Roof Restoration in Highfields
A school in the Rising Sun Hotel
Highfields School opened on 17 January 1870 inside the Rising Sun Hotel, with a teacher named Larkin, and its first purpose-built classrooms came in the 1880s. A town that began that way has houses from every era since. Tell each restorer when your house was built, because roof age shapes both the method and the safety questions.
From nine pupils to a satellite town
By the start of the 1960s Highfields was a rural community, and at one stage only nine children were enrolled at the state school. Subdivision then began, and Wikipedia now calls it a satellite town of Toowoomba, with 8,568 people at the 2021 census. Ask a restorer how many roofs of your age they have worked on nearby.
Cooler air on the range
Wikipedia classifies the climate here as oceanic, Köppen Cfb, because of the elevation, and places the town on the Great Dividing Range, a little north of Mount Kynoch. Cooler mornings may leave dew on a roof, and the guide says coatings need dry weather, so ask a restorer how they would judge when a morning is dry enough to start.
The Big Cow's lesson
The concrete Big Cow, built in the 1970s and sculpted at seven times the size of an Ayrshire, is described as able to withstand a cyclone. After years of disrepair it was moved to the Highfields Pioneer Village and reopened on 20 September 2020. Restoring something old is not unusual here. Ask a restorer to explain what they would repair, replace or leave.
Newer streets, growing quickly
Highfields was the fastest growing area in Toowoomba in 2017, and a new library and community centre opened in 2022. In a fast-growing area, many roofs are comparatively young, so a full restoration may be premature. Ask the restorer whether a repair or a clean would do instead, and ask for the reasoning in writing.
Shopping and services
Highfields Village opened in 2003 with a hardware store, a baker and a supermarket, and the Plaza shopping centre was redeveloped in 2007. A suburb with its own services means nobody has to drive far for roofing materials. Ask each restorer which materials they plan to buy, and whether they keep a spare allowance in the quote.
Edge land for farms
Wikipedia says the town centre is surrounded by suburban housing, while the outskirts of the locality are used for grazing and crop growing. If your property is on the outer side, ask whether a crew can reach it with a ladder, a lift or a truck. Ask also whether travel is added to the price.
Licence and class
The QBCC says a licence is needed for building work valued over $3,300, in the class that fits the work, and its roof and wall cladding class leaves out roof painting. Ask each business which classes it holds, for the numbers, and look them up on the register. We do not check anyone for you.
A name from Essex
Wikipedia says Highfields probably takes its name from Edward Pechey, who owned land and a sawmill there and came from Langham in Essex, where a Highfields School stood, though the Globe newspaper points to a pastoral run of that name north of the township. The area was first developed in the 1860s, when sawmills cut timber and then dairy farms spread.
Koojarewon and the Big Cow
Wikipedia says the district began with sawmills cutting local timber, then railway workers on the Ipswich to Toowoomba line, completed in 1867, and dairy farms followed the clearing. The post office was renamed Koojarewon in December 1877, and residents' protests returned the name Highfields in 1907. In 1979 Toowoomba Christian College opened. Highfields State Secondary College opened on 27 January 2015, and the Big Cow was built at Kulangoor in the 1970s.
Is Highfields part of Toowoomba?
It is a satellite town of Toowoomba on the Great Dividing Range, according to Wikipedia.
When did Highfields School open?
On 17 January 1870, in the Rising Sun Hotel.
Where is the Big Cow now?
At the Highfields Pioneer Village, where it reopened on 20 September 2020.
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