Tucked away in a Queensland valley overlooking a peaceful lagoon lies one of the country’s most incredible pockets of history.
With verandahs spanning one kilometre and a grand ballroom quite literally fit for a king, the Nindooinbah homestead is home to more than a century of memories and a future that celebrates both the past and present.
The Edwardian wonder in Beaudesert stands proudly on 2500 acres of freehold land and 500 acres leased from the state government. Here you’ll find the Nindooinbah Black Angus, UltraBlack and Brangus breeding programmes. Nindooinbah has been sending cattle to all states of Australia (except Tasmania) and ‘exporting’ bulls to Western Australia for four years.
But it’s the heritage listed homestead and the perfectly landscaped gardens that tell a visual story of a bygone era. Nindooinbah, a local Aboriginal word meaning “place of ashes” was first developed in the late 1850s by pioneering settler, Alfred William Compigne.
In 1901 William Collins took over the lease and bought the rundown homestead in 1906. Collins had helped pioneer the frozen meat trade in the 1870s and had his sights set on using the property to fatten cattle.
Renowned architect of the time Robin Dods had the almighty task of reviving the homestead. When Dods closed the book on the job, Nindooinbah boasted 10 bedrooms, four bathrooms and an acoustically enhanced dining room. In 1920 a grand ballroom was built in eager anticipation of the arrival of the then Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII. Alas, he never made it to Beaudesert.
When William Collins died the property was divided among his children. Later, in 1982, his granddaughter Margaret de Burgh Persse Hockey OAM bought out her relatives with her famed-artist husband, Patrick Hockey.
Mrs Hockey was born and spent all of her life at Nindooinbah. She grew up surrounded by the intricate woodwork carved from cedar that once grew on the property and the Japanese-inspired gardens created by her grandparents in a nod to their travels. William and Gwendoline had worked side by side to create the gardens and it’s been said that Gwendoline would always “garden in all her rings. She would bend from the waist; she would never crouch."
By 2004 Patrick and Margaret had both passed away and the property went to Collins’ nephew, Tim Stevens, a former journalist and now winemaker. The following year, for the first time since 1901, the property left the family and was bought by Euan and Kaye Murdoch.
But the ravages of time were obvious and both the grand old lady and the surrounding property were in dire need of some serious restorations. Barely a fence post stood straight and barnacles had even made their home in the toilet. Anyone who’s ever renovated before will know nothing comes easily - or cheaply - but the Murdochs were up to the challenge.
For two years the couple lived in just two rooms of the house while a team of contractors headed up the work. It’s not an exaggeration to say it took a small army to rejuvenate the homestead and property - at a Christmas party to mark the end of the five-year renovations the couple celebrated with 100 of the talented tradespeople alone.
While the couple and their conservation team of eight people diligently returned the heritage listed home to its former glory, they were keen to see it become just that - a home and not a musty museum. They envisaged a place where their adult children and their young grandchildren could visit with excitement.
Of course restoring it in line with regulations proved a long process - it took more than 18 months to be approved to remove wallpaper from the sitting room - but in 2012 the completed project won a National Trust of Queensland Heritage Silver Award.
Every room at Nindooinbah offers a step back into the 1800s but with many 21st century additions included. Modern bathrooms and kitchens merge with all original aspects, right down to the silky oak panels, windows and cedar featured throughout the home.
Looking out those windows you’ll see the paddocks that are now home to a successful breeding programme, headed up by Nick Cameron. The 3000-acre property gained roads, a huge dam, an irrigation system on 200 hectares in the name of drought proofing, and a fully automated cattle yard and embryo transfer facility.
Today, the Beaudesert beauty and her stunning surroundings stand tall with more than 100 years behind them, and many, many more to come.