Bellevue Homestead
Encyclopedia
Bellevue Homestead in South East Queensland
, Australia
is heritage listed and was restored by the National Trust of Queensland between 1975 and 1980 after moving the buildings from the banks of the Brisbane River to the nearby town of Coominya to avoid being flooded. The Bellevue property was the western part of the original Wivenhoe Run established in the 1840s which covered 38000 acres (153.8 km²) on the western side of the Brisbane Valley. A large portion of this land is now part of the Wivenhoe Dam.
Starting with Bellevue Homestead at Coominya
, other restored dwellings in the Somerset region are the Esk Heritage (Lars Anderson) House in Esk, Caboonba Homestead, the home of H P Somerset MLA, on the Esk - Somerset Dam Road, Cressbrook Station at Toogoolawah, continuously owned by the McConnell family from the early 1840s to the present (not open to the public), Ringsfield House in Nanango, Stonehouse in Moore and the Convent, now the Heritage Centre, at Yarraman.
The chronology of the ownership of Bellevue Homestead and the changes that the owners made each decade from the 1840s to the present are listed in the following table.
1848 - J S Ferriter and E B Uhr squatted on 38000 acres (153.8 km²) close to limits of convict colony of Moreton Bay[17] and called it Wivenhoe Run after the town in England[18,19]. Grazed sheep and built two single roomed huts. The eastern hut was called Wivenhoe Homestead and the western slab hut was called Bellevue Homestead..
1849 - Wivenhoe lease registered in New South Wales Government Gazette [20].
Lease purchased by Major William North Snr and son, Lieutenant Joseph North[21]. Joseph North and wife lived in Wivenhoe Homestead and William North and wife lived in Bellevue Homestead hut.
1859 Queensland[22], named in honour of Queen Victoria[23], separated from NSW.
1868 On the Bellevue portion, the Norths built a four-roomed family residence and a Governess’ residence with school room, guest bedroom and head stockman’s room. Old slab hut retained as the kitchen in a service wing. Outside bathrooms and toilets built.
Qld government resumed eastern half of Wivenhoe Run for subdivision and closer settlement[24], but Norths allowed to keep lease of western half, the Bellevue Selection.
1870 Livestock changed from sheep to cattle
1872 Bellevue lease purchased by Alexander Dunbar Campbell and John Hay
1879 Title purchased by Campbell and Hay by paying out lease. Five Deeds of Grant issued.
1880 Certificate of Title purchased by Henry Grosvenor Simpson, Bellevue, and Alexander Dunbar Campbell, Sydney
1883 Campbell became sole owner. (However, Henry Simpson and wife lived at and managed Bellevue Station from the 1870s to the 1890s. The Simpsons’ three children were born at Bellevue Homestead.)
1884 James Taylor MLA[25], who lived in Clifford House[26], Toowoomba, and owned Cecil Plains[27] and several other cattle properties, purchased Bellevue for his son, Charles Condamine Taylor and wife, born Edith Maud Harris in Newstead House[28] in Brisbane.
1886 Railway line extended from Lowood to Esk with a goods platform station built at the entrance to Bellevue cattle station[29].
1887 Evelyn Maud Condamine Taylor born at Bellevue Homestead
1891 Cecile Taylor born at Bellevue Homestead
1893 1893 Brisbane River flood [30] washed away the mud walls of Bellevue Homestead. Walls then clad outside with cedar weather boards and inside with hoop pine boards covered with Hessian (scrim) and wallpaper.
1897 Joan Taylor born at Bellevue Homestead
1899 Charles Condamine Taylor died
1901 Widow Edith Maud Taylor marries Charles Lumley Hill, MLA[31], owner of several large cattle properties in Qld, NT and WA.
1902-1904 The Lumley Hills established a Hereford cattle stud[38] by purchase of the Durandur stud[38] which dated back to the first imports of Herefords to the Cressy stud[32] in Tasmania.
Construction of Guest House and modification of family home.
1905 Name of railway station and post office changed from Bellevue to Coominya[33]
1909 Charles Lumley Hill died. Nephew, Colin Hill, continued to manage Bellevue property until 1925
1920 Modification of Guest House and service wing
for visit by HRH Prince Edward, Prince of Wales[34]
1925 Mrs Lumley Hill died; Buried in Toowong Cemetery
, Brisbane.
Bellevue purchased by daughter Mrs Evelyn Watt, Sydney.
1950 Death of Mrs Evelyn Watt
1951 Purchase of Bellevue by Christopher Alexander White and son
1951 Bellevue purchased by Kenneth McLean
1953 Hereford stud sold[42]
1965 Bellevue purchased by Valentine and Mary Crowe
1975 Bellevue property resumed by Co-Ordinator General for Wivenhoe Dam project
1975-1980 National Trust restored Bellevue Homestead and outbuildings after moving them from the banks of the Brisbane River to the entrance of the property at Coominya[35]
1980-2004 National Trust opened Bellevue Homestead to the public for tours[36]
2004-2007 Bellevue Homestead purchased and operated by Ken and Tanya Bullen, Toowoomba
2007- Bellevue Homestead purchased and operated by John and Laurel Dingle, Coominya[37]
The main farmhouse has projecting gable
porches over the southwest and northeast entrances with decorative timber barge boards, trusses and finials. Timber shingles are visible under the corrugated iron sheeting. Its plan consists of three bedrooms and a drawing room or parlour with a central hall. The side verandas have been enclosed to expand the rooms through large archways, the northwest being enclosed with very wide cedar chamfer boards. Some rooms show different layers of the building's fabric, including pit sawn framing with mortice and tenon joints and hand finished lining boards. Decorative features include painted wood grain in the hall, hand painted wall paper, pressed metal ceilings in the drawing room, carved timber fireplace surrounds, casement windows, some of which have coloured glass inserts, step out bays and pressed metal window hoods.
The attached guest house has a projecting gable porch to the northeast with decorative timber arch brackets, barge board, finial and diagonally boarded gable. The verandas have dowel balustrades, lattice valances and timber arch brackets. Its plan consists of a large formal dining room, a smoking room and a two-roomed guest suite. These are accessed from an enclosed verandah entrance hall with entrance doors at both ends with sidelights and fanlight
of etched coloured glass. All rooms have fretwork
ed cedar ceiling roses. The dining room has a metal lined wine store cupboard and its walls are panelled in cedar with silky oak inserts to a dado with full length vertical tongue-and-groove hoop pine boards above and along the 30 feet (9.1 m) ceiling. The tiled fireplace has a carved timber surround, and all timber is oiled/stained. The dining room also has remnants of gas fittings from the time the Homestead made its own gas from carbide, and remnants of electrical fittings from the time the Homestead generated its own electricity. All rooms have step out bays and double French doors with timber shutters and all internal doors have fanlights.
The service wing consists of a kitchen that was originally a single roomed slab hut, now weather-boarded on three sides but retaining the original adze-trimmed split slab wall on the fourth side, to which have been added extensions of a store, food preparation room, servants' dining and entertainment hall and laundry. The kitchen has corrugated iron over the timber shingle gable roof with a verandah to the courtyard and a scullery attached to the back and three pressed metal ridge ventilators. The interior has single skin cedar board walls and a large brick fireplace with wood burning stove, hot water donkey and a charcoal grill with dripping collection tray. A modern kitchen has been installed in the food preparation room.
On the other side of the court-yard facing the service wing, the cottage has an L-shaped plan and consists of a series of rooms added at different times. The weatherboard building has a corrugated iron gable roof with a bay to the northwest, surmounted by a gable, and verandas northeast and northwest.
A row of weatherboard farm buildings with corrugated iron gable roofs is located to the southwest. The farm buildings consist of a meat room, coach house, tack room, five slip rail stables and a two storey hay loft. The stables have sawn cross cut timber and earth floors.
The grounds include a circular drive with gardens to the north, overlooking a private dam positioned the same distance that the Brisbane River was from the house at its original location.[38]
The floor plan of the restored homestead is shown below[39].
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
is heritage listed and was restored by the National Trust of Queensland between 1975 and 1980 after moving the buildings from the banks of the Brisbane River to the nearby town of Coominya to avoid being flooded. The Bellevue property was the western part of the original Wivenhoe Run established in the 1840s which covered 38000 acres (153.8 km²) on the western side of the Brisbane Valley. A large portion of this land is now part of the Wivenhoe Dam.
The Wivenhoe Run
Because the Brisbane Valley is unique in having a large number of naturally occurring lakes and lagoons it has been given the name of ‘Valley of the lakes’. Almost all the valley lies in the Esk Shire whose governing council is now being amalgamated with the governing council of the neighbouring Kilcoy Shire which contains more of the Brisbane River system. The new governing council will be called the Somerset Regional Council. The Somerset region contains a significant number of large residences that have been restored to their original state when built in the 19th century. Many are still lived in and can be visited as a part of the living history of the early settlement of Queensland.Starting with Bellevue Homestead at Coominya
Coominya, Queensland
Coominya is a town in South East Queensland, Australia. The town is located in the Somerset Region LGA, west of the state capital, Brisbane and approximately 2 km from Wivenhoe Dam. At the 2006 census, Coominya had a population of 467....
, other restored dwellings in the Somerset region are the Esk Heritage (Lars Anderson) House in Esk, Caboonba Homestead, the home of H P Somerset MLA, on the Esk - Somerset Dam Road, Cressbrook Station at Toogoolawah, continuously owned by the McConnell family from the early 1840s to the present (not open to the public), Ringsfield House in Nanango, Stonehouse in Moore and the Convent, now the Heritage Centre, at Yarraman.
The chronology of the ownership of Bellevue Homestead and the changes that the owners made each decade from the 1840s to the present are listed in the following table.
Chronology of the ownership of Bellevue Homestead
- 1840s
1848 - J S Ferriter and E B Uhr squatted on 38000 acres (153.8 km²) close to limits of convict colony of Moreton Bay[17] and called it Wivenhoe Run after the town in England[18,19]. Grazed sheep and built two single roomed huts. The eastern hut was called Wivenhoe Homestead and the western slab hut was called Bellevue Homestead..
1849 - Wivenhoe lease registered in New South Wales Government Gazette [20].
Lease purchased by Major William North Snr and son, Lieutenant Joseph North[21]. Joseph North and wife lived in Wivenhoe Homestead and William North and wife lived in Bellevue Homestead hut.
- 1850s
1859 Queensland[22], named in honour of Queen Victoria[23], separated from NSW.
- 1860s
1868 On the Bellevue portion, the Norths built a four-roomed family residence and a Governess’ residence with school room, guest bedroom and head stockman’s room. Old slab hut retained as the kitchen in a service wing. Outside bathrooms and toilets built.
Qld government resumed eastern half of Wivenhoe Run for subdivision and closer settlement[24], but Norths allowed to keep lease of western half, the Bellevue Selection.
- 1870s
1870 Livestock changed from sheep to cattle
1872 Bellevue lease purchased by Alexander Dunbar Campbell and John Hay
1879 Title purchased by Campbell and Hay by paying out lease. Five Deeds of Grant issued.
- 1880s
1880 Certificate of Title purchased by Henry Grosvenor Simpson, Bellevue, and Alexander Dunbar Campbell, Sydney
1883 Campbell became sole owner. (However, Henry Simpson and wife lived at and managed Bellevue Station from the 1870s to the 1890s. The Simpsons’ three children were born at Bellevue Homestead.)
1884 James Taylor MLA[25], who lived in Clifford House[26], Toowoomba, and owned Cecil Plains[27] and several other cattle properties, purchased Bellevue for his son, Charles Condamine Taylor and wife, born Edith Maud Harris in Newstead House[28] in Brisbane.
1886 Railway line extended from Lowood to Esk with a goods platform station built at the entrance to Bellevue cattle station[29].
1887 Evelyn Maud Condamine Taylor born at Bellevue Homestead
- 1890s
1891 Cecile Taylor born at Bellevue Homestead
1893 1893 Brisbane River flood [30] washed away the mud walls of Bellevue Homestead. Walls then clad outside with cedar weather boards and inside with hoop pine boards covered with Hessian (scrim) and wallpaper.
1897 Joan Taylor born at Bellevue Homestead
1899 Charles Condamine Taylor died
- 1900s
1901 Widow Edith Maud Taylor marries Charles Lumley Hill, MLA[31], owner of several large cattle properties in Qld, NT and WA.
1902-1904 The Lumley Hills established a Hereford cattle stud[38] by purchase of the Durandur stud[38] which dated back to the first imports of Herefords to the Cressy stud[32] in Tasmania.
Construction of Guest House and modification of family home.
1905 Name of railway station and post office changed from Bellevue to Coominya[33]
1909 Charles Lumley Hill died. Nephew, Colin Hill, continued to manage Bellevue property until 1925
- 1920s
1920 Modification of Guest House and service wing
for visit by HRH Prince Edward, Prince of Wales[34]
1925 Mrs Lumley Hill died; Buried in Toowong Cemetery
Toowong Cemetery
The Brisbane General Cemetery also known as Toowong Cemetery at Toowong, Brisbane was established in 1866 and formally opened in 1875. It is Queensland's largest cemetery and is located on forty-four hectares of land at the corner of Frederick Street and Mount Coot-tha Road approximately four and a...
, Brisbane.
Bellevue purchased by daughter Mrs Evelyn Watt, Sydney.
- 1950s
1950 Death of Mrs Evelyn Watt
1951 Purchase of Bellevue by Christopher Alexander White and son
1951 Bellevue purchased by Kenneth McLean
1953 Hereford stud sold[42]
- 1960s
1965 Bellevue purchased by Valentine and Mary Crowe
- 1970s
1975 Bellevue property resumed by Co-Ordinator General for Wivenhoe Dam project
1975-1980 National Trust restored Bellevue Homestead and outbuildings after moving them from the banks of the Brisbane River to the entrance of the property at Coominya[35]
- 1990s
1980-2004 National Trust opened Bellevue Homestead to the public for tours[36]
- 2000s
2004-2007 Bellevue Homestead purchased and operated by Ken and Tanya Bullen, Toowoomba
2007- Bellevue Homestead purchased and operated by John and Laurel Dingle, Coominya[37]
Description of Bellevue Homestead
Bellevue Homestead is located opposite the railway station in Coominya, close to the original entrance to the property. It consists of three interconnected dwellings with an attached service wing and separate farm buildings. The main farmhouse and guest house face northeast and are encircled by verandas, with a spine of kitchen, stores, servants' hall and laundry attached at right angles, forming a T-shaped plan. A cottage, previously a school house and governess’ residence, is attached on the south-east forming a southern courtyard, and a row of barns and stables is located on the southwest. All buildings, with the exception of the hay loft, are single-storeyed and sit on timber stumps.The main farmhouse has projecting gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
porches over the southwest and northeast entrances with decorative timber barge boards, trusses and finials. Timber shingles are visible under the corrugated iron sheeting. Its plan consists of three bedrooms and a drawing room or parlour with a central hall. The side verandas have been enclosed to expand the rooms through large archways, the northwest being enclosed with very wide cedar chamfer boards. Some rooms show different layers of the building's fabric, including pit sawn framing with mortice and tenon joints and hand finished lining boards. Decorative features include painted wood grain in the hall, hand painted wall paper, pressed metal ceilings in the drawing room, carved timber fireplace surrounds, casement windows, some of which have coloured glass inserts, step out bays and pressed metal window hoods.
The attached guest house has a projecting gable porch to the northeast with decorative timber arch brackets, barge board, finial and diagonally boarded gable. The verandas have dowel balustrades, lattice valances and timber arch brackets. Its plan consists of a large formal dining room, a smoking room and a two-roomed guest suite. These are accessed from an enclosed verandah entrance hall with entrance doors at both ends with sidelights and fanlight
Fanlight
A fanlight is a window, semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan, It is placed over another window or a doorway. and is sometimes hinged to a transom. The bars in the fixed glazed window spread out in the manner a sunburst...
of etched coloured glass. All rooms have fretwork
Fretwork
Fretwork is an interlaced decorative design that is either carved in low relief on a solid background, or cut out with a fretsaw, coping saw, jigsaw or scroll saw. Most fretwork patterns are geometric in design. The materials most commonly used are wood and metal. Fretwork is used to adorn...
ed cedar ceiling roses. The dining room has a metal lined wine store cupboard and its walls are panelled in cedar with silky oak inserts to a dado with full length vertical tongue-and-groove hoop pine boards above and along the 30 feet (9.1 m) ceiling. The tiled fireplace has a carved timber surround, and all timber is oiled/stained. The dining room also has remnants of gas fittings from the time the Homestead made its own gas from carbide, and remnants of electrical fittings from the time the Homestead generated its own electricity. All rooms have step out bays and double French doors with timber shutters and all internal doors have fanlights.
The service wing consists of a kitchen that was originally a single roomed slab hut, now weather-boarded on three sides but retaining the original adze-trimmed split slab wall on the fourth side, to which have been added extensions of a store, food preparation room, servants' dining and entertainment hall and laundry. The kitchen has corrugated iron over the timber shingle gable roof with a verandah to the courtyard and a scullery attached to the back and three pressed metal ridge ventilators. The interior has single skin cedar board walls and a large brick fireplace with wood burning stove, hot water donkey and a charcoal grill with dripping collection tray. A modern kitchen has been installed in the food preparation room.
On the other side of the court-yard facing the service wing, the cottage has an L-shaped plan and consists of a series of rooms added at different times. The weatherboard building has a corrugated iron gable roof with a bay to the northwest, surmounted by a gable, and verandas northeast and northwest.
A row of weatherboard farm buildings with corrugated iron gable roofs is located to the southwest. The farm buildings consist of a meat room, coach house, tack room, five slip rail stables and a two storey hay loft. The stables have sawn cross cut timber and earth floors.
The grounds include a circular drive with gardens to the north, overlooking a private dam positioned the same distance that the Brisbane River was from the house at its original location.[38]
The floor plan of the restored homestead is shown below[39].