QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Rössler to Applethorpe

In 1868 Henry selected 75 acres (30ha) in the Toowoomba Agricultural Reserve on the edge of the Great Dividing Range and there established an orchard and vineyard. Several Germans had begun fruit-growing in the area, but Henry Rössler and Hartmann began to dominate with the amount and the quality of their fruit. Henry’s success enabled him to expand, and in 1872 he acquired two more selections of 40 acres (16ha). In the 1870s he grew mainly citrus fruits, and his orchard was often referred to as an ‘orangery’.

Heinrich Rössler was just seven when he and his brother Johann arrived in Australia in 1854, first landing at Eden in Twofold Bay on the south coast of New South Wales. The family had come from the village of Lorch, north of Aßmannshausen on the east bank of the Rhein below Bingen, and it had not been a happy voyage out. Six children – four sons and two daughters – left Hamburg with their parents but one son, Peter, died, and their mother, Ursula, also died at sea, after giving birth to another son, Wilhelm. The distraught father accepted the offer of the Schulz family, who were travelling to South Australia, to take the infant for whom he now could not properly provide. The surviving Rösslers lived and worked for a time on the Kameruka Estate near Eden, and then moved many times as their father followed work at new mines which were opening up. There is a family story that Heinrich, in his teens and known as Henry, was left in the care of Chinese miners at Araluen when his father moved to work elsewhere. Henry and his siblings saw diverse parts of New South Wales and even north Queensland. He developed an interest in mining which emerged again later in his life. By 1865, Johann had become known by his anglicised name, and John and Henry moved to Toowoomba. They spent the remainder of their lives on or near the Darling Downs, where they made a sterling contribution to the development of the fruit-growing industry. Their brother

By 1873 he had also established a reputation as a grower of both wine and table grapes and had begun a successful wine-making business. In that year he produced 1,500 gallons (6,800 litres) of wine, matured in barrels from his own cooperage using Queensland swampy oak and silky oak. (American oak was available, but he considered it no better than the local timbers.) By 1878 annual production had risen to 2,000 gallons (over nine tonnes!). The business continued for many years, even though the weather sometimes made the growing of wine grapes difficult. Henry grew a wide range of grapes, mainly Verdelho, Sauterne, Riesling, Black Hermitage and Black Oporto. In 1872, for the first time, he won prizes for his wine at the Drayton and Toowoomba Agricultural and Horticultural Show. For the next 40 years he regularly won prizes for his wine, his fruit and vegetables and preserves, both in Toowoomba and in Brisbane. Heinrich established a retail outlet in Toowoomba’s main Ruthven Street, which in later years was managed by one of his daughters.

and two sisters followed them north, settling and farming in the Clifton area (see map, following page).

Beginning that year, the two brothers formed a close and lasting business partnership. When John and a partner won the contract to build a punt to cross the river at Goondiwindi in 1868, Henry provided the teams to transport the raw materials.

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