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Don't miss out on the headlines from Property. Followed categories will be added to My News. Follow A PIECE of Queensland's history that sits on Ipswich's doorstep is up for sale. The historic Bellevue Homestead at Coominya has been put up on the market offering a rare opportunity to own one of the state's oldest homesteads. Bellevue was established in the early 1840s as part of the Wivenhoe run and by the early 1900s was the social center of the district. The property changed hands a couple of times before it was bought by William North Snr who established a 2,000-hectare section of the Wivenhoe run as the separate Bellevue Station. None of the original buildings have survived. In the early days, sheep grazing was the main industry but in the 1870s sheep gave way to cattle and the Taylor family took over Bellevue Homestead. During the Taylors' time, the Brisbane River flooded, in 1893, destroying parts of the timber-framed house which was later restored. In 1899 the owner George Taylor died but his widow remained at the station and in 1901 re-married a man named Charles Lumley Hill. The pair extended the homestead, adding a new dining room, a guest suite, and servants' quarters, as well as renovating the earlier sections of the home. In the early decades of the twentieth century, Bellevue was the social center of the district. Today the homestead has three separate buildings. The original slab hut was built in 1840 and still has the original kitchen landowners used. The second building is Victorian design and has six bedrooms. The third building, the Federation-style guest house, was built in 1903 and contains an enormous dining room, smoking room, and guest suite. The owners use the property as their private home and parts of the homestead have been set up for a business with an approved commercial kitchen to cater for weddings, private functions, bed and breakfast, wine tasting, home-style dining, and 'Devonshire Tea'. Source: www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/ipswich/property/a...

Something mysterious about Royal Hotel. CHARTERS TOWERS' RICH HISTORY TOLD THROUGH GHOSTLY TALES The gold rush brought out the best and the worst in people according to history buff Jack Sim. Jack runs ghost tours in Brisbane and has recently brought the business to Charters Towers. He was attracted to the north Queensland town because of its rich and prosperous history; he says the town is full of ghost stories. Hotel home to grizzly tales The Royal Hotel is one of the stops on the ghost tour - a grand old building with a dark past. "It was here in 1901 that there was a dramatic and terribly violent incident that took place," Jack said. An estranged couple, the Cordays, met at the hotel. That was despite the fact that Mrs. Corday, and her friend who accompanied her, knew that Mr. Corday had violent intentions toward his wife following their separation. "He was unhappy with her extra-marital relationships," Jack recounted. "After leaving them to come into the bar here to get some drinks for his partner... he re-entered the room [but] instead of having drinks in his hand he held a revolver. "He shot her at virtually point-blank range in the head, and then took his own life in the bar." As the years went on it became well known around town that the dead couple haunted the pub. They are joined by one of the hotel's former proprietors, Mrs. McDonald, who owned the pub for 50 years. "The current owner of the hotel, she tells me that when she comes up the staircase she feels Mrs. McDonald walking right beside [her] as she comes up the stairs each day," he said. "Not in a bad way, she just feels like the lady that was her predecessor is just there with her, helping her to manage the hotel." Source: www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2015/05/11/4233354.htm

The advent of World War II in September 1939 prompted the government to proceed with the project, as wireless communication with the civilian population was an important aid to the war effort. The design of the transmission station fell to Alf Howard and Vernon Kenna. Kenna was the divisional engineer for the Commonwealth’s Post Master General’s (PMG) Department’s broadcast construction section. Construction of a transmitter building and its adjoining wireless mast commenced in late 1941. The mast was 76 meters in height. Bald Hills was seen as a strategic location for a transmission station, because its inland location plus the horizon, as seen from the ocean, would be considerably lower. In February 1942, the Bald Hills wireless station became operational after a 10 kW water-cooled, the short-wave transmitter was installed in the station building. To reduce the threat of a bombing raid, the smaller 4QR (also a medium wave station) transmitter (2 kW) in the Brisbane CBD was shut down and replaced by a homemade transmitter established behind Fischle’s jam factory in Roghan Road. This was a temporary stopgap measure undertaken until the move to Bald Hills was completed. The 4QR main transmitter was then removed and re-erected to the Bald Hills wireless station, where it was connected to a new mast. The station’s aerial array had been emplaced in the northwest corner of the former farm’s grounds. But fear of the station being a potential Japanese air raid target prompted many Bald Hill residents to express their concerns about the station’s location. In particular, the aerial mast was not camouflaged, standing in the middle of a cleared field and so it was easy to spot from the air. Experience learned from the 1940 Battle of Britain had shown these transmitter aerials were prime enemy bombing targets. Source: heritage.brisbane.qld.gov.au/heritage-places/219