Home on a Hill

Here is a little more about the history of Hillstone St Lucia.

Hillstone St Lucia and the hundred acre bar are on the foundations of an old house Hillstone.

Our story begins with an enterprising Englishman, William Dart, a wheelwright and coachbuilder, who arrived in Brisbane in the 1850s. 20 year old Dart immigrated to Australia looking for a new life. Within a couple of years he was growing cotton and bananas on the Brisbane River flats, near where the University boatshed now stands.

In the 1860s William Dart imported sugar cane from Java and Mauritius and established a cane plantation near here, encouraging other farmers on the river flats to do the same. He built a sugar mill in the 1870s, producing brown sugar, but soon became a medal-winning pioneer in the manufacturing of white sugar.

In the 1880s, on this site, William Dart built a grand house for his wife and eight children, called Hillstone. Much later, in the 1920s this house became the first club house for Indooroopilly Golf Club, the predecessor of the rooms and terraces here today.

St Lucia Estate:

In the 1880s William Dart sold one of his sugar plantations to William Wilson, who was born on the island of St Lucia in the West Indies. With a keen eye for real estate, Wilson Subdivided Dart s land into housing blocks and called it the St Lucia Estate, and this is how the area inherited its name.

Sandy Creek:

In the earliest descriptions of this area Sandy Creek was named as a good spot for spearing fish. It was populated with birds and other wildlife a plentiful food source. In 1925 the land around Sandy Creek was declared a bird sanctuary, and was subdivided into a 123 acre golf links, named the Indooroopilly Golf Club. In 1985 the Indooroopilly Golf Club moved to Long Pocket, and this became the St Lucia Golf Links a public golf course and reception centre.

The Swedish Invasion:

In 1986 Jens Holland and Hans Pettersson, who had recently arrived from Sweden, took over the running of the old club house. Years on, still working closely with their families and first-rate team, they have transformed the whole site, creating stylish rooms and enormous outdoor terraces as the setting for their distinctive Scandinavian approach to hospitality.

Sitting up on this ridge above Sandy Creek, on the foundations of the old house Hillstone, we re looking out over one hundred acres of the city s parklands. It s the history of this site and the vista of these rolling acres that inspired Hillstone St Lucia and hundred acre bar.


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