This West Australian colonial megastar caused stir when he decided to holiday in Toowoomba. I told a version of this story live on Darling Downs radio 4AK.

I’m here in Bunbury in Western Australia, two hours south of Perth, and staying at the historic Grittleton Lodge (pictured above), a heritage home that was built in 1885. It’s a two-storey brick and iron building designed in the Victorian Georgian style. It begs the question, is it haunted, and what is its unexpected connection to Toowoomba which is over 4,000 kilometres away on Queensland’s Darling Downs.

The lodge was built as the home of Mr Robert Forrest and his wife Esther. Esther came from London in England. Two of Esther’s sisters were well-known social reformers, advocating for better housing, education, and entertainment for the poor, and were supporters of the temperance movement. One of them was the first female alderman on the London city council.

Esther herself came here to Bunbury, married Robert Forrest, had no children, was permanently invalided following a horse-riding accident, and after ailing for many years died in 1909 here at Grittleton Lodge. That was in the morning, and her funeral was the following afternoon. So given all this misery and death, surely the ghost of Esther haunts the Georgian hallways today. The modern-day staff would know. When I interviewed them, they were coy and non-committal, so I expect the spectral answer is no.

Meanwhile, if you thought that Esther’s life of sufferance was eased through entertainment by her husband, then think again. Compared to the rest of his family, Robert Forrest was a virtual recluse. He was born in Bunbury in 1854. He took over his father’s business. When he died in Bunbury in 1924 after having lingered at death’s door for some days, he was not known at all except by a small circle of friends, and that’s because he took no part in public affairs whatsoever.

Robert’s family was a lot more exciting than him, and could probably be described as colonial super heroes of Western Australia. They were regular visitors here to Grittleton Lodge. One bother Alexander Forrest was an explorer and two-time mayor of Perth.

Another brother was John Forest. John was an explorer who first came to prominence in 1869 when, ironically, he unsuccessfully led an expedition in search of the missing explorer Ludwig Leichhardt. He then became the first to cross the Nullarbor Plain. As a politician he was the first premier of Western Australia, elected to the first Australian parliament, Australia’s first minister for defence, and then the first person born in Australia to enter the British peerage. That’s when Queen Victoria proclaimed him Lord Forrest, Baron of Bunbury.

But in my mind, the biggest news followed John Forrest whenever he tried to visit Queensland. He was in Sydney in 1893 and wanted to visit the sunshine colony then. But natural forces prevented him because the Queensland floods that year were the worst in the colony’s history.

John tried again when he insisted on going on holidays with his wife to Queensland in 1900. He boarded the mail train in Sydney and was expected to arrive in Brisbane on Wednesday the 10th of January 1900. The celebrity explorer and politician Sir John Forrest and Lady Forrest, as they were known then, were set to be received in Brisbane by a vice-regal welcome and some of the most glamorous social events of the year.

But he never showed. That’s because Sir John and Lady Forrest chose instead to spend the night in Toowoomba where they enjoyed the generous hospitality of the Darling Downs’ best. Apartments were quickly secured for them at the Club Hotel on Ruthven Street. That’s the same hotel in which the future King George VI would stay some years later.

Sir John’s visit to Toowoomba was virtually ignored by the Brisbane press at the time. But is wasn’t just Brisbane that was jilted by Lord Forrest, as he became, because he also stood up Queen Victoria herself. That’s because on the way to England for his investiture in 1918, he died while crossing the Atlantic Ocean and was buried at sea. He didn’t have any children, and so his historic Australian peerage was extinguished upon his death.

So while the social plans of the Brisbane elite and Queen Victoria were thrown into disarray by Lord Forrest, Toowoomba was the one place that benefited from a holiday visit by this West Australian historical legend.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON RADIO 4AK.

Photo credits:
Grittleton Lodge, Bunbury, 2025 – Harold Peacock 20250611_190415.
Esther Cons, Mrs Robert Forrest, and Laddie the pony, 1870 – State Library of Western Australia.
Robert Forrest, 1870 – State Library of Western Australia.
Sir John Forrest, 1900 – State Library of Western Australia,
North on Ruthven Street with the Club Hotel to the right, c1908 – State Library of Queensland.