Entrance to old Cumbooquepa, the residence of Thomas Blacket Stephens, South Brisbane, ca. 1873. Site of the present day Somerville House School

T.B. Stephens, the owner of old Cumbooquepa, was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, a former Mayor of Brisbane,and (for ten years) proprietor of the Brisbane Courier newspaper. He also owned fellmongeries and wool scourers at Cleveland and Ekibin and acquired extensive landholdings in the Nerang district in the 1870s. His home was one of the grandest in the South Brisbane area, and remained so until ca. 1890, when it was demolished to make way for the South Coast railway line. His eldest son William Stephens then erected a larger house on a higher site nearby. The original Cumbooquepa with its decorative barge-boards, brick chimneys and substantial outbuildings stood on 16 acres of land and had a large garden stocked with banana plants, hoop-pine and prickly pear. The man standing behind the front gate was probably the gardener.
In the bottom right is a white surveyors’ mark. Writing on the the photo indicates TB Stephens, Miss Laura Stephens and Tom C. Stephens were some of the people in this photograph.