2024 Houses
A little background on the houses highlighted in 2024
Doxford House
Built in the 1920s, Doxford House began its life as the administration building of Eventide Home. It was constructed out of hardwood and pine for the State Government.The Administration building stood at the end of the long driveway into Eventide at the corner of the Flinders and the Lynd highways. It was 28ft x 23ft when construction finished and contained an office, store dispensary and doctor’s room, with a 7ft veranda all the way around it.In 1991, new owner Clyde Doxford literally upped stumps and moved it down the highway to its current resting place, beyond the cemetery on the outskirts of town and set about renovating and upcycling it into a beautiful home.
Audeve
The style of this home harks back to the 1930s and the between war years, when there was a shift away from workers cottages to family homes. It is unknown exactly when Audeve was built, but it has had an interesting owner or two in its time.One of those was Ted White who along with his legitimate hairdresser and tobacconist also allegedly ran an illegal gambling house.These days the home has been beautifully renovated, mixing old and new, and is used as short stay accommodation. It retains many of the original features, including VJ panelling, casement windows, timber floors, a big bay window and timber picture rails. Make sure you look for the stencilled footpath leading to the front door when you visit.
Thornburgh House
The grand home built for Edmund Plant was considered so significant in Charters Towers in 1890 that a story about it’s construction featured on page 3 of The Northern Miner.The house was said to reflect the good taste of its proprietor who was combining comfort and convenience with elegance in the new residence.It overlooked Plant’s Bonnie Dundee Mill dam and featured a fireplace in every room, deep bay windows and French doors opening out onto the verandahs that went around three sides of the villa.Now the heart of Blackheath and Thornburgh College, Thornburgh House was considered the largest, handsomest, and most complete villa residence in this part of the North in the late 1800s.