Ormiston Fellmongery

A shady park on the banks of Hilliards Creek at Ormiston holds the remnants of a fellmongery which operated here between 1894 and the 1920s; on the same site as an 1853 fellmongery. Interpretive signage is on site. Fellmongering processed sheepskins in order to remove the wool in preparation for tanning. The wool was washed and dried, and the skins were processed into leather. Thomas Blackett Stephens established the first fellmongery here at a time when Cleveland was being promoted as a potential port. He may well have set up his establishment on Hilliards Creek to service the wool trade expected to travel from Ipswich to Cleveland Point. Stephens was a well-known figure in the early colony becoming owner of the Moreton Bay Courier in 1861, and held a number of senior public service positions as well as being a Member of the Legislative Assembly in 1863. He relocated his fellmongery to Ekibin in the early 1860s. Thirty years later, Thomas Alford erected a wool scour and fellmongery on the same site, which operated until the 1920s. The land was subsequently used for farming before being resumed by the Redland Shire Council in the 1970s for use as parkland.