Garden

A farmhouse garden. Such an integral part of the family home, providing a place to relax when the work is done, to enjoy family activities or to just enjoy the pleasure of watching the fruits of your labours blossom. The food garden and orchard can often mean the difference between making ends meet and in in the temperate Blackall Range climate, provide extended living areas. Garden elements such as paths, sheds and water tanks, a clothes line and outhouses have to be considered as the garden grows. Nothing much has changed in these regards since the Fairview farmhouse gardens began, bringing joy to so many families since the Pattemore family first encircled their home with their garden in 1907.

After several years of neglect since Fairview became part of the wider Maleny Community Precinct purchase, the once vibrant gardens at Fairview went into a period of decline.  

But a dedicated group of Friends of Pattemore House volunteers, with help from the community, are now restoring and maintaining the Fairview gardens.

The volunteers follow a carefully researched Garden Management Plan that seeks to respect and reflect the various ways each family who called Fairview home created the garden they needed. From the raw, cleared paddocks, when the Pattemore family set about turning it into a place that complemented their newly built home in 1907 (when there were more flower garden and vegetable beds where there is now lawn) 

through the share-farming years after the Pattemores had left in 1948

to the last family who lived and worked at Fairview, the Armstrong family, who left in 1995.

This reflected garden history, including the locations of various gardens and garden features, how the place was used and the associations of the different families and individuals through the house’s history in particular parts of the grounds, is the basis for the reconstruction works. The Fairview State Heritage listing (Joost please use link: https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=602105) includes about 2.5 ha of land.  This area takes in the fenced garden area around the house, together with orchard, yards, and paddocks once used for grazing and cropping. The evidence of old documents and photographs, oral testimonies, and the place itself, has been used to understand the history of changes to the gardens and grounds.

The Fairview volunteers (Friends of Pattemore House) with thanks to funding from the Sunshine Coast Council, have already overseen the reconstruction of the Pattemore’s front garden picket fence, rose arbour and washing line. Work continues to see the reconstructions of a long gone buggy shed, outside dunny and a traditional water tank on its stand. 

Today, visitors can enjoy a meander through the grounds at Fairview and experience how the many garden elements have brought pleasure to so many since 1907. Or simply enjoy the view and the scent of the roses and blooms as they enjoy a delicious home-baked afternoon tea on the verandas of Fairview!