The key turns in the back door of the classic old Queenslander home and I willingly step over the threshold into a time warp.
It’s a long way from Boston Street, Clayfield in Brisbane, where my paternal grandparents lived.
But the Airbnb-listed Walkersdolff Cottage at 53 Seib Street, Kilcoy, immediately unlocks a multitude of wistful childhood memories.
In fact, it could be any baby boomer’s Nana and Pop’s house from the 1960s.
And it oozes nostalgia.
The tongue-and-groove wall panelling and high ceilings embrace me, just before an ‘ah’ escapes my lips: I’ve spotted the coloured bevelled-glass windowpanes and the large open pantry.
Lifting the top of the antique red cedar washstand by the dining table reveals a quirky surprise in the form of a hidden drinks cabinet with piccolo champagne.
Eagerly forging ahead into the open-plan living area, a hand-turned timber dining chair with red velvet cushion catches my eye, along with a tapestry-backed bentwood rocker.
Local journalists supporting local people. Help keep independent and fair Sunshine Coast news coming by subscribing to our free daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email. See SUBSCRIBE at the top of this article.
The old sepia photograph where no one is smiling deserves closer inspection. But my eyes are darting around the rest of the room – to the huge rugs spread over timber floorboards, the pretty chaise longue sofas and the ‘grandpa’ chair three kids could fit on together.
All are strangely familiar. Another time, another life.
And ‘Oh, look!’ The sunroom/third bedroom has a children’s play area with a porcelain-faced doll cocooned in a delicate, handmade lace inset for the toy pram.
And what about that all-in-one school seat and desk with the flip-up top to store pencils and paper. I remember those!
On to the front bedrooms … and suddenly I’m eight years old again – no longer able to fight tiredness and climbing on to a similar chenille bedspread over what seems like an enormous mattress, beneath a mosquito-net canopy just like this one.
Love nostalgia? So do we. Help keep more great Coast memories alive by subscribing to our free daily news feed. Go to Subscribe at the top of this story and add your name and email. It’s that simple.
Now I’m unlocking the front door and venturing on to the veranda that stretches the width of the house, shaded by an old poinciana tree that’s begging to be climbed. Of course, a cane chair is in prime viewing position to take in the visiting birdlife and watch the passing parade leading to William Street.
The latest owners of the cottage, Peter and Debbie Southern, searched high and low through antique and second-hand shops, garage sales and social media posts to reproduce an ambience of post-World War II family life.
So, while guests enjoy modern conveniences – from a well-equipped kitchen (including coffee maker and dishwasher) to the slow-combustion fireplace, large-screen TV, air-conditioning, overhead fans, unlimited internet and even plush bath robes – the home pays homage to this bygone era in comfort and style.
The country hospitality and simple pleasures extend to the undercover area in the backyard where a visiting family might discuss the day’s adventures over the evening barbecue, or friends gather around the firepit under the old Jacaranda tree and the 400 billion stars of the Milky Way.
While being part of the history of the Somerset region, about an hour’s drive south-west of Caloundra, the three-bedroomed home, built in 1915, also still holds a special place in the hearts of Walker family members.
Walkersdolff guests can glean some of that proud heritage within the pages of the house compendium.
The town’s beginnings can be traced back to the Mackenzie brothers who selected 35,000 acres of prime land on the upper reaches of the Brisbane River in 1841 and named the property Kilcoy Station in a nod to their ancestral castle in Scotland.
When the town was being surveyed by W.E. Hill in 1888, it was briefly known as Hopetoun – in reference to Captain Louis Hope, an early owner of the station, who built the property’s first house of red cedar and mud bricks.
But it was renamed Kilcoy in 1907 to avoid confusion with another town of the same name in Victoria.
The fledgling Kilcoy township broke formal ties with Caboolture Shire in 1912 to become its own local government authority – able to support itself with a population of 700, with similar numbers in the surrounding district.
A year later, the Caboolture-Woodford railway line was extended to Kilcoy, which by then boasted a bank, police station, two churches, and the types and numbers of businesses and tradespeople of any rural town hitting its stride.
When a new land sale was held in 1913, Thomas Walker bought Lot 6 on Seib Street.
A well-known and respected grazier of the district, Thomas had married Maria Jane in January 1889 at the Stanley Rivers home of his father, Robert. They had five children.
When eldest daughter Mary was to marry train driver George Gordon at age 24, Thomas and Maria organised a new colonial cottage to be built on the Seib Street block as a wedding gift.
George later extended the home by adding a kitchen and verandas to cope with a growing tribe of four children.
It would be the only house Mary and George shared together until her passing in 1961.
Later, George rented the cottage to nephew Doug Walker and his wife Amy (nee Wease) for $6 a week in 1969.
The couple purchased the property five years on, brought up four sons and called it their own patch of Kilcoy happiness for the next 34 years, until Amy’s death in 2003 (Doug died in 1985).
Walkersdolff was then sold after 90 years of Walker family ownership.
Publications such as Max Walker’s book Bullocks and Waggons offer insight into what life was like for pioneering families within the context of a growing district, as well as harsh times from external pressures including the Great Depression and two World Wars.
(Among the brave young Kilcoy men put their lives on the line for king and country was Private Richard River Walker, who volunteered at 17-and-a-half and was killed in action on the Western Front on July 19, 1918.)
But Walkersdolff guests and other visitors to the town can peer further into the past on a self-guided stroll along the Kilcoy History Trail.
A project by the Kilcoy District Historical Society Inc, the trail is a list of 87 properties with historical significance.
History trail brochures, funded by Somerset Regional Council and the Regional Arts Development Fund, are available in hardcopy for free from the Kilcoy Visitor Information Centre (open seven days per week) and on the Kilcoy District Historical Society website, pinpointing each of the properties by number on the town map.
Pioneering families also are remembered in various street names.
Members of the public are encouraged to go for a wander, read the information plaques on businesses and shop fronts, learn more about their origins, meet the locals behind the counter today and hear their own stories.
Among the properties of note is the Exchange Hotel, built in 1901 in the main street.
After more than 120 years of trading, the hotel is still an important part of the fabric of the town – gathering mates together over a beer in the main bar area, and family celebrations over Kilcoy Ebony Black Angus steaks from Daisy’s Diner in the large undercover beergarden.
Among the collection of historic photos on the walls is one showing four of Kilcoy’s fresh-faced Light Horseman, circa 1939, including one Dick Walker, seated in front.
And I’m right back at the beginning … which seems a fitting end to my time-travelling getaway to Kilcoy.
Memories of Walkersdolff
A large tree grew on the right front corner of Walkedrsdolff Cottage. It is said that the old tree started to die the day Mr Walker passed away.
The Walker children remember a koala would come from a gum tree at the Kilcoy High School across the road to the gum trees at the back of 53 Seib Street.
Mrs Amy Walker used to grow African violets near the window in the old stove area (now the kitchen pantry). In the warm, bright conditions, the violets grew so well.
– Kay Walker, Hazeldean
- Head to the Experience Somerset website for more tourism information about Kilcoy and the region.
*The writer was a guest of Walkersdolff Cottage but paid for other expenses.
SUBSCRIBE here now for our FREE news feed, direct to your inbox daily!
