page_title: Kilcoy Homestead
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Kilcoy Homestead / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Homestead on Kilcoy Station, 1902 Kilcoy Station was established by Louis Hope, grazier, sugar miller and planter, who owned Kilcoy pastoral property from 1858 until 1894.
context_page_description: Kilcoy Homestead is a heritage-listed homestead at Kilcoy-Murgon Road, Winya, Somerset Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built c. 1857. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
context_section_description: Kilcoy Homestead, a single-storeyed, substantial brick residence, was constructed c.1857, for the Hon. Louis Hope, British aristocrat and Queensland grazier, sugar plantation owner and politician. The remnants of the early brick cottage on the site, also erected for Hope, date to the mid-1860s.
  The Kilcoy run had been taken up as a sheep station by brothers Evan and Colin Mackenzie, of Kilcoy, Scotland, who had started clearing the land and erecting huts by early July 1841. In October that year they secured the run officially, taking out the second pastoral licence issued for the Upper Brisbane Valley. In the New South Wales Government Gazette of 11 May 1848, Kilcoy was described as comprising over 35,000 acres (14,000 ha), bounded on the south by Frederic and Francis Bigge's Mt Brisbane Station, on the east by the Archers' Durundur Station, on the west by John Balfour's Colinton run, and to the north by the mountains separating Wide Bay from the Brisbane Valley. Establishment of Kilcoy station was resisted by the indigenous population, and the run is infamous for the mass poisoning of Aborigines that occurred there in February 1842.
  As on most early stations, the first Kilcoy head station, erected in mid-1841, was a simple slab hut. In 1844 this was replaced by a brick dwelling, described in February 1845 as containing five rooms – one a large sitting room 20 by 20 feet (6.1 by 6.1 m) and four bedrooms 10-by-10-foot (3.0 by 3.0 m) opening from the parlour – with a verandah in front. The kitchen, which may have been the early slab dwelling, stood about 40 yards (37 m) from the rear of the new residence, and was demolished c. 1928.
  Although Colin Mackenzie remained in Moreton Bay and the Darling Downs until about 1857, Evan Mackenzie left Moreton Bay in mid-1845. Their Kilcoy run was transferred to Charles A Atherton in 1849, then to the Hon. Louis Hope and Robert Ramsay in 1853. Whether Ramsay ever worked the station is not clear; Hope was running it with the assistance of a superintendent by October 1857, when bricks were being fired on the property in preparation for the construction of his new residence, the present homestead. The 1844 residence was white-ant ridden, and is understood to have been demolished when the c. 1857 house was completed. In 1863, Hope purchased Ramsay's interest in Kilcoy.
  Hope had arrived in New South Wales in 1843, was an active participant in early Queensland economic and political life, and was instrumental in the development of the sugar industry in Queensland. In the 1850s he purchased and/or leased extensive landholdings in the Moreton region, including Kilcoy Station in 1853, Shafston House at Kangaroo Point in 1854, and land at Cleveland, 1852-55. Hope's Cleveland property, Ormiston House Estate, was being farmed by c. 1858, and in the early 1860s he experimented there first with cotton, then sugar cane, establishing Queensland's first sugar plantation at Ormiston. In 1864-65, Hope erected at Ormiston a substantial brick residence, not unlike the Kilcoy homestead, but more ornate. From this time the Hope family lived principally at Ormiston House, the homestead at Kilcoy became the manager's residence, and a brick cottage was built at Kilcoy for use by Louis Hope on his frequent visits to the property.
  William Butler was appointed manager of Kilcoy in 1871, commencing an association with Kilcoy that lasted over 50 years. In 1882 the Hopes returned to England, leaving Kilcoy and Ormiston, which was rented out, under Butler's supervision. At Kilcoy, Butler established excellent relationships with local Aborigines, and after his death a Kilcoy street was named after him and a monument erected in his honour.
  Louis Hope died in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1894, but Kilcoy Homestead remained the property of his heirs until 1908, when the house on 524-acre (212 ha) freehold was purchased by William Butler. Local grazier Jeremiah Kennedy of Monte Cassino, acquired the homestead in 1924. Kennedy was very involved in local government and, like previous owners, committed to horseracing. Kilcoy Homes
caption: Homestead on Kilcoy Station, 1902
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