QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

From Hannover to Dalby I was clever enough not to stay too long here and sought private accommodation. I rented a house in the heart of the city opposite the old English Dr Swift. Also there is another Doctor by the name of Dr Landener from East India. It took only four weeks and Dr Swift was telling me his view, that one of us had to leave Dalby but I told him in plain colonial English “it was no use for me to leave Dalby”. Dr Swift took his family and moved 100 miles further to the township of Condamine. The other Doctor, Landener, with the help of his scheming wife now tried to render me ‘hors de combat’ but Dr Wuth’s principles proved to be built on marble, and he soon changed his tune. After six months I had paid my credit, which was very high because of the rent I had to pay. I lived very poorly, never money for brandy or other things. Every penny I had earned during this time I used to pay off my debts. Now my credibility was so good that I could buy a new house in one of the better parts of the city for 312 Pounds Sterling. I arranged the purchase that way, that I had to pay the whole amount within two years, every 6 months a quarter of the price. But in the meantime I had made some other speculations. I bought 80 acres farmland partly in the city, partly outside. I also bought ½ acre land for £6, 3 months ago in town, and sold the same a few days ago to one of my handymen for £18. If I have nothing to do in my practice I ride to the auctions and buy wild horses, which I ride myself till they are good riding horses and then I sell them for double the amount. Where I live the country is bush and in December and January it is very very hot. Mosquitoes and sandflies are making life miserable for newcomers from Europe. The human blood turns very thin in this hot climate, therefore I have to use bleeding very carefully for illnesses with a high fever. Winter here is like summer in Germany. Leaves don’t change their colour and fall off the trees, so it is always green. The leaves on trees are standing straight, so the trees give only little shade. For any naturalist there are many peculiarities and I regret very much that I am only a mediocre botanist. Social life is almost none here in the bush. The only thoughts are how to make money. Friends, I could never find. If one does not watch out daily, one has been taken advantage of before one realises it.

The Hospital Doctor was so angry with me that in his anger towards me, he could have killed me. But both Doctors, a Physician Dr Capiny and a Military Doctor from the 59th Regiment came after long examinations to the same diagnosis as mine. The case has been publicised by a German Apothecary and we could read about it in the newspaper during the next days. If I had not committed myself, I could have made my fortune there and then. The first day we sailed from Capetown the weather was bad, heavy storms and the sea was wild. Once the waves hit so hard they took part of the upper deck away and ripped off the safety-boats which were fastened with heavy iron chains. It was a horrible scene by night. The passengers swam half in water. During this time I had to deliver five babies, one with instruments. Nobody died on this trip and I was highly praised because I kept my Logbook correctly and exact, by the Port Medical Officer Dr Hobbs. Our journey took almost six months. On arrival in Brisbane I got to know a merchant by the name of Fratisens. I informed him that his brother was a friend of mine at University. I also informed him that I was very poor and asked him if I could stay with him to learn the language. He took me in and already after a fortnight’s stay I have been able to ride 200 miles inland especially after realising that staying in Brisbane would be too costly, and besides, there were already too many doctors there. So I arrived at this little town on a borrowed horse and nothing in my pockets. But to make up for this, I had more in my head. I had some colonial experience and spoke better English. I looked for the first and best hotel and pretended to be master over a hundred men and soon became acquainted with gentlemen who I told a lot about German students and their life at a German University and they were very interested in it. One of them had an obvious mark of Corona Veneris on his forehead and half of his nose had perished. Now it was time for me to catch my first fish. I asked the man, “What is the matter?” Why, he had been ill for so long a time and that he had taken too much mercury. This gentleman trusted me immediately and because he was related to one of the richest squatters in this district this brought me into the highest credit.

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