QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Darwin

Arriving and settling in Moreton Bay colony, Gottfried Ludwig Tesch and members of his family took up land on the Logan River and near Maleny in the Blackall Ranges behind the Sunshine Coast. Wheelwrights, blacksmiths and builders, they made their own contribution to the development of the young colony of Queensland – including the construction of the German Club in Vulture Street in South Brisbane by Paul Tesch. In 1960, Ilse decided it was time to visit her mother, sister and unseen new nephews in Germany. Flying was prohibitively expensive, so for the second time in her life

1960: Fairsky

Katherine

Cairns

1954

1953: Kabbarla

Alice Springs

Port Hedland

1950

1957

Oodnadatta

Brisbane

1960

Toowoomba

Port Augusta

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Sydney

1956

Adelaide

1958

Fremantle

Bonegilla

Melbourne

1949: Anna Salen

1961: Fairsky

she embarked upon a lengthy sea voyage – this time aboard the rather more salubrious Sitmar passenger liner Fairsky . Colin, who had been smitten with this motorbike-riding, buffalo-shooting and crocodile-hunting young woman from their first meeting, pursued the departing ship down the

Bonegilla transit camp in Victoria, about 1953, site of the start of a new life on the Fifth Continent for Ilse and many other postwar migrants. Image courtesy of Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Stuttgart

Postcard of Fairsky from the editor’s collection

Brisbane River in his hand-built 40-foot timber cruiser, loudly proclaiming his endearments and undying affection to a blushing Ilse surrounded by the increasingly-amused passengers thronging the liner’s rails. Somehow he managed to have flowers delivered to her at almost every port on the way to Europe: Singapore, Colombo, Aden, Suez, Naples … That must have made an impact because, on her return to Brisbane, she started to work for Colin’s practice and, on 15 December 1961, they married. Raising a family over the following quarter-century was hallmarked by many happy days and weeks aboard Colin’s boat until his death in 1985.

Throughout, Ilse maintained her vibrant interest in people and activities new to her, working in diverse jobs throughout Queensland, becoming a volunteer guide at Expo ‘88 and exploring and fostering untapped talents ranging from watercolours to woodcarving. After Ilse’s passing, her ashes were apportioned between the waters of Moreton Bay on which she had raised her family, Mindil Beach in Darwin where she had spent her first years on the Fifth Continent, and Germany, in the field on which she once played as a child, by her home in Weiden.

A far cry from Bavaria – an ice-cream stop on Ilse’s ‘trip south’ at Oodnadatta’s famous Transcontinental Hotel in the Simspon Desert. Images courtesy of family collection

Home from the Fifth Continent – Weiden in der Oberpfalz

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