Rainworth House, Bardon
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| Rainworth House, Bardon | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Rainworth House, 2009 | |
| Location | 7 Barton Street, Bardon, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 27°28′00″S 152°59′23″E / 27.4667°S 152.9898°E |
| Design period | 1840s–1860s (mid-19th century) |
| Built | c. 1862 |
| Built for | Augustus Charles Gregory |
| Architect | Augustus Charles Gregory |
| Official name | Rainworth |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 21 October 1992 |
| Reference no. | 600282 |
| Significant period | 1860s (fabric) 1860s–1905 (historical) |
| Significant components | residential accommodation – main house |
| Builders | Augustus Charles Gregory |
  Location of Rainworth House, Bardon in Queensland  Rainworth House, Bardon (Australia) | |
Rainworth is a heritage-listed detached house at 7 Barton Street, Bardon, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built c. 1862. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.[1] The house gives its name to the former suburb of Rainworth (now a locality within Bardon).[2]
Sir Augustus Charles Gregory KCMG CMG FRGS MLC, famed explorer, and surveyor-general of Queensland from 1859 to 1879, built and lived in Rainworth House from 1862 until his death in 1905. He reputedly constructed the dwelling himself. Gregory was a dominant, conservative Member of the Queensland Legislative Council.[1]
He was also a vital personality in Toowong Town Council, a leading Queensland freemason and an influential amateur scientist. Rainworth House was his rural retreat, his homestead, the place where he could think, invent, create and write.[1]
Unlike Gregory, the subsequent owner, Robert Philp, merchant and politician, rented the property, as did ensuing owners. Subdivision of Gregory's country estate necessitated shifting the house to a more accommodating position. In 1949 it was rented and later purchased by Frederick and Mildred Howell, whose descendants occupy the premises.[1]
Description
Rainworth is a vernacular, short-ridge roofed house with stepped but straight-roofed verandahs on three sides. The front elevation shows three pairs of French doors, and one on the lefthand side. Early photographs indicate that the rear of each side verandah had been built to form an enclosed pavilion.[1]
Most exterior walls are of twelve inch chamfer-boards, while interior walls are lined horizontally with beaded tongue and groove boards, as are the high ceilings. For ventilation purposes, casement windows with small wooden knobs may be opened above the French doors.[1]
