Last weekend I went with Marta to Warwick to help her at Jumpers & Jazz in July art & craft market. Before going there I did some research about the town. I wanted to go for a walk to see some of the heritage buildings marked in heritage walk brochure I found on Darling Downs council’s website. Yet, today to introduce you to the history of Warwick I’m going to write more about times before it was declared a municipal.

 

Warwick Hotel – Photo by everywherehistory.com

Discovery of Darling Downs

Warwick is situated in the Darling Downs – a region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range – named after the then Governor of New South Wales, Ralph Darling by Allan Cunningham. Cunningham arrived to Australia in 1816 and explored the eastern coast of Australia until 1831 when he returned to England (but came back to Australia in 1837 and died in 1839 in Brisbane). Below is a quote from a book “The Early History of Warwick District and Pioneers of the Darling Downs” written in 1925 by Thomas Hall.

 

“Thanks to Allan Cunningham (…) we have the first record of the Darling Downs, which he discovered on the 5th June, 1827. It was on this day, from the top of the range at the head of Sandy and Thane’s Creeks, that he had the first view of the “Garden of Australia,” which it is now familiarly called. (…) The whole of these assets placed at our service by nature are only awaiting the sensible and rational efforts of mankind to make the Darling Downs become one of the paradises of the human race.”

 

It took a while for first settlers to arrive to Darling Downs. The first squatter in this area was Patrick Leslie. Following Encyclopedia Britannica squatter was “in 19th-century Australian history, an illegal occupier of crown grazing land beyond the prescribed limits of settlement (…) By the late 1840s the authorities recognized the economic good derived from the squatters’ activity and issued them leases for their sheep runs and tenure extending as long as 14 years.” Further, Hall writes:

 

“Thirteen years after Cunningham had sent in his report, we find him giving full particulars to a friend named Patrick Leslie, one of the party already alluded to, to enable that plucky individual to find his way to the new Eldorado, so as to take it up for squatting purposes.”

 

It wasn’t an easy life to be an explorer then. It took Leslie 3 months to get to Darling Downs from Sydney – 1 month from farthest north station in New England (West side) – Wyndham’s Station. Hall’s quoting Leslie:

 

“On the 3rd May we left Wyndham’s, and I marked the first tree of Leslie’s marked tree line, close to Wyndham’s stock yard. A blazed line was marked from this to Leslie’s crossing place on the Condamine River, between Talgai and Tummerville, and we arrived at the Condamine on Wednesday, the 4th June, without the loss of a single animal, or breaking a bullock chain. (…) We had a pack horse and a sheep dog with us, also carried biscuit and bacon, tea and sugar, trusting to our guns for fresh meat, and lines and hooks for fish, and we lived exceedingly well.”

 

The public was excited about new discoveries and possibilities. Below are 2 articles from newspapers The Sydney Herald and The Cornwall Chronicle dated 1840.

 

1840_04_27-The_Sydney_Herald

1840 ‘[No heading].’, The Sydney Herald (NSW : 1831 – 1842), 27 April, p. 2, viewed 29 July, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page1526292

1840 '[No heading].', The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), 23 May, p. 4, viewed 29 July, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page6253420

1840 ‘[No heading].’, The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880), 23 May, p. 4, viewed 29 July, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page6253420

After Patrick Leslie returned to Sydney at the end of July 1840 the Governor Gipps congratulated him on the explorations and settlement and offered a reward. Leslie replied:

 

“I wanted nothing for myself , but that my companion was an assigned servant, a convict for life, and who had behaved splendidly, standing by me when attacked by the blacks, when most men in his position would have run, and I asked Sir George to grant him a ticket -of-leave.”

 

After this first explorations of Darling Downs other settlers have arrived, including Patrick’s brothers Walter and George. As I mentioned earlier Government issued leases to squatters. Below is the Application for a lease submitted by Patrick Leslie’s brothers Walter and George Leslie of Canning Downs from 1847.

Application for a lease of waste lands of the Crown beyond the settled districts in the Colony of New South Wales by Walter and George Leslie of Canning Downs, 10 November 1847

Application for a lease of waste lands of the Crown beyond the settled districts in the Colony of New South Wales by Walter and George Leslie of Canning Downs, 10 November 1847 [source: Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 2864]

Establishing of township

In late 1840s the Government decided to establish a township in this area and requested Leslie to select a site for it. Below we can read what Patrick Leslie remembered about it (quote from Hall’s book).

 

“Regarding Warwick, it was never thought of until the end of 1847, when the Government instructed me to select a spot for the township , on the Condamine, below Canning Downs, and it must have been in 1848 when the first settlement took place. In 1847 George Leslie had a sheep station on the very spot where Warwick now stands. I think it was in 1848 that the first land sale was held . (…) At first it was named ” Canning Town,” to which name we all objected, and at our suggestion it was changed by the Government to “Warwick.”

1848 'WARWICK.', The Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld. : 1846 - 1861), 15 July, p. 2, viewed 29 July, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3709092

1848 ‘WARWICK.’, The Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld. : 1846 – 1861), 15 July, p. 2, viewed 29 July, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3709092

The town was actually formed in 1849, and the first sales of land took place in 1850 – Patrick Leslie purchased the first block of land as he was the first settler. A municipality was declared in 1861 and was one of the first free settlements in Queensland after Brisbane.

Design for the town of Warwick in the County of Merivale, by Hill, 1849 [source: Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 12304]

Design for the town of Warwick in the County of Merivale, by Hill, 1849 [source:
Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 12304]

There is still one building/construction from pre-towniship times. It is Canning Downs Homestead which is likely to date from 1847-8. Below is description of this Heritage Site in the Queensland Heritage Register:

 

Canning Downs, one of the earliest homesteads established on the Darling Downs provides remarkable evidence of the pastoral and agricultural growth of South East Queensland. (…) Although the age of the various buildings comprising the residence is unknown, it is likely that at least some of the structures date from the Leslie occupation of the run in the 1840s and early 1850s, making this a rare and early example of residential building in Queensland. The brick stables are rare in their form and age, and may have some of the earliest corrugated iron roofing used in Queensland, demonstrating the development of this technology.

Written by Maciek

Hi, I am passionate about history. I love discovering new places and learning their story. Wherever I go I find myself curious about stories behind buildings and places I see. At Everywhere History I’m sharing fascinating stories hidden behind buildings and places you’re passing by everyday.