QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Teutoberg torment

Colin Tesch’s grandfather Ludwig Gottfried was not the first Tesch into the Maleny district, although it transpired he was the first to successfully eke out a foot-hold in this unforgiving terrain. As soon as Frederick Charles Tesch, Gottfried Ludwig (II)’s seventh child, turned 18 on 22 October 1887, he applied for a 160 acre (65ha) Maleny selection. He was granted a licence to occupy land described as Portion 34V but the file was later marked “cancelled”. Perhaps the fact that about four-fifths of some of this land was ‘mountain goat country’ and the whole of it smothered in rainforest jungle led him to forfeit the £5/6/8 he paid on application. Two years later, Gottfried Ludwig (II)’s eighth child, Paul Edward Johannes, reached adulthood and applied for a selection, along with his older cousin Carl Frederick Albert, on 7 October 1889. Paul was allocated Portion 19V, AF (agricultural farm) Number 1525 of 157 acres (63.5ha) and Carl was allocated P21V, AF.1527. Surviving survey maps of both allocations are marked with steep drop-offs and watercourses, few paths and frequent notes describing “Dense Vine Scrub” and “Extremely Rugged Terrain” abutting “Vacant” lands. What ‘noble districts’ were these? In December 1889, Paul relocated north from Waterford to take up occupation of the land, a Licence to Occupy swiftly granted early in the New Year. The Lands Department files indicate that the rent of 6 pence per acre fell behind. On 28 October 1891, a file note reads “can it be ascertained if selector is dead?”! There are some further notes which indicate that Paul had not been in permanent occupation since taking over, and these support family stories that some of these early strugglers had to leave periodically to get work to try to pay their way. It was later discovered that Paul had come off his bicycle on Logan Road at Stones Corner in Brisbane, on 1 September 1891, causing a minor hand injury which saw this unfortunate 20 year-old die of tetanus soon afterwards, supposedly from a small piece of grass in the wound. Further notes on the file refer to arrears of rent and indicate that insufficient work had been done on the property to satisfy the inspecting Land Bailiff. On 29 June 1892 (when about 60) Paul’s father Gottfried Ludwig (II) had someone write a letter, which he signed in his not very literate and shaky style. In it he offered to pay the rent arrears “given time” and asked if they could advise how he could go about taking over the land. A note in flowery script says “selector died intestate, letters of administration required”. On 15 September 1892 a Land Bailiff’s report says “farm abandoned and unimproved, recommend forfeiture.” Within six months, however, Paul’s older brother Ludwig Gottfried – Colin’s grandfather – appears to have stepped into the breach

Blackall

0 1

3 2

5 km

Witta

0 1

3 miles

Range

Maleny

Brisbane

Landsborough

An unidentified settler’s home in the Blackall Ranges, about 1894; the back-breaking effort required to clear that space is almost unimaginable, considering the height and density of the timber beyond and the slopes of the terrain.

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