Kholo Gardens

Kholo Gardens is an important Ipswich site which has Indigenous and European Cultural Heritage significance and Botanical significance.

Early exploration and coal discovery
In September 1825, Major Edmund Lockyer explored the Brisbane River. He passed the point reached by John Oxley previously and he noted in his diary that he saw a “very rapid fall – coal bed.” Professor Ray Whitmore, author of two books on Coal in Queensland believed that the probable site of the first discovery of coal in the State was “located above the present Kholo Crossing on the site of the weir and pumping station of the original Ipswich water-works.”

Waterworks
Pioneer settlers in the Ipswich area relied on water from the Bremer River which they either collected themselves or purchased from water carriers. Some people had a well in their yards, and water could be obtained from local springs and publicly-owned water reserves. In the 1860s there were a number of small “Waterworks” along the river and a Municipal (Council) Water Reserve at “The Pump Yard”.

William Yates prepared a water supply scheme for the Municipal Council in 1860 which would supply water for 800 houses (four thousand people). The cost was prohibitive to the Council and it was another three years before the issue of a permanent water supply for the town was raised.

Thomas Oldham was asked to review Yates’s scheme and the government commissioned Joseph Brady to prepare a report on the water supply needs of local governments. His assistant William Highfield visited Ipswich in March 1865.

Prior to 1876 the land at Kholo was free-hold but after 1876 it became a Reserve for Stock Watering purposes. Two years later, in 1878 it was altered to a Water Reserve. In that year the Pumping Station which is situated on the eastern side of the site was commissioned to serve the people of Ipswich.

Pioneer settlers in the Ipswich area relied on water from the Bremer River which they either collected themselves or purchased from water carriers. Some people had a well in their yards, and water could be obtained from local springs and publicly-owned water reserves. In the 1860s there were a number of small “Waterworks” along the river and a Municipal (Council) Water Reserve at “The Pump Yard”.

William Yates prepared a water supply scheme for the Municipal Council in 1860 which would supply water for 800 houses (four thousand people). The cost was prohibitive to the Council and it was another three years before the issue of a permanent water supply for the town was raised.

Thomas Oldham was asked to review Yates’s scheme and the government commissioned Joseph Brady to prepare a report on the water supply needs of local governments. His assistant William Highfield visited Ipswich in March 1865.

It was another ten years before serious consideration was given to the needs of the Ipswich residents for a permanent water supply. Highfield was appointed as the engineer to oversee the construction of the waterworks.

A tender to build the pumping station at Kholo was advertised by the Department of Public Works in June 1876. The waterworks were officially opened on 31 August 1878. By 1906 a larger reservoir was needed and was constructed on this site. A new pumping station had been built at Mt Crosby by 1920 and Ipswich was then forced to buy its water from this site.

The Kholo Pumping Station ceased operating in 1922, although the equipment was still there until 1927.

Mining History
In his publication, Coal in Queensland: the first fifty years, Professor Ray Whitmore noted “A study of the distances and compass bearings which Lockyer recorded between the camping places on 12 and 13 September 1825 strongly suggests that the true place of his discovery was situated above the present Kholo Crossing, on the right-hand bank near the site of the weir and pumping station of the original Ipswich water-works. Here the lowermost component of the Tivoli formation – the Waterworks Seam – outcrops quite dramatically for a distance of almost a kilometre immediately upstream for Coal Creek.”

The first person to mine the Kholo coal seam which was later named the Waterworks Seam was Morgan Bowen (or Brown). Bowen offered to provide coal for the pumping station nearby and the Ipswich Municipal Council agreed to his offer, drawing up a three year contract.

Difficulties were encountered in developing the Waterworks Coal Mine and Bowen abandoned the operation. William Stafford offered to take on a three-year lease but the Council determined that they could purchase coal from the nearby Waterstown or Tivoli coal mines at a more competitive rate.

The Waterworks Committee’s report to the Municipal Council on 4 June 1883 recommended that the shaft sunk by Morgan Brown at Kholo be filled in for safety reasons.