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

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.