Notnel

The land at 6 Burnett Street (allotment 97) was originally purchased by Patrick O'Sullivan on 11 May 1855, for a cost of £31. O'Sullivan was born in 1818 in Ireland and he was transported to Australia after being found guilty of assault with a bayonet at Canterbury, England. By 1847, O'Sullivan had settled in Ipswich where he worked as a shopkeeper and in 1860 he was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

Around March 1857, the title to allotment 97 was transferred to local builder David McLaughlin, of the early building partnership McLaughlin and Ferguson. By November 1861, a five-roomed brick cottage with a detached kitchen, and a closed-in yard with garden and fowl house was advertised to let by McLaughin. The cottage was advertised to let again in April 1862. This time the advertisement made reference to the property having a servant's bedroom. After McLaughlin died in 1870, the property was purchased by John North.

An avid gardener, North purchased the adjacent allotment (now 5 Burnett Street), demolished the existing timber cottage, and expanded his garden. After his death in 1898, his wife Laura Ann North resided in Notnel until she sold the estate on 1  February 1907 to Ipswich dentist, George William Wesley Rylatt.

In April 1920, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Runge - who also owned 2 Burnett Street - was the registered owner of the property. He rented it out and following his death in 1923, it was held in trust before being transferred to his son, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Runge Jnr.  Once he acquired the property, Runge Jnr sold allotment 98 (5 Burnett Street) as subdivisions.

The name Notnel came about once George and Elizabeth Hawley purchased the home in the 1930s.  Notnel (Lenton backwards) pays tribute to Lenton Avenue where Mr Hawley had lived in Nottingham, England. Lenton was also the name of one of the Hawley's sons.  The property remained in the Hawley family until it was purchased by the Small family in 1990.

Once in their hands, the Small family, along with professional builders and bricklayers, undertook extensive conservation work which included rectifying damp and some subsidence, especially on the eastern side of the home. Adopting a conservative approach, original features were preserved wherever possible, resulting in the retention of many pre-1900 features. The home was rewired and the bathroom was reconstructed and reconfigured to include a shower, though the original bath tub was retained. In 2011 and 2012, the poultry shed and sulky shed respectively were reconstructed using much of the original materials. 

After the Small family sold Notnel in the mid 2010s, the subsequent owner continued to ensure the historic value of the property was maintained. The most recent purchase of the home was in May 2021.

A single storey, low-set brick and timber home, featuring steeply-pitched roofs and brick chimney-stacks, Notnel is one of Ipswich's earliest surviving residences and remains a well-preserved landmark of Ipswich's past.