QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Darling Downs and beyond German immigrants in the 19th century found their way to almost every corner of the state, writes Robin Kleinschmidt; as Rockhampton, Bowen, and Townsville developed ports able to accept shipping, new arrivals made their way further north. The goldfields of north Queensland attracted many Germans, some from elsewhere in Australia but many direct from Germany. There was a large contingent in Charters Towers, where the German Lutheran miners and prospectors built a large brick church, noted for its fine bell imported from Germany. For nine years their pastor was Wilhelm Iwan: a noted author and historian, as well as a theologian, he documented German migration to Australia in his book Nach Australian um des Glaubens Willen . In central Queensland, other scattered German groups could be found in places such as Mena Creek and Clermont. A group of 30 families settled near Mackay in 1871, joining a small group who had taken up land almost 10 years earlier. The districts around Bundaberg, including Wallaville, Gin Gin, and Goodnight Scrub, became a large German centre. New arrivals in the 1870s settled in the fertile Woongarra Scrub district when land opened up for settlement, and many moved north from the Maryborough area. There were also Germans at Childers, Goodwood and Cordalba. However, the two other major areas of German settlement were the Darling Downs and the Lockyer Valley. The German history of the latter is similar to that in the Fassifern and the Rosewood Scrub, which bordered it to the east. Although the clearing of the land was not as difficult as in those areas, life was still hard, and called upon all the stamina, determination, persistence and sober living for which the Germans had become known. Place names such as Hessenberg (now Ingoldsby) and Blenheim attest to the German origins of their first settlers. The main influx of settlers came in the early 1870s and, in 1878 the Germans began to spread out from the rich farm lands of the valley into the surrounding districts such as Plainland, Laidley and Hatton Vale.

When the pastoral leases in the South Burnett were opened up for settlement in the first decade of the 20th century, it was German families from the Lockyer and its surroundings who quickly took up land to provide for their large families or to acquire better land. To this day there are many German family names found equally in the two regions. The Darling Downs presents a slightly different aspect of German settlement. It became one of the regions with the largest number of German families, but began with unmarried men who were brought out under contract to work as shepherds on the large pastoral leases between 1852 and 1855. Living frugally in remote parts of the runs, and with their rations provided, they were able to save more than some of less sober habits, so that when land became available for purchase around Toowoomba in the 1860s, many took it up. There were significant numbers of Germans at Drayton and Middle Ridge, where the Toowoomba Agricultural Reserve attracted many settlers. By 1864, 10% of the region’s population was German and, in the following years, although the proportion decreased, their numbers made them a very visible presence and an influential group in the community. As more land was opened for selection, Germans spread out from Toowoomba, forming large communities around Glencoe and Goombungee, and thence into other districts. In more remote districts, especially on the southern Downs, land holdings tended to be larger, and the German settlers, although bound by language and faith, lacked the cohesive neighbourhoods of Toowoomba and its nearer surrounds, on the other hand assimilating more rapidly into the rural English-speaking community. Above: The Lutheran Church manse at Toowoomba in 1896 and (main background): a farmer works the rich soils of the Darling Downs in about 1884.

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