QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

German Station - Nundah

Haussmann never lost his evangelical desire to tend the Aborigines’ spiritual and physical welfare. In his first and only posting as a Presbyterian clergyman in 1854–55 he served scattered settlers in the South Burnett/Wide Bay region, and worked extensively as missionary to the Aborigines. After establishing a Lutheran congregation at South Brisbane in 1862, he resigned in 1866 to set up Bethesda, a sugar plantation and mill and mission station at Philadelphia (today Eagleby) near Beenleigh, and tried to provide work there for the Aborigines. Pastor Gossner sent a number of his graduates to assist in this mission enterprise, but the plantation went bankrupt in 1883 when the sugar industry collapsed. Pastor Haussmann then established a Lutheran congregation in Beenleigh, from which he served many German settlers at Gramzow (Carbrook), Mount Cotton, Steiglitz and Gilston. He continued in active ministry until his death at the age of 90, honoured by Kaiser Wilhelm with the Cross of the Order of the Eagle, which arrived the day after his death. German Station’s remaining families became a natural support for many of the new German migrants who began flooding into Queensland in the 1860s and 1870s and, like the settlement at Bethania on the Logan River, German Station was the place where many German families lived temporarily until they made decisions about their final destination. In the historic Nundah Cemetery at Toombul one can see the graves of many of those who came with altruistic dreams and made a fine contribution to Queensland in other ways which they had not planned or imagined. One of Zillmann’s sons, also Leopold, became a canon in the Anglican Church. Another was a magistrate and Gold Warden in north Queensland, and a grandson became Professor of English Literature at Sydney University. Gottfried Haussmann’s grandson, J G Appel, was a prominent Queensland parliamentarian, serving as Home Secretary and Minister for Mines and Public Works.

Above: The chequered past of Nundah “where once the savage roamed” made for a lively weekend read in a wide-ranging feature on page 20 of the Saturday 19 July 1930 edition of T he Brisbane Courier . Background this page: The last building standing on Zion Hill had fallen into abject disrepair by 1895. Opposite page: A facsimile of the first of a series of “random sketches” offered by an unnamed writer to readers of The Moreton Bay Courier , published on 19 January 1859, painted a comprehensive and colourful picture of the German Station region – and its native and adoptive inhabitants. Images and text via Trove / National Library of Australia

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