It was around 1909 when Joseph and Alice Dixon constructed their family homestead at Flaxton on their 790-acre citrus and dairy property. The homestead for this large Quaker family was then known as Chermside. Obviously, the house today is vastly different in size and layout to the original homestead Joseph constructed. At some stage during the 1970’s there was a name change from the original Chermside to Tanderra House, and it remains that way today.

The homestead when constructed was your typical “Queenslander” with the exterior walls being lined on only one side of the wall frame and the typical wide-open verandahs around the house. Internally the ceilings were high as there was no air-conditioning in that era. The floors to the main building are the original pit sawn beech.

Alice Dixon passed in 1927 and Joseph two years later, when Alice died it was during a spell of very wet weather and it was not possible to have the burial on Mapleton, hence she was interned in the small cemetery plot along Flaxton Mill Road, later Joseph alongside Alice.

As mentioned Tanderra House is now larger and somewhat different to the original house, however the bones of the original homestead are still evident, and all the work performed through the decades has been completed with both passion and longevity in mind. Each of the minders of the residence over the years have added their mark to what Joseph Dixon started over a century ago, and one would hope that the same will be said in another 100 years.

Along with the house, are the ever-changing gardens, however some of the trees date back to the time when the house was first constructed, notably the huge Magnolia Grandiflora. Tanderra House does form a stately backdrop to the gardens which are being continually developed.

There is a lot of history which surrounds the old homestead and the forbearers, but it lives on as a valuable illustration of our past heritage.