Taabinga Homestead
Taabinga Homestead is located in Wakka Wakka country, less than three hours from Brisbane and directly inland from the Sunshine Coast.
Mum found this spectacular place on the internet and I purposely didn’t look into it too much before our arrival, thrilled by the prospect of staying at a 175 year old homestead. My imagination was captivated and I wanted to see it firsthand, unspoiled.
Taabinga has been passed down from generation to generation of the Youngman family. Libby Leu and Colin Marshall own it now. It boasts being one of the oldest continually occupied homesteads in Queensland. Plus, it’s still a working cattle farm! What a unique gem tucked away in Queensland’s southwest Burnett region.
Staying on a property as special as Taabinga was a dream come true. Libby was so kind and took me inside to see the original homestead, as I had expressed my interest in heritage properties. Walking slowly into the grand dining and lounge room, my breath caught in my throat. The grandness and gravity of the room was intoxicating. Libby related that many happy family dinners had been spent there over the years. It was easy to imagine generations of family celebrating life in these stunning rooms. Everything from the 1940’s wallpaper, gold framed mirror and beautiful Indigenous artwork enchanted me.
If I ever become sophisticated enough to have wallpaper, I want my teacups to match.
A cosy corner with all the classics
There are many outbuildings, including a dairy, meat house, laundry and blacksmith’s workshop. Back in the day, Taabinga would have been a bustling hub, with townsfolk coming and going, and staff and family working hard. Life on the land certainly wasn’t easy. The kitchen was in a separate building near the house. So you actually had to walk outside to go to the kitchen (it’s still original, and outside). And when I got up in the early hours to go to the bathroom (which was inside, FYI) I shivered and thought about the hardy stockmen while I washed my hands with icy water.
I soon learnt though that there was much more history on this site than 175 years of white man.
Of course, a property like Taabinga doesn’t survive 175 years trouble-free. One challenge came in the shape of a fierce storm in October 2018. It left significant damage to the main home and outbuildings. The Department of Environment and Science provided a heritage conservation grant to restore the damaged stone work. The renovations were completed in 2020.
Oh I love old doors!
The gorgeous canopied driveway with signature grid- keep the cows in
I wanted to get some photos and Libby directed us down to one of the cow paddocks. I was a bit hesitant, but Libby reassured us- ‘They’re not bulls, just young females. They might be curious but they won’t hurt you.’ Right. Between you and me I was still very nervous and trod slowly, chanting ‘Hiiiii cows!’ the whole time. I got some curious cows in my photos and the light couldn’t have been more perfect. I think by the end, the cows and I had a mutual respect for our working relationship.
… hi cows …
A ten minute walk up an adjacent hill leads you to the homestead’s private cemetery. To be honest, I put off editing the photos I took there until the end because they made me so emotional. The site is so special, and standing there I felt very sombre, appreciating the lives laid to rest. Libby explained that members of her family had been buried in the cemetery, and pointed them out. There was also the grave of two children of the first white landowners, Charles and Rosa Haly.
Up until then, I didn’t know that properties could have their own cemeteries. And I was also amazed that the site had been a designated cemetery for so long.
The grave of the two Haly children
What I found to be particularly remarkable were eight stones lined up at the eastern end of the cemetery. I had noticed them but weren’t sure what they meant. I found it intriguing that they were in two straight lines, I thought surely it wasn’t an accident they were positioned like that. Libby explained that those stones were believed to be the graves of Aboriginal children, who died around 1858. Hearing that made the hairs on my arms stand up straight and rendered me speechless. I felt so honoured to be visiting this sacred spot. Libby related that long ago, some boys who worked on the station started playing around with the stones and moving them. The head stockman quickly and firmly put a stop to that- ‘Don’t touch them, they are Aboriginal children’s graves. Put them back.’ Libby and Colin have invited people of Wakka Wakka descent to visit Taabinga and pay their respects to the Aboriginal children buried there, in the way befitting their culture. One elderly Aboriginal woman refused to come, it was so upsetting to her. It is certainly a tale that the local people know and respect. I am so glad the precious anecdote has been passed down the generations, so the children can be remembered.
Four stones in two distinct lines - the Aboriginal children’s graves
The all-encompassing peace was extraordinary. Birds called merrily to each other, and a wallaby stopped and looked at me for a while. Visiting the cemetery touched me deeply; it’s a place I’ll never forget.
We walked back down the hill to the homestead and took some photos of the house as the sun sank below the horizon. What an idyllic spot to spend the last light of the afternoon!
Plaque reads: ‘Taabinga was taken up in 1846 by the brothers Charles Robert and William O’Grady Haly. The property then had an area of 305 square miles, and it included the whole of the Stuart River watershed, from the Bunya Mountains to Home Creek near Tingoora. Mount Haly was named after them. Charles Robert Haly, who was born at Amboise in France, became the sole owner in 1859, and he was the first member of Parliament for the Burnett district, in 1860. Thomas Alford, formerly part-owner of the Coochin Coochin station, purchased Taabinga in 1875, and, for a period, his younger brother Richard Symes Alford, managed it for him. In 1887, Thomas Alford sold 155 square miles to Arthur Youngman of South Yarra, Melbourne, who gave the land for a post office, police paddock, churches and school of the arts. This decided the site for the town of Kingaroy. Arthur Youngman died in 1935.
This plaque was unveiled by his widow, Daphne Florence Youngman, on Thursday, 17th March, 1966, and it was affixed to part of the original homestead as the gift of the Queensland Women’s Historical Association.’
Eventually, the sun set on our remarkable day. The golden light of the afternoon almost matched the warm hospitality we experienced from Libby and Colin. I can’t thank them enough for making our stay at Taabinga so personal and memorable.
To round off our visit to a true blue Australian homestead, we watched The Man From Snowy River that night. The theme song played over and over in my mind as I drifted off to sleep, and I reflected on the hard slog of the families who settled Taabinga, but more significantly, the Wakka Wakka people who worked hard long before that, and loved and lost along the way in this treacherous but mesmerising country.
Kate x