THE WAY WE WERE
WESTBROOK HALL: Following the deaths of his wife Mary in September, 1865 and his partner, J.D. McLean in December 1866, William Beit of Westbrook Station, remarried Sarah Kellett (Mary’s sister) in Adelaide on November 15, 1871. Personal tragedy stalked William as he died (aged 42) on July 25, 1872 on board the City of Melbourne near Sydney while returning from an overseas trip. Their only son was born posthumously on November 2, 1872 and inherited 49,000 pounds chiefly from the sale of Westbrook to Shanahan and Jennings in March 1874. By this time, Sarah had excised 75 acres of land from the station on which she had Westbrook Hall (a smaller version of the homestead) built during 1874-75. The architect was Richard Suter and the builder, Jack Cameron. It was built of bluestone quarried from Toowoomba’s first quarry which is now the Picnic Point Waterfall area. After construction of the Hall, Sarah remarried Richard Cruise on December 18, 1875 at St Matthews, Drayton. She passed away on October 3, 1884 at the hall. Richard later remarried Helen Spiers Robertson at Balgownie on February 12, 1887 and sold Westbrook Hall to Sarah’s son, William. In the early 1890s, the house became the summer residence for Queensland Governors Norman and Lamington and following the First World War, it was used as a convalescent home for returned soldiers. By the 1920s, the place was a ruin so was purchased by the Toowoomba City Council in 1926. They demolished the house for the stone and reused it for the walls at the south-western corner of Queens Park. The heritage-listed foundations are now buried beneath an earthen mound (Westbrook Hall Park) at the end of Batch Ct, Glenvale, overlooking the Toowoomba-Drayton Cemetery. This photo of Westbrook Hall was taken in 1925.