Mayes Cottage facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mayes Cottage |
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Mayes Cottage, 2017
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| Location | 20 Mawarra Street, Kingston, City of Logan, Queensland, Australia |
| Design period | 1870s - 1890s (late 19th century) |
| Built | 1887 |
| Built for | Mayes Family Home |
| Owner | Logan City Council |
| Official name: Mayes Cottage, Pleasant Place | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 21 October 1992 |
| Reference no. | 600662 |
| Significant period | 1872-1906 (fabric) 1870s-1945 (historical) |
| Significant components | kitchen/kitchen house, shed - milking, out building/s, farmhouse |
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Mayes Cottage is a very old house in Kingston, Australia. It was built in 1887 by the Mayes family. They first called it Pleasant Place. This special house is now a museum. It is open for everyone to visit for free. Volunteers help look after it. Mayes Cottage is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register. This means it is an important historical place.
Contents
History of Mayes Cottage
Mayes Cottage is a small timber house. It sits on a large piece of land. There are also several other small buildings on the property. The Mayes family built this house in 1887. It became their family home. They used an older hut on the land for storage.
The Mayes Family Arrives
John and Emily Mayes came to Brisbane from England in 1871. They traveled with their two young children, Joshua and Ruth. The family later had five more children. Sadly, Ruth died when she was 12 years old. Joshua also passed away when he was 21.
In 1873, John Mayes got a large piece of land. It was about 321 acres in the Kingston area. This area was then called Scrubby Creek. When they first arrived, the Mayes family lived in a tent. In 1872, they built a small hut from timber slabs.
Building the Farm
By 1877, the family had made many improvements. They built the two-room hut with a bark roof. They also added a kitchen and a water hole. A well was built near a water hole. This water hole was already popular with local Aboriginal people. It provided water for the house. The family also put up fences and cleared the land. They planted orange trees and brought in cattle.
The Mayes family made money by cutting timber. They sold wood for mines in Ipswich. They also sold firewood, fence posts, and other timber. In 1886-1887, the Mayes family built their new timber house. This was "Pleasant Place." The old hut was kept for storage. Later, it became a garage for their car.
Early photos show the new house. It was a single-story timber building. It had a pointed roof and wide verandahs. The kitchen first had an outdoor oven and a brick chimney. This chimney was removed in the 1930s.
Growing the Farm and Family
John Mayes bought the land in 1883. Later, some of his land was taken for a railway line. This made his property a bit smaller.
During the 1880s and 1890s, the family grew many fruit trees. They had mangoes, pineapples, and citrus fruits. They also had about 20 cattle in the 1890s. Around 1906, they added a milking yard. This was when they joined the Kingston Cooperative Dairy Company.
John Mayes died in 1908. His wife, Emily, later married John's brother, Richard. They moved away in 1913. John's son, Josiah, and his wife, Daisy, then moved into Pleasant Place. They officially owned the property by 1918.
The family continued to sell cream from their dairy cows. But the land was not great for dairy farming. So, timber cutting and fruit growing remained important. Josiah also kept bees. He had 120 beehives on the property.
Changes Over Time
By 1912, the Kingston area started to grow. More people moved there. A local school and a community hall opened.
In 1922, a dairy building was added at Pleasant Place. The old hut's roof shingles were used for the new dairy. The hut then got a new iron roof. Milking happened in the milking yards. A fig tree was planted there for shade.
Many changes happened in the 1930s and 1940s. A feed shed was made bigger. A storage shed was built near the milking yard. The outdoor oven was removed from the kitchen area. The path between the kitchen and house was enclosed. Electricity came to the house in 1937. The family bought a car around 1935. This meant they no longer needed the buggy shelter. It was replaced with a laundry. In the early 1940s, Josiah's son, Richard, planted oleander flowers. Josiah's daughter, Evelyn, built a bush house.
The Mayes family stopped dairy farming in 1945. The dairy building became a storage area for honey tools. By the mid-1950s, Josiah could no longer work the farm. The family sold most of the land for new houses. Only ten acres around the house were left.
Saving the Cottage
In 1974, the Queensland Housing Commission took over most of the family's land. After Daisy and Josiah passed away, they wanted to buy the house too. But a local group worked hard to save the historic property. It was listed by the National Trust of Australia. In 1979, it became a protected area for a park and recreation. Today, the house is surrounded by about two acres of land.
What Mayes Cottage Looks Like
Mayes Cottage is a small, one-story timber building. It sits on a large block of land on Mawarra Street. There are many other old buildings and trees around it. The cottage is on the highest part of the land. This gives it great views of the area.
The Main House
The cottage is made of timber. It stands on timber stumps. A verandah wraps around three sides of the house. The main house and the kitchen have separate roofs. The main house has a high, pointed roof. The kitchen has a gabled roof. A covered walkway connects these two parts.
The outside walls of the main house are made of timber boards. You can see the timber frame on the outside. The verandah roof is held up by square timber posts. There is also a timber fence-like railing around the verandah.
The main entrance is in the middle of the eastern side. You walk up a small timber stair to get to the verandah. Two windows are next to the door. They have six small glass panes.
Inside, Mayes Cottage has four main rooms. There are also extra rooms on the western side verandah. Timber boards are used for the floors and walls. The ceilings are also lined with timber. The doors are simple timber doors with four panels. The walkway to the kitchen has windows with colored and clear frosted glass.
The kitchen building is a simple rectangle. It has horizontal timber boards on the outside. Curved iron awnings protect the windows. An iron oven area is attached to the northern end of the kitchen.
Other Buildings on the Property
There are several other buildings on the property. There are also many old trees and plants. To the north of the house is a simple, enclosed building. It has a shingled roof, a timber door, and a small window.
To the west of this building are the remains of the very first home. You can see parts of its frame and roof. This old structure is divided into two parts.
Further west are the milking yards. These include a milking shed and parts of a timber fence. The shed is L-shaped. It is enclosed on one end and open on the other.
Several large mango trees are on the property. They are very old and were planted a long time ago.
Why Mayes Cottage is Special
Mayes Cottage was added to the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992. This means it is very important for several reasons:
- It shows how Queensland's history developed. Mayes Cottage is one of the oldest houses in the Kingston area. It shows how the Mayes family lived and worked. They did many things like farming and fruit growing. The property still has the 1872 hut, the 1887 house, a dairy, and a feed shed. All these buildings were made from timber grown on their land.
- It shows rare building styles. The house and other buildings show old ways of building. They use timber slabs, exposed frames, and single-skin walls. They also have sawn shingle roofs. These building methods were common a long time ago. But now, they are very rare to see.
- It is a beautiful and important place. The house and its grounds are very pretty. They sit on top of a hill. The area is open and has old trees. This makes it a lovely and important site.
- It is connected to important people in Queensland's history. Mayes Cottage is one of the oldest houses in the Kingston area. It was built by the Mayes family. They lived there for many years. The property shows how a pioneering family lived and worked. They farmed, grew fruit, and cut timber.
