[2] Soon after the run was acquired by Borthwick's manager, George Clapperton, who retained the property until his death in 1875 when it was transferred to his estate.

A depasturing license was issued to Borthwick and Oliver by the New South Wales Government in 1844 (the separation of Queensland not occurring until 1859).

Borthwick seems to have spent very little time at Tarong from an early date soon after its establishment, leaving the day-to-day running of the property to his manager George Clapperton.

[1] In 1857 Clapperton acquired the lease of the property and it is through a series of diaries, journals, ledgers and letterbooks kept by him that a record of much of the history of Tarong Station after the mid-1850s is kept.

This building originally had a gabled roof clad with shingles and extending, with a lower pitch, over verandahs at the front and rear.

In 1856 reports of the garden suggest that it was "in a poor state of cultivation having been for long used as a sheep yard, occasionally as a green barley park, and again as a maize field."

As a result of Clapperton's death, a small cemetery to the north west of the residence was established to house his grave stone.

In June 1874 a brickmaker was employed full-time at Tarong making brick for use at the property and also for selling locally as closer settlement increased the population in the Nanango area.

The Wilsons, who now owned Tarong, employed a local carpenter, Mr Hugh Davidson, to plan and calculate the quantity of timber for the proposed building in January 1890.

Assistance was offered to the entire project by a Mr Moppett who worked at Tarong for many years carrying out small carpentering, painting and papering jobs.

By November 1890 the carpentering work was complete and Moppett was left with the wall papering and making and laying of carpets.

In December of that year Moppett constructed wardrobes and lined and papered the original dining room in the first wing of the house.

[1] The original lease holding of Tarong was reduced with the government encouraging closer settlement in the South Burnett region.

This happened over many years from the 1870s, to consolidation in the mid-1880s and to the early twentieth century when two Land Acts (1897 and 1902) allowed the resumption of much of the lease.

[1] The principal residence at Tarong comprises three timber buildings, of varying ages, separate in structure but joined by verandahs, an internal garden courtyard and a semi open breezeway.

Adjoining the dining room on the north eastern side is a skillion roofed and timber framed extension clad with horizontal chamfered boards.

Most of this section of the residence is elevated only very slightly from the ground level, although a gentle tapering downwards to the north west necessitates open tread timber steps providing access to the south western verandah.

Later V-J pine boarding lines the internal walls up to the level of the start of the ceiling rake in the two smaller rooms.

The building has a corrugated iron hipped roof, again steeply pitched over the main rooms and more gradual over the front and rear verandahs.

The north eastern end of the kitchen wing supports a large climbing plant which, though picturesque, threatens to overtake the building.

The door to the kitchen from the north western verandah comprises three adze cut timber slabs, braced on the rear side.

[1] A fireplace is found in the eastern corner of this section, formed by white washed bricks which project from one of the principal rooms onto the verandah space and taper towards the ceiling.

Adjacent to the south west side of the base of the chimney, on the verandah, is a timber V-J boarded phone box.

Early furniture and fittings, including wardrobes, drawers, shelving units, chimney mantle and fireplace survive in this part of the residence.

Tarong Homestead was established by John James Malcolm Borthwick in about 1842, one of the first runs taken in the Wide Bay/Burnett area.

Tarong has special associations with the South Burnett community as one of their first settled stations and a place of employment for local residents and their families many of whom remain in the area.

[1] The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.

The place is associated with the Clapperton family who have owned Tarong since 1857 and were instrumental in the development of the South Burnett region and the town of Nanango.