Did you know that the heritage-listed Rainworth House in Bardon is over 150 years old?
Built in 1862, the historic home is currently one of the few surviving original timber houses in the area.
Rainworth House is a rare example of a 1860s dwelling of the steeply pitched short-ridge roof variety. The home was originally built as a farmhouse and is now part of suburban Brisbane.
Rainworth is especially significant because of its long and personal connection with Sir Augustus Charles Gregory KCMG CMG FRGS MLC. To date, the residence still bears the stamp of Gregory the practical bushman rather than the prominent public figure.
Sir A.C. Gregory is recognised in several names of places such as Gregory Street, Toowong and Gregory Park, Milton, and the locality of Rainworth itself.
History of Rainworth House in Bardon
Rainworth, residence of Sir Augustus Charles Gregory, Bardon, ca. 1885 Rainworth and outbuildings as seen through the banana palms in front of the property. Photo credit: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 63037
Sir Augustus Charles Gregory is a famous explorer and surveyor-general of Queensland from 1859 to 1879. He built the home in 1862 and was the sole farmhouse in the area at the time.
He named the property Rainworth after a small town in Nottinghamshire which is close to his birthplace at Farnsfield, England.
Sir Augustus Gregory. Photo credit: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 16036
Sir A.C. Gregory was a dominant, conservative member of the Legislative Council. Furthermore, he was also a vital personality in Toowong’s local government, a leading Queensland freemason, and an influential amateur scientist.
Despite his high profile, he chose to live a rather simple life in his rustic farm cottage. Serving as his rural retreat and residence, Rainworth has been a place where he could think, invent, create, and write. He lived in the farmhouse until his death in 1905.
Except for the closed-in front verandah, Rainworth House remains largely untouched since Sir A.C. Gregory lived there. It still features an interior of rough cut wide planked walls and ceilings.
Early view of Rainworth homestead and outbuildings, Torwood, ca. 1875 Rainworth was in Baroona Road at Torwood. The home was built for Sir Augustus Charles Gregory who was an explorer and also became the first Mayor of Toowong in 1902. Photo credit: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 63785
Following Gregory’s death in 1905, the subsequent owner, Robert Philp, merchant and politician, rented the property, as did ensuing owners. When the ensuing owners subdivided the estate, they relocated the house from nearby to its current location in Barton Street.
In 1949, Frederick and Mildred Howell rented and later purchased the property. Their descendants continue to occupy the premises.
Rainworth House in Bardon is added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992. It remains to be a significant landmark of the area to this day.
Whilst not considered dramatic, the Brisbane property market managed to record steady growth amidst projected market downturn in Australia; with a new record high median-price for houses over the past year and several suburbs posting house price growths, including Bardon.
Queensland performed well as Brisbane, Gold Coast, and Sunshine Coast recorded house price growth, according to the September quarter of the REIQ Queensland Market Monitor report. The Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast SD, and Brisbane recorded growth of 3.8 percent, 6.3 percent, and 2.3 percent respectively, with Brisbane hitting a new median-price high of $675,000.
“Queensland’s economy is proving itself to be a good performer, against a backdrop of national gloom, with new jobs bringing population growth and demand for housing,” REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said.
“The southeast corner is our powerhouse, without a doubt, but additionally we’re seeing strong results in regions that have been struggling.
“The resources sector is improving and we’re seeing regions such as Mackay and areas of western Queensland firmly in recovery,” Ms Mercorella said.
Bardon, Queensland 4065 Australia
For Brisbane LGA, the most sought-after price range is $500,000 – $750,000, with sales representing almost half of the house sales for the past 12 months. The top suburbs for house price growth in Brisbane include Bardon, Brighton, Ashgrove, Wavell Heights, Bald Hills and Bridgeman Downs, Wynnum, Tarragindi, Eight Mile Plains, Mount Gravatt East, and Manly West.
The same cannot be said about the units market, though, as it continues to suffer from oversupply bringing down Brisbane LGA annual median unit price by 2.2 percent and 3.4 percent over the past quarter; however, it still recorded a 5.5 percent growth from 2013.
Some suburbs still managed to record double-digit growth despite the overall drop in the median unit price. Rochedale, West End, Gordon Park, North Gate, Yeronga, Toowong, New Market, and Red Hill make up the list of suburbs with double-digit growth for units in Brisbane.
From being a residence to a number of notable personalities to becoming a parish and then a school, Bardon House has indeed established itself as the most significant home in the suburb of Bardon.
The family that built the home named it Bardon as it reminded them of Bardon Hills in Leicestershire where they used to live in England. The suburb eventually carried the Bardon name as well.
Located at 41 The Drive, Bardon, the iconic residence continues to serve the community and is now a part of the St Joseph’s primary school complex.
Early Days
Joshua Jeays, 1909, builder of the Bardon House. Photo credit: John Oxley Library, State Library of QLD. Image No. : 109863
Bardon House was built in 1863/64 by Joshua Jeays, builder, architect, and early mayor of Brisbane. It is thought that he constructed it for his wife Sarah, who died prior to its completion.
After arriving in Moreton Bay from England in 1853 with his wife and four children, Joshua Jeays established himself as a reputable builder and contractor in Brisbane. Among his notable creations was the Old Government House.
From 1854, Jeays and his family lived in a house at North Quay.
Apart from being a renowned builder, architect, and contractor, he was also involved in local politics. Jeays became an alderman of the Brisbane Municipal Council in its foundation year, 1859 and also served as Mayor in 1864-1865.
View of Bardon House from the drive, 1930. Photo credit: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Image number: 196955
Jeays purchased two country lots in the Brisbane suburb in the first land sales for the area in November 1862. He later acquired 38 more acres of land from Francis Lyon in early 1863. This was where he built the Bardon House.
Jeays reportedly constructed Bardon House around 1863/1864. The house’s name came from Leicestershire County’s highest landmark, Bardon Hill, which was close to Joshua and Sarah Jeays’ respective hometowns of Loughborough and Beeby in England.
Unfortunately, Sarah Jeays died in July 1864 while her husband was serving as the mayor of Brisbane. After her death, Joshua Jeays retired from business and never resided at Bardon House, remaining at their North Quay residence until his death in 1881.
Bardon House’s Prominent Residents
Charles Lilley on his wedding day, 1858. Photo credit: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 111372
In early 1866, Jeays’ daughter Sarah and husband [Sir] Charles Lilley (later Premier and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland) lived in Bardon House. However, the Lilley’s occupancy of Bardon House appears to have ended by mid-1867.
Following the Lilley’s is a succession of notable Brisbane residents and their families occupying the property for various periods of time. Famous personalities who occupied the residence included Thomas Harlin, the First headmaster of Brisbane Boys Grammar School, and [Sir] Thomas Mc Ilwraith (later Premier of Queensland).
Hon. Thomas McIlwraith. Photo credit: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Image number: 21383
Moreover, John Stennett from the pharmaceutical firm Elliot Brothers and his family occupied Bardon House from 1878-1886. Subsequent residents from the mid-1880s to early 1900s were stock and sharebroker Brownlow Cole and customs officer Charles William Rich, as well as Johannes Christian Brunnich, a government agricultural chemist.
When Joshua Jeays died in March 1881, his Bardon estate remained in the ownership of the Jeays/Lilley family until 1911.
The Exley Family
Bardon in the 1930s. Photo credit: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 133637
Bardon House was leased to Arthur Exley who lived there with his wife Elizabeth, five daughters, and son from 1903 to 1925. They are amongst the longest tenants at the property.
Exley had an extensive career with the Department of Public Instruction and was the headmaster of the nearby Ithaca State School when his family moved to Bardon.
Elizabeth also played a prominent role in the community. Her works were related to social services for women and children. She helped establish the first Queensland branch of the Anglican missionary organisation the Mothers Union and the District Nursing Association.
The Exleys remained in the Bardon House until Archbishop James Duhig purchased the property in 1925. Photo credit: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 105251
After the death of the estate’s owner, Edwyn Lilley in 1911, Arthur Exley, master builder Arthur Barltrop, and solicitor Patrick O’Sullivan acquired the Bardon property holdings. The three formed the company Bardon Estate Limited and subdivided much of the land for new housing.
Allotments were offered for sale in four stages between 1912 and 1921. The original Bardon House driveway was gazetted as a road called The Drive as part of the subdivision. Five acres of land were retained as surroundings for the house.
The Exleys remained at Bardon house until the property was purchased by Archbishop James Duhig, for the Roman Catholic Church in 1925 for £2250.
After its establishment, church services were held in St Mary Magdalene’s Church instead of the Bardon House. Photo credit: CC-BY/bertknot/Flickr
The first mass was celebrated at Bardon House in March 1925 by Monsignor Lee of nearby Rosalie Parish. The mass was held in the central room of Bardon House, with the mantelpiece and table substituting as an altar.
Along with the official designation of the suburb, the parish of Bardon was declared in 1926. It was the 38th Parish of the Archdiocese.
Appointed in 1925, Father Max Irvine, the Chaplain at Stuartholme Convent, became the first Parish Priest of the parish of Bardon. He also resided at Bardon House. However, by the following year, services were no longer held in Bardon House, since a church-school named St Mary Magdalene’s (originally spelt Magdalen) was constructed within the grounds.
Bardon House as a School
Bardon House as St Joseph’s Convent, Bardon, 1959. Photo credit: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 74791
Original plans for the parish of Bardon included using it as a school but this did not happen until 1938. When Parish Priest, Dr O’Donoghue vacated Bardon, Archbishop Duhig invited nuns of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception to occupy the place.
The Franciscan Sisters moved in on 19 January 1938 to establish a convent and new primary school, to be known as St Joseph’s.
St Joseph’s School was opened on 24 January 1938 with 31 male and female pupils. With the help of an anonymous donation of £1000, a separate school building located between Bardon house and the church was constructed on the site by the end of the year.
As part of Bardon House’s adaptation for a convent and school use, the north facing verandah was enclosed to accommodate a classroom. Moreover, the eastern verandah was also enclosed with lattice around whilst the stone walls of the enclosed verandahs were also rendered.
Bardon House Now
After the war era, St Joseph’s School continued to develop and grow. Several school buildings and sporting facilities have been constructed on the grounds since this time. Furthermore, most structures on the school site now date from post-2000 era.
Today, the earliest surviving school building is the 1958 Forrest building, immediately west of Bardon House.
Bardon House was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992. The iconic residence-church-school remains to be a part of the St Joseph’s primary school complex.
The Victorian Gothic style stone house continues to impress passersby with its fine workmanship and architectural style.
Bardon joins the list of five-star rated healthiest suburbs in Brisbane in terms of providing health opportunities to its residents, according to a Domain Healthy Brisbane study.
This first-ever study, in partnership with Deloitte Access Economics and Tract Consultants, compares 260 Greater Brisbane suburbs based on 10 indicators that either promote or hinder residents from achieving a healthy lifestyle.
These indicators are grouped into:
Recovery Indicators – indicators that help individuals to recover from illness or injury such as proximity to a hospital.
Hindrance Indicators – elements that hinder an individual from maintaining a healthy kind of lifestyle like easy access to fast-food.
Promotion Indicators – elements of a suburb that encourages individuals to engage in healthy activities like walking and sports activities
Based on these indicators, each suburb is then given a rating from 0.5 to 5 stars with 0.5 being the poorest and 5 being the best.
Promotion Indicators:
Walkability – Measures the urban environment’s capacity for walking combined with safety, efficient and enjoyable walking experience.
Active Transport to Work – Measures the percentage of residents in the labour force travelling to work, through walking or cycling, from their residence. Scores favour those suburbs with close proximity to employment centres or have access to bicycle routes.
Open Space – Measures the proportion of a suburb covered by public open space, providing an opportunity for active recreation and participation in sporting activities.
Tree Cover – Measures the percentage of tree cover of a suburb. Tree cover is known to have calming effects and aids in recovery, as well a reducing air pollution and lowering urban temperatures.
Access to Fresh Food/Supermarkets – Measures the density of supermarket and fresh food retailers in a suburb per 1000 of the population.
Volunteering – Measures the proportion of the suburb’s population involved in volunteer work.
Hindrance Indicators:
Fast Food Stores – Measures the ease of access to fast-food. A high density of fast-food store equates to greater accessibility. The final accessibility score is the average of individual suburb scores plus the scores of neighbouring suburbs.
Liquors Stores – Measures the density of residents per packaged liquor store.
Recovery Indicators:
Hospitals – The average of a suburb’s distance to a hospital and the number of hospital beds per 1000 population.
Allied/Community Health – Combines both the allied and community facilities that are available for residents in a particular suburb.
Photo credit: Domain/domain.com.au
The 5-star Suburbs:
Indooroopilly
Taringa
Grange
Ashgrove
Chelmer
Toowong
Wilston
Bardon
Graceville
Chermside West
Chapel Hill
St Lucia
Fig Tree Pocket
Auchenflower
Yeronga
The study noted, however, that some suburbs have been excluded due to lack of data or for not having large enough population to make a significant statistical analysis. Other indicators were smoothed to account for “boundary effects” such as a road dividing suburbs, where a large park is located just across that boundary.
The study is designed to create a better understanding of the opportunities that suburbs provide its residents that promotes healthy living.
Bardon’s Voices of Birralee has been invited to take part in the first International Choir Festival “Astana- The Voice of the World”. Because of this, eight of their choristers went to represent Australia at the event in Kazakhstan.
Photo credit: en.choral-conductors.kz
Kazakhstan may not have been on the group’s top list of places to go. However, the festival allowed the choristers, with their conductor Paul Holley, to explore its capital city, Astana.
“We’re looking forward to being a part of such a massive event which celebrates choral singing, while also promoting a more peaceful world,” Mr Paul Holley OAM said.
Astana hosted the event from 5 to 11 October 2018. The choir festival was part of the Sixth Congress of Religious Leaders which is one of the world’s most important religious diplomacy events.
The festival included musical performances and flash-mobs as well as master classes by the world’s leading choir experts and judges. The festival concluded with the Gala concert. It involved 500 young singers from five continents, representing different faiths, performing in support of the world without terrorism.
Voices of Birralee
Photo credit: voicesofbirralee.org
Voices of Birralee was established by Julie Christiansen OAM in 1995. Since then, they have enjoyed several enriching tours. Some of their destinations included France and Belgium as part of a current five-year commitment to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to sing at WW1 Centenaries. They’ve also been to Canada, Austria, England, Korea, and New Zealand.
Choristers from the Voices of Birralee certainly made Australia proud as they took part in the massed choir pieces conducted by Hungarian, Gábor Hollerung, and Demeyuov Beimbet from Kazakhstan. It wasn’t an easy feat as the choristers worked hard in getting everything right with the Kazakh and Russian pronunciations.
Interestingly, the eight singers, aged 19 –30, are from a range of occupations including students, musicians, surveyors, and marketers, brought together by their love of music.
A koala survey is being conducted to help create green zones that will protect bushland in Bardon, Mt Coot-tha, Wishart and other locations with high koala activity.
Brisbane City Council is using sniffing dogs to detect koala presence in 20 sites. The dogs are trained to locate koala scats (koala poo), which they can detect even after several months that the koala has moved away. Aside from detecting koala presence, the research is also studying gender, migration patterns and diseases plaguing the at-risk marsupial species.
“Between May and July, two highly trained detection dogs sniffed out 20 sites that Council has acquired as part of its Bushland Acquisition Program, to provide information on koala health, genetic diversity, breeding and movement behaviour,” said Acting Mayor Adrian Schrinner.
“The survey identified the presence of koalas at 17 of 20 sites explored, of which ten sites registered a significant amount of koala activity.”
Extremely high koala activity was observed in half of the bushlands surveyed over the past months. Among the areas with high koala activity are areas in Bardon, particularly in the Mt Coot-tha Reserve, Monoplane Street Park, and Bardon Esplanade Park.
Other areas with high koala activity include Belmont, Burbank, Mount Coot-tha, Wishart, Kuraby, McDowall, Anstead, Moggill, Alderley, Nathan and Mt Gravatt.
“Just three sites in the city’s southwest region were found to have no recent koala activity, Wally Tate Park (Kuraby), Blunder Creek Reserve (Doolandella), Fort Road Bushlands and Rocks Riverside Park (Seventeen Mile Rocks),” Cr Schrinner said.
The koala survey is important as it will guide the council in its Bushland Acquisition Program. The council purchases bushland and with significant koala activity.
“By identifying locations with high levels of koala activity in areas including Bardon, McDowall, Moggill and Alderley, Council can preserve koala habitat with targeted land purchases to create green wildlife corridors and wildlife movement zones along roadways,” Cr Schrinner said.
“Close to 500 hectares of bushland has been purchased by Council since 2016 and an additional 250 hectares is planned for purchase by 2020, with priority given to areas adjoining confirmed koala habitat.”
The REIQ recently reported the latest housing market statistics which showed Bardon median house price increased to $970,000, up 9% over the last 12 months and 32.2% over the last 5 years. In the 2nd quarter of 2018, there were 35 homes sold in the suburb.
Things that have been stolen from these locations include laptops, wallets, handbags, jewellery, cash, game consoles, bicycles, tools, and vehicles such as cars and motorcycles.
Thieves usually enter homes through unlocked doors or garages or by smashing doors and windows. They may also access garages and storage cages by cutting or manipulating locks and padlocks.
Other times, stealing may happen even when the residents are home.
The police have provided these simple tips to make your home more secure:
Install reliable security screen doors on main external entrances.
Remember to key-lock your security doors and remove the key from the lock.
Fit deadlocks on all external doors.
When moving in to your home or apartment, install new locks on entrance doors.
Never leave notes that indicate your absence.
Always take your door key with you, do not hide it, and never put your name and address on your key ring.
Get to know your neighbours.
Observe and report suspicious activity.
Keep foliage trimmed back around your property so others can view suspicious activity.
Keep vehicle keys secure.
Don’t leave garage doors open or unlocked.
Don’t prop or leave open communal doors to garages.
Use high-quality locks and chains to secure storage cages.
Use screening material to cover storage cage contents.
More Safety Tips
Photo credit: mypolice.qld.gov.au
As thieves continue to target Inner West Suburbs, police have increased patrols in the area and strongly advise residents to be vigilant.
Locals are also encouraged to appropriately secure their homes, storage areas, and vehicles, as well as record details of electronic equipment and take photos of valuable items such as jewellery.
Residents who want to check the level of security in their home may take advantage of the police’s ‘Free Home Security Audit Service’. Just call the Indooroopilly Crime Prevention Unit on 3377 9421 or the Ferny Grove Crime Prevention Unit on 3872 1542 to make an appointment.
To report any information for the police, call the Policelink on 131 444 or use the online form.
You can also anonymously provide information about a crime to Crime Stoppers. You may contact the organisation 24/7 by calling 1800 333 000 or by visiting their website.
The Brisbane City Council has finally submitted the development application for the Mt Coot-tha zipline for public scrutiny. However, a number of locals are not pleased that the DA was released a few hours before a public meeting on 3 September.
The project has long been met by opposition from the community. But the council remains steadfast in pursuing the zipline as it believes this will help the city’s push to bolster ecotourism, which has been cited as one of the top tourism industries today.
Detailed Plans
Photo credit: BBC
Prior to the release of the DA, the council released the detailed designs of the zipline project. According to the plans, there will be twin ziplines: a treetop canopy zipline spanning to 1.2 kilometres and a scenic zipline that will run through a 1.1-kilometre line.
The scenic zipline will start from the Summit Lookout to the Botanic Gardens, running up to 60 kilometres per hour and showcasing sweeping views of the city. It is planned to be open between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.
“The Scenic Zipline has been designed to deliver the best views in Brisbane, with the zipline travelling a minimum of three metres above the top of the tree canopy all the way down the mountain,” Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said.
The treetop canopy zipline is intended to provide a more personal experience within the Mt Coot-tha forest and will be connected to a 335-metre cable-suspended bridge walk. The plan is to operate the treetop canopy zipline from 7:00 a.m. to sunset.
“Users will travel through nine treetop platforms along ziplines of between 20 metres to 330 metres in length and each of the platforms will be secured to the trees using brackets that carry the weight of the platform, without damaging the tree,” Cr Quirk added.
This project is expected to deliver over $230 million economic benefit over 30 years.
Call to Stop the Zipline
Among the concerns of the local community is the impact of the of the project on the environment. In August, the Save Mt Coot-tha – Stop the Zipline group staged a protest in Toowong and launched an online petition opposing the privatisation of Mt Coot-tha and the Botanical Gardens.
Photo credit: Save Mt Coot-tha – Stop the Zipline / Facebook
Following the release of the DA, the local community remains unhappy and have called the proposal “vague.”
Sabre, a five-year-old child with a heart of gold, recently started a project named Parcels of Hope. The project is an invitation to Brisbane kids to put together a parcel for children in the drought-affected areas.
“My son is called Sabre and he attends prep at St Joseph’s Bardon, where they are taught from the words of Mary Mackillop ‘Never see a need without doing something about it.’ The children from grade 3 in St Joseph’s Bardon have compiled wonderful letters and the preps are finalising their parcels. The children of St Peter Chanel in The Gap were one of the first schools to jump on board and have done an amazing job decorating their lovely parcels of hope,” Sarah Yip, Sabre’s mother said.
Sabre’s vision is to let the children of farmers of drought-affected areas “know that we care.”
Photo credit: Supplied
Parcels of Hope is a chance for children to reach out to other children in need, through a letter of inspiration and a gift. The intended recipients of the collected parcels are the children attending The School of Distance Education in Charleville, Longreach, Mt Isa, and St Mary’s Charleville.
“He had been watching the news and asking about the drought and commented that there was lots of money being raised, but what about the children? Is anyone looking after the children? He came to me the next day and asked to write a letter to let the children know that he cared about them and he was hoping for rain for them. He wanted to give them something special too,” Sarah said.
Sabre then asked his mum to help him invite other children to do the same. He said there are too many letters to write and he can’t do it alone.
Photo credit: SuppliedPhoto credit: Supplied
Sarah decided to set up an Eventbrite page where the children who want to help can register. “We have had an amazing response so far with close to 70 parcels collected and ongoing collections between now and the 14th of September,” she said.
Sarah is going all out in her support for her son’s passion project. In her consulting work as Owner and Managing Director of KEASE. Sarah is a subject matter expert in Emotional Intelligence, Mindful Leadership and Applied positive psychology in the workplace. She knows that encouraging him to reach out in such a caring way would be a great learning experience for him and will help cultivate his emotional intelligence from a young age.
If you would like to share your own Parcel of Hope, register now.
