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Geeumbi is a heritage-listed villa at 1 South Street, Rangeville, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1914 to 1918. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992. == History == Geeumbi (the Aboriginal name for Table Top Mountain, which the house overlooks) was built between the years 1914 - 1918 by Ernest Pottinger for Dr T.A. Price and his wife. The house is a substantial concrete structure of unusual design set in extensive mature gardens on the southern Toowoomba Range commanding wide-ranging easterly views. It is situated amongst other substantial properties including Rodway across South Street constructed in 1904. The owner, Dr Price, designed Geeumbi himself having been an architecture student for two years in Brisbane before leaving Australia to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh.〔 Dr Thomas Price arrived in Toowoomba in 1903 to take up a position at the Willowburn Mental Hospital. He later went into private medical practice but following World War I started a practice as an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist at both the Toowoomba General Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital. From the time of his arrival in Toowoomba Dr. Price had been concerned for the health of the community as mosquitoes were a major problem due to the swamps and open drains that ran throughout the town. Despite campaigning for the appointment of a Government Inspector to control the mosquito problem he was not successful until he stood and was elected to the Toowoomba City Council in 1912. After he was elected Mayor in 1918, Dr. Price stepped-up his campaign and was eventually successful in draining the swamps and eradicating the mosquito problem in Toowoomba. He was similarly interested in the welfare of the youth of the city. He was a Scout Leader and with the assistance of his wife started the Boy Scouts and Girl Guide movements in the city using his own property for camps and orientation exercises. In the 1930s at the height of the Great Depression, Dr. Price organized a self-help camp at Redwood Park for the itinerant unemployed. Much of the fresh vegetables to feed the men in this camp came from the kitchen garden around Geeumbi. Shortly before his death in 1957 Dr Price sold Geeumbi and retired to live in Sydney. His wife Hester had died at Toowoomba in 1944. The Dr Price Memorial Mothercraft Centre perpetuates his memory in Toowoomba.〔 The land on which Geeumbi sits has been transferred and subdivided a number of times since the original deed of grant was proclaimed on 25/9/1889. William Tirril was the first owner of the land which comprised 200 acres of steep, heavily timbered land on the escarpment of the range. Tirril cleared much of the land and established a dairy farm on the site. The farm had originally extended from the present Rowbottom Street in the west to the boundary of Hartmann's land to the north and had South Street as its southern boundary. (Hartmann's land eventually became the Picnic Point parklands.) At this stage much of the land on the Southern Range was sparsely populated and devoted to farming and timber getting.〔 The land passed through several hands until Dr Price purchased a sub-division of the original farm in 1912 on which the old timber farmhouse and several out buildings were situated. Before and during the construction of their new home, the Price family lived in the original farmhouse just a short distance away from the building site. Evidence of this first house can be found in the concrete pathway leading from an opening in the hedge on the South Street frontage and in a low wall, once a portion of the foundations. This wall has been incorporated in the garden terracing to the southwest of the front entrance of Geeumbi.〔 At the beginning of the twentieth century many of the houses built on the escarpment of the Range in Toowoomba were substantial and affluent places intended as summer residences, e.g. Harlaxton House and Rodway. A trend had developed by the end of the 19th century for wealthy Squatters and prominent Brisbane businessmen and politicians to take advantage of the spectacular views and natural environment of the Toowoomba Range as well as the "invigorating" climate. The construction of Geeumbi from 1914-1918 followed this pattern of affluent settlement in the area which established the Range as a prime residential precinct in Toowoomba.〔 Construction of the house was commenced in 1914. The foundations and walls of the new house were constructed by pouring concrete into box framing made from timber and flattened tin, an innovative approach for the time. Dr Price was a keen astronomer and the tower end of the building was designed for viewing the night skies from a clear vantage point above the tree line. The house was positioned to take advantage of the distinct view of Table Top Mountain and the night skies as opposed to the immediate views. The unusual appearance and construction of Geeumbi was clearly a result of the creativity of Dr Price, who designed the house with his particular needs and desires in mind, making the building a departure from the standard residential development occurring at the time. Minor alterations have been carried out on the most noticeable of these being the enclosure of the southern verandah for protection against the wind.〔 Dr Price, a keen gardener and bush walker collected native plants from around the local ridges and planted them in the garden that he developed after the completion of the house. Terraces were formed close to the building to act as extensions to the living areas of the house. Lower terraces were formed further down the hill and planted with various forms of hedge plants. A hedge was planted on the South Street frontage and the along the eastern edge of the land adjoining the escarpment reserve. To the western side of the house an extensive kitchen garden was established again on terraces stabilised by the construction of concrete walls. Fruit trees were also cultivated in this area. Whilst the garden about Geeumbi was large, it was mostly free from as opposed to the controlled shapes and designs that were popular in the earlier stages of the development of Toowoomba gardens. The largest proportion of the grounds remained as open grassland or patches of scrub were left. The Price children owned several horses and had walking tracks through the area.〔 Following the retirement of Dr Price the house and accompanying five acres of land first passed to the Price children and then in 1954 was sold to Francis Bushby who in turn sold to Cyril Conroy. The property remained in the hands of the Conroy family until 1972 when it was sold to Dr. John and Mrs Judith Noble. At this stage the house and gardens were in a rundown state. Although the form of the Price garden remained, many of the original plants had been allowed to die and ivy had covered a large portion of the tower of the house.〔 In 1972 the land was subdivided into two sections with the western section being sold off as five residential lots. This section included a portion of the kitchen garden. In 1973 Drs Mary and Godfrey Gapp, purchased Geeumbi and further subdivided the land into two blocks and more recently another block was sold from the southwestern corner of the garden. The remaining 1.69 hectares of land was resurveyed as Lot 1 on RP 142232.〔 The gardens around Geeumbi have basically retained their early form with the remaining portion of the vegetable garden still used in the same way. The terraces and other features such as the tennis court and old concrete water tank have remained. A structure understood to be a swimming pool was removed a number of years ago. The front garden has been maintained despite the loss of a large tree that was a feature of the round bed in the centre of the driveway.〔 In 2009, the house was purchased by the Maridahdi Early Childhood Community School which proposed to spend $3 million on the property; however, there were objections from the neighbours. This led to a legal battle to gain the necessary approvals, which terminated in June 2012 when the Planning and Environment Court upheld the Toowoomba Regional Council's decision to not approve the development despite an earlier recommendation from the council's planning department that the application should be approved. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Geeumbi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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