QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The first Germans to enter the Wide Bay region were working as shepherds on the many pastoral runs which dotted the Wide Bay and Burnett districts, writes Robin Kleinschmidt. Some of these were Booibyjan , Ban Ban Springs, Boondooma and Toogoom . Most of the very early arrivals had landed in Brisbane, were met by their employers, and overlanded, some with horses and drays, but many on foot, to their destinations. They proved to be reliable and steady workers and were in demand by the pastoralists. In Maryborough, when the site of the old township was established on the north bank of the Mary River by Edgar Aldridge and his partners in 1848, he also constructed a wharf and a woolstore to serve the sheep runs in the interior. From this time it became possible to reach the stations via coastal steamers and ketches to the growing town, originally called Wide Bay Village, then Baddow. There was still a critical shortage of reliable labour on the stations, and the owners from many districts combined to commission Wilhelm Kirchner as an immigration agent to bring workers from the German states. In March 1855, two sailing ships, the Marbs (or Merbz ) and Aurora arrived in Moreton Bay on the same day with all the passengers already committed to employers. Scrutiny of the passenger list reveals only three categories of employment – shepherds (the majority), vinedressers and a few overseers. The Aurora carried 236 passengers and the Marbs 270. Almost all were single men, and had come from the southern states of Germany. The Moreton Bay Courier reported on 2 April 1855 that the coastal steamer City of Melbourne was carrying a “large number” of German immigrants from the Aurora and the Merbz (sic) to Maryborough where they were “under engagement to employers at Wide Bay.” These were obviously shepherds, for the same report tells of the Bella Vista transporting 30 to 40 vine-dressers, also “under engagement to various parties in this district” to Ipswich. This was not a unique event, for in 1862 there was another report of German immigrants arriving in Maryborough “under engagement” to work on the stations. More for Maryborough Background: The wharves along the Mary River in about 1908. Image (digital ID 236577) courtesy State Library of Queensland

In January 1861 the Wide Bay & Burnett Times contained advertisements for immigrants to fill the labour shortage. Messrs Melville and Travers endorsed English settlers, while Henry Hamburger supported the emigration of Germans. As a result, 42 Germans who had arrived in Brisbane on the Suldanha were taken on to Maryborough on the paddle-wheel steamer Clarence in a group of 162 new arrivals. In 1865 the Tom Thumb brought up 50 Germans who had arrived in Brisbane on the Helene . The earliest of these were sponsored immigrants who were bonded to their employers for two years. Some stayed on at the end of the time, but most young men sought other opportunities. Many took up land and began farming. Some joined the timber-getters who were still active in the region. When gold was discovered at Gympie in 1867 many Germans joined the gold rush. Those who had arrived without guaranteed employment found work in timber-cutting or became small crops farmers. Cotton, coffee and fruit were also grown. Maryborough became the first regional port in Queensland when the site of the township was relocated in 1856 and wharves were constructed which enabled large ships to come into port. In August 1861 the Sophie brought 119 Germans to Hervey Bay but discharged them onto the Eagle for shipping to Maryborough. The first of many German immigrant ships to come direct to Maryborough was the barque Ariadne , which arrived in October 1862. Between 1872 and 1880 Germans and Scandinavians accounted for 1,762 of the 9,164 immigrants coming into Maryborough. Others followed: Sophie (1865), Reichstag (1871, 1872 and 1873), Herschel (1872 and 1878), Alardus (1873), Humboldt (1873), Shakespeare (1871), and Lammershagen (1871, 1873, 1874 and 1877). The itinerant Reverend J G Haussmann of the Presbyterian Church ranged over a vast area of Southeast Queensland, but concentrated his efforts on the Wide Bay and South Burnett. One of the original Gossner missionaries at German Station in 1938, he had been trained and been ordained into the Presbyterian Church after the mission closed.

110