Castleholme Homestead

General

More images…

Also known as

Conroy's Farm

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

21 October 1992

Type

Farming—agriculture/dairying/grazing/horticulture: Farm

Themes

2.3 Exploiting, utilising and transforming the land: Pastoral activities

6.4 Building settlements, towns, cities and dwellings: Dwellings

Construction periods

1870, Castleholme Homestead - Slab Barn (1870s circa - 1870s circa)

1875–1916, Castleholme Homestead - Homestead - main residence (1875c - 1916)

1875–1950, Castleholme Homestead (1875c - 1950s)

1890, Castleholme Homestead - Barn (1890s - 1890s)

1930–1950, Castleholme Homestead - Cottage (1930s circa - 1950s circa)

1930–1950, Castleholme Homestead - Stables (1930s circa - 1950s circa)

Historical period

1870s–1890s Late 19th century

Location

Address

Bryden - Crossdale Road, Bryden

LGA

Somerset Regional Council

Coordinates

-27.24226341, 152.56909039

Significance

Criterion AThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.

Castleholme is important for its association with the closer settlement of the Bryden area, its development as a dairying district, and with the Conroy family in particular.

Criterion CThe place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland’s history.

The place also has potential to reveal substrata evidence of the arrangement of a late 19th century dairy farm.

Criterion DThe place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

It survives as a good example of the arrangement of a working farm in southeast Queensland, demonstrating over a century an evolution in function, building type, technology and material.

Criterion EThe place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

Castleholme is significant also for the aesthetic quality of the group of timber buildings and grounds, and for its spatial association with the adjacent St Anne's graveyard.

Criterion HThe place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland’s history.

Castleholme is significant for its historical association with the adjacent St Anne's graveyard.

History

Castleholme was established in the 1870s, following Hugh Conroy's selection and purchase of the then 257 hectare property in 1875. By 1916 a small cedar dwelling at Castleholme had became a rambling, fourteen-roomed house with wide verandahs. By that time the grounds included flowerbeds, shrubs and shade trees, and substantial outbuildings, and the principal activity was dairying. Castleholme remained in the Conroy family until acquired in 1978 by the Co-ordinator General, as part of the Wivenhoe Dam reclamation area. That part of the property not inundated was leased by the Queensland Institute of Technology for use as an experimental building station. The Castleholme homestead complex was identified by the QIT as a conservation area and the interwar cottage was renovated as caretaker accommodation. The QIT (now Queensland University of Technology) maintains the grounds, but not the buildings.

Description

Castleholme consists of the remains of a homestead, slab barn, cottage, stables and associated farm buildings and stockyards with a number of mature trees. It is located in the Brisbane Valley on a northeastern slope, is visible from the Bryden-Crossdale Road and borders the Bryden Catholic Cemetery. The domestic structures are located in a group to the north with the outbuildings forming a southern boundary. Other structures include the remains of a timber laundry shed and a bakehouse, post and rail fencing, a calf pen and cow bails.

Image gallery