Nindooinbah
On a clear day you can stand on the verandah at Nindooinbah and see about 110km (60 miles) over the water and across the valley. Nindooinbah is a local Aboriginal word meaning ‘the place of ashes’. In times gone by the Aborigines used to camp and make their fires near the lagoon, close to the garden edge.
The house
A traditional Queenslander dating from the 1850s, the house has large rooms, wide ornate verandahs and elaborate woodwork fashioned from Australian cedar that once grew on the property. Margaret Hockey was born at Nindooinbah. Her grandparents, the Collins, purchased the property in 1906 and enlarged the homestead. Their travels to Japan influenced the layout of the garden, particularly the design of the grand entry pergola.
Margaret married artist Patrick Hockey in 1983, and together they began to restore the house and garden. Patrick designed the entrance pond, the fountain and the teahouse on the lake, picking up on the oriental influence that the Collins had admired so much.
Features of the garden
Several queen palms (Arecastrum romanzoffianum) surround the house. The main drive was planted early in the 1900s with jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia) and camphor laurels (Cinnamomum camphora). An old arboretum contains many fine specimens, including traveller’s palms (Ravenala madagascariensis), hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), bunya bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) English oak (Quercus robur), silky oak (Grevillea robusta), tamarinds, macadamias and a superb bottle tree. The garden is filled with flowering sub-tropical plants, annuals and bulbs. It is well known for its pink and white Shirley poppies. The temple gate entrance is framed with giant stands of bamboo, and is painted lacquer red. The teahouse is also red, and appears to float above the lake just like the structure depicted on willow-pattern china.
Patrick Hockey 1948-1992
Patrick Hockey had a natural talent that has been compared stylistically to Sidney Nolan, although the subject matter of his early work was closer to Russel Drysdale. He loved the bush, and his work reflected his upbringing on a grazing property. He painted herds of cattle, cattle sales, drovers, country racetracks, water tanks, windmills, miners, outback landscapes and bush people, always with a great sense of humour. He also painted the garden at Nindooinbah, the flowers and the pet Dalmatians, and many of those paintings still hang in the house.
Further information
Nindooinbah is at Beaudesert, Qld. Both the house and garden will be open to the public October 7 and 8 under Australia’s Open Garden Scheme. For details ring 1902 261 026 closer to the date.