Author: admin

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Designing The Country Homestead

An excellent suggestion is being discussed in building circles that Brisbane should have an annual home building exhibition, where the trends in domestic architecture could be brought under public notice.
If such an exhibition is arranged, prominence should be given to a suitable, moderately priced home for country districts.
Country requirements differ so vastly from those of the city that a separate section should definitely be provided, particularly when it is realised that approximately one-half of Queensland’s population is in the country.
It is hoped that the idea of a modern homes exhibition will be adopted and that in any such program the country homestead will receive its due share of attention.

Description source: Queensland Country Life, 5 October 1939

Image source: Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 4395

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Australian Homestead

She certainly does not miss the money. She and Yehudi can, it is true, earn around £2000 for one concert. But tall, handsome Lindsay Nicholas is not only a farmer, but the son of a proprietary medicine king and a near-millionaire. From this is must not be imagined that Hephzibah has retired to a life of luxury and leisure.
The Nicolas’ big, one-storey, red-roofed homestead has no servants. Sons Kronrad (11) and Marston (seven next month) make their own beds. Husband Lindsay operates the vacuum cleaner. Hephzibah does a bit of everything. Her favourite chores – cooking and making preserves.
She is devoted to her children; has ideas about education (“I’m an interfering member of the parents’ committee – I insist on a say in how my sons are taught and fed”) ; ideas about diet (“we have plenty of vegetable juice, plenty of meat and

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The Old Homestead.

Above it dark ranges are looming
Forbidding, and gaunt in the moonlight.
In the valleys the night-wind is crooning,
Awakening the voices of night.

The stars are like eyes that are seeing
The slow ruin the years will bring;
The hopes grown old are now fleeing,
Eyes once bright are now dim.

The walls that echoed with laughter
Hear only the hoot of an owl;
And the creak of a rotting rafter,
Or a far-off dingo’s howl.

The gardens were masses of roses
And sweet with the scent of the flower;
A tumble-down fence now encloses
The tall, rank grass grown sour.

And where have the folk all vanished
Who lived in this lonely home?
Why have they all been banished
And driven the world to roam?

The Drought King could tell you the reason
And flood played its part as well,
So the banks had little to seize on
But the land, and the old home to sell.

A neighbour bought runs and the ranges,
And the

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The period 1884-1915 was one of mixed fortunes: resumption of stations for agricultural subdivision under the 1884 Land Act, sinking of artesian water bores following the 184-86 drought, rabbit plagues in the late 1880s, severe economic Depression of the 1890s, tick fever and the great drought (1894-1902), and shearer’s strikes in 1891 and 1894. Sheep numbers rose to nearly 22 million in 1892 – with three stations – Wellshot, Bowen Downs and Milo shearing one million between them. But in the 1900s sheep numbers stabilised at between 15 and 20 million and cattle rose to nearly four million.

From 1903 the problems of lack of local timber were overcome by settlers purchasing prefabricated timber houses such as Campbell’s Redicut Homes which had catalogue names such as ‘The Longreach’, ‘The Hughenden’ and ‘The Mitchell’, all with wide verandahs and overhanging roofs and the latter two with detached

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Well-Kept Lawns On The Homestead.

When once properly laid down, a lawn can be kept in first class condition with the ordinary routine of mowing, watering and rolling, and an occasional top-dressing. The initial formation demands most careful consideration, for not after attention can compensate for defects in the original preparation. The requirements of a good lawn are well understood. It must be of good texture, have a pleasing colour, make a complete covering of the ground, and grow sufficiently thick to keep out weeds. To enable the grass or grasses comprising the turf of the lawn to send their roots well down into the moist subsoil and thus enable the lawn to combat the prolonged dry spells in some districts, it is essential that the ground be well-dug, or, better still, trenched. In the case of heavy soils, it is essential, of course, that they

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Homestead Planning

Home-building is topical. Dozens of books have recently made their appearance, but there has been none quite like “Planning the Australian Homestead,” written exclusively from the country dweller’s viewpoint.
The author is Kenneth McConnel, B.Arch, F.R.I.B.A., grandson of one of Queensland’s earliest pioneers. He is a brother of Mr. Edgar McConnel, Cressbrook.
Written with an intimate knowledge of what country people need, the book contains house plans suited to varying conditions, and there is a section on garden planning.
Hundreds of exterior and interior photographs of homesteads have been used, many of which will be familiar to station folk. Some could have been more expertly taken, but they serve the author’s purpose of capturing the reader’s interest.
As commonsense as it is practical, the book contains numerous labor-saving ideas for dining room and kitchen. When it comes to bathrooms, Mr. McConnel declares a bath to be almost out

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Fire Destroys Station Home

Toowoomba, Friday – One man tried in vain to save the fine old homestead on Ellangowan station from being destroyed by fire this afternoon.
The fire, which started about 3 o’clock, completely destroyed the main building and the maids’ quarters, which were in a seperate building, in about half an hour.
It is believed the fire started in a refrigerator.
The owner of the property, Mr. W. Donohoe, and family are holidaying at Redcliffe.
It is reported that the only other person at the station was Mr. Jack Brydon, who tried to put out the flames with buckets of water. In a few minutes, however, the wooden building was blazing like a furnace, and he was driven away by the heat.
He then rang the post office in Layburn, and between 50 and 60 men from the town and district rushed to the scene. When they arrived

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

My Homestead.
(Written by Hetty Sypher.)

There stands my homestead, white amid the trees;
So lowly set where stirs a faint, cool breeze.
Across the grass the thronging milkers pass,
Their colours blurred, as, in one moving madd,
A glade of grass, the panting creatures seek,
Their resting place is by the dry, old creek.
Yet sunlight gleams in through the crimson leaves,
And, where it touches, softer beauty weaves.
It plays around the open entrance doors,
And casts its glowing radiance on linoleum floors.
See, on each drooping flower, whose heavy head
Bows with tiredness, the dying sunbeams shed
A faded splendour lending deeper grace
To all those colours which their rays embrace.
All day long the busy birdies sing among the leafy trees,
At my old Homestead.

Description source: The Central Queensland Herald, 6 Dec 1934

Image source: Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 5024

See Full Post >>