Hancock Brother's Sawmill

Thomas Hancock and sons were sawyers in the Pine Mountain area. They had a sawmill in the Rosewood Scrub area around 1867. When they moved to Ipswich they set up a timber yard in Upper Brisbane Street. Then in 1878 took over the lease of North Ipswich timber mill from James Reilly. Eventually they purchased this mill and set up a smaller one in Canning Street, North Ipswich. 

In 1880 Thomas purchased land in Lamington Parade along the Bremer River and erected a large  3-storey mill. The business became known as Thomas Hancock & Sons. Mr A. Leslie's sawmill  was situated approximately on this site prior to Hancocks possession. Samuel Shillito was employed briefly by Leslie.

In 1885 Hancocks paid for the existing railway branch line to be extended to the sawmill in Lamington Parade. This meant logs could be transported to the mill by rail instead of boats.  Around this time the mill was destroyed by fire but was soon rebuilt with expansions. As well as the mill there was a joinery, lathe department, and moulding plant. By 1886 the mill had 274 employees. 

When Thomas retired his 2 sons took over: Josias was in charge of iron founding, smithing and machinery while Thomas (junior) managed the timber mill. Towards the end of the 19th century Thomas Hancock & Sons began making furniture by machinery and fancy palisading for verandahs. The brothers fell out and Josias moved, leaving the operations to Thomas . 

Fairy Knoll, 2 Robertson Road, Eastern Heights was built for Thomas (junior) and his wife Louisa. Thomas (junior) died in 1897 prior to Fairy Knoll's completion.

In 1898 Josias established Hancock & Gore with Joseph Gore. Joseph Gore had joined Hancock & Sons in a management position in 1901?  Josias Henry Hancock (Josias' son) took over the company around 1904 and grew the business to 18 locations in Queensland. By 1945 they were Australia's largest producer of plywood. In 1984 the firm purchased part of the old adjacent Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company's mill at North Ipswich to use for their plywood production. 

By the 1990s, four generations of the Hancock family had worked for the mill at North Ipswich. Boral bought the company in 1995 and closed it in 2011, then named Boral Hancock Plywood. In the early 21st century Boral Hancock had about 240 employees.