2023 Houses
A little background on the houses highlighted in 2023
AyOt Lookout
AyOt Lookout stands on land that was bought and sold three times before mill manager Thomas Smith purchased it in September 1895. Smith commissioned local architect Henry Hubbard to design a two-storey villa residence in April 1896.
The home’s owner Smith is reported, in Historic Houses of Australia, as a ‘shadowy figure’ who it is thought may have misappropriated gold from the mill he worked at to finance the building of the stately property.
Constructed of timber, the house was two storeys, with concrete steps leading the way to a tiled open porch with a portico. Above the front door is a semi-circle fan light filled with coloured glass, while the floors of the entry hall are checkered black and white tiles.
In nearly every room there was a fireplace, not because it was needed in the North Queensland winters, but because it was a symbol of wealth and affluence on the goldfield.
Mt Alma
The name Alma is believed to originate from the latin Almus, meaning kind, fostering and nourishing.
It is quite fitting then that the house built at 92 Hackett Terrace in Richmond Hill by a German miner in the 1890s became the home of a private hospital for more than three decades.
Mt Alma was built by Heinrich Paradies, a miner in partnership with Frederick Pfeiffer in the gold rich Day Dawn PC (Prospecting Company) mine. The property featured 15ft ceilings and a wide verandah stretching around the house. It was built in the 1890s, and is one of the very few villas on stumps to remain in Charters Towers, with many moved to other towns and cities following World War I and during the Great Depression.
Jemane Cottage
Jemane Cottage is owned today by Wendy Willmett, who has breathed new life into the property and turned it into a modern abode. Long gone is the corrugated iron and the out house.
The house is similar in style to the traditional Queenslander, albeit on low stumps. This was the fashion around the time it is believed to have been built - around the 1890s. It is also similar to the Colonial bungalow, though architect Peter Bell notes in his book Timber and Iron that it is really only the style of roof that attracts that label in North Queensland.