Jondaryan Woolshed facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Jondaryan Woolshed |
|
|---|---|
Woolshed building, 2014
|
|
| Location | Evanslea Road, Jondaryan, Queensland, Australia |
| Design period | 1840s - 1860s (mid-19th century) |
| Built | 1859 - 1861 |
| Official name: Jondaryan Woolshed, Jondaryan Station | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 21 October 1992 |
| Reference no. | 600633 |
| Significant period | 1850s-1880s (historical) 1850s-1860s (fabric) |
| Significant components | shearing shed/woolshed, residential accommodation - shearers' quarters, yards - livestock |
| Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). | |
The Jondaryan Woolshed is a very old and important building in Jondaryan, Queensland, Australia. It's a special kind of shed where sheep were shorn for their wool. This large shed was built between 1859 and 1861. It replaced an earlier, smaller shed on what was once a huge sheep farm called Jondaryan Station.
At one time, Jondaryan Station was the biggest privately owned farm in Queensland. The woolshed became famous for being a key place in big arguments between farm owners and workers in the late 1880s and early 1890s. These arguments helped lead to the important 1891 Australian shearers' strike.
In 1946, the company that owned Jondaryan Station closed down. Most of the land was sold off. The woolshed ended up with a different owner. Then, in 1972, the owner gave the woolshed and some land to the people of Jondaryan. A group called the Jondaryan Woolshed Historical Museum and Park Association was started in 1976. Since then, the woolshed has become a popular place for tourists to visit. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register (a list of important historical places) on 21 October 1992.
The original Jondaryan Homestead (the main house of the farm) also still exists, though the first house burned down in 1937. It is listed separately as a heritage site.
Contents
History of Jondaryan Woolshed
Early Days of Jondaryan Station
In 1827, a botanist and explorer named Allan Cunningham visited the Darling Downs area. He said it would be a great place for grazing sheep. However, people couldn't settle there right away because of a prison colony nearby.
In the 1830s, sheep farmers from New South Wales started moving north. They were looking for new land. The first sheep farm on the Downs was set up in 1840. Henry Dennis chose land for a farm in 1840, but he didn't officially register it. So, in 1842, Charles Coxen took over the land.
Coxen sent his nephew, Henry, to manage the property. Henry named the place "Jondaryan." People think this name came from an Aboriginal word for a large waterhole. Henry Coxen built the first simple farmhouse in 1844. Later that year, he built a new one where the current homestead is, because the first spot had too many lightning strikes! He also built other buildings, including a small shearing shed.
Growing the Sheep Station
In 1845, the Coxens left the property. For several years, investors from southern Australia owned it. The farm started with about 13,000 acres. But more land was added, and by 1855, it had grown to 128,000 acres.
In 1856, Robert and Edwin Tooth bought Jondaryan for £30,000. The Tooth brothers were also involved in starting a brewery, a sugar company, and a bank. They began buying large parts of the leased land to own it outright. In 1858, a partnership called Kent and Weinholt, who owned farms next door, rented Jondaryan. James C. White managed the property for them.
This was a time when wool prices were very good, and the sheep farming business was booming. Kent and Weinholt decided to make Jondaryan even better. Between 1859 and 1861, many workers spent weeks cutting timber for building. A lot of new buildings were put up. These included a small church called St Anne's (around 1859), shearers' quarters (1860), a new farm store (1862), a butcher's shop, and a stable (1862).
Building the Big Woolshed
J. C. White, who had experience designing buildings, drew up the plans for the new woolshed. A carpenter named T. Jones started building it in 1859. The roof was first planned to be made of wooden shingles. But in 1860, they decided to use imported corrugated iron sheets instead.
The building was shaped like a "T." It had a short middle section for packing and loading the wool. Two long wings stuck out at right angles from this section. Sheep would enter the building from each end. They would move through pens to a shearing area with 52 shearing stands. After being shorn, they went to counting pens. The first shearing happened in 1861. After that, some changes were made to improve the design. This included digging out under the woolshed and paving the yards with cobblestones.
In 1863, Kent and Weinholt bought the property for £108,000. They also bought other farms nearby, using Jondaryan as their main office. Jondaryan became like a small village, with many workers and their families living there. It had homes for workers, a store, a blacksmith, and other important services.
Jondaryan and the Railway
In 1867, the Western railway line was built through Jondaryan land. It reached Dalby in 1868. A small town grew up around the railway station at Jondaryan, taking the same name. By the 1870s, about 100 people lived there. The managers of Jondaryan Station were often leaders in the local government, showing how important the station was to the area.
Sheep from other farms were also sent to be shorn at Jondaryan woolshed. In 1873, 24,000 sheep from other properties were shorn there. In 1891, machine shearing was introduced at Jondaryan. This meant fewer shearing stands were needed, so the number was reduced to 36.
The Shearers' Strike
Jondaryan Station kept growing and reached a huge size of 300,000 acres. It was once the largest privately owned farm in Queensland. The station played a big part in the fight for better pay and working conditions for farm workers. This fight led to the famous 1891 Australian shearers' strike.
Owners of large stations like Jondaryan had a lot of power over their workers. These workers often traveled from place to place for the shearing season. In 1887, the Queensland Shearers Union was formed. Within a year, it had 1,300 members. This showed that workers felt they needed to join together to get fair pay and conditions.
Jondaryan became an early test case for the union. In 1888, the farm managers used workers who were not part of the union. Because of this, the union shearers refused to work there the next season. In 1889, the farm owners joined together to fight the union demands. They tried to lower pay rates. The manager of Jondaryan, Charles Williams, was a founding member of the United Graziers Association.
Many workers then joined the unions. The Shearers' Union grew to over 3,000 members. In 1889, Jondaryan hired no union members. In response, the union put a ban on the shed in 1890. Non-union workers shorn the sheep. But the wool was stopped at every step of its journey. Members of other unions refused to handle it. Bales of Jondaryan wool sat on the docks until an agreement was reached. This was the first time different unions worked together. This led to the Barcaldine strike of 1891 and the start of the Labor political party.
Jondaryan Becomes a Museum
In 1894, the Kent and Weinholt partnership ended. A new company, Jondaryan Estates Company of Australia, was formed. From the 1890s, much of the leased land was taken back by the government for farming. Wheat and lucerne were grown on Jondaryan for its own use. In 1906, new land rules forced the sale of parts of the farm that were owned outright. Even so, by the early 1920s, it was still one of the biggest farms in the Darling Downs. It still shorn sheep for other stations.
In 1937, the main homestead building burned down and was rebuilt. But in the 1940s, more land sales continued to shrink the property. The owners decided to sell land directly. They gave preference to former employees and experienced farmers. This was instead of letting the government hold a lottery for the land.
From January 1, 1946, Jondaryan stopped being a working farm. The company closed down. However, the homestead and 2,000 acres of land were kept. It was at this time that the land with the woolshed was sold. It's thought that part of the western wing of the woolshed was removed to be used as a farm machinery shed. One of the original shearers' quarters buildings remained behind the woolshed.
In 1972, a celebration was held at the Jondaryan woolshed for the 100th birthday of the Jondaryan State School. After this success, the owner offered the woolshed and 12 acres of land to the people of Jondaryan. As a result, the Jondaryan Woolshed Historical Museum and Park Association was officially formed in October 1976. Since then, the place has become a popular tourist attraction. A lot of repair and rebuilding work has been done on the woolshed, including rebuilding the western wing. Since 1977, an annual Australian Heritage Festival has been held at the woolshed. The remaining shearers' quarters were changed in 1978 to offer accommodation for backpackers.
Many buildings from the surrounding area have been moved to the site. Some were originally from Jondaryan or its smaller farms. These include an 1850s blacksmith's shop (moved 1977) and a shepherd's hut (moved 1978). Other buildings came from different places, like the Woodleigh Cheese factory (moved 1994) and the Jondaryan Railway Station (moved 1998).
New buildings have also been built, such as a dairy, a sawmill, and various display areas. There is a large collection of old farm machinery and tractors on the site. The new and moved buildings are not part of the official Queensland Heritage Register listing.
What the Woolshed Looks Like
The Jondaryan Woolshed is about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) south of Jondaryan town. It sits on flat land near Oakey Creek. Today, it's the main part of the Jondaryan Woolshed Historical Museum and Park. Besides the woolshed and the shearers' quarters, the park has many other old buildings moved from the area.
The woolshed is a very large building shaped like a "T." The main part runs from east to west. A shorter section sticks out to the north. It is made of timber with a gabled roof covered in corrugated iron. It is surrounded by a system of timber yards where the sheep were kept.
The main part of the building holds the pens for sheep, the shearing area, and the wool classing areas. It has a central space with side aisles. Timber frames support the roof. The walls are made of timber slabs. Some are original, and some are new. The floors are made of timber boards with spaces between them. This allowed sheep droppings to fall through. The wool classing area has a large table for sorting the wool. This area has been made bigger over time.
The central section to the north has a small roof extension. This part holds the pulleys for the wool-bale loading hoist. This area was used for storing wool after it was sorted and pressed.
The shearers' quarters is a rectangular timber building behind the woolshed. It has a gabled roof covered in corrugated iron. Its walls are covered in vertical corrugated iron sheets. It has a verandah along one side with doors opening onto it. At the back, there are corrugated iron shutters that open from the top. Today, it is used for accommodation.
Why Jondaryan Woolshed is Important
The Jondaryan Woolshed was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992 for several reasons:
- It shows how Queensland's history developed. Jondaryan Station was one of the first and largest sheep farms in the Darling Downs. It helped towns grow by providing jobs and facilities for many people. The woolshed shows how much the wool industry grew between the 1850s and 1860s. Its design and materials show how wool was processed in the 1800s. Changes to the shed, like extending the wool table, also show how the industry changed. Jondaryan played a part in the early conflicts between farm owners and workers. These conflicts led to the 1891 Shearers' Strike and the start of the Labor political party.
- It is a rare and special part of Queensland's heritage. The Jondaryan Woolshed is rare because it is a very large and old woolshed in Queensland. It is believed to be one of the oldest surviving woolsheds in the state.
- It can teach us more about Queensland's history. The area around the woolshed is important. It could be an archaeological site. Digging there might help us learn more about how the shed was used. This would tell us about how the early sheep farming industry worked in Queensland.
- It shows the main features of its type of building. The Jondaryan woolshed still has most of its original shape and materials. It is a good example of how these types of buildings were designed and built in the mid-1800s.
- It is beautiful to look at. Its large size and location on a flat plain make it a striking building in the landscape. Its simple design and materials are typical of Australian country buildings. Many people in the community find it very appealing.
- It is strongly connected to the local community. The local community has worked hard to save the woolshed. They have made it the main part of a museum that shares the history of the area. This shows how important the woolshed is to them.
