The Pattemore homestead, first known as ‘Fairview’ has now been re-named ‘Pattemore House’
ROB PATTEMORE has fond memories of his first five years in Maleny around the house built for his great grand-father, John Robert in 1908. Pattemore House is now owned by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council and forms part of the 126 hectare Maleny Precinct.
John Robert Pattemore was a butcher by trade and arrived in Australia from Somerset when he was five. He came to live in Maleny in 1907. His four sons had come on ahead to built the home that John Robert lived in until he died in 1947 aged 97.
In the early 1940s Rob Pattemore remembers his elderly grandfather’s home because he remembers picking persimmons from his tree and receiving a very sore tongue.
John Robert’s son Bill and Stan had bought the land in 1906, known these days as Armstrong’s Farm. This large and close family had been farmers and butchers in Central Tilba, but too many dry seasons persuaded the Pattemores to move north to the Sunshine Coast hinterland.
The Pattemore family gather on their verandah during the early part of the 20th century.
John Robert also bought adjoining land parcels and the heavily timbered land provided the materials to build the elegant Pattemore House. It was typical of the times that the Pattemore brothers were not only farmers, but good builders and carpenters. They cut the timbers in a saw pit, then planed, tongue and grooved the cedar and white beech by hand for this spacious house with its deep verandahs and tall windows.
The only other surviving building in Maleny constructed with local pit-sawn timber is the first stage of the Maleny Hotel.
Keep in mind that there was no shire council until 1912, so there were no annoying building regulations to worry about. During this first decade of the 20th century Maleny grew with the dairy boom. An ES&A Bank came in 1906, a hotel was built the following year and there was a butcher and general store. Maleny was officially listed as a township in 1912 and it had a population of about 510.
When John Robert came to live in his new home in 1908 he set to planting a vegetable garden and fruit orchard around the house. At the turn of the century, if you didn’t grow or raise your own food, then life could be very tough. Ernest lived in the house with his father and mother Emily, and he became the share farmer taking a lease on the Pattemore land until 1923.
Robert and Shirley Pattemore. Robert is the great grandson of John Robert Pattemore who first settled in Maleny in 1908.
The Pattemore brothers – Bill, Stan, Albert and Ernest were industrious builders. For example, after Pattemore House, they built Forest Lodge, the house that stands at the crossroads in north Maleny. It’s believed they also built Lawley House and Priscilla Cottage now combined into an historical village in Bryce Lane.
In John Robert’s latter years his son Stan helped him grow corn around the home and he took on local farm work. His sisters continued to look after the house and their parents.
Councillor Jenny McKay says Pattemore House is fully protected by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council. “It is the first piece of the Precinct jigsaw in place and the first step has been to secure it for its historical value”, she said.
Rob Pattemore is president of the Friends of Pattemore House and hopes this rare Maleny homestead, which is on the state heritage register, will be maintained in perpetuity.
“Personally, I think it should be put together as an educational centre so people, particularly children, can see what life was like in the early 1900s. The old cow bails should be moved up there too, perhaps with a typical cream shed. We need to be reminded of how hard life was in those early days”.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ROBERT PATTEMORE
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