Redland Bay Hotel

With Queensland's sugar industry taking root and flourishing, an Englishman of means, Richard Newton sought to follow the successful example set by Captain Louie Hope who pioneered the State’s sugar industry at Ormiston, 25 kilometres to the North.

Hope, the aristocratic son of the Scottish Earl of Hopetoun built an elegant mansion, Ormiston House, which set the standard for those colonial entrepreneurs who sought to make their fortune in the colonies. Ormiston House and is preserved as a museum in the grounds of what is now a Carmelite Nunnery.

Newton acquired 593 acres of superb red soil land in what is now Redland Bay, and set about creating his own aristocratic domain. A colonial mansion similar in grandeur to Hope’s Ormiston House was built on the site of the now Redland Bay Hotel. The grand house was set among equally impressive gardens, with thousands of imported plants and a long, pine tree lined driveway. Redland Bay and Ormiston have in common the rich red soil that could produce abundant crops.

Original Redland Bay Hotel, formerly Richard Newton's 'Plantation' (John Oxley Lib.)

The property become known as ‘The Plantation’ and while it provided much-needed local employment, it also used Kanak (Melanesian islanders from what is now Vanuatu and New Caledonia) labourers who had been brought to Queensland, sometimes against their will, to service the sugar industry. It was rationalised by the white settlers that white-skinned Europeans would be physically unable to perform heavy labour in tropical conditions.

Reports vary as to their treatment, though it is certain that they were paid well below would be paid for equivalent work. The practice of exploiting labour was widespread in many 19^th century colonies, including those of France and Spain.

In 1879, the Plantation was sold to William Dart who operated it as a going concern until being sold again and subdivided into smaller farms.

The Plantation house became the Redland Bay Hotel sometime before 1911. It was described in 1911 government documents as having 16 bedrooms, one bar, two dining rooms, and a stable for eight horses

A catastrophic fire reduced the hotel to ashes in the 1930’s. It has since been rebuilt, and is a focus of community life as well as a popular destination for weekend daytrippers from Brisbane.