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Jimbour is a heritage-listed homestead on one of the earliest stations established on the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia, It is important in demonstrating the pattern of early European exploration and pastoral settlement in Queensland, Australia. The building is associated with the development of the Darling Downs and of the pastoral industry in Queensland and is important in demonstrating the wealth and ambition of early Queensland pastoralists. Jimbour House was an ambitious structure in terms of size, style and finish and was intended to support the social and political aspirations of Joshua Peter Bell, an important politician and businessman as well as grazier. It is unique in Queensland as the only genuinely grand country house in the English manner to be built in the state. Other substantial stone homesteads of the era, such as Talgai, Glengallan and Westbrook, came nowhere near to rivalling Jimbour in either size or opulence. == History == The property was first claimed by Henry Dennis on behalf of a Scotsman called Todd Scougall in 1842. Scougall established a run with sheep and cattle which were driven north from the Hunter Valley. Scougall experienced disease outbreaks and bankruptcy stemming from the collapse of the Bank of Australasia.〔 The property was purchased by Thomas Bell for ₤3,200 in 1844. Bell was from Northern Ireland and had moved to Australia with his family in 1829.〔 In 1844, explorer Ludwig Leichhardt stayed at Jimbour, at that time the most northerly station on the Downs, preparing for his trip to Port Essington. In 1864, utilising their pre-emptive purchase rights, Thomas Bell, Joshua Peter Bell and John Alexander Bell acquired title to 4,786 acres (pre-emptive portion 1) of the Jimbour holding as tenants in common. This pre-emptive purchase included the head station site. Following Thomas Bell's death in September 1872, the Jimbour freehold was transmitted to Joshua Peter Bell, John Alexander Bell and a third brother, Marmaduke Bell, as tenants in common. The original house built by Scougall was burn down in 1867.〔 In about 1873 fashionable Brisbane architects Richard Suter and Annesley Wesley Voysey, in partnership from January 1872 to September 1874, were commissioned to design a new sandstone house, handsome and ambitious in scale and quality, as the main residence at Jimbour. Work on Jimbour House commenced in late 1874,〔 and was completed by early 1877. Slate for the roof was imported from Wales.〔 Gas and water were built into the house. Gas was generated from a coal mine on the property and water via a water tower was pumped by a windmill, the first structure known to be erected in Queensland.〔 In 1881, a shortage of working capital led the Bell brothers to merge their financial interests in Jimbour with those of Premier Thomas McIlwraith and JC Smyth, forming The Darling Downs and Western Land Company. In October 1881, most of the Jimbour freehold was transferred to the Company, but an area of 100 acres (sub 1 of pre-emptive portion 1), containing the house and most of the outbuildings, was retained by the Bell brothers as tenants in common. Under Joshua Bell's stewardship the property became known as the 'The Mecca of Civilization on the Darling Downs'.〔 Joshua Peter Bell died suddenly in December 1881 and his family commissioned a memorial obelisk that was placed to the west of the main house, near the water tower and church. At this time JP Bell's interest in Jimbour House was transferred to his wife (Lady) Margaret Miller Bell, Sir Arthur Hunter Palmer and Boyd Dunlop Morehead as Trustees. Jimbour House continued as the principal residence of Lady Bell and her eldest son, barrister Joshua Thomas Bell, following their return to Queensland in 1889. JT Bell became a director of the Darling Downs and Western Land Company, and served as private secretary to Premier Sir Samuel Griffith from 1890 to 1992 before being elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in which he served as a Minister and subsequently Speaker. Following the collapse of the Company in the early 1890s the Bell family assigned their interest in the Jimbour freehold to the Queensland National Bank, on the condition that the family was allowed to occupy Jimbour House, which they did until c1912. 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「Jimbour」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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