QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Tree-fellers of Maleny Ludwig Gottfried’s third child Edward Ludwig Tesch was born in Waterford in September 1889, but he and his father were instrumental in opening-up the Blackall and Conondale Ranges to settlement and developing towns like Maleny, Witta and Landsborough. Late in his life he still remembered that, in 1893 at the age of four, on the last stage of the horseback journey from Waterford to Teutoberg he tried, in tears, to trot in the pouring rain and red mud at his mother’s stirrup. They had turned off what was called ‘the road’ and were making their way down the few hundred yards of track leading to the hut which later came to be known as ‘the first home’. The images on these pages reveal hints of what an incredible task the pioneers had to face before the land would yield up a living. The farm could not offer work and support for the growing family and, for a number of years, young Edward Ludwig worked the blacksmith and wheelwright shop started in Maleny by his father. Amongst the many things he must have done around the district, he, along with brother Paul built the Lutheran Church at Witta in 1910. In 1916 he married, and first son Clarence Edward was born a year later, and Colin in 1919. Five years later the family moved to Brisbane where Edward Ludwig continued work as a carpenter for many years, and later set himself up as a builder. He returned to Maleny as often as possible for holidays, taking with him his growing family, and it was on these occasions that Colin registered his early and highly-valued memories of the bullock teams which still brought logs to the mill, and trips on the slow-moving, solid-tyred, log-laden Thornycroft truck which ground its way up out of the gorges. He remembers that, as a small boy who manfully decided to stay on when his parents returned to Brisbane after holidays, he cried himself to sleep on the first evening alone with Granpa and Granma Ludwig. Enfolded in a genuine featherbed, the twilight crying of the curlews was too much.

Above: The original caption of this image, published in the Caboolture Historical Society’s “By Many Campfires” describes timber-cutters seen “felling the ‘80 acres’ near Maleny” in the late 1920s, with “Ernie Ehlerth in centre … standing very erect, left hand on hip.” Later family research identified Edward Ludwig Tesch on the springboard in the left foreground. Below: Simply captioned ‘young men with axes at Maleny’ this undated image has been confirmed to include Edward Ludwig Tesch, second from the left. Images courtesy Caboolture Historical Society and Village

In the wet, ‘roads’ were largely knee-deep red soil slush continually churned up by bullocks’ hooves and wagonwheels – in the dry season the soil baked into harsh, unyielding ridges and ruts which made a misery of all forms of travel, whether on foot, horseback or wagon. In the event of accident or illness the patient had to be conveyed from where he/she was, often to the rail-head at Landsborough, some ten miles or so down twisting, hazardous mountainside track from Maleny township. Those settled beyond the township had, of course, to face up to whatever extra distance was involved. With his father’s property nominated as an ambulance station, young Edward Ludwig was one of the many volunteers organised throughout the area. When an emergency arose the news was ‘flashed’ by the fastest-possible means along the track, and he and others like him would assemble at prearranged points, ready to take over the stretcher for a mile or so, and hand over to those next in line. Edward Ludwig Tesch died in 1976, just three years shy of the centenary of the township he helped to establish.

A vast improvement on the bullock teams although not yet a full replacement, the log-laden Thorneycroft truck is seen here at Maleny in 1922 with Messrs Warne and Ludwig Tesch. Image courtesy Sunshine Coast Libraries

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