Forest Hill Hotel is a heritage-listed hotel at 38 William Street, Forest Hill, Lockyer Valley Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1898. It is also known as Station Hotel. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
History
Constructed in 1898, the Forest Hill Hotel is a good example of a two-storeyed, timber, corner hotel typical in rural Queensland towns. It was established at a time of growth and consolidation in Forest Hill following closer agricultural settlement of the immediate area in the 1890s and the development of Forest Hill as a service center and railhead for the surrounding farmlands.
From the 1840s to the 1880s, Forest Hill was part of the Rosewood run, first taken up by David C McConnel in 1840, and later occupied by Kent & Wienholt, who worked the station in conjunction with their Jondaryan run. At that time the Forest Hill land was heavily timbered, with some large gum swamps.
In 1865 the Ipswich to Toowoomba railway was surveyed between Laidley and Gatton, but a siding was not established in the Forest Hill area until about 1881. At that time, the area which became known as Forest Hill was owned by Mr AJ Boyd who on first moving to the area found that the nearest form of conveyance was the railway line serving Laidley. Through intervention with the appropriate authorities, Boyd was able to arrange a siding onto his property "Forest Hill". Originally it was called Boyd's Siding but was subsequently named for the property, Forest Hill. Boyd was the first agriculturalist in the area and cultivated an orchard on his property. In 1886 the Queensland Railway Department provided a continuation of the line beyond Laidley and a new siding was constructed one mile east of the Forest Hill siding, it too was called Forest Hill.
Also at this time, in 1886 and 1889, Kent & Wienholt cut up south of the second Forest Hill siding into farm selections. This was the impetus for the establishment of an agricultural community at Forest Hill, but the township of Forest Hill did not emerge until the late 1890s, following the Queensland Government's 1896 repurchase of of the Rosewood freehold on the northern side of the Forest Hill railway station. This Rosewood Estate, comprising fertile black soil land, was cut into blocks of , and sold at prices from to per acre, repayable over 20 years. The sale was part of a government initiative to encourage agricultural settlement of the rich West Moreton lands, by opening for selection nearly all the country between Lowood and Gatton. A further in the Lockyer Valley were cut up and sold as farms in 1903, and Forest Hill emerged as a thriving township. By 1908, Forest Hill was despatching more produce than either of the older settlements of Gatton and Laidley, and of this, about 70 percent came from the farms on the repurchased estates. The Forest Hill Hotel was erected during growth period.
By 1909 the township of Forest Hill was a thriving centre, boasting three hotels, a post office, bank and a state school. In that year, the Crown Hotel was burnt down, leaving two hotels remaining (Forest Hill Hotel and Lockyer Hotel). The economic base of the town was the healthy agricultural community which surrounded it. The rich soils, combined with a high water table enabled extraordinary crops to be produced, several properties boasting seven cuts of lucerne in 1902, a drought year. During periods of drought this high water table served to protect the crops of many of the local farmers so that the local production remained at an acceptable level while neighbouring districts suffered.