QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Friedhöfe

Cemeteries serve not just as memorials to the German communities that were pioneered in Queensland, but as reminders of the locations of these communities, as Peter Ludlow previews. Locations include: Alberton, Aubigny, Bethania, Beenleigh, Boonah, Bundaberg, Charters Towers, Coolana, Coulson (Teviotville), Douglas, Eagleby, Glencoe, Greenwood, Hatton Vale, Headington Hill, Hoya, Ipswich, Kalbar, Logan Reserve, Lowood, Mackay, Maleny, Marburg, Maryborough, Milbong, Minden, Mount Beppo, Mount Cotton, Nundah, Plainland, Pimpama Island, Rosevale, Toowoomba and Witta (Teutoberg).

Mount Cotton (Carbrook)

Another equally historic cemetery is at Mount Cotton. Its origins date to 1875 when Pastor Haussmann bought the land for a church.

At that time he had the Bethesda Mission at Philadelphia (Eagleby). St Paul’s church at Gramzow (later renamed Carbrook) was designed by August von Senden in the traditional north German style with hand-made brick nogging in a timber frame, which had been axe-dressed and fixed with wooden pegs. However by the 1940s, this old traditional German structure adjacent to the cemetery had fallen into a state of disrepair. A new timber church was located opposite the school and officially opened on Palm Sunday 1951.The church was demolished in 1951 at the time of the construction of the new St Paul’s Church at Mount Cotton. The cemetery remains in use by the congregation. It provides evidence of the early German settlement of the district, with many older gravestones written in German. Also remaining is the name of the road leading to the cemetery from Redland Bay – German Church Road. Above left: The entrance to Nundah Historic Cemetery, and Pastor Gottschalk’s sepulchre in its grounds, and (top): a pair of marble headstones at Mount Cotton. Background: The tranquil slope of Mount Cotton, surrounded by eucalypt scrub, remains a fitting resting-place for these brave pioneers who came from the far side of the world. Images courtesy Ludlow family collection

Nundah The Nundah Historic Cemetery is the oldest, dating back to the 1840s with the burial of Ludwig Döge, one of the German missionaries at the Zion Hill Mission. He was laid to rest on a small hill overlooking a wide lagoon alongside Kedron Brook, beyond the mission precincts. In February 1846, on that

same little hill, a grave was prepared for the Herrmanns’ 11 month- old daughter. A few weeks later, Carl Gerler and his wife Sarah buried their first-born, a three month-old son.

Official recognition of the burial ground as a cemetery was bestowed under provisions of the Crown Lands Alienation Act 1866 . Many other of our German pioneers of the Nundah area are also buried there.

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