it is thought to have proceeded at the behest of influential members of the parish, who were keen to have the church closer to the residential area around the Mort Estate. Despite the removal of the parish to the site of St James, the debate continued for many years until 1891 when the Toowoomba parish was divided into northern and southern regions, with Margaret Street forming the intervening line. In the early 1880s services had resumed in the original St Luke's and small extensions were made to the building. With the formation of their own parish, renewed efforts were made into the construction of a major new church on the St Luke's church site.
In 1892 the Diocesan architect, John Hingestone Buckeridge was commissioned to design a new masonry church. Tenders were called in mid 1894, seeking separate prices for stone, brick and stone and brick versions of the design. The church committee agreed on a stone building and to afford this planned to stage the construction. In November 1894 the tender of J Renwick, a local contractor, was accepted for the first stage of the works for a sum of £3575. On 13 March 1895, Lady Norman laid the foundation stone of the new building.
John Hingeston Buckeridge, the architect of the building, designed many of the Church of England's buildings following his arrival in Brisbane as church architect in 1887. Prior to his arrival, Buckeridge was articled to leading English ecclesiastical architect John Loughborough Pearson from whom Buckeridge developed skills in the design of gothic revival buildings. Buckeridge designed many fine Queensland churches including Christ Church, Milton; and the Christ Church of England, Bundaberg.
St Luke's was designed as a traditional Gothic revival church, with cruciform plan (nave and transepts forming a cross shaped plan); steeply pitched roof; lancet windows and pointed arched openings; stained glass windows and a decorated interior. As well a large bell tower with steepled roof dominated the entrance corner of the building. Elegant sketches of the original design show a French gothic inspired building, with round tower projections and curved apse and chapel ends. The first stage of the building included five bays of the nave, and a small polygonal baptistery projecting from the western end of the building.
The parish have continued the completion of the unfinished building in several major building phases. In 1907 an organ from Norman and Beard of Norwich, England was installed at the eastern end of the church. In 1947 the parish installed a William Bustard designed and RS Exton and Co manufactured stained glass window at the eastern end of the northern aisle in memory of the Griffith's family. This brilliant blue window was a copy of one of the windows from Chartes Cathedral and depicts a seated and enthroned Blessed Virgin holding the Divine Son. This window was later moved to the altar area when the next stage of the construction works were completed.
In 1945 the parish agreed to complete the eastern end of the building as a war memorial and the foundation stone of these extensions was laid in 1947. A new design was commissioned from Charles Beresford Marks, which had included the northern transept and chancel. The extensions were built in stages and completed in 1959 and dedicated by Archbishop Halse. At this time foundations were laid for the southern transept and this area is yet to be completed. In the 1960s the organ was relocated in an organ loft near the altar. In 1990 the interior of the church was re-plastered.
","criteria":"St Luke's Anglican Church is of architectural and aesthetic significance as a prominent and well designed Toowoomba building and one of the major Queensland works of prominent 19th century ecclesiastical architect, John Hingeston Buckeridge.
|The building is an unusual example of a bluestone church in Queensland.
|The Griffith's memorial window has particular aesthetic value as a fine example of the work of William Bustard, a noted Brisbane stained glazier and artist. The trees surrounding the building contribute to the aesthetic value of the place.
|The church has social and spiritual value as a place of public worship for many years and for the large number of memorials, including an impressive War Memorial Chapel, and donated fixtures which reflect the importance of the church to the families and people forming the parish of St Lukes.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 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":16652,"place_ref":601916,"name":"Pittsworth Shire Council Chambers and Shire Hall (former)","alternate_name":"Pittsworth Kindergarten","street_address":"Short Street","suburb":"PITTSWORTH","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-05-28","description":"The former Pittsworth Shire Hall and Shire Offices, located in Short Street, is a single storey L-shaped brick building with a corrugated iron roof. The front entrance is centrally located under a projecting portico with gabled roof sheeted with corrugated iron. The portico has moulded timber posts. Decorated leadlight windows are located high in the eastern facade. The concrete gabled parapet, which forms part of the eastern facade includes the words 'Pittsworth Shire Hall' and, underneath, '1913'. A staircase is positioned on the southern side of the entrance portico. A verandah, with timber posts, is located facing east on the southern side of the building. The verandah has timber balustrades which are a later addition.
The building is constructed of predominantly orange face brickwork, however two bands of decorative blue brick are located in sections along all elevations. On the rear (western) elevation, besides having two decorative bands of blue brick, there are several bands (about ten) of the same blue brick at the top of the facade.
Internally the building has a large open space with high timber ceiling with a pressed metal ceiling rose. The original strong room, located in the north-western corner, is concrete lined and continues to the ceiling, a timber door above the strong room opens to storage space. Two small rooms are located on the southern side of the buildings, one room contains a kitchenette and the other houses office equipment. A timber extension clad with galvanised iron has been constructed along part of the western facade.
Externally, the area to the north of the building contains play equipment and seating areas. A timber shed is located in the north-western corner of the block. A timber framed toilet with corrugated iron roof is located near the north-west corner of the building. A number of trees and plantings surround the block.
","history":"Located in Short Street, the former Pittsworth Shire Council Chambers and Shire Hall building, constructed in 1914, was designed by WP Copp and built by John Fortune.
Most of the present Shire of Pittsworth originally formed part of the Beauaraba Pastoral Run. The Beauaraba Run was taken up by Charles Mallard in 1847. The station gave the town its name 'Beauaraba'. The Agricultural Selection Acts of 1868-1876 opened up the area to grain-growers and mixed farmers. In 1876 J Tyson Doneley, nephew of the Felton squatter, built the Beauaraba Hotel to serve the pastoral employees of the surrounding freehold estates and it was at this time that the town began to grow. After the railway from Toowoomba arrived in 1887, the town made rapid progress. Within three years, three more hotels, four stores, two butchers, a bank, two churches and two blacksmiths had been established. Coaches stopped at Pittsworth on the way through to Domville (Millmerran), Bark Creek and Leyburn. Wool from the south-western Downs stations was also carted to the railhead at Pittsworth. In 1886 the name changed to Pittsworth, a name which was suggested by Thomas Macdonald-Paterson, Post-Master General, in honour of his father-in-law, WC Pitts.
A Reserve for Divisional Board Offices in the town of Beauaraba (Pittsworth) was created on 16 August 1890 and advertised in the Government Gazette on 23 August 1890. The Reserve was placed under the control of the Pittsworth Shire Council on 7 March 1918.
Following closer settlement and the establishment of the Divisional Boards Act of 1879 a number of Divisional Boards were created. The Pittsworth area was originally part of the Jondaryan Shire, however, following representations to the Department of Local Government, a ballot was held, with the result that Pittsworth was proclaimed a local authority. Pittsworth Shire Council was established in 1913 and the first meeting of the new Council was held on 9 July 1913. The first Chairman was Mr WP Copp. Councillors were AC Krieg, DV Hannay, C McIntyre, J Holmes, JN Ronnfeldt, JT Stirling, WJ Crawford and W Sullivan.
At the Council meeting of 3 December 1913, Cr Krieg gave notice of motion that he intended to move at the next meeting that the matter of building a Shire Hall be considered. At the meeting of 18 February 1914 it was moved that plans and specifications be obtained both for a wood and brick building, to be ready for to be ready for next meeting. At the meeting of 25 March 1914, WP Copp, submitted his design for the proposed Shire Hall.
William Perham Copp was born in the Logan River district, Queensland in 1868 and settled in the Pittsworth area in 1887. Copp was working as a builder and contractor by 1892, later expanding his activities to include cabinet-making. From 1915 he practised as an architect in Pittsworth. Copp was a member for the local Shire Councils from c1898 until his death in 1919. Following his death, in Toowoomba on 24 February 1919, he was described in the Queenslander as 'one of Pittsworth's best known residents'.
Five tenders for the Shire Hall were received by the Council. John Fortune, listed in the Queensland Post Office Directories in 1914-15 as a 'Contractor', was successful in his tender for a brick building at a cost of £766-5-0. Council moved that as rent from its allotment became payable, it was to be banked in a separate account and be reserved as a building fund.
Besides its use as the meeting place for the Shire Council, over many years, the building was the venue for a number of functions including balls, lectures and meetings. For many years, it was one of only a handful of brick buildings in the town. Following a disastrous fire in the main street of Pittsworth in 1923 an area was proclaimed in Yandilla Street whereby plans for all proposed buildings had to be submitted to Council for approval. As a result, a number of brick buildings were constructed in Pittsworth following the fire.
In the 1950s the use of the building for social occasions began to decline, leaving only the monthly shire council meetings. One of the last functions held in the hall was a Naturalisation Ceremony held on 26 September 1955. The new civic centre was built in Yandilla Street and opened in August 1956. The civic centre included new council chambers and a new town hall and were built on land donated by the local Returned Services League.
Externally, the building has undergone few changes over the past 85 years. Small changes have included closing over the open south side of the verandah. Also, to the verandah, timber balusters have been added to the rails. The rails form part of the original design of the building. An extension, housing toilet facilities, was added to the western part of the building by the Kindergarten Association.
The building served the Pittsworth Shire Council for over 40 years. The property description was changed to Lot 10 on P21017 on 18 October 1956 and the building was leased to the Pittsworth Kindergarten Association. The Association continues to lease the building from the Shire Council.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1914, the former Pittsworth Shire Council Chambers and Shire Hall building, one of the most significant buildings in Pittsworth, is important for its association with the establishment of the Pittsworth Shire Council in 1913. The construction of a substantial brick building demonstrates the high level of confidence the members of the Council held for the future of their new Shire.
|The former Pittsworth Shire Council Chambers and Shire Hall is significant as one of the few brick buildings constructed in Pittsworth prior to the fire of 1923 which destroyed many timber buildings resulting in a predominance of brick ones being constructed.
|The former Pittsworth Shire Council Chambers and Shire Hall building is significant for its contribution to the Short Street streetscape. The building remains highly intact externally, with only minor changes over the last 85 years.
|(Criterion under review)
|The former Pittsworth Shire Council Chambers and Shire Hall building is significant for its association with WP Copp, Chairman of the first Shire Council and prominent figure in the area. Copp worked as an architect in Pittsworth from 1915-19 and designed the building for the Shire Council.
","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":16886,"place_ref":601882,"name":"Pechey Forestry Arboretum","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"New England Highway","suburb":"PECHEY","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-07-23","description":"The 4.5 hectare Arboretum is located on the New England Highway south east of Perseverance Dam Road within the Pechey State Forest, Number 909. The Arboretum lines the highway for approximately 300 metres and the site has a depth of 150 metres. The Arboretum is approximately 500 metres from the entrance to the Perseverance Dam Road and is bounded by forestry roads which serve as firebreaks.
The Pechey Forestry Arboretum is a plot of heavily treed land which retains seven of the original twenty-four species planted in the late 1920s. The overall condition of the place is reasonable although infested with weeds.
","history":"In 1910 the then Under Secretary of the Department of Public Lands in which Forestry was a sub-department, wrote that the needs of Queensland pine timber would have to be met by exotic varieties secured by importation in a manufactured state or from local plantations on land incapable of producing indigenous varieties.
Arboreta are plots of land where different varieties of trees and plants are planted by government or research bodies to determine suitability of plantings in particular climate, soil type and topography conditions.
As an example of the scientific research into the viable varieties of exotic plantings the Pechey Forestry Arboretum was established. The initial areas of the Pechey State Forest were purchased from the estate of EW Pechey by the Forestry Department in 1926. Under the guidance of Elton Sharman, establishment of plantation areas was commenced in 1927. The land was to supply miscellaneous hardwood, case timbers and future plantation softwood for the Darling Downs market.
A nursery was established on the site in 1927. As one of the many trial plantings throughout Queensland to determine the potential for a broad range of species for timber plantation purposes within State Forests, the Pechey Arboretum an area of 4.5 hectares was established in 1928.
","criteria":"The Forestry industry has played an important role in the economic, social and historical development of Queensland. The Pechey Forestry Arboretum demonstrates the phase from the 1920s when plots were planted for scientific and research purposes to develop and encourage diversity within the Forestry industry.
|The Arboretum has the potential to yield further information about the establishment of arboreta, a field of significant research to the agricultural development of Queensland, about which little research has been done.
|The Arboretum has scientific significance and demonstrates the principle characteristics of scientific plots, in particular, it represents the optimum development of plots which were planted in the 1920s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":19523,"place_ref":602403,"name":"Crows Nest Post Office","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"19 Curnow Street","suburb":"CROWS NEST","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-06-27","description":"The Crows Nest Post Office is a single storey timber building set on low stumps and is located prominently on the corner of Curnow Street and Toowoomba Road. It is the type identified as T18 by the National Estate Study of Historic Post Offices in Queensland, being an intact single porch and gable post office with frontages to both streets.
The post office has a gabled roof clad in corrugated iron with a decorative lantern on the roof ridge. The northern elevation has a projecting gable with an adjoining porch, over which the main roof is extended and is supported by paired timber posts. The main entrance is through the porch and is reached by stairs with timber handrails. There is a bank of triple sash windows in the gable and a sun hood shades these. Banks of windows are on either side of the building, those on the western side also shaded by a hood.
The interior of the building is lined with painted tongue and groove boards and has a high ceiling. Changes, such as a more modern counter, appear to be minor.
To the rear of the post office is the residence. This is a high set timber building with a hipped roof clad in corrugated iron. The elevation facing the street has pairs of casement windows above a low timber wall that appears to be an early adaptation of a verandah. The main entrance is currently on the eastern side of the building, which has windows of a form similar to those on the post office.
","history":"Crows Nest Post office was constructed in 1911 and is the second purpose built post office in the town, which is the centre of a rural area whose industry is based on cattle and sheep and increasingly, on tourism.
In 1843 Campbell McDonald of Durandan run took out a depasturing licence for the Crows Nest area and in 1849 James Canning Pearce took up the first pastoral license. His head station comprised huts, yards and a large fenced paddock. The run passed through a number of owners before being acquired by WB Tooth in 1858. In 1868, under the Crown Lands Alienation Act, Tooth gained a lease for half of the run, the rest being resumed by the Crown and opened up for closer settlement.
The Crow's Nest station was unsuccessful and was abandoned; the lease was forfeited for non-payment of rent and the land opened for selection in 1875. Two timber reserves of 960 acres and 5665 acres were declared and in 1876 reserves for a township and cemetery were made. Settlement at Crows Nest was begun in the vicinity of the station homestead, which is thought to have been near the present police station. The town was surveyed in February 1877 and the first land sale was held in April of that year. A hotel was erected soon afterwards and a Court of Petty Sessions was instituted with J T Littleton, a local landholder, as Police Magistrate. A telegraph office was opened on 17 October 1877 and in 1878 a post office was opened in the same modestly scaled premises, which were situated in Albert Street.
In 1886 a branch railway line from Toowoomba reached Crows Nest, its purpose being to principally to provide transport for timber from the Crows Nest and Pechey area, but also to encourage the development of farming and dairying along its route. Becoming the railhead for such a line made Crows Nest an important commercial centre but the railway initially caused some problems because the line passed the settlement at a point north of the town centre. As a consequence the business centre shifted closer to the railway station, a large paddock in the vicinity having been purchased and subdivided for sale by the time of the station's opening. The post office moved to the railway station in December 1886 and for some time the Station Master performed postal duties, a common arrangement in small centres where the railway station was the focus of communications and movement of goods.
The area thrived and the township developed quickly in the early 1900s. In 1905 two banks opened branches in Crows Nest and a newspaper, the 'Crow's Nest Record' was established. A butter and bacon factory was built and there were several sawmills in the area, including a large planing factory built in 1907. In 1906, Percy Gargett, a newsagent, won the contract to conduct postal, telegraph and telephone services at Crows Nest and had a building constructed in Curnow Street next to McDiarmid's store.
Although in 1901 the Commonwealth Post Master General's Dept was created, transfer of responsibility from the colonies to new organizations was gradual. The Commonwealth administration upgraded buildings and facilities in towns associated with agricultural and pastoral expansion, such as Crows Nest. New post offices were built in some towns and others had facilities upgraded. In 1911, an official post office, the current building, was constructed at the corner of Curnow and Toowoomba Road, conveniently close to the railway station.
The new post office was built to a standard type designed by the Queensland Works Department. A timber building with a single porch and gable and a lantern surmounting the roof, it was a variation of the form that became one of the most readily identifiable post office styles. Post office buildings constructed in Queensland between 1906 and 1921 achieved a high standard of design and construction and architecturally, the porch and gable type is significant for the quality of construction and detail, for the resolution of climatic considerations, and for the visual appeal of its form. While the buildings referred to a standard type, designs for individual post offices were modified to suit each site and local needs. 13 post offices of this type were constructed between 1909 and 1913, mainly to serve small towns in South East Queensland. Not all of these survive and some are no longer post offices.
Crows Nest thrived and by 1921 had a population of over a 1000, close to the present population level. The railway closed in 1961 and the track, buildings and yards were removed, the land being used for other purposes, including a park.
The Post Office is still in use for its original function, though it is now privately owned. It has changed little since first constructed.
","criteria":"Crows Nest Post Office is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland history, being a facility erected during the period before the First World War when the new Commonwealth government made a policy of upgrading postal services to developing agricultural and pastoral communities. It reflects the growth of Crows Nest and its importance as a railhead and commercial centre for the surrounding district in the early years of the 20th century.
|Crows Nest Post Office is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of a timber porch and gable post office building of the period 1906-1921, designed by the Queensland Works Department, which was instrumental in improving the quality of building design and construction in Queensland.
|Crows Nest Post Office has aesthetic significance as a well-designed and distinctive public building. Its position with elevations to both Curnow Street, and Toowoomba Road makes it prominent in the townscape of Crows Nest to which it makes an important visual contribution.
|Crows Nest Post Office has had a long connection with the people of Crows Nest and the surrounding district as a provider of communication services that have been conducted from this building since 1911 until the present time.
","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":19927,"place_ref":602768,"name":"Toowoomba Trades Hall","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"19A Russell Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2010-10-29","description":"The Toowoomba Trades Hall is a two storey rectangular masonry building finished with face brick with rendered details, and sited prominently on the north side of Russell Street between Neil and Ruthven Streets.
Its principal (Russell Street) elevation is a symmetrical tripartite composition of dark red face brickwork dressed with contrasting painted cement Classical details. The central main entry is articulated with rendered architraves and flanking rusticated pilasters that extend the full height of the building to meet the parapet. The entry double door leaves have been replaced with modern glazed aluminium framed leaves. Above the main entry, a cantilevered concrete balcony with large decorative console brackets and a wrought iron balustrade doubles as an entry awning. Above the balcony, a glazed arch-headed aperture with rendered architrave extends to the underside of a rendered frieze below the parapet. Its detailed glazing pattern includes multi-paned margins (some panes fitted with coloured leadlights), three sashes and a door leaf (opening off the stair half landing within). The outer sections of the façade beyond the rusticated pilasters mirror each other. At ground level, walls are rendered and include a centrally placed single door and fanlight flanked by double hung sash windows. Above, smaller highlights align with the top of a heavy masonry transom. Physical evidence including decorative suspension rod brackets and cover flashings confirms the location of proposed awnings abutting these transoms. Window and fanlight sashes are original, but the door openings have been fitted with modern aluminium framed glazed leaves. Cantilevered balconies at first floor level are decorated to match the central balcony. Above the balconies, walls are finished in face brick with a rendered frieze decorated with widely spaced rosettes. French doors with fanlights are centrally placed and flanked by double hung sashes. Door leaves and upper sashes are multi paned. The elevation is crowned by a stepped rendered parapet decorated with cornices, consoles, and a central pediment.
Side elevations finished in face brickwork terminate as parapets to conceal the corrugated iron gabled roof and box gutters behind. The right hand (east) wall has original window openings at first floor level.
The rear elevation facing Olcott Lane is also finished with face brickwork and terminates at roof level as a gable end. A projecting face brick rear wing contains the ground level kitchen, and two upper floors housing male and female lavatories. A timber staircase with corrugated iron skillion roof and partially enclosed with corrugated metal sheeting connects landings at doorways to the hall, supper room, lavatories.
The main entrance from Russell Street leads directly into an entrance lobby. The original elevated timber floor has been altered to accommodate ramped access from street level. Flanking original walls are rendered masonry. At the far end, original opposing door openings fitted with original joinery (including three panelled door leaves with original hardware) lead to the adjacent tenancies fronting Russell Street. The right hand (east) wall is also fitted with an original multi-paned high light fixed window. The ceiling is lined with decoratively arranged fibre cement sheets and cover battens. The original staircase joinery survives intact. The lower flight rises from the far right to a half landing over the front door, and a second flight rises beyond (parallel to Russell Street) to the floor above. A small ticket office to the right is built into the stair under-croft. The adjacent tenancies contain original plain quad skirtings, rendered masonry walls, and fibre cement and batten ceilings. The ceiling panel pattern in the right hand tenancy provides evidence of an original partition wall, since removed. Later doorways have been cut through to spaces behind.
Beyond the entrance lobby, the original fit out has been substantially altered, and evidence of the original configurations of walls and partitions are preserved in the intact fibre cement sheet and battened ceiling linings and remnants of original timber framed fibre cement panelled walls. A central corridor is flanked by plasterboard walls with Silky Oak doors and fixed glazing, all dating from the early 1990s and located in the original wall alignment (underneath and between boxed in steel beams and columns). Office spaces either side of the corridor are separated by similar early 1990s partitions, but do not follow the set out of original meeting rooms evident in the ceiling.
The supper room at the rear of the building has also been reconfigured to provide extra office space to the right. The original staircase abutting the rear wall provides access to original high level double doors leading directly to the rear landing, stairs, lavatories and hall above. The masonry wall that originally separated the kitchen at the rear of the building has been substantially removed. The kitchen fit out dates from the 1990s. The former ground floor landing at the rear of the building has been enclosed and fitted out as an equitable access lavatory which opens to a small lobby below the stairs. There is clear evidence of an original doorway that lead from the kitchen to the former rear landing. The supper room contains large timber tables that predate the building.
The upper floor hall has been subdivided with timber framed plasterboard lined partitions to provide a smaller hall, a lounge adjacent to Russell Street, and a series of offices. The floor is clad with original narrow hardwood tongue and groove boards, exposed in the reduced hall area. Outer masonry walls are rendered. The ceiling has been recently lined with plasterboard. Original roof structure knee braces extending below the existing ceiling have been boxed in. Window and door openings and joinery at the front and rear of the building are original. Original window openings along the right hand side stripped of original joinery and in filled with rendered masonry and glass block work. The reduced hall area has been recently been fitted with an imitation VJ wainscot panelling. At the rear of the hall, the floor provides archaeology of earlier larger stage configurations. The existing stage is also a bulkhead providing headroom over the supper room staircase below. To the left of the stage is a semi-enclosed space fitted out as a kitchen c1990. The hall contains a number of timber tables that predate the building, and an early notice board containing Unions and Secretaries¿ Addresses. At the western end of the front lounge, a wall-mounted timber Honour Board lists past and present presidents, secretaries and trustees of the Toowoomba Trades Hall Board.
","history":"The Toowoomba Trades Hall in Russell Street was built in 1934 by Kell and Rigby to the design of architect MC Williamson, for the Toowoomba Trades Hall Board, a group associated with the Toowoomba Trades and Labour Council.
As collectives agitating for improved working conditions, trade unions have been present in Queensland's economic landscape since its early beginnings as a colony. By the mid 1860s, small groups of skilled workers such as bricklayers, carpenters and stonemasons had organized into unions in Brisbane. When Queensland's economy and immigrant population expanded during the 1880s, trade unionism and labour activism became more widespread, encompassing a broader cross-section of workers, including those employed in pastoral and extractive industries throughout the colony. Over time, union activity and membership has experienced marked periods of growth and decline, affected by prevailing economic, social and political factors.
Like other Queensland cities with significant industrial components to their economy, Toowoomba became a regional centre for union activity. From the 1860s notable events connected to the labour movement were occurring in Toowoomba. In November 1865 about 200 navvies on the Main Range railway working ten hour days for 7s 6d went on strike and marched into Toowoomba, to agitate for eight shillings for an eight hour day. Early in 1866 Toowoomba's carpenters celebrated the commencement of the 'eight hour system' for their trade. Although short-lived, it was at a meeting of 200 shearers in Toowoomba in March 1875 that the Queensland Shearers Union was formed, 12 years before another shearer's union was established. During the shearers strike of 1891, ten prisoners convicted of rioting at Lorne Station (some local), were railed to Toowoomba for trial, enroute to Brisbane. A large group of union supporters assembled inside and outside the Court House, cheering on the prisoners. Troops were assembled and the local magistrate read the Riot Act, before the situation was defused by allowing large numbers of unionists to attend the trial.
In the early 20th century, smaller scale manufacturing connected to pastoral, extractive, primary processing and public utilities were the dominant industrial activities on the Darling Downs, employing a workforce of some 6000 people. As its major urban settlement, Toowoomba had the largest industrial base of the Darling Downs, with a range of enterprises including engineering, coach and wagon works, joineries and furniture makers, tanneries, maltings and breweries. In the 1920s Toowoomba's biggest employers were the larger scale industrial operations of the Toowoomba Foundry, the Defiance Flour Mill, and the Darling Downs Co-operative Dairy and Bacon Factories. Queensland Railways were also a significant employer, as it was the hub of the South-western rail network.
Queensland's first Trades and Labour Council was established in Brisbane in 1885, superseded by the Brisbane District Council of the Australasian Labour Federation (ALF) in 1889. Until its demise in 1914, the ALF operated during a period in which some of Australia's most tumultuous workers' conflicts had occurred, including the maritime workers' and shearers' strikes of the 1890s. The 1910s saw the emergence of the rurally-oriented Australian Workers Union (AWU), which became Queensland's most dominant union organization and rival to other large union bodies. By 1922 a range of these such as the Brisbane Industrial Council, Trades Hall Board and Eight Hours Union had negotiated to form the Queensland Trades and Labour Council (QTLC). Within its structure affiliated provincial councils existed throughout Queensland.
From the mid-1910s, the union movement in Queensland entered into a pronounced period of expansion. In 1915 the TJ Ryan Labor government came to power, heralding the beginning of a long period of political dominance by this party, interrupted for only three years (1929-32) until 1957. The introduction of the Industrial Arbitration Act in 1916, created a system of arbitration and compulsory conciliation. The improved outcomes for workers that resulted from this system and preference for unionists informed a rapid increase in union membership from 35.3% in 1915 to 53.8% in 1918. By 1928 two thirds of Queensland workers held a union ticket. During the tenure of the Country and Progressive National Party government led by AE Moore (1929-32), union preference was eliminated, basic wages were reduced and some award protections were dismantled; and union membership fell from 68% to 45.4%. After Labor resumed power in 1932 and reintroduced earlier benefits, membership quickly recovered to 62.6% of the workforce in 1936, before peaking in 1948 at 81.1%. By 1935 Queensland also boasted more women unionists (57.1%) compared to the overall Australian average (35%). Between the 1920s and 1960s union membership in Queensland generally remained higher than the rest of Australia.
A meeting of delegates from various labour organizations met in Toowoomba in April 1911, forming an Eight Hour Anniversary Union to organize the city's first annual Eight Hour Day celebrations in May. Butchers, shearers, council workers, builder's labourers, plumbers and tinsmiths, shop assistants, saddle and harness makers, and coal miners were among those who participated in the procession, which was followed by sports events and a 'social' later in the evening. By early November it was reported that a Toowoomba Trades and Labour Council (TLC) had been established, deciding as one of their early actions to agitate for a universal Saturday half-holiday.
As the peak organization of union bodies in Toowoomba, the Trades and Labour Council (TLC) played a central role as the major advocate for the labour movement and workers rights on the Darling Downs. In this respect, it was similar to other provincial Trades and Labour Councils that existed throughout Queensland. Organizations affiliated with the Trades and Labour Councils varied in size and power and encompassed moderate to militant groups. The organization of Labour Day events in Toowoomba was an important annual activity with a range of events such as marches, football matches and dances being co-ordinated by the Council.
One of the key outcomes of the formation of Trades and Labour Councils and other larger union bodies was the establishment of trades halls, where unions and others involved in the labour movement could centrally gather for organizational activities, and to host educational and social events.
Queensland's first trades hall was established in Brisbane in 1891. While some were established in existing buildings, as occurred at Rockhampton (1914) and Townsville, others were purpose-built including those at Ipswich (1929), Brisbane (1891;1923) and Toowoomba (1934). By the 1930s fourteen regional Trades and Labour Council buildings existed in the state. Trades halls generally accommodated a large hall space and a collection of smaller rooms used for meetings and offices.
In Toowoomba, land was purchased in Bowen Street in 1916 with the intention of erecting a trades hall, but financial difficulties prevented this from occurring and the property was sold. In 1919 the Toowoomba Trades Hall Board purchased the Congregational Church in Margaret Street. A foundation stone was laid in February 1920 by Toowoomba MLA FT Brennan (Labor member) to mark the church's new use as Toowoomba's Trades Hall. By 1929 the building was deemed unsuitable for Trades Hall purposes and the property was sold. In the same year, the Trustees of the Board acquired property (subdivision 35 and resubdivision 1 of subdivision 36 of suburban allotment 11, section 6) at the east end of Russell St for £1600. Title records show that this property was previously leased by a succession of publicans who operated the Western Hotel on the nearby corner of Russell and Ruthven St, though what buildings, if any, existed, or what purpose the site served is unclear.
When the Russell St property was purchased in 1929, the intention of the Trades Hall Board was to erect a two-storey building with shop space on the street. It was not until early 1933 when the financial position of the Trades Hall Board improved, that efforts to construct the new hall moved forward. The board initially engaged architect Arthur Bligh to prepare a design for the building, but following its rejection by the Toowoomba Council during 1933, it were not proceeded with. In October 1933, the Trades Hall Board appointed Matthew C Williamson as architect. Born in 1901 in Toowoomba, Williamson was an articled pupil with FR Hall in Brisbane (1923-29) before being employed as his assistant in 1929-30. Williamson worked for himself in Toowoomba from 1931, and was responsible for numerous projects in the city during the 1930s, as well as buildings in Dalby (including its Fire Station), Miles, Crows Nest and Oakey.
The following month plans prepared by Williamson in consultation with the Board were adopted and the architect was instructed to call tenders. Contractor's conditions included preference to local men supplied through the Bureau of Industry who were financial union members; awards and conditions be strictly observed by the contractor and, where practicable, local material be used. Following approval for a loan of £2100, Kell and Rigby's tender of £3948 for the new hall was accepted in February 1934. A Sydney firm, Kell and Rigby established offices in Brisbane and Toowoomba in the early 1930s. Notable work undertaken included Toowoomba's Empire Theatre (1933) [QHR 600978], and the Masel residence at Stanthorpe (1937-38) [QHR 601552].
Shortly after the tender was accepted, the particulars of the new trades hall were outlined in the Toowoomba Chronicle. The hall was to be a two storey brick building with the front elevation dressed with cement. On either side of the central main entrance two 'rusticated piers' extending the height of the building supported a pediment. On either side of these, were spaces for tenants with provision for future shop fronts. The remainder of the ground floor contained committee rooms, supper room, kitchenette and a store room. Inside the main entrance a staircase led upstairs to the large hall space containing a specially treated dance floor of tallow wood with a platform, cloak rooms, ticket box and fire escape stairs. To improve ventilation, balconettes opened out from the hall on the building front of Russell Street. The report also outlined that the secretary of the board had devised a scheme where a voluntary levy on employed unionists of 1 pence per week would help to offset the cost of the hall.
A ceremony to mark the laying of the foundation stone of the hall occurred on March 23 (the date of 21 March inscribed on the stone is incorrect). Local Labor MLA EJ Llewelyn performed the honours, remarking that the building would be, '...a decided acquisition to the city... a memorial of working class ideals-of union activities... [and] would demonstrate that the workers of the city recognised their obligation to one another, and that they would stand shoulder to shoulder, one for all and all for one.' In conjunction with the opening, a fete was held to raise funds for the hall. By this time the building was estimated to cost £4200 with half this amount 'in hand' and the remainder sourced from the loan. Each Board member paid four shillings to have their name included on the stone, prepared by Toowoomba stonemasons Zeigler and Sons.
The Toowoomba Trades Hall was officially opened by Mr J Watson, president of the Trades Hall Board on Saturday 14 July 1934. A number of Labor parliamentarians and union delegates spoke at the ceremony highlighting the development and achievements of the labour and trade union movement in Toowoomba and beyond. For WJ Copley, Member for Bulimba, the completion of the hall 'marked another epoch in the Labour movement in Queensland', contending there was not a better trades hall outside of Australia's capital cities. As part of the opening celebrations a 'smoke concert' was held in the hall during the evening. A grand opening ball occurred in the hall the following week (17 July), the first of many dances held throughout 1934/35, as a way of raising funds to pay off the hall debts.
The Trades Hall Board formed a Rents Committee to manage the use of the hall, supper room and meeting rooms. The Toowoomba branch of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners may have been the first union to gather in the new hall, holding their regular meeting the night before the official opening. In 1934 the Board allowed unemployed workers to use rooms free of charge, on the condition 'that no Communist agitation be carried on' and that any Board member could attend a meeting. The 1930s rental ledger of the trades hall records a diverse range of unions and Labor party organizations regularly using the rooms and hall for meetings and functions. In 1950 the State Labour in Politics Convention was held in the hall.
In facilitating the gathering of various union bodies at small and large meetings, the trades hall was an important place to discuss, debate, form positions and decide on actions related to workplace issues and industrial disputes of local, state and national importance.
Tenants listed at the address of the trades hall in 1939 included the Toowoomba Ruling Company (printers), boot repairer J Manson and two taxi hire companies. During 1942 the trades hall was among a number of Toowoomba buildings that were occupied for military purposes, with tenants and other users required to relocate elsewhere following its occupation as the Headquarters Office for the No. 3 Advance Ordinance Depot of the Australian Military Forces. At this time, the Toowoomba Ruling Company occupied two rooms, the Trades and Labour Council, Toowoomba and East Toowoomba ALP branches and nine individual unions were regularly using spaces in the building, and other unions were renting on a casual basis.
In addition to its primary function of providing a central gathering place for union-related activity, the building was an important social space for numerous Toowoomba civic groups that rented rooms and the hall. From ballerinas to boxers, the Buffalo Lodge to municipal bands, a diverse range of organizations made use of the building, although local 'rock and rollers' were no longer allowed to hold dances following damage to the hall in 1959.
Since its opening in 1934, the Trades Hall Board has been responsible for the management and maintenance of the building. Over its history the board has been served by dedicated (and often longstanding) members who are commemorated by an honour board and photos in the lounge area upstairs. The board has included union delegates who went on to play larger roles in the civic affairs of Toowoomba and Queensland, most notably JE (Jack) Duggan, Secretary of the Trades Hall Board and President of TLC who was a longstanding local Labor member for Toowoomba, Minister for Transport (1947-57) and Leader of the Opposition (1958-1966). In December 1958 Duggan (then State Opposition Leader) unveiled a plaque right of the main entrance of the trades hall, to honour EH (Ted) Burrows' service to the trade union movement. Ted Burrows was a member of the Trades Hall Board for 25 years and secretary for 14 years. At the same ceremony a photo of LA (Leslie) Wood was hung in the hall. He was the former ALP Member for Toowoomba, Leader of the Opposition prior to Duggan, and had died suddenly in March 1958.
Over time, some alterations have occurred to the building. In 1954 the Board sought an overdraft for the purpose of installing a new floor in the dance hall. Further extensive work on the hall was undertaken during 1959/60, with much of it being undertaken on a voluntary basis by workers from the Carpenters Union and board members.
The Trades Hall commemorated 50 years of use in 1984 with celebrations held in December of that year. Past and present board members and delegates attended including Jack Duggan, who by this time was the only surviving original board member.
To meet the requirements of tenants, the Toowoomba Community Legal Service, and to expand the availability of office space, some internal spaces of the trades hall were reorganized and altered in 1994. On the ground floor, some office spaces were extended and linked to adjoining rooms by partitions and doorways. The fronts of the offices flanking the corridor were replaced, with an earlier arrangement of silky oak panelling topped by glass windows reversed, and a door way into the supper room was removed. On the first floor, the western side of the hall was filled with a line of offices and a kitchen recess, an earlier stage was replaced and an office space was incorporated into the east side of the hall. The ceiling was also repanelled during these alterations. Despite these changes, the earlier internal configuration of the building remains discernible and an understanding of how the trades hall has functioned over its history is readily apparent.
In 2010 the Trades Hall continues to function as a meeting place for Toowoomba's unionists. The building is believed to be the oldest surviving purpose-built trades hall in Queensland in continuous use. Earlier examples from the first half of the 20th century that existed elsewhere in the state have been demolished (including those in Brisbane, Ipswich, and Rockhampton) or are used for other purposes (Townsville).
","criteria":"The Toowoomba Trades Hall is of aesthetic significance for the valuable and prominent contribution it makes - through scale, form, materials and design - to the distinctive visual character of the city's central business district. The building is an assertive expression of trade unionism's consolidation and presence in Toowoomba, reinforced by its use of classical detailing on its facade to project the concepts of permanence and stability. The use of classical architectural elements in the façades of institutional buildings, town halls, banks and commercial buildings was popular in the 1920s and 1930s and has made a noticeable contribution to Queensland's built environment.
|The Toowoomba Trades Hall is important as Queensland's oldest surviving purpose-built trades hall, having sustained its original use since opening. Trades halls were established or built in large urban settlements throughout Queensland during the twentieth century. Since this time many earlier trades halls have been demolished or are no longer used for this purpose.
|The Toowoomba Trades Hall is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a purpose-built trades hall. Highly intact externally, the building's scale and classical detailing successfully lend it civic prominence. Internally the provision of offices, meeting rooms, hall and associated spaces illustrates its primary function as a central gathering place associated with union-related activity. While some spaces have been altered over time to sustain the building's ongoing use, important evidence of earlier internal configurations remain.
|The Toowoomba Trades Hall is important in demonstrating the development of trade unionism, a movement that has made an influential contribution to the development of Queensland. The building demonstrates the growth of the labour movement and organization of workers in Toowoomba during the 20th century and illustrates the city's longstanding historical role as the industrial centre of the Darling Downs. The building has been a central gathering place for unions and the labour movement since its opening in 1934.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion E | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | 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 in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":22212,"place_ref":602594,"name":"Muntapa Tunnel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Narko-Nutgrove Road","suburb":"COOYAR","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-05-03","description":"The Muntapa Tunnel is a former railway tunnel set in isolated bushland about 40km north of Oakey. The tunnel is located in a deep cutting along which the former railway line from Oakey to Cooyar ran.
The tunnel is semi-elliptical in cross-section. It is around 280m in length running from north east to south west. A section of cliff around each entrance is faced with a concrete wall which is topped with a shallow projecting ledge. The year '1912' had been embossed above the entrance at the south western end. However this has heavily worn so that only '912' remains visible. A steel gate of about 2m in height encloses the north eastern entrance.
The interior of the tunnel is formed from concrete. Away from the entrance, this has become blackened. The floor is sandy, except towards the middle of the tunnel where the base becomes coarse gravel.
The entrances to the tunnel are approached at both ends via a cutting. At the north eastern end, the cutting extends about 38m from the entrance. At the south western end, it curves towards the south and extends about 150m. The floor of each cutting is level and about 5m wide. A 22m long concrete wall extends along the eastern side of the cutting beginning about 31m from the south western entrance.
The tunnel penetrates the ridge which forms the summit of the Great Dividing Range. The terrain is rocky and sparsely vegetated, comprising open eucalypt woodland.
","history":"The Muntapa Tunnel is a concrete railway tunnel located on the route of the former branch line from Oakey to Cooyar in the eastern Darling Downs. The tunnel is one of a small number built on a branch line and it is the only tunnel in Queensland that crosses between the inland and coastal sides of the Great Dividing Range. It was opened in 1913.
Branch lines were secondary railway lines designed to connect rural districts with the main rail routes. They were constructed with the aim of supporting small-scale agriculturalists, dairy farmers and the timber industry. Branch lines were generally of cheaper construction than main lines, more frequent stops were provided and they were often built on road easements to reduce the costs stemming from land resumptions. The first branch line, opened on 12 July 1882, ran from Ipswich to Harrisville. The advent of better roads and faster road transport from the interwar period, eventually led to their demise.
The area between Oakey and Cooyar was populated by small-scale farmers, many of whom were of German origin. The lack of a viable transport route to market hindered the profitability of these small farms. Bullock transport was uneconomic and slow. When arguing the case for a branch line to Cooyar, the Commissioner for Railways, J. Thallon, noted that farms needed to be within 10 to 12 miles (16 to 19km) of a railway line to be viable.
Construction of a branch line to Cooyar had been advocated for some years. As well as improving the viability of farms and stimulating closer settlement along the route, the line would provide Toowoomba and the Darling Downs with access to much needed timber reserves at Blackbutt and Nanango. Of secondary consideration was a proposal to eventually extend the line to connect with Nanango and ultimately Central Queensland.
The line was approved by parliament in 1909 and construction began in September 1910. The principal work on the railway was the over 250m long tunnel at Muntapa. This remains the only tunnel in Queensland that passes beneath the summit of the Great Dividing Range. There are nine tunnels where the main western line from Ipswich climbs the Range en route to Toowoomba, but none of these pass underneath the summit. Tunnelling was a more economic alternative than routing the line around the summit.
The tunnel interior is formed from concrete and it has concrete portals. Concrete was first used in 1880 for the Cherry Gully Tunnel on the Warwick to Stanthorpe line. It was found to be more economical than brick or masonry.
The railway to Cooyar was one of seven branches of the Western Line that was built by day labour. Day labour construction of railways had been introduced by the conservative government in 1901. The practise continued until the mid-1920s. To carry out this work, Queensland Rail maintained a construction branch with engineers and plant and employed construction workers on a temporary basis.
Initially, the revenue raised on the branch exceeded working expenses. Transport of timber peaked in 1915 and from that year coal also began to be railed from the area of Acland. However, from 1916, the branch struggled to remain profitable due to under-utilisation and from 1926, road transport began to seriously affect the profitability of branch lines. This decline was offset, for a time, by cost-cutting measures and the introduction of rail motors. Petrol rationing forced greater use of the rail network by the public during World War II and this improved profitability while rationing remained in place. However, the cost of recovering from neglected maintenance during the War added to the ever-increasing use of motor vehicles accelerated the closure of branch lines after the War.
On 1 May 1964, the line beyond Acland was closed. The Acland to Oakey section was kept open to support the operation of the coalmines at Acland. The mines' principal customer was Queensland Rail. In the late 1960s, when Queensland Rail completed the conversion of their locomotive fleet to diesel all but one of these mines closed. On 8 December 1969, the Oakey to Acland section was also closed.
The tunnel is now contains the winter roosting site of up to 8 000 Bent-wing Bats: Miniopterus Schreibersii. A picnic table and walking track circuit starting from the picnic area passes through the tunnel.
","criteria":"Muntapa Tunnel is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history insofar that it constitutes physical evidence of a Queensland Government policy to construct branch lines as a means of developing rural districts. The tunnel was the most substantial work on a branch line that ran from Oakey to Cooyar. The railway was built to Cooyar in ca1913 to support the development of small-scale agriculture in the area and to provide Toowoomba and the Darling Downs with access to timber reserves at Blackbutt and Nanango. Hence, it is also evidence of the development of closer settlement in the eastern Darling Downs in the early 20th Century.
|The tunnel has a regular elliptical cross-section and it displays pleasing qualities of symmetry. It evokes surprise due to its unexpected location in remote bushland with no other visible railway infrastructure nearby. This response to the tunnel is heightened by its position, hidden within a deep cutting. It is only visible from within the cutting or close to its edge. The place also conveys a sense of the isolation experienced by the tunnel's builders.
|The tunnel is important as a highly intact example of a concrete railway tunnel. Concrete was first used in 1880 for the Cherry Gully Tunnel on the Warwick to Stanthorpe line. The Muntapa Tunnel has concrete portals and a semi-elliptical cross-section formed completely with concrete.
|Muntapa Tunnel is the only tunnel in Queensland that crosses the summit of the Great Dividing Range. Nine tunnels exist on the section of the main western line from Ipswich that ascends the Range en route to Toowoomba but none of these passes underneath the summit. The decision was made to tunnel under the summit at Muntapa because it was a more economic alternative than routing the line around it.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion D | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":22214,"place_ref":602596,"name":"The Downs Co-operative Dairy Association Limited Factory (former)","alternate_name":"Dairy Farmers Factory","street_address":"57 Brook Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-04-18","description":"The Downs Co-Operative Dairy Association Ltd Factory is a complex of brick, concrete and metal buildings and other structures dating from 1929 through to the 1990s, located on a long, narrow, 1.4 hectare site squeezed between the western rail line and Brook Street, Toowoomba. The brick and concrete buildings on the site have been modified over time and internally retain much original fabric.
Structures of heritage significance on the site include:
Administration building (c1930 and extended at a later date)
The administration building is situated at the northern end of the site adjacent to Brook Street. It is a single-storey, face-brick building with rendered lintels above the double hung sash windows facing Brook Street. There is an extension to the building along the western side. The roofs of both the main structure and the extension are clad with corrugated iron. The front of the main building has the company name and date of establishment in relief on a rendered section of wall directly above the entrance.
The interior of the building contains a standard office layout with offices for the senior staff, a boardroom, a clerks' room, filing rooms, toilets and a tearoom. Most of the interior fittings are early and in situ, except for a large wall cabinet that was moved in early 2008 from the boardroom to the Darling Downs Dairy Museum. Early fixtures and fittings in this building include Art Deco-style counters, two built-in safes and a skylight.
Laboratory [Science Building] (1936)
The laboratory is situated adjacent to the administration building, facing Brook Street. It is a single-storey, face-brick building with rendered window lintels and sills and a terracotta tiled hipped roof. It has double hung sash windows, the upper sashes being multi-paned. On the Brook Street side of the building is a square section of rendered wall with the raised lettering: The Downs Co-Operative Dairy Association Ltd Science Building.
The interior of the building is divided into five small rooms that retain many early fittings and fixtures, including fume cupboards, lab benches, sinks and other equipment. Early wall vents are in place. Ceilings are of fibrous plaster or cement sheeting with timber cover strips.
Engine and Refrigeration Building (c1930s)
Situated close to Brook Street, immediately east of the Butter Factory, is a two-storey, face-brick building with gabled roof and decorative parapet to Brook Street, which functioned as the Engine and Refrigeration Building.
Internally this building is partitioned into three sections: engine room; refrigeration room; and switching room. The engine room retains a large amount of equipment. The refrigeration room has two early ammonia compressors manufactured by O'Connell and Kerr of Melbourne, one modern refrigeration compressor, and the footings for two other modern compressors since removed. The switching room has modern banks of electrical equipment and older controls for the refrigeration plant although the older distribution panels have been removed. Tracks for a wall-mounted gantry crane remain in place along the eastern wall.
Butter Factory (1929)
Located immediately behind the engine room is the Butter Factory building, which includes a store and boiler room. The building is a three-storey, rectangular face-brick building. In the centre of the parapets along the eastern and western elevations is a large rendered section of wall with the name of the company and date established in lettering across the top. On the exterior of the factory is a plaque erected at the time of extensive renovations to the interior in 1985-1986.
The building, which was used principally for the production of butter, cream and cottage cheese, has a concrete floor and minimal internal partition walls. The butter maker and butter packaging equipment have been removed but the pipes and most of the cream vats for the butter maker remain in situ. The cottage cheese manufacturing plant is still in place located on a mezzanine. The former dry room, now used for storage, is located beneath this mezzanine. More modern cheese making equipment remains in place. Two large cream vats have been removed. The building also contains a store and a small production office.
A boiler house is located at the southern end of the Butter factory. This housed two steam boilers initially, but one has been removed. Footings for the removed boiler and chimneys indicate their former locations.
Milk and Cheese Factory (late 1930s-early 1940s)
This structure comprises three connected and adjoining three-storey, face-brick, buildings located in the centre of the complex facing Brook Street, that formerly were used for bulk milk processing (pasteurising) and cheese manufacture. This structure provides an imposing street frontage for the entire factory complex. Each of the buildings is square in plan. The centre building has 'Unity' in raised lettering in the centre top of the front elevation. The southern-most building is lower than the centre building and has the raised lettering 'Unity - Pasteurised Milk' along the top of the front elevation.
The building contains an evaporator room, store rooms, cheese manufacturing rooms, cheese drying rooms, a cheese elevator, pasteurisation room and a bottle room. Almost all the fixtures and fittings in this building were installed in the 1990s. However, the early Gouda and Edam cheese drying room located at the top of the building remains mostly intact, along with a timber cheese elevator for transporting the cheeses up and down and an early and highly decorative cast iron spiral staircase used to access this room from the pasteurisation room below.
Other structures
Other post-1940s buildings and structures occur across the site, including offices, silos, loading bays, storerooms and power infrastructure. Many date from the 1970s and 1980s. These are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
Externally, all the brick and concrete buildings from the 1920s to the 1940s are bound together with metal pipes, cable train, air conditioner ducting and other services that have been introduced into the different buildings. These services are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The former Downs Co-operative Dairy Association Limited Factory, located on Brook Street, Toowoomba, is associated closely with the development of the Queensland dairy industry and with the emergence of the Darling Downs as a principal dairy producing region during the early to mid-twentieth century. The original butter factory, made of timber, was constructed in 1905. This was rebuilt in 1929 in brick and concrete, and extended at a later date. As the importance of dairying to Queensland expanded during the 1930s and 1940s, additional structures were erected on the site, including an administration building (early 1930s), laboratory (1936), an engine and refrigeration building (c.1930s), generator, sub-station, and boiler room (all c.1930s), and a milk and cheese processing factory (late 1930s-early 1940s). Further additions, extensions and renovations were undertaken post-1940s.
By the 1890s the Queensland government had identified the expansion of agriculture, especially dairying, as a key means of encouraging closer settlement and boosting the Queensland economy. The expansion of dairying as a commercial activity was made possible by a number of advances in technology in the late nineteenth century, including the availability of refrigerated shipping in Queensland from 1883; the introduction of mechanical cream separators to Queensland in the late 1880s (invented in Europe in 1878; and the development of the Babcock butterfat test. Government intervention to encourage commercial dairying took a variety of forms. In the late 1880s and early 1890s the Queensland Department of Agriculture established Travelling Dairies that toured Queensland via the railway network, demonstrating and promoting techniques and equipment to potential dairy farmers and butter and cheese producers. Government grading of butter was introduced, and a series of Meat and Dairy Produce Acts between 1893 and 1904 facilitated the establishment of co-operative butter and cheese factories. Between 1894 and 1919 land repurchased from pastoralists under the provisions of the 1894 Agricultural Lands Purchase Act was resurveyed as agricultural selections, and closer settlement legislation between 1906 and 1917 assisted in the creation of small agricultural service towns. Heavy government expenditure on railway construction in the first two decades of the twentieth century was a significant catalyst for the expansion of dairying, extending the Queensland railway network from 3,500 kilometres in 1890 to 6,300 kilometres by 1910 and to 9,300 kilometres by 1920. Between 1910 and 1920, most new railway construction was of branch lines for agriculture.
Between the 1910s and the 1960s, dairying made a significant contribution to the Queensland economy, not only with the direct sales of dairy products both domestically and internationally, but also because dairying encouraged closer settlement of the land and wide-scale crop production. During the economic depression of the 1930s dairying was the most widespread agricultural activity in Queensland, which became known as the 'dairy state'. Regular cream cheques kept many rural families on the land during these years. Between 1936 and 1941, dairying was Queensland's second most profitable export industry.
The co-operative movement, in which producers held shares in enterprises that processed and sold their product, evolved in Switzerland during the 1880s, and was transferred from Victoria to Queensland by dairy immigrants during the 1890s and the first decade of the twentieth century. In 1901 an initial attempt to form a Downs Dairy Co-operative was made by a handful of dairymen meeting at Wellcamp, but faltered due to lack of financial support. The proposal was resurrected in April 1904 at a meeting at Westbrook, at which it was resolved to establish a centrally located butter factory adjacent to the railway at or near Toowoomba. The committee formed to deliver the proposal determined in May 1904 that the company be formed solely of farmers or dairymen; that only new equipment be installed at the factory; and that the position of manager of the factory be advertised nationally. A prospectus offering shares at £1 each was adopted by June 1904 and received significant local support, on the strength of which a site adjoining the Southern and Western Railway at Brook Street in Toowoomba was acquired and tenders called for the construction of a butter factory. Construction commenced in 1905 and the single-storey timber structure incorporating both butter factory and refrigeration room was opened by Hon. James Tolmie in November 1905, although manufacturing had commenced in the previous month.
The co-operative adopted the brand name 'Unity' with an accompanying trade mark symbol: a bundle of sticks denoting collective strength. The factory was financial from the start, with turnover during the first year of £61,299. The Co-operative's success encouraged the formation of other dairy co-operatives and the consolidation of dairying as a principal economic activity on the Darling Downs. Following the opening of the Co-operative's Toowoomba factory in 1905 the Darling Downs dairy herd quadrupled in size from just over 20,000 head to almost 90,000, and grew to just under 220,000 by 1945. By the 1950s the Darling Downs produced over 25 pre cent of Queensland's dairy output.
The Downs Co-operative Dairy Association soon expanded, constructing or purchasing branch butter factories at Miles (1911), Clifton (1912), Dalby (1915) and Crows Nest (1918). World War I (1914-1918) stimulated cheese manufacturing in Queensland, prompting the Co-operative to establish or acquire branch cheese factories at Hodgson Vale (1915), Jondaryan (1919), Gowrie Junction (1920), Bouda (1926), Lilyvale (1926) and Wyreema (1927). However, the Toowoomba factory remained the Co-operative's flagship facility and administrative headquarters throughout the twentieth century.
In the late 1920s/early 1930s the Co-operative's success enabled it to re-build a number of its timber butter factories in concrete and brick - Dalby (1927), Toowoomba (1929), Clifton (1933) and Goombungee (1934) - but during the economic downturn of the early 1930s closed a number of its cheese factories.
In the reconstruction of the Toowoomba factory the wooden buildings were removed section by section and replaced insitu by new concrete and brick structures.
To maintain the prestige and reputation of the Unity brand of products through quality control of all aspects of butter and later milk and cheese production, a laboratory (Science Building) was constructed at the Toowoomba factory in 1936. In 1938 the Co-operative gained exclusive right to the distribution of pasteurised milk in Toowoomba, and new facilities were constructed at the Toowoomba factory to handle milk pasteurising and bottling. In 1939 the Co-operative centralised its entire milk supply at Toowoomba, enabling more efficient cheese production, leading to unprecedented growth in the region and to further extensions to the Toowoomba factory, completed in 1940.
World War II (1939-1945) placed tremendous demands on Australian primary production and with the arrival of thousands of American troops in south-east Queensland the Darling Downs experienced marked growth in butter and cheese production and in demand for whole pasteurised milk. Milk production levels were sustained in the post-war years, with milk from the Toowoomba factory transported by rail as far west as Quilpie and Cunnamulla while new bulk road transports supplied the Brisbane market. The Co-operative continued to expand and in 1953 a new plant for the concentration and drying of milk products was opened.
The Downs Co-operative Dairy Association benefited from its close association with two prominent figures in the Australian dairy industry during the first half of the twentieth century: James Purcell and James Henry Cecil Roberts. Through these men the Co-operative influenced dairying policy at state and national levels.
Purcell was a leading figure in the Australian dairy industry, serving as chairman of the Commonwealth Dairy Produce Equalization Committee between 1934 and 1950. In 1904 he helped to form the Downs Co-operative Dairy Company (later Association) and remained a director until 1932. He was chairman of the Association in 1912-1917, 1918-1919 and 1920-1932. Purcell played a major role in the formulation of state, federal and empire/commonwealth dairying policies throughout the first half of the twentieth century.
Roberts was a director of the Downs Co-operative Dairy Association between 1932 and 1942 and chairman of directors for four years. He was prominent in Queensland's political and economic history, being an important anti-labor figure. He founded the Darling Downs Farmers Union in 1911 and was one of the founders of the Queensland Country Party in 1936.
In the 1960s the Co-operative moved from butter-based production to cheese and milk-based products, including subsidiary products such as yoghurt and calf food, in anticipation of the loss of its principal overseas market when Britain would eventually join the European common market (1973). The loss of the British market forced a rationalisation of the Queensland dairying industry, reducing the dairy herd and large areas of the Downs being converted from dairying to grain-growing. While the industry contracted and the smaller factories closed, the Downs Co-operative Dairy Association factory in Toowoomba remained viable and in 1985 a new milk powder factory was constructed on the site. Deregulation of the Queensland dairy industry between 1998 and 2003 ultimately resulted in a 2005 decision by the Co-operative to rationalise production, which effectively ended the future of the Toowoomba factory, which closed in 2006.
","criteria":"The Downs Co-operative Dairy Association Limited Factory (former) is significant in demonstrating an important aspect of the pattern of Queensland's history and is an example of a place which has made a strong contribution to the evolution of Queensland's society and environment.
The Downs Co-operative Dairy Association Limited Factory (former) demonstrates aspects of regional and economic development including the opening-up of land to closer settlement of the Darling Downs from 1900, the establishment of industry along rail networks, the rise of the dairy industry in southeast Queensland and its eventual decline in the late twentieth century. The site is able to demonstrate these significant aspects of Queensland's history through its location, fabric and scale.
The dairy industry made a strong contribution to Queensland's regional and economic development. The Downs Co-operative Dairy Association Limited Factory (former) has historic significance due to its association with the dairy industry of the Darling Downs from 1905 to 2006. The industry had a significant impact on people's lives in the region through the work of the Darling Downs Dairy Co-operative, through the co-operative's direct connections with the region's farmer suppliers and through the manufacture of products and brands important in people's daily lives (including cream and milk deliveries, school milk programs and the Unity brand).
|The Downs Co-operative Dairy Association Limited Factory (former) is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a dairy processing site. The Downs Co-operative Dairy Association Limited Factory (former) comprises a complex of buildings erected in several stages from 1929 to the 1990s to process dairy products. This collection of buildings and equipment is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of dairy processing typical of dairy factories established from the early 1900s including its location adjacent to a railway line; and structures associated with the expansion of the 1930s and 1940s, a growing focus on road transport from 1940 and that reflect the continuing adaptation to new technology throughout the twentieth century.
The fabric of the Downs Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd Factory (former) clearly demonstrates the interconnected processes of milk, cheese and butter production in one complex and is evidence of changes that occurred in these processes for technological, economic or social reasons, throughout much of the twentieth century.
|The Downs Co-operative Dairy Association Ltd Factory (former) has a special association with the work of the Downs Co-operative Dairy Association. The co-operative was one of the largest in Queensland and particularly productive, producing 25% of the state's overall dairy output by 1950. Through directors such as James Roberts and James Purcell, the co-operative's influence on the development of state and federal dairy production policies contributed to the success of dairying in Queensland during the twentieth century. While the co-operative operated many cheese and butter factories in the Darling Downs, the Toowoomba site was its headquarters, its largest factory and the site most closely associated with its operations. The Downs Co-operative had strong ties to the farming community, supporting farmers and encouraging the development of farming practices. The Downs Co-operative had a wide public profile through its key operations including milk distribution and high brand recognition through their Unity products.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a 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":22219,"place_ref":602599,"name":"Acland No. 2 Colliery (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"2 Francis Street","suburb":"ACLAND","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-06-29","description":"The former Acland No.2 Colliery comprises virtually all of the structures and machinery associated with the mine when it was operational. Structures include the mine portals, tramway, pithead, coal handling and processing plant and most of the ancillary buildings.
The pithead structures are located close to eastern side of the main road from Acland and the other structures extend to the north and the east of the pithead. The original mine portal (number 2 portal) is located east of the pithead and the number three portal is located about sixty metres to the north.
Tramway
The underground workings of the mine were accessed by two portals, which remain extant on the site. These portals have been filled in. The tramline formations and rails connect the underground workings to the pithead and also run to the workshop. Switchgear associated with the tramway remains intact.
Metal tramway wagons, called skips, were used to carry the coal. These remain extant on the site and are currently located in the pithead structure. The skips comprise a simple metal bin mounted on tram wheels. The skips were hauled along the tramway by a cable and pulley system, which is extant except for the cable. Underground, away from the main haul road, diesel locomotives were used to haul the skips. These locomotives are extant at the mine also.
The winch house associated with the cable system is extant on the site just to the north of the pithead. This structure is a brown, chamfer board hut with a corrugated iron roof. The hut contains a large electric motor connected to a belt driven pulley system. The pulleys drive a large metal winding drum. A small section of cable remains connected to the drum. A number of operational signs remain extant on the walls of the hut together with chalked notes dating from the early 1980s.
Pithead, loading gantry and picking belt
The pithead, loading gantry and picking belt form a large, multi-level timber and corrugated iron structure that dominates the site. The structure contains most of the coal handling machinery. The tramway travels up an embankment and enters a large opening to the south of the structure, the railway siding passes underneath the western end and the loading gantry and picking belt project from the northern side. The floor of the pithead is wooden. Short wooden slats are fastened to the floor between the rails and on the northern side to provide purchase for feet when pushing the skips into position.
On entering the pithead, one of the tramlines crosses a weighbridge. A metal weighing mechanism is located on the northern side of the tracks. A curved, white graduated scale on top of the mechanism faces the track. A wooden podium stands just to the west of this mechanism. The top of the podium is flat and sloped to support an open book.
After crossing the weighbridge, the tramlines enter two tipplers. The tipplers comprise a section of track located between two metal hoops. The whole assembly pivots so when a skip is parked in the tippler, it can be tipped onto its side so the contents can be emptied. The first tippler empties via the space formerly occupied by the screening plant onto the picking belt. The second tippler, located at the western end of the pithead empties via a hopper into a wagon parked on the railway siding.
The picking belt consists of a long conveyor belt. A raised deck runs the length of the southern side of the belt. Workers stood on this deck when sorting rocks from the coal. The gear mechanism and electric motor is located at the northern end of the belt. An electric control panel for the belt is located next to the deck opposite the belt. A second belt is located underneath the picking belt. This conveys the coal back towards the pithead.
From the picking belt, the coal is carried to an elevator. The elevator consists of a chain loop to which is attached a series of metal buckets. The coal falls into the buckets and is conveyed via the chain to the top of the loading gantry. From here, the coal spills into the hopper that feeds the rail wagons parked on the siding.
Ancillary buildings
Workshops
The workshops are located to the northeast of the pithead. They comprise two gabled sheds attached to each other. A tramline runs into the western side of the mechanical workshop. This is a brown, corrugated iron building. Two large hinged doors, clad in corrugated iron, provide rail access through the western side. A wooden door opens to the south of this. A second wooden door opens on the opposite side. The building has no windows.
A smaller weatherboard shed is attached to the north side of the mechanical workshop. This is the electrical workshop. A small weatherboard alcove projects from the northern side of the building. Sash windows open into the northern and southern sides of the building. A small two-paned window opens into the alcove. The building has no external doors.
Bob's hut
A gabled, single roomed hut, clad in corrugated iron and unsealed, is located to the northeast of number three portal. This hut was formerly a miner's residence. The wooden floor of the hut is fixed to bearers that sit directly on the ground. A door opening is located on the southern side of the hut and a window opening on the eastern side. A corrugated iron car port is attached to the eastern side and a stove alcove extends from the southern end next to the door.
Mine Manager's Office
The former mine manager's office is to the east of the workshop. It is a brown, wooden, weatherboard hut with a gabled, corrugated iron roof. It is elevated on short stumps. A verandah extends the full length of the western side. The verandah does not have a balustrade. Access is via a short staircase. A panelled wooden door opens into the centre of this elevation. Two sashed windows open either side of the door. The opposite (eastern) side of the house has a similar arrangement of door and windows. A ramp provides access to the door on this side. A steel carport of recent construction projects the full length of the eastern side. A water tank is located at each end of the former office.
Recent shed
Just to the north of the former office is a corrugated iron shed of recent construction. It has a gabled roof and roller doors. A large flat roofed, open sided shed is attached to the side.
Bathroom
The former bathroom, now a residence, is east of the pithead. This is a long weatherboard building with a gabled, corrugated iron roof. Short gabled projections extend from the eastern and western elevations about half way along the building. Aluminium sliding windows open into the sides of the building and an aluminium sliding door provides access into the northern end. A hinged door opens into the eastern side, just to the south of the gabled projection.
Crib hut and lamp room
The former crib hut and lamp room is a small, white weatherboard hut with a gabled corrugated iron roof. The hut is elevated on short stumps. A wooden door provides access into the eastern end. Casement windows open into the sides. The interior of the hut contains three battery chargers used to recharge batteries used in the miners' lamps. One of these chargers still holds miners' lamps. A selection of equipment and clothing used in the mine is also contained in this building.
Machinery displays
A simple corrugated iron shelter of recent construction is located just to the west of the workshops. This covers two Jenbach, diesel locomotives. An enclosure near the number three portal contains a mechanical loader and a mechanical coal cutter.
Coal Loader
Ventilation shafts and explosives store
At the northernmost end of the site, there is a metal and concrete structure. This is the remains of the fan house that is located over a ventilation shaft into the number three mine. A similar structure is extant at the easternmost extent of the site. This marks the location of the ventilation shaft for the number two mine. A small explosives hut is located at the northeastern extremity of the site.
","history":"The Former Acland No 2 Colliery is a small underground coalmine close to Oakey on the Darling Downs. It comprises most of the above ground structures associated with the mine together with associated machinery, filled in mine portals and spoil heap.
Coal was one of the first minerals in Queensland to be commercially mined. However, development of the coal mining industry was slow. Until the 1950s, coal was produced to supply the local market only: steamships at first; followed by steam locomotives later in the 19th century.
A symbiotic relationship existed between Queensland Government Railways and the coal industry. Queensland Railways was the coal industry's largest customer since coal supplies were essential to the functioning of the rail network. At the same time rail transport was essential to the viability of coalmines: a mine could not survive commercially unless it was directly linked to the rail network. In Queensland, development of the coal industry was closely linked to the growth of the rail network.
From the late 1950s, the industry experienced major change owing to the conversion from steam locomotives to diesel locomotives by Queensland Rail, the rapid growth of the export market and the development of large-scale open cut mining. By the end of the 20th century, Queensland was the nation's largest coal producer and over 90% of the state's coalmines were open cut.
Coal exploration in the eastern Darling Downs was initially stimulated by demand for coal at the locomotive depot in Chinchilla. After a branch line opened between Oakey and Cooyar in c1913, mining commenced in the Acland region in the vicinity of the railway line. The first coalmines in the district included Sugarloaf Colliery, Kingsthorpe Mine, Balgowan Colliery, Willaroo Mine and the Acland Coal Company Limited Mine. The Acland No 2 Colliery opened in 1929.
Initially at Acland, coal mining utilised manual methods. Coal was excavated from the mine face and loaded into 'skips' using hand implements. The skips were moved manually along an underground tramline to the main underground haul road. Here, they were attached to a steam operated cable and pulley system that hauled them to the pithead.
When the skips arrived at the pithead they passed over a weighbridge. Until the 1950s, the miners' pay was based on the weight of coal that they produced. They used a tag system to identify their skips. The weighbridge and tally desk used for determining the weight of coal each miner excavated survive extant at Acland.
The introduction of electricity in the Oakey area in the late 1940s stimulated increased mechanisation of the area's coalmines. Conversion to more mechanised methods at Acland commenced in the early 1950s.
In 1951, the gauge of the underground tram rail was increased and the underground tunnels were widened to permit the access of small diesel locomotives. Two Jenbach 15 locomotives were introduced in 1952 together with larger steel skips. Mechanical tipplers (still extant) were installed at the pithead to handle the new steel skips. The tippler was a device for emptying the coal from the skips into the coal processing plant.
In 1953, a new screening plant was installed. Contamination of Acland coal with foreign material had been a source of concern to the mine's customers. The new plant ensured the production of cleaner, graded coal. The screen has now been removed from the mine site.
The new plant also included two elevators of steel construction and a 30 feet by 4 feet picking belt. The picking belt was used to facilitate the removal, by hand, of rock from the coal. Oversized pieces of coal could also be manually crushed with hammers. Elsewhere, skip haulage and hand-picking became obsolete but at Acland these methods continued to be used until the mine's closure. The elevators were used to convey the processed coal to the top of the hoppers for loading into train wagons. The picking belt and elevators survive intact at the mine.
The screening plant was driven by seven new electric motors. An electrical switchboard and switching equipment was installed to provide power to the motors.
The haulage system was converted from steam to electricity in 1954 with the installation of a 90 horsepower electric motor winch. The existing steam plant continued to be used for back-up. The steam plant has been removed but the winch room containing the electric winch and associated machinery remains intact.
Further improvements were made between 1955 and the end of the decade. These included installation of a surge bin with a conveyor feed chain under one of the tipplers and a new blacksmith's shop. The gantry was redecked and its roof was raised.
In 1955 and 1956, a new Jenbach diesel locomotive, a Sampson coal cutter and a Sampson coal loader were introduced. By 1958, the mine had a facility for servicing machinery underground. A Minesmobile Loader was purchased in 1973.
Two Jenbach locomotives and a Sampson coal loader displayed at the site were used in the mine. A coal cutter on the site was assembled from spare parts from elsewhere.
From the late 1950s, the small coal mines in the Acland area began to fall victim to the major changes taking place in the coal industry. The demand for coal to supply Queensland Rail, traditionally a major customer of the small mines, dramatically fell during the 1960s owing to the conversion from steam to diesel locomotives. Another key factor was the shift to more efficient large-scale mining leading to the dominance of open cut mines. By 1971, the Acland No 2 Colliery was the only coalmine left on the Darling Downs.
The mine continued to operate until November 1984, supplying coal to the Toowoomba Hospital. When the mine closed, the mine structures were bought by Kath and John Greenhalgh, the owners of the farm on which the mine was located. The Greenhalghs kept the mine intact and opened it as a museum. In 2000, when the Greenhalghs decided to retire from the land, they sold the mine to the Rosalie Shire Council. It ceased to operate as a museum from that time.
The mine has survived almost completely intact. In addition to the tramway system and most of the coal processing plant, most of the ancilliary buildings survive. These include the workshops, manager's office, crib room and lamp room complete with battery chargers and miners' lights, explosives store, ventilation shafts and fan rooms, bathroom, switch room and a miner's hut.
","criteria":"The mine is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of small underground coalmines of the early to mid-20th Century. Due to its high degree of intactness, the mine illustrates almost the complete mining process as it was carried out at the mine. Intact structures and machinery include the coal haulage system including the tramway and cable system; the pithead structure and virtually all of the coal processing and handling machinery; and most of the ancillary buildings. Mining machines that were used underground in the mine remain extant on the site including a coal loader, two Jenbach diesel locomotives and metal coal skips, all dating to the 1950s. Extensive documentary records and plans associated with the mine remain extant including pay books dating to the opening of the mine in 1929.
|The Former Acland No 2 Colliery (1929 - 1984) is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's coal mining industry. The former Acland colliery, a small underground mine originally opened to supply Queensland Government Railways is typical, in scale and type, of coalmines that were common prior to the late 1950s. Small underground mines like the Acland Colliery became less common during the 1960s due to changes in the scale and technology of mining.
The mine is also important in demonstrating the development of mining technology insofar that it illustrates a transitional phase between hand mining methods and full mechanisation. The practise of sorting and sizing of coal by hand, commonly at the coalface, ceased with the introduction of aboveground screening plants and picking belts. These were used at Acland No 2 Colliery where the picking belt and part of the screen assembly remain intact. Picking belts, in turn, were rendered obsolete by mechanical washing plants such as jigs.
The mine also retains physical evidence of former work practises that were common in coal mining. Miners were employed under contact and paid on the basis of the weight of coal they excavated. The weighbridge and tally desk used for this purpose are intact at the Acland mine.
|The Acland No 2 Colliery is rare in Queensland for its high degree of intactness as an early small underground coalmine. It is the most intact mine site of its age and type in Queensland.
It is also a rare example of a mine demonstrating a transitional phase between hand and fully mechanised mining. The mine has an intact picking belt used to separate rock from coal and to crush oversized pieces of coal by hand before the advent of mechanical washing plants.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion D | Criterion A | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":30677,"place_ref":602718,"name":"Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"cnr South Street and Anzac Avenue","suburb":"HARRISTOWN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-08-14","description":"The Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery occupies a site of over 30ha situated north of Drayton and south-west of Toowoomba, at the intersection of Anzac Avenue and South Street, Harristown. The heritage boundary for the cemetery follows existing perimeter fencing that encloses the principal burial ground but excludes vacant cemetery land bounded by Karina Street to the west and Alderley Street to the south set aside in 1957 and 1987 for cemetery purposes. A water pumping station fronting Anzac Avenue, which sits on a small parcel of land excised in 1998 from the cemetery reserve, is not included within the heritage boundary.
Approaches and views
The main approach is from the direction of Toowoomba, heading south along Anzac Avenue. The north-eastern corner of the cemetery, at the intersection with South Street, has a curved brick wall with a modern metal sign (lettering: Drayton & Toowoomba Cemetery) with trees on either side, whilst an angle in the road along South Street directs the eye towards the ornamental gates of the main entrance. Now almost surrounded by predominantly industrial development, the cemetery stands out due to its green and park-like nature, with mature trees and shrubs screening it from the busy traffic along Anzac Avenue. From the less densely screened sides of the cemetery to the south and west, the gentle slopes covered in grave memorials and monuments are clearly visible, whilst the long straight avenues of trees provide a sense of the size and scale of the cemetery layout. From within the cemetery, the distant landscape of hills to the west provides a picturesque backdrop to the memorials.
Entrances and perimeter fencing
The principal access is via gates on South Street, opposite Hampton Street. The gates are set into an ornamental wall, constructed of brick with cement rendered ledges along the tops and decorative end posts. The metal gates are made of thin strips bolted together to make a pattern inside an outer frame. Two large gates in the middle are for vehicular access and have cattle grids, and the two smaller gates on either side are for use by pedestrians.
The only other entrance is off Anzac Avenue and is more subdued, with one large double gate flanked by thick timber posts and also possessing a cattle grid. The gates are of the same style and construction as those found at the South Street entrance.
Perimeter fencing along the northern and eastern boundaries consists mainly of low cyclone-wire and metal post fencing that is sometimes concealed by large Cotoneaster hedges. The rest of the cemetery is enclosed by barbed and netted wire fencing with metal posts. None of this fencing appears to be early.
Cemetery layout
The layout of the cemetery demonstrates a composite of styles reflecting changing attitudes towards memorialising the dead and managing burials since the mid-Victorian era. Expanding outwards from the early grid-like core (established 1850) to more informal lawn and memorial garden areas (from the 1960s), and set within a park-like setting established from the 1870s, this evolution of layout styles results in a variety of experiences for visitors.
Most of the cemetery west of the main entrance drive is laid out in a formal grid arrangement with burial sections separated by walkways and driveways (avenues), some lined with mature trees on one or both sides. The main roadways running east-west are labelled 1st Avenue through to 6th Avenue, and burial sections consist of rectangular blocks of varying size. Each block has discrete modern signage at the eastern corners identifying denominational sections: Church of England (Anglican), Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, and a number of smaller sections in the centre, including Salvation Army, Church of Christ, Seventh Day Adventist, Old Baptist and Congregationalist, Public, Infant, War Cemetery, Jewish, Other Protestant Religions and Moslem.
There are a number of lawn cemeteries established at the northern end of the site, either side of the main entrance drive. These contain both denominational and non-denominational sections. Within the north-eastern lawn cemetery is a Memorial Gardens and Memorial Lawn. The western lawn cemetery includes a Forest Lawn.
The cemetery office block, with nearby public toilets, is located on the eastern side of the main entrance drive, just north of the Anzac Avenue entrance. There is also a utility shed in this area. These are recent structures and are not of cultural heritage significance.
South of the Anzac Avenue entrance, occupying the eastern edge of the cemetery, is a park-like section that contains no burials or monuments. Many varieties of trees are planted here either in rows around the edges or randomly in the centre.
On the northern edge of the cemetery property facing South Street is a timber building that was moved onto the site in the early 2000s and currently houses the Family History Society. This building is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance for the purposes of this entry in the Queensland Heritage Register.
Avenue trees and other plantings
The trees and plantings throughout the site are an important part of its design, due to their screening effect that assists in creating an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity within the cemetery grounds. The main entrance drive off South Street runs north-south and extends for approximately half the length of the cemetery, to 3rd Avenue. Along the entire length of this drive are equally spaced mature trees - alternating Camphor Laurels (Cinnamomum camphora) and London Plane (Platanus acerifolia). The first half of this drive has a dual road carriage, separated by a grass island with a central row of mature Queen Palms (Arecastrum romanzoffianum). The second half of the drive has a row of Queen Palms along the western side.
Several other avenues of mature trees are located throughout the cemetery. South of the intersection with Third Avenue, the trees along the drive change to Cypress (type unknown), Italian Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens stricta) and Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani). The far southern boundary is defined by Queen and Jelly Palms (Butia capitata) to the east and Cypresses to the west. There are various trees planted along the western north-south roadway, including Italian Cypress. 1st Avenue has a magnificent row of large Kauri Pines to the east and some Italian Cypresses. The War Cemetery is encircled by rows of Cypress (type unknown) and large Pines (most likely Monterey Pines, Pinus radiata). 4th Avenue possesses a variety of species along its length, whilst 5th Avenue is densely lined with Cedar of Lebanon, Camphor Laurel and Cypress. Other distinctive trees in the cemetery include a very large Eucalypt in block PRES5, and a mature Cook Island Pine in the middle of a family plot in the Old CE1.
The park-like section of trees along Anzac Avenue contains Hoop Pines (Araucaria cunninghamii), Cook Island Pines (Araucaria columnaris), Monterey Pines, Italian Cypress, Cypress (unidentified), a Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis, south of the pump station), Camphor Laurels (an avenue from the entrance drive to the Anzac Avenue gate), Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia) and a single Kauri Pine (Agathis robusta).
In the eastern lawn cemetery there are various rows and avenues of Camphor Laurels, Cypress, Italian Cypress and Golden Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa brunniana aurea). Placed along the perimeter fencing are London Plane trees and Cedar of Lebanon. A double row of Hoop Pines also exists south of the Memorial Lawn. The western lawn cemetery and Forest Lawn contains mostly gum trees (various species) and a row of Italian Cypresses that edges the eastern side of the Forest Lawn.
Graves, monuments and memorials
The many different styles of monuments and memorials found throughout the cemetery reflect the fashions of the eras in which they were created. Many of these are excellent examples of the design work and craft skills of monumental masons. The majority are constructed from sandstone or marble. Some have been affected by erosion from weather and staining from rust, dirt, mould or lichen. There are also many granite monuments, both modest and grand, that have less weathering. Combinations of two or more of these materials are a common occurrence (for example, a sandstone headstone with marble or granite plaque attached). Grave surrounds such as concrete curbing and/or slabs are commonly used throughout the cemetery, occasionally decorated with ceramic tiles or painted. Other materials used to surround or fill a grave include bricks, stones and gravel. Larger enclosures, such as the numerous family plots, are often delineated by low fences of cast or wrought iron, some of which are ornate. Others have low concrete posts with chains slung between them or connected by metal poles. Several have had trees planted within their enclosures which have grown over time, sometimes affecting the position of the monuments around them.
The more elaborate types of monuments found in the cemetery, particularly in the Victorian and Edwardian sections, demonstrate a variety of monumental forms including vaults, mausoleums, ledger stones, obelisks, tables, sarcophagi and altars. Some of the more distinctive are tempietto-style monuments and twin-column memorials. A vault and a mausoleum found in the south-east corner of the Old Roman Catholic section are particularly eye-catching. The 1937 vault, constructed of sandstone in a neo-classical style, is dedicated to the Coorey family and includes four marble statures of figures such as the Virgin Mary and a young boy. The early 1930s McColdrick family mausoleum houses a large and intricately carved angel statue in marble, surrounded by three stained glass window panels supported between sandstone columns.
A wide range of Victorian and Edwardian era memorial symbols are also on display throughout the cemetery, including Calvary crosses, Celtic crosses, draped urns, broken columns, broken chain, mourning angels and cherubs, carved garlands, flowers (passion flowers, roses, poppies), ivy, grapes, and clasped hands. Each of these has a particular symbolic meaning. Some ornamentation references the deceased's occupation, hobby or sporting interest - such as a diver's helmet, tools, weaver's apron, tennis racquets and balls, cricket bat and stumps, motor cycles, and a camera. There are also a variety of grave ornaments, including many immortelles and urns for holding flowers, and some graves are decorated with sea shells. Several graves and family plots have symbolic plantings, such as Olive trees (Olea europaea) and Cypresses.
Headstone inscriptions demonstrate a range of languages other than English, including Chinese, Hebrew and German, illustrating the early presence of non-British immigrant populations in the Drayton-Toowoomba district. Some inscriptions include interesting biographical information about the person's life or the circumstances that caused their death.
Monuments in the mid to late twentieth century sections tend to be more modest, with mainly upright slabs with concrete grave surrounds or slab and desk monuments. Two modern mausoleums and an elaborate arched granite monument housing marble statues can be found in RC9 and RC10.
The War Cemetery section contains a seating area, flagpole, brick columbarium, lawn cemetery, and a gravelled area with simple, uniformly-designed marble headstones placed around two memorials.
Each grave in the lawn cemeteries is marked by a simple plaque set in a concrete block at ground level. The Memorial Lawn has rows of small headstones set into a single concrete footing. Both types of graves often have small pots and vases for flowers, set into the ground. The Memorial Gardens are for scattering or storing ashes and there is a brick columbarium, surrounded by garden beds planted with rose bushes, located in one corner. Other flowering bushes and small trees, often associated with particular graves, are found throughout the lawn cemeteries.
Cemetery structures
There are three shelter sheds (c1930) within the cemetery grounds. These are simple square timber structures made to the same design and all orientated with the doorway facing north. Each has a hipped roof of Marseilles tiles, sides in-filled with timber lattice, a dirt floor and two timber benches inside the northern corners. One is located in the northern part of the cemetery, on the north-east corner of block CE6. The shelter in the centre, at the south-east corner of the War Cemetery, is currently used to store iron grave markers which are stacked up against the southern wall. The southernmost shelter sits in the middle of cemetery block PRES3 on 5th Ave.
There are several timber posts within the cemetery grounds which may be remnants of earlier fences. Two are painted white with evidence of fixings (now removed) and decorative tops, one of which is located south of the main office, the other in the middle of the road along 5th Avenue.
","history":"The Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery, surveyed in May 1850, was the first official burial ground for the Drayton-Toowoomba district, and the second on the Darling Downs (the Warwick cemetery was surveyed two months earlier). The site was expanded to close to its present extent in the early 1870s. It is a large cemetery with over 45,000 burials, illustrative of the first phase of non-Indigenous settlement on the Downs, and of the consolidation of Toowoomba as an important regional centre from the mid-nineteenth century.
As one of the earliest surviving public burial grounds in Queensland, the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery can be compared with the Nundah Cemetery (established in the 1840s by German missionaries and surveyed as a public cemetery in 1862, QHR 600271); Dunwich Cemetery (earliest identified burials date to 1847, although possibly not surveyed until 1850, QHR 600773); and the Warwick General Cemetery (surveyed in March 1850, earliest identified burial 1853, QHR 602152). It pre-dates a number of other early and historic surviving public cemeteries in Queensland, including those at South Rockhampton (1860, QHR 601131); West End at Townsville (1865, QHR 1475); South Brisbane (1866, QHR 602406), Ipswich (first recorded burial 1868), and Toowong (established 1866, formally opened 1875, QHR 601773).
Early cemeteries are important records of the pattern of non-indigenous settlement in Queensland. Prior to 1856 there was no provision for the civil recording of deaths in New South Wales (of which Queensland was still part), and often no churches in newly settled districts to keep this record. For example, along with a brief newspaper notice, the earliest identified headstone at the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery is the only other public record of the death of Michael Gorry, a young Drayton storekeeper who died on 25 March 1852, aged 28.
Drayton evolved after Thomas Alford opened a store and inn at a place called The Springs on Westbrook Creek in 1843, to service travellers and the newly established pastoral runs of the Darling Downs. Located at the intersection of two tracks leading from the south and west to Gorman's and Hodgson's gaps in the Main Range, the site soon attracted other trades and stores. The Alfords named their home Drayton, and in 1845 this became the official name of the settlement. Many considered Drayton would emerge as the premier township on the Downs, and its survey took priority over other village settlements. In 1849 government surveyor JC Burnett prepared a design for the town of Drayton and chose a site three to four miles (4.8-6.5kms) to the north-east for suburban allotments of 27-40 acres (10.90-16.2ha). Located where two swampy creeks converged as the headwaters of Gowrie Creek, this area was known as The Swamp/s or the Drayton Swamp, and later as Toowoomba.
When preparing the detailed survey of Drayton in 1850, Burnett added a cemetery to the north of the village, mid-way between Drayton town and the Drayton Swamp suburban allotments, on slightly elevated land close to the road connecting the two settlements. Prior to this, persons who died at Drayton had been buried near their homes along Westbrook Creek, and behind Dr Hopkin's hospital near the centre of the township. Burnett set aside 8 acres (3.2ha) divided into denominational sections: Roman Catholics were allotted 2 acres (0.8ha) in the north-east quarter; Episcopalians (Church of England) 2 acres in the south-east; 1 acre (0.4ha) each was set aside in the western half for Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and Congregationalists; and the north-west corner was divided into 2 roods (0.2ha) each for Jews and Pagans. During the 1850s each denomination was expected to maintain its own section of the Drayton burial ground, but it became neglected, with cattle and pigs roaming across.
By March 1851 the population of Drayton had reached about 200, and concern was being expressed about the adequacy of the water supply obtained from Westbrook Creek to serve the growing community. From this period the Drayton Swamp, with its greater water supply, became a more attractive proposition for an urban settlement. A bridle track had been formed through the swamp and along the route over the Range that later became the toll road, and in the early 1850s William Horton of Drayton began subdividing land at the Swamp, constructing a bridge and a public house to encourage buyers. In August 1852 Thomas Alford of Drayton opened the first general store at Drayton Swamp, which he called the Toowoomba General Store. In response to public demand, from late 1852 the New South Wales government began the survey of smaller parcels of 1-2 acres and the laying out of streets and town sections. By the time Queensland separated from New South Wales in December 1859, Drayton Swamp had become the town of Toowoomba, with municipal status granted on 19 November 1860. At the time of the 1861 census, it was clear that Toowoomba, with a population of 1183 compared with Drayton's 320, had become the principal settlement.
With Toowoomba becoming more established there was a correspondingly greater use being made of the cemetery, as evidenced by a number of surviving headstones from the early 1860s. By September 1863, Toowoomba Anglicans were contemplating construction of a mortuary chapel and a new fence to their section of the burial ground, as soon as funds could be obtained. In July 1864, the Queensland government issued a deed of grant to Church of England trustees for the 2 acres of the cemetery set aside for Episcopalian use in 1850, although a survey office sketch plan of the cemetery drawn in October the same year makes it clear that Anglican burials were taking place in the north-east quarter of the cemetery, and Roman Catholic burials in the south-east - the reverse of Burnett's 1850 layout.
Following the introduction of The Cemeteries Act of 1865, which provided for the regulation of cemeteries throughout Queensland, seven trustees from Toowoomba (representing the principal religious denominations in the district) were appointed in November 1866 to manage the whole 8 acres of the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery. Two of these trustees - William Henry Groom (first Mayor of Toowoomba) and Samuel George Stephens - remained on the board for almost 40 years and both are buried in the cemetery. The new trustees immediately prepared cemetery by-laws, which were approved by Governor-in-Council in January 1867, and the first recorded burial was made on 16 December 1866. In 1867 the first sexton was appointed, and only he could open a grave in the cemetery.
In 1868 a mortuary chapel was erected by the Anglican community of Toowoomba and Drayton. This was located just north of the Church of England burial ground, technically outside the cemetery reserve at the time. The timber building, which could seat 60 to 70 persons, had been removed from Ballard's Camp on the Main Range Railway, gifted by Samuel Wilcox, agent for railway contractors Peto, Brassey and Betts, after the railway was completed and the camp disbanded. A belfry and bell were erected adjacent to the chapel in 1871. None of these structures has survived.
Toowoomba grew rapidly during the 1860s. By the census of September 1871 its population had reached 3,543, compared with Drayton's 792. Between September 1870 and August 1873 the cemetery reserve was extended to close to its present size, creating a total area of just under 67 acres (27ha) and gaining extensive frontages to the Drayton Road (now Anzac Avenue) and South Street. Through the 1870s cemetery improvements included surveying, clearing and fencing new sections of the cemetery; forming, gravelling and turfing walks and paths; and planting trees and shrubs. No burials were made in the land fronting the Drayton Road. This area contained the sexton's residence and with ornamental trees planted, acquired a park-like appearance. A central entrance road was made through this new eastern section of the cemetery, from the Drayton Road to an earlier north-south access road off the Drayton Road that ran north past the original reserve to South Street. In 1882 a small parcel of land between the south-east corner of the burial ground and the Drayton Road was formerly incorporated into the cemetery reserve, creating a total area of nearly 67.75 acres (27.4ha). In 1905 the L-shaped road through the cemetery off South Street and the Drayton Road was officially closed and in March 1906 this also was incorporated into the cemetery reserve, which now encompassed just over 69.5 acres (28.1ha).
At least three sexton's cottages have been constructed on the reserve, but none survive. The first probably was erected in 1867, when the first sexton was appointed. This was re-built in 1869-1871. A third sexton's lodge was constructed in 1892, designed by the Toowoomba architectural firm of John Marks and Son. It was located in the north-east section of the cemetery reserve, just east of the South Street entrance, with a private drive off Drayton Road.
In March 1875 John Devine was appointed sexton, initiating 86 years of continuous service by three generations of the Devine family as sextons of the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery: John from 1875 to 1898; his son William John from 1898 to 1934; and William's son James Robert from 1934 to 1961. William and James planted most of the trees surviving in the cemetery grounds, including the avenue of trees along the entrance driveway from South Street. About 1930, William planted 14 Norfolk Island pine trees along the drive leading from Anzac Avenue west towards the sexton's residence, each tree representing one member of his family. Following James Devine's retirement the sexton's residence was removed, and in 1965 a lawn cemetery was established on the site.
In the interwar period (c1930) three timber-framed shelter sheds with terracotta-tiled roofs and lattice in-fill panels to the sides, were erected in the cemetery. A larger, earlier shelter shed has been removed from the site.
In the early 1950s a survey of the cemetery anticipated that the existing reserve would be fully occupied within 20 years, and in 1957 just over 31 acres (12.62ha) adjoining the western boundary of the cemetery was granted to the cemetery trustees. However, little of this has been utilised for burials, reflecting the rise in popularity of cremations in the late twentieth century. A private crematorium was opened in Toowoomba in 1966 and a columbarium established in the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery in the early 1990s.
About the mid-1950s part of the ground set aside in 1850 for 'Jews' and 'Pagans' was made into a cemetery for ex-military service personnel. An annual service is still held here on the Sunday before Anzac Day (25 April).
Toowoomba monumental masons have been associated with the design and construction of most of the headstones and other monuments in the cemetery since the 1850s. These include: Walter Bruce from 1871 to 1968 (by 1915 the firm was known as Bruce Brothers); Ernest S Hunt in the1880s and 1890s; Henry Bailey in the 1890s; John H Wagner from 1896 (this firm still operates as JH Wagner and Sons); and Rudolph C Ziegler from c1912 (this business became RC Ziegler and Son in the 1920s and still operates). Other monumental masons who left their mark included: W Colcombe, Swamp, 1854; Whitfield, Toowoomba, mid-1860s; and J Cameron, Toowoomba, 1873.
The cemetery was neglected during the 1960s and by the 1970s the earlier graves were overgrown with grasses, weeds and trees, and many headstones and grave surrounds had been vandalised or allowed to deteriorate. In October 1974 administration of the cemetery passed to the Toowoomba City Council, which cleared the overgrowth and transformed the cemetery into a community asset. In 1987 an additional 12.62ha along the southern boundary of the cemetery was transferred to the Council for cemetery purposes, but has not been used.
By 2008 there were more than 45,000 burials in the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery. In addition to the original sections, designated areas for paupers, stillborn babies and Moslems have been established. All sections of the cemetery remain in use.
Many of Queensland's early and prominent citizens lie buried here, including: pastoralists William Kent of Jondaryan and William Beit of Westbrook; politicians such as Gilbert Elliott (first Speaker of the Queensland Parliament), James Taylor (member of the first Queensland parliament), and William Henry Groom (first mayor of Toowoomba and Queensland's first representative in the Commonwealth parliament); surveyor and explorer Francis Thomas Gregory; Brisbane's first Town Clerk, William Boyce; and notable personalities such as John Moffat of Irvinebank and George Essex Evans, the 'Poet of Federation'. Also buried in the cemetery are Thomas and Elizabeth Alford, who gave the names to both Drayton and Toowoomba.
The cemetery is also the final resting place of Darling Downs station workers who helped establish some of the earliest pastoral empires in Queensland - such as stockman John Hill, speared by Aborigines on Eton Vale Station in 1843, whose remains were transferred to the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery in 1909; of railway navvies who gave their lives constructing the Main Range Railway; of Aboriginal people, who between 1868 and 1911 were recorded simply as 'Aboriginal' plus an English first name, as in 'Aboriginal Billy'; of Chinese persons buried in the 'pagan' section; and of persons executed at Toowoomba Gaol and buried without headstones. The early pattern of immigrant settlement in the Drayton-Toowoomba district is reflected in the numerous Scottish, English, Irish and German names found on the headstones.
","criteria":"The place has strong aesthetic value generated by: the extent, quality of workmanship and harmony of materials of the memorials; the patina of age to the earlier headstones; the formal grid layout of the earlier sections of the cemetery; the impressive avenues of tall trees and other plantings that frame and enclose discrete spaces and focus views both within and outside the cemetery; the picturesque memorial gardens and lawn cemeteries; the modest timber and terracotta-roofed shelter sheds; the ornamental trees along the Anzac Avenue frontage; and the picturesque backdrop of low ranges to the west. The whole creates an atmosphere conducive to repose and reflection that was, and remains, an essential part of the ritual of honouring and remembering the dead.
|As the Toowoomba district's earliest and foremost public cemetery, the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery has been an important focus of public ritual and sentiment since the 1850s.
|In its extensive collection of memorials and monuments dating from the 1850s to the present the place provides a unique historical record that is an important aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage.
|Many of the monuments display a high level of creative achievement and are important for their excellence of design and craftsmanship, and emotive impact. The 1937 Coorey family vault, the 1930s McColdrick family mausoleum, the numerous twin columns distinctive of the work of monumental mason Walter Bruce and later copied by others, and the c1904 tempietto-style Sheedy monument designed by Toowoomba architects Marks and Son and executed by monumental mason JH Wagner, are outstanding examples of funerary art and architecture.
|The Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery, established in 1850, is one of the earliest surviving public cemeteries in the State and is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history. It is illustrative of the first phase of non-Indigenous settlement on the Darling Downs, and of the consolidation of Toowoomba as an important regional centre from the mid-nineteenth century. The cemetery provides important evidence of the social, demographic and cultural history of Toowoomba and district and is the burial place of individuals from all walks of life, including persons of importance in regional and Queensland history.
|The Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a large nineteenth century public cemetery that has evolved over time to reflect changing community attitudes to providing for the dead. It retains its nineteenth century extent and grid pattern of denominational sections, walkways and drives; memorials from the 1850s to the present; substantial tree plantings; and early twentieth century shelter sheds. The progressive layering, development and diversity of styles of memorialisation contained within this extensive cemetery, including the establishment of lawn cemeteries and memorial gardens in the late twentieth century, document changing attitudes to death and fashions in funerary ornamentation since the 1850s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion B | Criterion F | Criterion A | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"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 demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | 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":34398,"place_ref":602824,"name":"Toowoomba South State School (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"158 James Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2013-12-02","description":"Toowoomba South State School is situated on a major thoroughfare on the fringe of the central business district of Toowoomba. The 1.5ha site is adjacent to the intersection of the New England and Warrego Highways and is a neighbour to St Patrick's Catholic Cathedral (QHR 600844). The school buildings comprise: a three-storey brick building; the Wadley Wing; the Oslo Lunch Room; the open-air annexe; the playshed; a library; a covered games area; and a multi-purpose hall.
The main building (1941, rear extension 1949)
Fronting James Street to the north is an imposing three-storey classroom building designed in a Neo-Classical style with a grand character and landmark attributes. The building sits at a distance from the front boundary with a central concrete path and steps leads to the front entrance of the building.
The building is symmetrically composed and comprises an understorey at ground level and two upper levels of classrooms. The exterior is rendered and scored to imitate coursed ashlar at ground level and has fine facebrick upper levels in English bond. A projecting, central entrance bay with decorative pediment is flanked by wings with projecting end pavilions. The facade has rhythmic banks of timber-framed casement windows with fanlights on the first and second levels. The timber-framed hipped and gable roof is clad with corrugated metal sheets and has a prominent, decorative, metal ventilation fleche. The loadbearing structure supports a timber floor on steel bearers and concrete floors in the circulation spaces.
Entrance to the main (first) level is via a split stair with an iron balustrade to a large central door comprising two leaves with moulded panels, glazed fanlight, and rendered architrave and hood. A wide, short hall leads to the main, perpendicular corridor. The hall has moulded concrete skirtings, rendered walls, timber plate rail, and sheet-and-battens ceiling. A wall-mounted plaque commemorates the building's opening. A teacher's room is on either side of the hall.
The first and second floors comprise classrooms, teacher's rooms, store rooms, and hat and cloak rooms, accessed from a wide corridor running the length of the northern side. The corridor has rendered walls and north-facing timber-framed casement windows and fanlights that retain original brass hardware. The wall between corridor and classroom has timber-framed double-hung sashes and awning sash fanlights; all retain original brass hardware. The ceiling of the first floor corridor is concrete with moulded concrete cornice and the ceiling of the second floor corridor is sheet-and-battens with timber cornice. The classrooms have rendered walls with moulded timber skirtings, architraves, and plate rails. The ceilings are sheet-and-battens with timber cornice. The ceilings of the second level have a central timber lattice ventilation panel.
Two stair wells provide vertical circulation. The stairs are red-painted concrete with an unpainted perimeter and the balustrades are decorative iron with a moulded, clear-finished timber handrail. In the stair halls the perimeter of the concrete floor is coved to the wall and small store rooms are located under the stairs.
The understorey accommodates a large central play space and ablutions at either end, low-level bag and hat hooks, timber perimeter seats, and chalkboards. The floor is concrete and the walls are glazed facebrick rounded at corners. The toilets retain original timber cubicles, windows, and sheet-and-battens ceilings.
The Wadley Wing (1959)
Connected by a glazed, high-set corridor to the western end of the main building is the Wadley Wing. This long, narrow, timber-framed building is clad with facebrick and has a gable roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. The building is divided approximately in half into two adjoined sections, with the western section set at a lower level.
The eastern section of the building is high-set on timber trusses. The understorey accommodates one classroom and a facebrick ablutions block. The western section of the building is high-set on round concrete columns. Enclosed on the southern side by a later masonry wall and glass louvres, the understorey accommodates an open play area with a concrete floor and a timber perimeter seat.
The two sections are connected by a central stair hall. Another stair hall is located at the western end of the wing with a door out into a small yard to Ruthven Street, forming a secondary entrance into the school. The stair halls have timber stairs, unpainted timber floors, facebrick and chamferboard walls, raked ceilings lined with sheet material, and are brightly-lit by timber-framed, fixed, opaque glazing.
The upper level verandah runs the length of the northern side providing access to south-facing classrooms. The verandah is enclosed with aluminium-framed sliding windows, has a balustrade of bag racks, and a raked ceiling lined with sheet material and rounded cover strips. The verandah wall of the western portion retains chamferboard lining and banks of original timber-framed, double-hung sash windows with pivot-hung fanlights (all with original hardware), but modern doors. The verandah wall of the eastern portion has been altered by the insertion of large openings, removing all windows and doors.
The south walls of the classrooms have large banks of timber-framed awning sash windows that retain original hardware. The classroom floors are timber and the walls and flat ceiling are lined with sheet material with rounded cover strips. The partition walls of the western portion are not original nor in their original locations. The partitions of the eastern portion have large concertina doors to combine the rooms into one large space.
The Oslo Lunch Room (1945)
Located to the south of the main building is the Oslo Lunch Room, a small, timber-framed building low-set on concrete and steel stumps. It has an enclosed north-facing (front) verandah and comprises one large room. The exterior is clad with sheet material with timber cover battens. The verandah is enclosed with chamferboards and aluminium-framed sliding windows. It has a gable roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. The side and rear elevations have banks of timber-framed casement windows with awning sash fanlights.
Entry is via two sets of steel and timber stairs onto the verandah, which has a timber floor and a ceiling lined on the rake with v-jointed timber boards. The verandah has a small room at either end formed by walls of single-skin, timber, v-jointed boards. These rooms retain early timber doors with glazed panels and fanlights as well as timber shelving and a sink.
A large opening has been inserted in the verandah wall.
The room has a timber floor and the walls and ceilings are lined with sheet material with timber cover battens. The room has modern built-in kitchen furniture that is not of cultural heritage significance.
The playshed (1884)
A playshed stands in the grounds to the south of the Oslo Lunch Room. It is a timber-framed shelter with a concrete floor and a hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheets. The southern and western sides are sheeted with corrugated iron that shields a timber perimeter seat that runs on these sides.
The open-air annexe (1913)
To the south of the playshed near the southern boundary of the site, stands the open-air annexe. This timber-framed building is low-set on concrete stumps and comprises one large classroom and an enclosed western (front) verandah. The walls are clad with weatherboards that have ventilation slots in the gable end apexes. The weatherboards wrap the ends of the enclosed verandah forming the original hat rooms. The remainder of the verandah is enclosed with sheet material with timber cover battens and sliding, timber-framed windows. The other elevations have timber-framed casements, some with small timber-framed fanlights, and the windows of the gable ends have small metal hoods. The gable roof, which is continuous over the verandah, is clad with corrugated metal sheets and has timber gable fretwork. The roof has wide eaves and the soffit is lined with v-jointed timber boards with meshed ventilation slots.
Entry is at either end of the verandah via steel and timber stairs to glazed, timber doors. The verandah has a timber floor and a timber v-jointed board ceiling. The wall between the verandah and the classroom is single skin with the framing, which has chamfered edges, exposed into the verandah. The verandah wall has timber-framed colonial-hung sashes with awning sash fanlights. Original double leaf timber doors with original hardware open into the classroom at both ends of the verandah. The classroom is a large space with a timber floor and the walls and coved ceiling are lined with timber v-jointed boards. An iron tie rod is exposed within the space at ceiling level. The ceiling has a central ventilation opening. The windows retain original hardware.
To the east nearby is a timber-framed pavilion used as a tennis shed. This measures approximately 3.7m x 2.4m, is open on one side, and is clad with weatherboards. It has a timber-framed skillion roof clad with corrugated metal sheets, is unlined internally, and has two unglazed window openings. This pavilion is probably the teacher's room added to the open-air annexe in 1929 and removed in 1975.
Also on the site are a steel and concrete library building (1975), a steel and concrete covered games area (1983), and a steel and concrete multi-purpose hall (2012); none of which are of cultural heritage significance.
The Grounds
The school grounds are banked and levelled to create playing areas and incorporate long, low concrete retaining walls. Large, mature trees, including pepperinas (Schinus molle), camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora), and jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia) stand within the grounds. A timber seat around the base of a camphor laurel has memorial plaques mounted on it. The plaques are dedicated to past students who have died. A stone cairn with a plaque, a memorial of the 1965 centenary, stands in the garden near the front stair of the main building below a steel flagpole attached to the stair balustrade. Behind the main building is a large bitumen parade area.
","history":"Toowoomba South State School (former) was established as Toowoomba National School in 1865 on a large site in what was then the civic centre of Toowoomba. Over time it acquired a number of buildings and landscape elements, including a playshed (1884), an open-air annexe (1913), a main, three-storey brick building (1941), a timber building called the Oslo Lunch Room (1945), a concrete, brick and timber classroom wing called the Wadley Wing (1959), and mature trees. It has been an important place of education since its establishment and a social and cultural focus for students, parents, teachers and members of the Toowoomba community. Toowoomba South ceased operating as a state school in 2013
\nEuropean settlement of the Toowoomba area, traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, commenced in 1840 when squatters first occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. Near the boundaries of Westbrook, Gowrie and Eton Vale runs and at the junction of two routes to Gorman's and Hodgson's gaps through the Main Range, the small settlement of Drayton (originally known as ‘The Springs') evolved from 1842 as a stopping place servicing pastoralists and travellers. From the late 1840s, the Drayton Swamp Agricultural Area (‘The Swamp'), six kilometres to the north-east, began to be considered a more desirable location for settlement. Better land for market gardening, improved water supply, the support of squatters and land speculators, and, from 1855, a better route to Brisbane (The Toll Road), were all advantages over Drayton.[1]
\nIn September 1853 a government survey reserved two blocks of land in Toowoomba for important civic functions. The blocks were bound by Ruthven, Lawrence, Hume and James streets, bisected by Neil Street. The reserves were for the Toowoomba Benevolent Asylum (later hospital), Roman Catholic and Presbyterian churches and schools, Toowoomba Town Hall, a market reserve and a National School on the corner of Lawrence and Ruthven streets. The allocation of land for these purposes in this area occurred because James Street was developing as the main commercial street, the route used by people travelling to Ipswich or south and west.[2]
\nThe name ‘Toowoomba' had gradually taken over from ‘The Swamp' by 1857 and the settlement continued to expand. At the time of its incorporation into a municipality in November 1860, Toowoomba was on the way to supplanting Drayton as the principal service centre for the upper Darling Downs. Prior to 1859, Toowoomba's population was around 1500. Five years later this figure had doubled. The rapid economic and social development of Toowoomba in the 1860s was influenced by local residents who strongly promoted the prospects of the town, and political representatives who successfully lobbied for government funding for civic improvements.[3] By 1861 local residents were agitating for the establishment of a government school.[4]
\nColonial governments played an important role in the provision of formal education. In 1848 the New South Wales Government established National Schools. This was continued by the Queensland Government after the colony's creation in 1859. The Education Act 1860 established the Queensland Board of General Education and began to standardise curriculum, teacher training and facilities. The Education Act 1875 provided a number of key initiatives for primary education; it was to be free, compulsory and secular. The Department of Public Instruction was established to administer the Act. This move standardised the provision of education and, despite difficulties, colonial educators achieved a remarkable feat in bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.
\nThe provision of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early Queensland communities. The formal education of Queensland children was seen as integral to the success of a town, the colony and the nation. Land and construction labour was often donated by the local people and schools frequently became a major focus within the community as a place symbolising progress, for social interaction, and as a source of pride. Also, the development and maintenance of schools frequently involved donations and work by teachers, parents, and pupils. Because of their significant connections with the local community, schools have occasionally incorporated other socially important elements such as war memorials and halls used for community purposes. They also typically retain a significant enduring connection with former pupils, their parents, and teachers. Social events involving a wide portion of the local community have often been held at schools, utilising the buildings and grounds - such as fetes, markets, public holiday celebrations, school break-up days, fundraisers, sporting events, reunions, and dances.
\nAs in other Australian colonies, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. This helped to ensure consistency and economy. The standard designs were continually refined by government architects in response to changing needs and educational philosophy. Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in their approach to climate control, lighting and ventilation. Until the 1960s school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, taking advantage of the material's abundance in the state and the high number of builders skilled in its use. This also allowed for easy and economical construction and enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Due to the standardisation of facilities, schools across the state were developed in distinctly similar ways and became complexes of typical components. These components included: the teaching building/s, the school yard, the horse paddock which was often later configured into a sports oval, the teacher's residence, and a variety of features such as sporting facilities or play equipment, shade structures, gardens and trees.
\nWhile the school site had been reserved in 1853, it was continued lobbying a decade later that led to the opening of the Toowoomba's first state-run primary school. In August 1863, the Courier reported ‘great exertions' being made towards the establishment of a National School for Toowoomba.[5] By the end of the year the ‘Local Patrons', the committee advocating for the school, were advised the Board of Education was intending to call immediately for tenders for the erection of a brick school at a cost of £300. On behalf of the town, the local patrons guaranteed the supply of £100 towards the school's construction.[6]
\nOn 25 January 1864 the Chairman of the Board of Education, Arthur Macalister, laid the foundation stone for the school. Construction of the school, designed by architect Benjamin Backhouse and built by Mr Young, continued through 1864, a year when other important buildings for Toowoomba, including the Post Office and the Hospital, were in progress or completed.[7]
\nThe Toowoomba National School opened on 22 January 1865 on the school reserve, with James Hodgson appointed the first Head Teacher. As pupil attendance increased, the initial building soon became inadequate. Construction of a new building on the site to accommodate female and infant students was complete by October 1869. The school was remade into two separate departments, renamed Toowoomba South Boys' State School and Toowoomba South Girls' and Infants' State School. The Girls' and Infants' school began with 98 pupils enrolled. Mary Jane Roulston was the first Head Teacher.[8]
\nDuring the 1870s Toowoomba consolidated its status as the main urban centre of the Darling Downs. The arrival of the railway in 1867 secured the town's development and subsequently made it the hub for the Southern and Western railways. The economy diversified to include numerous small-scale manufacturing outlets, while the majority of administrative, service and other government and education functions for the surrounding region were centred on the town. Toowoomba's progress was reflected in improvements to the physical environment. Important capital works were commenced or completed including the draining of the swamps, improved water supply, gasworks for lighting, extensive tree plantings and the initial development of Queen's Park. Earlier temporary structures were increasingly replaced with more permanent and impressive buildings.[9]
\nIn 1877 the hospital adjacent to the school was vacated after a new hospital was built on the outskirts of the town. The school expanded to incorporate the hospital site and occupied the two newly-vacant hospital buildings; the boys occupied the former men's ward and the girls and infants occupied the former women's ward.
\nA playshed was constructed to the rear of the former hospital buildings in January 1884.[10] Playsheds were free-standing shelters that provided covered play space and were often used for unofficial teaching space when needed. They were timber-framed structures, generally open on all sides although were sometimes partially enclosed with timber boards or corrugated galvanised iron sheets. The hipped (or less frequently, gabled) roofs were clad with timber shingles or corrugated iron and they had an earth or decomposed granite floor. Fixed timber seating ran between the perimeter posts. Playsheds were a typical addition to state schools across Queensland between c1880s and the 1950s. They were built to standard designs that ranged in size relative to student numbers. School sites were typically cleared of all vegetation and the provision of all-weather outdoor space was needed. After c1909 school buildings were high-set, allowing students to play in the understorey and playsheds were not frequently constructed. The playshed at Toowoomba was built to a standard design. The construction plans show it was 30ft x 20ft (9.1m x 6.1m) with a hipped roof clad with corrugated iron sheets, generous eaves, and supported on 10 timber posts. It had timber perimeter seating and the floor was gravel (altered to asphalt in 1885).[11] The playshed is the oldest structure on the school site.
\nBy the 1890s a well-developed area in the northern area near the railway station centred on Russell Street had emerged as the commercial centre of Toowoomba, while government activities centred on Margaret Street, in the vicinity of the court house. The James Street area was considered to be the fringe. Toowoomba's municipal council had built a new town hall in 1880 but by 1898 had decided to relocate the town hall to a more central location on Ruthven Street, with a new hall completed in 1900. The site became available for redevelopment and was purchased by the State Government.[12] In 1906 the girls and infants moved to a new school building on the nearby site of the former town hall. By this time there were 300 pupils enrolled at the school. The former women's hospital ward was condemned and demolished.[13] Other school buildings were demolished or removed leaving the western side of the school site empty. This land was subdivided into many small allotments and sold.[14]
\nBy 1938 it was decided the two Toowoomba South schools would swap sites. According to the schools' centenary booklet, increasing attendances and limited playground space for the boys were both factors in this decision. The move to the girls' and infants' site meant the boys could access the large playing field of Groom Park behind the school. In December 1939 the Executive Council authorised the demolition of the boys' school (the ‘obsolescent' former men's hospital ward), and the construction of a new brick building for the girls' and infants' school.[15]
\nPlans had been drawn for a substantial, three-storey brick building in December 1938 by Department of Public Works architect Gilbert Robert Beveridge. It was one of an important group of brick school buildings built during and after the Great Depression, initially as part of the government's unemployment relief program. Unemployment relief projects at schools, in the form of grounds improvement works, were undertaken by the previous Country and Progressive National Party government (1929-1932) led by Arthur Moore.[16] The relief work program expanded considerably in 1932 when newly-elected Labor Premier William Forgan-Smith instituted a capital works program focussed on building modern infrastructure to provide relief work for unemployed Queenslanders. The ‘improvement' of schools was a primary aspect of the scheme.[17] Large new buildings at Toowoomba East State School (1936) and Toowoomba North State School (1937) were constructed during this time. The relief work program ended in 1938, transitioning into a permanent, long-term, capital works program. In accordance with government policy, the Department of Public Works maintained the use of day labour for building projects.
\nUntil the 1960s, purpose-built brick government schools were far less common than those of timber. If brick was employed, it was usually only in prosperous urban or suburban areas with stable or rapidly-increasing populations. Earlier government brick school buildings were individually designed with variations in style, size, and form, similar to Queensland's private schools, technical colleges and Schools of Arts. They were given comparatively generous budgets, resulting in impressive edifices. Light and ventilation was still a primary concern for the architects but compared to contemporary timber education buildings, these buildings had a grander character and greater landmark attributes.
\nThe pattern of brick school buildings in prosperous or rising suburban areas continued during the 1930s relief work scheme, in greater numbers and as a more recognisable type. The Queensland Public Works Department and Department of Public Instruction were extremely enthusiastic about the brick school buildings designed in the 1930s. They were considered monuments to progress, embodying the most modern principles of the ideal education environment.[18]
\nThe 1930s brick school buildings exhibited many common characteristics. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open understorey and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and exhibited neo-classical stylistic elements and a prominent central entry. They were able to be built in stages if necessary. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah. Ideally, the classrooms would face south with the verandah on the north but little concession was made for this and almost all brick school buildings faced the primary boundary road, regardless of orientation. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions.
\nThe brick school building for Toowoomba South Girls' and Infants' State School was prominently sited, fronting James Street, and was typical of its type. It was a three storey, symmetrical building comprising an understorey at ground level that accommodated open play space and ablutions, and two upper levels that accommodated 11 classrooms, teachers' rooms, and generous hat and cloak rooms. All but one of the classrooms faced south.
\nConstruction of the brick building had begun by March 1940.[19] It was nearing completion in early 1941 when alterations were made to accommodate infant classes; a partition was removed to combine a teacher's room and classroom on the second floor. This also involved rearrangement of the corridor windows and the blocking up of a western window.[20]
\nThe building was one of the Department of Public Works' major construction projects of 1940. Other important buildings constructed at this time include the Innisfail Court House [QHR 601578], Brisbane Dental College [QHR 601909] and the State Government Offices at Maryborough [QHR 600714].[21] The volume of work for state schools in the year ending June 1940 was high, with 11 new schools completed and additions made to 30 schools, as well as the remodelling of others.[22]
\nThe Girls' and Infants' School and Opportunity School pupils moved to the new school site on 17 March 1941, while work was still being completed. The building was officially opened 21 June 1941 by Minister for Public Instruction, Henry Bruce. It cost £16,500, accommodated 480 students and was constructed using day labour.[23]
\nBehind the new brick building was positioned an older building that had been relocated from the former girls' and infants' school site and was ready for occupation in 1941.[24] This building was an Open-air annexe, the first of its type built in Queensland. It had been opened 29 November 1913 by Under-Secretary for Education, John Story.[25]
\nOpen-air annexes were introduced as a standard design in 1913 by the Department of Public Instruction.[26] This design was developed in response to contemporary medical thought related to the need for adequate ventilation and high levels of natural light for health, coupled with the need to build cheap, portable schools. Dr Eleanor Bourne had been appointed the first Medical Inspector of Schools in 1911 and under her instruction the relationship between classroom environment and child health was given prominence. Accordingly, school architecture evolved through iteration and experimentation to improve interior light and ventilation. The Open-air annexe type achieved maximum ventilation and natural light; it contained only one large room and had only one wall, the western verandah wall. The other sides were open with only adjustable canvas blinds for enclosure. Ideally, they would be high-set, thereby increasing the ventilation and providing further shelter underneath. The design was praised by educationalists as conducive to the health of pupils.[27]
\nOn its original site, the open-air annexe was used for infants' classes.[28] It was a high-set, timber-framed building with a gable roof and comprised one large room 22ft x 44ft (6.7m x 13.4m). It had a west-facing verandah that was semi-enclosed at both ends to form hat rooms. As per the standard design, the classroom had only one wall (the western verandah wall) and the other sides were open and had adjustable canvas blinds.[29]
\nOpen-air annexes proved to be inadequate and were discontinued in 1923, although many had been constructed across Queensland in 10 years. The open sides provided limited weather protection, better climate control was needed, and the canvas blinds deteriorated quickly. All open-air annexes in Queensland were modified to provide better enclosure.[30] By 1929 the open-air annexe at Toowoomba was enclosed; the blinds were replaced with casement windows. A small, semi-detached extension with a hipped roof was added to the centre of the western verandah accommodating a teacher's room at the classroom level and a store room underneath.[31] In 1930 the western verandah was enclosed with sliding sashes and the balustrade was replaced by cement sheet.[32] After its enclosure, minimal alterations of the open-air annexe at Toowoomba were made over time.
\nWhen the open-air annexe was relocated behind the new brick building, it was positioned so the verandah faced north. In 1952, improvements were made to the lighting and ventilation of the classroom by adding soffit vents and single hung sash windows into the verandah wall.[33]
\nAfter relocation, the open-air annexe was used for opportunity classes. Opportunity Schools (initially called Backward Classes[34]) had been established in 1923 by the Department of Public Instruction in seven Queensland schools, one of which was Toowoomba South Girls' and Infants' State School.[35] The previous year, Minster for Education, John Huxham, said he knew of only one teacher in the state who was interested in and suitable for this form of special education; Head Teacher of Toowoomba South Girls' and Infants' State School, Mary Deacon.[36]
\nOpportunity classes were designed to accelerate students with learning difficulties and to teach disabled children vocational skills.[37] The provision of special state education for struggling and disabled students was prompted by community agitation and was part of the wider social, medical and educational modernising reforms of the 1920s. State-funded special education began in Queensland in 1893 when government subsidy was provided to a benevolent training centre in Brisbane that taught blind and deaf children. However, it took until 1923 and the drive of District Inspector William Bevington before children with intellectual and emotional problems and other physical disabilities were included in state education programs. The establishment of special education was an important step in providing an inclusive state education system.[38]
\nOn 25 January 1960 the Toowoomba Opportunity (later Special) School moved off-site into purpose-designed premises. The open-air annexe was then used by the school for various ancillary teaching space, including music and film classes, and a library. [39]
\nThe Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nationwide occurrence resulting from the unprecedented population growth, now commonly referred to as the ‘baby boom'. Queensland schools were overcrowded and to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.
\nAfter 1945, Toowoomba continued the steady growth that had largely characterised its first century of development. The city's estimated population in mid-1953 was 40,000, a rapid expansion from the 1947 census figure of 35,194.[40] Primary and secondary industries expanded, tourist numbers grew, and construction projects provided a boom for the local building industry. In 1954 alone, over £2,000,000 worth of projects were undertaken including new dwellings, commercial buildings, and other expansion projects.[41] The growth of Toowoomba was reflected at the Toowoomba South Girls' and Infants' State School by increased enrolments and building additions to the school. At the time of the transfer of Grade 8 students to high school at the end of 1963, there were around 700 pupils at the school.[42]
\nA school lunch scheme was established at Toowoomba South Girls' and Infants' State School in 1945, using money granted to the school by the Commonwealth Government. This money was granted to all schools in 1945 to commemorate the end of World War II and the amount was based on enrolment numbers. A meeting of mothers convened by head teacher, Aileen Wadley, had decided the funds would be used to establish the ‘Oslo Lunch Room', a tuckshop offering healthy lunches (based on the Norwegian nutritious lunch movement) that would be ‘a permanent benefit to the children of the school'. The first Oslo Lunch Room opened in 1946 within the 1941 main school building, with school mothers initially volunteering on a five day roster system.[43]
\nTemporary class room buildings were constructed at the Girls' and Infants' school between 1943 and 1951, of which one is extant - later known as the Oslo Lunch Room. This standard type was introduced as an expedient, temporary solution to the exceptional growth in student numbers during World War II and the immediate post-war period when skilled labour was scarce and materials were in short supply. They were small timber buildings, low-set on concrete piers and had skillion or gabled roofs clad with corrugated metal sheets. External walls were clad with vertical tongue and groove timber boards or sheeting material and the rear wall had casements with operable fanlights sheltered by a simple hood. Accessed from a verandah, the type comprised two interconnected classrooms 21ft x 18ft (6.4m x 5.4m), which was consistent with the department's ideal dimensions of the time. The design, materials and form were a departure from earlier types; they did not influence subsequent designs, and only a small number of temporary buildings were constructed.
\nDrawings for the construction of the temporary class room show a timber-framed and-clad building with a skillion roof, accommodating two interconnected rooms. Although the architectural drawings show a skillion roof, the existing building has a gable roof and this may have been how it was built. Similarly, while the drawings show the intention to use external tongue and groove vertical joinery for cladding, sheeting material is likely to have been used when built. The plans for the subsequent conversion of the building for domestic science in 1951 do not indicate that timber cladding was replaced by sheeting at this time. The erection of two temporary class rooms buildings, at a cost of £500, was authorized in February 1945.[44] The extant building was positioned to the west of the open-air annexe and to the south of the playshed. The building was oriented so the verandah faced north and the windows of the rooms faced south.
\nIn 1947 a three-storey extension was added to the rear of the 1941 brick building providing a further two classrooms (one on each of the first and second floors) and an understorey play space.[45] The extension was designed in 1944 by architect Thomas Robert Gladwin from within the Department of Public Works. It copied the architectural details from the original section. In order to make room for the extension, the playshed was relocated on the site further south, adjacent to the western boundary.
\nIn 1951 the temporary class room building was converted for domestic science lessons, opening in 1952. The verandah was enclosed with vertical timber boards and glass louvre windows to form a teacher's room and fitting room and a laundry. Casement windows with operable fanlights were added to the eastern gable end wall and high-level glass louvres were added to the west gable end wall. New doors and built-in sinks and joinery were added. In 1964 the building was vacated and approved for use as the Oslo Lunch Room. The 1965 centenary school souvenir page on the Oslo Lunch Room noted, ‘shortly we hope to convert the old Home Science Block into an even more modern setting’.[46] From c1965 building remained in use as a lunch room/tuckshop until the school’s closure in 2013.
\nIn 1955 two allotments fronting Ruthven Street (part of the original school site sold in 1906) were acquired and incorporated into the school grounds. Here, an infants' wing was constructed in two stages between 1957 and 1959 and opened by the Minister for Education, Jack Pizzey, in October 1959. The building was a standard design by architects within the Department of Public Works. It was a long and narrow two-storey building with open play space and one classroom on the ground level and classrooms on the upper level accessed by a verandah along the northern side. It was a brick, timber and concrete structure with a timber-framed gable roof. It had banks of timber-framed awning windows on the southern elevation, providing a high level of natural light and ventilation to the classrooms. It was connected to the western end of the main building via a ground-level covered walkway. This walkway was reconfigured in 1962 to be two storeys and include toilets, a staff room, a health services room and a store room.
\nIn March 1960 a plaque mounted on the new infants' wing was unveiled by Director of Primary Education, Arch Guymer. It dedicated the wing to recently retired Aileen Wadley, who taught at Toowoomba South Girls' and Infants' State School from 1 January 1938 to 31 December 1959. The building was called the ‘Wadley Wing'. In 1977 the verandah was enclosed with aluminium-framed sliding windows and a ground-floor extension accommodating a janitor's room was added to the southern side of the wing in 1979.[47]
\nAlterations were made to the first floor of the main building in 1960. This included removing a folding partition and inserting a new partition to create a teacher's room and a larger classroom.[48] Further alterations to this building were made in 1972 when the first and second floor hat and cloak rooms were converted for use as a staff room, a reading room, and general space.[49]
\nThe provision of outdoor play space was a result of the early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school. Trees and gardens were planted as part of beautification of the school. In the 1870s, schools inspector William AJ Boyd was critical of tropical schools and amongst his recommendations was the importance of the addition of shade trees in the playground. In addition, Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Landscape elements were often constructed to standard designs and were intrinsic to Queensland Government education philosophies. Educationalists 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. Aesthetically-designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors.
\nThe site of Toowoomba South State School has been landscaped over time to include trees, playing fields, courts, gardens, hardstand areas, shelters, and play structures. The school celebrated Arbor Day from 1890[50] and school activities have always involved the grounds, including parades, assemblies, sports days, and wider community social events like fetes and concerts. In 1958 extensive concrete retaining walls were constructed at the boundaries of the school and the earth was banked to create level areas for sports and to improve drainage.
\nOn 30 October 1965 the school celebrated its centenary and a souvenir booklet was published for the event. A fete day was held and included various entertainments, the unveiling of a memorial in the grounds by Minister for Transport, Gordon Chalk, a tree planting ceremony, and an afternoon tea for past students. The Kath Dickson Art Gallery, comprising works presented by the Toowoomba Art Society, was also opened within the brick building by MLA for Toowoomba East, Mervyn Anderson. Kath Dickson taught at the school between 1937-1941 and 1946-1950 before returning as Principal from 1960-1975. During her time at the school she actively encouraged pupil involvement in cultural activities such as art.[51]
\nBetween the 1960s and the 1980s a modernisation of Queensland education occurred. The 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 with new architectural responses needed. The Department of Education (as it had been renamed in 1957) continued to give the responsibility of building design to the architects of the Department of Public Works. Due to new materials, technologies, educational philosophies, government policies, architectural styles and functional requirements, the evolution of standard designs became more fragmented. Rather than ‘improving' on the previous designs, architects began to design on a relatively clean slate, inspired by new precedents. Fundamentally, timber construction was no longer favoured and buildings were no longer predominantly high-set.
\nIn 1975 a new library building was constructed at Toowoomba Girls' and Infants' State School. This was a ‘System IB74', a standard building designed by Codd Hopgood Industrial Architects, and was a concrete slab-on-ground, prefabricated steel structure.[52]
\nThe open-air annexe was moved to make room for the library construction. It was relocated at the southern end of the site, near the western boundary. It was oriented so that the verandah faced west and was low-set on concrete stumps.[53] The teacher's room was removed from the verandah at this time and possibly became a pavilion for the nearby tennis courts.[54] The enclosed verandah was altered to accommodate a toilet at the northern end which was later removed.[55]
\nA 1975 site plan shows that between 1960 and 1975 the school grounds had expanded to include additional allotments on the western side facing Ruthven Street.[56]
\nOn 1 March 1983 the nearby Toowoomba South Boys' State School was closed and the boys were amalgamated into the girls' and infants' school, which was renamed Toowoomba South State School. Minor alterations to the toilets in the understorey of the 1941 building were undertaken during this transition.[57] A large concrete and steel covered games area was constructed to the south of the 1941 brick building.[58]
\nIn 1990 the school celebrated its 125th anniversary of establishment and an anniversary souvenir booklet was published for the event.
\nIn 1999 further alterations were made to the 1941 brick building. The western-most classroom on the second floor was enlarged by partially removing the corridor wall and this space was incorporated into the classroom.[59] At the same time, alterations were made to the Wadley Wing, including removing sections of the verandah wall, removing partitions, and inserting new partitions to create a withdrawal room and an art space.[60]
\nDuring the Australian Government's Building Education Revolution (BER) program, Toowoomba South State School received funding of $850,000 for the construction of a new Multi-Purpose hall. The BER program was the key element of the Australian Government's $42 billion \"Nation Building - Economic Stimulus Plan\", developed in response to the global financial crisis. The hall, situated along the Ruthven Street side of the school was completed in 2012.
\nEnrolment figures at the school declined to around 70 by 2013. Cultural diversity was a feature of the school, with approximately 50% of students having English as a second language or identifying with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander cultures. The school was also the base for a Regional ESL (English as a Second Language) team who serviced schools in the Darling Downs and South-West area.[61] In May 2013 the school was publicly announced by the State Government as one of nine across the state identified for possible closure by the Department of Education as part of its ‘school viability assessment'. Community responses included the establishment of a SOS (Save Our School) Committee, protests by the school's Parents and Citizens Association, and online campaigns against the school's closure. In September 2013 Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek announced the school would close at the end of 2013.
\nThe school retains buildings that were built and altered in accordance with an evolving educational philosophy. Since opening in 1865, it has taught generations of Toowoomba students and has been a place of employment for many teachers and other staff. It has been a key social focus for the local school community with the grounds and buildings the location of many social events over time.
\nIn 2015 the property is no longer owned by the Queensland Government.
","criteria":"Toowoomba South State School (established in 1865 as Toowoomba National School) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education in Queensland and the associated evolution of government education architecture. One of the oldest public schools established in Queensland, Toowoomba South State School retains a significant complex of buildings and landscape elements that illustrate the development of government education philosophies from the 1880s to the 1950s.
Reserved for school purposes in 1853, the important buildings and landscape elements from the 1880s to the 1950s demonstrate the growth and development of Toowoomba as a major regional centre in Queensland.
|The open-air annexe at Toowoomba South State School, which remains relatively intact, is rare as one of the few surviving examples of this once common type.
\nThe Oslo Lunch Room, (originally temporary class rooms) which also remains relatively intact, is and has always been uncommon as only a few buildings were built to this standard design and survived subsequent periods of development and change.
|Toowoomba South State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of Queensland state schools, comprising a complex of buildings constructed to standard designs by the Department of Public Works, and standing on a large, landscaped site with buildings positioned to allow natural ventilation and daylighting of the interiors.
\nThe place retains good, representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to the prevailing government educational philosophies. In particular, the standard designs represented at Toowoomba are:
\nthe playshed with its open sides, hipped timber-framed roof form supported on braced, timber posts and fixed timber perimeter seating;
\nthe open-air annexe with its timber-framed and clad construction, west facing verandah, large single classroom that is well ventilated and daylit, timber linings and iron tie rod;
\nthe Oslo Lunch Room (originally temporary class rooms) with its timber-framed and sheet and battens clad construction, north facing verandah, south-facing fenestration and interior sheets and battens linings;
\nthe main building with its neo-classical styling, three-storeyed form, high-quality design, materials and construction, plan layout with north facing corridor, teacher's rooms, hat and cloak rooms, south facing classrooms that are well ventilated and daylit and understorey play space;
\nand the Wadley Wing with its high-set form, gable roof, composite structural system and cladding, north facing verandah, south facing classrooms that are well ventilated and daylit and understorey play space.
|The place is important for its aesthetic significance brought about by the intact main building with its neo-classical styling (including proportions, scale, composition and detail), and its high-quality design, construction and materials. The place also has landmark attributes being sited on a major thoroughfare and contributes to the townscape of Toowoomba.
|Toowoomba South State School has a strong, special, and ongoing association with the Toowoomba community. It was established through the efforts and funds of the people of the town in 1865 and has taught generations of Toowoomba children. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Toowoomba and is 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":650024,"name":"Toowoomba North State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"139 Mort Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2016-05-06","description":"Toowoomba North State School is located in the Darling Downs city of Toowoomba, northwest of the central business district. It occupies a long, two hectare site along the northern side of a block bounded by Mort Street to the east, Taylor Street to the north, and Kingston Street to the west. To the south, the school is bounded by Gilbert Street, Dunster Lane and private properties. School buildings are located in the northeast portion of the site, with playing fields to the south and west, and numerous mature trees lining the school perimeter. A 1938 Depression-era Brick School Building (Block A) is the largest building and stands at the eastern end of the site. To the west is a 1950s Timber School Building (Block B) which comprises a classroom wing and a former Vocational Training Building.
\nBlock A - Depression-era Brick School Building (1938, 1949 addition)
\nBlock A is a substantial, classically-detailed, two-storey masonry structure, with an undercroft. The building is symmetrically arranged and orientated east-west, addressing Taylor Street to the north. The main entrance is demarcated by a central projecting bay, accessed by a T-shaped staircase. The building has a hipped roof clad with concrete tiles and has a prominent ventilation fleche in the centre. Recently-constructed external stairwells attached to the east and west ends of the building are not of heritage significance.
\nThe building is elegantly composed, with load-bearing face brick walls and rendered decorative elements to the first and second floors; and a rendered base finished to resemble channel-jointed ashlar. The red brick exterior is relieved with contrasting pilasters of a dark brown brick with simple, rendered capitals. The projecting entrance bay features a pediment over a central first floor doorway, which has a rendered aedicule. The pediment is supported by pilasters and a circular accent vent with rendered surround is centred on the face brick tympanum. Beneath the pediment, the words ‘TOOWOOMBA NORTH STATE SCHOOL’ and ‘1938’ are engraved. Smaller pediments are centred on the classroom wings on either side of the entrance bay and over the projecting bays housing the main staircases and former cloakrooms on the southern (rear) side of the building. A secondary entrance leading to the undercroft is located at the base of the eastern bay, with additional entrances at the western end of the building (one each on the north and south facades) and various openings leading to the undercroft.
\nWindow openings are regularly spaced and contain sets of timber, three-light casements with fanlights above. Four bays of windows at the west end of the north façade, which now contain louvres, appear to be the only major replacements. Double-hung sash windows are located on either side of the southern entrance, and grated openings provide light and ventilation to play space in the undercroft. The main entrance doors are large, panelled timber double doors with fanlights above. Other early entrance doors include a half-glazed, boarded door to the girls toilets and half-glazed double doors to the northwest entrance.
\nThe interior layout is approximately symmetrical, with classrooms arranged along the southern side of the building connected by corridors along the north side. Originally comprising the manual training rooms, boys’ toilets and play space in the undercroft; five classrooms, domestic science rooms, entrance hall, two teachers rooms, girls toilets and a store room on the first floor; and seven (later nine) classrooms and two teachers rooms on the second floor, the layout of the building remains generally intact. Alterations to the layout include the removal of original folding partitions between classrooms, resulting in some double-sized rooms, and the insertion of partitions in places. The manual training room and domestic science rooms, located at the eastern end of the building, have been converted into classrooms. The first floor corridor has been extended to run the full length of the building; the location of former walls is indicated by changes in the floor surface and small bulkheads across the ceiling. Former cloakrooms, located adjacent to the internal staircases, have been converted for use as staff rooms or other functional spaces.
\nThe classrooms and teachers rooms/offices have plaster walls with picture rails, chamfered skirting boards, and flat-sheeted ceilings with timber battens arranged in a square pattern. Bulkheads run north-south across the ceilings and in some instances indicate the location of former folding doors between classrooms. One set of timber folding doors with original door hardware survives in the westernmost classroom on the second floor. Brass plaques commemorating the official opening of the school are located in the entrance hall.
\nCorridors have plastered walls, concrete floors (coloured red with uncoloured, coved concrete edging), and bulkheads between different sections of the building. The second floor corridor ceiling retains its flat-sheeted ceiling with batten cover strips, however the ground floor ceiling has been replaced. Internal corridor windows are generally three-light, double hung sashes with three-light fanlights above. Classroom doors are panelled double doors with three-light fanlights above. A variety of other early internal timber doors survive, including half-glazed double and single doors and four-panelled doors. The internal staircases have red concrete steps (matching the corridor floors) and metal balustrades with timber posts and top rails.
\nThe male and female toilets have concrete floors and similar plaster walls and battened ceilings to the classrooms. Both retain early cubicle partitions with panelled timber doors.
\nNon-significant internal features include replacement or inserted doors and windows (including louvres and windows with textured glass panes), modern carpet and linoleum floor coverings, suspended ceilings, and kitchenettes.
\nDue to the slope of the land, the undercroft is partially underground at the western end and inaccessible past the western internal staircase. The central area of the undercroft is largely open play space, punctuated by rectangular columns of brown brick with rounded corners. The floor is concrete and steel I-beams support the timber framing of the floor above. Early timber benches survive along some walls. Beneath the entrance bay, the space has been enclosed with partitions and boarded timber doors to form a tuck shop and storage space. Further storage areas have been fenced off at the western end of the play space. The former Manual Training rooms at the eastern end of the undercroft continue to be used as classrooms and storage space.
\nBlock B - 1950s Timber School Building (1951, 1953, 1956, 1957)
\nBlock B is a T-shaped timber building comprising a former Vocational Training Building (1957) at the western end (orientated north-south) attached to a classroom wing (1951, 53, 56) of six classrooms (orientated east-west). Both sections of the building have gable roofs clad in corrugated metal sheeting. Due to the sloping site, the building is lowset at the western end and highset at the eastern end, with play space beneath five of the classrooms. A verandah along the north side of the classroom wing is linked by a passageway through the centre of the Vocational Training Building to an enclosed western verandah.
\nThe classroom wing is clad in chamferboards and has large banks of windows along the southern wall. From east to west, the dates of construction for the classrooms are: two classrooms in 1956; one classroom in 1953; and three classrooms in 1951. The different stages of the building’s construction are evident by the joinery used: the 1951 and 1953 classrooms have banks of three-light casement windows and fanlights in their southern walls, while the 1956 classrooms have timber awning windows. The westernmost classroom stands on round timber stumps, and the remainder of the classrooms are supported by a combination of round metal poles (modern), square timber posts, square concrete stumps, and timber-framed perimeter and bracing walls.
\nWindows and fanlights to the north verandah have been replaced with sliding aluminium windows, however the openings and timber mullions remain. All classrooms are accessed by timber double doors, most with modern hardware, however those accessing the 1956 classrooms are half-glazed board doors with no fanlight and one retains early hardware. The north verandah has a timber floor, bag rack balustrades and a raked ceiling lined with flat sheeting with cover strips. Original glazed screens survive at the far eastern corner. Three sets of stairs provide access – two sets attached to and running parallel with the verandah, and one set added at the eastern end which comes up through the verandah floor, surrounded by a timber rail balustrade.
\nAll classrooms measure 21ft by 24ft (7.3 by 6.4 metres) and have flat internal wall and ceiling linings. Sections of early linings are distinguished by the use of batten or curved cover strips. In the 1956 section, a large opening between the classrooms remains, however folding doors (shown on the original plans) have been removed. Early, half-glazed double doors survive in the centre of the wall between the 1953 and eastern 1951 classrooms. Between the 1951 classrooms, one connecting door has been enclosed, and the other has been removed and a large opening created in its place.
\nThe Vocational Training Building is clad in weatherboards and stands on square concrete stumps. Windows are predominantly timber awning windows, with double-hung sash windows in the passageway and verandah walls.
\nThe interior of the Vocational Training Building generally has flat wall and ceiling linings with cover strips. The layout of original rooms – domestic science rooms to the south and manual training rooms to the north – is largely intact, although later partitions have divided up the two larger training rooms. A series of rooms, formerly used for storage and as smaller training rooms, remain in the verandah space. Alterations to the building include the full enclosure of the verandah, installation of a bathroom off the south side of the passageway, the removal of the fitting room partitions in the southeast corner of the domestic science room, and the insertion of additional doors and openings. The building has a variety of doors, most of which are modern, with early examples including half-glazed double and single doors. The verandah has a raked ceiling, and both the passageway and verandah have chamferboard cladding to the walls.
\nThe understorey of the classroom wing has a concrete floor and low, off-form concrete retaining walls surround the western end of the space. Timber bracing walls beneath the 1956 classrooms are lined with diagonal timber boards. A store room with chamferboard-clad walls and timber board doors is located in the southwest corner.
\nGrounds
\nThe school grounds contain mature trees, including rows of camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora) along the western and northern boundaries, and individual feature trees, including camphor laurels, pines, eucalypts, a flame tree (Brachychiton acerifolius) and maples (Acer, sp.) adjacent to other boundaries and south of Blocks A and B. A swimming pool (1959) is located at the western end of the grounds. Set back from the streets and surrounded by gardens, pathways and a playing field, Block A is a prominent feature and makes an important contribution to the streetscape.
","history":"Toowoomba North State School (opened in September 1869 as the Mort Estate National School) is located to the northwest of Toowoomba’s CBD. It is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains a Depression-era Brick School Building (1938, 1950), constructed as a Depression-era work project; a 1950s Timber School Building with extensions (1951-57, including a Vocational Training Building addition); set in landscaped grounds with assembly and play areas, sporting facilities and mature trees. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Toowoomba community.
\nEuropean settlement of the Toowoomba area commenced in 1840 when squatters occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. Near the boundaries of Westbrook, Gowrie and Eton Vale runs and at the junction of two routes to Gorman's and Hodgson's gaps through the Main Range, the small settlement of Drayton (originally known as ‘The Springs') evolved from 1842 as a stopping place for pastoralists and travellers. Six kilometres to its northeast, was an area known as ‘The Swamp’, later named Toowoomba, which was first surveyed in 1849 as 12 suburban allotments of Drayton. Further survey and auction took place in 1853 for 1-2 acre allotments. Toowoomba grew rapidly due to its better land and water supply, support from squatters and land speculators, and, from 1855, an easier route to Brisbane via The Toll Road. It was declared a municipality in July 1860 and continued to develop rapidly during the 1860s with strong promotion of the town by local residents, and successful lobbying for government funding for civic improvements by political representatives.[1]
\nThe provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. National schools, established in 1848 in New South Wales, were continued in Queensland following the colony’s creation in 1859. 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.[2] The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction. This further standardised the provision of education, and despite difficulties, achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.[3]
\nThe establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early communities and integral to their success. 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.[4]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[5]
\nToowoomba North State School opened as the Mort Estate National School on 6 September 1869 on land donated by pastoralist and politician, James Taylor, MLA. The population of Toowoomba at the time was 3000. The school was opened as a Boys School, with an enrolment of 141 boys, and a Girls and Infants School, with a commencing enrolment of 113 pupils. Both were housed in a brick building facing Mort Street.[6] Within a year, the school’s enrolments had doubled to 286 enrolled at the Boys School with an average attendance of 140, and 261 enrolled at the Girls and Infants School with an average attendance of 130.[7]
\nLater the Girls and Infants School was housed in a separate masonry building facing Taylor Street on one acre, donated by James Taylor in 1874, and located behind the Boys School, which faced Mort Street.[8]
\nToowoomba continued to grow throughout the remainder of the 19th and the early 20th century. By the 1870s Toowoomba had consolidated its status as the main urban centre of the Darling Downs. The arrival of the railway in 1867 secured the town's development and subsequently made it the hub for the Southern and Western railways. The economy diversified to include numerous small-scale manufacturing outlets, while the majority of administrative, service and other government and education functions for the surrounding region were centred on the town. Toowoomba's progress was reflected in improvements to the physical environment. Important capital works were commenced or completed, including the draining of its swamps, improved water supply, gasworks for lighting, extensive tree plantings and the initial development of Queen's Park. Earlier temporary structures were increasingly replaced with more permanent and impressive buildings.[9]
\nIn the first two decades of the 20th century, the School Committee made representation to the Department of Public Instruction, through its Minister and local members of parliament, for a new school on the basis that the buildings and grounds were inadequate.[10]
\nIn c1922 Toowoomba North (Boys, and Girls and Infants Schools) was granted its request for purchase of land for school grounds to supplement its small site. ‘The Farm’, 6373 sqm of land diagonally opposite the school on the corner of Mort and Taylor Streets, which was already rented for sporting activities, was bought. One acre of the Cory Estate to the school’s west was purchased, onto which the headmaster’s residence was moved, allowing the whole of the existing Taylor Street land to be utilised for school buildings and grounds.[11] However, the opening of the Newtown State School in October 1924 reduced enrolments at Toowoomba North, making a new school unnecessary.[12]
\nBy the early 1930s the school buildings were in a state of disrepair.[13]
\nThe Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, had caused a dramatic reduction of building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building programme to provide impetus to the economy.
\nIn June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public works building programme designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state. This building programme included: government offices, schools and colleges; university buildings; court houses and police stations; hospitals and asylums; and gaols.[14]
\nMany of the programmes have had lasting beneficial effects for the citizens of Queensland, including the construction of masonry Brick School Buildings across the state. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project a sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings.
\nThe construction of substantial Brick School Buildings[15] in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government’s commitment to remedy the unemployment situation. The Queensland Public Works Department (DPW) and Department of Public Instruction (DPI) were extremely enthusiastic about the Brick School Buildings designed in the 1930s. They were considered monuments to progress embodying the most modern principles of the ideal education environment. [16]
\nA preliminary estimate of the cost of a new Brick School Building for Toowoomba North was made in January 1936, however, funding was not available in that financial year.[17] In August 1936 a report on the material requirements for North Toowoomba Girls and Infants School recommended that construction of a new building be expedited.[18]
\nFinally, in February 1937, the Minister for Public Instruction decided that the Toowoomba North Schools’ site should be used for the erection of one combined primary school to accommodate approximately 500 children – boys, girls and infants.[19] The building was to be erected at the Mort Street end of the Taylor Street frontage and would utilise north and south lighting. Accommodation for instruction in Manual Training (woodwork only) and Domestic Science was to be provided and the building’s siting was designed to provide as much ground for playing or sports purposes as possible.[20] The work was to be carried out by the DPW using day labour.[21]
\nDepression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type, exhibiting many common characteristics. Frequently, these buildings were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings, being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. This linear design could be built in stages if necessary; resulting in some complete designs never being realised. Ideally, the classrooms would face south with the verandah on the north but little concession was made for this and almost all Depression-era Brick School Buildings faced the primary boundary road, regardless of orientation. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions. [22]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles, which were derived from contemporary tastes and fashions, included: Arts and Crafts, typified by half-timbered gable-ends; Spanish Mission, with round-arched openings and decorative parapets; and Neo-classical, with pilasters, columns and large triangular pediments. Over time, variations occurred in building size, decorative treatment, and climatic-responsive features. Where other functions, such as infants classes or vocational training, were required, standard rooms designed to accommodate these functions were incorporated into the building plan.[23] The Chief Architect during this period was Andrew Baxter Leven (1885-1966), who was employed by the DPW from 1910 to 1951, and was Chief Architect and Quantity Surveyor from 1933 to 1951.[24]
\nToowoomba North State School’s Brick School Building had an authorised cost of £22,090. Erected on the site of the existing Boys School building, the new building, with concrete staircases and asbestos-cement slate roof, was to contain 10 classrooms, providing accommodation for 400 pupils. The undercroft contained a large play area, plus lavatories and a classroom for woodwork. The first floor comprised five classrooms, plus teachers rooms, domestic science rooms, lavatories and storeroom, while the second floor had five classrooms and two teachers rooms. Three classrooms on each floor could be converted into large assembly rooms by means of folding partitions. The building was of brick construction.[25] The foreman of works was F Bentley.[26]
\nAt some point prior to the completion of the building it was decided to construct two extra classrooms at the eastern end of the second floor, above the Domestic Science rooms. This addition was constructed to match the rest of the building, and brought the total number of classrooms to 12.[27]
\nToowoomba North’s Brick School Building was officially opened by the Minister for Public Instruction (H A Bruce) on 5 November 1938 with the unveiling of the bronze tablet at the main entrance to the school.[28]
\nThe school’s 1938 souvenir magazine described the 231ft x 34ft (70.4m x 10.4m) building:
\nAn important feature of the building is that all the…corridors are enclosed with casements…. Provision has…been made in the design for…future extensions that may be required. The whole of the inside of the building, both corridors and classrooms, is painted, the predominant colours being dark red to dado line with light green above. This colour scheme has been varied in some rooms by contrasting tones of brown and cream. Ceilings of rooms are…fibro-cement painted white with contrasting cover-strips of brown. All plaster work is of light stone colour wash below plinth level, whilst the plaster has been lined out to imitate stone work.[29]
\nIn the Domestic Science Room, on the eastern end of the ground floor, the kitchen was tiled to the height of 6ft (1.8m) and had a terrazzo floor. The remaining floor was covered by linoleum.[30] The woodwork room was located at the eastern end of the undercroft.[31] The building had a roof fleche for ventilation.[32]
\nAll of the materials used were supplied from within southeast Queensland. Bricks for the building were supplied by John Brazier of Kleinton, while the timber was supplied by Filshie, Broadfoot.[33]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. In the 1870s, schools inspector William Boyd was critical of tropical schools and amongst his recommendations stressed the importance of the adding shade trees to playgrounds. Subsequently, 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.[34]
\nAfter completion of Toowoomba North’s Brick School Building, the formation of the school grounds and sports fields was a major task. Initially the school had to wait for demolition of remaining earlier buildings. Then, in 1939 and 1940 the School Committee repeatedly prompted the Department of Public Instruction for assistance with levelling of the site and creation of gardens and playing areas such as a vigoro pitch and basketball courts.[35]
\nThe Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[36]
\nAfter World War II the overriding concern for the Department of Public Instruction was the need to erect school buildings as expeditiously and economically as possible. Queensland schools were faced with enormous overcrowding and a lack of resources. However, the Queensland Government and community saw education as a low priority and provided the department with only a small budget.[37] Also, educationalists rejected the previous designs of school buildings, considering them outdated, and favoured ‘lighter, loosely grouped, flexible’ buildings.[38]
\nIn the immediate Post-World War II years, additions to Toowoomba North State School’s Brick School Building were made. In May 1944, the School Committee requested enclosure of an area under the school for a combined First Aid, Rest and Reading Room.[39] This was granted in September of that year and the work took place thereafter.[40] In December 1949 the Works Minister (W Power) announced additions for Toowoomba North State School[41] and two new classrooms were added at the western end of the second floor to accommodate growth in pupil numbers.[42]
\nEnrolments at Toowoomba North State School grew to such an extent that in September 1951 approval was given for a three-classroom building to be erected to the west of the existing school building.[43] From 1950 the Department of Public Instruction introduced and developed new standard plans for school buildings. These buildings were generally high-set timber-framed structures and the understorey was used as covered play space. Introduced in 1950, the principal type was a long and narrow building with a gable roof. Stairs were often semi-enclosed, connecting the understorey to a north facing verandah running the length of the building. Classrooms opened off the verandah and had extensive areas of windows; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed, allowing abundant natural light and ventilation. This type was the most commonly constructed in the 1950s in Queensland.[44]
\nThe new building at Toowoomba North State School was orientated east-west and located 100ft (30.5m) from the Depression-era Brick Building. It was accessed by a single set of stairs, positioned perpendicular to the centre of the north verandah. It had hatroom enclosures at either end of the verandah and, due to the slope of the land, part of the understorey was too low to be used for play space. The building was completed in late 1951 or early 1952.[45]
\nThe building was soon extended. In September 1953, plans for a single classroom addition to the east of the 3-classroom building were drawn and the work subsequently performed. This addition matched the existing building and included a second staircase to the verandah.[46] In October 1955, plans were drawn for two more classrooms to be added to the east of the previous addition. These were built sometime in 1956 and were slightly different to the earlier classrooms. Windows in the southern walls were awning windows instead of casements; external cladding extended to ground level on the south and east sides, forming a semi-enclosed play space beneath; bag racks were built instead of verandah balustrades; and instead of a hat room, the east end of the verandah was enclosed with a glazed screen.[47]
\nIn October 1956 plans for an addition of timber vocational training rooms to the west end of the building were drawn. In 1954 the Department of Public Works had introduced a new standard design for a timber-framed vocational training building.[48] Highset with a verandah along one side, this design comprised a large 21ft by 32ft (6.4m by 9.7m) room accommodating either manual training or domestic science classes, with smaller rooms opening off it for complementary purposes (eg, a laundry room, fitting room, storage etc.). The example constructed at Toowoomba North State School comprised a long, lowset building oriented north-south, with a western verandah and a central passageway linking to the north verandah of the classroom wing. It housed a large woodwork and sheet-metal work room, a saw room and teachers room to the north, and a large cookery and dressmaking room to the south, with a laundry, store room and dining room occupying part of the verandah. Completed in 1957, this addition allowed the Domestic Science and Woodwork rooms in the Depression-era Brick School Building to be converted into four classrooms.[49]
\nThe 1950s Timber School Building ceased to be used for vocational classes from 1964 when Grade 8 transferred from primary to secondary school. The Domestic Science Room was subsequently converted into a General Purposes Room.[50] In the 1970s, the large Manual Training room was divided in two and used as a classroom and library, and the former saw room on the verandah became a janitor’s store room. The large Domestic Science room was divided into a music room and stock room, and a small health room was created adjacent to the classroom wing. At some point the western verandah was enclosed with timber awning windows.[51]
\nAdditions and modifications to the school grounds have been made periodically since the initial make-over of the grounds after the construction of the Brick School Building. The playground around the Brick School Building and in front of the timber building was bitumen-sealed in stages, commencing in 1947.[52] Around the same time, concrete garden edging was laid and shrubs along Taylor and Mort Streets planted.[53] On 10 October 1959 the school’s swimming pool opened at the western end of the school grounds.[54]
\nToowoomba North State School reached its peak enrolment of 1111 in 1963; the largest enrolment of any school in Toowoomba at the time. However, after Queensland’s Grade 8 transferred to high school in 1964, enrolment fell to a little over 900 pupils.[55]
\nFurther changes to the school grounds ensued. In 1966 the government purchased ‘Finchley’, a double-storied home with a little over one acre of grounds, which was located on the southern side of the school. The building was demolished and the grounds cleared and levelled for use as a playground.[56]The teachers residence remained on site at the Kingston Street (west) end of the school grounds until 1962 when it was sold.[57] Removal and pruning of established trees along Mort and Taylor Streets and to the south of the Brick School Building occurred in the mid-1970s.[58] A pre-school centre was added on a site opposite the school in Taylor Street in 1976.[59]
\nAlterations to the interior of the Depression-era Brick School Building since the 1960s include the removal of early folding partitions to classrooms, the conversion of the cloakrooms to offices and staff rooms, the replacement of some doors and windows, and the relining of the first floor corridor ceiling. Suspended ceilings, partitions, wet areas and kitchenettes have also been installed in some rooms. Detached fire stairs were constructed at the east and west ends of the building in 2008.[60]
\nThe 1950s building is still used for classrooms and staff purposes, and no longer serves as a vocational training building. Alterations to the vocational section of the building include the insertion of additional partitions and doors and the enclosure of the western verandah. The classroom wing remains largely intact, with internal changes including replacement of some wall and ceiling linings The verandah staircases have been replaced and an additional staircase constructed at the east end of the verandah.
\nToowoomba North State School marked the centenary of its establishment with publication of a school history in 1969 and a day of celebrations including a luncheon for early teachers and pupils, a thanksgiving service, the unveiling of a cairn, the official opening of the A E Horne Centenary Library, a march of centenary year pupils and a display of the old and the new in the school buildings.[61]
\nIn 2016, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains the Department of Public Works Depression-era Brick School Building and the 1950s Timber School Building with extensions, set in landscaped grounds with a swimming pool, playing areas and mature shade trees. Toowoomba North State School is important to Toowoomba, as a key social focus for the community, with many social events having been held in the school’s grounds and buildings; and as generations of students have been taught there since its establishment.
\nToowoomba North State School is important to Toowoomba, as a key social focus for the community with many social events having been held in the school’s grounds and buildings; and as generations of students have been taught there since its establishment.
","criteria":"Toowoomba North State School (established in 1869) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland.
\nThe place retains an excellent, representative example of a government designed Depression-era Brick School Building (1938, extended 1949) that was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies, and a Department of Public Works-designed 1950s Timber School Building (1951) with extensions (1953, 1956, 1957) that was a response to acute building shortages and population growth in the post-World War II period; set in landscaped grounds with assembly and play areas, sporting facilities and mature trees.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building is the result of the State Government’s building programme during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
|Toowoomba North State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of Queensland state schools. These include teaching buildings constructed to standard designs by the Queensland Government; and generous, landscaped sites, with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities. The school is a good, intact example of a suburban school complex, comprising a Depression-era Brick School Building and a Department of Public Works-designed 1950s Timber School Building comprising a classroom wing and Vocational Training Building.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building is a good, intact example of its type. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of Depression-era brick schools, including: its two storey form with undercroft; high-quality design with classical influence and detailing; face brick exterior; and symmetrical arrangement either side of a projecting entrance bay. The building plan comprises a typical linear layout of classrooms, offices and store rooms, accessed by long corridors.
\nThe 1950s Timber School Building combines two standard DPW timber building types that demonstrate the evolution of timber classrooms in the post-war period – a classroom wing and a former Vocational Training Building.
\nDesigned to be extended over time, the classroom wing illustrates the evolution of a standard, modular classroom type, particularly through differences in window types between the earlier (1951, 53) and later (1956) sections. Characteristics of this type include its highset form with a north verandah, flat internal linings and classroom dimensions.
\nThe former Vocational Training Building retains the characteristics of its type, comprising a long timber building with verandah, and large rooms for manual training and domestic science classes, supplemented by smaller storage and training rooms.
|Through its elegant composition of formal and decorative elements, substantial size, face brick exterior and high quality materials, the Depression-era Brick School Building at Toowoomba North State School has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, by which the Department of Public Works sought to convey the concepts of progress and permanence.
\nThe building’s assertive massing, classically-influenced design, and elegant composition contribute to its dignified streetscape presence, and contrast with the surrounding small-scale residences and commercial premises. Prominently sited on a corner, the building is a landmark for the area.
|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.
\nToowoomba North State School has a strong and ongoing association with the Toowoomba community. It was established in 1869 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of Toowoomba children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Toowoomba and is a prominent community focal point and gathering place for social and commemorative events with widespread community support.
","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":null,"place_ref":650037,"name":"Harristown State High School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"341-367 South Street","suburb":"HARRISTOWN","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2016-08-19","description":"Harristown State High School occupies an 11.16 ha rectangular site that is located in the suburb of Harristown, on the western edge of Toowoomba. The site slopes gently down towards the north, and is accessed by a slightly curved driveway leading from South Street at the southern end of the site. The site is also accessed by Hennessy Street (east) and is bounded by Stephen Street (north) and Concordia Lutheran College (west). The school retains a complex of seven buildings (1954-1961, some with later extensions) linked by covered walkways, with courtyard assembly and play spaces between the buildings, located in the southeastern corner of the site. The landscaped grounds are well established, and include mature trees, and playing fields at the western and northern ends of the site.
\nThe seven significant buildings within the school complex are:
\nEvidence of early site planning of the school grounds remains and is typical of Queensland schools during the 1950s, with splayed, long and narrow buildings linked around courtyard play spaces and centralised around a nucleus. Blocks B, C, D and the Administration Block are arranged in a staggered, approximately parallel and axially east-west formation, and Blocks K and L are approximately perpendicular to Block B on a north-south axis. The covered links between the Administration Block and the west ends of Blocks B and C, and between the east end of Block B and Blocks K and L, are also evidence of early site planning.
\nWith the exception of the Administration Block and Oslo Lunch Canteen, the blocks are long, timber and brick buildings with profiled metal-clad gable roofs. Most external walls are clad in timber chamferboards, with some featuring face brick end walls, and face brick and glazed stair enclosures. Most soffits are lined in flat sheeting with rounded cover strips, and all bag racks are timber-framed with profiled metal exterior cladding. All metal-framed windows are modern and are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nAdministration Block (1957-8)
\nThe Administration Block is a lowset, single-story, timber-framed and masonry structure that is sheltered by a low-pitch gable roof clad in profiled metal sheeting. The building is comprised of two wings: the original, 1957-8 wing to the north; and a later, c1985-6 wing to the south (the southern wing is not of cultural heritage significance). The exterior of the northern wing is generally clad in metal sheets, with stone walls featured in the southwestern corner and a facebrick feature wall forming the eastern elevation. Original angled concrete steps, concrete pavers and two face brick flower-boxes have been retained in the northwestern corner of the building, and a concrete garden plot survives east of the building, south of a raised concrete slab.
\nThe original open-plan internal layout of the northern wing is discernible, although lightweight partitions now enclose some of the former circulation and waiting areas. The wing is accessed via two internal corridors: one that runs along the southern edge of the wing, and another, separated by an exposed stone wall, that runs north-south at the western end of the building. The southern corridor has been extended to the west through an opening cut in the stone wall. Opening off the southern corridor are eastern toilets and a cleaner’s room, a central (eastern) sick bay, a central (western) office space and a western printing room. Two office spaces are located west of, and modern walls enclose an office to the east of, the western corridor. Interior walls and ceilings are lined in flat sheeting and plaster, with the exception of the exposed stone walls. Modern carpet and linoleum lining the floors and modern cabinetry are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nWindows retained in the building include timber-framed awnings and louvres. All doors are modern replacements; with the southern location of the door to the southern toilet moved to the west (the original location is identifiable through retained framing).
\nTimber School Building with timber floor trusses (Block B; 1954)
\nThe Timber School Building with timber floor trusses (Block B) is a two-storey building that has north-facing verandahs and a timber floor truss system supporting the first floor. Western and eastern timber stairs provide access to the first floor verandah. The chamferboards are vented at the apex of the gable-end walls and face brick walls enclose the ground floor western amenities (now rendered on the northern face) and ground-floor portion of the western stair. The southern eaves are supported by timber brackets. The stairs are enclosed in large, timber-framed screens of fixed and wired glazing – the eastern stair has been relocated from its original position, and has a brick flower box to its north.
\nThe verandah has a low-pitched roof that is set below clerestory windows and is supported by continuous (ground to ceiling) timber posts. The ground floor verandah has a concrete slab floor and a flat, profiled metal ceiling; while the first floor verandah has a timber floor and a ceiling lined in flat sheeting with rounded cover strips and raked at a low angle. Bag racks form the northern balustrade, with timber three-rail balustrades located adjacent to the stairs.
\nThe interior of the first floor is divided into six classrooms with a narrow office at the western end. The ground floor comprises western amenities, eastern classrooms with dividing store rooms, and central classrooms (enclosing a former open recreation area). The walls and ceilings of most classrooms are lined in flat sheeting with rounded cover strips, and timber portal trusses are visible within the ground floor spaces. Modern carpet, tile and linoleum floor linings are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nTimber joinery has been retained throughout the building, including banks of timber-framed, top-hung awning windows with centre-pivoting fanlights to the south; half-glazed and panelled timber doors within classrooms, and V-jointed (VJ) timber board-lined interior doors within the bathrooms. Most northern windows remain in the same location, but are modern replacements and most louvres on the ground floor north wall have been replaced with fixed lights (marks within the timber frame indicate the original fixed-louvre configuration). All verandah doors and most verandah windows are modern replacements and door openings between the central classrooms on the first floor have been enclosed with flat sheeting (timber framing indicates their former locations). An early laboratory teaching desk is retained in the easternmost ground floor classroom, and early metal pendant lights are located in the easternmost first floor classroom. Some classrooms also retain cupboards with sloping whiteboards above.
\nTimber School Building with open web steel floor trusses (Block C; 1959-60)
\nThe Timber School Building with open web steel floor trusses (Block C) features face brick and profiled metal-clad end walls, and an open web steel floor truss system supported on lozenge-shaped, concrete columns. The ground floor spaces and stairs at the eastern and western ends are enclosed by face brick walls and the southern eaves are supported by timber brackets. There is a concrete garden box north of the eastern stairs. The building’s verandahs face northwest, and the masonry addition that connects to the western end of the first floor verandah is not of cultural heritage significance.
\nThe verandah has a low-pitched roof set below clerestory windows; with the ground floor verandah featuring a concrete slab floor rising in height at the western end, a profiled metal-clad ceiling, and exposed cantilevered trusses. The first floor verandah has circular metal posts, flat sheet-lined ceilings and bag racks that form the balustrade.
\nThe first floor contains six classrooms separated from a larger eastern classroom by a narrow store. The ground floor interior comprises eastern amenities, and a former recreation area to the west that is now enclosed to form a large storage and office space and a classroom. The floor-level of the storage and office space is set above the remainder of the floor, and the easternmost toilets have been converted to locker enclosures, with timber framing retained and indicating their original location. Most walls on the first floor are lined above dado level in flat sheets with rounded cover strips, below dado level in flat sheeting, and the ceilings are of plaster. The ground floor walls are generally face and painted brick or are lined in flat sheeting. Trusses are exposed in most ground level rooms, although some have been boxed in with plasterboard. The former Physics laboratory retains a timber-framed rolling blackboard.
\nWindows to the south and east are generally banks of timber-framed awning windows, with the southern windows including centre-pivoting fanlights, and those to the north are timber-framed double-hung sashes. The clerestory windows are timber-framed with centre-pivoting sashes, and windows to the amenities are timber-framed louvres. Timber half-glazed and panelled doors connecting the five westernmost classrooms and the two easternmost classrooms and store are retained. All doors to the verandah are modern replacements.
\nOslo Lunch Canteen (1959)
\nThe Oslo Lunch Canteen stands to the south of the west end of Block C. It is a small, rectangular building with southern, eastern and western walls of face brick below sill height and fixed, wired glazing above. The northern wall, including windows and doors, is an addition and is not of cultural heritage significance. All double-hung sashes and metal window grates are also modern.
\nThe interior comprises a single room, with a ceiling lined in flat sheets with rounded cover-strips, and painted brick walls. The carpet floor lining is modern.
\nTimber Vocational Building, former domestic science (Block K; 1955, extended 1963, 1972)
\nThe former domestic science Timber Vocational Building (Block K) is a lowset, single-storey, timber-framed building with a western verandah. Its northern end-wall is clad in vertical timber weatherboards, the southern end-wall is facebrick, and the eastern eaves are supported by timber struts. The building is accessed via small timber and concrete stairs to the west and north and a modern concrete ramp to the southwest. There is a brick flower box on the northeast corner of the building.
\nThe verandah has a raked ceiling lined in flat sheets with rounded cover strips, square timber posts and bag racks that form the balustrade. The floor is timber, with the exception of the southern end, which is of coloured concrete.
\nThe interior comprises a northern classroom (formerly two): separated from a large, central domestic science (home economics, some dividing walls removed) room by a western store (with a small eastern extension); and two southern classrooms separated by three store rooms (two of which were formerly fitting rooms). The walls and ceilings of the northern classroom and domestic science room are plastered, while those in the southern classrooms are lined in flat sheeting. Some classrooms retain cupboards under sloping whiteboards. The southern wall of the southernmost classroom is face brick. Carpets and linoleum floor linings are modern and not of cultural heritage significance.
\nThe eastern wall has a large, continuous bank of timber-framed awning windows with centre-pivoting fanlights; and the western wall contains timber-framed double-hung sashes with centre-pivoting fanlights. Doors throughout the building are modern replacements, with some verandah doors boarded over with flat sheeting.
\nTimber Vocational Building, former manual training (Block L; 1955, extended 1957, 1959)
\nThe former manual training Timber Vocational Building (Block L) is a highset, single-storey, timber-framed building that is set on concrete stumps, and has an western verandah. The southern wall is face brick and extends beyond the building and out to the east; and the eastern eaves are supported by timber struts. The understorey is used as storage space and is enclosed with rendered masonry walls and timber battening. Access to the building is via southern timber stairs, northwestern concrete stairs and a modern ramp at the southern end of the building (the ramp is not of cultural heritage significance).
\nThe verandah has a timber floor, timber posts, balustrades formed by bag racks and a raked ceiling clad in flat sheeting. The northern end is enclosed in wired, fixed glazing.
\nThe interior comprises four classrooms, with two store rooms connected to the southern side of the southern classroom. Doors connect the two southernmost and the two northernmost classrooms. All interior walls are lined in flat sheeting (the two southernmost classrooms have rounded cover strips). The ceilings of the two northern classrooms are of plaster and those in the southern classrooms are lined in flat sheeting with rounded cover strips. Most classrooms retain timber-framed rolling blackboards, or cupboards under sloping whiteboards.
\nThe eastern wall has a large, continuous bank of timber-framed awning windows with centre-pivoting fanlights; and the western wall contains timber-framed double-hung sashes with centre-pivoting fanlights. The three northernmost classrooms retain early timber half glazed and panelled doors, with interior doors in a similar style also retained between classrooms. Panelled, high-waisted timber doors are also retained. Modern doors to the southern ends of the southernmost classrooms are recent replacements and are not significant.
\nBlock D – Timber School Building with Steel Open Web Floor Trusses (Block D; 1961)
\nThe Timber School Building with Metal Open Web Floor Trusses (Block D) is a long, two storey building with cantilevered metal open web floor trusses supported on rectangular concrete columns and a northern verandah. The eastern and western end walls and some ground floor enclosures are facebrick, with the remainder of the building’s exterior clad in flat sheets and profiled metal. Concrete stairs, located at the eastern and western ends of the building, provide access to the first floor verandah and classrooms and have metal handrails.
\nThe first floor verandah has a timber floor, square timber posts and bag racks that form a balustrade; while the ground floor verandah has a concrete slab floor, profiled metal ceiling, circular metal posts and bag racks. The first floor verandah walls are of recent flat sheeting.
\nThe first floor contains three (formerly four; wall removed) central classrooms, with store and staff rooms to the east and west. Walls have been added to the central classroom to form a store room; and a wall has been added to one of the eastern store rooms to form two spaces. The ground floor comprises a central store room, classroom and tuckshop, with eastern and western toilets, and store rooms located south of the stairwells. A brick wall has been removed from the classroom space, and a modern partition has been added at the eastern end to form an additional store room. A recent wall also extends the tuckshop to the north. Interior walls are generally line with flat sheets with rounded cover strips and plaster. Facebrick walls are exposed in the stairwells and amenities. Floor trusses have been boxed over with plasterboard in some ground floor spaces.
\nThe first floor retains some early panelled and half-glazed timber doors to the verandah, although most interior door openings have been boarded over or are modern replacements. Some timber-framed louvres and awnings have been retained in the southern elevation; although all fanlights and verandah windows are modern replacements.
\nLandscape Elements
\nThe school grounds are well established, with sporting facilities including a large oval, which is marked by a curved post and rail timber fence, west of the main school building complex; four early tennis courts to the north of the oval; and three playing fields at the north end of the school grounds.
\nThe splayed open courtyard spaces between blocks B and C, and C and D, which were formed as part of the 1950s and early 1960s planning, are sealed in bitumen and are used as open play-space. Metal-framed shade structures with profiled metal roof cladding and concrete slab floors form covered connections between the significant school buildings.
\nA curved entrance driveway, running approximately northeast from the South Street school entrance to the Administration Block, is lined on either side by an avenue of established trees. Other mature trees, planted during the school’s first 15 years of operation, are located along South Street; in an east-west line south of Block J; and in a line extending southeast from the end of Block K.
\nA decorative metal archway set on concrete plinths is located at the Hennessey Street entrance and features ‘HARRISTOWN STATE HIGH SCHOOL’ in metal lettering. To the south of the archway are two brick piers at an older entrance.
\nOther Structures
\nAll other buildings and structures within the heritage boundary are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Harristown State High School (SHS) opened on its present site in 1955, due to post-World War II (WWII) growth in the population of Toowoomba and its suburb of Harristown. In 2016 Harristown SHS retains seven buildings initially constructed during 1954-61, some with later extensions. These include Block B (Timber School Building with timber floor trusses, 1954); Block L (former manual training Timber Vocational Building, 1955, extended c1957, 1959); Block K (former domestic science Timber Vocational Building, 1955, extended 1963, 1972); the northern section of the Administration Block (1957-8); Block C (Timber School Building with open web steel floor trusses, 1959-60); an Oslo Lunch Canteen (1959), and Block D (Timber School Building with open web steel floor trusses, 1961). The school also retains its 1950s site planning; covered links between the Administration Block and Blocks B and C, and between Blocks B, K and L; early brick or concrete flower boxes adjacent to the Administration Block, and Blocks B, C and K; a curved driveway from South Street; pedestrian gates from Hennessy Street; sports oval; tennis courts; northern playing fields; and mature trees. The school has been in continuous operation since establishment.
\nThe establishment and growth of Harristown SHS is a direct result of the growth of Toowoomba, Queensland’s largest inland city. European settlement of the Toowoomba area, traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, commenced in 1840 when squatters occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. At the junction of two routes to Gorman's and Hodgson's gaps through the Main Range, the small settlement of Drayton evolved from 1842 as a stopping place for pastoralists and travellers. Six kilometres to its north-east was an area known as ‘The Swamp’ – renamed Toowoomba by 1859 – which was first surveyed in 1849 as 12 suburban allotments of Drayton. [1]
\nToowoomba grew rapidly, due to its superior land and water supply, support from squatters and land speculators, and, from 1855, an easier route to Brisbane via The Toll Road. Toowoomba was declared a municipality in July 1860, and by the 1861 census it was clear that Toowoomba had eclipsed Drayton.[2] The railway arrived in 1867 (connecting to Brisbane in 1876), and Toowoomba’s economy diversified to include numerous small-scale manufacturing outlets, while the majority of administrative, service and other government and education functions for the surrounding region were centred on the town.[3] Toowoomba was also popular as a summer retreat for the colony’s elite. It was declared a city in 1904.
\nToowoomba was an early centre for education, with the first National School (later Toowoomba South State School) opening in 1865.[4] National schools, established in 1848 in New South Wales, were continued in Queensland following the colony’s creation in 1859. Following the introduction of the Education Act 1860, Queensland’s national and public schools grew from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875.[5] The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents, and teachers.[6]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[7]
\nThe first school in Harristown was a state school, located about 2km southwest of the centre of Toowoomba, opened in 1911, south of South Street (just southeast of the later SHS site).[8] At this time Toowoomba’s population was 10,636.[9] Harristown had been established when subdivisions from the Harristown Estate were sold from 1902.[10] Overcrowding at Harristown State School soon led to the opening of an Open Air Annex building at the school in 1915, and the school was increased to five acres in size in 1919.[11]
\nHarristown State School’s enrolment continued to rise after WWII, increasing from 237 in 1947, when the school was already overcrowded, to 630 in 1960.[12] This reflected Toowoomba’s post-war population, which rose by 30% between 1947 and 1957, from 35,194 to 45,900. Its municipal boundaries expanded; suburbs developed, and amenities and services increased. Growth in its primary and secondary industries also increased, construction projects provided a boom for the local building industry, and tourist numbers grew. Improvements to the Central Business District (CBD), delayed by WWII, began in earnest in the 1950s.[13]
\nThe Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nation-wide occurrence resulting from immigration and the unprecedented population growth now termed the ‘baby boom’. Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.[14]
\nIn 1953, the Acting Head Teacher at Harristown State School reported to the Department of Public Instruction (renamed the Department of Education in 1957) that there was considerable building activity in the Harristown area; that more families were moving into the ‘Stephen St Hut area’, as previous families moved out; and that ‘the greater part of the Harristown population consists of young families’.[15]
\nThe Stephen Street Hut area was a former military camp. During WWII, two Australian defence facilities, 3 Advanced Ordnance Depot (AOD) and 6 Advanced Workshop (AEME), were established just east of the Gore Highway, to the northwest of the later site of Harristown SHS. The camp for 3 AOD (west of the Gore Highway) was occupied by squatters by 1947, while the Workshop camp’s buildings (north of Stephens Street, northeast of the school site) were leased to the Queensland Housing Commission from about 1949 to 1954.[16]
\nPost-war population growth, including the construction of Housing Commission homes in Harristown, not only impacted on the Harristown State School, but also led to a state high school being established opposite, to the north of South Street.
\nIn Queensland, governments were slow to establish state secondary education, considering this to be of little relevance to Queensland's primary industry-based economy. The Grammar Schools Act 1860 provided scholarships for high-achieving students to attend elite grammar schools, although few were awarded. It was not until 1912 that the government instituted a high school system, whereby separate high schools were established in major towns or, where the student population was too small, a primary school was expanded to include a 'high top'. High tops were an economical measure that provided essentially the same education while utilising already established facilities. In Queensland generally, high schools remained few in number until after WWII when secondary education was generally accepted as essential and was more widely provided for.[17]
\nIn the 1950s the number of high schools in Queensland increased significantly. In 1954 it was reported that high school enrolments had almost doubled since 1948, from 4500 to nearly 11,000. About 50 sites had been acquired, most with an area of 20 acres, and by 1954 there were 30 state high schools.[18]
\nToowoomba State High School (est. 1919) was no longer sufficient for the city’s secondary student population. In late 1954 Queensland’s Education Minister, George H Devries, noted that state high schools would open at Innisfail, Harristown, and Southport in 1955, as the ‘pressure of enrolments had made the establishment of high schools necessary at these three centres’. At Toowoomba, ‘the technical and high school was now so large that it was necessary to establish a separate high school’.[19]
\nReflecting the growth of suburbanisation and a move towards a decentralised population in urban centres, new high schools were located in suburban areas rather than the centre of town. The grounds were large, providing ample room for sports facilities. The general classroom buildings were the same standard types as used for primary schools but high schools also included purpose-built science laboratories, domestic science buildings, workshops for woodwork and metal work, libraries, and gymnasiums. These were also built to standard plans but were specific to their use and not a continuation of previous designs.[20]
\nAdditionally, there was a focus on the fit between the school and its neighbourhood, as well as site planning for expansion and ideal solar orientation. In the early 1950s, architects developed master planning concepts that influenced the design and layout of the whole school. Initially, these plans were broadly based on regular and symmetrical plan forms around a central or prominent axis.[21] This concept was replaced a few years later by architects planning for growth and change. There was a shift away from grid-like layouts to organic layouts. Nuclear plans were designed, centred on a reception building with classroom wings connected to and fanning away from the nucleus. The primary focus was the ideal solar orientation of buildings. Interest was also shown in developing schemes that related to the natural contours and existing vegetation. Unlike the more formal and symmetrical plans of previous periods, new plans were developed that tended to be asymmetrical and more open. The long, narrow buildings were positioned so that the spaces captured between them were triangular, opening out into the landscape.[22] The layout of Harristown SHS appears to have been organic in form, from the beginning.
\nThe Harristown SHS site was reserved c1950, and included 21 acres (8.5ha) of land east of Hennessy Street, between South Street in the South, and Stephens Street in the north.[23] This school reserve, Portion 907 (R1014), absorbed a surveyed road (Rivett Street). A neighbouring 6.6 acres (2.7ha) to the west was purchased by the Secretary for Public Instruction in 1950, forming the current 27.6 acre (11.2ha) grounds. [24] Just west of the SHS site was ‘Redlands’, a brick residence built in 1889 on 28 acres for Edmund Wilcox. This land had been dedicated as Concordia College, a co-educational Lutheran Boarding School, in 1946.[25]
\nThe construction of Harristown SHS was approved in September 1954, at a cost of £44,014, and the first building (called Block B in 2016) was ready for the start of the 1955 school year. [26] Although a July 1954 site plan of the school shows an Administration Block to the west of four school buildings (three of them grouped around an assembly area), a curved access driveway from South Street, a sports oval, and four tennis courts, in May 1955 Block B was still the only building on the bare school grounds, and the oval was not yet formed.[27] The 1954 site plan also shows an ‘existing flagpole’, just north of where Block B would be built.[28]
\nFrom 1950 the Department of Public Instruction introduced and developed new standard plans for school buildings. These buildings were high-set timber-framed structures and the understorey was used as covered play space. Introduced in 1950, the principal type (F/T4) was a long and narrow building with a gable roof. A semi-enclosed stair connected the understorey to a north facing verandah running the length of the building. Classrooms opened off the verandah and had extensive areas of windows; almost the entirety of the verandah wall and the opposite classroom wall were glazed, allowing abundant natural light and ventilation. This type was the most commonly constructed in the 1950s in Queensland.[29]
\nIn 1954 the type was improved by replacing the proliferation of stumps in the understorey with a timber truss that spanned the width of the classroom and provided an unimpeded play space. This concept was further refined in 1957 by replacing the timber truss with a steel open-web joist that spanned further and removed more understorey stumps. This structural system was employed with reinforced concrete piers to support large loads at minimal costs.[30] This was further refined in 1959 by replacing the concrete piers and open-web joist with a steel portal frame that was employed extensively in the 1960s and 1970s.[31]
\nBlock B was a Timber School Building with timber floor trusses. This type, built from 1954-60, was highset with either 21ft (6.4m) or 24ft (7.3m) wide classrooms, and often had clerestory windows above the verandah wall. Their timber-framed floor trusses provided play space underneath the building.[32]
\nBlock B initially included (from the east end, ground floor) a science lecture room; a store and science store; a science laboratory; an open student recreation area; a cleaner’s room, switch room, and girls lavatory; and a boys locker room, boys lavatory, and a staff lavatory. On the upper floor (from the east) was a commercial room 32ft by 24ft (9.8m by 7.3m); then four 24ft (7.3m) square classrooms with folding partitions between them. Two temporary staff rooms with temporary partitions occupied a fifth classroom space, and at the west end of the building there was a temporary principal’s office and waiting space, occupying a future cloak room, 24ft by 12ft (7.3m by 3.7m). An 8ft (2.4m) verandah ran along the northern side of the building, with enclosed hat and bag racks, and stairs at each end; the west end stairs were enclosed with brick and glass, while the stairs at the east end were temporary.[33] There were centre-pivoting clerestory windows between the northern verandah roof and the eaves; and probably louvre windows in the verandah wall. The southern windows were either centre-pivoting or awning (top-hung) windows.[34]
\nHarristown SHS soon included manual training and domestic science wings. Vocational education was a Queensland Government priority to support the development of primary industries; and after World War I this led to the establishment of a variety of subjects. Vocational training within primary education began in 1895 with drawing classes and expanded to include domestic sciences, agriculture, and sheet metal and wood working classes. The subjects required a variety of purpose-built facilities and were initially gender segregated.[35] Standard, purpose-designed vocational buildings were first introduced in 1928. In 1936 the Minister for Education permitted students to take vocational subjects in lieu of geography or history in the Junior Examination, increasing the subjects' popularity.[36]
\nTwo Timber Vocational Buildings were constructed at Harristown SHS in 1955. This type, built 1954-5, was usually highset on timber or concrete stumps, with a verandah, and was externally clad in chamferboards.[37] Both buildings were located to the east of Block B, almost at right angles to the earlier building.
\nThe first to be constructed was the manual training block (Block L in 2016), northeast of Block B. Block L was highset on ground sloping down to the north, with brick walls to the east and south sides of the undercroft. Large banks of centre-pivoting and awning windows on the east side were sheltered under strutted eaves. There was a store and staff room in an 8ft (2.4m) section at the south end; then a sheet metal room 24ft by 24ft (7.3m by 7.3m); and a woodwork room 32ft by 24ft (9.8m by 7.3m). There was a 6.5ft (2m) wide verandah on the west side, and awning windows on the east side. Bike racks and a timber store were located under the west side of the building. [38]
\nThe domestic science block (Block K in 2016), was lowset on sloping ground, with brick walls to the east and north sides of the undercroft. Located southeast of Block B, it had a lecture room 24ft by 20ft (7.3m by 6.1m) at the north end; a cookery room 24ft by 20ft (7.3m by 6.1m); small dining, fitting and staff rooms in a 12ft (3.7m) bay; and a dressmaking room 24ft by 20ft (7.3m by 6.1m) at the south end. Blocks K and L were joined to the east end of Block B by a covered and paved area, with a flower box at the northeast corner of Block K. Around this time the present steps down from the first floor of the east end of Block B were added, enclosed in brick and glass with a flower box to the north. There was a 6.5ft (2m) verandah along the west side of Block K, to which awning windows (not extant in 2016) were added c1957, between the verandah posts. [39]
\nHarristown’s new Administration Block was a result of growth at the school, ‘where an administrative unit of this pleasing character [had] become necessary’.[40] The Administration Block (the northern section of Block Z in 2016) was added to the west of Block B c1957-8.[41] Connected to the northwest corner of the ground floor of Block B by a covered way, it included concrete paved indoor-outdoor areas; a raised concrete dais and a garden plot to the northeast; male and female toilets at the east end of the building; two staff rooms to the west; offices for the Principal and Deputy Principal at the west end of the building; and two brick flower boxes and a raised area of concrete pavers outside the northwest entrance. The building was sheeted with metal, with stone feature walls at the southwest corner and a brick wall at the east end, and had clerestory windows on the south side.[42] The use of stone was a deliberate move to improve the aesthetics of the school. In 1959 it was noted that, as high schools grew, they needed ‘elements of maturity’, the aim being ‘to develop pride in the school and to supplement academic education with desirable aesthetic experience’.[43]
\nThe school continued to grow, requiring additions in the late 1950s. A new 24ft by 24ft (7.3m by 7.3m) classroom was added to the north end of the manual training Timber Vocational Building, Block L, in 1957; along with bike racks underneath. Stairs at the north end of the verandah descended in front of the temporary masonite sheeted wall used at the north end of the block. Although floor plans at this time showed two additional rooms, the second (northernmost) room was not built until 1959. [44]
\nA new classroom wing (Block C in 2016) was also constructed c.1959-60, set at an angle to, and north of, Block B and an assembly area. Block C was a Timber School Building with open web steel floor trusses. This type, built 1957-60, was highset and timber-framed, with classrooms either 24ft (7.3m) square or 24ft by 21ft (7.3m by 6.4m). Like the timber floor trusses on earlier buildings, the open web steel floor trusses provided unimpeded space at ground level. Timber awning windows were used extensively on southern walls, with louvres to the verandah wall (at Harristown, double-hung sash windows were used in the verandah wall instead). External cladding was chamferboards.[45]
\nWhen completed, the ground floor of Block C included: a store under the stairs (which were enclosed with brick and wired glass, with a flower box to the north) at the eastern end of the building; girls toilet and locker room; store and staff toilet; covered recreation and assembly area; and a dais (raised area) at the west end. There was also seating set around the perimeter of the open areas. The upper floor, from the east, included: a physics lab 32ft by 18ft (9.8m by 5.5m); cloakroom and store; a physics lecture room 24ft (7.3m) square; then five 24ft (7.3m) square classrooms. A 6.5ft (2m) verandah ran along most of the north side, excluding the east end. The upper floor was supported on open web steel trusses and lozenge-shaped reinforced concrete columns; and brick walls were used at the ends of the building, for parts of the ground floor, and for enclosing the stairs; with metal cladding elsewhere. There were awning windows on the south side, double-hung sash windows to the northern verandah, and clerestory windows above the verandah roof. Block C appears to have been built in two stages: the western four classrooms first, with the remainder added c1960. [46]
\nThe manual training Timber Vocational Building, Block L, was also extended to the north in 1959, with a new 24’ (7.3m) square classroom; and concrete steps and a flower box (latter not extant 2016) were added at the north end of the verandah.[47] In the same year a new section of covered walkway was constructed between the Administration Block and the west end of Block C, with the addition of a health services room at the west end of the upper floor of Block C, west of the stairs; and an Oslo Lunch Canteen to the south of, and separate from, the southwest corner of the ground floor of Block C.[48] The lunch canteen was initially built with three half-height brick walls (being open to the north) with fixed wired glass windows over (to the west, south and east) and the north side has since been enclosed.[49]
\nOslo canteens offered healthy lunches, based on the Norwegian nutritious lunch movement.[50] A trial of the ‘Oslo lunch’ in a Victorian school in 1940 found that the lunch, which included a salad sandwich on wholemeal bread, a bottle of milk and a piece of fruit, helped children gain weight, increased their energy, and assisted the healing of minor wounds. The program soon spread around Australia.[51]
\nIn 1961 the complex of school buildings was extended further north with the addition of another Timber School Building with open web steel floor trusses (Block D in 2016), north of, and connected by a covered walkway to, Block C. Block D had two floors, with brick end walls and metal wall cladding. The ground floor included open space around a tuckshop; with a library and library work room to the east; and toilets, cleaners rooms and stairwells at each end. The first floor had four classrooms in the middle, with store rooms, staff rooms, locker rooms and stairwells at each end. By 1961 the oval had been formed west of the school buildings, and basketball courts constructed south of the oval. [52]
\nHarristown SHS needed more room in the 1960s, especially since Grade 8 students were transferred to Queensland high schools for the 1964 school year.[53] A number of new buildings and additions were thus constructed in 1963. An additional classroom block (Block A in 2016) was constructed south of Block B;[54] a new manual training block (Block M in 2016) was added north of Block L;[55] and the domestic science Timber Vocational Building, Block K, was extended to the south – two new dressmaking rooms were added, and the existing southern (dressmaking) classroom was reconfigured with new partitions, to incorporate the north end of a new classroom and a new fitting room, store and staffroom. The existing cookery room was extended to the south, and a laundry was created on the site of the old dining room. A new covered way linked Block K to Block A.[56]
\nA two-storey science block (Block H in 2016) followed c1965, to the west of Blocks C and D, although it was not present in a July 1965 aerial photograph. The latter showed the school had seven blocks (Blocks A, B, C, D, K, L and M) by mid-1965, plus the Administration Block. Five rows of long, narrow structures, north of a vehicle entrance from Hennessy Street to the north of Block M, were probably bicycle sheds. [57]
\nThe school grounds had had also been developed by 1965. The oval had tennis courts to the north (extant 2016) and basketball courts (not extant in 2016) to the south. There were also gardens and/or paths between Hennessy Street and the link between Blocks K and L. There was a pedestrian gate to Hennessy Street in this vicinity, marked on a 1972 plan, and two brick piers survive in 2016. [58] Just north of the brick piers, there is another pedestrian gateway in 2016, with a metal archway reading ‘Harristown State High School’, mounted on concrete plinths.
\nThe school grounds also included shade trees. By 1965 there were trees planted either side of the curved driveway from South Street; along South Street east of the driveway; south of Block A; in a line heading southeast from the south end of K Block; and north along Hennessy Street from South Street. Trees were also planted along the street frontage west of the South Street entrance driveway by 1971.[59]
\nHarristown SHS continued to expand from the late 1960s, with a new classroom block (the west end of Block E in 2016) built in 1966, and extended to the east in 1969. [60] An assembly hall (Block G in 2016) was also built c1967.[61] A library (Block J in 2016) was constructed, south of Block A, in 1970-1.[62]
\nBy 1971, when the population of Toowoomba was 59,524, the ground floor of Block B included two classrooms in the former open student recreation area. The western central staff room of the Administration Block was divided into a typist room and store area. Block C’s ground floor covered recreation area and assembly area was enclosed for a TV room at the west end, a projection room, then a ‘temporary only’ girls locker room at the east end; while the western dais was ‘temporary only’ boys lockers.[63]
\nThe domestic science Timber Vocational Building, Block K, was extended in 1972, again to south, with a new dressmaking room, plus two fitting rooms and a storeroom. The northern dressmaking room in the 1963 extension was converted into a cookery room, and a new partition was added to form a dining room south of the cookery room in the 1955 section of block.[64] A toilet block (Block F in 2016) was constructed north of Block E between 1972 and 1974,[65] and the school’s three northern sports fields and embankments were also formed c1974.[66] A music centre (Block N in 2016) was constructed southwest of the Administration Block c1979;[67] and the Administration Block was extended to the south c1985, with changes to its original room configuration occurring at this time.[68]
\nAlthough more buildings have since been added to the school, the complex of 1954-61 buildings with later extensions remains at the core of the school. In 2016, Harristown SHS continues to operate from its original site on South Street. The school is important to the area as a focus for the community, and generations of students have been taught there. With over 1500 students, it is the largest secondary school on the Darling Downs.[69]
","criteria":"Harristown State High School (established in 1955) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with sporting facilities.
\nThe layout of the administration and classroom blocks, the covered links between them and associated open spaces, reflect the early 1950s introduction of master planning, which provided for ordered growth from a nucleus.
\nThe Timber School Building with timber floor trusses (1954) and the two Timber School Buildings with open web steel floor trusses (1959-60, and 1961) represent the evolution of Department of Public Works designs during the mid to late 1950s to allow for unimpeded play space under highset timber school buildings.
\nThe former domestic science and manual training Timber Vocational Buildings (both 1955) reflect the Queensland Government’s focus on vocational training as a way of ensuring the state’s economic prosperity.
\nThe northern section of the Administration Block (1957-8) represents a move away from the austerity of the early 1950s to a more permanent aesthetic, incorporating masonry elements.
\nThe Oslo Lunch Canteen (1959) is important surviving evidence of the spread of a Norwegian ‘healthy lunch’ movement through Queensland’s schools in the post-World War II (WWII) era.
|Harristown State High School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state high school of the 1950s. These include its 1950s site planning; range of highset and lowset timber-framed teaching buildings of standard and individual designs that incorporated understorey play areas, verandahs, and classrooms with high levels of natural light and ventilation; and a generous, landscaped site with mature shade trees and assembly and sports areas.
\nFollowing 1950s site planning principles, the school includes five classroom blocks that all contribute to the general concept of splayed, long, narrow buildings linked around open ended courtyard assembly and play spaces, fanning out from the Administration Block.
\nThe ground level Administration Block, the covered links between it and Blocks B and C, and between Blocks B, K and L, and the courtyard spaces between the buildings, are characteristic of 1950s school design in Queensland.
\nThe Timber School Building with timber floor trusses and the 1959-60 Timber School Building with open web steel floor trusses are both good, intact examples of their type and demonstrate two iterations of the Department of Public Work’s standard designs: incorporating timber floor trusses for unimpeded play space under the classrooms, and later using steel trusses to achieve the same effect. Both buildings retain their: highset character with visible trusses under; large banks of south-facing timber-framed awning windows, with centre-pivoting fanlights; clerestory lighting above the northern verandah roof; and 24ft (7.3m) wide classrooms.
\nThe former domestic science and manual training Timber Vocational Buildings both retain their timber-framed construction, set on stumps, with verandahs.
|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.
\nHarristown State High School has a strong and ongoing association with the Harristown community. It was established in 1955 and generations of Harristown students have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Harristown and as a focus for the community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | 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 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":650050,"name":"Toowoomba East State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Cnr Arthur and Mary Streets","suburb":"EAST TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2017-07-28","description":"Toowoomba East State School occupies a large, 3.37ha site in East Toowoomba, fronting Arthur Street to the north and bounded by Mary Street to the east. A substantial Depression-era Brick School Building, Block A, stands at the front of the school grounds, surrounded by mature trees and gardens. Attractive views are had to and from the school and it is conspicuous in the area due to its handsome architecture, open playing fields, and impressive mature trees.
\nBlock A (1936)
\nBlock A is a symmetrical two-storey building set high on an open undercroft level and has a hipped and gabled roof clad with tiles. At the roof’s central peak is a prominent metal ventilation fleche with round cupola, visible from the surrounding residential neighbourhood. The building character expresses a composed simplicity through the use of attractive, simple, and low maintenance materials with minimal decorative features, including extensive use of glazed dark face bricks internally and externally contrasting with smooth-rendered concrete dressings and plain, regular fenestration.
\nThe building comprises an undercroft level of open play spaces below two levels of teaching rooms and its facades are defined horizontally with three materials: smooth-rendered masonry with lined coursing at undercroft level; facebrick for the first floor up to the sill level of the second floor; and painted roughcast render above. The building form is a long wing of classrooms with a centre stairwell. A long corridor across the front (north) of this wing provides access to the rooms. The corridor has simple rendered balustrades with square balusters; it has square openings on the first floor and arched openings on the second floor. However, these openings have been enclosed with later glazing that is not of cultural heritage significance. Projecting forward of the centre of the corridor is an entrance block of primarily teachers rooms, and at either end of the long wing is a short perpendicular wing comprising a classroom, a former cloak room, and a stairwell. The central entrance block and the end wings are emphasised by front-facing gable roofs with timber battening, banks of multi-paned timber-framed casement windows with fanlights, and window hoods supported by large timber brackets. At the centre of the entrance block is a branching cement rendered stair with simple metal balustrades. It leads up to the front arched doorway, which is flanked by narrow window openings and shaded by a window hood that features a battened triangular pediment.
\nThe building layout is highly intact, retaining its original configuration. The undercroft retains original perimeter seats, metal grilles to openings, and rounded corners to the brick pillars. However, some new lightweight partitions have been installed to create storage spaces, which are not of cultural heritage significance. The undercroft play area is connected to bitumen-surfaced play areas in front and behind the building via multiple openings and broad concrete steps.
\nThe first floor configuration comprises a short entrance hall with teachers rooms either side, leading to the corridor and classrooms behind. The wall between the corridor and the classrooms retains tall, double hung timber-framed windows, and French doors with fanlights, and although some French doors have been replaced with later doors, the fanlights survive throughout. However, the partitions between the classrooms of the centre wing have been removed to create larger classrooms, with nibs and bulkheads retained to indicate their former location. New partitions have been installed in one classroom and to enclose the cloak rooms for further staff rooms, and in the centre wing to create larger classrooms. These partitions are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nThe first and second floors are very similar configurations, with identical removal of partitions and similar insertion of new partitions.
\nOn both levels, the classrooms feature abundant natural light, simple timber joinery, and lofty ceilings. The corridors, cloak rooms, stairwells, and stairwells have smooth concrete ceilings, which is the original condition. The classrooms of the end wings retain the original sheets and battens lined ceilings but those of the centre wing are lined with recent flat sheet material and have modern cornices. The stairwells have simple iron balustrades with moulded clear-finished timber handrails and concrete stairs.
\nAt the stair landing between first and second floors of the centre stairwell, a set of timber-framed, glazed French doors lead out onto a narrow balcony that overlooks a parade ground immediately to the rear of the building. Capable of only accommodating one or two people, the balcony is the centre and focus of the southern facade composition, emphasised by a small projecting bay with a triangular pediment at the roofline bearing ‘1936’ in raised, rendered numerals, and including a moulded rendered architrave that stretches up to the second floor window above, topped by a stylised ‘keystone’. The balcony is supported by scrolled rendered brackets and has a simple metal balustrade with an attached metal flagpole. It draws attention through its use of decoration on an otherwise simple facade and being centred under the tall roof fleche.
\nAttached to the western end of Block A is a high-set one storey classroom building, Block B (by 1956), which is not of cultural heritage significance. A doorway has been cut into the rear (south) wall of the first floor stairway at this end of Block A to connect through to the building.
\nGrounds
\nThe grounds of the school are largely flat with open playing areas and other teaching buildings. The boundaries of the school have mature trees, including camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora) at regularly spaced intervals and other specimen trees, including jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia).
\nThe main front entrance to the school is emphasised with a metal arch with ‘EAST STATE SCHOOL’ in metal letters over a concrete path flanked by long, stone edged garden beds. This entrance is aligned with the centre of Block A.
\nOther stone edged garden beds stand around the base of Block A.
\nAt the rear of Block A is a large open bitumen-surfaced parade ground. This is a simple and plain area that provides an unfussy setting to and allows uninterrupted views of Block A, as well as an open and flexible playing and assembly space for the school.
\nAn early metal school bell stands on a tall post in the rear parade ground close to the southern wall of Block A.
\nOther buildings and structures are not of cultural heritage significance.
\nViews to Block A occur from the surrounding residential neighbourhood and Toowoomba East State School is an attractive and prominent element in the built landscape.
","history":"Toowoomba East State School (SS) opened in 1887, on its current site east of Queens Park [QHR 601607], to service the population growth in East Toowoomba at the time. The school is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. The school retains a Depression-era Brick School Building (Block A, 1936); set in landscaped grounds, with sporting facilities and mature trees. The school has been in continuous operation since its establishment.
\nTraditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, European settlement of the Toowoomba area commenced in 1840 when squatters occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. At the junction of two routes to Gorman's and Hodgson's gaps through the Main Range, the small settlement of Drayton evolved from 1842 as a stopping place for pastoralists and travellers. Six kilometres to its north-east was an area known as ‘The Swamp’ – renamed Toowoomba by 1859 – which was first surveyed in 1849 as 12 suburban allotments of Drayton.
\nToowoomba grew rapidly due to its superior land and water supply, support from squatters and land speculators, and, from 1855, providing an easier route to Brisbane via the Toll Bar Road. Toowoomba was declared a municipality in July 1860, and by the 1861 census it was clear that Toowoomba had eclipsed Drayton. The railway arrived in 1867 (connecting to Brisbane in 1876), and Toowoomba’s economy diversified to include numerous small-scale manufacturing outlets, while the majority of administrative, service and other government and education functions for the surrounding region were centred on the town. Toowoomba was also popular as a summer retreat for the colony’s elite. It was declared a city in 1904 and by 1911 had a population of 10,636.[1]
\nToowoomba was an early centre for education, with the area’s first National School (later Toowoomba South State School) opening in 1865.[2] The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of early/new communities and integral to their success. 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.[3]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.[4]
\nToowoomba East SS, opened on 17 January 1887, was established on a 2.5 acre (1ha) reserve for a National School at the corner of Mary Street and Margaret Street, which had been gazetted in 1872.[5] Although there was local pressure for a school in East Toowoomba from 1876, when fund raising by the community began, the population was not large enough to justify a state school. As a result of later population growth, the Queensland Government approved a school in East Toowoomba in October 1885. By this time the community had collected £200 of the £290 required as its one-fifth share of the £1433 construction cost, and the school was also initially referred to as Queen’s Park State School. The school consisted of a timber building set on brick piers, with two classrooms, close to the corner of Mary Street and Arthur Street. It was designed to accommodate 250 students, and had admitted 235 students by February 1887.[6]
\nGrowing student numbers – with 778 enrolled by 1927 – soon led to additions to Toowoomba East SS. By 1913 there were three timber buildings; a fourth (Infants) wing was added in 1928; and a fifth wing in 1932. A school residence, built in 1889, stood in the southeast corner of the reserve, fronting Mary Street; and a school bell on a stand was erected the same year.[7]
\nAs well as more buildings, the school required larger grounds to cater for growing student numbers. In 1926, 1.25 acres (0.5ha) of land was added.[8]
\nThe school was also beautified by tree plantings from 1888, including on the west side of the original school reserve and along its Arthur and Mary Street frontages. An important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. 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.[9] Twelve camphor laurels were planted along the west fence in 1898, to provide shelter from westerly winds and by 1922 Toowoomba East SS had ‘large camphor and other ornamental and shade trees’.[10]
\nThe school’s timber buildings were still not sufficient for student numbers, and in the mid-1930s a new brick school building was approved for Toowoomba East SS. The Great Depression, commencing in 1929 and extending well into the 1930s, caused a dramatic reduction of public building work in Queensland and brought private building work to a standstill. In response, the Queensland Government provided relief work for unemployed Queenslanders, and also embarked on an ambitious and important building program to provide impetus to the economy.
\nEven before the October 1929 stock market crash, the Queensland Government initiated an Unemployment Relief Scheme, through a work program administered by the Department of Public Works (DPW). This included painting and repairs to school buildings.[11] By mid-1930 men were undertaking grounds improvement works to schools under the scheme.[12]
\nIn June 1932 the Forgan Smith Labor Government came to power from a campaign that advocated increased government spending to counter the effects of the Depression. The government embarked on a large public building program designed to promote the employment of local skilled workers, the purchase of local building materials and the production of commodious, low maintenance buildings which would be a long-term asset to the state.[13] The construction of substantial brick school buildings in prosperous or growing suburban areas and regional centres during the 1930s provided tangible proof of the government’s commitment to remedy the unemployment situation.[14]
\nDepression-era Brick School Buildings form a recognisable and important type, exhibiting many common characteristics. Most were designed in a classical idiom to project the sense of stability and optimism which the government sought to convey through the architecture of its public buildings. Frequently, they were two storeys above an open undercroft and built to accommodate up to 1000 students. They adopted a symmetrical plan form and often exhibited a prominent central entry. The plan arrangement was similar to that of timber buildings, being only one classroom deep, accessed by a long straight verandah or corridor. Due to their long plan forms of multiple wings, they could be built in stages if necessary; resulting in some complete designs never being realised. Classrooms were commonly divided by folding timber partitions and the undercroft was used as covered play space, storage, ablutions and other functions. [15]
\nDespite their similarities, each Depression-era Brick School Building was individually designed by a DPW architect, which resulted in a wide range of styles and ornamental features being utilised within the overall set. These styles were derived from contemporary tastes and fashions. Over time, variations occurred in building size, decorative treatment, and climatic-responsive features.[16]
\nConstruction of the Depression-era Brick School Building (Block A in 2017) at Toowoomba East SS occurred during 1935-36, for a cost of £16,326.[17] The new building was sited parallel to, and facing, Arthur Street, after relocation of the old timber buildings. As the new building was only designed for 640 students, and enrolment was 1000 by the time it was officially opened on 8 May 1937 by JD Kane, the Member of the Legislative Assembly for East Toowoomba, it was necessary to retain at least four of the old timber buildings. These were relocated at a distance behind the new brick building to form a parade ground between them. The school residence was removed c1936.[18]
\nBlock A was constructed with three levels, consisting of an undercroft with two floors of eight classrooms above, for a total of 16 classrooms. The undercroft comprised play areas with concrete floors and drinking troughs and had openings leading out to the grounds via broad concrete stairs. The first and second floors had similar layouts. They comprised a long wing of six classrooms divided by a central stairwell. The eastern three classrooms had connecting doors; while the western three classrooms were separated by folding partitions, which could be opened to form a large assembly room. Each classroom was oriented so that students faced west to a wall-mounted hyloplate (blackboard) and had two large banks of windows on their south side, giving gentle southern natural left-hand light to students, forced to write with their right hand. A verandah-like, open corridor ran along the north side of the classrooms providing access. Projecting north from the corridor was a central entrance block. On the first floor this comprised an entry hall, reached from the front garden by a branching stair, with a head teachers and male teachers room, one either side of the hall. On the second floor, this block comprised a female teachers room and a cloak room. At each end of the long wing was a short perpendicular wing, comprising a stairwell, perpendicular corridor, cloak room and another classroom, which had north-facing windows and hyloplates on the east wall to ensure light from the ‘correct’ side. At the landing of the central stairwell between first and second floors was a balconette that opened out to the south side overlooking the parade ground behind.[19]
\nThe walls of the three storeys were differentiated, with painted cement render on the undercroft, exposed brickwork for the first floor up to the window sill height of the second floor, and painted cement render above that to the eaves line. Sunhoods, supported on substantial timber brackets, shaded all banks of windows on the first and second floors. The hipped and gabled roof was clad with asbestos cement shingles, and the three gables on the north side of the building were battened and clad with fibro-cement. A large ventilation fleche topped the centre of the roof above the entrance.[20]
\nDuring the 1950s further additions were made to the school’s accommodation and grounds. In 1955, additional land was added to the west side of the school grounds, resumed from neighbouring residential allotments. Later grounds extensions, to the west and south of the original school reserve, from the 1960s onwards, meant that by 2012 the grounds covered 3.4ha.[21] By 1956 a highset brick extension (Block B in 2017), with two classrooms had been constructed attached to the west end of the rear (south) of Block A.[22] This building was renovated in c2016, enclosing its verandahs and demolishing the wall between verandahs and classrooms to create larger teaching areas.
\nChanges were also made to Block A. In 1966, the cloak room at the west end of the first floor was converted into a Health Services room. In c1974, two classrooms at the east end of the first floor of the centre wing were used as staff rooms, while another classroom was used as the principal’s office, and another was divided in half by a partition to accommodate a store room and Health Services Room. One cloak room was converted to a store room while another was a converted to a work room. In c1979, the undercroft was partially enclosed with glass louvres and doors. The northern corridors were enclosed with glazing by 1997. In c1997, the centre wing was altered in ‘upgrading’ works. This involved partitioning the northern corridors on both floors to create practical learning areas; replacing the French doors from the corridor into the classrooms with a single wide door with a half leaf; demolishing partitions between the classrooms on both floors to create two classrooms out of each set of three; and relining the ceilings with flat sheets to provide fire proofing.[23]
\nChanges and additions to facilities since the 1960s have included: a school swimming pool (1966); new classroom buildings (1969-71); the removal of three of the early timber school buildings in the 1970s; a new library and a dental clinic facing Mary Street (1973); two pre-school buildings south of the swimming pool, near Margaret Street (by 1978); a Centenary Hall facing Arthur Street; covered ways south of Block A; and a new administration building north of Block A (1991). The last of the early school buildings, the 1928 Infants building (later designated the Clare Gormley Block), was demolished sometime between 2009 and 2011. In 2015, 807 students were enrolled.[24] Students utilise sports fields in Queens Park to the west, and the Clive Berghofer Stadium to the north.
\nIn 2017, Toowoomba East State School continues to operate from its original site, and its Depression-era Brick School Building is a local landmark. The school is important to the area as a focus for the community, and generations of students have been taught there.
Toowoomba East State School (established in 1887) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains an excellent, representative example of a government-designed school building that was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building (1936) is a result of the Queensland Government’s building and relief work programs during the 1930s that stimulated the economy and provided work for men unemployed as a result of the Great Depression.
|Toowoomba East State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school built during the Depression-era. These include: a large brick school building set in landscaped grounds with mature shade trees, assembly, play, and sports areas.
\nThe Depression-era Brick School Building is an excellent, substantial, and intact example of its type, demonstrating the principal characteristics, which include: a handsome edifice standing at the front of the school; symmetrical two-storey form of classrooms and teachers rooms above an undercroft of open play spaces; a linear layout of the main floors with rooms accessed by corridors; loadbearing masonry construction; prominent projecting central entrance bay, and high-quality design to provide superior educational environments that focus on abundant natural light and ventilation. It demonstrates the use of stylistic features of its era, which determined its roof form, joinery, and decorative treatment.
|Through its conspicuous position at the front of the school, substantial size and height, symmetry, elegant composition, restrained use of decoration, and fine craftsmanship, the Depression-era Brick School Building has aesthetic significance due to its expressive attributes, by which the Department of Public Works sought to convey the concepts of progress and permanence.
\nThe building is also significant for its streetscape contribution. Framed by mature trees, it is an attractive and prominent feature of the area.
|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.
\nToowoomba East State School has a strong and ongoing association with the community. It was established in 1887 through the fundraising efforts of the local community and generations of Toowoomba children have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Toowoomba and is a prominent community focal point.
","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":null,"place_ref":650083,"name":"Laurel Bank Park","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"cnr West Street, Hill Street and Herries Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA CITY","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-11-30","description":"Laurel Bank Park is 4.3ha public park used for recreation, gardening and public events, and located approximately 800m southwest of Toowoomba Railway Station [QHR 600872]. The formal entrance to the park is via West Street (west), with other sides of the site bounded and accessed by Hill Street (north), Laurel Lane, residential properties, and disability support services (east), and Herries Street (south). The park is largely an open space with turf, garden beds, established trees and buildings.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance within the park include:
\nfootpaths and site arrangement, including axes and sightlines through the park from surrounding streets
\nLandscaping
\nThe park landscaping is manicured and includes established exotic and native trees, shrubs, flowering plants, and expanses of lawns.
\nLandscape features also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nspecimen trees:
\nOther established trees, including, but not limited to:
\npalms:
\n\n
hedges, including:
\nFootpaths and Site Arrangement
\nTwo footpaths run through the park and define its geometric and formal site arrangement. They are the primary circulation routes, providing strong sight-lines to and from the surrounding streets and through the park. They run between:
\nCommemoration Gates (1934)
\nThe Commemoration Gates are centred on the West Street boundary, marking the formal entrance to the park. The gates comprise four blue-stone pillars with squared stone capping of a lighter colour and wrought iron gates. They commemorate SG Stephens.
\nTwo stone plaques, dated 30 October 1932 (park gifted to the city) and 30 June 1934 (gates opened), are mounted on the two central pillars.
\nFloral Display Area (pre-1943)
\nThe Floral Display Area is an approximately rectangular space at the northwest end of the site. A focal point of the park, gardens in this area are regularly reconfigured, themed, and bedded with flowering plants for display (particularly for Toowoomba’s annual Carnival of Flowers).
\nFeatures of the Floral Display Area also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nLaurel Bank Croquet Club (1935-1939)
\nThe Laurel Bank Croquet Club is located on the southwest side of the park. It comprises a croquet clubhouse (1938) with two croquet lawns (1935) to the northeast and northwest.
\nThe clubhouse is a rectangular, timber-framed structure, set on a stone base and sheltered by a hip roof with a projecting northern gable. Externally, it is approximately symmetrical and its northern verandah is approached by small stairs at the east and west.
\nFeatures of the croquet club also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\ntwo croquet lawns, with their:
\ncroquet clubhouse, with its:
\nMess Hall (former) (c1943-45)
\nThe Mess Hall (former) is located at the northeast end of the site, east of the Floral Display Area. It is a single-storey, prefabricated, timber-framed hall, of the Allied Works Council’s ‘CA’ type. The building is approximately ‘T’-shaped in plan, has perpendicular gable roofs, and remains in its original location, which is uncommon. It is accessed via a northern verandah, with secondary entrances to the east (concrete stair) and west (recent ramp). A brick chimney protrudes from the east end of the building. Evidence of its prefabrication is visible in the roof trusses (internally exposed at the south end of the building), paired eaves brackets, and notches in timber floor joists.
\nThe interior comprises a dining room (former) and recreation room (former), entered via the front verandah. Located at the west, the dining room is the larger of the two spaces and features a raised platform at the south end. East of the dining room is the recreation room, and south of the dining room is a servery (former canteen), kitchen and store rooms (former scullery and store).
\nOriginal additions to the standard mess hall plan include: a front verandah enclosure forming a ticketing office; toilets and store rooms south of the recreation room (excluding some recent toilet partitions); and an enclosure to the southeast verandah.
\nFeatures of the Mess Hall (former) also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of State-level heritage significance
\nFeatures within Laurel Bank Park that are not considered to be of state-level heritage significance include:
\nLaurel Bank Park is a 4.3 hectare public park situated approximately 900m southwest from Toowoomba’s CBD, bounded by Herries, West and Hill streets. The park was donated to the city of Toowoomba in 1932 by local resident Samuel George Stephens (junior), after almost thirty years of developing the beautiful gardens. Within the park are many cold climate mature trees considered of horticultural importance. Two croquet lawns and a croquet clubhouse were added to the park in the 1930s. During World War II (WWII) the park was used as a United States Navy (USN) submariners’ rest and recreation camp, and the intact Mess Hall (former), is the only building remaining from the camp in the park. Since the 1930s, the picturesque park has been a major tourist attraction in Toowoomba and this continues today.
\nThe Toowoomba area is the traditional land of the Giabal people.[1] The area was surveyed and sold for private development in 1853 and named Toowoomba in 1858. In July 1865 the first section of railway line in Queensland was opened to Ipswich, and by April 1867 a railway line reached Toowoomba. In 1887 Toowoomba was proclaimed a town.[2]
\nAt an elevation of 700m above sea level, Toowoomba experiences cool temperatures throughout the year. The climate has enabled certain species of trees and plants, unable to be grown in warmer areas such as Brisbane, to flourish.[3] By the early 1920s the town was increasingly known as the ‘Garden City’, due to the large number of beautiful and well-established private gardens, its extensive street-tree plantings dating to the 1870s, and numerous landscaped parks.[4] Civic pride has been fostered by Toowoomba residents through their gardens and parks, reflected by the establishment of a series of garden competitions and festivals which took place from the early 1900s until the end of World War I.[5]
\nThe Stephens family were important Toowoomba pioneers. Samuel George Stephens (senior) arrived in Toowoomba from Wales in 1863. SG Stephens played a role in the town’s progress. A successful businessman, he was one of the owners of the Darling Downs Gazette and a founder of the Darling Downs Building Society. Philanthropic pursuits included involvement in the establishment of the Toowoomba Grammar School, the Toowoomba hospital, the fire brigade and his parish church.[6] One of his major endeavours was the garden at his home ‘Llanwyn’, also in Herries Street, considered one of the most beautiful in Toowoomba at the time.[7] His son, Samuel George Stephens (junior), who was born in Toowoomba in 1872, inherited his father’s love of horticulture. Educated at Toowoomba Grammar School, he joined his father’s business, becoming managing director in 1909. He continued his father’s philanthropic commitment to community and charitable causes including the Toowoomba General Hospital, the Toowoomba Cemetery Trust, the Toowoomba School of Arts committee, and as a member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty.[8]
\nIn 1904 Stephens purchased two lots of land totalling approximately 1087m² on Hill Street, West Toowoomba. Over the next 12 years he incrementally acquired another 44 lots creating an area of approximately 4 hectares, and removed existing houses from the properties.[9] By 1918 the majority of the block bounded by Hill, West and Herries streets was in Stephens’ ownership.[10] As the land was cleared, Stephens transformed it into an extensive garden which by 1934 was considered to be one of the most beautiful in Toowoomba.[11]
\nAs early as the mid-nineteenth century, there was a focus on the importation of exotic plant species to Queensland, attested by the establishment of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society in 1862 as well as several botanic gardens including the Brisbane City Botanical Gardens (1855). The foremost intention was to test the propagation potential of certain species that may be commercially suitable for Queensland’s fledgling agricultural industry. Trials on ornamental trees for civic and domestic spaces were also undertaken and these gardens became places of passive recreation for the public.[12]
\nDuring the interwar period, as suburban expansion increased throughout Australian cities, residents moved away from the crowded inner-city suburbs and into newly subdivided housing estates. A new focus on gardening emerged and the nursery industry boomed. There was a demand for both imported, exotic species as well as for native varieties. Specialist nurseries catered for this burgeoning demand.[13] Stephens established his garden amid this renewed vigour.
\nFor almost 30 years Stephens worked tirelessly in his garden, designing its layout and displays, and planting and maintaining it.[14] He aspired to establish a garden that would give pleasure to people, rather than cultivating plants of commercial or scientific value, as was often the case in Queensland’s botanic gardens.[15]
\nStephens imported a wide variety of exotic, rare and valuable tree, plant and flower specimens for his garden. Contemporary reports described the gardens in 1932, as ‘a comprehensive collection of rare shrubs and plants, Japanese and Chinese importations … there are 5000 gladioli, comprising 400 kinds, and 2000 daffodils, consisting of 30 varieties. The bulbs total 25,000. Beds of flowers and trees are picturesquely arranged among well-kept lawns’.[16] As it developed, the garden was admired by Toowoomba residents[17] and Stephens soon became known to many as ‘the man of flowers’.[18] In 1932, when asked to comment on Stephens’ garden, the curator of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens [QHR 600067], Ernest William Bick, declared it was ‘the largest and most varied collection in Australia’.[19] Numerous species of oak, cedar, maple and palm trees were imported for the garden and many of these species were, at the time, considered to be very rare in Australia.[20] Over the years, Stephens supplied the Toowoomba hospital with his flowers.[21]
\nIn 1932, Stephens gifted the garden to the people of Toowoomba as a public park.[22] The official opening ceremony on the 31 October 1932, was attended by Stephens, the Mayor, FJ Paterson, and several other dignitaries. The Mayor, on behalf of the citizens of Toowoomba, accepted the deeds, and his wife declared that ‘Mr Stephens had not spared time, money or experience in making the garden one of the most beautiful in Australia’.[23]
\nOn handing the garden to the Council, Stephens made several stipulations. The first was to have the park named ‘Laurel Bank’ as he did not want it to be named after him. Another was to allow a portion of the park to be used for tennis, croquet or basketball; no sport, however, was to be played in the park on Sundays, Good Friday and Anzac Day. Flowers from the park would continue to be supplied to the Toowoomba hospital.[24] At the time, it was reported that the improved property was valued at £10,000.[25]
\nTo memorialise this generous donation to the city, commemoration gates were erected by the Council at the entrance to Laurel Bank Park in 1934. They consisted of locally-quarried bluestone pillars with decorative wrought-iron gates and 2 commemorative plaques. The official dedication ceremony was held in June 1934 and was attended by the Mayor, JD Annand, and his wife. Stephens also attended and stated that ‘Laurel [Bank] Park was given to the people of Toowoomba for their benefit for ever’.[26]
\nThe donation of the park was a gesture uncommon in both the history of Toowoomba and the state. Other parks and gardens developed privately and now owned publically were generally acquired by the government, including Newstead Park, Brisbane [QHR 602265] and Thomas Park Bougainvillea Gardens at Indooroopilly [QHR 602838].[27] Stephen’s gift differed, as the fully established park was a donation to the Council; at the time, it was declared one of the most generous donations for Toowoomba and Queensland.[28]
\nFollowing agreements with Stephens and the Council, the Laurel Bank Croquet Club was formed in 1934 and was the third croquet club in Toowoomba.[29] It was agreed that a portion of Laurel Bank Park would be dedicated for two croquet lawns and a clubhouse. Fundraising for the club began almost immediately with garden parties and fetes held in the park. Two lawns were laid by March 1935 and timber benches installed.[30] Much of the work was undertaken as Depression-era relief work, provided by the Council.[31] The official opening ceremony in March 1935 was attended by Stephens, who was given the honour of striking the first ball, and stated that he hoped ‘the members would have much happiness and pleasure in using them’.[32]
\nAfter much effort, funds were eventually raised to begin the construction of a clubhouse to the design of architect Matthew C Williamson.[33] When completed in 1938, the new clubhouse was described as ‘a compact, cream-painted building, finished with touches of brown … it stands in a picturesque setting on green lawns, shade trees and flowering shrubs’.[34] The official opening on the 7 May 1938 was attended by Mayor Annand, state minsters and aldermen, as well as Stephens and Williamson. Timber seats around the lawns had been built by 1936 and the creepers to shade the seats also planted that year.[35] Timber fences surrounding both lawns were complete by 1939.[36]
\nToowoomba was considered a mountain retreat for those attempting to escape the heat and humidity, abundant in other parts of Queensland.[37] To re-invigorate the city’s tourist potential a promotional campaign was carried out in 1931 by the Toowoomba Tourist Bureau ‘for the purpose of making an effort to attract visitors’.[38] The campaign proved successful and by 1938 Toowoomba experienced record numbers of tourists.[39] Over the next decade, a guidebook of several editions was produced.
\nLaurel Bank Park was one of the main attractions featured in the guidebook. Stephens’ generous donation to the city was always noted, as were the extensive and important plantings, ‘nowhere in Australia is to be found a finer collection of Japanese flowering plants ... There are trees and shrubs in Laurel Bank Park not to be found anywhere else in Australia’.[40] In 1940 the Darling Downs Centenary Souvenir, 1840-1940 featured Laurel Bank Park as one of Toowoomba’s most attractive parks.[41]
\nFollowing the United States of America’s entry into WWII, Brisbane became the strategic centre for planning for the South West Pacific Campaign. Military camps and infrastructure were swiftly constructed throughout Queensland and thousands of US and Australian troops awaited deployment to the Pacific.[42] Facilities for troops on rest and recreation leave (R&R) were also established. In Toowoomba, the US Navy (USN) built two R&R camps for submariners – one in Laurel Bank Park and the other in Newtown Park.[43] The main R&R camps for the USN were situated in Coolangatta, on the Gold Coast, but these do not survive.[44]
\nIn Laurel Bank Park, a series of temporary timber camp buildings were erected in the northwest and southeast corner of the park. A mess hall was also built on a lawn situated behind a curved avenue of palm trees fronting Hill Street. The camp could accommodate up to 100 enlisted men.[45] The construction of the camp buildings was organised through the Allied Works Council (AWC) and carried out by the Department of Public Works.[46]
\nThe design of the Mess Hall (former) followed the AWC’s standard design, the pre-cut ‘CA’ type, which was widely used throughout Australia.[47] The basic module of the ‘CA’ type was for sleeping or stores huts and could be adapted to other uses. It was rectangular in plan, raised on stumps, made with a timber frame, various wall claddings and a gable roof. They were designed to be made of readily available local materials and constructed by local contractors using common building techniques. Tens of thousands of ‘CA’ type huts were built across Australia during WWII. At war’s end, the Commonwealth Disposals Commission sold many of ‘CA’ huts, which were either relocated or demolished.
\nStephens died in 1944 before he could witness the park returned to its pre-WWII beauty. In September 1945, his sister, Miss MR Stephens wrote a letter to the Town Clerk conveying her brother’s sadness over the military buildings in the park, and stressed that these structures should be removed. She was sure the citizens of Toowoomba ‘would rejoice to have Laurel Bank again as a place of rest and beauty’.[48]
\nBy 1947 the majority of the camp buildings had been removed from the park. Many of them were relocated by the Council to a site a few kilometres away on the corner of West and Fanny streets, to be converted into homes for the aged.[49] Others were sold to various church and community groups and moved off site.[50] The Mess Hall (former) was retained in the park as a community hall. It was initially used by the YWCA and the West Toowoomba Progress Association and later as a dance venue and for wedding receptions.[51] The hall continues to be an important community centre in Toowoomba.
\nIn a public meeting in the Toowoomba town hall in September 1949, a decision was made to revive the garden competitions and festivals.[52] The first ‘Carnival of Flowers’ was held in October 1950 and was a resounding success, with more than 50,000 people lining the main street to watch the opening parade.[53] Since then, the carnival has continued every year and is visited by thousands of people from around the state and the country. It is Queensland’s longest running annual festival.[54]
\nLaurel Bank Park featured as a main attraction during the carnival with the Council planting thousands of flowers in the park for the event.[55] In the 1951 souvenir brochure, the park was included on the official programme with a band scheduled to play in the park on Sunday afternoon.[56] In subsequent souvenir brochures, the park was also featured as an attraction not to be missed.[57]
\nWithin the park are numerous horticulturally important cold climate trees Stephens imported from other countries. Several of these have been identified in the National Trust of Australia’s Significant Tree Register; an Oak (Lithocarpus Spp), Mori Oak (Quercus Morii), a Bristle-toothed Oak (Quercus Acutissima), an English Oak (Quercus Robur), and an avenue of Chilean Wine Palms (Jubaea Chilensis). All of these trees are identified as regionally important.[58] Laurel Bank Park is also listed on the Australian Government’s Directory of Australian Botanic Gardens, along with Toowoomba’s Queens Park and Botanic Gardens [QHR 601607].[59]
\nIn 1980 the Scented Gardens were established in the southeast corner of the park. It was an initiative by the Toowoomba City Council and the Rotary Club of Toowoomba East to provide a scented garden for people with visual impairments. The rose garden, wisteria arbour, picnic shelter, viewing platform, southern toilet block, children’s playground and topiaries were introduced to the garden in the 1990s.
\nIn 2018, Laurel Bank Park is a prominent attraction for locals, tourists, and horticultural enthusiasts and is listed on the Lonely Planet, Trip Advisor and Southern Queensland Country travel websites as one of the ‘top things to do’ in Toowoomba; with the park particularly popular during the city’s annual Carnival of Flowers.[60] The Laurel Bank Croquet Club continues to be a valuable community sporting facility close to the centre of Toowoomba. Stephens’ collection of important trees are considered to be of high horticultural value. The traditional layout of the gardens continue to reflect Stephens’ intention for the park to be a place of rest and beauty.
\n\n
\n
\n
\n
","criteria":"
Laurel Bank Park is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland’s private gardens and public parks. A privately owned garden established in 1904 by prominent Toowoomba resident, Samuel George Stephens, the property was gifted to the Toowoomba City Council in 1932 for use as a public park, providing rest, beauty and passive recreation for residents and visitors.
\nLaurel Bank Park retains important surviving evidence of the early layout of the park, including pathways, mature plantings and formal gardens, and long-term recreational use by the croquet club (1934).
\nLaurel Bank Park is important as a fine example of botanical amenity horticulture and the popular practice of importing exotic horticultural specimens during the early twentieth century. Many mature trees in the park demonstrate these practices, being cooler climate specimens imported from places such as China, Japan and South America.
\nThe Mess Hall (former) (1943-45) is an important example of the Australian and United States military’s requirements for the provision of rest and recreation camps for troops during World War II (WWII). The Mess Hall (former) is a good, intact example of a ‘CA’ hut, built under the Allied Works Council’s prefabrication programme.
|Laurel Bank Park’s collection of mature and established cooler climate trees is thought to be most extensive in Queensland, and as such is uncommon. Many horticulturally important specimens planted by Stephens by the 1930s are considered significant, including several varieties of oak, cedar and maple trees and Chilean wine palms.
|Laurel Bank Park is important as an intact and representative example of a Queensland park established in the early twentieth century. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of its type through its: formal site configuration; axial paths; open lawn areas; mature trees and landscaping, often planted in avenues; floral arrangements; formal entry gates; and the provision of passive recreation facilities (evidenced by a croquet clubhouse, croquet lawns, and a regularly-reconfigured floral display area).
\nThe Mess Hall (former) is an intact example of a prefabricated mess hall, constructed by the Allied Works Council for the United States military during WWII. The building remains in its original location and is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of its type through: its prefabricated construction; gable roof with gable end vents; external cladding of timber chamferboards and flat sheets; timber stumps with metal ant-caps; timber-framed casement windows; internal wall and ceiling linings of flat sheets; timber floorboards; and large recreation and dining spaces, serviced by a kitchen, canteen, bathrooms and stores.
\nLaurel Bank Croquet Club in its form and layout is a good, intact example of a croquet club, demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type through its: domestic-scale clubhouse, which provides shelter, amenity and a social space to club members, and the storage of equipment; and two manicured croquet lawns with perimeter fencing and shaded seating.
|Laurel Bank Park is aesthetically important for its beautiful attributes. The well-composed, attractive park provides a harmonious setting of mature exotic and native trees, flowering plants bedded in formal arrangements, hedges, lawns; original Commemoration Gates (1934); and open space; with views and vistas along landscaped avenues, axial pathways and from surrounding streets.
\nThe strong aesthetic appeal of the park is demonstrated through the extensive and continuous use of images of the place in publications and travel guides promoting it as a beautiful park in Toowoomba and Queensland since the interwar period. Its popularity as a major tourist attraction in Toowoomba is particularly evident during the Carnival of Flowers, when its flowering displays are extensively photographed and appreciated by both the local community and tourists.
|Laurel Bank Park has been highly valued by the Toowoomba community and horticultural enthusiasts since SG Stephens gifted the park to the city in 1932. As one of the city’s major attractions, it has a longstanding association with the city’s annual Carnival of Flowers festival, Toowoomba’s premier cultural event and Queensland’s longest running festival. The park’s continuous use as a place for passive recreation has been sustained since the 1930s.
","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":650237,"name":"Harris House","alternate_name":"Cliffordene","street_address":"1 Clifford Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2019-07-26","description":"Harris House is a substantial, single storey villa residence in a Federation-era style. It occupies a prominent 0.19ha site on the corner of Margaret and Clifford streets, located within a mixed residential and commercial area on the western side of the Toowoomba central business district. Facing Clifford Street to the east, the house is elevated above street level and a wide staircase leads to the main entrance. The house is set within established gardens containing mature trees. In 2019 the property is undergoing repairs and renovations.
\nHouse (c1912, with 1935 and 1994 additions)
\nThe single storey house is of red face brick construction with a tiled roof, central roof lantern, and wide verandahs around most of its perimeter. The front (east) elevation is the most ornate, with a tall entrance portico the dominant feature. Rectangular bay windows are symmetrically placed on either side of the main entrance door, which has a glazed surround. The red face brick contrasts with extensive concrete elements and ornamentation.
\nThe rooms are arranged in a hierarchy with principal rooms in the front (east) section of the house, and service rooms in the rear (west) section. The front section contains four rooms, an entrance vestibule, a wide central passageway lit by the roof lantern, and a side passage leading to a south entrance door. Rooms on the south side of the central passageway were likely to have been bedrooms. The northeast corner room was likely a sitting or drawing room, with the dining room adjacent.
\nThe rear section contains a central passageway that leads to a west entrance door, with the original kitchen and a third bedroom on the south side. Former storage/servants rooms on the north side of the passageway are fitted out as toilets and a kitchenette (1994). A skillion-roofed, timber-clad addition in the northwest corner of the house (1935) contains two interconnected rooms.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nExterior
\n· Concrete foundations
\n· Double face brick exterior walls with pale tuck pointing
\n· Timber-framed roof clad in terracotta Marseilles tiles with decorative finials and ridge capping (replaced with new tiles in 2019 in similar profiles)
\n· Complex roof form, including paired hipped ends; a north-facing gable over the dining room; two matching east-facing gables; a projecting gable-roofed portico over the main entrance; a square central roof lantern; and separate skillion verandah roofs
\n· Roof lantern, including: timber framing; ogee roof form; corrugated metal sheet cladding; pyramid-roofed ventilation fleche supported by four small columns; four-light, timber-framed windows; and pressed metal internal linings
\n· Face brick chimneys with arched caps
\n· Concrete exterior ornamentation, including: roughcast render finish to portico, gables and verandah arches; a variety of mouldings; star and swag details to principal gables; scrolled brackets; moulded quoins at wall corners; and classical-style pilasters framing the bay windows
\n· Timber dentil bargeboard mouldings
\n· Concrete door and window lintels
\n· Timber, six-panel front door with timber moulding ornamentation, brass hardware including knocker, round handle and lock, and a timber finger plate
\n· Leadlight side panels and fanlight to the front door, featuring multi-coloured stylised birds on a clear oval background within a grid of green glass
\n· Leadlight side panels to principal windows, featuring multi-coloured floral, leaf and heart motifs on a background of green and clear glass in a grid pattern
\n· Original and early timber-framed windows, including: double-hung sash windows; two-light casement windows with two-light fanlight to the kitchen; and high-level windows in south and west walls
\n· Original and early window hardware
\n· Metal window hood over pair of windows in the north wall, including perforated metal fringe and two ornamental gables infilled with pressed metal
\n· Verandahs to the northeast, east and southeast sides, including: timber floor; concrete balustrade with round balusters; tapered, square concrete verandah posts; arched concrete verandah beams; and coved ceiling lined with V-jointed (VJ) timber boards and edged with timber mouldings
\n· Main entrance stairs, including concrete balustrade
\n· Evidence in the external brickwork of pre-1935 structures built against the southwest corner of the house, including traces of paint, wall and ceiling lines and weathering
\nInterior
\n· Concrete internal partitions
\n· Single-skin timber partitions lined with VJ boards in the western passageway and kitchenette
\n· Clear-finished timber board floors
\n· Plaster walls with rounded corners
\n· Timber joinery, including: wide moulded skirting boards to principal rooms; narrower moulded skirting boards to service rooms; moulded architraves, picture rails and dado rails; low-waisted, four-panel doors, some with timber finger plates; framed timber board door to rear (west) entrance door; part-glazed doors with coloured, figured glass panes; and rectangular, horizontally centre-pivoting fanlights with figured glass
\n· Original and early door hardware, including round timber handles
\n· Semi-circular arches to the central passageway with plasterwork ornamentation
\n· Arched openings to bay windows with plasterwork ornamentation
\n· High ceilings lined with pressed metal in a variety of patterns that show the hierarchy of rooms, including: bold, large-scale geometric or floral patterns to ceilings in principal rooms, the entrance hall, central passageway and the roof lantern; detailed cornices and borders to principal rooms, particularly the dining room; round ceiling ventilation panels with six-pointed star detail; and plainer, finer-grained patterned ceilings, borders and cornices to service rooms and other spaces.
\n· Traces of early paint schemes on walls and pressed metal ceilings and cornices
\n· Arched openings to bay windows, with Classical-style plasterwork ornamentation
\n· Corner fireplace to Main Bedroom, with an oak mantelpiece featuring a small inbuilt cabinet with an art nouveau-style motif carved into the door; an arched cast iron fireplace insert; and glazed tile-clad hearth
\n· Fireplace to the Sitting Room, with timber mantelpiece and surround; square cast iron fireplace insert; glazed tiles with a poppy flower pattern; and a glazed tile-clad hearth
\n· Fireplace to the Dining Room, with timber mantelpiece, cast iron fireplace, and blue glazed tiles cladding the surround and hearth.
\n· Surviving Kitchen features, including a cast iron cooking range, tiled hearth, and glazed wall tiles (tiles on the wall in the southeast corner indicate the location of a former sink)
\n· Ceiling mounted cords/pulls to operate lights
\n· A wall mounted gas light fitting in the rear (west) passageway, and circular wall mounts (fittings removed) in other locations
\n· Remnants of an early bell system
\n· Early fringed velvet pelmets to windows and doors in principal rooms
\n1935 addition
\n· Timber-framed, skillion-roofed form
\n· Brick piers
\n· Timber chamferboard cladding
\n· Timber floor and joinery, including lambs tongue-profile timber skirtings
\n· Part-glazed, panelled door and rectangular fanlight to the kitchenette, glazed with clear patterned glass
\n· Timber VJ board-lined walls with picture rail and narrow shelf
\n· Flat sheet ceiling linings with batten cover strips
\n· Two sets of relocated windows within arched frames, containing leadlight panels above three-light casement windows with figured glass
\nElements not of state-level cultural heritage significance include: non-original paint colour schemes; the 1994 verandah addition along the west side and western end of the south side; modern gutters and downpipes; tiles cladding the main entrance stairs; verandah floor tiles in front of the main entrance door; modern timber reproduction doors and windows; tiled dado in the entrance vestibule and central passageway; mirrors; modern light fittings; the kitchenette and toilet fit-outs; air-conditioning units; and modern carpet and other floor coverings.
\nGrounds and views
\nHarris House is set back from Clifford and Margaret streets, and surrounded by gardens on the east, north and northwest sides. The gardens contain a number of large, mature trees, open lawns and garden beds. The location of some early pathways has been retained, now formed by modern materials. The house’s elevation above street level and corner location make it a prominent feature of the streetscape.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\n· Views of the house from Margaret and Clifford streets
\n· Open, garden setting surrounding the house
\n· Sloped earth embankment surrounding the eastern end of the house
\n· Location of the pathway from Clifford Street to the main entrance stairs
\n· Location of the steps and brick pathway from Margaret Street to the west verandah
\n· Three large, mature Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica) trees along the Margaret Street boundary
\n· A large, mature Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariensis) on the eastern lawn
\n· A mature bougainvillea (Bougainvillea sp.) near the northwest corner of the house
\n· A mature mulberry tree (Morus sp.) near the centre of the western boundary fence
\nGrounds elements not of state-level cultural heritage significance include: fences along the Margaret and Clifford Street boundaries; modern signs, lights and pathways; the entrance driveway and carpark, and recent trees, plantings and structures.
\nNon-significant features within the road reserve include: a street tree along Margaret Street, the footpath, road surface, kerb, signs, power poles, and all other services and road infrastructure.
","history":"Harris House, a substantial Federation-era masonry residence, located at 1 Clifford Street in the regional city of Toowoomba, was constructed c1912, probably by its owner, Toowoomba building contractor Montague Ivory. It is important in demonstrating the development of Toowoomba as the principal urban centre of the Darling Downs region in the 20th century. Harris House also demonstrates the principal characteristics of a substantial early 20th century suburban villa residence and of Federation-era domestic architecture, and has aesthetic significance for its beautiful attributes, picturesque qualities and streetscape contribution.
\nEuropean settlement of the Toowoomba area, traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, commenced in 1840 when squatters occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. The small settlement of Drayton evolved from 1842, but was soon surpassed by a more desirable location six kilometres to the northeast, known as Toowoomba from the 1850s. Better suited to market gardening, with a more reliable water supply, and supported by squatters and land speculators, Toowoomba was incorporated as a municipality in 1860. Its rapid economic and social development was influenced by local residents who strongly promoted the prospects of the town, and political representatives who successfully lobbied for government funding for civic improvements.[1]
\nToowoomba expanded rapidly from the late 1860s, becoming the main urban centre of the Darling Downs by 1888. The arrival of the railway in 1867 secured the town's development and subsequently made it the hub for the Southern and Western railways. The Selection Act 1868 brought selectors to the district, improvements to freehold estates, and revived trade with western areas. Toowoomba’s economy diversified to include numerous small-scale manufacturing firms, while the majority of administrative, service and other government and education functions for the surrounding region were established in the town.[2] Its progress was reflected in improvements to the physical environment, through important capital works projects, including the draining of its swamps, improved water supply, gasworks for lighting, extensive tree plantings and the initial development of Queen's Park. Earlier temporary structures were replaced with more permanent and impressive buildings.[3]
\nToowoomba experienced an urban land boom throughout the 1870s and 1880s. Newtown, its first working-class suburb, was created in the 1880s, while speculators extended the ‘shopkeepers’ residential areas to the north east of Ruthven, Russell and Margaret Streets, the commercial core of the town. Prosperous Darling Downs landowners, business-owners and professionals established residences in Toowoomba; and from the 1880s, the town acted as a summer resort for those seeking a cooler climate, including Queensland Governors.[4]
\nBy the turn of the 20th century, Toowoomba had outstripped the development of every other urban centre on the Darling Downs, with its population in 1901 equalling their combined populations. After the passage of the Local Authorities Act 1902, Toowoomba became the Town of Toowoomba on 31 March 1903, and on 29 October 1904 was proclaimed the City of Toowoomba.[5] The 1910s were a period of commercial and social expansion for the new city.[6]
\nThe land on which Harris House stands was purchased from the New South Wales government in 1852 by ex-convict and Bull’s Head Inn publican William Horton, as part of an approximately 32 acre [13ha] block.[7] Horton became Toowoomba’s ‘first, largest and most eager purchaser of land’.[8] In 1868, he sold the block to pastoralist and parliamentarian James Taylor, who was a major Toowoomba land speculator and advocate. Following Taylor’s demise in 1892, approximately 17.5 acres [7ha] of this land, bounded by Clifford, Margaret, West, and Hill Streets, was subdivided into 64 x 40 perch [1000sqm] allotments in 1899. John Hugh Munro purchased subdivisions 1 to 3 of this estate, the site of Harris House, but subsequently sold the land in 1909 to Toowoomba building contractor, Montague Ivory.[9] Earlier that year, Ivory had purchased adjoining allotments 4 and 5, while allotments 6 to 8 had been purchased in his wife’s name.[10]
\nIvory was residing in Toowoomba and working as a building contractor by 1901.[11] Born in 1861, he moved from Sydney to the Warrego region in Queensland c1892.[12] He lived in Charleville from about 1893, where he was a tobacconist and the treasurer of the Charleville Branch of the AWU, until c1900.[13]
\nIvory’s work as a building contractor in Toowoomba and Warwick during the first two decades of the 20th century included regionally important projects. In Toowoomba, he constructed a 75ft [23m] brick chimney stack at Perkins & Co. Brewery, Margaret St (1901) an additional storey on the Fire Brigade Building in Neil Street (1906); two additional wings for Crawford’s Freemason’s Hotel on the corner of Neil and Herries Streets (1906); and completed extensive alterations and additions to W Jones & Son’s malt house at Black Gully in Toowoomba in 1907 [QHR600852 Toowoomba Maltings].[14] In 1908, Ivory won the tender for additions and alterations to the Toowoomba Post and Telegraph Office.[15] During 1910-11 Ivory resided in Warwick for 12 months, constructing a brick department store for Messrs Barnes & Co [QHR 600956 Barnes and Co. Trading Place], before departing the town in March 1911.[16]
\nBy 1913, Ivory was living in Harris House on the western corner of Clifford and Margaret Streets (1 Clifford Street) and remained there until c1919, when the house was sold.[17] The designer and builder of the house are not known, but considering Ivory’s role in the building industry, it is believed he built the house for himself, as well as the adjacent houses at 3 Clifford Street and 256 Margaret Street. In 1919, Ivory reconfigured the allotments that comprised 1 and 3 Clifford Street to create three allotments, including an allotment to the west, which became 256 Margaret Street.[18]
\nHarris House was designed in an ornate style characteristic of the Federation-era. Federation style is a broad term used to describe the dominant style of Australia’s domestic architecture during the late 19th and early 20th century. This eclectic and highly decorative style, influenced by contemporary British and American examples, drew inspiration from a variety of historical styles, but most notably from Tudor or ‘Old English’ rural architecture. Sometimes described as ‘Queen Anne’ style, and more decorative than the concurrent ‘Arts and Crafts’ style, which focussed on honest expression of function and truthful use of materials, Federation style was used most extensively in New South Wales and Victoria. The typical Federation villa residence was a free-standing, single storeyed bungalow set within a generous garden. It had red face brick walls, with a complex roof form of hips and projecting gables, clad in terracotta Marseilles tiles, and often punctuated by picturesque chimneys. Floor plans were asymmetrical with protruding rooms, bays or towers, and the exteriors were enlivened by a wide variety of window types and shapes, and elaborate verandah detailing. Gable ends were decorated with timber and stucco ornament, and leadlight windows displayed coloured glass in flowing patterns, demonstrating the growing influence of Art Nouveau on decorative details. Regional variations of the style occurred, due to factors such as localised building traditions, the availability of building materials and individual tastes. In Queensland, the style was often applied to traditional timber houses with corrugated iron roofs, influencing their roof forms, timber verandah detailing and other ornamentation. Non-domestic buildings too, at this time, adopted an eclectic ‘Free Style’ of architecture that combined elements and details from classical, Romanesque, Art Nouveau, Queen Anne and Arts and Crafts styles, and utilised visually contrasting materials such as dark brick and light stone or stucco.[19]
\nHarris House was a substantial, red face brick, single storey villa residence with a terracotta Marseilles tile-clad roof featuring multiple gables, three chimneys and a central roof lantern. It was elevated by an earth embankment above street level and its front verandah was accessed by wide staircase that led to a tall, gabled entrance portico. The exterior was highly ornamented with concrete mouldings that contrasted with the red brick walls, including quoins to wall corners, pilasters framing a pair of bay windows, and scrolled brackets to eaves and overhangs. The formal floor plan located principal rooms at the front (east) end of the house, accessed by a wide central passageway lit by the roof lantern, and service rooms at the rear (west). A rear entrance landing and laundry were, at some early stage, built up against the southwest corner of the house. In addition to the lantern, daylight to the centre and south-western parts of the house was maximised by high windows in the south and west walls, and glazed fanlights to all doors.[20] The principal rooms were given high quality finishes and materials in popular contemporary materials and patterns. Surviving original or early features include plaster walls, timber floors and joinery, a variety of Wunderlich pressed metal ceilings and cornices, fireplaces with vibrant glazed tiles and ornate timber mantlepieces, leadlight windows with Art Nouveau-style patterns, and semi-circular arches with plasterwork ornamentation in the central passageway.[21]
\nIn 1919, Mary Kelly, wife of medical practitioner, Arthur F Kelly, purchased Harris House.[22] The house was known as ‘Cliffordene’ by the time the Kellys sold it in October 1921. The purchaser was John Mitchell Harris, who had recently married for the second time, to Malvena Sears.[23]
\nHarris, born c1862, arrived in Australia from Scotland in the late 1880s.[24] By 1893, he owned a residence in Mary Street, Gympie.[25] He was residing in Winton at the time of his first marriage in 1895.[26] In 1897, he was working as a journalist in Winton, while in 1898 he was the proprietor of the Winton Herald newspaper.[27] Between about October 1901 and 1905, Harris resided in Cairns, working as the manager of the drapery department of Burns Philp & Co, and travelling widely in North Queensland.[28] In April 1906, Harris purchased GP Merry’s drapery located in the Alexandra Building on Ruthven Street, Toowoomba. He built the business into one of the largest draperies on the Darling Downs, occupying the northern shop from 1906 until c1935.[29] He was a member of the Queensland Turf Club, Tattersall's Turf Club, and the Toowoomba Turf Club, and also a life member of the Toowoomba Royal Agricultural Society. Harris died on 12 July 1933 at Sandgate, aged about 71 years. He was survived by his widow and daughter, Neva (born 1925).[30]
\nIt is unknown if Harris made any major alterations to Harris House during his residence there, but by 1934 a bathroom with shower and indoor WC had been constructed on the south verandah.[31] The grounds of Harris House were well established by the 1930s and contained a number of features. A pre-1934 sewerage detail plan of the property shows that an earth embankment ran around the north, east and south sides of the house. A wide pathway led straight to the main entrance stairs from Clifford Street, and two smaller, parallel pathways led south from a Margaret Street entrance, past the rear of the house. A fernery was located in the northwest corner of the grounds and a garage and earth closet in the southwest corner. A driveway to the garage ran along the southern boundary.[32]
\nFollowing Harris’ death, the executors of his estate approved additions and alterations to Harris House to create a flat on the north side of the house. Architect William Hodgen drew up the plans in May 1934 and the work commenced on 26 November that year. By 24 January 1935, contractor George Conrad Strohfeldt had completed the changes, for a cost of £279.10, and the house had been repainted by his brother, Henry Martin Strohfeldt, for £24.10.[33]
\nThe flat occupied the original sitting room and dining room, which were linked by a new sleep-out built on the north verandah. The sleep-out was carefully detailed to preserve the existing verandah structure and balustrade, and featured arched leadlight panels above banks of casement windows. A section of verandah adjacent to the west side of the dining room was demolished, and a timber, skillion-roofed structure built in its place, containing a dining room, kitchenette and bathroom. This addition was clad in timber chamferboards and had V-jointed (VJ) board and flat sheet linings. A door was inserted to link the flat’s dining room with the service rooms of the original house, and a second laundry was created by dividing off part of the existing laundry.[34]
\nThe flat was tenanted by April 1935, when Mrs Cowan and her daughter, of Stanthorpe, were reported as having rented Mrs J M Harris's flat in Clifford Street. The flat was available for rental again in November 1938 when Mr and Mrs Harold Walsh stayed in the flat ‘for some weeks’ holiday in Toowoomba’.[35] Mrs Harris continued to reside at 1 Clifford Street until c1984. She passed away in 1988.[36]
\nAerial photographs show that by 1946 the gardens contained a dense grouping of trees and plantings in the northwest corner (in the vicinity of the fernery) and three mature Atlas cedars (Cedrus atlantica), along the Margaret Street boundary.[37]
\nFor a number of years leading up to 1990, the house was unoccupied and required repairs to cracked internal walls. Its picket fence had been removed and replaced with a metal fence.[38]
\nIn March 1991 plans were drawn by Anthony Kibble & Associates Architects to convert the residence into multi-tenancy offices. Alterations and additions included: a new bitumen driveway and carpark in the southwest corner of the grounds; the replacement of the verandah rooms, laundry and landings along the south and west sides of the house with a concrete verandah matching the existing front verandah; installation of toilets and a kitchenette; removal of the 1935 sleepout on the north verandah; relocation of the windows from the sleepout to the rear 1935 rooms; removal of the bathroom and kitchenette in the 1935 rooms; and other repairs and renovations, including painting the exterior.[39]
\nOn 15 October 1994, after completion of these alterations, the Honourable Mr Justice John Harris Byrne RFD, grandson of John Mitchell Harris, opened 1 Clifford Street as Harris House. A brass plaque adjacent to the front door commemorates the official opening. The building served as offices in subsequent years.
\nAfter the death of its owner, Neva Byrne, nee Harris, on 14 August 2014, the house was gifted to the National Trust of Australia (Queensland) (NTAQ).[40] By the end of May 2019, the NTAQ had retiled the roof, painted the building’s exterior, and plastered and painted the interior for use as offices and meeting rooms.[41]
\nIn 2019, Harris House is no longer a private residence, but retains a high degree of intactness. Its garden includes pathways and remnant mature trees. It is a good example of a substantial early 20th century suburban villa residence from the Federation era, which reflects the wealth and status of the major city of Toowoomba.
","criteria":"Harris House (c1912), a Federation-era villa residence, is important in demonstrating the development of Toowoomba as the principal urban centre of the Darling Downs region in the 20th century. During the late 19th and early 20th century, wealthy members of society in the region established substantial homes in Toowoomba, such as Harris House, reflecting their financial and social position.
\nThrough its setting, form, scale, high quality design, materials and aesthetic treatment, Harris House illustrates the lifestyle of Toowoomba’s prosperous residents.
|Harris House is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial, early-20th century suburban villa residence. A single storey, masonry house in a garden setting, Harris House is a fine and intact example of its type, displaying high quality workmanship and materials, and retaining its formal plan, with entrance portico, hierarchical arrangement of generously sized rooms, and surrounding verandah.
\nHarris House demonstrates the principal characteristics of Federation-era domestic architecture, and is a good and highly intact example of a masonry house in a Federation style in Queensland. Characteristics of this type include: its lowest form; asymmetrical plan with protruding bays and rooms; red face brick construction; complex roof form clad in terracotta tiles; elaborate verandah detailing; leadlight glazing to principal windows; and use of a wide variety of ornamental features derived from historical styles. The high quality interior finishes and fittings demonstrate popular contemporary materials and patterns, including a range of pressed metal ceilings and cornices, glazed tiles, and the use of art nouveau-style motifs for ceilings, mantelpieces and leadlight glazing.
|Harris House is important for the beautiful attributes of its composition and fine architectural quality. The symmetrical east façade is a well-proportioned composition of formal building elements including bay windows, ornamental gables and a tall projecting portico, which, in combination with the house’s elevation above street level and substantial front staircase, creates an impressive entrance sequence. Rooms are formally arranged around a wide central passageway, which is dramatically lit by a roof lantern. Largely intact, the generously sized rooms and spaces retain high quality fittings and finishes, including timber joinery, decorative plasterwork, ornate mantelpieces and pressed metal ceilings.
\nA grand, Federation-era suburban villa residence, Harris House is important for the picturesque qualities of its form, materials, aesthetic treatment and garden setting, including: its asymmetrical plan with complex roof form punctuated by gables, chimneys and a roof lantern; use of contrasting materials and colours, such as red face brick, terracotta tiles and light coloured concrete; its richly detailed ornamentation; and its attractive, generously-sized garden, which enhances views of the house from Clifford and Margaret streets.
\nThe house is visually prominent on its elevated corner site and framed by mature trees, including three large Atlas cedar trees, which make a substantial contribution to its Federation-era suburban villa setting.
","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":null,"place_ref":650246,"name":"Drayton State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"55 Brisbane Street","suburb":"DRAYTON","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2020-02-28","description":"Drayton State School is a small school in the locality of Drayton, on the south-western fringe of Toowoomba. It occupies a large, gently sloping site, fronting Brisbane Street, the former main thoroughfare of the area. A complex of buildings stands on the eastern half of the site and a large playing field occupies the west.
\nThe features of Drayton State School of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nBlock A, Department of Public Works Timber School with Two Clerestory Lights, 1912
\nBlock A (1912) stands at the eastern edge of the building complex and is surrounded by open space. It is a single-storey, highset, timber-framed and -clad teaching building with a gable roof. It faces southeast to the main road across a treed front garden. Offset from the rear of the building are retaining walls cut into the slope of the hill. The building has verandahs along the southeast (now enclosed) and northwest sides and accommodates two classrooms. It has large windows on its gable end walls (southwest and northeast), providing high levels of natural light and ventilation to the interior. Access to the first floor is via a single set of stairs to the southeast verandah, and by a walkway and second set of stairs to the northwest verandah.
\nFeatures of Block A of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nGrounds and views
\nIn 2019 Block A remains in its original location, fronted by open garden and play space that was historically occupied by formal gardens.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nGrounds elements not of state-level cultural heritage significance include: other buildings, structures and sheds; retaining walls; playground equipment; benches; pathways; covered walkways; fences and gates; signage; flagpoles; garden beds; and all other trees and vegetation not previously mentioned.
","history":"Drayton State School (established 1851 as Drayton National School) is located in Drayton, a locality on the south-western fringe of Toowoomba, on the Darling Downs in southeast Queensland. It is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The school retains its Department of Public Works (DPW) Timber School with Two Clerestory Lights (Block A: 1912), set in landscaped grounds with a school bell (1852, installed c1880), date palms (1932) and a Cape Chestnut tree (1956).
\nDrayton State School is sited within the traditional lands of the Western Wakka Wakka People. Pastoral settlement of the Darling Downs commenced in 1840, and c1842 Drayton (initially called The Springs) began as a camping site near the intersection of Eton Vale, Westbrook and Gowrie pastoral stations, for those travelling from the northern Darling Downs to Brisbane. The settlement became the district's social and commercial centre. Town allotments were surveyed in May 1849 and land on Darling Street (allotments 9 and 10 of section 4) was set aside for a national school.[1]
\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.[2] A more organised approach to education commenced with Governor Fitzroy’s appointment of a National Board of Education in 1848. Modelled on the Irish system, the purpose of the Board was to provide state-assisted secular, elementary education for as many children as possible, particularly in 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.[3]
\nDrayton townsfolk met at the Bull’s Head Inn in 1848 to initiate the establishment of such a school. A school committee was elected and fund-raising for a building commenced. Application was made for a suitable site and a ‘mixed school’, to cost £150. Drayton National School opened, on a one acre (0.41ha) site within its current grounds, on 16 August 1851, with 15 girls and 9 boys enrolled. It was the second of two National Schools opened in pre-Separation Queensland. The school operated throughout the 1850s with enrolments ranging between 24 and 65 pupils; except in 1855 when it lacked a teacher and temporarily closed.[4]
\nFollowing separation of the Colony of Queensland from New South Wales (NSW) on 10 December 1859, the Queensland Government introduced the Education Act 1860, which created a Board of General Education to oversee the development and administration of all schools in the colony. Assuming control of existing national schools, the Board aimed to establish a system of national schools similar to the NSW model.[5] Despite minimal resources and a shortage of teachers, the number of public or national schools increased from four schools in 1860 to 230 by 1875.[6]
\nAlthough the settlement of Toowoomba, which had been surveyed as the Drayton Agricultural Reserve in 1849, overtook Drayton as the principal urban centre of the northern Darling Downs by Separation, Drayton continued to grow. It formed a municipal council in 1862 and became the administrative centre of Drayton Shire in 1887. The town’s population rose from 321 in1861 to 983 in 1891.[7]
\nConsequently, Drayton State School’s enrolments also increased, to about 200 pupils in 1878, requiring more accommodation and facilities, and enlargement of the school grounds for a head teachers residence.[8] By 1880, the school bell, reportedly donated by St Matthew’s Church of England, Drayton (1859) and dating from 1852 when it was installed at the parsonage, had been hung at the school.[9]
\nIn 1908, one acre (0.41ha) of adjacent land was purchased for the school and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) decided to construct a modern school building on this more level site.[10] The head teachers residence and the land on which it stood was sold in 1908.[11]
\nThe new school building (Block A in 2019), was constructed by contractor, A Barr, for £866 and completed in 1912.[12] The design was a standard plan by the Department of Public Works.[13] The building was highset on timber stumps and comprised two open verandahs (10ft / 3.1m wide) on either side of a single classroom (24 x 50ft / 7.32 x 15.24m). Its gable roof, sheeted with corrugated iron, had two ridge ventilators and two centrally located clerestory (skillion dormer) windows, facing opposing directions. The external gable end walls were clad in weatherboards and contained large areas of windows arranged in three rows of eight narrow sashes, shaded by timber hoods. The verandahs had hat room enclosures at the southwest end and the verandah walls were left unclad, with framing and bracing exposed. The verandah walls featured centrally located double doors with fanlights, high-level windows, and hinged ventilation boards along the base of the walls.[14]
\nAccess was via sets of timber stairs to the centre of each verandah, with the front (southeast) steps running parallel to the verandah and the rear (northwest) steps arranged perpendicularly, comprising a walkway and short flight of steps to the higher ground at the rear. A spoon drain ran around the rear and sides of the building and the ground beneath the building was concreted.[15]
\nThe classroom had high coved ceilings lined with pressed metal, and timber tie rods were exposed. Walls were lined with vertical jointed (VJ), tongue and groove (T&G) boards which were originally left unpainted. Dual desks sufficient for 120 scholars were provided, and an early photograph shows a stove standing against one wall.[16]
\nBlock A reflected changes in school building design introduced early in the 20th century. In c1909 high-set timber buildings were introduced, providing better ventilation as well as additional teaching space and a covered play area underneath. This was a notable new direction and this form became a characteristic of Queensland schools. A technical innovation developed at this time was a continuous ventilation flap on the wall at floor level. This hinged board could be opened to increase air flow into the space and, combined with a ceiling vent and large roof fleche, improved internal air quality and decreased internal temperatures effectively. This type was introduced around 1909 and was constructed until approximately 1920.[17]
\nFrom around 1909, windows were rearranged and enlarged to provide a greater amount of gentle, southern light into the room and desks were rearranged so that the light would fall onto students’ left hand sides to avoid throwing shadows onto the pages, which presupposed that all students were right-handed. Windows were larger and sills were lowered to let in more light generally. Smaller classrooms were preferred as they were easier to light correctly. Interiors became lighter and airier and met with immediate approval from educationalists.[18] At Drayton State School, Block A’s clerestory windows were a recently introduced feature, designed to improve light and ventilation in the centre of the building, and were characteristic of the building type chosen for the school. The building was also constructed with a remodelled window scheme approved after the building’s design had been finalised. This was a new arrangement of casement, swing and hopper windows, with transom, to improve lighting.[19]
\nOn 6 July 1912, the Minister for Agriculture (Hon. J Tolmie) officially opened the building at Drayton State School on behalf of the Minister for Public Instruction (Hon. K M Grant).[20]
\nAfter World War I (WWI) there was a decline in Drayton’s population despite the opening of the Drayton rail line in May 1915, but community involvement in the school remained strong, with improvements to the school grounds being a focus.[21] An additional 2 roods (0.2ha) of land was added to the Drayton school grounds in 1922 (allotment 5 of section 4).[22] During the Depression, relief workers levelled the tennis court site,[23] and funds were raised for a windmill and bore to supply reticulated water for the school gardens.[24]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as playing fields and tennis courts. Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890, and trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. 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.[25]
\nArbor Day was celebrated at Drayton State School from 1890. During the interwar period, Arbor Day plantings augmented a new garden scheme. The school’s grounds were re-organised through fortnightly working bees in 1931, which repaired the front fence, realigned the front gate to Brisbane Street, laid a new gravel path and created an elaborate garden of flower beds and lawn occupying the land in front of Block A. Massed rose beds surrounded a central flag pole while two massive rose pergolas stood at each end of the path leading from the front gate to the school steps. Arbor Day planting in 1932 added a row of palms (Phoenix sp.) bordering the front fence.[26]
\nIn the late 1930s the school acquired further land for its grounds. In 1936 the School Committee leased allotments 1-4 of section 4 from the Drayton Shire Council and used this land in conjunction with allotment 5 of section 4, as a football ground.[27] In 1938-9, Lots 1-4 and 6 of section 4 (one acre / 0.4ha each) were added to the school grounds.[28]
\nIn July 1935, Block A’s single classroom was partitioned to create two smaller classrooms, (27.5ft x 24ft / 8.38 x 7.32m and 22.3 ft x 24 ft / 6.8 x 7.32m), with desks rearranged so that daylight entered on the left hand side of students. A doorway was inserted in the northwest verandah wall to provide access to the smaller (southwest) classroom.[29] A glazed door in the centre of the partition allowed the Head Teacher to monitor both rooms.[30]
\nWith the threat to Australia from the commencement of the Pacific theatre of war during World War II, the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in January 1942, and although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance remained optional until the war ended.[31] Typically, schools were a focus for civilian duty during this war. At many schools, students and staff members grew produce and flowers for donation to local hospitals and organised fundraising and the donation of useful items to Australian soldiers on active service.[32] At Drayton State School, the garden maintained by the Poultry Raising and Vegetable Growing Project Club established c1934, was enlarged to become the ‘War Effort Vegetable Garden’.[33]
\nThe post-WWII era brought change to Drayton and its state school. In May 1949, Drayton was incorporated into the Greater Toowoomba Area and the Drayton Shire Council ceased to exist. In 1947, Drayton’s population was 443 – about the same as in 1921.[34]
\nEnhancements to the school grounds also took place. A pine lot was planted on 30 May 1951 on the Rudd Street side of the school grounds, but was later removed to form a playing field on the site. A Cape Chestnut tree (Calodendrum capense), planted near the Darling Street entrance by teacher Grace Earle in 1956 as part of Arbor Day celebrations, is still thriving in 2019.[35] In 1963, three acres (1.2ha) were added to the school grounds on the eastern side of Darling Street.[36] The school grounds comprised 2.93ha, spanning both sides of Darling Street.[37] The parade area and pathways from the roadway to the school entrance were bitumenised in August 1958.[38]
\nFurther changes to Block A were made in the post-WWII period. Between 1950 and 1960 the roof fleches were removed.[39] New hat and bag racks approved in October 1958 were added. Before 1960 a doorway to the southwest classroom was inserted in the southeast verandah wall.[40] In 1961, the southeast (front) verandah was enclosed, with weatherboards to sill height and awning windows above, to form a library, staffroom, and storeroom; and a glazed screen was also added to the northeast end of the northwest (rear) verandah.[41] Between 1960 and 1975 the timber stumps were replaced with masonry piers, and louvred walls were added to the understorey. Classroom ceilings were lowered and lined with flat sheeting (potentially leaving the original pressed metal ceiling above), the understorey was reconcreted, and concrete pathways added. The clerestory windows were removed after 1975, possibly when the roof was re-sheeted, which was a common alteration.[42] In 1984 the hat room on the northwest verandah was enclosed to form a store room, and a set of stairs to the understorey was inserted through the northwest verandah floor, leading to a new covered way to Block B. An access ramp was connected to the northwest verandah in c1997.[43]
\nIn the late 1960s and 1970s the school’s enrolments rose, requiring additional teachers and classroom accommodation, namely, Blocks B (c1969, extended c1976, c1978) and C (1992), and pre-school buildings.[44] Town water, sewerage and a new perimeter fence were also added in the 1960s.[45] More recently, other buildings have been added to the site.
\nDuring the 1970s extensive changes were made to the school grounds. In 1977, the front of the school was graded and all existing shrubbery removed, except the palm trees on the Brisbane Street boundary. Native trees and shrubs were planted in their place to create an ‘environmental garden’.[46] The tennis court was levelled and sealed in 1978.[47] In 1987, extensive levelling of the netball courts occurred, retaining walls were constructed, and landscaping performed.[48] The grounds were also increased by 0.84ha through addition of Lots 23-26 of Section 4, along Rudd Street in March 1978.[49]
\nBeginning with fundraising for its establishment, the school has been the focus and site of community interest and events throughout its history. It provided the venue for fetes and celebrations such as school anniversaries and Drayton’s welcome home to its soldiers returning from WWI. The community has supported the school through donations, organising and attending events, working bees, and School Committee and Parent & Citizens Committee membership.[50]
\nMilestones in the school’s history, including its 90th, 100th, and 125th anniversaries, which were celebrated with commemorative events, souvenirs and published school histories. In 1950, several hundred former pupils attended the celebration of the school’s 90th anniversary as a Queensland state school; a memorial plaque marking the entrance of the original school building was unveiled by Drayton School Committee president, W Peak;[51] and later that year, a Memorial to Steele Rudd was erected in the school grounds.[52] Centenary celebrations were held at the school in March 1960, attracting over 1000 people.[53] In 1975 the school commemorated its 125th anniversary celebrations with a ball, and an anniversary publication.[54] In 2001, an updated history of the school was published.[55]
\nBlock A is one of only two known buildings of its type that remain in the ownership of the Department of Education in 2019. The other building, at Bald Hills State School, has been heavily modified.[56]
\nIn 2019, Drayton State School continues to operate from its original, but expanded, site and has an enrolment of 282 pupils.[57] It retains its 1912 Timber School building and its 19th century school bell; set in landscaped grounds with mature trees and play areas. The school remains important to Drayton and its district, as a key social focus of the community.
","criteria":"Drayton State School (established as Drayton National School in 1851) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains a good representative example of a standard government designed school building that was an architectural response to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in landscaped grounds with provision of play areas and mature trees.
\nThe Department of Public Works (DPW) Timber School with Two Clerestory Lights (Block A: 1912), demonstrates the evolution of timber school buildings designed by the Department of Public Works to provide abundant lighting and ventilation.
\nThe landscaped school grounds, with provision of play areas and mature trees, demonstrate educational philosophies that promoted the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Drayton State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school. These include buildings constructed to standard government designs that incorporate understorey play areas, verandahs, and classrooms with high levels of natural light and ventilation; and a generous, landscaped site with mature trees and play areas. It is a good example of a small country school.
\nBlock A (1912) is a rare and intact example of a Department of Public Works (DPW) Timber School with Two Clerestory Lights, with later alterations by the DPW. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of this type, which include: its highset, gable-roofed form; timber-framed and -clad construction with single-skin verandah walls; open understorey play space; verandahs on two sides, with hat rooms; large windows with hoods to gable end walls; high-level windows to verandah walls; hinged timber ventilation boards at floor level; doors; interior linings; and c1935 classroom partition.
|Drayton State School has a strong and ongoing association with past and present pupils, parents, staff members, and the surrounding community through sustained use since its establishment in 1851 in the small rural township. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of the Drayton community for more than 160 years, with generations of children taught at the school. Since its inception, Drayton State School has served as a venue for social interaction and community focus. The strength of the association is demonstrated through repeated local volunteer actions, donations, and more recently, an active Parents and Citizens Association.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | 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 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":650248,"name":"Wellcamp State School","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"609 Drayton-Wellcamp Road","suburb":"WELLCAMP","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2020-03-27","description":"Wellcamp State School occupies a 3.2ha, flat site in Wellcamp, a rural locality located on the western fringe of Toowoomba, approximately 10km west of Toowoomba central business district (CBD). The school faces north to Drayton-Wellcamp Road, with the site bounded on the west by Wellcamp-Westbrook Road, and the south and east by rural residential properties. The significant school buildings are located in the northwest corner of the site, prominently located near the road intersection.
\nThe heritage boundary incorporates the northwest corner of the school site (total area of 1.2ha). Features of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nBlock A: Department of Public Works Timber School Building with Fleche and Floor Vent (1911)
\nBlock A is a highset, timber-framed and -clad teaching building with a gable roof continuous over front (north) and rear (south) verandahs. The verandahs have been partially enclosed and part of the north verandah wall has been removed. Access to verandahs is via front and rear stairs (the rear stair is centred on the south elevation; and the front stair has been relocated from the centre to the west end of the north elevation). The roof fleche has been removed.
\nThe interior comprises a single classroom, with large banks of operable windows in the gable ends providing abundant natural light and ventilation to the space.
\nThe understorey is partially enclosed and used as open play space.
\nFeatures of Block A also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of Block A not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nBlock L: Late Open-air school building (1918, moved to Wellcamp State School c2005)
\nBlock L is a lowset, single storey, timber-framed and -clad former teaching building. The building has a gable roof and features separate skillion hoods running the length of the gable ends. The main access to the building is from the east elevation (where a swing door and wall sheeting have replaced the original sliding door), and a door has been added into the south elevation for staff access.
\nThe interior comprises a single former classroom space (now administration), with a coved ceiling and a large bank of north-facing windows.
\nFeatures of Block L also of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of Block L not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nLandscape Features
\nLandscape features of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures not of State-level Cultural Heritage Significance
\nFeatures of Wellcamp State School not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nWellcamp State School was established in 1899 as Wellcamp Provisional School in Wellcamp, a rural area 10 kilometres west of the centre of Toowoomba. It retains good examples of standard school architecture (Block A, 1911 and Block L, 1918), set within spacious grounds with mature trees, play areas, and sporting facilities. In continuous operation since its establishment, the school has been a focus for the surrounding community as a place of important social and cultural activity.
\nPart of the traditional land of the Western Wakka Wakka people, the locality of Wellcamp was once within Westbrook pastoral station, leased by John Campbell in 1841. By 1864, the future site of the school, on Portion 115, was located in the northwest corner of the Drayton Agricultural Reserve, declared in 1861.[1] Portion 115, of 40 acres (16.2ha), was purchased by Mary McCleverty in December 1867, and by 1881 it was owned by James Paterson.[2] From the late 19th century, the district was used for dairy farming and agriculture.
\nWellcamp was established c1866 as ‘Williams’ Camp’, the main railway construction camp for the 47 mile (75.6km) section of the Warwick (later the Southern) Railway, between Gowrie Junction and Hendon. Located on Portion 113, east of Portion 115, the construction camp was named after Daniel Williams, the contractor for the section. Bisected by the railway line, Portion 113 later became the site of a railway station.[3] The Southern Railway was opened (through Williams Camp) to Hendon on 11 March 1869; to Warwick on 9 January 1871; Stanthorpe in 1881, and Wallangarra in 1887.[4]
\nThe name ‘Williams’ Camp’ was replaced by ‘Wellcamp’ c1878; apparently because there was a well at the construction camp.[5] A number of facilities were erected at or near the Wellcamp railway station over time, including a cottage for the gatekeeper, a station building, weighbridge and goods shed (c1883), loop siding, stockyards and loading bank; the Wellcamp Hotel (1908); and a small cheese factory (1917, extant 2019).[6]
\nDue to closer settlement in the Wellcamp district after the railway opened, the population increased and there was a need for a school. The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of new communities and integral to their success. 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.[7]
\nTo help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting, and ventilation.[8]
\nAn important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, Trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890.[9]
\nThe first school at Wellcamp, located less than one kilometre west of the railway station, was a provisional school. These were provided where student numbers were insufficient to justify a state school. A committee was formed in July 1898, at a meeting in the railway gatekeeper’s cottage, to obtain a school. The school’s site, 1 acre (0.4ha) of Portion 115, was purchased from James Paterson for £5 and transferred to the Secretary for Public Instruction in January 1899.[10] Wellcamp Provisional School opened with 27 students on 27 February 1899, and its opening was celebrated with an Arbor Day picnic in May 1899. The timber school building was lowset, with a verandah at the rear.[11] In 1903, two more acres (0.8ha) of Portion 115 were added to the school grounds, although title for this land was not transferred until 1936.[12]
\nThe first school building quickly became the centre of Wellcamp’s social life, as a venue for dances, and meetings of organisations, including a committee in support of extending a telephone line from Toowoomba to Wellcamp, and farmers interested in forming a local dairy company. It was not the only local dance venue, however; in 1903 a concert and dance was also held at the railway goods shed, to raise funds for the school.[13]
\nIn May 1909, when it had 43 pupils, Wellcamp Provisional School became Wellcamp State School.[14] A teacher’s residence was moved from New Farm State School in 1910, and positioned to the east of Wellcamp’s teaching building. The original school building was then replaced in 1911, when enrolments totalled 63. Erection of the new building was approved in May 1911, with the local community to pay a fifth of the cost. The tender of A Barr, for £577 and 16s, was accepted in October 1911.[15] A dance was held in the completed school building in March 1912.[16]
\nThe new school building (Block A in 2019) was a standard type designed by the Department of Public Works (DPW): a Timber School Building with Fleche and Floor Vent.[17] From 1893 the DPW greatly improved the natural ventilation and lighting of classroom interiors, experimenting with different combinations of roof ventilators, ceiling and wall vents, larger windows, dormer windows and ducting. Achieving an ideal or even adequate level of natural light in classrooms, without glare, was of critical importance to educators. In c1909 highset timber buildings were introduced, providing better ventilation as well as further teaching space and a covered play area underneath. A technical innovation developed at this time was a continuous ventilation flap on the wall at floor level. This hinged board could be opened to increase air flow into the space and, combined with a ceiling vent and large roof fleche, improved internal air quality and decreased internal temperatures effectively. This type was introduced around 1909 and was constructed until approximately 1920.[18]
\nBlock A was a highset timber-framed and -clad building with a gable roof, clad in corrugated iron. It had 8ft (2.4m) wide verandahs to the front (north) and rear (south), each accessed by a centrally located staircase, in line with sets of double doors to the single classroom, which was 31ft by 20ft (9.4m by 6.1m). The interior had abundant natural light and ventilation. Large banks of operable windows in the east and west gable walls, shaded by window hoods, and sets of highset operable windows in the south wall, shaded by the verandah, provided ample light and air. This ventilation was augmented by hinged timber boards in the verandah walls at floor level, and two vents in the lofty coved ceiling connected to a roof fleche. According to the plan drawn by DPW, hat rooms were proposed for the west end of both verandahs. The building was clad with weatherboards, except for the walls to the verandahs, which were single skin with framing exposed externally, and the interior walls and ceiling were lined with v-jointed tongue and groove boards.[19]
\nBlock A was immediately used for community purposes, including a banquet in honour of the President of the Queensland Farmer’s Union; a lecture on cheese factories; and dances in aid of school funds and the Toowoomba Ambulance Fund. Entertainment was also provided for Captain Jack Brown of the Australian Light Horse, while he was home on leave in October 1917.[20] A fete and sports carnival was held at the school in October 1925, the same month that the Federal Attorney General, Sir Littleton Groom, addressed voters at the school. The Wellcamp Queensland Country Women’s Association also used the school for meetings in the 1930s.[21] Arbor Days continued to be a social event for the community, with picnic lunches and plantings. The school’s 50th Jubilee was celebrated on 23 February 1949, with a large crowd on the grounds.[22]
\nAfter Block A was constructed, decades passed with few changes to the fabric of the single-classroom school. In 1914, approval was given to enclose underneath Block A on two sides, and in 1916 a storeroom was built under the southwest corner (this area is still enclosed in 2019). Permission to build a tennis court (located between Block A and the residence) was given in 1920, and the teacher’s residence was removed in 1928. The hat room at the west end of the rear verandah was incorporated into a storeroom in 1961. Enrolments were low in the post-World War II period (18 pupils in 1946; 25 in 1957), and by the 1960s the school still only consisted of Block A, with a number of mature plantings around the perimeter of the north end of the school, including Pepperina trees (Schinus molle). These trees’ branches were sometimes used for disciplinary purposes. A Parents and Citizens Association was formed in 1965.[23]
\nBy this time, the railway line from Gowrie Junction to Wyreema, through Wellcamp, had closed. When the route to Warwick was shortened in 1915 with the opening of a new railway line from Toowoomba to Wyreema via Drayton, traffic on the old line fell dramatically. The Gowrie Junction to Wyreema section finally closed on 1 December 1959, by which time Wellcamp Station had already been dismantled. [24]
\nIn the 1960s, the district was still dominated by dairy farms, with milk being supplied to the Toowoomba Unity factory. However, from the 1970s dairy farming declined, being replaced by beef cattle and grain crops, while subdivision patterns also changed. The opening of the Gainsborough Lodge horse stud nearby brought new families into the area, and enrolments at Wellcamp State School rose from 27 in 1973, to 40 in 1975, and 46 in 1983. The school celebrated its 75th jubilee on 23 February 1974.[25]
\nAs a result of increased enrolments, the grounds were expanded and new buildings were added to the school from the late 1970s. Five acres (2ha) of land was purchased at the southeast corner of the school c1980, creating the current ground size of 8 acres (3.2ha).[26] New buildings included a modular classroom building (Block B in 2019), erected northeast of Block A in 1977, and a new toilet block and septic system was installed south of the school buildings in 1978, replacing the previous Earth Closets. In the late 1970s, a new tennis court was formed on the former site of the teacher’s residence, and later a concrete block shelter shed (Block M) and a storeroom were added nearby. An adventure playground was built in 1986, and a practice cricket wicket, and a covered walkway between the school buildings and the toilets, were added in 1988. A building (Block D) was moved to the school, opening in 1994 as a ‘community room’, located south of Block A; and a shed was added south of the toilets by 1998. [27] Block R was added north of Block B c2009-11, and a new tennis court was built in the southwest corner of the school c2013-16, when Block N was built on the southern end of the 1970s tennis court.[28]
\nAlterations to Block A also occurred from the 1970s. In 1973, the P&C requested the enclosure of the rear verandah, although this was deferred due to restumping and concreting under the school. The majority of the front verandah of Block A was enclosed for a library in 1976, with the stairs moved to the west end of the verandah. The building was reroofed in 1982, and in 1983 permanent seating and a storage shed were approved for underneath the building. A health room existed on the rear verandah, east of the central stairs, by 1983. In 1999, a store room wall was removed from the west end of the rear verandah, and the remainder of the verandah west of the health room (an office by 1998) was enclosed as a Practical Learning Area, with new rear stairs and landing. By this time Block A’s banks of windows in the gable end walls had been replaced within the original openings.[29] After 2006, a suspended ceiling was added to the classroom space; but there is no evidence that the original coved ceiling, lattice ceiling vents and metal tie rods have been removed.[30]
\nIn c2005-6, another early DPW-designed building, Block L, was added to the school, just northwest of Block A.[31] Small and lowset, it was a late version of an ‘open-air’ building, originally constructed in 1918 for Tangkam State School (1918-61), southwest of Oakey.[32]
\nOpen-air school buildings were introduced as a standard design in 1913. This was developed in response to contemporary medical concern for child health and, under the direction of the newly-appointed Medical Inspector of Schools, Dr Eleanor Bourne, the relationship between classroom environment and child health was given importance. Dr Bourne advocated abundant ventilation and high levels of natural light in classrooms. Open-air school buildings achieved maximum ventilation and natural light, having full height walls only on the west side, and half off the south side, of the building. The other sides were partly open, enclosable with canvas blinds. However, this proved to provide limited weather protection and climate control, and the canvas blinds deteriorated quickly. Consequently, later open-air school buildings were designed with fixed and sliding windows instead of blinds, and a sliding door on the south side. Late Open-air school buildings were discontinued in 1923, and all earlier examples in Queensland were modified to replace their blinds with windows. [33]
\nThe building at Wellcamp State School is a Late Open-air School Building. As a variant within this type, it was designed with a gable roof instead of the usual hipped roof, and louvered vents and shingle cladding at its gable ends.[34] At Wellcamp, its original west wall faces south. At some point the doorway configuration of the building was altered; the sliding door at the east end was replaced with a swing door and wall sheeting, while the door at the west end was removed, and a new door was added on the south side. The shingles at the apex of the west gable end survive in 2019. Block L is rare as one of only two known extant examples of the Late Open-air type in Queensland, and the only one with a gable roof with louvered vents and shingles.[35]
\nIn 2019, Wellcamp State School continues to operate from its 1899 site. It retains its two early standard buildings (Block A and Block L), set in grounds with a playing field and mature shade trees. The school has played an important role in the Wellcamp and district community and continues to do so.
\n
Wellcamp State School (established as Wellcamp Provisional School in 1899) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains good representative examples of standard government designs that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies, set in large grounds with provision of sport and play areas, and mature trees.
\nThe Department of Public Works (DPW) Timber School Building with Fleche and Floor Vent (Block A, 1911) demonstrates the evolution of timber school buildings to provide abundant lighting and ventilation.
\nThe Late Open-air School Building (Block L, 1918, originally from Tangkam State School, relocated to Wellcamp c2005) demonstrates medical and educational theories of the period, which valued fresh air.
\nThe large school grounds and its mature shade trees and open grassed playing field demonstrate the Queensland Government’s recognition of the importance of play and aesthetics in the education of children.
|Block L, a Late Open-air School Building, is rare as one of only two known extant examples of its type in Queensland.
|Wellcamp State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school. These include: timber-framed buildings constructed to standard designs by the Queensland Government; and generous, landscaped sites with mature shade trees, and play areas. The school is a good example of a small, country school.
\nBlock A is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, a Department of Public Works Timber School Building with Fleche and Floor Vent. Its integrity is demonstrated by its highset form with gable roof; open understorey play space; front and rear verandahs with hatrooms; timber-framed and -clad construction; single classroom; and methods to provide abundant provision of natural light and ventilation to the interior including its hinged ventilation boards and large banks of operable windows.
\nBlock L is a rare surviving example of a Late Open-air School Building, and is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type. These include: its lowset form on stumps; timber-framed construction; single classroom space with timber sliding and fixed windows providing abundant natural light and ventilation to the interior; V-jointed (VJ) timber board cladding; and (evidence of) a large sliding door in one end wall. As a gable-roofed variant of a Late Open-air School Building, it also retains louvre vents in the gable ends, and a shingled gable.
|Wellcamp State School has a strong and ongoing association with past and present pupils, parents, staff members, and the surrounding community through sustained use since its establishment in 1899, when it was founded due to a strong community demand for state-run education. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of Wellcamp, with generations of children taught at the school, and its service as a prominent venue for social interaction and community focus. After its establishment, the school quickly became the centre of the community’s social life; and the strength of this association has continued to be demonstrated for more than 120 years through repeated volunteer action, donations, and an active Parents and Citizens Association.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650257,"name":"The Downs Club","alternate_name":"Downs Club Inc","street_address":"15 Mylne Street","suburb":"TOOWOOMBA","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2020-12-04","description":"The Downs Club is a highly-intact, purpose-built private men’s clubhouse standing prominently on a generous site immediately west of the Toowoomba CBD. The site has streets on three sides – Margaret Street to its south, Mylne on its east, and Isabel on its north. Still used for its original purpose, the clubhouse stands at the southern end of the rectangular site with an attractive garden setting. It has had two extensions on its northern side (1972 and 1989) and a Function Lawn (1989) is to its north. Two small outbuildings are to the rear (west) of the clubhouse – the Steward’s Room (1909), and the Former Stable (1900) with its Garage Extension (from c1912).
\nThe features of the Downs Club of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nClubhouse (1900) and its Two Extensions (1972 and 1989)
\nHighly intact, the original section of the clubhouse is an impressive single-storey building in a Federation-era style with asymmetrical massing and form. It is a loadbearing brick structure with timber-framed floors and roof, and the exterior walls and tall chimneys are face brick. It faces east, has an L-shaped timber verandah on its front and southern side, and a complex main roof of projecting hips and gables and two tall spire-like lanterns. Attached at the rear is a rectangular room (the Members’ Bar), which has a separate hip roof with lantern and overhanging awnings on its north and south sides.
\nThe front entrance is via a wide, brick-lined stair, through an arched entrance porch with a gable roof, into a small square vestibule. The vestibule has doors into various parts of the clubhouse, controlling access depending on member status. A secondary entrance to the site is via a small side gate from Margaret Street which leads directly to the Washroom on the end of the southern verandah, which also controls access.
\nThe internal layout comprises a central hall with rooms either side. On the south are the two largest rooms: the Reading Room and the Billiards Room, which can be combined via a folding partition. On the north is the small Stranger’s Room at the front (for non-members), and a large Banquet Room, comprising two joined rooms. At the rear is the Members’ Bar.
\nThe original section’s windows, doors, and circulation routes are noticeably designed for privacy control, reflecting its original private club use. Its interior decorative treatments are relatively-restrained, although this is amplified by the rooms’ complex spatial forms.
\nFeatures of the Clubhouse’s original section (1900) of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Clubhouse’s original section (1900) not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nGents’ Toilets Extension
\nDoors from the Billiards Room and the Members’ Bar lead to a small Gents’ Toilets Extension. It is an early addition built to the rear of the building, with entrance doors that match the original section. Its exterior is face brick and it has timber-framed double-hung windows and a flat roof.
\nFeatures of the Gents’ Toilets Extension of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Gents’ Toilets Extension not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFunction Room Extension (1972)
\nAttached along the northern side of the original section of the clubhouse is the Function Room Extension (1972), a single-storey structure with a cellar and a flat roof. Its exterior is face brick and combines architectural details that mimic the original section as well as details contemporary with its construction. It is accessed from the clubhouse’s northern rooms, and from the exterior (west and north) for loading and staff entrances. It accommodates a large Function Room to the front (east) and to the rear of this is a Ladies’ Toilets, Kitchen, Storeroom, and Office (with stair to cellar).
\nFeatures of the Function Room Extension of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Function Room Extension not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nCentenary Room Extension (1989)
\nThe Centenary Room Extension (1989) is a single-storey structure attached to the north side of the Function Room Extension. It is a face brick building with flat roof. It accommodates a single large function room, the entire north wall of which projects out as a bay window with a conservatory roof. Access into the room is from a large opening in the Function Room Extension and from the exterior through large sliding doors in the bay window. These doors lead out the long expanse of the Function Lawn, which forms the backdrop of the Centenary Room.
\nFeatures of the Centenary Room Extension of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Centenary Room Extension not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nSteward’s Room (1909)
\nThe Steward’s Room (1909) is a small, single-storey timber-framed and -clad building standing to the rear of the clubhouse near Margaret Street. It is elevated from the ground and has a small brick enclosure to its understorey. It has a hip roof clad and a central metal pot-bellied flue (Marks patent). Its two windows facing Margaret Street have been sheeted over. A window on the opposite (north) side has two pivoting casement sashes (Marks patent). Entrance to the building is via a door on the east side and the west side is blank.
\nThe interior was not inspected.
\nFeatures of the Steward’s Room of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Steward’s Room not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFormer Stable (1900, moved within the site 1909) and Garage Extension (c1912)
\nThe Former Stable and its Garage Extension stands to the rear (west) of the clubhouse, near and north of the Steward’s Room. It is a small single-storey building built on the ground. It comprises two sections – the original stable, and later extension discernible by joins in the timber members.
\nThe original skillion-roofed timber-framed stable comprises the rear (west) half of the building. Its western wall has been partially demolished and replaced with a concrete block wall and a large caged opening has been made in the southern wall.
\nThe garage extension is the eastern half and continues the skillion roof line to double it in size and accommodate vehicles. The extension is part timber-framed and part face brick, suggesting it may have occurred in two stages.
\nThe interior was not inspected.
\nFeatures of the Former Stable and Garage Extension of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Former Stable and Garage Extension not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nGrounds and Garden Setting
\nThe clubhouse has a manicured garden on its Mylne and Margaret Street sides, providing an attractive setting. To the north of the site is the Function Lawn, a lawn for garden functions. To the west of this is a large bitumen car park, accessed from Isabel Street. Parts of the boundary are lined with a mature camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora) hedge.
\nFeatures of the Generous Grounds and Garden Setting of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Garden Setting not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nViews
\nFrom Margaret and Mylne streets The Downs Club is highly visible and its prominence is emphasised by its striking architecture.
\nViews of The Downs Club of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nThe Downs Club, is situated in a central location in Toowoomba on the corners of Margaret, Mylne and Isabel streets. Constructed in 1900 as the second clubhouse for the exclusive gentlemen’s club, the Downs Club (established in 1889), the stately brick building with generous grounds and gardens, reflects the members’ desire to convey a sense of prestige,, exclusivity, and privacy. Designed by prominent and innovative Toowoomba architecture firm, James Marks and Son, the club was modelled on the principles of 19th century British gentlemen’s clubs and showcases the firm’s characteristic architectural features. Within the grounds is an original stable (1900) and a detached Steward’s Room (1909). In 2020 the Downs Club continues its tradition as a gentlemen’s club.
\nEuropean settlement of the Toowoomba area, traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, commenced in 1840 when squatters occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. The small settlement of Drayton evolved from 1842, but was soon surpassed by a more desirable location six kilometres to the northeast, known as Toowoomba from the 1850s. Better suited to market gardening, with a more reliable water supply, and supported by squatters and land speculators, Toowoomba was incorporated as a municipality in 1860. Its rapid economic and social development was influenced by local residents who strongly promoted the prospects of the town, and political representatives who successfully lobbied for government funding for civic improvements.[1]
\nAs Toowoomba progressed in the 1870-80s, a commercial centre emerged. The construction of a police station and post office near the courthouse firmly established the upper (eastern) end of Margaret Street as a government precinct. By the 1880s the Russell, Ruthven, and Margaret Street block (western end) was pre-eminent as the commercial centre of Toowoomba.[2] Banks, retail stores, hotels, and commercial businesses flourished as the population of the town increased. The surrounding pastoral properties depended on these businesses to provide services and products. Visits to town often became social occasions.[3]
\nThe first gentlemen’s club in Toowoomba was established by a group of wealthy squatters (pastoralists with large holdings often termed ‘Pure Merinos’) in the early 1860s, eager to have their own private club in town, where they could stay overnight and socialise with other men of similar social standing. Just prior to this, in 1859 the prestigious Queensland Club (QHR 600113) had been founded in Brisbane. Once established, the new Toowoomba club became known as ‘The Union Club’, with a stately clubhouse constructed on Russell Street (Clifford House (QHR 600857) in 2020). Only the wealthy could afford membership fees, ensuring the club’s exclusivity. This was, however, short-lived, and by 1870 the building had been sold and the club dissolved.[4]
\nBy the 1880s in Toowoomba, the dominance of the squattocracy in Darling Downs society had been supplemented by a wealthy and influential professional and business class.[5] A desire emerged amongst men in both the town and pastoral districts, for the establishment of a new gentlemen’s club.[6] At a meeting held 20 July 1889 in the Club Hotel, the decision was made to form such an association. The club was to base their rules on those of the Queensland Club and membership would consist of a four guinea entrance fee (just over £4) and an annual subscription of two guineas for town members, with country members (those who lived more than 10 miles (16km) from Toowoomba) to pay approximately half this amount. Although not as expensive as the Queensland Club’s membership at the time, which was £12 per year, it was still a considerable sum.[7] The club was a private club for men of distinction and provided a social and recreational venue for those with common interests and socio-economic backgrounds.[8] Initially called the ‘Darling Downs Club’, it began with a membership of 44. By July 1890, this had increased to 66.[9] One could only become a member if voted in by the members, thus ensuring exclusivity. The first president of the club was AJ Boyd, Headmaster of the Toowoomba Grammar School (QHR 600850). Members included ‘Pure Merinos’ such as MF Ramsay of Eton Vale Homestead (QHR 600391) and WB Slade of Glengallan Homestead (QHR 600007). Several doctors, solicitors and politicians were also amongst the first club members, including the Minister for Railways at the time, Hon. HM Nelson.[10]
\nThe Darling Downs Club’s first club rooms were within the Club Hotel. These were specially built for them, to a design by Toowoomba architect James Marks, described at the first annual meeting as ‘the billiard room, card-room, and general room’, with all the furniture, including a Burroughes and Watts’ of London billiard table, paid for by club funds.[11] By the mid-1890s the club was better known as the ‘Downs Club’. As membership continued to increase, the club’s accommodation proved inadequate. Problems had also arisen when members did not receive adequate service from the hotel staff.[12]
\nThe construction of a new clubhouse was deemed essential and in January 1900 a property on the corner of Margaret and Mylne streets was purchased from James Taylor jnr, a founding member of the club and the son of prominent Toowoomba resident, James Taylor. The property totalled 2 roods (0.2ha), consisted of 5 lots (L16-20 RP16262 in 2020) and cost £500.[13] Architects were invited to submit designs in early 1899, for a brick clubhouse that would not cost more than £1000, with a five guinea prize for the successful firm. Two Toowoomba based architecture firms, James Marks and Son and William Hodgen, submitted designs - the former becoming the winner.[14]
\nOn 26 August 1899, James Marks and Son called for tenders ‘for the erection of a Club Building in Margaret street, for the ‘Downs Club’.[15] Funds were raised for the £1526 clubhouse through a debenture scheme, with each member offered £5 debentures. Work on the new clubhouse commenced swiftly and by May 1900 the building had been completed. To celebrate the opening of the clubhouse, a ball was held.[16] The event was featured in the social pages of the newspapers, ‘The Downs Club ball on Thursday evening was a brilliant one. Everything went off with the greatest e´clar. The reception rooms were beautifully decorated’.[17]
\nThe Downs Club was modelled of a 19th century British gentlemen’s club, as was the 1884 Queensland Club building in Brisbane (QHR 600113). Clubs were established throughout the British Empire at this time in an attempt to affirm members’ affiliations (perceived or actual) with Britain, through the social and recreational traditions held by the club. Food, drink, and convivial company with like-minded gentlemen attracted members. Many clubs also offered overnight accommodation.[18] Of utmost importance in the design was the provision of members’ privacy, exclusivity, and prestige. Only members were permitted into the ‘inner sanctum’ of the club rooms, which generally included a reading room, smoking room, card room, billiard room, club room, and dining room; guests were known as ‘Strangers’ and relegated to a strangers’ room close to the entrance, but apart from the main club rooms, ensuring members’ privacy. If guests were allowed into the club proper, they were required to sign a book and were allowed only limited access. Stewards were employed to police this tradition and to provide service to members. Clubs also offered their members recreational activities including team sports.[19]
\nWhen first completed, the one-story brick Federation era-style clubhouse, situated on the rise of the hill on the corner of Margaret and Mylne streets, conveyed a sense of prestige and distinction, which followed the tradition of gentlemen’s clubs both in England (in particular London) and colonial clubs throughout the British Empire.[20] The layout of the club ensured control of the members’ and non-members’ spaces from inside and privacy from outside. An entrance vestibule separated the clubhouse from the outside world, and connected separately to a strangers’ room at the front of the building. Heavy double doors led into the club rooms via a stately central hall. The luxuriously appointed rooms included the reading room, billiards room, small washroom, and banquet room. To the rear of the clubhouse was a detached timber auxiliary building with the kitchen, a (steward’s) bedroom, and storeroom. There was also a modest timber stable at the rear. The club did not offer overnight accommodation to its members.[21]
\nIn February 1909, a large fire broke out at the rear of the clubhouse which destroyed the timber auxiliary building, the ‘flames quickly got hold of the back rooms, built of wood, comprising a kitchen, bedroom, and a storeroom….Luckily the wind was blowing strongly from the east, and assisted in keeping the flames entering the main building’.[22] The brick clubhouse was not damaged, nor was the stable. Following the fire, the club purchased a 16 perch (405m²) block to the rear of the clubhouse from James Taylor.[23] On 13 March 1909, tenders were called by architecture firm HJ Marks and Lane, for ‘Additions and Alterations to the Downs Club’.[24] Costing £455, the work included the relocation of the stable to the newly purchased rear lot and the construction of a separate timber steward’s room, with its own small cellar, beside the stable. A cellar was also constructed beneath the brick clubhouse. It is likely that the members’ bar at the rear of the club was constructed at this time.[25] Also in this year, camphor laurel trees (Cinnamomum camphora) were planted along the fence line, and would be manicured to become a hedge. A timber fence was constructed at this time to replace an earlier one.[26]
\nThe architecture firm James Marks and Son, responsible for the design of the clubhouse, comprised father and son architects James Marks (1834-1915) and Henry (Harry) James Marks (1871-1939). It operated from 1892 until 1910. James had commenced practice as James Marks, Architect in Toowoomba by the early 1880s and was successful, being responsible for notable and high profile buildings in the Downs region. Born and trained in Toowoomba, his son Harry was a highly creative and inventive designer, and together, the practice continued James’ success and was responsible for a variety of further impressive buildings. These included Rodway (QHR 600868), St James Parish Hall (QHR 600856), St Luke's Church Hall (QHR 600866), additions to the Toowoomba Maltings (QHR 600852), and Harry’s own family home ‘St Rest’ (known as Gladstone House in 2020 (QHR 601303)). James retired in 1906, and Harry briefly practiced as HJ Marks and Lane (1909-10), calling tenders for the 1909 additions to the Downs Club. The practice under its various names has been described as dominating the architectural profession in Toowoomba for more than half a century.[27]
\nHarry Marks was also described as being gifted with inventive genius. He devised and patented a number of architectural elements, including roof ventilators, windows and a method of stucco wall construction.[28] His designs included many of his patented inventions and other architectural devices such as roof lanterns and high ceilings that focused on the provision of natural light and ventilation to the interior. His architectural style has been described as ‘stylish exaggeration’ with ‘little surface decoration’ relying more on the ‘proportions and massing of the roofs and rooms’.[29]
\nThe Downs Club exemplifies James Marks and Sons’ work and in particular, Harry Marks’ design influence. Privacy was foremost, and windows in the clubhouse at eye level were few and relatively small. Additionally, there were no French doors on the verandah, limiting access. This possible lack of light and ventilation was countered by including impressive double barrel-vaulted ceilings with tall lanterns and brightly lit voids, high-level semi-circular windows, fanlights above internal doors, Harry’s patented pot-bellied flues for ventilation, and his patented pivoting casement sash windows, obscured with textured glass.[30]
\nIn the 1910s the club expanded by purchasing four adjoining vacant lots, totalling 1 rood 24 perches (approximately 1620m²) to the north on the corner of Mylne and Isabel streets, from James Taylor.[31] In October 1914 tenders were called for ‘the laying down of two ant-bed tennis courts at the Downs Club’ on these lots.[32] Once complete, the tennis courts were made available to associates of members, including females, with the proviso that they ‘not use any of the Downs Club premises, or any part thereof with the exception of the tennis court proper and the approaches thereto’.[33] Camphor laurels were planted along the boundary of the newly acquired property, again manicured as hedges. The stable was extended at this time to include a garage for cars and in 1916 a cricket bowling green was laid.[34]
\nThroughout the club’s history, cricket matches had been held between other gentlemen’s clubs, including the Queensland Club (QHR 600113) and the Warwick Club (established in 1896). Bridge games and billiards tournaments were also held, usually ending with a club dinner.[35]
\nIn the 1920s further improvements were made to the clubhouse, including replacing the front timber entrance stairs with brick ones. The stable/garage was also extended at this time, reflecting the growing use of motor vehicles in the 1920s. In May 1928 the club held a lavish ball attended by 200 guests. The clubhouse was described at the time:
\nIn the card and reading rooms, which are connected with folding doors, bowls of beautiful gladioli were used … in the large lounge, with its high domed roof, there was a wreath of lovely roses … the spacious hall was grouped with palms … and in the billiard room, where there was a big cosy fire, the mantel was massed with … dahlias.[36]
\nIn the 1950s minor changes were made to the club interior, including painting, kitchen upgrades and an extension to the bar in the members’ bar. It was not until 1972, however, that any major changes were made to the clubhouse when a large addition was constructed along its northern side to accommodate a new function room and kitchen. This new wing was designed with a parapet and bay window on the Mylne Street side, copying those of the original building. Changes to the club rules at this time allowed members to invite female guests for lunch in the new functions room and the extension included a ladies’ toilet. In 1985 the tennis courts were removed to accommodate a function lawn, and entrance pillars were erected at driveway from Isabel Street. The Downs Club became an incorporated association in 1988.[37]
\nAs the club approached its centenary celebrations in 1989, a new garden room was constructed to the north of the 1972 function room, known as the Centenary Room. This enlarged the function space considerably and a locally designed and made leadlight window, bearing the club’s name, was installed in the front wall, to commemorate the occasion.[38]
\nThe Downs Club, established in 1889, continues its original use as a private gentlemen’s club. The 1900 brick clubhouse, designed by James Marks and Son, incorporating Harry Marks’ innovative architectural features, set in generous grounds, has played a role in its successive members’ social and recreational lives since the late 19th century. Although still a private club, in recent years the Downs Club has opened some of its facilities for venue hire to the public for occasions such as weddings.
","criteria":"The Downs Club (1900) is important in demonstrating the establishment of exclusive social institutions for wealthy males in colonial Queensland, based on British cultural traditions. Its origins and continued use as a traditional gentlemen’s club are illustrated in its form, materials and layout.
\nLater extensions to the clubhouse in 1972 and then in 1989 (to mark the club’s centenary) illustrate the continued operation of the club into the late 20th century and reflects its expanded use and access.
|In its form, fabric, materials and layout, the Downs Club is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a purpose-built gentlemen’s club of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Highly intact, these principal characteristics include its: central location with dignified street appearance; privacy control measures (hedged garden setting and floor plan arrangement separating members and non-members); high quality design, construction, and furnishings; and provision of strangers’ room, leisure and games rooms (reading, billiards), rooms for shared drinking and dining (bar and banquet rooms), facilities for members from ‘out of town’ (washroom, stable/garage), and service facilities (steward’s room).
\nDesigned by James Marks and Son, the Downs Club is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the work of this important Toowoomba architecture firm, notable for its prolific and high quality body of work in Queensland. Many of the firm’s principal characteristics are demonstrated at the Downs Club including its: skilful and creative architectural design; emphasis on natural daylight and abundant ventilation to the interior; complex interior spatial forms; and use of Harry Marks’ patent windows and flues. Highly intact, the Downs Club is an excellent example of the firm’s work.
|The Downs Club is important for its aesthetic significance. Viewed from Margaret and Mylne streets, it has a dignified street presence, standing prominently in a hedged garden setting in central Toowoomba. It displays beautiful attributes through its: well-composed design in an expressive Federation-era style; complex asymmetrical roof form punctuated by gables, chimneys, and roof lanterns; striking internal spatial forms with vaulted ceilings and interconnected rooms; and cohesive use of high-quality materials, finishes, and decorative treatments.
|The Downs Club is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative achievement in architecture. As an excellent and highly-intact example of James Marks and Son’s work, a firm renowned for its design and technical expertise and innovation, the clubhouse demonstrates a skilful use of Federation-era style, with striking internal spatial forms, and the firm’s own patented windows and flues.
|The place has a special association with past and present members of the Downs Club as the organisation’s headquarters and the principal venue for its social and recreational activities continuously for more than 120 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":null,"place_ref":650263,"name":"Eagles Nest Camp, Redwood Park","alternate_name":"Eagles Nest Swagmen's Rest Camp","street_address":"Old Toll Bar Road","suburb":"REDWOOD","lga":"TOOWOOMBA REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2021-03-26","description":"Eagles Nest Camp (1930) occupies a 2.65 hectare site within the larger Redwood Park, an area of predominantly open eucalypt forest located on the eastern escarpment of the Great Dividing Range. The camp is sited on ground that slopes down to the northeast, and is bounded by the Redwood Bridle Trail on its southwest side and the Eagles Nest Trail on its southern side. It comprises a collection of elevated earth and drystone building platforms and associated landscape features, and remnants of the former vegetable gardens and stockyards.
\nFeatures of Eagles Nest Camp of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nCamp location, layout, landscape and setting
\nPositioned on the fringe of Toowoomba but within walking distance (3km) to the city, the camp’s location and open eucalypt forest setting reflects its historical use as a place of respite for travelling unemployed men. The camp grounds were historically cleared of vegetation, with the exception of shade trees and gardens tended by its occupants, and its elevated position and steep topography offered attractive views across the Lockyer Valley to the east.
\nIn 2021, remnants of the camp visible amongst the regrowth vegetation and accumulated sediments illustrate its former layout and relationships between features. The building platforms are positioned on the higher ground, and the former vegetable gardens and stockyards are located on the lower ground to the northeast.
\nThe building platforms are laid out with the large mess hall and kitchen at the southern end, situated between two rows of accommodation huts and other amenities that extend southeast to northwest in gentle arcs along the hillside terrain. A rubbish dump associated with the camp is located along the creek, south of the mess hall and kitchen.
\nThe camp retains remnants of its terraced and sloped ground forms, stone-cobbled and -edged paths, and stone-edged garden beds. Built and tended by the occupants, these landscape features illustrate their efforts and pride in the appearance of the camp.
\nFeatures of the camp location, layout, landscape and setting of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nMess hall and kitchen remnants
\nThe mess hall and kitchen remnants comprise a large (approximately 9m x 14m long) earth platform with its long sides facing east and west. Sited on sloping ground, the elevated platform has drystone retaining walls (approximately 1m high) along its east and south sides.
\nStone stairs indicate the eastern entrance to the former mess hall structure (approximately 6.5m x 8m, no longer extant) that originally stood on the platform, with the former kitchen structure attached to its northern end. Later removed, these timber-framed former structures were clad in corrugated metal, corn sacks and flattened kerosene tins.
\nVegetation clearing and archaeological excavations undertaken in 1994 revealed the extent and general layout of the mess hall and kitchen platform, along with stone-edged gardens and a stone-cobbled entrance path at its southern end. These features remain extant, concealed by protective fill.[50]
\nFeatures of the mess hall and kitchen remnants of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nHut remnants
\nThe hut remnants comprise at least 17 elevated earth platforms with drystone retaining walls, roughly arranged into an upper and lower row. The upper row (Huts 1 to 8) extends from west of the mess hall and kitchen remnants, curving southeast to north along the sloping terrace. The lower row (Huts 9 to 17) extends from east of the mess hall and kitchen remnants, curving southeast to northwest around the western side of the vegetable gardens.
\nThe former hut structures (varying sizes, no longer extant) that originally stood on the platforms were single storey and skillion-roofed, with doorways generally facing east. They were constructed using bush timber frames, and clad in corrugated metal, corn sacks and flatted kerosene tins. Most were square or rectangular in plan and used as sleeping quarters for the men, although some may have been washrooms, latrines or garden sheds.
\nAccumulated soil and regrowth vegetation around the hut remnants have obscured their extents (horizontally and vertically) and plan forms. However, visible surface features indicate their location and general arrangement. Hut platforms 9 and 12 are larger than most, and Hut 12 platform is L-shape in plan.
\nFeatures of the hut remnants of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nVegetable gardens and stockyard remnants
\nThe vegetable gardens and stockyard remnants comprise an area of cleared land that was originally used to grow vegetables to supply the camp. The stockyard is rectangular in plan and located on the eastern side of the gardens.
\nFeatures of the vegetable gardens and stockyard remnants of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nArchaeological potential
\nHistorical evidence and previous archaeological investigations indicate the camp had extensive landscaping beyond what is currently visible, as well as latrines and other amenities. Potential remains to identify these and other features of the camp through further archaeological surveys and physical investigations.
\nAreas where potential archaeological evidence could contribute to a greater understanding of the layout and functions of the place, and the activities and living conditions of its occupants include:
\nNon-significant features
\nFeatures of Eagles Nest Camp not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nEagles Nest Camp is a 2.65 hectare site, located within Redwood Park, a bushland reserve situated on the eastern side of the escarpment of the Great Dividing Range. Gazetted a sanctuary for native birds in 1911, Redwood Park soon became a valued recreational park, where Toowoomba residents and visitors could experience nature and enjoy the views over the valley below. In late 1930, a small portion of the park became a makeshift camp for unemployed men, impacted by the Great Depression. Known as the Eagles Nest, it was established by prominent Toowoomba resident and philanthropist, Dr Thomas Price, as well as other concerned residents, to alleviate the hardships experienced by these indigent men. Wholly constructed by the occupants, the camp soon became known as one of the best of its type in the country. Archaeological evidence of the camp remains in the park. Redwood Park remains a valued nature reserve for Toowoomba residents and visitors.
\nEuropean settlement of the Toowoomba area, traditional country of the Giabal and Jarowair people, commenced in 1840 when squatters occupied pastoral runs on the Darling Downs. The small settlement of Drayton evolved from 1842, but was soon surpassed by a more desirable location six kilometres to the northeast, known as Toowoomba from the 1850s. Better suited to market gardening, with a more reliable water supply, and supported by squatters and land speculators, Toowoomba was incorporated as a municipality in 1860.[1] In 1855 the Toll Bar Road was opened and the traffic that soon came to use this route facilitated the expansion of Toowoomba.[2]
\nRapid economic and social development was influenced by local Toowoomba residents who strongly promoted the prospects of the town, and political representatives who successfully lobbied for government funding for civic improvements.[3] In 1871, approximately 13,500 acres (5463 ha) of land on Toowoomba’s eastern escarpment was reserved as the ‘Toowoomba Town Common’ by the colonial government.[4] By the 1880s there was a growing anxiety amongst several Toowoomba residents, concerned that a 2000 acre (809ha) portion of this land was to be alienated by the government for private sale. The bushland, a highly valued and picturesque nature reserve, extended along the escarpment’s eastern ridgeline to the base of the range and overlooked the Lockyer Valley below.[5]
\nIn 1888 a petition, signed by more than 250 of Toowoomba’s male residents, was sent to the Minister of Lands, Henry Jordan, requesting the 2000 acre (809ha) site be given to the municipal authorities in trust to ensure its continued use as a recreational and natural public park.[6] The requested land to be placed in trust encompassed what was to become Redwood Park, Picnic Point and Adjacent Parkland (QHR 601205) and Jubilee Park. The petition appears not to have been acted on and the bushland remained Crown Land.[7]
\nIn October 1910, the Queensland Government declared a 500 acre (202ha) bushland site, previously part of the Toowoomba Town Common reserve (which would become Redwood Park), a ‘Reserve for the Protection and Preservation of Native Birds’, under the Native Birds Protection Acts, 1877 to 1884.[8] This was followed by the reserve being proclaimed a park in early 1911 and subsequently named Redwood Park by the Toowoomba City Council.[9] At the same time, Picnic Point and Jubilee Park were also declared reserves for birds.[10] Ten years later, as further legislation was introduced in relation to the protection of both birds and animals, under the Native Birds Protection Act 1921 and the Animal and Birds Act 1921, stricter rules concerning the safeguarding of vulnerable fauna ensured Redwood Park’s reputation locally as a haven for native wildlife, ‘the penalty for anyone killing or capturing native birds and animals in these reserves is up to £20’.[11] Under these acts, honorary rangers/officers were appointed by the government to patrol the reserves.[12] Several were appointed for the Toowoomba region including two prominent Toowoomba residents, EC Bernays (solicitor) and Dr Thomas Price (medical specialist, philanthropist, aldermen and mayor from 1918-19), both of whom were committed to the preservation and protection of Toowoomba’s flora and fauna.[13]
\nBernays proved to be a keen advocate for the establishment of a fauna sanctuary in Redwood Park, believing it could become the premier example of this type of tourist attraction in Queensland. He proposed that the 500 acre park be surrounded by a chain-wire fence for the protection of the native fauna within the park.[14] The council was supportive of this scheme in principle, and several examples of marsupial release in Redwood Park were reported in the local newspapers. Funding for the fence, however, did not eventuate at this time.[15]
\nEagles Nest Camp
\nDuring the interwar period Toowoomba was the regional centre of the Darling Downs. The impacts of the Great Depression emerged in the early 1930s as unemployment rates escalated. An increasing number of unemployed, itinerant men travelled either on foot, or by rail, across the state looking for employment. Between 1929 and 1933 Queensland Government policy stipulated unemployed single men, not working on relief projects, would not be able to draw state government funded emergency rations from the same centre in successive weeks. This forced them to move onto the next town, often many miles away, in order to demonstrate they were seeking work.[16] The term ‘swagmen’, used to describe itinerant men walking around the country, or ‘waltzing Matilda’, seeking work in nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia, was applied to these men who were compelled to travel long distances. Once in regional towns they would sometimes be provided with a meal (generally from charitable groups), sign up for intermittent relief work, or receive their meagre rations. In 1930 there were 1920 itinerant ‘travellers’ receiving rations in Toowoomba which soon became known to these men as a ‘good town’, referring to the services available to them and the reception from towns’ people.[17] Makeshift camps sprung up in some of the town’s parks and under bridges, prompting concern from residents and local government, anxious, not only about the safety and health of citizens, but also the welfare of the men, especially when they had to contend with Toowoomba’s cold winter nights.[18]
\nThe hardships experienced by the ‘swagmen’ was described in the local newspaper, ‘suffering intensely for want of sufficient and proper food, with rags for clothes, boots falling to pieces and no shelter; dejected from the endless search for work they could not find, most of them a few years ago were our heroes in Flanders and on Gallipoli’.[19] Several leading Toowoomba citizens, including Dr Thomas Price, empathised with the men and endeavoured to assist them. In March 1930, a small group of swagmen camping beside an old cattle dip, close to the Toll Bar Road, were moved on by authorities due to a tick infestation. ‘Hungry, dejected, poorly clad and shelterless’, a large canvas tent was loaned to them by the 1st Toowoomba Girl Guides, under the direction of Dr Thomas Price’s wife, Hester, providing them with temporary shelter.[20] Food was also supplied to the men, ‘they were obviously going to pieces because of bad and insufficient food and exposure … some were breaking out into sores – evidence of scurvy’. [21] More was needed to help the swagmen. Dr. Price, with the help of other locals, offered assistance to set up a camp for the unemployed men. Ideally, it was to be self-sufficient, where they could rest, have decent meals, and be given work to restore spirits.[22]
\nWith the support of the Toowoomba City Council, a 2.5 ha section of land on a slope in Redwood Park was transformed into the ‘Eagles Nest’ camp. A sign was erected on the Toll Bar Road pointing to a bush track leading to the camp which read ‘Eagles Nest Swagmen’s Rest Camp’.[23] Materials, tools and other helpful supplies were given to the men by Dr Price and supporters, and by mid-1931 they had erected a small group of huts including ‘the sleeping hut, with 16 bunks, dining shed, galley, shower, meat safe, water supply, and so on … built by the swagmen’.[24] A large vegetable garden was also cultivated as part of the camp. Over the months the camp expanded with the erection of separate accommodation huts built from old flattened kerosine tins and cornsacks. By June 1933, six had been erected and in November there were a dozen accommodation huts housing one, two and four bunks. In December 1933 the camp was described in Truth: ‘The huts comprise two kitchens, dining rooms, showers, workshop, and a fly-proof closet – with a dozen sleeping huts ... Water is laid on from a mountain spring and gives a plentiful supply to kitchen, showers, gardens and water trough’.[25]
\nA large galvanised iron shelter shed was moved into the Eagles Nest camp in January 1933. It had been erected by the council and the Social Service League in Bridge Street outside Toowoomba’s CBD in July 1932, to provide more shelter for homeless men.[26] The relocation of the shed followed complaints about a rise in petty crime, attributed to the itinerants in town; the shelter was unsightly; and too many of the men were remaining in the city for too long, ‘they were coming in droves and for the welfare of the city they should be made to go further on’.[27] Once relocated to the Eagles Nest, this shelter shed became the mess/dining hall. Many of the men housed in the Bridge Street shelter then moved to the Eagles Nest camp.[28]
\nThe contrast between the town’s attitude toward the men staying at the Eagles Nest Camp and the problematic camps in town is reflective of society’s attitudes at the time of the ‘deserving poor’. These were unfortunate people who wanted to work but were unable, as opposed to the ‘undeserving poor’ who were able to work but chose not to.[29] In 1933 the Daily Standard stated that the Eagles Nest ‘camp works because of its friendly spirit and comradeship, and because of the recognised principle that a man should work for what he gets’.[30] The camp was seen as a worthy endeavour, as reflected in the many newspaper features touting its merit, and the respectability of its occupants. The self-constructed, self-sufficient, temperate, clean camp was viewed favourably - and it was just far enough away from the centre of town to alleviate uneasiness.
\nCamps for the unemployed were not a rarity in Australia during the Great Depression. The almost unsolvable problem of providing shelter to homeless, unemployed men was often left to the men themselves, who would establish unofficial makeshift camps in public parks, showgrounds, under bridges, or in dilapidated and vacant buildings. Often the camps were seen by residents and local authorities as an unfortunate eyesore, but one that was usually tolerated due to the sad situation those in the camps found themselves. Occasionally, however, the camps would be disbanded by the authorities following complaints. Throughout Queensland there were many of these camps. In Brisbane there were large camps housing several hundred people in shacks, humpies and lean-tos including in Victoria Park, Dutton Park, Moorooka, Tarragindi, and Mayne Junction. There were camps in Townsville, Charters Towers, Cairns, Gympie and Warwick. Often they would have a co-ordinated camp committee to organise food, cleaning and discipline.[31] The squalid and temporary nature of the camps, vacated once better times arrived, have consequently left little remaining evidence of this fragment of history.[32]
\nDr Price stated that the men at the Eagles Nest Camp came from all echelons of society, even university academics, who, due to the economic crises could find no work. He stressed that most of the men were returned servicemen, ‘ordinary decent men just hungry for work’.[33] For Toowoomba residents, keen to help the deserving swagmen, Eagles Nest proved itself worthy of receiving charitable gestures, unlike the troublesome camps in town.[34] Community support and donations for the camp came from groups including the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides (of which Dr and Mrs Price were leaders of respectively); local businesses such as cafes and butchers; and charity organisations, often including the Social Service League. Local farmers also loaned several cows and donated a few pigs and chickens.[35]
\nThere were strict procedures to adhere to if staying at the camp. Firstly, men could only stay at the camp for a fortnight or so and then had to move on. Whilst at the camp they were given shelter and food and could rest. Each man would give a portion of his ration order to the camp. They were expected to contribute to the running of the camp by working in the garden, kitchen or generally around the camp. If someone was given intermittent work, a fraction of the earnings would go back into the camp. A notice board outside the dining mess stated the three rules:
\n1. Men staying must abide by the man in charge.
\n2. No intoxicants are allowed to be brought into the camp.
\n3. Be sanitary and clean, and keep camp tidy.[36]
\nThere were comforts such as hot showers and fresh running water, pumped in from a nearby stream. A library and a gramophone with records were donated by community members, as well as clothing and boots. A site manager oversaw the running of the camp and was one of only two permanent residents at the camp; the other was the secretary; both were invalid ex-servicemen. Approximately 35 men could stay at the camp at any one time, however, this fluctuated.[37]
\nA scheme to assist the men and the camp’s finances was arranged by the Toowoomba City Council, with a voluntary toll for drivers on the rough Toowoomba-Helidon Road. Men from the Eagles Nest Camp worked repairing the road and in exchange, ‘the money will be used to pay the camp expenses of single unemployed men, who have agreed to fill in all ruts’.[38] Other relief work was provided clearing the range road of lantana. Surplus fruit and vegetables and chopped firewood produced at the camp was donated (never sold) by the men to unemployed Toowoomba residents and their families, as well as to the local hospitals.[39]
\nIn 1935, features of the camp were described in the Telegraph:
\nSet deep in the basin of the hills … a first glimpse of Eagle’s Nest reveals a cluster of little pink-walled abodes, interspersed with white buildings, picked out with remarkably well defined footpaths lined with white stones, with here and there a bed of multi-coloured flowers … nestling at the foot of the little dwellings, spread out like a bright patterned carpet in green, with rich black loam as a background and healthy green passion vine as a fringe, is seen the tidiest vegetable garden on the Downs.[40]
\nA series of photographs of the camp taken in the mid-1930s present a well-cared for camp with a series of small huts on platforms, spaced out over the slope under tall trees, facing east with a view out to the valley below. Cobbled footpaths with white-washed stone edging traversed the camp and stone-edged flower beds appeared in front of many of the huts, including the mess hall. Stone retaining walls terraced the camp and the large segmented vegetable garden was verdant with crops. Along one of the terraces the words ‘Eagles Nest’ was laid out in white-washed stone.[41]
\nThis Toowoomba retreat from the swagmen’s harsh existence on the road was extolled in many newspaper articles and magazines throughout Australia, including the Brisbane Courier, Sydney’s The World’s News, rural NSW’s Richmond River Herald and Northern River Advertiser, Rockhampton’s Evening News, Mackay’s Daily Mercury, Truth, The Australian Women’s Mirror and the ABC Weekly. In August 1934 the camp was visited by the Minister for Labour and Industry, Mr MP Hynes, who showed a keen interest in the project.[42]
\nIt was approximated in 1935 that 1500 men had stayed at the camp since its beginning:
\nThose Toowoomba residents who have made this camp possible may like to know that around many camp fires all over Australia are men who look back on the few days spent in Eagle’s Nest as a bright patch of sunlight and peace in the midst of a very stormy and troubled time – Yours, Eagle’s Nest Camp.[43]
\nIn 1938 the Main Roads Commission began work on redirecting the Toll Bar Road up the range at a lesser grade, north west along the edge of Redwood Park. The completion of the new road was to coincide with the Darling Downs’ centenary celebrations in 1940.[44] The idea of establishing a fenced animal sanctuary in Redwood Park was revived and funding sought from the Queensland Government to assist with the erection of a 3.5 mile (5.6km) boundary fence. It was hoped that the sanctuary would become a tourist attraction for Toowoomba, as well as contribute to the conservation of native fauna. The cost for the project was estimated at £2780, with £1000 granted by the Queensland Government, provided the funds were used specifically for the construction of the fence and water supply for the animals. Toowoomba City Council was to pay for all other expenses which included a caretaker’s cottage, public toilets and water tank.[45]
\nThe new Toll Bar Road, also to be known as the Toowoomba Highway, was officially opened on 29 January 1940, attended by several dignitaries, including the Minister of Works, Mr Bruce, and the Mayor of Toowoomba, JD Annand. The establishment of the animal and bird sanctuary in Redwood Park was announced at the ceremony, ‘which would be one of the show places of Queensland’.[46] The fence had been completed by the end of 1941 and a series of advertisements were placed in local newspapers for donations of native animals, in particular koalas, for the park. A caretaker/ranger was appointed who resided in a newly-built cottage situated close to the Toll Bar Road entrance to the park. An entrance drive from the road was also constructed and funded by the Main Roads Commission.[47] Unfortunately, the tourist attraction was not a success, and by 1955 all structures including the caretaker’s cottage had been removed. The perimeter fence fell into disrepair and so too did the entrance drive.[48]
\nIt is unclear when the Eagles Nest Camp was vacated and the structures removed, however, it is likely that it coincided with the establishment of the sanctuary and the beginning of World War II. In 1994 remnants of the camp were exposed during vegetation clearing in the area, and an archaeological investigation was carried out by the University of Southern Queensland on part of the former camp site, funded by the council. The earth and drystone platform foundations of 19 structures were identified, along with numerous paths and stone-edged garden beds, and the location of the vegetable gardens and stockyards. The mess hall and kitchen platforms were excavated to reveal their layout, and a dump site along the creek produced a range of glass, ceramic, metal artefacts, including crockery sourced from Toowoomba businesses, and recycled and repurposed items. In 2021 remnants of the camp remain in Redwood Park.[49]
\nOver the years Redwood Park has been used by groups such as the Boy Scouts and as a training ground for the military in the 1950s and 1960s. In 2021, Redwood Park remains one of Toowoomba’s valued nature reserves and is a popular recreational destination for nature lovers and bird watchers. The Friends of the Escarpment Parks group continue to care for and maintain the park in cooperation with the Toowoomba Regional Council.
","criteria":"Eagles Nest Camp, 1930-c.39, is important in demonstrating the economic and social impact of the Great Depression in Queensland. Established with assistance from the Toowoomba community as a place of comfort and respite for itinerant unemployed men compelled to travel to seek work, the camp became self-sufficient with accommodation huts, communal structures, landscaping, vegetable gardens and stockyards. It became renowned throughout Australia during the Depression as an exemplary camp for unemployed swagmen. Located on the fringe of Toowoomba in the bushland setting of Redwood Park, the camp retains important surviving physical evidence of its occupation.
|Eagles Nest Camp is rare as the only known example of a Great Depression-era unemployed itinerant men’s camp in Queensland with surviving fabric and layout, and is distinctive as a well-organised example, wholly constructed by its occupants.
|Eagles Nest Camp has the potential to contribute knowledge that will lead to a greater understanding of Great Depression-era camps in Queensland, their occupants and their associated activities and infrastructure.
\nArchaeological investigations of the extensive camp site – its surface remnants and potential sub-surface features and artefacts – may inform understandings of the layout and functions of the place, construction methods and the use of materials, the nature and extent of landscaping, and the social dynamics and living conditions of this ephemeral community.
\nArtefact scatters and deposits along the creek bank, including bone, glass, ceramic and metal items discarded during the occupation of the camp, have the potential to contribute to our understanding of the occupants and their material culture, the origins and recycling of resources, consumption activities and the day-to-day activities of camp life.
","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"} ]}