QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Four family snapshots

A family farm for 156 years Heinrich Michael Bosel was born in Korlin in the Pommerania region of East Prussia in August 1814 – the town is now part of Poland and is called Karlino – and married Henriette Hackbarth in March 1841 at the Lutheran Church at Gross Jestin. Until 1861 Heinrich worked as a labourer at the large agricultural estate of some 400 acres at Pustar (now called Pustary) owned by the Damm family. On 25 October 1861, Heinrich and his family were among 295 German emigrants – many of whom had applied through Heussler’s agency – who sailed for Australia aboard the Cesar Godeffroy. Captain Fruchtenicht and his 18 crew were also in charge of 10 rams and 40 tonnes of general cargo on the nonstop 94-day passage. After the vessel was met by the pilot off Moreton Island, her passengers were given a clean bill of health by Dr Hobbs, the Health Officer, and allowed to transfer to the steamer that carried them up the Brisbane River to Ipswich. Heinrich worked around Theebine and Kilkivan before moving to Tinana near Maryborough. On 29 January1866, Heinrich purchased 45 acres of land at Tinana for £45. By this time he was calling himself Henry, since the Title Deeds are shown in the name of Henry Bosel. He called the farm Kolberg Farm (named after the administrative area in which he had previously lived in East Prussia). He worked this farm with his sons and grandsons, growing sugar cane. It is likely that he remained illiterate (on one record his son Carl Johann was shown as illiterate). Later, Henry became known as Michael (the anglicised form of his second name) and his wife adopted the name Carolina. An addendum to the original Title Deed shows that half the property was transferred to George Dakin, who married their eldest daughter, Wilhelmine, in April 1867, possibly as a wedding gift or dowry. When Heinrich died in 1893, the ownership of the farm passed to his son, Carl, and on Carl’s death in 1911, his bachelor sons took over the running of the farm while Carolina lived there and looked after them until her death in 1939. The property now known as Bosel Farm is still owned by Geoffrey, a great-grandson of Heinrich Bosel. The farm now has been in continuous family ownership for more than 156 years. Condensed from a family history contributed by Charles Bosel

Carl Heinrich Hartmann senior had been a watchmaker in Dahlen, Saxony (near Leipzig) and emigrated to Queensland around 1870 with one of his sons, Edward Hugo, following two of his other offspring who had sailed out in 1855. One of these sons was Carl Heinrich Hartmann, who established the Hartmann Gardens Range Nursery in the 1860s near Picnic Point. He was to become well known as a nurseryman, horticulturist, explorer, a foundation member of The Theosophical Society of Queensland, and a foundation member of the Royal Society of Queensland. He visited New Guinea twice for the Queensland Government collecting many plant specimens and other artefacts, and two of his brothers joined him, at different times, in working at the nursery. Contributed by Gwen Sheriff (nee Hartmann) and Bruce Gibson Carl Hartmann’s expertise was consulted on the subject of orange trees, in the ‘Eastern News’ column of the Brisbane Courier, on Monday 19 July 1880. This piece was adjacent to the Public Notices and Classifieds, and immediately above an advertisement for the Belle-Vue Hotel, opposite Parliament House and occup ing “the most salubrious and convenient position in the city”! Image courtesy of National Library of Australia (Trove)

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