Cotton growing on Milton Farm is a historical feature of Milton House in Brisbane. Milton House was erected in 1852 or 1853 for retired Queen Street chemist Ambrose Eldridge. It was the first substantial house in the area and soon a local landmark, being prominent in early views of Brisbane. It was the base for Eldridge's experimental farming when the Moreton Bay region was struggling to establish itself, and later for JF McDougall's considerable pastoral holdings in the area. In 1855 samples of the cotton grown at Milton Farm were exhibited at the Paris Exhibition.
In January 1931 F. E. Lord in her 100 Historic Homes of Brisbane features in the Queenslander newspaper provided the following information on Milton House.
"An historic home indeed is Milton House, situated in sight of Milton Railway Station, and associated with it, as well as the old name of McDougall, are the other well-known names of Kent, Manning, Walsh, Crombie, and Dr. Hugh Bell. In its vicinity the names McDougall, Manning, Walsh, and Crombie are perpetuated in streets called by those names. Mr. Bartley tells us, on page 106 of his "Opals and Agates," that Milton House was built by Mr. Eldridge, the chemist. So, as he was a well-known member of Brisbane's community when Mr. Bartley first arrived in the old town in 1854, and the late Hon. J. F. McDougall purchased it in about the year 1855, Milton House must have been in existence for some years previous to this date. But whether it was named by Mr. Eldridge or by Mr. McDougall I do not know, nor the origin of the name. When Mr. McDougall purchased the property the house was a square, compact building of two stories, with a veranda running across the front He added the balcony, widened the front veranda, and continued it round the two sides of the house, and added quite a number of rooms at the back, consisting of maids' rooms, pantries, and store rooms, also a new kitchen and laundry. The original kitchen was detached, and there was not even the oldtime connecting gangway between it and the house, I understand. Mr. McDougall also added the wing of rooms seen in the view of the house taken from the side, which were used as visitors' rooms, I think. What were windows before the balcony was added by Mr. McDougall were turned into french lights. The room to the left of the middle door was Mrs. McDougall's bedroom, with a dressing room at the back, and the front and back rooms on the opposite side were the nurseries. The centre door on the balcony opened into a small vestibule, used by Mrs. McDougall as a sewing-room, chiefly. On the right hand side of the front door on the ground floor was the dining room, a fine, large room, and the drawing room was on the left. The staircase leads up to the second story from almost the centre of the rather wide hall, which is lofty, as are all the rooms in this fine old home, with its cedar woodwork and its many fireplaces. So, with its spacious tree studded grounds, its terraces, and its flower beds, Milton House was, and still is, a lovely home. It like all the old-time homes stood in many acres of land. A comparatively modern historian speaks of 20 acres surrounding it, but I have been told that its land originally extended as far as Samford, and took in what are now Windsor and Wilston. The cow yards were situated between, the house and the present Milton Railway Station, and, of course, there were the essentials, coachhouse and stables."
The information taken from the State Heritage Register states that Milton House is a rare example of pre separation housing in Brisbane. Others are Shafston, Newstead and Bulimba House. It is a rare example of Colonial Georgian architecture and how the style was adapted for the river reezes with the wide verandahs added for cooling.
The following web link provides more detailed information.
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=600253
Ambrose Eldridge Milton House First Owner - Cotton Grower
Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser (Toowoomba, Qld. : 1858 - 1880), Thursday 17 May 1860, page 3
THE LATE MR. AMBROSE ELDRIDGE.— Among the men of Queensland is most indebted stands the name of Ambrose Eldridge. In speaking of him it can serve no selfish purpose, as he is now numbered with the dead. To the foibles, the failings of a man, from which none are exempt, he united the virtues of a patriot and the errors of an enthusiast. Impulsive in his nature, and constitutionally reckless of self, he abandoned the cool councils of providence in the pursuit of an idea. He had determined to render Queensland an agricultural and a cotton producing colony. Misled by the representations of the Charlatan of the South, he recklessly risked his all on the production of cotton, in a climate unfitted for European field labour, in a community too sparse to afford any. The result was ruinous to himself, and compromised to some extent his character for prudence as a cautious man, and as a prudent adviser. But he proved a case. If not the one be attempted to demonstrate. He proved that enthusiasm, united to great energies and means, was insufficient to render, under such unfavourable circumstances, the dreams of Dunmore Lang more than fiction. He has ceased to be, but there remain those to whom he was dear, and they are destitute. The friend, the father, husband, protector, is no more, but the orphans, the widow, survive in indigence until those whom he has warned by example, benefited by dearly-bought experience, and stimulated to exertion, shall substantially recognise in his claims on the living their duty to the dead North Australian.
Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Friday 11 March 1921, page 6
Breakfast Creek and Eagle Farm
Cotton.
Mr. A. O. Parminter, of Rigby-street, Wooloowin, claimed yesterday that his grandfather, the late Mr. Ambrose Eldridge, who had a cotton farm at Eagle Farm many years ago, and who was also a chemist, named Breakfast Creek. One morning, he said, Mr. Eldridge was returning home, and on reaching the creek, where some men were working, he alighted and had billy tea with them. He then proposed that the creek should be named Breakfast Creek. Mr. Parminter states that Mr. Eldridge grew the first cotton here and sent a sample to the late Queen Victoria, who forwarded to him a medal and a number of small reels, on which some of the cotton had been spun. Mrs. E. M. Parminter, of Wooloowin, is a daughter of Mr. Eldridge.
The Courier Mail Saturday March 20 1954
Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954), Saturday 20 March 1954, page 2
A Station HOMESTEAD Celebrates Its CENTENARY
IN THE HEART OF BRISBANE Historic Milton House is to become a Church College
BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
AN historic station homestead in the heart of Brisbane is celebrating its centenary this year. It is Milton House, after which the suburb of Milton was named. This stately home in McDougall Street, Milton, soon will become a college for deaconesses if the plans of the Presbyterian church in Queensland are fulfilled. The two-storied house with its tall chimneys and wide verandas recently has been acquired by the Church. People whose names are synonymous with the development of Queensland have lived in Milton House. Built in 1854 by Ambrose Eldridge who was Brisbane's first chemist, the house of slab stone and timber stands with few additions and in almost perfect condition. Eldridge had sold his business to take up farming on the north side of Brisbane in 1853. Late the following year, on the rise above the long reach of the river, he built a square, compact two-storied building with a veranda across the front and called it Milton House. Shallow steps to dark cellar. Most of the large rooms had fireplaces, and cedar was used extensively, particularly in the winding stair case which leads from the big wide hall in the front of the house. Several shallow steps lead down to a dark three-roomed cellar, where the rough-hewn stone shows bare and strong. It is interesting to note that in recent years an architect, surveying the foundations, said they could not be faulted. Eldridge was a scientific agriculturist and, at Milton Farm, which was scattered over most of the present suburb, he experimented with sugar cane and cotton, exporting the latter. On the site of Milton station were his cowyards, and scattered between them and Milton House were several cottages, stables, and outbuildings. Very few homes of any size were erected in those days: New settlers were off to the diggings in search of gold. Eldridge looked ahead. He bought another large tract of land at Eagle Farm and, once it was partly developed, sold Milton House to John Frederick McDougall, a squatter from Texas (Q). McDougall came from old colonial stock. His father had settled in Parramatta (NSW) in 1796. Blacks camped near home. McDOUGALL, his wife, and one child travelled from Parramatta to Milton House in a big buggy in 1855. Their servants and luggage travelled in other vehicles and led a mob of horses. During the journey a second child was born to the McDougalls. McDougall extended the property, and soon the whole beautiful stretch of river from Milton to Moggill, including Taringa, St. Lucia, Long Pocket, Indooroopilly, Brookfield, and Kenmore with the hills and dales of its reaches, held under lease from the NSW Government, became McDougall's station, with Milton House as its homestead. The only approach to it was by a convict-built road which skirted the river bank for some distance, and was called Moggill Road. In later years this same route become River Road, and later Coronation Drive. Many blacks were camped close to the homestead and were often seen stalking through the scrub with spear and boomerang, while the obsequious gin, laden with dillie bag and piccaninny followed. Sounds of an occasional corroboree were not uncommon to the McDougall household. Property cut into farms IN 1859, the year of separation, John McDougall became one of the 12 members of the Queensland Legislative Council. The following year he helped Sir Maurice O'Connel and Sir Charles Nicholson to open the first Parliament. Guests were numerous at Milton House, and, as the kitchen was detached and had no connecting gangway, the McDougalls set about making a few alterations. They built on a kitchen, laundry, store, and servants' rooms at the back, a wing of rooms for visitors on the side, and to the top floor they added a balcony and widened and extended the original verandas. The first child to be born at Milton House was their daughter Louie, who later was well known in Toowoomba. With an influx of free settlers to Moreton Bay their lease hold was cut into farms. A Mr. Payne bought the area bordered by Sylvan Road and Toowong Park and a Mr. Cribb bought St. Lucia, naming it Lang Farm after Dr. Lang. Dr. Fewings built Carslake in 1863 and a Mr. Drew took several blocks either side of the now almost covered Toowong Creek. He named the area Toowong after the aboriginal name for the bend in the river just below the Indooroopilly Bridge. He turned from politics By 1864 McDougall's thoughts had turned from politics to pastoral pursuits again, and he purchased Rosalie Plains station from Messrs. Kent and Wienholt. To this station home the family trekked as before — in a buggy and leading a mob of horses. The suburb of Rosalie took its name from his new property. The Kent family, who had been living at Rosalie Station moved into Milton House, renting it from McDougall. The next tenant was Judge Manning, a brother of Sir William Manning of New South Wales. He lived there for several years, and the spacious tree-studded grounds with terraces and flower beds were fully developed. In 1877 the Hon. William Henry Walsh, MLC, a pioneer of the Burnett and one-time Speaker in the House, rented Milton House from the McDougalls, and lived there for nine years. When his wife and three daughters left for a trip to England the place was sublet to Mr. James Crombie of Greenhills Station. In the following year, 1887, the whole property was sold to a syndicate consisting of the Hon. John Stevenson, the Hon. B. D. Moorehead, Mr. D. T. Seymour, and others. Land was booming. The river front allotments were auctioned and purchased by Mr. John Hicks.
The once huge station property was cut to about twenty acres bordered by River Road, Cribb Street, Park Road, and the railway line. The entrance was at Cribb Street, with a long drive winding up to the front door. To Milton House from his tiled cottage in Adelaide Street came Dr. Hugh Bell to spend the evening of his days. One-time Medical superintendent of the Brisbane General Hospital and later a general practitioner in the town, Dr. Bell was a reformer in hygiene and made many practical tests with a view to improving the sanitary conditions ol Brisbane. An "impossible task" He had an almost impossible task, for the people were so accustomed to sordidness that they didn't see why a few cranks should look for anything better. Dr. Bell was not only a medical man and surgeon, but a lover of art and good music. He would while away many a pleasant hour on the terraces, with his son-in-law Godfrey Rivers, portrait painter, and honorary curator of the Public Art Gallery. At his death in 1904, the property which had been reduced in size to about three acres bordered by Park Road and McDougall Street, was sold to Mr. William Siemon of Ipswich, later well known in the Brisbane markets. The Park Road allotments were the next to go, leaving a frontage only to McDougall Street. The stables gave way to a modern garage and the outbuildings have long since disappeared. The house remained the property of the Siemon family until last year. Only the chimney tops are visible from the River Road, but the deaconesses, when in residence, will be able to survey the many miles from the upstairs balcony as did their predecessors, several of whose names are per-perpetrated in nearby streets — McDougall, Manning, Walsh, and Crombie.'
