QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Style notes

Measurements are given in order of units appropriate to their context. For example, a 19th century emigrant leaving Germany will embark on a ship measured in metres (feet) and weighing so many Commerzlasten * (tons). On arrival at Moreton Bay, their overland (or river) journey is some miles (kilometres) to a piece of land assessed in acres (hectares). That of course will evolve in the latter and more recent parts of the book, as Queensland and Australia joined Europe in the Metric System. Strenuous efforts have been made to not overdo things (conversions and other interventions) at the expense of the reading flow. Names of places and vessels can be subject to interpretation, nuances of hearing, journalistic rigour and the prevailing vernacular. It is less critical to a work like this whether a writer refers to Zion’s Hill or Zion Hill; what’s important is that you get that they’re talking about German Station. Today’s Brisbane suburb of Nundah, in other words. Sidestepping rigorous application of style and dictionary, in general terms in these pages ‘emigrants’ are people going somewhere, and ‘immigrants’ are coming. The terms have been used interchangeably by many writers over the years, depending on morés and perspective. For our purposes, they will mean the same thing – people taking perhaps the biggest steps of their lives – and we’ll let the original voices do the talking. It all comes down to where you’re standing at the time and which direction you’re facing. And the language used will be that of the individual, and their time and place; attitudes and outlook may be different to that which we’re accustomed today. That is a fact of history and context. More recent contributors have also had some leeway in freedom of expression, punctuation and grammar. Merbs and Marbs and Marbz have been variously written and typeset as the name of the same sailing ship. Say the syllable aloud and you’ll hear the point about not getting too worked up about it. Inconsistencies have been moderated where they may confuse or distract the reader, but we’re not going to force you to choose between Westphalia and Westfalen simply for the sake of uniformity: an English writer will refer to ‘Pomerania’ and a German to Pommern ; they’re the same thing and need no editorial interruption. On which note, ‘single inverted commas’ may be used to draw attention to terms, accented expressions, or the first use of proper names which are then generally treated in italics . Similarly, italics are used for proper names, blocks of directly-quoted speech , acts of parliament , or German words or titles , where the reader may appreciate a subtle visual cue to change gears. The glossary went out the same door as the footnotes, swiftly followed by lists of abbreviation and tables of measurement or linguistic conversions. We’ve aimed to provide sufficient context for smooth reading enjoyment, otherwise this book would require a wheelbarrow to shift it. (* Commerzlasten , or CL, refers to one unit of weight measurement – the Last – used in 18th and 19th century Europe, before the adoption of tonnage in either its metric or imperial forms. As a unit of Last varied depending on whether the substance was grain or salt, for instance, it follows that it describes a density weight with little universality and no single precise conversion formula. It was used for more than ships, and the same vessel will turn up in different sources with various CL weights but, as we measure Gross- or Net-Registered Tonnages (tonnes) or ‘displacement’ today, it’s hard to be critical. If you grasp that a ‘33m-long barque’ is a 100-foot, three-masted sailing ship, its ‘weight’ is immaterial here – and CL won’t come up again after Part 1 anyway.)

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