John sessarago

Fairholme map
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Fairholme prep

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Fairholm

There is now no doubt at all that this is the oldest house in Strathfield. To begin at the beginning, here is a small extract from a paper read to the Royal Australian Historical Society in 1923 and published in the Society’s – Journal later that year (Vol. 8, page 358).

’There was no Strathfield station for some years after 1869. The writer’s father petitioned the Government for a road, a continuation of the Homebush Road on the Redmire estate to Homebush station, and the road was granted. Our first neighbours were Mr. William Wakeford, railway contractor; Mr. C. J. Muddle, Deputy Registrar – General; Mr. Donald Vernon, Secretary for Railways; Mr. John Vernon, afterwards Auditor – General; and Mr. Walter Renny, Mayor of Sydney’.

The paper was by Mr. C. A. Henderson whose father was one of the first to move to the Redmire Estate in, or shortly after, 1867. The Henderson’s established the Seven Oaks Dairy facing Homebush Road near Redmyre Road and Mr. Henderson’s paper was based on what had been told to him by his father and on his own childhood reco

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Research team

From 2003 to 2011, Gélinas was curator of the long-term exhibition Face to Face: The Canadian Personalities Hall (2007), followed by A Queen and Her Country (2012–2013). He was also part of the team for the Canadian History Hall, which opened in 2017, and is co-curator of the exhibition Lost Liberties – The War Measures Act (2021–2022).

Gélinas’s research and publications explore the political, intellectual and constitutional history of Canada and Quebec during the 20th century. In 2007, Les Presses de l’Université Laval published La droite intellectuelle québécoise et la Révolution tranquille [Intellectual Property in Quebec and the Quiet Revolution], an adaptation of his doctoral thesis. With Lucia Ferretti, he edited Duplessis, son milieu, son époque [Duplessis, His Time and His World] (2010) and, with Éric Bédard, edited two volumes in the Chroniques politiques de René Lévesque [The Political Writings of René Lévesque] (2014 and 2017). His current research focuses on the history of Canadian-American relations.

Gélinas has a BA and an MA in Histor

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Our History

Beginnings

1908-1916

Fairholme College had its beginnings in Spreydon Girls’ College, opened by two sisters, Miss Beth and Miss Jessie Thomson, on 4 February 1908 at a house in Russell Street, Newtown, Toowoomba. By 1911, the need for more room resulted in Spreydon College moving to a more spacious home in Rome Street, Newtown, that was named ‘Spreydon’ after the College.

Miss Beth Thomson and Miss Jessie Thomson were Co-Principals of Spreydon from 1908 to 1914, before returning to Melbourne and becoming joint Principals of Stratherne Presbyterian Girls’ Grammar School.
From May 1909, Spreydon College had been under the patronage of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland.
The Presbyterian Church of Queensland purchased Spreydon College from the Thomsons in December 1914. The Presbyterian Ladies College Limited opened in January 1915 at ‘Spreydon’, with Miss Sarah Amelia (Amy) Carson as its first Principal.

Moving to ‘Fairholme’

1917-1919

With enrolments increasing, the Presbyterian Ladies’ College quickl