Little Farmhouse

On 1 September 1866, John Little bought a farm site in the Eight Mile Plains Agricultural Reserve. He paid £85 for 85 acres designated Portion 3 of the Reserve. John Little (born 1816) with his daughters Jane (born 1841) and Hannah (born 1844) had only arrived in Brisbane from Glasgow aboard the immigrant ship Maryborough on 17 August 1866. The Little family lived and worked on their small crop farm. John Little is first listed as receiving mail in the Kuraby District (that included modern Runcorn) in the 1874 edition of the Queensland Post Office Directory. As each edition was printed the year after postal addresses had been surveyed then John Little had a residence on his farm by 1873. Thus the farmhouse at 111 Warrigal Road is dated as circa 1873. The farmhouse does contain elements that are identified as of the 1870s architectural style. It is probable that local timbers were used in the construction of this farmhouse. 

John Little died on 5 March 1878. The farm passed to spinster Jane Little and her sister Hannah Hendry (wife of James Hendry). On 1 November 1878, Jane married John Thomas Baxter. When Jane died on 14 August 1881, her half-share of the farm passed to widower John T. Baxter. Baxter was listed as a farmer at Eight Mile Plains in the 1889 edition of the Queensland Post Office Directory. John remarried and when he died on 26 March 1897, the half-share of the Little’s farm transferred to his wife Sarah Baxter. Sarah then married Frank Ernest Rouse on 1 June 1898. Sarah returned her half-share of the farm to Hannah Hendry nee Little on 21 November 1889. 

On 21 November 1899, Hannah obtained a new title for the entire 85-acre farm. This title showed that Warrigal Road (formerly Chinamen’s Rd. due to the local market gardeners) existed and that the farm backed onto a small creek (Bulimba Creek). In 1889, her husband James is shown as being a Logan Village resident. The 1903 Commonwealth Electoral Roll confirms that Hannah and dairy farmer James were living at Quincey Flat, Logan Village and not at the Little’s farm. But by 1908, they had moved to the Warrigal Road farm. Hannah died on 17 September 1910. The farm transferred to James on 23 September. This ended the Little family’s 44-year relationship with the farm on Warrigal Road. 

The Buyers family then became linked to the property. Jones Buyers purchased the farm on 18 April 1912. Jones Buyers’ identity remains a mystery. His death certificate records his father as a William Buyers and his mother as Margaret Stewart. No birth certificate is recorded for a Jones Buyers. The only records are of a W. Buyers sailing from Brisbane to Sydney in December 1913 and a housewife Margaret Stewart residing in Menzies Street, Petrie Terrace. William James Buyers is recorded as working the Kuraby farm at this time. What the connection is between William and Jones Buyers is unknown. William J. Buyers had married Emma Jane Lindley on 4 May 1908. The couple settled on the Warrigal Road farm. Jones (misspelt as James in the titles) Buyers died on 10 August 1913. The Union Trustee Company of Australia Ltd handled his estate. It took 26 years to settle. During those years, William and Jane continued to work the farm. William James Buyers died on 30 November 1928. 

The Buyers’ farm was part of a district known from the 1920s-1960s as the ‘Fruit Salad Bowl of Brisbane’. Their children were initial enrolments at the new Kuraby School in 1928. The family was active in the Kuraby Cricket Club. In 1936, the farmhouse got electricity. By 1939, a second residence was added close to the original farmhouse. This inter-war residence has since been demolished. On 20 September 1939, Jones Buyer’ estate transferred the farm to William and Emma’s son John (Jack) Alick Buyers. During World War Two, three Buyers served in the army. Their names are recorded on the Kuraby and Eight Mile Plains District ‘Roll of Honour’ at the Eight Mile Plains School. Jack Buyers was officially prevented from serving as he was deemed engaged in an essential industry i.e. food production. His wife Lily was active in war relief activities of the Country Women’s Association (Kuraby Branch). 

Post-war, Jack grew vegetables, with bores sunk for irrigation and he diversified into cattle. In 1963, Jack subdivided the farm into Lots 1 and 2. He transferred Lot 1 to his son Robert Buyers in 1964. He retained Lot 2 (nearly 78 acres). In 1985, Jack began a partnership with Warrigal Farms Pty Ltd. The farm remains run by Richard Buyers, who is the great-grandson of William and Emma Buyers. In 2000, the Buyers family’s local importance was detailed in A History of Kuraby and Eight Mile Plains.     

‘Hughesville’ (built 1892-93) at 2497 Logan Road, Eight Mile Plains is the best known heritage place within a district that encompasses the Little Farm.  But ‘Hughesville’, as a private residence, was built on a grander scale (larger and with wrought iron balustrades). The Little farmhouse is not only a much earlier (1870s) building than ‘Hughesville’ but also the Warrigal Road building is more representative of the modest style of farmhouses that once dotted this district.  

Note: The farmhouse was removed from 111 Warrigal Rd circa 2012 at the time of its listing and the transfer of the land to Council. There have been suggestions that the farmhouse could be retained (relocated) to its setting among the mango trees and the area used as a community garden. (October 2014. Carmel Black).

1. Ancestry.com.au, http://search.ancestry.com.au/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=35&rank=1&new=1&so=3&MSAV=0&msT=1&gss=ms_f-35&gsfn=geoffrey&gsln=edyveanwalker&msrpn__ftp=Tarragindi%2C+Queensland%2C+Australia&msrpn=100747&msrpn_PInfo=8-|0|1652397|0|5027|0|30096|0|0|100747|0|&sbo=0&uidh=nd5&_83004003-n_xcl=f

2. Baines & MacKay, Black Ball Line – Liverpool, http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/blackball.htm

3. Brisbane City Council Properties on the Web

4. Brisbane City Council Heritage Unit, Your house has a history – keys to unlocking its past, (Brisbane: Brisbane City Council, 2004)

5. Commonwealth Electoral Rolls, 1903-1949 editions

6. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of title and other records.

7. Donovan, Ron, A History of Kuraby and Eight Mile Plains, (Brisbane: Ron Donovan, 2000)

8. Marriott, Joy (editor), Eight Mile Plains State School 1869-1994 – 125 years, (Brisbane: Eight Mile Plains School, 1994)

9. John Oxley Library, photographic collection.

10. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949

11. Queensland State Archives, Index to Registers of Immigrant Ships’ Arrivals 1848-1912

12. Reid, Angela, letter to Dr. Carmel Black, Senior Historian, Brisbane City Council, 20 May 2011