Why is North Harbour’s Heritage Park a Big Draw Card for Buyers?

June 14, 2021

Heritage Park

Heritage Park is the jewel in the crown of North Harbour’s five parks and often one of the main reasons our buyers give for choosing one of our house and land packages. Located along the banks of the Caboolture River, Heritage offers riverside mountain bike and walking trails, picnic and BBQ areas, amenities and space to experience the fascinating history of the area. Heritage is also the home of North Harbour parkrun and Sunrise Yoga in the Park. Please click here for more information on these free fitness activities. 

To find out more about our northside house and land packages, click here. 

North Harbour Heritage

Retaining and preserving the historical remnants of the North Harbour site was important part of the North Harbour planning process and the area has been listed and protected on the Queensland Heritage Register since 2011 as a place of Queensland State Significance. 

The North Harbour site was speculatively developed as a cotton farm, in the 1860s, with a company of business partners being owners, one of whom was George Raff. After this joint venture wound up, Mr. Raff purchased the cotton business land and developed it as a sugar cane plantation and processing works. 

A Scottish settler, Raff named this Sugar development ‘Moray Fields’, to complement his Moray Bank house in New Farm, Brisbane. The “Moray” reference is recognition of his origins in Morayshire in north east Scotland and gave rise to the Morayfield suburb name which still exists today. Raff is an extremely significant person in state history having been intimately involved in the early development of Queensland. He was a member of the second Queensland Parliament and a prominent Brisbane local businessman, operating in and out of Raff’s Wharf on the Brisbane River. 

Mr Raff was a prominent supporter of the use of Australian South Sea Islanders as labour on plantations. It remains unclear how many Islander labourers worked on the plantation, but late 1860s newspaper reports suggest up to 70 at a time. These workers came from several islands in the South Pacific, but particularly from modern day Vanuatu and New Caledonia. Space is provided for Australian South Sea Islanders to remember their ancestors at this place.

After the plantation closed, the former plantation lands were later divided into paddocks for grazing dairy cows, though some portions continued to be cultivated. Successive owners erected new buildings and structures, such as sheds and fences. Some plantation-era buildings were re-used, including the ‘mansion’ and possibly some sheds by the Caboolture River. 

A Queenslander-style house was also built close to the lagoon for share-farmers and their families. In the 1950s, a new farm house complex was built and the former plantation owner’s house abandoned and demolished. By the 1960s dairying had ceased and the land sold to A.P.M. Forests Pty Ltd. Most of the property was converted into pine plantation.  North Harbour purchased the site in 2004. 

To find out more about the rich history of the North Harbour site, visit our Heritage Park precinct web page. To find out more about houses for sale and house and land packages in our northside location, please click here. 

North Harbour Living

North Harbour’s Sales and Information Centre and Display Village are open seven days a week, 10am-5pm, located on the corner of Buckley Road and Fraser Drive. To find out more about our land for sale and house and land packages on the northside, visit our website. We also have a café, Havn, onsite which is open 6am-2pm Monday-Friday and 7am-3pm Saturdays and Sundays. 

If you’d like to research all of our Display Village builders and home designs before you visit, we have plenty of information about all the builders at North Harbour including contact details on our website. All of the display homes at North Harbour are included, with walk through online tours and an interactive map of the Display Village. Please click here to visit our Display Village website section which has comprehensive information about all our display homes. We do suggest calling ahead to avoid disappointment if you are keen to visit a particular display, as opening times may vary.  

We endeavour to make the business of finding your dream house and land packages on the northside as easy as possible. You can view latest land releases, house and land packages and general information on our website www.northharbour.com.au, and as mentioned, walk through videos of all display homes at North Harbour are online here.  There is even more information about buying a new home at North Harbour through other online channels: 

• YouTube Channel: We have over 100 videos online on our North Harbour YouTube Channel 
• Blogs: We have over 200 informative blogs on our website 

• Facebook: All our latest updates are posted on Facebook, Instagram and Google 

You can also contact us by phone, 07 5433 1111, or email . Our office is open 10am-5pm every day. And, if required, we can work through the buying process with you by phone, email and electronic document transfer.