Heritage Treasures of the Toowoomba Region 2013 6791801HeritageTreasuresOfTheToowoombaRegion2013

20 E2 21 E3 E3 E4 Illuminated Addresses When William Brennan was appointed Roman Catholic Bishop of Toowoomba, two illuminated addresses were presented to him, one from the priests and the other from the people of the diocese. These exquisite paintings were the work of local artist Ralph Weppner and show St Patrick’s Cathedral, symbolic grapes and wheat and Darling Downs scenes including Mt Tabletop. Mr Weppner was an apprentice of Hugh O’Brien in the early 1920s and excelled in the sign-writing trade, particularly in pictorial art. His illuminated addresses were much sought after by churches and other organisations for presentation to respected citizens. These addresses have been presented in the traditional scroll form mounted on leather. E4 The Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery Since 1850, when it was surveyed as Drayton’s burial ground, the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery is the last resting place for more than 45,000 individuals whose lives reflect the history of the area. Represented here are some original custodians, local squatters and selectors as well as townspeople who worked hard to develop Toowoomba. Some, like the Poet of Federation George Essex Evans, became nationally famous, but most achieved their modest aims anonymously. There are excellent examples of cemetery symbolism beautifully crafted by local stonemasons. E5 E6 E5 E5 St Anne’s Anglican Church and Adjacent Cemetery, Jondaryan Many early pastoral stations developed as self-contained villages for employees and their families. St Anne’s Anglican Church was originally built on Jondaryan Station where the Rev Benjamin Glennie performed the first service on 23 October 1859. It was moved to its present site between the station and township after the floods of 1893 and is still used for worship. The church’s walls, comprised of slabs 2 inches (5cm) thick and 10-14 inches (25.4-35.5cms) wide, preserve early building techniques and materials. It is ostensibly the oldest wooden Anglican church in Queensland. The adjacent privately administered cemetery is the last resting place of several early pioneering families. E6 Charles Owen Monument, Owen Scrub Road, Yandilla Life on the Darling Downs frontier could be precarious. On 29 April 1864 magistrate Charles Alfred Owen – overseer and part-owner of Yandilla Station – was murdered by Alexander Ritchie on a track through Owens Scrub. Owen was the first person buried from the new Yandilla chapel and Ritchie, on 1 August 1864, was the first person hanged in the newly-opened Toowoomba Gaol in Margaret Street. A tree at the murder site was marked with a cross but this was removed in the 1930s for road realignment and a new cross placed on a nearby tree which still flourishes. In 2000 a plaque was also erected at the site via Gore Highway, Leyburn Road, Grass Tree Road to Owen Scrub Road.

Heritage Treasures of the Toowoomba Region 2013 6791801HeritageTreasuresOfTheToowoombaRegion2013 | Page 24