Five years later Elizabeth was registered as the owner of the allotment where the main family house, known as Oaklands, was constructed and which is now delineated as 100 Mt Crosby Road.

In the 1860s, Ipswich was an emerging centre of commercial and industrial activity and, despite the financial crisis of this period, it remained a place of opportunity for early pioneers.

Coal mining was a burgeoning industry in the district at this time and Wright was from a long line of colliery owners in Ireland and had worked for several years in his father's mine before embarking for Australia This experience secured him a job at the Old Tivoli Pit owned by Harry Hooper and John Robinson, where he remained until 1873.

[1] Although John Wright's mining interests were spread over Queensland, he resided in Tivoli until his death in 1915 and acquired a distinct local patriotism.

While described in The History of Queensland (1919) as a "man of quiet disposition, reserved, and unassuming", he was known to have supported many local charities and with his wife helped found a Sunday school in the area.

The Wrights also became prominent freehold landowners in the North Ipswich district, with Brassall Shire Council Valuation Registers showing the family owned several estates by the early 1900s.

[1] The juxtaposition of these properties is as much a physical representation of the rising social and financial fortunes offered to Ipswich colliers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as it is a reminder of the concept of the extended family and a way of life no longer common.

Four years later the property passed to Benjamin Morgan, a close friend of the Wright family whose father had reputedly built a hut of chaff bags in a gully below Oaklands.

After his father's death in 1915, John Wright reputedly moved to the Darling Downs to manage the family's mining interests in the region but Wrightson remained his property until 1924 when title to the estate was transferred to Robert Hutchins Hunter.

[1] The Wright Family Houses are located on large allotments fronting Mt Crosby Road in Tivoli, north of the Ipswich city centre.

A small hip-roof structure at the right of the house is sheeted in corrugated iron and may originally have functioned as a service wing or business office.

Early tiled garden-edging remains lining the borders of the front path leading to the main entrance of the house.

The house has a short-ridge pyramid roof clad in corrugated iron, with two corbelled chimneystacks of brick construction rising above.

The decorative fretwork pediment above the stairs features a sunray motif, which is repeated in the timber brackets to the verandah posts and which was a common embellishment of Irish design.

The northern side of the house is enclosed with a combination of early 20th century sliding and fixed windows with coloured glass.

The room to the left also has a sliding door opening in an area that includes 2 bathrooms, toilet and storage spaces, created by enclosing the southern verandah.

At the end of the hallway a single glazed timber door with etched glass provides access to the living room, which has a white marble fireplace.

Built for the collier and mining proprietor, John Wright and his wife, Elizabeth, these houses are representative of the burgeoning economic fortunes of the Ipswich region during the late 19th century.

Built for the collier and mining proprietor, John Wright and his wife, Elizabeth, these houses are representative of the burgeoning economic fortunes of the Ipswich region during the late 19th century.

With its rich heritage, Ipswich abounds with significant examples of early Queensland architecture and as such these houses represent an important landmark in the area and their integrity as a group is strengthened by the direct connection between them.