[1] Gracemere Homestead comprises a number of single storey, timber and corrugated iron structures, including a large house, characteristic of a Central Queensland pastoral property established during the 1850s.

The first son significant to the story of Gracemere Homestead was David Archer, who arrived in 1834 to work on an uncle's property in New South Wales.

Seeking further pastoral land they explored north along the river systems, selecting Emu Creek, Cooyar, Coonambula and Eidsvold on the Upper Burnett in 1848.

[1] On 4 May 1853 the Archer party reached the top of the northern escarpment of the Dee Range and observed the confluence of the Dawson and Mackenzie Rivers flowing into Keppel Bay.

[1] In August 1855 Charles stocked Farris run with sheep, and set about establishing it as the Archers' head station in the Port Curtis district.

[1] Upon arrival at Gracemere, Charles Archer began the task of equipping the station with the necessary buildings and structures such as stockyards, a shearing shed and huts for the workers.

[1] The composition of the outer walls of the house reveals the degree to which the designer strived to incorporate passive cooling mechanisms and his ability to creatively utilise available materials.

The design of this addition harmonized with that of the existing wing: it was one room deep, had four-metre high outer walls, a matching roof pitch, and verandahs placed on all sides.

A guest cottage built equidistant between the servants' quarters and kitchen must have been constructed at some time following the demolition of Bachelor's Hall in the early 20th century.

Gracemere's garden design comprised two sections: formal surrounds to the house made of raised planting beds retained behind stone walls and containing small scale shrubbery; and beyond this, larger trees scattered informally down to the lagoon shore.

The stone walls surrounding the front circular lawn and raised garden beds were constructed by miners made destitute by the failure of the 1858 Canoona gold rush.

Gracemere lost one square mile of riverside land to the new municipality and its town side boundary was relocated only a couple of kilometres from the homestead.

He eventually married a Norwegian woman and started his own business as a naval architect and boat builder, becoming famous for building many kinds of seaworthy vessels.

Archer & Co. sought to have its twelve runs in the Port Curtis District, including what was still known officially as Farris, consolidated under the name Gracemere, which had been used by the family since 1855.

[1] Daisy Archer, and later her daughter Joan born in 1890, were largely responsible for the woodcarvings that decorate the interior of the main house at Gracemere Homestead.

Joan continued the Nordic associations but tackled illustrative themes from folk tales and legends and included figures rather than only flowers, scrolls and other Neo-Renaissance motifs.

[1] The complex of buildings and landscape that comprise Gracemere Homestead includes: a house and extensive garden, a boat house and jetty, a guest cottage, a detached kitchen and store, an office and bookkeeper's quarters, a carpenter and blacksmith's shop, a vehicle/machinery shed, stables and attached cattle yards, and a one kilometre long avenue of Tamarind trees.

They pass a number of other buildings to the immediate north before arriving at a grassed courtyard and the eastern facades of the single-storey house designed by Colin Archer in 1858 and extended before 1874.

Skillion hoods clad in corrugated iron and supported on simply carved timber brackets shelter the window and door opening east out of the bedroom in this wing.

It is decorated with the carved timber surrounds, chimney piece and fire screen completed by Daisy and Joan Archer, and Henry James King-Church.

On the west, beyond the relevant line of garden beds by approximately three metres, are located two bougainvillea covered arbours constructed from cut saplings and linking the formal area to the natural one by the water's edge.

About three metres north of the north-western corner of the raised beds lies a slate grave marker inscribed with the name George Elliot and the date 1856.

Other dominant species include frangipani (Plumeria rubra), royal palms (Roystonea regia) and Leichhardt trees (Nauclea orientalis) native to the Fitzroy region.

A window on the short eastern facade is sheltered by a curved hood clad in corrugated iron and supported on a largely solid bracket.

A fenceline composed of timber picket parts, the trunk of a mature tree and a section of posts and rails, runs between the north-east corner of the house and a point approximately two-thirds the way along the length of the cottage.

[1] This small structure is located at the end of a pathway leading from the south-western corner of the raised garden bed enclosure to the edge of the lagoon.

[1] The remains of a brick fireplace and oven project out of the western facade and are separately sheltered under a skillion roof clad in corrugated iron.

Its northern elevation is entirely open, with only the timber posts visible, while the short sides facing east and west are partly filled.

Due to the age and intactness of the place, in particular the house clad in iron bark slabs and pit-sawn timbers and the mature trees of the garden, Gracemere Homestead has the potential to yield information through historical and archaeological research that will contribute to an improved understanding of Queensland's history.

Also the design, particularly of the slab-clad section, shows a consideration of passive cooling mechanisms or strategies in response to the sub-tropical climate, which continues to be practiced today.