Fairy Knoll
| Fairy Knoll | |
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Residence in 2015
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| Location | 2A Robertson Road, Eastern Heights, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 27°37′36″S 152°46′13″E / 27.6268°S 152.7702°ECoordinates: 27°37′36″S 152°46′13″E / 27.6268°S 152.7702°E |
| Design period | 1870s - 1890s (late 19th century) |
| Built | c. 1897 - 1952 |
| Architect | George Brockwell Gill |
| Official name: Fairy Knoll, Jefferis Turner Centre (former) | |
| Type | state heritage (built, landscape) |
| Designated | 21 October 1992 |
| Reference no. | 600600 |
| Significant period | 1890s-1900s, 1950s (fabric) 1890s-1940s, 1950s (historical) 1952-1986 (social) |
| Significant components | trees/plantings, garden edging/balustrades/planter boxes, roof lantern / lantern light, residential accommodation - main house, lawn/s, driveway, stained glass window/s, views to, garden/grounds, steps/stairway, garden - bed/s, tennis court site, wall/s - retaining, views from |
| Builders | Worley & Whitehead |
 Location of Fairy Knoll in Queensland
Location of Fairy Knoll in Queensland
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Fairy Knoll is a heritage-listed villa at 2A Robertson Road, Eastern Heights, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by George Brockwell Gill and built from c. 1897 to 1952 by Worley & Whitehead. It was also known as Jefferis Turner Centre. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The grand two storey brick residence, Fairy Knoll, was completed in 1901 by contractors Worley and Whitehead to the 1896 design of architect George Brockwell Gill. The residence was built for Thomas Hancock (Junior), a successful timber merchant, his wife Louisa Hayne and their ten children.
Thomas Hancock came to Ipswich in 1863 with his parents and brothers and sister. His father Thomas Hancock (Senior) commenced sawing timber at Pine Mountain and later acquired a sawmill in Rosewood. In 1875, he acquired the lease over the North Ipswich timber mill and in October 1880 Thomas Hancock & Sons opened a new mill in Lowry Street, North Ipswich. By 1885 Thomas Hancock & Sons was a successful expanding company employing 138 hands in Ipswich as well as many in their Brisbane offices totalling 274 people. The Ipswich complex included a mill, joinery and moulding plant and a lathe department which produced doors, window sashes and panelling.
Thomas Hancock Senior died in 1891 and the company passed into the hands of his sons Josias and Thomas Junior. Thomas Hancock Junior had married his second wife Louisa Hayne in 1878 and by 1885 they had two sons Thomas and Norman and a daughter Eva and were expecting another daughter, Florence. Thomas Hancock subsequently bought four acres on the crest of the hill above Chermside Road (then Boundary Road) from Ambrose John Foote with the intention of building a family home.
The first house Hancock built on the site was a simple timber home. By 1897 Thomas and Louisa Hancock had five boys and five girls and Thomas dreamed of erecting a two storey brick mansion to replace the wooden house. In 1896 he transferred the title to his wife Louisa and the following year is believed to have commissioned architect George Brockwell Gill to design the new home. Thomas Hancock did not live to see Fairy Knoll completed as he died in 1897. The house was constructed at a cost of £2000 and in 1901 Louisa Hancock and her ten children moved into their new home and Louisa continued to live there until 1947.
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