Woodlands, Marburg

**Woodlands** is a historic mansion at Seminary Road, Marburg, City of Ipswitch, Queensland, Australia. George Brockwell Gill designed the house. It was built in 1891. It is also known as Marburg Campus, Ipswitch Grammar School, and St Vincent's Seminary. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on October 21, 1992.

## History

In 1881, Thomas Lorimer Smith, a prominent and influencial timber merchant and sugar mill proprietor, married Mary Stuart. In the late 1880s, the couple commissioned Samuel Shenton to design an imposing two story brick home.

Young architect George Brockwell Gill became employed at Shenton's office in 1886, and it was Gill, rather than Shenton, who designed Woodlands.

In 1889, Shenton called tenders for the construction of a mansion at Marburg for the Smiths. It took over two years to construct the mansion. The bricks were made locally, likely on the property. Red cedar used in the paneling in the dining and drawing rooms reputedly came from Wivenhoe in the Brisbane River Valley, and was milled at Woodlands. Cabinet maker and joiner Joseph Klee worked on the timber paneling for over a year.

In the 1890s, economic depression and falling sugar prices led to a decline in sugar cultivation in the Marburg district. In 1897 Smith took out a substantial mortgage on the property, and in 1906 the estate was subdivided and put up for sale by order of his mortgagees.

In 1925, the Brisbane press interviewed Smith, who was still living at the house and provided a description:

> "*On the crest of an isolated hill the "lookout tower" rises some 50ft above the ground level, giving a beautiful view of the surrounding country. The house is of two stories, built of brick, covered with a cement coating. Doors and windows, of massive design to conform with the spacious rooms, are all of beautifully grained red cedar cut in the Brisbane Valley. Above the top story are two brick 10,000 gallon tanks, which receive all the water from the roof, and from these tanks the water is reticulated through the house, and provides flushing for a septic system. The house took four years to complete, most of the bricks being made in the vicinity. At present the area held is about 300 acres. . . . .*"
> ― Thomas Lorimer Smith[[source]]
>
>

In 1931, Smith passed away. The Smith family retained Woodlands until 1944, when it was transferred to the Corporation of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, along with nearly 130 acres of Woodlands estate. The main residence was renovated, two timber-framed buildings were erected in the grounds for use as classrooms and dormitories, and the place opened as St Vincent's Seminary in 1945. In 1954 title to the property was transferred from the Catholic Church to The Society of the Divine Word.By 1986 the main building, then containing 8 bedrooms, 2 servants' bedrooms, sitting and dining rooms with full height cedar wall paneling, large sandstone cellar, and 8 fireplaces, remained largely in its original form. The grounds by this time included a 82 ft (25 meter) in-ground pool, two additional dormitory buildings, a chapel, and a small cemetery associated with St Vincent's Seminary, and in which 18 persons had been interred, including Dr Eucharist Sirois and his wife, who ran a private hospital in Marburg during the 1910s and 1920s. In 1986 St Vincent's Seminary closed and the property was sold to the Ipswich Grammar School, which uses the property for weekend activities, seminars, and conferences. In 2002, the school sold the property to a local family, who operate it as a function center and boutique holiday accommodation.

## Description

Woodlands is a large, ornate, rendered brick building with two main levels surrounded by verandas, plus cellar, observation deck and tower.

The roof comprises two hips, separated by a masonry balustraded tower section. A curved roof is set down on four sides over open verandas, with cast-iron paired columns, valance, and upper level balustrade. The main roof eaves, decorated with zigzag fascia, project a small hip into the veranda roof over central doorways on the east and west.

The southern elevation has a double-story portico aligned with the central masonry section bearing the name Woodlands and the year 1868. On either side are two semicircular pedimented frontis pieces. All have elaborately decorated crests, finials and bargeboards. A large bay window projects either side. This elevation, designed as a front entrance, stands close to steep terracing, overlooking secluded grotto areas. It opens into a vestibule 7 ft 10 in (2.4 meters) wide, with early mosaic tiled floor. However, the building is entered from the east, where the driveway encircles an expanse of lawn. This elevation is less formal, with arched windows to the front dining room and rectangular windows to service ares. External joinery to windows and doors is painted. The ground level veranda is concrete floored and unlined above.

Internally, a hallway about 4 ft 11 in (1.5 meters) wide runs east to west. Doors are four paneled with sidelights and semicircular fanlights of varying patterns and colors.

The ground floor dining rooms and sitting rooms have plaster ceilings with elaborate circular surrounds to central lights. The doors are cedar paneled with rectangular fan lights over. Deep cornices and pelmets are of molded cedar. The front dining room has walls of full height cedar with 4 inch (100 mm) beaded vertical boarding above the paneling to dado height. The fireplace is dark gray marble. The sitting room has full height cedar paneling and a white marble fireplace. The formal dining room opposite the sitting room has rendered walls with deep cedar skirting. The fireplace is painted the adjoining office has an angled fireplace sheeted over. This room leads into a vaulted strong room in the northwest corner, rendered, with metal vent grilles.

The kitchen is a large square room with recent ceramic tile floor and fittings c. 1960s. Storerooms with rendered walls and tiled floors lead off under a wide-arched opening. The scullery in the northeast corner is of painted brickwork and hardboard ceiling, with recent mosaic tiled floors. The WC, between scullery and eastern entrance, has rendered walls.

There are stairs leading up at the eastern end of the hall, and adjacent to the vestibule. Balustrades are turned cedar with elaborate newel posts. The eastern stairs' underside is painted boarding.

The upper level contains ten bedrooms, some of original dimensions, some divided by hardboard partitions, reusing in places, original paneled doors. Original walls are rendered, several with cornices and light surrounds matching the ground level rooms. The fireplace in the southwest bedroom is painted. The adjoining small bedroom is an exception, having window joinery painted internally. A sitting area above the ground level vestibule has a corrugated iron ceiling and molded cornice. The door, and sashes to floor level, leading on to the southern veranda, are not early. Earlier glazed panels are in place above. The
 eastern door from hallway to veranda is of timber and glazed panels, with twin-paned fanlight of yellow patterned glass, and side lights of blue, above green bubble glass. The veranda is floored with 4 inch (100 mm) shot edged boarding. The roof is unlined.

Central to this upper floor, a narrow winding stair leading to the tower has painted turned balusters and molded rail. The tower overlooks hipped roofs on either side through arched openings. Leading out to the masonry balustraded areas over the water tanks, are doors with semicircular fan lights, boarded on the north, one paneled on the south.

From the ground floor, stairs with turned cedar balusters descend to the cellar. Cellar walls are of rough sandstone with arched openings headed in cross-bracing in spaces between 1 foot (300 mm) joists. Along the eastern wall are low timber platforms.

## Legends and rumors

Woodlands is rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of the Smith family, as well as some priests who died in the mansion while it was a seminary. Visitors have reported seeing the ghost of a young boy on the first floor, and the ghost of Mary Smith looking out the master bedroom window.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "Woodlands (entry 600734)". Queensland Heritage Register. *Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 2018-10-18.*
2. ↑ "About Us". Woodlands of Marburg. Retrieved 2018-10-18.