QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Applethorpe

The most significant new project, however, was in the Granite Belt. Seeking a site suitable for growing apples and stonefruits, they took up land north of Stanthorpe in 1901 and established 120 acres (48.5ha) of apple orchards, the first in that district. It was virgin land, which had to be cleared and at first suffered from poor access to transport. As other orchards were developed, a railway siding was built to transport the produce. In 1910 it was given the name Roessler, which then became the name of the district as the settlement expanded. When, during World War I, all German place names in Queensland were replaced, Roessler became Applethorpe, the name by which it is known today – and rather better-known for regularly recording the lowest temperatures in the state. The Rössler brothers also developed 50 acres (20ha) of orchards at Lyra, south of Stanthorpe. They grew nine varieties of apples, carefully selected so that fruit was always maturing between the beginning of December and the end of April. In 1907 it was reported that they were growing apples for eating and cooking, Bartlett pears for canning, plums, apricots, cherries, nectarines and peaches. Although the brothers operated as a single business unit they had their own areas of responsibility. For a time John ran the vegetable farm at Highfields. He also farmed at Clifton, buying 300 acres (121ha) near their brother Gottfried before moving into Toowoomba. In 1895 he became the part owner and operator of the weekly Brisbane-based German newspaper Die Nord-Australische Zeitung in partnership with Edward Mühling. Apart from a few years creating the citrus orchard at Worongary, Henry made his permanent home in Toowoomba and concentrated his energies on the jams, pickles and fruit preserving operations and wine-making. Henry married Annie Öhlmann in Toowoomba on 12 January 1882. They had a family of 13 children: six sons and seven daughters, of whom two sons and a daughter died in infancy or childhood. Of the 10 surviving, only two daughters and two sons married. There were eight grandchildren, only two bearing the Rössler name into the next generation. It was a close, comfortable and prosperous family, and Henry was happy to have most of his unmarried children living around him in the large family home Sonnenberg in Crown Street until their middle age. His two youngest daughters achieved a university education and made independent careers in business and teaching, but both returned to Toowoomba. When Henry was made bankrupt in 1896, partly because of unwise investment in mining ventures at Stanthorpe and in north Queensland, it was revealed that there was no legal agreement between the brothers about ownership or sharing of costs and profits. Henry was able to continue to run the highly successful business under the guise of being an employee, and rebuilt his prosperity.

John Rössler, who had been living in Harlaxton on Toowoomba’s northside, died in 1924. Henry carried on for another 10 years, passing on at age 87 after a life marked by commercial and personal success. After the death of Henry and Annie the family home was sold, but the surviving unmarried sisters and brothers still lived together in several houses built on the original Rössler land in James and Sonnenberg Streets and Tourist Road, Toowoomba.

Cunningham’s Gap

Clifton

Allora

Darling Downs

Warwick

Inglewood

miles 10 30 km 10 20 30 40 50 20

Applethorpe (Rössler)

Queensland

Stanthorpe

New South Wales

Texas

Tenterfield

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