Greenmount Homestead in Walkerston, Queensland, Australia | Landmark & historical place

Greenmount Homestead

Locality: Walkerston, Queensland, Australia

Address: Greenmount Rd 4751 Walkerston, QLD, Australia

Website: www.mackay.qld.gov.au/facilities/council_facilities2/historical_centres/greenmount_homestead

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• Landmark & historical place
• Museum
• Landmark
• Cultural centre

25.01.2022 Fun fact: although Greenmount Homestead wasn't built until 1915, the Cook family actually purchased the land 3 years prior in 1912! The family would head to the site of their future home for picnics, like this one they enjoyed in early 1915. Why not take a leaf out of their book and bring your own picnic to Greenmount? This Sunday, November 29th is our last open day for 2020, making it the perfect time to pack a picnic lunch and drop by! #ThrowbackThursday #tbt #greenmount #picnic #picnicinthepark

25.01.2022 This Remembrance Day, we honour those who have served their country, both in active duty and via their support on the home front. During WWII, the Cook family opened their home to American servicemen, providing much-needed respite to weary soldiers. To learn more, read Greenmount Homestead volunteer Vicky Bowden's latest article in the Daily Mercury that delves deep into Greenmount's role in WWII. Read it for FREE by clicking on the following link.... https://www.dailymercury.com.au//remembering-gree/4127993/ #lestweforget2020 #remembranceday

24.01.2022 #throwbackthursday Did you know that Albert Cook's parents, John and Elizabeth, had 8 children? Six survived to adulthood, making Albert the youngest of 3 boys. This week, we're sharing a photo of Albert's two older brothers, John and Samuel Cook. John, pictured on the left, was a successful doctor, who based his practice in Charters Towers before joining his aunt and uncle at their homestead, Turanville, in New South Wales. Samuel, as the eldest son, looked after a pair... of sugar cane plantations purchased by his father, John, in Cooktown, eventually inheriting them after his father's death in 1901. #greenmount #tbt #themoreyouknow #MackayPride

22.01.2022 This year's social whirl has been severely curtailed by COVID-19. In years gone by, the Cook family enjoyed a wide variety of social outings, both in the Mackay region and further afield. To learn more about this, check out Greenmount Homestead volunteer Vicky Bowden's latest history feature in the Daily Mercury, available for FREE at the following link: https://www.dailymercury.com.au//mackay-greenmoun/4146612/

21.01.2022 You won't be-leaf what's growing at Greenmount Homestead! Visit this Sunday, August 30th 9:00am-1:00pm to find out You won't be-leaf what's growing at Greenmount Homestead! Visit this Sunday, August 30th 9:00am-1:00pm to find out

21.01.2022 JCU Library Special Collections have developed an exhibit celebrating the university's 50th year entitled "50 Treasures: Celebrating 50 Years of James Cook University." They have selected 50 artefacts from their extensive archive that tell the tale of the region. To get the full story, click through to the link below, and take the time to check out the rest of the items highlighted in this fantastic digital exhibit. #ThrowbackThursday #TBT #QLD

19.01.2022 Research informs nearly everything staff and volunteers do at Greenmount Homestead, and at museums and heritage sites around the world. Collections care, conservation, tour guiding, and more all rely on collecting information from a wide variety of sources. Greenmount has an exceptionally rich archival collection which allows us to find the information we need. While we have the tools and the resources, there's one thing we can always use: more help! If you have some sp...are time and a love of learning, drop by Mackay Regional Council's volunteering site to help us track down new and exciting stories to tell. Here's a handy link: https://www.mackay.qld.gov.au//vol/volunteering_at_council (If you also happen to be a handwriting analysis expert, that would not go amiss.) #Greenmount #MRC #volunteering #collections #conservation

19.01.2022 Did you know that today is World Diabetes Day? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 8.5% of adults worldwide are diabetics. Diabetes has a close link to the history of Greenmount Homestead; click the video below to learn more about the role diabetes played in the lives of the first generation of Greenmount residents. Many thanks to ABC Tropical North for the opportunity to share our region’s history! #greenmount #WorldDiabetesDay

18.01.2022 Interested in helping to shape the future of our region's museums? Now's your chance to have your say! Tell us your thoughts on Mackay region museums via our survey on Connecting Mackay.

18.01.2022 This #ThrowbackThursday, in honour of NAIDOC Week 2020, we would like to highlight one of Greenmount's staff members, Maggie Barker. Maggie, pictured here with her daughter Ina, worked at Greenmount Homestead during the 1920s as a member of the household staff. This photo, discovered as a negative in the Greenmount archive, was taken by John Cook c.1926, and shows both women near the Greenmount fernery. We've been incredibly fortunate to have recently gotten in touch with ...some of Maggie's descendants, from whom we sought permission before posting this photo so as not to be disrespectful of her or of Indigenous traditions surrounding the publication of images of those who have passed. We thank them for sharing the details of Maggie's life with us; we, in turn, are eager to share this fascinating story with our visitors in the new year. #NAIDOC2020 #tbt

18.01.2022 Mackay Regional Council's museum team was recently approached by ABC Tropical North to share the stories of some of our favourite artefacts. Join Greenmount Homestead volunteer Vicky Bowden as she shines a spotlight on the rocking horse in the children's room. Click the video below to listen to this fascinating tale, then come visit Greenmount Homestead to learn more about what childhood looked like on a rural homestead in the early 1900s. Many thanks to ABC Tropical North fo...r the opportunity to share stories of our region's history! #ThrowbackThursday #TBT #greenmount #MackayPride

16.01.2022 Did you know? When Greenmount Homestead was built in December 1915, Albert & Vida Cook had three children under the age of 5. This #ThrowbackThursday, we're featuring a photo of Althea Cook playing on the veranda as a baby, just a few months after Greenmount was finished. The verandas were screened in during the 1960s, so it's fascinating to see them as they originally appeared.... #TBT #greenmount

16.01.2022 Check out this fantastic video that The House Detective has made following her recent tour of Greenmount Homestead! If you'd like your own personalised tour of the homestead, drop by tomorrow from 9:00am to 1:00pm. Our friendly, knowledgable guides would be happy to share the ins and outs of homestead life with you.

14.01.2022 It's time to celery-brate, because Greenmount Homestead is open today from 9:00am to 1:00pm! Bring the family and come check out our verdant veggie patch. It's the perfect spot to take pictures for your Insta-yam. See you soon!

13.01.2022 Greenmount Homestead is home to all sorts of heirloom garments, like this wedding dress from 1908 belonging to Vida Cook. After years on display, cleaning and packing this precious artefact properly is crucial to avoid damage. Interested in learning more about how museum staff care for our artefacts, and how you can use the same sorts of tips and tricks at home to care for your heirlooms? Join museum staff at Gordon White Library for our upcoming seminar, Antique Rescue, on this Friday, December 4th! Bookings are essential, so head over to the Mackay Regional Council Libraries events page to reserve your spot: https://www.facebook.com/events/865623127540242/

13.01.2022 Who’s in the mood for a spooky story? These teeny tiny dolls are called pudding dolls, or Frozen Charlottes. As the name implies, tiny ones like these were baked into Christmas puddings, along with other tokens like rings and coins. The item you found in your pudding would determine what was to come in the following year - a coin for wealth, a ring for marriage, and so on. This dodgy divination is eerie enough on its own, but wait until you hear where their other name come...s from The term Frozen Charlotte was inspired by an American folk song, Fair Charlotte. The song, in turn, was based on a poem by Seba Smith called, A Corpse Going to a Ball. Based on true events, the poem tells the tale of Charlotte, a young lady going to a New Year’s Eve ball in the winter of 1839 in upstate New York. Though her parents warned her to wrap up warmly for the 7 mile sleighride to the ball, Charlotte was reluctant to cover up her pretty dress. Upon arrival at the ball, her fiancé was horrified to discover that she had frozen to death on the drive over. So how did these wind up in Australia? Well, Frozen Charlottes were wildly popular during the late Victorian period, popping up in America, Great Britain, and, yes, even Australia. Made in sizes up to 45cm tall, they were used for a variety of purposes as baby dolls, bath toys, and, of course, in Christmas puddings. Now, if finding a coin in your pudding means you’ll be wealthy next year, and finding a ring means you’ll get married, what do you suppose finding a Frozen Charlotte means? #greenmount #spookyseason #halloween

13.01.2022 Carrying on from last week's #ThrowbackThursday post, have a listen to Greenmount Homestead volunteer Shelley's take on the homestead's fernery and her insights into the importance of the gardens at Greenmount to the family's day-to-day life. And take a minute to enjoy this gorgeous photo of Albert Cook's eldest sister, Florence, in the fernery at the original Cook family homestead, Balnagowan. Thanks as always to ABC Tropical North for the fantastic interview, and thanks to... Shelley for sharing her knowledge and expertise. If you'd like to volunteer in the homestead's gardens like Shelley, we're always looking for more help. Drop by the "Volunteering at Council" website to fill out an application today! Just click the following link: https://www.mackay.qld.gov.au//vol/volunteering_at_council #TBT #Greenmount #gardens #gardening #ferns #greenthumbs

12.01.2022 What a master-peas! The veggie patch at Greenmount Homestead has really taken off. Come check it out this Sunday, August 30th from 9:00am to 1:00pm to see what goodness we've got growing. Can't wait to see you then!

11.01.2022 What a good doggo! In honour of Dog Appreciation Day today, our #ThrowbackThursday post this week is #WaybackWednesday post instead! The Cook family always had both pet and working dogs at Greenmount Homestead and their other properties. This photo, taken in the late 1890s, shows Albert Cook and three very good pups at the Cook family property he was managing at the time, Wandoo. Albert's father, John, sent him there when he was only 19 to see how he'd go running the ...show, and he and his canine companions kept the cattle in line. If you look closely, the good boi on the left is crystal clear, but the other two dogs are blurry - they couldn't sit still for the photographer! Some things never change... Do you have photos of your furry friends? Post them in the comments below! #Greenmount #WaybackWednesday #DogAppreciationDay #doge #goodboi

11.01.2022 What are we building at Greenmount Homestead today? It can be difficult sometimes to find the right size boxes to house some of our more fragile artefacts. How do we get around this? We make them ourselves! In this case, we've built a shoebox from archival cardboard, and carved a foam support to hold the shoes. We'll cover the support in calico so it doesn't rough up the shoes, and make a lid for the box to keep the dust out. Check back in the comments for the finished ...product! #greenmount #conservation #collections #artsandcrafts

10.01.2022 Time for another peek into the Greenmount Homestead toybox. What do we have today? This is a wooden quoit set. Quoits is a game where players throw rings at an upright peg. The aim of the game (literally) is to get your ring around or as close as possible to the peg. This set’s a little bit unusual, because traditionally quoits have rings made of iron, rope or rubber. We can see very clearly that these rings, like the upright peg, are made of wood. The set is only small,... maybe 30cm tall at most, so would have been used by the Cook children. Incidentally, quoits and ring toss games are excellent for toddlers, as they help them develop motor skills and hand-eye coordination. If you’re hankering for a rousing game of quoits, drop by Greenmount Homestead during school holidays, when we’ll have our new and improved quoits set out in the gardens for visitors to use. Hope to see you then! #Greenmount #Vintagetoys #Quoits #Schoolholidays #lawngames

09.01.2022 Interested in learning more about how museum staff care for our artefacts, and how you can use the same sorts of tips and tricks at home to care for your heirlooms? Join museum staff at Gordon White Library for our upcoming seminar, Antique Rescue! Bookings are essential, so click the link below to reserve your spot.

09.01.2022 Looking for some entertainment tonight? Mackay Festival Sessions - Folks Like Us & Will Blume has you covered. #PressPlay

09.01.2022 #throwbackthursday Sometimes, the tiniest details on artefacts at Greenmount Homestead can lead us to new and exciting stories to explore! Today's photo features Dr. John Cook (back right) and his tennis team. Formal, posed photos like this, taken in a photography studio, were becoming more and more common throughout the late 19th and early 20th century. ... Now, the Cooks being from Mackay, we assumed the photo was taken locally. But a bit of digging into the photography studio, whose name is listed down the bottom, tells us that this photo was taken at John Yeoman's photo studio on Elgin Street in Melbourne! BRB, we're off to do some more research... #tbt #vintagephotography #research

08.01.2022 It’s time for Conservation Corner! Each month, we’ll be taking a look at the things that can damage museum collections. Let’s take a dip into how water affects museum artefacts. Have you ever dropped a book you’re reading into the pool and had the pages go all wavy? Or left a cold drink on a wooden table and come back to a ring in the tabletop? These are both examples of how water can damage objects. Some objects are what we call hygroscopic they can take on and g...ive up water molecules easily. Wooden objects, textiles, watercolour paintings, metals, and more can all face serious problems if exposed to water. What kind of damage does water do? Buckling and cockling that’s those wavy pages in the book mentioned above; staining, like the ring on our wooden table; rusting and corrosion of metal objects; and object loss, when parts are literally washed away (this happens to things like watercolour paints or textile dyes). Water damage can also lead to mould, which can weaken and disfigure artefacts and poses a serious health risk to anyone working with the collection. How does water damage happen? Flooding, heavy rain, and leaks can all cause water damage in a museum. We’re careful to report any leaks we see at Greenmount Homestead, and make sure windows aren’t left open on a rainy night. Another sneaky source of water damage is fire sprinkler systems while they save collection items from next month’s topic, they do water damage in the process. #conservation #museumconservation #collections #collectionscare #museumscience

06.01.2022 This #ThrowbackThursday, let's focus on ferns A fernery is a specialised garden used to grow and display ferns. In the 1830s in England, fern fever reigned supreme among all walks of life, from factory workers to wealthy landowners. Folks would head out on fern-finding expeditions, then display their spoils in their ferneries. Ferns became hugely trendy, and began to appear all over Victorian England. Whether on textiles, wallpapers, ceramics - you name it, ferns put in... an appearance on it. Naturally, what was trendy in England became trendy all over the British empire, and ferneries began to pop up in colonial outposts as well. Depending on your budget, you could either plant your ferns in a small fern case inside your house or in a dedicated structure in your garden. Having a fernery like the one at Greenmount Homestead, as seen in this picture, would have been a clear indicator of wealth and status. Check back next Thursday for an excellent interview by Greenmount volunteer Shelley all about our fernery! #TBT #Greenmount #gardens #ferns #gardening #greenthumbs

06.01.2022 Need something to entertain the kids on a beautiful, sunny day? Visit Greenmount Homestead today through Wednesday, 9:00am to 1:00pm, for some good old-fashioned fun!

03.01.2022 The sewing room at Greenmount Homestead contains all sort of pills and potions. This tiny, unassuming bottle tells the tale of an ancient illness and its treatment. Ammoniated quinine tablets, like these, are used to treat malaria. Malaria has been around for ages, dating from the prehistoric period 30 million years ago. It’s caused by a parasite that gets into the bloodstream of humans and animals via mosquito bites. And it’s a nasty illness, causing fevers, vomiting, he...adaches, fatigue, seizures, and even death. It ravaged the globe until the 17th century, when a treatment for malaria was discovered purely by luck. Quinine is found in the bark of the cinchona (quina-quina) tree, native to South America. The indigenous people there used the bark to treat fevers, and shared that knowledge with Spanish colonists. Up until 1820, cinchona bark was ground up and drunk mixed with wine to treat malaria and other fevers. In 1820, scientists successfully extracted quinine from the bark, and this purified quinine became the standard treatment for malaria from that point on. It stayed that way until the 1920s, when synthetic antimalarials became widely available. Quinine is still used around the world to treat malaria today, in cases where other antimalarials don’t work. Although endemic in other parts of the world, malaria was successfully eradicated in Australia in 1981, making this unassuming little bottle a window into the past. #Greenmount #medicalhistory #themoreyouknow

03.01.2022 It’s time for Conservation Corner! Each month, we’ll be taking a look at the things that can damage museum collections. Today we’ve got a two for one deal and it’s not even Gemini season Temperature and humidity are closely linked. When the temperature rises, the air can hold more water, so the relative humidity drops. When the air cools, it can hold less water, so the relative humidity rises. If the relative humidity rises too high in cold air, the air can't hol...d the water and dew or condensation forms. Science! If the relative humidity in the air dips too low, artefacts give up their water molecules to the air to offset the drop in humidity. This leads to them becoming brittle, cracking, bowing, and shrinking. By contrast, if the relative humidity in the air is too high, artefacts soften and rust and can begin to develop mould. Both are bad news as far as museums are concerned. What causes incorrect temperature and relative humidity? Often it comes from things like a window being left open on a rainy night, or the aircon breaking, or the thermostat being on the fritz. How do we offset it? Consistency is key. Big changes cause the most damage, so we use climate control systems to keep things consistent. Next month, we're delving into the issues arising from missing information. Check back then if mysteries are more your thing! #Greenmount #conservation #museumconservation #collections #collectionscare #museumscience

02.01.2022 I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! With summer swiftly approaching, take a page from Tom and Althea Cook's book this #ThrowbackThursday and get yourself a sweet treat. If you're really keen you can take a trip to the Bowen seashore, like they did in 1939, but maybe consider dressing a little less formally! #TBT #Greenmount #icecream #beattheheat

02.01.2022 A little dab’ll do ya! Greenmount Homestead is full of iconic products, like this Brylcreem. Founded in the UK in 1928, Brylcreem was used by dapper gents for decades to maintain the clean-cut hairstyles that were popular right up until the Mad Men era of the early 1960s. Brylcreem was everywhere it was so ubiquitous that the neatly coiffed members of the RAF during WWII were known as Brylcreem Boys! So what happened to Brylcreem? Put simply The Beatles. Once The Be...atles’ moptop hairstyles started to dominate popular trends, Brylcreem sales began to suffer. Over the next couple of decades men began to wear their hair longer and wilder, which meant the demand for styling creams like Brylcreem tapered off. Fortunately, the tides have begun to turn again, and as men’s hairstyles become clean, sharp, and stylish, Brylcreem is still here, in the same packaging its had since the 1960s. Did you ever use Brylcreem? Do you use it now? Let us know in the comments below! #Greenmount #Brylcreem #BrylcreemBoys

01.01.2022 Happy Father's Day! Hope everyone enjoys the day and gets some fabulous family shots, like this one of Greenmount Homestead patriarch Albert Cook with his sons, Tom and John, in 1913. #FathersDay #HappyFathersDay #CelebratingFatherhood #Greenmount