On Wednesday 1st September, 2025, an unusual spring clean occured in the Garryowen Estate area of Queanbeyan. Connee’s old house on the corner of Surveyor St and Stornaway Road was demolished.

It had been infested with borers since at least the 1970s, and despite multiple renovations and repairs through the years to replace timbers, and alongside other issue, it was ultimately not salvagable.

At one point it was known as Thornleigh. This is the story of that house.

 

It’s not known exactly when the house was built but assumed prior to 1909 when the O’Neill family purchased it. It was a wooden structure of an Edwardian/Federation style, originally with two brick chimneys serving three fireplaces.

The foundations were little more than boulders on the ground to provide a level base above the soil, and the house sat on these. Two steps up to the verandah then the front door opened to a hallway down the center of the house, with rooms to each side. The original design was likely four rooms, with chimney between the two rooms on the left (with a fireplace to each room), and the rear-right room being the kitchen with a kitchen cooking chimney (hooks inside the chimney for hanging pots, etc) at the rear wall.

In 1947 the house was extended with the “addition of bathroom, laundry, porch and w.c. to rear of residence”. This may be the origin of the concrete slab that began part way up the hall.

At an unknown time or times the house was again modified, with the kitchen moved to the rear of the house (the door at end of hallway), original kitchen becoming a bedroom, and the rear-left room being extended nearly double – noting that this extension was still on a wooden floor but opened from the concrete slab section of the hall – so may have been based on an earlier extension. As the house was owned by a builder and then builder’s labourer from 1957 to 1972, it’s plausible that modifications were done by those owners.

In the mid 70s, the extended rear-left room was split by new owners David and Connee with a new wall to make it two rooms, making the house four bedroom. On the left of the hallway: bedroom, lounge, bedroom (painted white). On the right: bedroom, bedroom (painted black), bathroom/toilet (and laundry). The door at the end of the hall opened to the kitchen.

In the mid to late 70s and early 80s the house had an extensive borer problem and a lot of flooring and wall paneling was replaced – including the entirety of the lounge floorboards and outer wall to that room. Other unrelated interior work was done such as adding a lower false ceiling in the hallway (the prior ceiling remained above it) and adding the lounge/hall window. Pressed tin ceilings were added to the lounge, white bedroom and hall.

In the 70s and 80s the house was extended again, growing the concrete slab kitchen space, along with an unfinished extension across the rear of the house which would have become a large kitchen/family space. This was never finished beyond basic foundations. At the time of this final extension (approx 1988) the original kitchen chimney was demolished as it was leaning and there were concerns it would pull the house over. After it was removed, it was found that some of the supporting house structure was failing (borers/rot) and the house was in fact collapsing and pulling the chimney over. More renovations and repairs followed, sometimes repeating previous work as borers still remained.

The verandah extended across the front of the house and down the eastern side. This is visible in the O’Neill photo with a bullnose roof. Sometime prior to the mid 1970s this was replaced with a flat sheet roof. It’s plausible that the verandah was extended to match the third room on the left, and that it was re-roofed (and possibly re-floored) at that time. A door from the lounge room to the verandah was added in the late 70s after that wall was replaced.

The basic appearance of the house from the front changed little from the 1900s (earliest known photographs) to 2025, with the notable ones being the loss of trestlework, the change in verandah roofing,  in the 90s the front windows were replaced with thinner/taller windows, and in the 90s or 2000s the verandah railings and the non-structural pole on either side of the front step were also removed.

The faded pink paint seen in the 1970s at the front was removed by a burn-and-scrape method in the mid 80s, but remained on some other outer walls. Till it was demolished, the roof retained older electrical connections – they were not in use in 1975 having already been made redundant by then, but it’s unclear if these were original 1920s/30s connections when electricity was first brought to the area, or a later type.

Perhaps the largest change in overall appearance was simply the growth of trees and the front ivy hedge on the property – originally grown around the steel fence that was already in place in 1975, though extensions added height to keep the dogs in the yard as the ivy provided an easier climb for them to escape!

Behind the scenes however, there was regular work through the years replacing wood that was found to be infested with borers, alongside other repairs and renovations.

Meet the sculptures

The three sculptures are John John (with the walking stick), Dos (hands by her side) and Brownie (hands outstretched). They were completed in 1984/85, and exhibited at Connee’s Post Graduate exhibition in 1985. After the exhibition, they were brought to Surveyor St and were put on the porch in the interim till a proper location could be found for them. Famously, they stayed on the porch for over 30 years. Occasionally moving around, and getting dressed up for Christmas every year.

History of the land

Records of the land begin when it was originally part of a 1040 acre lot applied for by Robert Campbell, Snr, at a price of 5s per acre – and can be seen on this map at the National Library of Australia. In the early 1850s, George Campbell Snr subdivided part of this land into multiple farm paddocks – the Garryowen Estate, the area between Campbell Road and Stornaway Road. This farmlet was sold in 1854 for £60, and then again in 1860 for £115 then to the surveyor William Henry O’Malley Wood for £200 (proving property bubbles are not a new thing!) in 1884. Wood subdivided the farmlet into the 24 building sites, with Surveyor Street (named after his profession) down the middle (Visible in this 1886 map at the State Library of NSW). This was the first extension to the Municipality of Queanbeyan, and the sites were auctioned in 1885.

In 1887 Peter Schumack bid £57.15.00 for four lots including what is now 22 Surveyor and 70 Stornaway. It’s likely the house was build during Schumack’s ownership.

In 1909, Thomas Rutledge O’Neill purchased the property for £9.

O’Neill was a mail coach contractor and later a taxi owner, with his garage at the property (likely the sheds that later became part of 70 Stornaway when that was subdivided), and in 1931 it was referred to as the location of “T.R. O’Neill’s C.O.R Depot”, where Motor Spirit could be purchased.  Commonwealth Oil Refineries was a precursor to BP Australia, and in late 1930 they were already building their depot in Uriarra road. It’s unclear if O’Neill’s depot was a temporary measure or even official. However it’s reasonable to say that it appears that this was one of the first petrol stations in Queanbeyan.

It’s likely the house was connected to electricity when it was brought into the area in the 1920s and 30s.

The house was extended then sold in 1950 to the Webber family. In 1952 it was subdivided, splitting the sheds at the back onto a separate property – now 70 Stornaway Rd

In 1957 Richard Webber (builder) sold 22 Surveyor to Colin McKenna (builders labourer).

A note aside at this point – Stornaway Road was sealed around 1957, and Queanbeyan High was opened three blocks up the hill in 1959, with Surveyor Street then being sealed in 1961. Due to all these and other factors, the Surveyor/Stornaway intersection briefly gained a reputation as one of the most dangerous in the municipality!

Colin McKenna passed away in 1972, and his widow, Catherine, sold the house to David and Connee in June 1975, with ownership transferring to Connee in 1978. She kept the home with ad-hoc renovations and repairs through to 2021 when she passed away.

“Thornleigh”

In 1939, The Queanbeyan Age referenced the home of Mr and Mrs T. R. O’Neill as “Thornleigh”, though the name more correctly belonged to the tennis courts that ran behind the house (along the backyards of 72-78 Stornaway).

Connee sometimes referred to the property by this name.

What’s next?

After Connee passed, the house was  purchased by her grandson in 2023, keeping the property in the family as per her hopes. Unfortunately, the decades of battling borers and rot had only kept the existing problems at bay, but not solved them. The issues were showing up in more places and new problems were arising – the old bricks in the remaining chimney were now crumbling!

The house had reached the point where it had to be completely replaced, and doing so in-place was not viable. Thus on the 1st of September it was demolished.

 

A new house is planned for the site.

A new home – and very much in keeping with not only the heritage style of the area but the specific style of the old home. It wont be a replica, but will look familiar and even have some elements which Connee had long considered through the years.

Here’s hoping for the best for the next hundred years!

Acknowledgements and additional links

I must acknowledge Philip and Sandra Hawke for their research into the history of the property and the earliest photo, along with a neighbour and @coolqueanbeyan (Instagram) for their photos of the final view, and aftermath respectively.

 

Other links:

• In 2016 Connee chatted to Lib of the “I am QBN” tumblr
• In 2025 Nemo chatted to ABC Canberra regarding the demolition: chatted to ABC Canberra 
• The Queanbeyan Hive, where an exhibition of her works was shown in 2021
• Rusten House – Art Center in Queanbeyan which Connee helped to save, and currently holds two pieces of her art in a permanent display
• Connee’s Postgraduate Thesis: “Report on how one flew over the kookaburra’s nest“