page_title: Claremont, Ipswich
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Claremont, Ipswich / History
caption_attribution_description: George Thorn Jr., Premier of Queensland.
context_page_description: Claremont is a heritage-listed villa at 1A Milford Street, Ipswich, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by William Claydon Wakefield and was built in 1857. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
context_section_description: Claremont is a Georgian style stone villa overlooking the Bremer River. It was designed in 1857 by William Claydon Wakefield for John Panton and was built on the earliest site to be occupied by Europeans in Ipswich. John Panton was a Member of both the New South Wales and Queensland Legislative Councils and a prominent Ipswich merchant. However financial difficulties forced the sale of the house in 1862. (In 1865 the Pantons built another house at 5 Blackall Street, East Ipswich which they also called Claremont, but that second Claremont is not the subject of this article).
  In 1862 the first Claremont was purchased by George Thorn (senior), originally superintendent of convicts at Ipswich, who became a politician, as did four of his sons. George Thorn Jnr. served as Premier of Queensland while living at Claremont and the house was for many years an important social and political centre in Ipswich.
  In 1827, the Commandant of the Moreton Bay Penal colony sent a group of convicts up the Bremer River to quarry and process limestone for building purposes. Huts and a lime kiln were set up, followed by enclosures for animals. The site covered what are now the grounds of Claremont and their immediate vicinity and was named Limestone Station. In 1838 George Thorn was appointed Superintendent of Convicts at Limestone and lived with his family in a cottage to the north west of where Claremont now stands. He stayed on after the penal colony was closed and became a wealthy merchant and pastoralist. Physical evidence for this first European use of the site may survive below ground. The remains of the kiln were visible until the 1960s and their location, close to the current house, is marked; the remains are listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.
  In 1842, when Moreton Bay was opened for free settlement, the first survey of Limestone was made and this land was divided into blocks and sold. By 1852 it was held by several owners, but all the northern parts of section XXXVI were later acquired by John Panton, the son of the New South Wales Post-Master General, who had moved to Limestone in 1851 and had established himself successfully as a merchant. In 1855, he built a two story warehouse to the northwest of the present house. The site is at the head of navigation of the river and is just upstream of the Pool, an area which permitted steam boats to turn and which was then close to the wharves. His acquisition of this site and location of the warehouse emphasise the importance of the river to Ipswich as a trading centre before the coming of the railway.
  In 1857 Panton added a villa designed by William Claydon Wakeling to the site and named it Claremont. Only a few years after this, in the early 1860s, Panton experienced financial difficulties and sold Claremont to George Thorn, who was by then a leading figure in Ipswich. The Thorns were closely involved in politics, George and four of his sons serving as Members of the Legislative Assembly at various times. The eldest son, George Thorn, junior, was Premier between 1876-77 while he was living at Claremont.
  In 1874, a section of land running between Claremont and the river bank was resumed as part of the construction of the Brisbane to Ipswich Railway. This reduced the grounds to an area of 2 acres (0.81 ha) and 23 perches (580 m²) and Panton's warehouse may have been demolished at this point. The property remained in the Thorn family until 1906 when it was purchased by George Rennie Wilson. In 1919 the land was again subdivided and some sold, reducing the Claremont block to 1 acre (0.40 ha), 21 perches (530 m²).
  Alterations occurred to the house in the 1920s with the rebuilding of the verandahs to a bungalow style. It was used as a boarding house between 1924 and 1939, when it was sold to Jessie Violet Preddy. The Preddys lived in the house only briefly before it was divided into three flats and the land further subdivided. During the 1940s the house became run down and the ends of both wings were demolished.
  In 1964 the property was purchased by the Queensland Sub-Normal Children's We
caption: George Thorn, junior
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