Landsborough places
Landsborough’s town centre offers a wealth of historic sites and buildings
Landsborough is one of the most prominent historical towns on the Sunshine Coast. From its first European settlement in 1871, Landsborough quickly became a successful timber town, with milling and timber transport driving the early expansion of the area.
With the construction of the north/south railway line and its opening in 1890, Landsborough Station became the transport hub for the entire region. In 1912, Landsborough was selected as the administrative capital of the new Landsborough Shire – breaking away from Caboolture Shire – with local businessman John Tytherleigh becoming its first Chairman.
This period up to the late 1930s was the golden age of Landsborough’s early historical development. Many of the buildings present today were built during this era.
Note: While Mellum Creek was an important place for First Nations People, this trail focusses on the post-contact period.
01. Hyde's Butchery
The business at this location (2024) is CJs Bakery, with a butcher shop originally in this location in 1926.
The first proprietor was George Edward Hyde. In those days the business of selling meat was a family concern. The women of the household usually purchased the meat and stories were shared over the counter.
Meat hanging from hooks hovered above a sawdust strewn floor and the centrepiece of the shop was an oversized wooden chopping block. A raw meat smell permeated the air.
Clarry Aldous (father of former Caloundra City Council Mayor Don Aldous) owned the butchery from 1944 to 1979.
“Every housewife kept a dripping tin by her wood stove, ready to save the dripping from the roast meat she cooked. Good roast beef dripping made a tasty sandwich ‘spread’ when times were hard.” (Stan Tutt, Landsborough State School: Celebrating 125 Years of Education, 2004.)
Image credit: Landsborough Museum
02. Miers & Orrell’s Bakery
The former Miers & Orrell’s bakery is located on the corner of Cribb Street and Mill Street. The first bakers in town were Albert Miers and Dick Orrell in the 1920s, followed by L J Ward in the 1930s and W Hunt in 1940.
L J Ward had a delivery cart with his name painted on the side. The cart was pulled by the baker’s horse who seemed to know exactly when to stop so the baker could refill his basket as he ran from house to house, delivering loaves into a bread tin which were left on the front veranda. The baker’s oven was lined with an ant bed which was common at the time and later replaced with fire bricks.
Image credit: Ward’s bread delivery cart outside the bakery in Cribb Street, Landsborough, ca 1930. Picture Sunshine Coast. Sunshine Coast Council.
03. The Mellum Club Hotel
The Landsborough Hotel was originally built in 1888 on the corner of Old Gympie and Maleny Roads, where traffic from the Gympie goldfields passed its doors. Known then as the Mellum Club Hotel, it served hospitality to the passengers of the Cobb & Co coaches, timber getters and early settlers.
It was relocated to its current position by its then owner Henry Dyer in 1914. The hotel was pulled on skids by bullock teams every day for two weeks and continued to trade every night. Word has it that not a single day’s trade was lost nor a single bottle fell off the shelves.
Bring the history of the town to life and listen to the story.
Image credit: The hotel in 1914 being moved on skids to its present day location. Picture Sunshine Coast. Sunshine Coast Council.
04. Dyer’s hall
Dyer’s hall was built in the late 1880s and later moved to this location in Cribb Street around 1912. Today (2024) the building is a café called 'The Steaming Cup'.
The hall was the entertainment centre for the district, prior to the establishment of the School of Arts Memorial Hall in 1924. After 1924, the hall became a retail shop.
The hall was named after Henry Dyer, a local businessman who was licensee of the hotel, and owned a butcher’s shop, bakery, drapery and sawmill. He also leased the railway refreshment rooms.
Landsborough was the municipal capital of the area and the council met in Dyer’s hall from its first meeting on 20 April 1912 until a shire office was built nearby in 1913. Early meetings of the council were conducted by lamplight.
Image credit: Henry Dyer of Landsborough c.1895. State Library of Queensland.
05. The English, Scottish and Australia Bank
The first resident agency of the English, Scottish and Australia Bank (ES & A) in Queensland was opened in Landsborough in October 1922 by Mr H. Evans.
Prior to October, the building was merely a receiving agency for the bank.
Mr. Evans conducted ordinary banking business in Landsborough on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. He visited Mooloolah on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and on Mondays he drove down to Beerwah in his pony and trap. At that time the road to Beerwah from Landsborough was not much more than a track between the trees.
Gold and coins from the Gympie gold rush was often stored at the bank before being transported to Brisbane.
Image credit: Picture Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast Council.
06. Museum/Original Landsborough Shire Council Chambers
The museum is housed in what used to be the Landsborough Shire Chambers, which opened in 1924. The last shire meeting was held on 24 July 1968. It then moved to a new premises in Caloundra, leaving only records until its closure in 1974. The Landsborough and District Historical Society has operated the Landsborough museum from 1976 to 2021.
At the request of the Landsborough and District Historical Society, Sunshine Coast Council now manages one of the largest community museums in South East Queensland, including its collection of more than 14,000 objects.
Learn more about the Landsborough Museum.
07. School of Arts and Memorial Hall
The hall was erected in memory of those who served in WWI and was officially opened on 4 May 1924. For many years it was used for dances, a picture theatre, and a community meeting place.
Image credit: Picture Sunshine Coast. Sunshine Coast Council.
08. World War II Air Raid Shelter
The concrete structure is an air raid shelter designed for use during the second world war.
The shelter was created to provide life-saving cover to those railway station workers who it was thought might come under attack from enemy planes.
Landsborough railway station was the major regional distribution base for goods, equipment and personnel and therefore considered a likely target. Luckily, the shelter was never used for its intended purpose.
Bring the history of the town to life and listen to the story.
Image credit: Picture Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast Libraries.
09. Tytherleigh's General Store
Walking into the old general store, which stood on this site, was a true experience.
It had a shiny long timber counter and big old fashioned chairs for you to sit on. They sold everything from beautiful hats and coats to engine oil. There were five people or moreworking there all dressed neatly in aprons and well groomed. It was a social outing – going to town, often on a horse or in a cart to shop at Tytherleigh’s.
Tytherleigh’s General Store stood in his location up until 1980 when it burnt down and was replaced with the buildings you see here today. The General Store was built in 1913 from the timber of the original store which was located on Gympie Road. It was the most famous store in the town’s history.
Bring the history of the town to life and listen to the story.
Image credit: Picture Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast Council.
10. Elite Cafe
In 1919 John Tytherleigh built the Elite Cafe for his wife and daughter.
It was located on this site, next to his general store and offered hospitality and home-made Victorian refinement.
The cafe was demolished in August 1970 to make way for new shops. One of the cafe’s stained-glass windows was donated to the Landsborough Historical Museum and is visible there today.
Mary Ferris (nee Burgess) recalls "Going across from the Railway to Tytherleigh’s Café for tea after waiting for hours in the hot sun at the station for what turned out to be a ten minute visit to Landsborough of the Prince of Wales in 1920".
The photograph shows Cribb Street in 1916, three years before the cafe was built in the empty space between the two buildings that you can see in the picture.
Image credit: Picture Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast Council.
