Whepstead

Please note - This is a private residence and is not publicly accessible. ‘Whepstead’, a large two-storeyed timber residence on Main Road Wellington Point, is a private home. The house was constructed in 1889 for Gilbert Burnett JP, a Wellington Point landowner; sawmill proprietor, and member of the Cleveland Divisional Board. Originally called ‘Fernbourne’, the house was designed by Brisbane architect Claude William Chambers and constructed by Cleveland builder Patrick Horisk. ‘Fernbourne’ replaced an 1874 Burnett family home on the same site. At that time Burnett was overseer on Louis Hope’s Ormiston Sugar Plantation, and from 1875 he acquired a lease over Hope’s Wellington Point lands, purchasing his sugar milling equipment. After the decline of the sugar industry in the late 1890s, Burnett turned to saw milling, procuring timber from Moreton Bay islands, and the Logan and Albert Rivers, bringing logs up Hilliards Creek on his barge the ‘Eucalypta’. Burnett’s financial problems during the 1890’s depression saw the house occupied by the manager of the Queensland National Bank. A subsequent owner renamed it ‘Whepstead’. It later served as a hospital and nursing home. Over a period of 35 years from the mid-1970s, it was restored for use as a restaurant and function centre. ‘Whepstead’ is now a private residence and not publically accessible.