Don your period costume piece for free tea at Rockton do

ARTS Connect Ipswich is an arts body that is doing exactly what it's name suggests - connecting the arts with the community.

Revellers in period dress at the Artists Bazaar.

ARTS Connect Ipswich is an arts body that is doing exactly what it's name suggests - connecting the arts with the community.

It has been generating arts and cultural activities within the community for decades.

This organisation is a hub for arts enthusiasts to meet and organise varying events such as visual art exhibitions as well as a myriad of community arts events and projects that reflects the talents and diverse interests of the participants.

Members of Arts Connect Ipswich are all volunteers who encourage artistic expression by creating cultural events that engage with the community and celebrates the value of cultural diversity.

On Sunday, October 28, Arts Connect Ipswich will hold its third Artists Bazaar in the stately grounds of Rockton House. Wandering around under the canopy of the magnificent giant jacaranda and fig trees in the grounds, visitors will find stalls selling arts, crafts, plants, food and many other interesting, eclectic items.

A sausage sizzle and devonshire tea refreshments will be available through the day for a small fee. And for all who wear period costume, a free tea voucher will be the reward.

There will be plenty to see at the bazaar.

The bazaar is an ideal opportunity for art collectors to get a bargain or an opportunity to purchase that unique Christmas gift for that hard-to-buy for person. It is certainly a great time to purchase that special gift for yourself.

A percentage of funds raised from Ye-Old-Raffle will go towards the Queensland Drought Relief fund as a way of making a contribution to help our distressed farmers.

According to Wikipedia, Rockton is a substantial brick house, the first section of which was built as a cottage for bank manager William Craies and his wife Sabina in 1855. The cottage was progressively extended and altered by successive owners over a long period, producing a complex but surprisingly harmonious house with great character.

Mr Craies named his new house Rockton after an area near his home of Edinburgh.

The property was purchased in 1877 by a Mr Bulmore. In the early 1890s, he added the tower section and made a ballroom. After his death, the family and cousins, the Armstrongs, lived at Rockton until 1916 when the large estate was subdivided and sold.

Architect and mine-owner M.W. Haenke bought Rockton in 1918. In 1945, a separate residential area was created on the northern side for Mr Haenke's son Willis and his wife Helen who inherited the property when Will died in 1953. Willis continued the family interest in coalmining and Helen was a writer who published several books of poetry and wrote several plays which were performed in Brisbane and Ipswich. Rockton is now owned by their daughter Angela and her husband Wybe Geertsma.

The grounds of Rockton House, located at 2 Rockton St, Newtown, is an ideal setting for the Artist's Bazaar which runs from 9am-2pm on next Sunday, October 28, 2018.

Originally published as Don your period costume piece for free tea at Rockton do