[1] Bullamon Homestead, on the Moonie River 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) southwest of Thallon, was established by the early 1860s, being marked on Surveyor Francis Thomas Gregory's map of the district drawn in April 1864.
[1] Bullamon Homestead was erected on Gerar, a small sheep run of just over 20 square miles, first leased to Richard Bligh in 1857, but transferred in 1859 and again in 1860, before taken up by Leonard McKay in 1864.
Duncan Forbes McKay, grazier, and his young family were resident at Bullamon by at least October 1866, and it is likely the log house had been constructed by this time.
By 1868 Bullamon Homestead supported the McKay family, an overseer, 4 drovers, 2 contractors (probably ringbarking or fencing), a storekeeper and a blacksmith.
About 1876 James Hill replaced Turnbull as manager at Bullamon, and two of his infant sons who died in 1877 and 1882 lie buried near the house.
When consolidated in July 1888 under the provisions of the 1884 Crown Lands Act, Bullamon comprised 42 runs in the Moonie River area and totalled approximately 878,720 acres (355,610 ha).
[1] Of all the Australian Pastoral Company's holdings, the Bullamon aggregation was most prone to flood, drought and prickly pear, and made constant losses through the 1890s and early 1900s.
In 1910 the St George Progress Association requested that the government resume all of Bullamon, much of which was thickly infested with prickly pear, for closer settlement.
[1] The Bullamon Homestead site extends about 150 metres (490 ft) along the east bank of the Moonie River, and encompasses a residence, associated buildings and foundations, and an extensive garden.
[1] The house originally consisted of a two-roomed building of dropped-log construction (probably Cypress pine), with a hipped, shingled roof and verandahs on all sides.
This core, with its massive timber uprights, horizontal dropped logs, and shingled roof, survives, and sits on the original bedlogs.
[1] The interior and some of the exterior walls are lined with wide, horizontal tongue and groove boards, at a later date to the original construction, probably 1870s or 1880s.
Bullamon Homestead is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland history, being closely associated with the establishment of pastoralism in the Moonie River district in the mid-19th century.
The residence at Bullamon Homestead offers rare evidence in Queensland of early bush construction technology employing dropped-logs, treenails, adzed timber uprights, bedlogs and shingle roofing.
Bullamon Homestead has the potential to yield information on other aspects of early settler life and building construction on the Queensland frontier.
Bullamon Homestead retains a substantially intact mid-19th century timber residence and evidence of its associated gardens, including a brick irrigation system, and is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of a remote early head station in southwest Queensland.