QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Judy Spence

Peter Ludlow was invited to meet the former Queensland Government minister, and found some surprises among the heritage. When I visited Judy Spence at her home to talk about her German ancestry with her and her mother, Gwen, the first thing they showed me was their family tree – a beautiful, meticulously recorded, hand-written document on a parchment roll that, when unravelled, stretched from one end of the room to the other. (In fact it was longer than the room itself!) “It just goes to show how many children they had in earlier times,” explained Judy. But it was not only the number of children which they, like other early settlers, had; it was the degree to which the immigrants intermarried and, being Germans, the meticulous nature of their records. Judy continued: “My husband, Heinz Beierer, is also German, and came out to Australia in 1954 with his parents when he was nine. His father had been a merchant seaman in Germany and unfortunately his ship was in an American port when America entered World War II, so he was interned in the USA for the duration of hostilities. When the war was over, he was returned to Germany but found in the devastation there a great shortage of jobs and housing. He loved America but was not allowed back, so he and his family emigrated to Australia instead.” Judy’s mother, Gwen, is, on her father’s side, a descendent of the Reithmullers who came to the Darling Downs in Queensland’s early days. Many such immigrants obtained work as shepherds on the selections. Because properties were not fenced, shepherds were needed to contain the flocks and protect them from predators such as dingoes.

The annual wage for a shepherd in 1862 was £40 for the father, £20 for his wife as the hut-keeper, and £30 for each of the children. The women made all of their clothes, and their rations were mutton, sugar and flour. Fresh milk was available from the dairy at the station homestead. Beer was brewed from hops, and the family paid a £2 annual subscription to the Toowoomba hospital as an insurance against major illness. When the properties were fenced work for the shepherds began to decline and they had to find alternatives. Dairying became a major option. Of her father’s side of the family, Gwen has this to say: “My father’s full name was Herbert Carl Bischof but he did not like to use the name Carl, especially during World War II because of its German connotations, although he never had any trouble because of it.” She continues the Bischof story: “August Bischof and his wife Sophia ( nee Riethmuller) had a farm at Gowrie Junction on the Darling Downs, just outside Toowoomba. I can still remember my grandmother driving me to town in the horse and sulky when I was very young. “Because there was not enough work on the farm for all the Bischof children, my father, Herbert, came down to Brisbane when he was about 15 and started work as a telegram boy, and then he started working in the Postmaster-General’s Department and he stayed there all his working life until he retired in 1965 at the age of 65. “His brother Frank became a policeman, and eventually worked his way up to be Queensland’s Police Commissioner.” Frank Bischof rose from the rank of detective constable in 1933 at the Criminal Investigation Branch, Brisbane, to sergeant in 1939, inspector in 1949 and officer-in-charge of the CIB in 1955. He established a Crime Prevention Bureau and Public Relations Bureau as well as a Police Pipe Band.

Judy Spence and mum Gwen proudly present one end of their colossal family tree document.

166