QLDFarming
Wellington Point
Red soil, an old sugar mill and a point that became a picnic ground.
1885Sawmill village and first allotments
WHAT STARTED IT
The red volcanic soil behind the point was part of Louis Hope’s pioneering Ormiston sugar estate. By 1885 Gilbert Burnett had turned Hope’s old mill machinery into a sawmill, with a tramway to the bay, and a small township of houses had grown around it.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Speculators pegged out small allotments, a large foreshore reserve was set aside in 1888, and the Cleveland railway opened in November 1889 with a station at Wellington, about a mile from the point. Fruit, vegetables and dairying sustained the district, while the point drew campers, boating parties and picnickers.
TURNING POINTS
1885A reporter finds Burnett’s sawmill, converted from Hope’s sugar machinery, and new allotments pegged out.
1887Wellington Point state school opens.
1888211 acres of foreshore are reserved as a public recreation ground.
1889The Cleveland railway opens on 1 November with a station at Wellington.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A bayside Redland suburb that grew rapidly from the 1970s, with heritage-listed Whepstead Manor (1889) on Main Road. The reserve at the tip of the point is still a popular picnic place looking out to King Island.