Whyembah is a heritage-listed

detached house A stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwelli ...

at 80 Campbell Street, East Toowoomba,

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 ...

Toowoomba Region The Toowoomba Region is a local government area located in the Darling Downs part of Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by several previous local government areas with histories extending back to the early 1900s and bey ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia. It was built , and renovated and enlarged in 1906. It is sometimes spelled differently, e.g. Wyembar. The Queensland Heritage Council found that Whyembah was significant because it "demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1890s ornate timber house in Toowoomba, and as a particularly picturesque house in a tree-lined street which includes a number of decorated timber houses, it exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community" and it "illustrates the pattern of Toowoomba's development as a regional centre for southern Queensland". It was added to the

Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. A ...

on 11 June 1993.

History

Whyembah was built for John Rosser, a commercial traveller with the

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

firm of Thurlow and Co. Whyembah originally stood on approximately 1r 29p of land, adjacent to Queens Park in Campbell Street. Rosser was a keen lawn bowler, and the grounds of Whyembah included a bowling green at one time. The house was renovated and enlarged in 1906, and the ceilings and walls lined in pressed metal. After Rosser's death in 1925, his widow Margaret Ferrier Rosser remained at Whyembah. The property was acquired by William Ross Mackenzie in 1943 with the condition that Margaret Rosser could continue to reside at Whyembah until her death. The property changed hands a number of times. During the 1970s it was turned into flats. Whyembah was acquired by new owners in 1979, who subsequently renovated and extended the house. In 2007, the property was sold for $1,265,000. In September 2010, Whyembah was bought at auction for $1,000,000 by Ken Gouldthorp, the Chief Executive Officer of the

Toowoomba Regional Council The Toowoomba Region is a local government area located in the Darling Downs part of Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by several previous local government areas with histories extending back to the early 1900s and bey ...

. In November 2014, the property was being offered for sale.

Description

Whyembah is a picturesque

weatherboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...

house with a

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America) and occasionally abbreviated CGI is a ...

roof. It is located next to Queens Park, on a street with an avenue of mature trees and other timber houses, some of which are similar in form to Whyembah. The house is single storeyed, with a recent two-storeyed extension to the rear which meticulously imitates the original in external detail. The exterior is an assemblage of projecting bays and verandahs, with roofs intersecting at the base of a flat-top

pyramid roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

. The eastern elevation has a projecting hipped roof bay, adjacent to a closed in verandah with a curved roof. The street elevation has a small balcony at the end of the closed-in verandah, which sits next to a projecting

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or ...

. The street entrance, consisting of a projecting barrel vault supported on paired timber posts, is centrally placed. An L-shaped

veranda A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''vera ...

h links the street entrance to a less formal side entrance to the west, and contains a projecting corner bay window. Another bay window extends out from a projecting hipped bay at the southern end of the western frontage. The house is rich in its decorative detailing. The verandah posts are chamfered, and have curved valances. The

balustrades A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

are

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impur ...

. The main roof has curved eaves

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or ' ...

, and sheet metal cresting adorns both the flat top of the main roof and the ridges of the smaller roofs. A polychrome brick chimney rises to the rear. The

s have small curved lead

awning An awning or overhang is a secondary covering attached to the exterior wall of a building. It is typically composed of canvas woven of acrylic, cotton or polyester yarn, or vinyl laminated to polyester fabric that is stretched tightly over a li ...

s, and the barrel vaulted entry has arched timber

fretwork Fretwork is an interlaced decorative design that is either carved in low relief on a solid background, or cut out with a fretsaw, coping saw, jigsaw or scroll saw. Most fretwork patterns are geometric in design. The materials most commonly use ...

. The house has timber sliding sash windows and timber doors. The street entry door has stained glass set in timber surrounds. The house contains some fine pressed metal wall and ceiling sheeting. Whyembah sits on the northern end of a block of 1942 sq metres; the garden contain mature palms to the rear of the block, and a timber gatehouse to the south west corner.

Heritage listing

Whyembah was listed on the

on 11 June 1993 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. Whyembah, erected , illustrates the pattern of Toowoomba's development as a regional centre for southern Queensland. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1890s ornate timber house in Toowoomba, and as a particularly picturesque house in a tree-lined street which includes a number of decorated timber houses, it exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1890s ornate timber house in Toowoomba, and as a particularly picturesque house in a tree-lined street which includes a number of decorated timber houses, it exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community.

References

Attribution

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Whyembah Queensland Heritage Register East Toowoomba, Queensland Houses in Queensland Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register Buildings and structures in Toowoomba