The former Corfield and Fitzmaurice Store is a large, timber framed building which is square in plan. The sides and rear of the building are clad with corrugated iron, as is the saw tooth roof. There are windows running along the sides high in the wall to supply good natural light to the interior. The street elevation of the building is more decorative and prestigious in appearance, being of timber and featuring a large expanse of display windows separated into two main sections by deeply recessed entrances. There is a small office on the right hand side of the building which is reached through a panelled door with a narrow sash window beside it. The shop front is shaded by a bull-nosed awning clad in corrugated iron and is supported by pairs of timber posts set in concrete blocks, probably an adaptation as the bases of the posts decayed. A decorative cast iron valance runs between the posts. The deep parapet above the awning is galvanised iron and features a pair of triangular pediments with the dates 1878 and 1916 above a deep entablature that carries the inscription "Corfield and Fitzmaurice Merchants". A stepped parapet completes the striking effect. At the rear of the building is an attached cold room clad in corrugated iron.
Internally the store appears to be largely intact and retains such features as early, long timber counters and timber storage shelving attached to the walls. A cash railway, known as a "flying fox", for transporting cash and receipts between the counter and a central timber office raised to mezzanine level still survives. The store is currently used for displays of local crafts, gemstones and minerals and a dinosaur diorama.
Behind the building are three rectangular storage sheds. They are set at right angles to the store and are set on low stumps and sheeted and roofed in corrugated iron.
","history":"The current 1916 building is the latest in a succession of Corfield and Fitzmaurice stores on the same site which established the main street of Winton.
The first pastoral run in the area was taken up around 1866 and the first lease was granted in 1873. Robert Allen, who also acted as an unofficial postmaster, had established a store and a basic hotel at Pelican Water Hole in 1876. This area proved to be subject to flooding, so when a site was surveyed for a township in 1878, a place about a mile away was selected. It was called Winton, after Allen's home in England. William Corfield, who had been in the carrying business since the mid 1860s, formed a partnership with Robert Fitzmaurice to set up a store and hotel in the proposed new town.
The partners left Townsville in July 1878 with a load of goods and set up a primitive store of saplings and tarpaulin, placing it by agreement in line with Allen's relocated building and Lynett's store. This row of buildings became the basis for the main street of Winton. Corfield returned to Townsville with a backload of wool and came back with timber, iron and a billiard table for a new hotel, to be known as the North Gregory Hotel. Fitzmaurice then went to Townsville to collect his wife and child and to bring the materials necessary to construct a more permanent store building. Both buildings were completed by 1879 and did well. Winton was gazetted as a town in the same year and the streets were named after surrounding runs including Elderslie Street where the store is located.
In 1880 the first land sales were held and Corfield and Fitzmaurice purchased the block on which their store stood. Winton flourished and soon had two stores, three hotels, a court house, bank and post office. By 1883 the population was 300 and increasing rapidly. In 1884 Fitzmaurice lost his sight and Corfield bought him out, selling the hotel on. He then went into partnership with W.M. Campbell. The transport company of Cobb and Co. set up a depot in Winton in 1885 and Corfield became their agent. In 1888 he entered politics as MP for Gregory, but in 1898 his partner became ill and Corfield returned to active participation in the business. Additions were carried out to the Corfield and Fitzmaurice store in 1899 by the Townsville architects Tunbridge and Tunbridge. This store was destroyed by fire in 1916 and was rebuilt. After Campbell's death, T.J. O'Rourke went into partnership with Corfield and was still so in 1921 when Corfield wrote the book 'Reminiscences of Queensland.'
"Corfield and Fitzmaurice" remained a general store and warehouse supplying the surrounding area with a diverse range of goods and almost anything could be ordered through them. Orders were despatched to Brisbane and returned via rail or road. The store proper housed grocery, household goods and drapery sections and sheds to the rear of the store held liquor, grain and farming implements. A sample room was also provided in one of these sheds where commercial travellers could display their goods. Corfield and Fitzmaurice became a well-known and important store in the area and shopping there was also a social occasion for families from outlying areas.
The Corfield and Fitzmaurice Store ceased trading in 1987. In April 1994 the building reopened as the Corfield and Fitzmaurice Winton Tourism Development Centre Association. It is used to display and sell locally-made craft items and features a display based on the store's history.
","criteria":"The Corfield and Fitzmaurice Store is situated on land which has been the site of a store in Winton from the nineteenth century, and as such, demonstrates the development of the town as a commercial centre for the Western Plains district.
|The Corfield and Fitzmaurice store is rare for the intactness of its interior space complete with many fittings such as shelves, display cabinets and counters for a traditional range of merchandise organised into departments. In particular the cash railway, or flying fox dispenser, is a rare example in situ of money handling technology of the early twentieth century.
|Corfield and Fitzmaurice Store is an excellent and well preserved example of the kind of variety store and warehouse which provided a vital service to country areas in the supply of goods and services.
|The elegant and well preserved shop front of Corfield and Fitzmaurice is a landmark in Winton and makes as major contribution to the character of its main street.
|The building has special associations with the life and work of its original owners William Henry Corfield and Robert Fitzmaurice who were instrumental in the founding of Winton.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15741,"place_ref":600966,"name":"Elderslie Homestead","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Winton - Boulia Road","suburb":"WINTON","lga":"WINTON SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Elderslie Homestead is located near the confluence of the Western River and Wokingham Creek, three kilometres north west of the residual sandstone outcrop of Mt Booka Booka. Only this outcrop and the slight rise on which the homestead is located break the horizontal plane of the surrounding landscape. The homestead gardens provide a striking contrast to the sparse natural vegetation of the area.
The complex comprises accommodation and working buildings. Three buildings constructed from Booka Booka sandstone remain. These are the main house, quarters and blacksmith's building. There is also a timber and metal meat house and visible sites of several other structures.
The main house is constructed from squared rubble, with dressed faces. Door openings are picked out with finely tooled margins. This method of construction is more refined than that used for the other buildings which are of coursed rubble. The original 1881 section was essentially a one room deep rectangular structure with verandahs to all sides. An early wing was added to the north west side to form an L shape and the verandah has been extended to encircle this addition. The construction techniques used for the addition are cruder, using random rubble stone, rendered and struck to imitate ashlar. The hipped roof is sheeted with corrugated iron. The rooms have concrete floors and rendered walls, most of which open out on to the verandahs but are not interconnecting. The main rooms are lined and ceiled with pressed metal panelling. Three of the rooms have fireplaces. The entire verandah is enclosed with flyscreens.
The blacksmiths shop is a long rectangular building constructed of coursed rubble sandstone bocks laid straight on the ground. It has an iron roof and an encircling verandah set on a hardwood frame. Most of the verandah posts have been replaced with steel posts. The building has three similarly sized rooms at the eastern end, comprising a butcher's, store and office. At the western end are the former stables and between there is a semi-open area which was the blacksmith's shop and harness room.
The Quarters provided accommodation for senior staff and consists of two equally sized rooms separated by a wall with a double fire-place. The construction is similar to that of the blacksmith's shop with coursed rubble walls and a hipped roof sheeted with corrugated iron. Verandahs surround the building. The roof frame and verandah posts are of bush timber. The interior of both rooms are rendered and show traces of lime wash. Both rooms have stone paved floors.
The meat house is a lightweight structure to the north of the quarters. It has flat steel sheets over a hardwood frame reaching to high sills and is flyscreened above. The roof and verandah are framed in hardwood and sheeted with corrugated iron which replaced the original thatched roof.
Other buildings on site include a cowshed to the north of the main group, tankstands possibly dating to the early 1900s and a garage and prefabricated steel shed for machinery and vehicles.
There is a small cemetery near the homestead complex. Records suggests that it was first used in 1882.
","history":"Elderslie Homestead is about 60 kms west of Winton and is a complex of accommodation and working buildings set against the backdrop of Mt Booka Booka in an otherwise flat landscape. Three of the surviving buildings were constructed of local stone in the early 1880s as the nucleus of Elderslie Station.
The area in which Elderslie station is located was explored by William Landsborough and surveyor George Phillips in 1866, although some pioneer pastoralists had settled in the area as early as 1863. Severe drought in the late 1860s compelled some to leave, but there was a new wave of settlement in the early 1870s when the drought broke and interest in pastoralism grew due to rising wool prices. 1n 1873 the area was declared a pastoral district and a detailed survey of the Western River and environs was carried out in 1876.
In 1873 Samuel Forsyth took up thirteen runs along the Diamantina and Western Rivers. In 1875, seven adjacent leases were granted to Donald Smith Wallace. It is thought that Wallace may have chosen the name Elderslie for its link with his famous namesake, the Scottish patriot William Wallace of Elderslie. The first buildings on Elderslie were constructed prior to 1875, and are thought to have comprised a pise homestead and yards. A shanty and store were later erected nearby. In 1876, this area was flooded, and the store was moved to higher ground approximately a mile away. This later became the site of the township of Winton, with an area resumed from the Elderslie holdings for the purpose.
By 1879, all leases (a total of 21 runs) were transferred to the prominent Victorian pastoralist, Samuel Wilson. Wilson had come from England to the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s and had also managed a sheep station for his brother in that colony. His success in this industry was spectacular and he built up a pastoral empire with holdings in various states. He also became involved in Victorian politics and was a member of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. A munificent gift of £30,000 to Melbourne University was followed by a knighthood in 1875 and he moved back to England where he took up the former estate of Lord Beaconsfield and attempted to enter British politics. Although he retained ownership of Elderslie until his death in 1895, his interest in the place was therefore as a business property rather than a home. This is visible in the buildings at Elderslie which are functional working buildings rather than the residence of a wealthy man with social and political aspirations.
In 1881, substantial capital was invested in Elderslie in the form of a new homestead complex constructed some forty kilometres away from the original homestead at Wallace's Camp. This may have been because this site had flooded, was too close to the budding township of Winton, or simply because the new site was more centrally placed in the Elderslie holding.
The new homestead complex was erected no later than 1882 beneath Mount Booka-Booka, which provided the sandstone for the structures. The building technique and materials are similar to those at nearby Oondooroo Station, and it is thought that both complexes were constructed by a German stonemason with the assistance of locally available Chinese labour.
In 1891, an inspector for the Department of Public Lands described the Elderslie complex as including the homestead house, laundry and servants' rooms, kitchen, butcher's shop, men's hut, store and cottage, cottage, carpenters, wheelwrights and saddler's shop, gardeners cottage and garden, four earth dams, an overshop and 62 miles of fencing. Of these, only five buildings survive today, however, they are sufficient to demonstrate the layout and use of the homestead. Curiously, Wilson appears to have used the property to run only cattle, given that he had previous experience with sheep and that wool prices were high when he had acquired the station. Sheep were not introduced until the subsequent owners restocked.
The extant structures and the evidence of those which no longer exist indicate the scale of the property at this time. The station supported a large number of workers, reputedly up to ninety at its peak, and the infrastructure required would have been considerable. Early photographic and documentary records show large gardens, both productive and decorative, and that social needs for the Elderslie community were considered, with a School of Arts registered at the station in 1896.
In 1892, Elderslie was divided into two parts, one of approximately 4,400 square kilometres leased to Wilson and approximately half that amount intended to be subdivided for closer settlement, but over which Wilson had a lease to occupy. On Wilson's death, both sections were transferred to the Ramsay family. By 1912, the Ramsays had stocked the property with sheep, established horse studs and sunk three artesian bores. The additions to the house which created its present form probably occurred during this time. Although the period in which the Ramsays occupied Elderslie was a difficult one, coinciding with severe droughts and large resumptions of land, they managed to sell the property debt free to the Queensland Stock Breeding Company Limited in 1912.
After the First World War, further land resumptions for closer settlement were made and in 1924, Elderslie was transferred to the Australian Estates and Mortgage Company Limited who retained ownership until 1950. At this time the entire holding was resumed and divided into several grazing leases which were opened for selection. During the 1950s the verandahs were reconstructed and a hip extended to the south east of the first extension to create a bathroom and laundry. The kitchen was also relocated to the northern corner of the building and the verandahs were flyscreened. In 1954, the homestead block was purchased by Mr and Mrs Keith Watts. The original Elderslie buildings were by then in serious state of disrepair, and the Watts were instrumental in retaining and repairing them. Elderslie remains in this family.
The homestead complex has been, and continues to be, the subject of studies including a conservation plan prepared in 1991. In 1993 some conservation work was carried out on the blacksmiths building and quarters. The buildings have continued to suffer through storms which are common in this area due to the thermal conditions.
Although the homestead complex serves an area very much reduced from the original holding, it continues its original role as it has for a hundred and twenty years.
","criteria":"Elderslie Homestead is important in demonstrating how European settlement spread in remote parts of Queensland through exploration and pastoral usage, followed by closer settlement and the growth of service towns. The town of Winton is located near the site of the original homestead and may well have affected the choice of location for the homestead complex.
|It is rare in Queensland to find intact and substantial stone buildings from this era in such a remote setting.
|The buildings and the sites for previous structures, including accommodation and working buildings, gardens, graves, fences and mature trees. have the potential to contribute to our understanding of how such pastoral stations functioned and to demonstrate their principal characteristics over the hundred and twenty years in which the homestead has been in use.
|The buildings and the sites for previous structures, including accommodation and working buildings, gardens, graves, fences and mature trees. have the potential to contribute to our understanding of how such pastoral stations functioned and to demonstrate their principal characteristics over the hundred and twenty years in which the homestead has been in use.
|Elderslie homestead makes an important aesthetic contribution to the landscape, its low and simple buildings and the use of sandstone from Mt Booka Booka forming a harmonious link between this dominant geographical feature and the flat and barren landscape of the surrounding area.
|As the first station in the far north west, Elderslie has special connection to the people of Winton, whose main street is named in its honour, and with those pioneers of the pastoral industry within and around Elderslie's boundaries.
","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"} ]}