.jpg)
Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Canning Downs
Canning Downs was the first residential establishment built by a white person on the Darling Downs in Queensland, Australia. It is located a short drive from the town of Warwick and originally extended south east to Killarney and the McPherson Range. The area was first named after the British statesman George Canning by Allan Cunningham.
The fertile lands around the upper reaches of the Condamine River provided an excellent site for the home of early settler, Patrick Leslie. The station was first declared in the name of Walter Leslie on 7 July 1840.
Canning Downs Homestead is the heritage-listed homestead at Canning Downs. It was built from 1847 to 1900. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The Canning Downs Station on the Darling Downs was squatted by the Leslie brothers in 1840 although the official licensee of Canning Downs was Ernest Elphinstone Dalrymple (who died in 1844 and left the property to the Leslie brothers). The principal timber slab residence on the homestead is likely to date from 1847–8, and has experienced several major additions over 150 years. The stables appear to date from the late 1850s.
Patrick Leslie, the second son of William and Jane (née Davidson) Leslie of Warthill, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, arrived in Australia in May 1835 with the intention of establishing a pastoral holding. Such was the intention of many young British men who saw opportunities for earning sufficient money and returning to their homeland financially secure with an assured income from the established property. It is thought that the haste with which Patrick Leslie proceeded in securing his fortune was the cause of the considerable financial troubles which beset him thereafter.
Upon his arrival in Australia, Patrick spent several years employed on stations first by the Macarthurs of Camden and then by his uncle WS Davidson at Collaroi. When Patrick's younger brothers, Walter and George, arrived in Australia in 1839, the three decided to explore the unsettled Darling Downs in search of land for a station of their own. Tales of the fertile Downs region had reached Patrick Leslie after Allan Cunningham's discovery of the area in 1827.
After reaching the Downs the Leslie Brothers quickly marked out land for their station which they named Canning Downs. Adjacent land was taken up by a friend, Ernest Elphinstone Dalrymple, for his station, Goomburra. It was soon clear to the Leslies that the run marked by them was too large and they moved their head station to what remained the Canning Downs portion of the run with the remainder becoming the Toolburra run.
Though all three brothers were in fact partners in the Canning Downs run, Patrick's name was omitted from all documentation regarding occupation of the place owing to his financial troubles. An arrangement formalising the ownership or lease of the Canning Downs run by the Leslies was slow in coming and their tenuous hold over the land was a source of constant worry as demonstrated in the letters written by the brothers to their family in Scotland. Patrick wrote in April 1841 that the Commissioner for Crown Lands had visited the station and given the brothers a letter of authorisation allowing them to retain the run. This letter also mentions that the head station was originally located south of the 1841 buildings. New buildings were constructed in late 1841, when the brothers feared encroachment of their run by the newcomers on the Downs who were causing considerable aggravation to the Leslie brothers.
Hub AI
Canning Downs AI simulator
(@Canning Downs_simulator)
Canning Downs
Canning Downs was the first residential establishment built by a white person on the Darling Downs in Queensland, Australia. It is located a short drive from the town of Warwick and originally extended south east to Killarney and the McPherson Range. The area was first named after the British statesman George Canning by Allan Cunningham.
The fertile lands around the upper reaches of the Condamine River provided an excellent site for the home of early settler, Patrick Leslie. The station was first declared in the name of Walter Leslie on 7 July 1840.
Canning Downs Homestead is the heritage-listed homestead at Canning Downs. It was built from 1847 to 1900. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The Canning Downs Station on the Darling Downs was squatted by the Leslie brothers in 1840 although the official licensee of Canning Downs was Ernest Elphinstone Dalrymple (who died in 1844 and left the property to the Leslie brothers). The principal timber slab residence on the homestead is likely to date from 1847–8, and has experienced several major additions over 150 years. The stables appear to date from the late 1850s.
Patrick Leslie, the second son of William and Jane (née Davidson) Leslie of Warthill, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, arrived in Australia in May 1835 with the intention of establishing a pastoral holding. Such was the intention of many young British men who saw opportunities for earning sufficient money and returning to their homeland financially secure with an assured income from the established property. It is thought that the haste with which Patrick Leslie proceeded in securing his fortune was the cause of the considerable financial troubles which beset him thereafter.
Upon his arrival in Australia, Patrick spent several years employed on stations first by the Macarthurs of Camden and then by his uncle WS Davidson at Collaroi. When Patrick's younger brothers, Walter and George, arrived in Australia in 1839, the three decided to explore the unsettled Darling Downs in search of land for a station of their own. Tales of the fertile Downs region had reached Patrick Leslie after Allan Cunningham's discovery of the area in 1827.
After reaching the Downs the Leslie Brothers quickly marked out land for their station which they named Canning Downs. Adjacent land was taken up by a friend, Ernest Elphinstone Dalrymple, for his station, Goomburra. It was soon clear to the Leslies that the run marked by them was too large and they moved their head station to what remained the Canning Downs portion of the run with the remainder becoming the Toolburra run.
Though all three brothers were in fact partners in the Canning Downs run, Patrick's name was omitted from all documentation regarding occupation of the place owing to his financial troubles. An arrangement formalising the ownership or lease of the Canning Downs run by the Leslies was slow in coming and their tenuous hold over the land was a source of constant worry as demonstrated in the letters written by the brothers to their family in Scotland. Patrick wrote in April 1841 that the Commissioner for Crown Lands had visited the station and given the brothers a letter of authorisation allowing them to retain the run. This letter also mentions that the head station was originally located south of the 1841 buildings. New buildings were constructed in late 1841, when the brothers feared encroachment of their run by the newcomers on the Downs who were causing considerable aggravation to the Leslie brothers.