QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Fertile Fassifern

There were similarities between Rosewood Scrub and Fassifern Valley, Robin Kleinschmidt discovers, and the successes obtained by the Germans in one encouraged their heroic land-clearing efforts in the other. Like the flatter Rosewood Scrub to the northwest, the Fassifern, reaching south towards the craggy ridgelines of the border ranges, was a vast tangle of almost impenetrable brigalow and vine scrub, interspersed with stretches of forest country. Described as “dense jungle”, it represented a major barrier to access the Great Dividing Range and a southerly crossing to the Darling Downs. Explorer Allan Cunningham chose to go around it on his search for a route to Cunningham’s Gap. But there was no shortage of Germans willing to undertake the same task in the Fassifern they had pioneered in Rosewood. After the first surveys, which began in 1868, they started taking up the scrub country in 1872. The German settlers were spread over a wide area, but tended to concentrate in the area known as the Dugandan Scrub, north of today’s town of Boonah. It was inevitable that their settlements would be distinctly German, as by the 1890s they comprised about 90% of the population. Some of the local place names reflect this today, including Hoya, and Templin, both of which had a majority German population. Boonah was originally called Blumbergville after the Blumberg brothers, Estonian Jews who set up a large general store around which the infant settlement grew. There were significant numbers of German settlers in places as diverse as Roadvale (the first township in the region), Fassifern, Milbong, Moogerah, Teviotville, Hoya, Templin, Engelsburg (modern Kalbar), Mount Alford, Charlwood, Tarome, Maroon, Mt French, Aratula and Croftby. Some moved into the district from their new farms in the Rosewood Scrub, returning home every few weeks to renew their provisions and check on their families and farms, until the new property was ready for the family to follow. Others came from the Logan-Albert settlements, where it was found that the smaller holdings were inadequate for growing families. There were also large numbers of new arrivals, as German migration began to flow again after 1870. As they toiled to clear the dense vine scrub they encountered the same problems with lack of water, pests and native wildlife as in the Rosewood Scrub. The vines were tightly knotted and some were as thick as a man’s body. As well as their axes and saws they had to carry in on foot their provisions and water, and for some years return regularly on foot to Ipswich, Rosewood or Walloon to replenish their supplies, until shopkeepers began trading in Engelsburg (Kalbar) and Blumbergville.

View across Boonah in around 1896. Image courtesy Queensland State Archives Copyright State of Queensland The settlers constructed paling fences to keep out marauding animals, but used the children to frighten away the birds, especially the cockatoos, and had to be on guard against many big snakes, aggressive red-bellied blacks and many carpet snakes. The method of clearing was to cut and stack the timber and vines, burn it, re-stack and burn again. They were rewarded with clear, arable lands of rich and heavy, dark volcanic soil which have remained productive to the present day. The first crops of maize were planted among the ashes in soil broken up with hoes. Some areas such as near Engelsburg were covered with very large timber which was cleared using a ‘knocker’ to smash down in one fall a number of trees partially cut through. Hermann Windolf, who arrived from Germany in 1878, wrote, “The Fassifern Scrub…is one of the best farming areas in the colony, spreading over many miles. The German farmers…are turning the thick scrub into the richest estates with much effort but singular success. No Englishman dares to undertake such a huge task-to transform the scrub, with its soil type well suited for agriculture, into good property.” Selections ranged from 80 to 160 acres (32-65ha) at an annual rental of 6d (five cents) per acre. The selector was required to live and work on the land, build a house and barn, and clear at least one-tenth of the land within five years; at the end of that time, on payment of the survey fee, he received the title deeds.

ray cash photography / copyright state of queensland

106