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Martin William (Will) Haenke (1875-1953) - Architect
Architect Martin William Haenke, known as Will, designed some of Ipswich’s best Federation homes—Meiringen, Pindari, Edgbaston—and was an early proponent of the Californian Bungalow.
Will’s father migrated to Ipswich from Germany in 1862 with his parents and five siblings. He established a blacksmith’s business at Walloon, where Will was born in 1875, and then moved to Ipswich and operated in Brisbane Street as timber merchant and fruiterer. The young Will Haenke was apprenticed to Ipswich architect Henry Wyman around 1891, after which he completed his studies in Melbourne and worked for architects Lloyd Tayler and Frederick Fitts.
Haenke worked as an architect in Ipswich from 1900 to 1936 on commissions that included domestic architecture, hotels, churches, shops, stables, cattle dips and even the Churchill slaughter yards.
Much of his work was in Ipswich but he also completed projects in Bundaberg, Brisbane, Wynnum, Boonah, Rosewood, and other towns in the West Moreton region. Booeebie in Chermside Road is one of several fine examples of the Californian Bungalow style that Haenke designed for family members. The Rising Sun Hotel (Rosewood), the Commercial Hotel (Ellenborough Street), and Whitehouse’s Bakery (Laidley) are also among his best-known works.
From 1937, Will focused on his mining interests, which had begun in 1904 and included collieries at Bundamba and Rosewood, on the Darling Downs, and in Central Queensland. Will was director of Blair Athol open cut mine from 1939-1949 and was Chairman of Directors of Rhondda Collieries Pty Ltd and Noblevale Collieries Pty Ltd at the time of his death in 1953, at age 77.
Will married Laura Taylor, whose parents established the I.X.L. Photographic Studio in Ipswich. In 1918, Will and Laura bought Rockton. This grand heritage home is now the abode of the fifth generation of the Haenke family.
