Our history here at Riemore at Tamborine goes back a long way – right back to the 19th century! It all starts with the Martins, a Scottish family who immigrated to Australia and ended up working on the property. In 1893, the Martin family bought the property from their employer. Ian Martin named many of the roads in the area, and you can clearly see the Scottish influence in some of them, like Ballantrae Rd and of course, Riemore itself. He also named Old Coach Rd, due to the Cobb & Co. route that ran through it, and Racecourse Rd – now Racecourse Place – but where the racecourse was actually located is, sadly, a mystery.
Text: Flying Capt. John Tracey (Queensland Air Navigation Co.) and Mr J. McPhie flew a Puss Moth ‘plane to Tamborine from Eagle Farm last Saturday to inspect the new aerodrome here. They continued on to the Tamborine House racecourse where the Canungra Hospital Picnic races were in progress. After stunting and circling the course they made a perfect landing in restricted space in a farm beside the course. As this was not anticipated, the crowd on the course were quite thrilled to see the ‘plane descending and coming to rest between two patches of corn. The air travellers, after a talk with some of the officials of Tamborine and District Camp Drafting Assoc. re Tamborine aerodrome, left for Eagle Farm, Brisbane.
Beaudesert Times (Qld.: 1908 – 1954), Friday 28 November 1930, page 9.
In 1973, the property was still in the hands of the Martin family – just. The land was under contract to a developer, who planned to parcel it into 5-10 acre blocks. Sadly (at the time), the 1974 flood hit before the plan went through, and the developer pulled out of the project.
In 1992, Nev Volkers met the Martin family and saw this incredible piece of land. That started what has so far been a 25-year love affair with Riemore at Tamborine! Nev started talking with the Martin family, but it wasn’t until 1994 that he came to an agreement with Ian Tate Martin to enter a partnership and develop his vision for the property – a self-contained, rural village with beautiful mountain and water views. Nev and his team got started on designing the lakes and water bodies that would highlight and enhance the already-stunning landscape.
Rezoning and subdivision approvals were slow to achieve, with council recommending that Nev ‘go smaller!’, but in 1999 he could finally begin the construction work. Sadly, Ian died in 2000; his 5 sons and daughter joined the partnership in his place.
Development has been slow but steady, performed in a number of stages to ensure that each new property owner gets an ideal land package to build upon. We’re now up to Stage 9, with all previous stages selling out as people realise what an ideal situation Riemore at Tamborine is in.
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