Taabinga Homestead
Taabinga Homestead is a heritage-listed homestead at 7 Old Taabinga Road, Haly Creek, South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1846 to 1864. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The homestead is the main building of Taabinga Station, and now operates as a homestay, providing bed and breakfast accommodation to tourists, as well as regular farm tours.
History
The Taabinga run was originally taken up by the Haly brothers in the 1840s and the main residence was developed during the 1840s and 1850s. Most of the outbuildings on the homestead site were built during the 1890s and early 1900s when Arthur Youngman was owner of the property.The explorations of Henry Stuart Russell in the Burnett district during the early 1840s mark a watershed in the pastoral history of Queensland. Following the closure of Moreton Bay as a penal colony, Russell led the search for land north of Brisbane and the Darling Downs. He first arrived in Queensland in 1840 to stay with cousins on the Darling Downs and by 1842 he was the first European to pass through what was later to become Taabinga. Russell's expeditions in the Burnett had opened a district of rich grazing and agricultural land, and in 1843 he took up Burrandowan run on the Borne River as a sheep station.
Other squatters soon followed Russell and it was brothers Charles Robert and William O'Grady Haly who first settled on Taabinga station. The Haly brothers had arrived in Australia from Newfoundland in 1838 and settled on the Hunter River before moving to the Gwydir River. From there they assembled a team of men and some 5,000 sheep and travelled north through the Logan district during the early 1840s in search of land. Shearing records indicate the Haly brothers had settled Taabinga station by 1846, at which time it was an established sheep property covering 305 square miles. Despite their early occupation of the land, the Haly brothers did not apply for a lease over Taabinga until June 1850, which was granted on 10 February 1852 for a term of 14 years. By 1853, Charles Haly was at Tamrookum in the Logan district, where he married Rosa Harpur and was to remain until at least 1854. During this time it is most likely that either William Haly or a superintendent was managing Taabinga station. When William Haly returned to England in 1859, Charles became sole lessee of Taabinga and the following year was elected to the first Queensland Legislative Assembly as the member for the Burnett. In 1863 he acquired a freehold over 314 acres of the run and remained at the property until 1875 when he moved to Dalby.
While documentary evidence for the physical development of Taabinga is non-existent, Hector Munro, who was the son of George Munro, onetime manager of Boondooma station, and who was a friend of the Haly family, described the first structure at Taabinga as a hut:
"built with bark, then perpendicular slabs with a ground floor and bark roof. The house known as the Boss's residence was built with pit saw and timber foundation logs of wood, squared on one side with walls of horizontal slabs and floor in boards of pit saw and roof shingles".From these rudimentary structures the homestead site gained more permanent buildings. It is claimed that the first part of the main residence, which still stands today, was constructed during the 1840s and was developed through to the 1850s. According to the Alford family, who later acquired Taabinga and whose papers have been published as Alford Family Notes, Charles Haly began residing at Taabinga with his family in the late 1850s, just prior to becoming sole lessee of the property. An article in The Queenslander in 1924 indicates the continued development of the homestead site in this period: "Sixty-seven years ago where now stands this beautiful, and complete home, was little better than wild, crude bush". The freeholding of a portion of the Taabinga run by Charles Haly in 1863 would seem to indicate the existence of the main residence by this time. Its western wall is built from locally quarried sandstone and the cedar was obtained from the Bunya Mountains while the timber for the hardwood floors was taken from the property itself. At much the same time that the main residence was being constructed it is believed that the Halys also built the stockyards and stables. The stables, which remain well preserved, are located on an adjoining lot, however the stockyards were damaged in a fire during the 1950s.
On 27 March 1875, Charles Haly was preparing to sell his interests in Taabinga and the Brisbane Courier reported he had "received what is considered a good offer... and it is not unlikely that the station may shortly change hands". Two months later the Brisbane Courier reported that Taabinga, with some 3,000 head of stock, was just about "ready to hand over. A short time after, it is understood, Mr Haly and family will take their departure from the station". By October 1875, James Henderson, Boulton Molineaux and Thomas Littlejohn had acquired both the leasehold and freehold portions of Taabinga. The following year the leasehold was transferred to Thomas Littlejohn and Thomas Alford, and Richard Symes Alford, brother of Thomas, was charged with managing the property. Thomas Alford was originally from Drayton and by the mid-1870s had an interest in Coochin Coochin station, where he lived, as well as Gwambagwine station. At the time of Haly's departure from Taabinga station both sheep and cattle were on the run, but Alford's prime interest in the property was in expanding the cattle breeding programmes of Coochin Coochin and Gwambagwine. In 1883, Thomas was registered as the sole owner of the leasehold and freehold portions of Taabinga and moved there to live after his brother, Richard, relinquished the position as manager of the station. Thomas remained at Taabinga until a riding accident in 1887 forced him to sell his interests in the estate.
Arthur Youngman, who was a close friend of Richard Symes Alford, took up the leasehold and freehold portions of Taabinga in 1888 from Thomas Alford. Youngman was born in Melbourne in 1862 and after an abortive attempt to study medicine he moved to Queensland to work as a jackaroo. He was relatively inexperienced at pastoral life, having gained his first taste at Rawbelle station before purchasing Taabinga, but benefited from the continued employment of John William Walters who had served as head stockman at Taabinga since the mid-1870s. Youngman was also able to call on Richard Symes Alford to return to Taabinga as a bookkeeper. Youngman built a house, once known as The Lodge, to accommodate Alford and his family, but this was not the only improvement made to the property during Youngman's time there. An article on Youngman in the Queensland Trustees Quarterly Review in March 1951 noted that when "he first took possession of Taabinga he began to improve the property by a policy of ringbarking the heavily-timbered country, by the planting of artificial grasses... and by subdividing the large paddocks into smaller and more workable areas".
A programme of rebuilding and renovation during the 1890s and early 1900s resulted in the homestead being modernized and expanded, as noted in The Queenslander in 1924: "Modern in all comforts and conveniences, the home is distinctly charming in its simple, old-fashioned architecture". Most of the outbuildings also date from Youngman's time at Taabinga and they remain in a well-conserved state as part of the homestead complex. These include a garage, store and meat house for which Brisbane architects HW Atkinson and Charles McLay called tenders in March 1909. Similarly, the gardens that surround the main residence are today a reminder of Youngman's improvements to Taabinga. The Brisbane Courier in 1932 described the gardens as "one of the most glorious... that any one could possibly wish to see. In it Mr Youngman has personally expended much energy, and he has every reason to be proud of his achievement".
While the homestead block remained unaffected, the increasing demand for land in the Burnett district had reduced the Taabinga run during Youngman's time there. Early resumptions had occurred during Thomas Alford's tenure, reducing the size of the leased land from the original 305 square miles to 154 square miles at the time of Youngman's succession. Further resumptions occurred in 1901 and 1907, and in August 1911 the government resumed the whole of the run under the Crown Land Act of 1897. Youngman was compensated £11,745 being the value of the resumed land, improvements and legal costs.
Youngman remained at Taabinga until his death in 1935. He was buried in the cemetery located within the homestead complex, and title to the property was held in trust by Frederick Septimus Lee, Queensland Trustees and Youngman's wife, Florence Daphne Youngman. In 1958, Roderick Gordon Graham replaced Lee as one of the trustees of the estate and following Graham's death in 1961 Dorothy Foster McWilliam was appointed in his place. When Daphne Youngman died in 1975 her remains were buried in a plot next to her husband on the homestead site. The property was further subdivided in the 1980s, with the homestead portion remaining in the Youngman family and operated as a professional homestay.