Liberty Hall - Mary Tregear Hostel

The building was erected c1860 and one of the earliest known owners was Chief Constable Edward Quinn.

James Sloan bought the property from Quinn’s estate.  Following Sloan’s death the title passed to his widow.

In 1906 the house became the residence of blacksmith Hugh Campbell, a member of the first family of free settlers who came to Ipswich in 1842.  In 1947 the house passed out of the ownership of the Campbell family to the Queensland Country Women’s Association (QCWA).  They converted it into a women’s hostel, and named it Mary Tregear Hostel, who was the wife a Police Magistrate and the first President of the Ipswich QCWA.  She worked hard for the welfare of country women and children.

According to early Ipswich rates books, the house that would later become known as Liberty Hall and Mary Tregear Hostel, had been erected by 1860, when Council records began. 

Constable Edward Quinn, who had been a mounted trooper in the Brisbane Police, was appointed to the post of Chief Constable at Ipswich in 1854.

Edward Quinn first purchased the land in 1857 and his neighbour to the west (where the Ipswich Civic Centre now stands) was Dr. Henry Challinor.  The Quinn's retained the house until 1877, when it was purchased by James Sloan.  On his death, the house passed to his wife, Helena Sloan in 1887 (she would later remarry a Mr Hutchison).  The next recorded owners were William, Thomas, and Alexander Campbell in 1910.  The three brothers were the sons of Hugh Campbell, a blacksmith who had a cottage and workshop on the corner of Limestone and East Streets (site of the former Ipswich & West Moreton Building Society).  William became sole owner in 1919 and the house remained in the Campbell family until July 1942, when it was purchased by the Queensland Country Women's Association (QCWA). 

The house is of a simple Georgian design - rare for Queensland.  Constructed in brick, the two-storey building was later plastered with cement render and painted.  The window panes are small, installed at a time when glass was not available in large sheets.  The current Dutch-gable with timber boarding roof-line, was a later addition.  Originally, according to early photos, the roof was of a simpler design.  The house contains one chimney and a below ground cellar at the rear.

A three storeyed rendered brick building, including cellar, erected on the property line with the street elevation symmetrically arranged about a central doorway, with three double-sashed windows on the upper floor and four on the ground floor.  It is sparsely ornated with plain window surrounds and gable-hipped corrugated iron roof, and a plain chimney on the western wall.

The front door is covered with a recent canopy.  Despite the unusual disposition of windows on the front façade, the building has a Georgian flavour because of its austere profile and refined detail.

The house was designed for a sizeable family with five bedrooms upstairs and two downstairs plus dining and sitting rooms, and an annexe at the back comprising kitchen, breakfast room and bathroom.  The cellar contained the laundry, workshop and store.  The building marks the street frontage of Limestone Street, which contains so many gaps that it risks losing its coherence.

A similar role is played by the St. Paul’s Young Men’s Club opposite, with which it shares not only streetscape value but a stylistic sympathy, which both appear again in the Technical College group further up Limestone Street.

Construction periods:

• Main house: 1857-1860
• Kitchen wing: 1958-1963
• Hall: 

Liberty Hall - Mary Tregear Hostel was entered into the Queensland Heritage Register on 21st October 1992.  It was cited as being significant on the following grounds:

• Criterion A: The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history / Criterion B: The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage
  • Built between 1857 and 1860, Mary Tregear Hostel is one of the oldest buildings in Ipswich and is a rare example of a simple town dwelling in colonial Georgian style.
• Criterion E: The place is important because of its aesthetic significance
  • Although its roofline has been altered, it retains much of its original symmetrical form and is valued by the community for its aesthetic contribution to the streetscape of central Ipswich.
• Criterion H: The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history
  • It is closely associated with the work of the QCWA and in particular, its role in providing supervised accommodation for country girls working in the city.  
  • It is closely associated with the Campbell family, the first free settlers to arrive in Ipswich after 1842, and with an early senior police official Edward Quinn.