They tended to be located alongside a creek to enable a good supply of clean, fresh water - a key element in the processing of the skins and wool.

[5] The allotments along Hilliards Creek were surveyed in 1853 and Thomas Blacket Stephens established a fellmongery shortly afterwards, under the management of Mr Beattie, on sections 100 and 101, Parish of Cleveland.

[6][7] Stephens commenced business at the time when efforts were being made to establish Cleveland Point as the port for Moreton Bay, and he may well have set up his establishment on Hilliards Creek to service the wool trade expected to travel from Ipswich to Cleveland Point.

[8] Stephens moved his operations to his property "Ekibin" near South Brisbane in the early 1860s, at about the time when attempts to establish a port at Cleveland ended (Ryan 2005:7).

[8] Stephens was a well-known figure in the early colony becoming owner of the Moreton Bay Courier in 1861, and Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for South Brisbane in 1863.

Thomas Alford obtained a permit from the Cleveland Divisional Board in July 1894 to erect a wool scouring and fellmongering works on allotment 4 of section 100, the site of Stephens' earlier fellmongery.

Timber was obtained from Gilbert Burnett's sawmill located on the Fernbourne Estate at Wellington Point (see Whepstead) (BC 1894a).

The construction was expected to take six weeks to complete, and included the following:[1][12] The fellmongery was supervised by Mr T. Sefton who was experienced in the industry in both England and the colonies;[12] although it appears Alford maintained an active role.

Finally deciding to construct the siding at Ormiston in 1895, Alford in the meantime had to cart all the skins and wool from Wellington Point railway station and back again[13] Alford constructed a dam across Hilliards Creek in 1901 in order to improve the control of water, a vital resource for the fellmongery operation.

[1] A causeway across the creek which forms part of the modern bike/walking track is situated to the west of the brick foundations.

The lower levels of the causeway consist of rough stone and rubble and appear of an early construction.

The processing of wool was commonly undertaken in and around Brisbane in locations conveniently situated to fresh water sources and transport networks yet the remains of the Ormiston Fellmongery are the only known surviving elements in the region.

The analysis of this archaeological evidence may also provide an insight into the broader trade networks of the region through the presence of materials from other parts of south-east Queensland and further afield.

[1] Additional subsurface archaeological deposits and features may potentially occur across the site, including evidence of the earlier fellmongery operations between the 1850s and 1860s.

This period of operations is associated with Thomas Blacket Stephens, an important identity in Queensland's history and former owner of the Moreton Bay Courier and later the second mayor of Brisbane.

Stephens was well known for his radical politics and social and moral views that often ran in opposition to popular thinking at the time.