page_title: Jimbour Homestead
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Jimbour Homestead / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Jimbour is the main homestead on one of the earliest stations established on the Darling Downs, is important in demonstrating the pattern of early European exploration and pastoral settlement in Queensland, Australia.
context_page_description: Jimbour is a heritage-listed homestead on one of the earliest stations established on the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia, It is important in demonstrating the pattern of early European exploration and pastoral settlement in Queensland, Australia. The building is associated with the development of the Darling Downs and of the pastoral industry in Queensland and is important in demonstrating the wealth and ambition of early Queensland pastoralists.
  Jimbour House was an ambitious structure in terms of size, style and finish and was intended to support the social and political aspirations of Joshua Peter Bell, an important politician and businessman as well as grazier. It is unique in Queensland as the only genuinely grand country house in the English manner to be built in the state. Other substantial stone homesteads of the era, such as Talgai, Glengallan and Westbrook, came nowhere near to rivalling Jimbour in either size or opulence.
context_section_description: In 1906, the Closer Settlement Act was passed through the Parliament of Queensland. Steps were taken to compulsorily acquire Jimbour. By 1910, just 100 acres (40 ha) remained. Following the death of JT Bell in 1911, the contents of Jimbour House were auctioned in July 1912 and Lady Bell retired to Brisbane. Through the remainder of the decade the house was occupied by Messrs Thomas and Ryder of Jimbour Station, although they did not acquire title to the house site. In the early 1920s the house on its 100 acres (40 ha) was sold by order of the mortgagee, the Queensland National Bank, with title transferred in October 1922 to Charles Whippell.
  The association of the Russell family with Jimbour House commenced in the 1923 when Roma pastoralist Wilfred Adams Russell purchased the property from Whippell. Title was transferred to Russell in January 1925. Russell was born in Queensland in 1874 and educated in New South Wales, where he later acquired pastoral and agricultural interests. In 1909, he acquired an interest in Dalmally Station near Roma and took up residence there in 1910. He further extended his pastoral interests with the acquisition of properties at Cunnamulla and Jimbour Station.
  At the time of Russell's purchase, Jimbour House was derelict, with several of the ceilings collapsed and only parts of the building habitable, and the gardens were a wilderness. From 1924 to 1925 Russell commenced a major programme of restoration and repair. Ceilings were replaced; a new kitchen was added behind the house, incorporating part of the former covered way between the 1870s house and the 1868 bluestone house; and the gardens were redesigned and extended by Brisbane landscape designer Harry Stokes. The bluestone building was badly damaged and parts of the upper floor had crumbled so it was decided to salvage the ground floor as a single storey building and use this as men's quarters. Russell and his wife strived to discover and collect the original furniture where possible.
  On 21 November 1925 Jimbour House was formally re-opened with a fund raising fete for Dalby Hospital. This commitment to work for the well being of the community has been continued by the Russell family. Wilfred Russell died in 1932, and the management of Jimbour passed to his son Charles Russell and Charles' wife Hilary. In the 1930s, two large wooden pergolas over the drive at each end of the house and four smaller pergolas in the rose garden were erected, and the rose garden was divided into the four quadrants that now define it. In 1938, the drive was constructed from the front gate to the water tower, and jacarandas and shrubs were planted along both sides.
  In the 1950s and 1960s the Russells developed agriculture (especially wheat) in conjunction with livestock at Jimbour, and new facilities were constructed such as stores, grain silos, feedlots and piggeries. Work on the early buildings and the garden also continued. In 1950, a large swimming pool and wading pool were constructed in the front grounds of Jimbour House and children from surrounding properties were welcome to visit Jimbour and use the pool during the summer months. An airstrip was established at the rear of the house in the 1950s. In 1956, the timber water tower was converted into a four-level residence for the gardener. In the 1960s, the 1864 stone store was converted into two flats with the construction of a mezzanine level and the insertion of dormer windows, and a citrus orchard was planted to the east of the swimming pool.
  Charles Russell died in 1977, but Jimbour House remains the property of the Russell family. In the late 20th century a stone fruit and pomme fruit orchard was established to the west of the swimming pool and avenues of trees (planted by distinguished visitors) were commenced on the eastern and western sides of the garden. A vineyard was established on Jimbour land in the late 1990s, but this is not included within the heritage boundary. Jimbour was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992.
caption: Aerial photograph of Jimbour in the 1970s
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