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Wilfred Adams Russell came from 'New South Wales to settle in Queensland in 1910.
He was born in Rockhampton in 1875 where his father, Henry Edward Russell, was Manager of the Bank of Australasia. When Wilfred was still an infant the family moved to Sydney, where his father established himself as an accountant.
The family of six children grew up and were educated in that city. Wilfred attended the Sydney Grammar School and, afterwards, went to the Hawkesbury Agricultural College where he obtained his M.H.C. Diploma.
Later, he sought station experience in the New England district, after which he took up a 250 acre homestead selection in the Tamworth district. He grew wheat and barley for 15 years and increased his area to 5,000 acres by additional selection and purchase.
In 1901 he married Millicent, daughter of Charles Baldwin of Durham Court Tamworth, at that time a prominent horse and cattle studmaster. There were five children of the marriage - Muriel Frances, Joan Millicent, Henry Edward, Charles Wilfred and Eileen Marian. Henry died in infancy.
Wilfred Russell was recognised early as a sound land man, as shown by his appointment in 1907 as valuer for the Peel River Land and Mineral Company, when a portion of this property was resumed by the New South Wales Government.
In 1909 he acquired an interest in Dalmally Station, Roma, of which he ultimately became the owner, and went to live there in 1910. Subsequently he extended his pastoral operations to Cunnamulla and to Dalby.
Wilfred Russell was an industry innovator. In 1926, the west of Queensland was in the throes of a severe drought and agistment areas, veritable oases in the sunbaked plain, were few and far between. The transport of sheep by motor lorry was then unheard of, so he had several large motor vans constructed and used them to convey sheep from drought stricken areas to fresh pastures. He thus pioneered the transport of stock by motor vehicle.
In 1921, in an effort to find an answer to the blow-fly problem in sheep, he collaborated with the Department of Agriculture and Stock and the Department of Science and Industry in experimental research. The blow-fly did not become a menace until 1914 and, in the many and varied efforts made throughout Australia to discover ways and means of combating the pest, probably none attracted wider attention than those made at Dalmally.
Wilfred Russell played a prominent part in the life of the district. In 1926, he acquired 1200 acres of land in the Bunya Mountains which he donated to the public and which remains a dedicated public reserve, maintained by the Wambo Shire Council.
In 1926, he was elected to the State Parliament as Member for Dalby - a position he held until his death in 1932.
Jimbour House - Restoration 1923
W. A. Russell purchased Jimbour House and the surrounding property from Charles Whippell in 1923, and decided to renovate the mansion which had been neglected for so long.
At that time the previous owners had been living in a few of the downstairs rooms. A partition had been erected in the main entrance hall, cutting off the upstairs completely.
The slate roof was in bad repair and leaked in many places during wet weather. As a result, most of the ceilings both upstairs and down had either fallen in or were in a dangerous condition.
Many of the upstairs windows were broken, and no attempt had been made to keep them in repair. Birds roosted in the upstairs rooms. The task of renovating the building was a difficult and expensive one. The whole house had fallen into a very bad state of repair and looked like settling down to slow decay and ignoble dissolution, as had happened to many of the old homesteads in the settlement area.
The sight presented to the casual visitor was sad and depressing in the extreme. The garden, which had once been the pride of the countryside, had become a wilderness of rank growth.
Skilled tradesmen were retained to work on the renovation. A new kitchen was built. The ruined original homestead at the rear of the House was reconstructed and the top storey taken off.
Suitable furniture, in keeping with the architecture of the building, again filled the rooms and the gardens were redesigned.
The initial renovation took twelve months to complete, after which it was decided to have a formal opening of the House in November, 1925. |
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