When my Great Grandfather Nicholas Corcoran was born on 12 January 1842 in Danesfort Kilkenny Ireland, his father Michael was 32, and his mother Mary (Walsh), was 33. He was the first of eight children – Nicholas (1842-1924), Ellen (1843-1876), Matthew (1844-1899), Patrick (1847- ), Bridget (1849-1940), James (1850-1921), Margaret (1854-1924), Kate (1866-1928).
Michael & Mary Corcoran were tenant farmers. Up until about 1900, 97% of all Irish land was owned by landlords, and rented out to tenant farmers who had to pay rent to landlords and taxes to the Anglican affiliated Church of Ireland and the ruling UK government. The majority of the people had no access to ownership of land.The abuse of tenant farmers led to widespread emigration to the United States, Canada, South Africa & Australia.
Google street view of property 2023A house similar to the type that Michael & Mary Corcoran would have raised their family in Danesfort Kilkenny Ireland in the 19th century Nicholas’s parents Mary (Walsh) & Michael Corcoran – Ireland circa 1860
Nicholas would have been a young child growing up through the Great Famine in Ireland (1845-1849). His Irish Catholic upbringing would have guaranteed that he copped a hefty dose of the prejudice and hate, that the British were dishing out to the Catholics, and no doubt increased his desire, along with many others, to flee the persecution that the Irish had suffered for centuries.
Nicholas Corcoran’s siblings Top – Bridget & Kate Bottom left – Patrick Bottom right – Ellen
His sisters Bridget and Ellen also came to Australia, with a brother Patrick heading to America, where he became a policeman.
While researching the family story, it made me realize how much denial of the British persecution of the Irish takes place, even now in modern times. The Church of England, the British Royal family, governments and even private institutions have all tried to rewrite the past with their own version of events, in an attempt to pushback the sad reality of what the British did. It was a particularly terrible period of suffering for the Irish in their homeland history, that has, of course, continued on to the current day.
Cromwell committed ethnic cleansing in amounts upwards of 600,000 when his invasion took place in 1649 when the total population of Ireland was somewhere in the vicinity of 1.5 million. So, Ireland effectively lost over one-third of its population to genocide at that one point in their history. To make matters worse, famine & plague then accounted for more loss of life.
In the mid 1800s approximately a million people lost their lives during the Irish Great Potato Famine. Two million people left the country for the United States, Canada, Australia, and other parts of the world, following the Great Famine, in an attempt to make a better life for themselves. I don’t believe that the vast majority of non-Irish people in Australia are, even now, totally aware of just how poorly the Irish were treated in their homeland. It was comparable to the Nazi Holocaust in its magnitude over the centuries of Irish history.
The British had prior form for this type of brutality, in other parts of the world with their colonization of countries across America, Africa and Asia. India was another country that the British raped & pillaged. The ruthless treatment that the British East India Company (under the auspices of the ruling British Government) carried out on the Indian population is one of the most shameful chapters of world history.
Looking back into the archives & records of the world, it’s plain to see many countries suffered at the hands of the ruling classes of the time. Ireland suffered terribly for centuries at the hands of the British government. The protestant, Church of England’s British Government, never really made any secret of the fact, that their intentions at the time of the potato famine, were to lower the Catholic population of Ireland by letting the Famine take its natural course of people starving to death. There were alternate food supplies available in Ireland, at the time. The Irish Catholic population just wasn’t given access to any of it.
While searching for information into these unfortunate times in Irelands history, I often thought from a current day perspective, what issues would be that serious to make you want to leave your home, your family & friends, and travel to the other side of the planet, with pretty much nothing except a few promises of a new country that may, or may not, welcome you on arrival? It was literally the equivalent, in modern times, of traveling to another planet to live, without a great deal of knowledge or confidence that you were even going to get there safely. Perhaps the answer to that question is probably, the desperation and faith that life would have to be, one hell of a lot better than the misery of what you were leaving behind!
In saying that, there doesn’t appear to be any attempts to make amends for the past attrocities to the Irish? The British Government, the ruling classes & Royal Family were guilty of terrible persecution of their own citizens too. But, I can completely understand where the Northern Ireland Catholic people are coming from these days, in their uncomfortable ongoing relationship, as still being part of the UK. Centuries of persecution just don’t go away. The present-day ruling UK government is still not willing to let Northern Ireland have its independence, even with the majority Sinn Fein party holding the most seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. I realize that we cannot dwell on the wrongdoings of past generations. Ruling governments of bygone eras ruled with an iron fist. They did so in the UK, they did so in Germany & they did so in colonial Australia. We’ve seen how history was written in Australia by the ruling classes of the time and we see how the true history of the treatment of our first nations people, is now becoming more apparent. In saying that, far too many Australians either fail to believe that attrocities took place or are to stupid to accept the truth. The racist beliefs of past generations still exist in modern day Australia.
Sidenote observation – As a descendant of Irish ancestors, I don’t hold any deep-seated animosity towards the current day British people. I would be quite happy to see Australia ditch the British Royal Family as heads of state. I see them as an antiquated pompous pack of inbred morons. Australia, as a country, is long overdue to grow up & become a republic. We need to shake off the shackles of this outdated institution, that does absolutely nothing for us in trade, cultural significance, or the ongoing security of our nation.
Nicholas Corcoran emigrated from Ireland on the Hannemore out of Liverpool 12th November 1864, with 335 fellow government sponsored immigrants on board.The ship arrived in Moreton Bay on the 9th March 1865. Coming from Kilkenny, he would have been fairly knowledgeable about horse breeding, as that part of Ireland had always been, and still is a major equine breeding area.
Brisbane Courier 17th March 1865Brisbane Courier 31 March 1865
After arriving in Brisbane from Ireland, twenty-three-year-old Nicholas followed many pursuits in the Ipswich, West Moreton & Darling Downs areas. He worked for many years (1869-1885) for the Wienholt Bros, who had significant land holdings across Queensland, and were experts in cattle grazing and horse breeding in the early days of Southern Queensland settlement and farming.
Johanna Bradbury, photograph was probably taken around the time of her wedding day 16-5-1872. She was 18 years old.
When my Great Grandmother Johanna Bradbury was born in Laidley, Queensland on 31 August 1854, her father Robert Bradbury was 42, and her mother Catherine (Ryan) was 23. She was the first of three children, with a brother, Robert (Jnr) & a sister, Mary Ann. The family lived around the Ipswich and Lockyer Valley districts. They moved on a regular basis, due to Robert’s work as a shepherd/farm labourer.
St Mary’s R C Church Ipswich 1872
Nicholas Corcoran married Johanna Bradbury at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Ipswich, on 16th May 1872, when he was 30 years old. They had 11 children in 19 years – Michael Patrick born 11-12-1873, Catherine Mary 20-11-1876, Mary(died at birth), Robert 14-2-1879, Ellen 15-1-1881, Johanna 14-2-1883 (died 1885), Mary Ann 8-6-1884, Nicholas James 16-7-1886, Margaret May 15-5-1889, Patrick Joseph 29-3-1891 & Johanna Mary 21-3-1893. A nephew, Charles Patrick Gilday, son of Nicholas’ sister Ellen, & her husband Cornelius Gilday, was also raised by the family. Charles’s parents both died when he was young.
1875 electoral roll1875 Qld Govt Gazzette. Nicholas was getting ready to commence farming & grazing by obtaining a registered cattle brand
Having worked for the Wienholt Bros for about 16 years on their Fassifern Station, in 1885 Nicholas shifted Johanna & the family (at that stage – 6 kids) to Moogerah, where he had selected land for farming & grazing. This section of land would have been originally part of Wienholt’s enormous “Fassifern Station”, which was then subdivided into land for selection by farming families. I’m guessing, that as Nicholas had worked for the Wienholts for many years and would have known how rich and fertile this land was, he probably would have had his eye on it for some time. It was located up behind (South West) the present-day Moogerah Dam, with permanent water for grazing & crop irrigation off Reynolds Creek & Nine Mile Creek. Nicholas’ original selection of land at Croftby was 160 acres.
In the 1890’s Nicholas also had a contract to deliver the mail, once a week, in the Croftby area.
This land was part of Nicholas Corcoran’s Rockmount property near Croftby. The rich soil of the Fassifern Valley made beautiful grazing land for cattle & horses. Reynolds creek that flows into Moogerah Dam is in the far background, with Nine Mile Creek in the closer treeline around mid shot of the pictureA local artist did a painting of the Corcoran grazing property”Rockmount” over a hundred years ago. The original artwork is still in the O’Brien family.Google street view 2023 “Rockmount”
All the following photographs of the farm were taken 1920-1933.
Little May (Mary Rita) Madigan. There were many “Mays” in the family. Besides Little May, there was her Mum Margaret May, my Auntie Johanna Mary who was also known as May or Molly, May Hoey plus a few more cousins named MayMartin & Margaret May Madigan on their wedding day 24th October 1922Daughters Mary Anne (Minnie) lived to 100, Margaret May (died aged 34, two days after giving birth to her daughter Mary Rita at 34), Johannah Mary (Hannah) died at 88Son – Robert Corcoran 1879-1957Daughter – Catherine Mary (Kate) Corcoran – my Grandmother 1876-1965 c1900 approx age 24Son – Patrick Joseph Corcoran 1891-1941Nicholas & Johanna’s farm “Rockmount” near CroftbyLand grants dated 12th June 1886 160 acres to Nicholas Corcoran & 160 acres to mother in law Catherine Bradbury Red marker – Location of Nicholas & Johanna Corcoran’s grazing property “Rockmount” on current day Google maps. Some of the richest grazing land in South East Queensland
Johanna’s mother Catherine Bradbury also acquired land in 1886, which later become part of the Corcoran land holding at Croftby. She would have been residing in Toowoomba at the time. Her husband Robert Bradbury had died 24 years earlier. The Corcorans ultimately had just under a thousand acres of prime farming and grazing land in the Fassifern Valley, at Croftby.
Nicholas was a champion breeder of Clydesdale horses & won many awards around South East Qld & also at the RNA show in Brisbane. He became one of the best authorities in Queensland on draught horses, which were the main farming implement before they were replaced by farm tractors. He was a foundation member of the Fassifern Agriculture & Pastoral Association, & later became a life member for his services.
Brisbane exhibition 1889Royal National Show Brisbane early 1900s. No doubt Nicholas Corcoran would have had his champion Clydesdale horses down in the throng of the “Grand Parade” of all the winning exhibitors that day.400 Guinees in todays (2023) money would be somewhere in the vicinity of $80,000.00 Nicholas Corcoran with “Master Lyon” 1902 Champion Draught Stallion Brisbane Show.
In researching ancestors, I always attempt to gain a perception of their lifestyles, political views, religious beliefs (if any), hobbies, sports, interests & just a general understanding of what their lives were like in those bygone eras. Most of the time, I have found that they were that busy just running a farm & raising a family, that there wasn’t that much spare time available, to engage in too many additional pastimes. We tend to take for granted these days, that we have time available for enjoyment of additional pursuits to enrich our lives. One hundred plus years ago, that was certainly not the case. Farmers & their families lives were full, in just running the farm, feeding, raising & educating the children & remaining fit & healthy. Another part of the lives of the Corcoran family that I found out, was their intense family values. Although having a full house at times, with nine children of their own to feed & raise, Nicholas & Johanna took in other kids who had lost their parents. Grandaughter, little May Madigan lost her mother at birth. Nephew Charlie Gilday also lost both his parents as a child & was raised on the farm. Another grandaughter, May Hoey who lost both parents at a young age grew up at Rockmount. My eldest brother John Francis Leslie Bermingham, was also raised by his grandparents & Uncles & Aunties on the farm at periods during his childhood. Handicapped grandsons – Kevin, Peter & Michael also spent time on the farm, under their care. Grandson, Edward Joseph Bermingham sadly died on the farm in 1922, aged 18 after being kicked by a horse. Many members of the extended family of that generation spent time at Rockmount during their childhood years. The Corcorans would never turn anyone away in their time of need & there was always a roof over their heads if they needed it.
Johanna Corcoran loved nothing more than to be surrounded by family, especially after Nicholas died. There was always extended family & a tribe of kids either living at the farm or visiting.Unidentified family group of kids on their horses at Rockmount.Nicholas was involved in a program to assist in the erradication of rabbits that were a major introduced pest in Australia, at the time.Nicholas also had an interest in dog breeding. Kangaroo dogs were the forerunners of the current day Greyhounds- Brisbane ekka The Queenslander Sat 22 Aug 1891Goolman Appeal Court Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser Thu 4 Jun 1903. Appealing against a rate increase.1900 electoral roll
The early settlers, most of whom came from hard times in their countries of origin (in my case Ireland & Germany), were never going to take any injustices they encountered, lying down. If they felt that they were being ripped off by councils & governments with increasing rates & taxes, they were not backward in coming forward, to appeal against a decision.
I noticed when researching the family history, the strong religious beliefs that most of the early settlers adhered to. Religion & churches were the pillars of most levels of society in Queensland at the time. The various religions and church factions didn’t always get along with each other. Some friction took place, mainly along the lines of faith & church administration. Nothing too serious! Whatever differences the local Churches had, certainly didn’t end up leading to fights, or wars breaking out. Some occasionally led to new congregations starting up. The reality was that they were not only meeting the spiritual needs of communities but also the social needs (which continue to this day). Farming, & life, in general, was pretty tough, so getting together the many farming families served more than one purpose. Sunday, traditionally the day of rest, was generally the only day people had off work, so the weekly church service gathered them all together to worship and catch up with what was happening in the community & around the district. It was certainly interesting to note that Catholics usually married Catholics and Protestants married Protestants. There were a few exceptions to the rule. The Churches and Religions had fairly strict codes of conduct.
Nicholas & Johanna Corcoran were devout Catholics, & brought their family up, to be the same. In the early days when Boonah and the Fassifern Valley were part of the Beaudesert Catholic parish, mass was often held at the Corcoran home at Rockmount. It may be worth acknowledging here, that as the writer of this article, I do not hold any religious beliefs whatsoever, but I do have the utmost respect for the people of these times & places, who did uphold the strict beliefs & teachings of their Catholic Church. It’s just a shame that the church that they held in such high esteam has slipped considerbly in its level of faith & moral structure, to the degree that in my opinion, I consider it to be a blight on modern society. The majority of the current day Catholic Church leadership should be behind bars.
Opening day St Andrew’s RC church Croftby 1907. Somewhere in the crowd of worshippers were my Great Grandparents Nicholas & Johanna Corcoran with their familyFather Patrick Finnerty (the local Catholic priest) & a young May MadiganQueensland Times Wed 5 Nov 19131922 electoral roll. Nicholas would have been about 78 & had well & truly slowed down on the horse beeding at that stage. He would have just concentrated on cattle grazing Newspaper notice for golden wedding anniversary of Nicholas & Johanna Corcoran in 1922Johanna & Nicholas c1922 on the farm at CroftbyC1924 This may be one of the last photos of Nicholas before his death.Outside of Croftby Catholic Church, sometime after 1924 when Nicholas had died. Johanna Corcoran – black dress, black hat with handbag over her arm towards the right side of shot.Johanna Corcoran (seated). Margaret May & Mary Anne (Auntie Min) Corcoran & a young May Hoey, beside Johanna. Minnie Corcoran (wearing glasses at back) lived to just over her 100th birthday, passing in 1984My older brother – John Francis Leslie Bermingham also spent time growing up at Rockmount, here seen with May Madigan on the left. Lady on the right ?Land holding by Nicholas Corcoran at the time of his death. “Rockmount” ultimately totalled nearly 1000 acres of prime grazing land.Photo on left C1960 Moogerah Dam prior to completion. Aproximate location of Nicholas & Johanna Corcoran’s grazing property “Rockmount” arrowed in the distance. Reynolds Creek can be seen winding its way up into the Fassifern Valley towards Croftby. Photo on right is modern day view of Moogerah Dam with Reynolds Creek totally submerged into the dam. My Grandmother-Catherine Mary Bermingham nee Corcoran (age 56), my brother-John Bermingham (age 2), my Dad-Jack Bermingham (age 26), my great Grandmother-Johanna Corcoran nee Bradbury (age 78) Photo C1932There may be a discrepency about his actual age. I have him at 82
Nicholas Corcoran died on 20th January 1924 at the age of 82 and was buried in Boonah Cemetery, Queensland.
Johanna Corcoran died on her 80th birthday, the 31st August 1934, at home on the farm “Rockmount” at Moogerah, near Croftby. She was buried beside her husband, Nicholas in Boonah cemetery.
The Corcorans were still grazing 188 cattle at “Rockmount” in the mid 1930’sLand owned by Nicholas Corcoran when he died in 1924
Above shot of Mary Ann (Minnie) & Johanna Corcoran was probably taken shortly before Johanna’s death in 1934.
Uncle Bob Corcoran taken at the farm c1934. Rockmount was sold to Robert & Mary Ann (Aunty Min) Corcoran who were the children of Nicholas and Johanna on the 4th Nov 1935 and it was valued at £960.
1934-1938 rates book1955 aerial shot of the Corcoran house. It was still standing, but had been sold out of the family at that stage.Catherine Mary (Kate) Corcoran married Edward (Ned) Bermingham
Nicholas & Johanna Corcoran’s oldest daughter – Catherine Mary, born 1876, grew up on the family farm at Moogerah in the Fassifern Valley & later married a local tradesman, carpenter/cabinet maker Edward Bermingham from Boonah. They lived at Dugandan, just on the southern outskirts of Boonah township. Edward & Catherine had six kids, one of whom was my father – John Francis (Jack) Bermingham.
With so many children (as did many of the original settler families), the Corcoran family desendancy trail branched out to all parts of the state of Queensland. They lived and raised families of their own in Brisbane, Gympie, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville & many of the inland regional districts. So, from the 1800’s, into the 1900’s & onwards to the 21st century those ongoing families & descendants have spread further afield & moved interstate, to live & have families who have now spread across Australia. The original Corcoran’s were a true Australian pioneer family, in every sense of the word.
Nicholas Corcoran’s identity didn’t stop with his passing. Current living descendents of Nicholas Corcoran who traveled over from Ireland in 1864 to start a new life here in Australia, would number well into the hundreds. Our own delightful little grandaughter, Samara is also a descendant of Nicholas & Johanna Corcoran, making her their Great/Great/Great Grandaughter.
With thanks to my cousin Mary who helped me with many of the photos & records of the Corcoran family history. Also, a special mention for the assistance from Sharon Racine who is a local historian from the Fassifern Valley area. Sharon found many old records from the Corcoran family. Greatly appreciated.
Out of all my ancestors who came to Australia from Germany and Ireland or in this instance, England, it appears that Robert Bradbury would have been the very first to have arrived. There is some doubt as to when Robert first arrived in Australia however, the only records that I have found, that appear to match up, point to him being a convict, who certainly had a very interesting past.
I’ve mentioned in previous posts on my Irish ancestors about the unbearable control the British government exerted over everything they did in their daily lives. Practicing their religion, the ability to own land in their own country and literally starving them to death through famines & epidemics were just touching the surface of the oppressive rule, the British employed over the population of Ireland. However, the British were just as heavy handed in the treatment of their own citizens in England, as well as with the way they treated the people of Ireland, Scotland & Wales.
When my Great Great Grandfather Robert BRADBURY was born in1806 in Manchester Lancashire England, his father, William Bradbury, was 25 and his mother, Mary Allen (or Mellor), was 28.
In the early eighteenth century when Robert was born, Manchester was booming, particularly on the back of the cotton industry. The story you will usually hear about Manchester is about the successful trade and commerce that made it the world’s leading industrial centre. Manchester experienced a population explosion, growing from a town of 60,000 inhabitants in 1800 to 142,000 by 1842. Manchester’s unplanned, unchecked growth led environmental conditions to rapidly degrade. Robert would not have had much of an education in early 19th century England & any chance to advance himself. So, his only opportunity as a teenager, other than working in the cotton mills, would have been to join the armed forces. Keep in mind, that back in the 1800’s, service life gave them a job, a wage (surprisingly good at one shilling/day), free clothing, three meals a day, a roof over their heads & a chance to see the world, albeit from behind a gun in a warzone or wherever Britain was trying to invade & conquer with its military might. But it also did teach them some skills, if they survived. Many young men chose to leave Manchester & the other industrial towns & cities of England, since they had no chance to get ahead if they stayed. A career in the armed forces gave them a pathway, of sorts. The downside was that many older soldiers were debilitated after serving for years in harsh climates or disease-ridden areas. Many barracks were unsanitary and more overcrowded than prisons and the death rate among men in their prime in barracks in Britain was much higher than that among the general population of Britain. Long term over-indulgence in drink also affected the health of many soldiers though this was rarely admitted in official records. It also was the cause of most disciplinary infractions.
Since Britain had lost the American colonies in 1781, the British government had decided to prioritize interests in the Caribbean, maritime Europe, Canada, Africa and the Indian & Pacific Oceans.
Early 19th century British soldiers.
Robert became a soldier, serving in the British Army sometime around 1820. The 96th Foot Regiment was formed in Manchester in early 1824 from the remnants of the officers & enlisted men of the earlier 94th & 95th regiments. Records show that the 96th regiment served at the French intervention in Spain- mid 1824, Nova Scotia -1824, Bermuda -1825, & then back to Nova Scotia in 1828. I’m not sure exactly where Robert would have served, but in any case, he was back in England by sometime around 1831 at age 24.
Cells on an 1800s convict ship. Multiple convicts were crammed into each cell below decks & only brought up on deck for an hour or two each day
On the 27th February 1832 age 25, Robert was convicted at a Court Martial at Chatham, Kent, England on charges of mutiny & desertion. I have no details on the crime he supposedly committed, but for a charge as serious as that, in the military at that point in time, the sentence was usually execution. However, he was sentenced to a term of 14 years transportation to the colony of New South Wales. I’m thinking that he was given a downgraded sentence (if you can call a 14 years transportation sentence downgraded😀) possibly because he may have simply skipped his army barracks for a night on the drink & got into a fight, punched an officer or perhaps another somewhat relatively minor misdemeanor. The fact that it was a charge of mutiny in England, on British soil indicates that he hadn’t left his post in a war zone, so the charge may have also been downgraded for that reason. This is all supposition on my part. More detailed records may eventually turn up. All of the convicts sent to Australia, were what would be considered in modern times, as very low level offenders who would only be given a light sentence, more than likely without a conviction being recorded. Convicts were sent off to the colonies for offences, such as stealing a letter or a loaf of bread. One of the more astute ways of setting up a work force in the new colony of New South Wales in the early 1800’s was to have a labor force that you didn’t have to pay. Practically all of the early convicts sent to New South Wales were from poor working class backgrounds. None of them would have been able to afford to get a lawyer or anyone with legal experience to fight their case. There was no appeal option back in those days. In any case, the military were a law unto themselves. On the 27th April 1832at age 25 Robert Bradbury was transported from Portsmouth, England with 201 fellow convicts, aboard the convict transportation ship, “Clyde” (Master: Daniel N. Munro – Surgeon: George Fairfowl). As an educated guess, I am thinking that due to the fact that Robert had travelled on board many ships in his time as a soldier, he probably would have handled the trip better than most of his fellow convicts. There are plenty of records detailing the travels of soldiers from the British military around the world from that period. Most state that the shipboard conditions for the soldiers weren’t that much different than that of the convicts. Cramped conditions, with the human cargo locked down below decks during wild storms, with the ships being tossed around like corks in the Southern Ocean on the trip to the Great Southern Land. Most of the food was in low supply or going off, & drinking water which would have been rationed would have been getting low, by the time they were getting close to their destination. There were many who didn’t make it. The authorities didn’t care. Convicts were considered expendable. The ones who died on the trip meant that there was one less mouth to feed. The voyage took 122 days & the “Clyde” arrived at Port Jackson in the colony of New South Wales on the 27th August 1832.
Robert was 26 years old. His religion was shown as being protestant Church of England, his complexion – fair & pockmarked, his trade was listed as a baker & soldier, his general description was 5ft 7 &3/4 inches tall, hair colour – sandy brown, & had he lost a front tooth upper jaw, scar under chin, mole inside right elbow and he had neither the ability to read or write. Records show that he also had previous convictions getting him 300 lashes. Robert was, by no means a saint, having gotten into trouble & received punishment on many previous occasions.
Occupation ~ 27 August 1832 ~ Robert worked as a baker and soldier.
Assignment ~ September 1832 ~ Robert was assigned to work for John Bates at Sydney, Colony of N.S.W.
Residence ~ September 1832 ~ Robert lived in Sydney, Colony of N.S.W.
Occupation ~ September 1832 ~ Robert worked as a baker.
Upon arrival, as a convict he was assigned to many different free settlers around Sydney and north to around Newcastle and Maitland in NSW. He worked as a baker for publican John Bates at his Coaches & Horses Inn at Parramatta. Interestingly, he also worked as a soldier. It wasn’t uncommon for convicts to also be soldiers, working under strict supervision. As he’d already been in the Army, prior to his court martial & transportation, his military experience would have probably got him the job. Being a convict transported to Australia, in the 1800’s was no picnic. They had practically zero rights. They were sent to the colonies as punishment & that punishment was generally the harshest of hard labour. Robert Bradbury, alongside the other convicts, were moved about as needed, into the custody of a master, who controlled every aspect of their lives. If convicts dared to complain or stir up trouble, it was usually a case of going straight back into a prison. So, convicts who went to work for a master, generally tried to keep out of trouble & stay below the radar. If you kept your nose clean, there was a higher likelihood of getting a “Ticket of Leave”/Freedom. The options were then open for a former convict to get access to run a business of his own and purchase land. The backbone of our country was built on many ex-convicts who gained their freedom, and went on to run prosperous businesses, or become successful farmers.
31 December 1837 ~ Robert was recorded as working under a master, being assigned to Edward Biddulph, Maitland, Colony of N.S.W. Biddulph ran an Inn, the Crooked Billet in Newcastle, and also had land for pasture in the district, where Robert may also have worked as a shepherd.
Residence ~ 31 December 1837 ~ Robert lived in Maitland, Colony of N.S.W.
Residence ~ 11 January 1839 ~ Robert lived in Newcastle, Colony of N.S.W.
Occupation ~ 11 January 1839 ~ Robert worked as a baker and soldier.
Even at this stage of his life at age 30, Robert was not very good at staying out of trouble. It appears that he, like many other uneducated crooks/criminals was destined to stay in the criminal justice system.
11 January 1839 ~ Robert absconded from his assigned master, William Croasdill, Newcastle, Colony of N.S.W.
The New South Wales Government Gazette of Wed 30 Jan 1839 had an article from the Principal Superintendent of Convicts’ Office, January 29, 1839 – THE undermentioned Prisoners having absconded from the individuals and employments set against their respective names, and some of them being at large with stolen Certificates and Tickets of Leave, all Contables and others are hereby required and commanded to use their utmost exertion in apprehending and lodging them in safe custody. Any person harbouring or employing any of the said Absentees, will be prosecuted as the law directs. J. M’LEAN, Principal Superintendent of Convicts. Bradbury Robert, Clyde (I), 33, Lancashire, baker and soldier, 5 feet 7 3/4 inches, fair and pockpitted comp., sandy brown hair, grey to blue eyes, lost a front tooth of upper jaw, scar under chin, mole inside right elbow, from William Croasdill, Newcastle, since January 11th 1639. THOMAS RYAN, Chief Clerk.
The New South Wales Government Gazette Wed 6 Feb 1839 Notices show – LIST OF RUNAWAYS APPREHENDED DURING THE LAST WEEK. Bradbury Robert, Clyde (1), William Croasdill, Newcastle. THOMAS RYAN, Chief Clerk.
February 1839 ~ Robert was apprehended during the first week of February. So, Robert’s time of freedom, was limited to only about a month before he was caught again
Robert Bradbury was eventually sentenced to an additional 4 years in custody. By the looks of things, it was to be served concurrently with his existing incarceration, so it looks like he may have dodged a bullet with his sentencing.
SIDE NOTE With a touch of irony that Robert would probably have been totally unaware of, in December 1839 his old regiment prior to his court marshall & transportation in 1832, the 96th, had moved to Salford Barracks in England, and later in the year to Chatham where on 4th July the first detachments for New South Wales had commenced their journey escorting convicts. This continued until 15 August 1841.
9 May 1843 ~ Robert was granted a Ticket of Leave at Maitland, Colony of N.S.W.
Maitland Mercury 20th May 1843
Unfortunately, Robert just couldn’t stay clear of getting himself into trouble.
Arrested ~ 12 June 1843 ~ Robert was arrested at Maitland, Colony of N.S.W., for house breaking, he was in Newcastle Gaol awaiting trial.
Court Appearance ~ 13 July 1843 ~ Robert appeared at the Court of Quarter Sessions, Maitland, Colony of N.S.W., on a charge of assault upon James Barry, at Maitland, on the 6th June last. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty, and the prisoner was discharged.
Police enquiry ~ March 1845 ~ Robert was questioned on suspicion of murder, but none of the parties have been able to identify him at Buchanan, Colony of N.S.W.
Commercial Journal & General Advertiser Sydney 5th April 1845
I’m guessing, that by this stage, the patience of the powers that be, would have been severely tested with this bloke. I think he may have been very lucky he didn’t end up on Norfolk Island or Port Arthur. Both of those locations were notorious for being the strictest and harshest penal settlements in the British Empire at the time. The worst and most troublesome offenders were sent there. Robert had accumulated a fairly lengthy Rap Sheet. He had gotten in and out of trouble on many occasions, with charges of housebreaking, assault & even having to face a possible murder charge. The cases were dropped before going to trial, due to lack of evidence. The convict administrators must have decided to send him far enough away in an attempt to keep him out of any further trouble. Ten years earlier, Robert Bradbury would have gone straight back to jail, but by this stage the colonial government was looking for ways to keep them out of prison & put them into gainful employment. The colony needed workers. Workers who earned a wage & also spent money.
11 November 1845 ~ Robert was granted a Ticket of Leave Passport to remain in the service of W. F. GORDON for six months at Darling Downs, Colony of New South Wales.
Diagram of 1840’s land route to Queensland showing direction that Robert Bradbury would have followed to Koreelah Station from Maitland
Being granted a Ticket of Leave Passport meant that he was basically delivered an ultimatum. He was sent to work as a shepherd at Koreelah Station, approx 650 klms north to the Darling Downs. That area would have had very few white settlers living there at the time. I think that the administrators were dangling the carrot of potential freedom in front of him if he could behave himself.
No.: 45/989 – 11 November 1845 – Name: Robert Bradbury – Ship: Clyde – Year of Arrival: 1832 – Where Tried: Chatham Ct. Martial – When Tried: 27 Febry 1832 – Sentence: 14 Years – Ticket of Leave No.: 42/1338 Maitland – Allowed to: Remain at Darling Downs in the service of Mr. W. F. Gordon J.P. for six months – on the recommendation of: Maitland – Bench, dated: 21 Octr. 1843 – 2000: Regd. 43/9886.
SIDE NOTE…..Some history of that particular area - Patrick Leslie, who was an early settler on the Darling Downs, found one way to help alleviate a problem, that he found himself embroiled in. Late-comer-squatters had started to trespass on to his stock runs . The Leslie brothers, (Patrick, Walter & George) sold some of the run, or rather the goodwill of it, for it was all Govemment land. They disposed of land towards the lower end past Killarney, retaining Canning Downs. The land past Killarney (Koreelah) came into the possession of William Francis Gordonwho paid the Leslies £250 for the use of it. The purchase included the improvements, a few huts and a woodshed along with ten miles of run. Along with the original run owners there was also those who served as labourers, first a few convicts, then ticket-of-leave men, then the free settler labourers.
One of those men was my great/great grandfather Robert Bradbury.
Notice of Robert Bradbury’s Certificate of Freedom published in The Australian newspaper (Sydney) Tuesday 28th December 1847Advertisement for the sale of Koreelah Station June 1847.
Living and working in solitude, as a shepherd on a station property, or even with a few local aboriginal laborers/shepherds usually meant that there was no opportunity to get into any strife. Robert Bradbury was finally issued his Certificate of Freedom on 16th September 1846 while working at Koreelah Station on the Southern Darling Downs close to where the border between Queensland & New South Wales is now located.
This area, on the western side of the Great Dividing Range, is where the headwaters of the Condamine River originate. The Condamine is a tributary whose waters flow into the Darling River that flows for 2800 km down the inland region of Australia, across four states – Queensland, New South Wales,Victoria, South Australia, forming the mighty Murray/Darling river system, which irrigates 40% of crops currently (2023) grown in Australia. One mountain ridge apart, on the Eastern side of the Great Divide, is the headwaters of Teviot Brook, that flows downstream into the Logan River & into the Pacific Ocean south of Brisbane. For that reason, the district beside where Koreelah is located is called The Head. From this area, on the lofty heights of the main range, where he would have been mustering sheep & cattle on the station run, Robert Bradbury would have had no trouble seeing the rich flat grazing plains below the range, east to Innisplains & the small town of Beaudesert.
He would have no doubt yearned for ditching his convict existance of the last decade and a half, & returning to a normal lifestyle. Keep in mind, Robert had been a convict since he had been transported to Australia, which eventually worked out to be a quarter of his lifetime. The wheels in motion for publishing convicts new found freedom turned very slowly, as can be seen from the newspaper story above, published over a year after his certificate was issued. Needless to say, I am thinking Robert would have just wanted to get back to civilisation as soon as possible, to have a normal life, to have gainful employment, to have friends, maybe get married & to have a roof over his head that wasn’t a jail. Back then, this part of the country was still included in the colony of New South Wales. Queensland didn’t become a colony or state in its own right until 1859. Koreelah Station was eventually sold off in a deceased estate auction but the name “Koreelah” is still kept as the district & national park name. On the 3rd of July 1847, Robert’s occupation was still listed as a shepherd at “Koreelah Station”, south of Killarney (W F Gordon’s stock run), on the southern Darling Downs. Well before its sale Robert had left Koreelah, and made his way over the Great Dividing Range on a rough track adjacent to Mt Lindesay (used by local indiginous people), where he found employment at Henry Wilks Telemon station, Innisplain near Beaudesert, which as the crow flies, is only about 40 klms from Koreelah. The rough track that he followed over the Great Dividing Range would much later, become the Mt Lindesay Highway. Robert Bradbury would not have known it at the time, but he was crossing the Main Range where the future border between the states of New South Wales & Queensland is located. He was now a free man & about to become a QUEENSLANDER.
For the next few years, from about 1847, Robert lived and worked at Telemon Station Innisplain, near Beaudesert, after gaining his freedom. For the first time in a couple of decades, since his convict transportation, he was now earning money & was no doubt enjoying life as a free man. I figure that with his recent freedom, and being able to travel with the restrictions of being a convict now being lifted, he would have relished the idea of getting to meet and interact with more people, and of course, the ability to now get into a relationship, without all his movements being monitored.
How he hooked up with his future wife, 23-year-old Irish immigrant Catherine Ryan, who arrived in Australia as an assisted immigrant, is still a bit of a mystery. Catherine may have been part of the domestic staff at Telemon Station where Robert was working. Robert may have traveled to Ipswich occasionally, where they also may have met. Robert had never displayed anything even remotely close to having any christian values throughout his earlier life as a soldier, low level criminal or convict. However, by the time he married Catherine Ryan, he had certainly discarded any remnants of his protestant Church of England background from his past, & had become a Catholic, probably for the purposes of the marriage. The Catholics generally didn’t allow any protestant gatecrashers into the fold. Robert Bradbury (46) & Catherine Ryan (23) were married at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Ipswich on the 8th November 1853.
Catherine Bradbury (Ryan)
Sidenote….As far as I know, the Bride – Catherine Ryan & the witness – Margaret Ryan weren’t related.
By early 1854, the newlyweds were living at Laidley, in the Lockyer Valley with Robert working as a shepherd/farm labourer around the district. From the 1850s, the Laidley area was being cleared for sheep grazing.
They had their first child, a girl –Johanna (my great grandmother) who was born 31st August 1854 at Laidley, west of Ipswich. They eventually had three children – Johanna, Robert & Mary Ann, during their marriage, but also lost a couple of babies at birth.
Birth & death of unnamed Bradbury baby (1856) Moreton Bay, colony of New South Wales.
By December 1857, Robert had moved back to the Ipswich area & his occupation was listed as a shepherd/farm laborer. This move may have been partly due to the upcoming arrival of a new member of the family.
Birth of son Robert Bradbury jnr (14th December 1857 – 1934) Ipswich, colony of New South Wales.
Queensland was the name given to the new colony on the 6th June 1859
On 22nd July 1859, Robert & Catherine Bradbury lived in Ipswich Queensland. His occupation was again listed as a shepherd.
Birth of daughter Mary Ann Bradbury (22nd July1859 – 1893), colony of Queensland.
In October, 1859 Robert donated £2 2s. 6d (approx $250.00 in todays money) to a collection for the construction of St Mary’s Catholic Church in Ipswich, so he was certainly making an attempt towards a more law abiding & charitable way of life.
Robert appears to have obtained work wherever he could as a farm labourer or shepherd around the West Moreton district throughout his married life.
Birthand death of unamed Bradbury(1861–1861) Ipswich region, colony of Queensland
Sadly, Robert Bradbury died on9 October 1862 at Bigge’s Camp (Grandchester). He had lived roughly 16 years after gaining his freedom. His death was apparently from a severe cold lasting six days (more than likely, influenza), and he was buried at Ipswich cemetery in the Catholic section. The death certificate shows his age as 50, although I have him at age 56. His wife Catherine Bradbury, with their three kids, Johanna(8), Robert(5) & Mary Ann(3) continued to live in a house at Clay Street Ipswich, for at least another ten years. She then moved to Toowoomba where she lived for approximately 30 years. Due to failing health, she then moved in with her daughter & son in law, Johanna & Nicholas Corcoran, at their farm at Moogerah in the Fassifern Valley.
Will/Estate ~ 4 October 1881 ~ Robert’s will was granted probate; Goods, Chattels, Credits and Effects to Catherine BRADBURY.
As with any ancestry research, times, dates and ages can easily become muddled. It usually comes down to cracking the code and finding one simple record of a time and a place that has been recorded, and trying to match it up with whatever other details are available. Many of our very early pioneers were illiterate. They didn’t keep any of their own records. Photography was pretty much nonexistent until the mid to late 1800s. The only details on them were usually immigration arrivals, and any local records of land purchases, rate notices, births, deaths & marriages. If they broke any laws and were recorded going through the justice system at the time, they may have made it into the newspapers of the day. If you were a law-abiding citizen, you went through life with very little record of your existence other than birth, marriage, and death records being kept. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the convicts probably had more records kept on them than any of the free settlers. Hence, the records about Robert Bradbury were quite detailed up to the point, of him gaining his freedom.
What happened to Robert & Catherine Bradbury’s children?
Son, Robert Jnr married Matilda Christina Albertine Discher. & lived in Mackay.
Daughter, Mary Ann, married Charles Thomas Regan. They also lived in Mackay.
Their oldest child, daughter Johanna Bradbury (my great Grandmother) married a farmer & grazier, Nicholas Corcoran (my great Grandfather). They had eleven kids and lived at Fassifern Valley. Johanna & Nicholas’s daughter, Catherine Mary Corcoran (my grandmother) married Edward Bermingham (my grandfather).
These photographs are of Robert Bradbury jnr – Robert & Catherine’s son, taken at different stages of his life. Brother to my great grandmother Johanna Bradbury. There are no photo’s in existance of his father Robert Bradbury snr, our convict ancestor. This is about the closest thing that I have been able to find, to give us any likeness to Robert Bradbury, the convict.
So, according to what I have found on Robert Bradbury’s life, he appeared to have settled down from his earlier turbulant existence, after he was married & had a family to support. In saying that, Robert Bradbury born 1806 St Helens Lancashire England, grew up in England & served in the British armed forces, charged with desertion, convicted & transported to Sydney Australia in 1832 aged 25, gained his freedom in 1846 aged 39, married 1853 aged 46, sadly died in 1862 Bigges Camp (Grandchester Qld) at the relatively young age of 55 leaving his wife Catherine with three young kids. He finally got his freedom but didn’t live long enough into his later years to enjoy it.
In closing this story on my great great grandfather Robert Bradbury, it is worth noting the situation relating to how our convict ancestors were treated, not only from the brutal masters, but also from their families & descendants.
I have sighted many documents & records showing that there was a considerable amount of shame held by family members, back in the day. Apparently, some but not all, didn’t want it to become public knowledge that their father or mother was a convict.
However, in modern times, having a convict ancestor is a much cherished part of many peoples family history. We appreciate it & wear it like a badge of honour. How times have changed!
Comparisons between sports by diehard fans, always without fail degenerate into a battle of whose sport or code is the better. To me, it seems to be an exercise in futility & a total & utter waste of time. Most of it is media driven rubbish by second rate sports journalists (generally from the murdoch press) looking to create a story out of nothing on a slow news day.
I’m certain that most diehard motorsport fans have had discussion or arguments about the relative skills of motor racing drivers compared to the skills of athletes from other sports thrust upon them, whether they like it or not. It’s a discussion that generally includes comments such as “Yeah but they’re a bunch of blokes only driving around in circles” or ” They’re not athlete’s they just drive a car fast” or “Anyone could do that” etc. It’s almost like some are itching for an argument. As a fan of many different sports, it does make me wonder why people endeavor to put someone else’s sport of choice down. For the life of me, why can’t fans just enjoy what they follow without having to belittle athletes & fans of other sports or pastimes? In Australia, the fans of each of the football codes seem to always be in a pissing contest with each other. The attitudes & comments by the leaders of the Football codes – Australian Rules, Rugby League & Rugby Union, make me sometimes wonder if they’re actually being run by the grown-ups or they have a group of kindergarten kids running the show. It was pathetic watching these people carrying on about the recent Womens Soccer World Cup. It really was quite the wonderful journey the girls in The Matilda’s took us on with them in making the World Cup finals. It was fantastic to see how well they played here in Australia. But, you wouldn’t think, so by seeing these old fat white guys trying to belittle the round ball game at every opportunity.
Although I respect the abilities of participants involved in many other sports, the skill of race car drivers absolutely amazes and enthralls me. But, it doesn’t mean that I feel as though I have to justify it. It is at this stage that I just back away from these discussions. I really couldn’t be bothered wasting my breath.
So, the following is not meant to be me, making a point about motorsport being better than any other sporting pastime. It’s simply me, defining why I love following motor racing. Take it on board or not.
Motor sport is a vast grouping of many different individual categories. Most of them operate completely independently from each other. The sport has a myriad of different classes of cars, trucks, motorcycles & basically anything that runs off an engine as its power source. Motor sport has categories that race on bitumen sealed circuits, dirt tracks (speedway), drag racing strips, rallying & many other places where the participants can safely compete against each other. I follow a particular class of motorsport called Endurance Sports Car Racing that competes on sealed bitumen race & street circuits. Race distances are usually 6, 12 or 24 hours in duration, although some races are allocated a distance, eg 1000 klms. As the description name suggests, the makes of vehicles competing are made up from manufacturers like Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi, Bentley, McLaren, Jaguar, Renault Alpine, Aston Martin, Corvette (GM), Maserati but also have many of the mainstream car manufacturers such as Toyota, Ford, General Motors, Peugeot, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Nissan, Honda also competing.
The most popular endurance sports car race in the world is the Le Mans 24 Hour held every year in France. 325,000 people attended this years centenary race at the 13.626 klm Circuit de la Sarthe.
The starting field for the 2023 Le Mans 24 hour race
Le Mans is only one race in the calendar for endurance sports car racing.
Race teams compete at a different venue almost every time they race during a season. The tracks can change, with weather conditions, track modifications and configurations. Car set-ups can be quite dramatically different from the previous time drivers & teams were there. Even racing in a different season of the year can change a circuit’s characteristics. Drivers can change teams, and subsequently be driving a totally different make and type of car from when they were last there and pretty much have to start from scratch to get the car sorted out for that circuit. Different tracks require a totally different car set-up, eg, fast, like Le Mans- flat, long straights, ultra fast corners, with a low drag, high speed spec. Laguna Seca in the U.S.A. with undulating corners and shorter high speed sections. Brands Hatch in the UK is a circuit with much shorter straights & tight corners.
In endurance racing, what works for one driver in a car doesn’t necessarily work for his team mate who hops straight into a car to take over, in a following stint. Team mechanics and engineers have to get a car sorted to work for multiple drivers and their individual driving styles. Then of course there is the tyres. Different race circuits have different characteristics on tyre wear, with different surfaces. What works on one particular track can become vastly different on another track. Racing series can change a brand of tyre (Michelin, Dunlop, Pirelli, Goodyear, Firestone etc) from one year to the next. Different tyres with different compounds, & grip & wear characteristics complicate things even more. A car can run on one brand but perform differently on another.
The days of hopping into a car and simply driving the wheels off the thing are long gone. These days the cars are a hell of a lot more reliable, but there are many more variables that have to happen to give you a good result on race day. In modern day race cars the drive trains are practically bulletproof, but the skills of the drivers have to be more in tune with the car. Being fast in qualifying doesn’t necessarily win you the race. Being consistently fast and reliable with the ability to read the car over the period of the race with all the different, inconsistent, condition changes, will get you over the line onto a podium position. Having mechanical sympathy for a car is nothing new, but being able to read it and sometimes nurse a car & tyres to the finish line is a talent and a skill that is very important in modern racing. Can a team double stint tyres? Can a driver get a lap extra out of a tank of fuel? In doing so, a car can be handed over for its final run to the flag hopefully with enough left in the tyres, & the fuel capacity to make a sprint race out of it. During races, drivers are continuously fed information through onboard technology & are in constant touch with the team race strategist at all times.
For a team arriving at an annual event like the Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race in Australia, it goes something like this:- They arrive at the track, some having travelled from overseas & some being Australian teams coming from all parts of the country, early in the week prior to the race. The team get settled with accomadation. Many people imagine all forms of elite motor sport are much like what they see with Formula One – Rediculous amounts of money being thrown around, luxurious accomadation, mixing with celebrities & partying with Hollywood stars at the casino in Monte Carlo etc. The reality for most race teams is that their accomadation & food arrangements are usually budget hotels & takeaways. Some teams camp at the track. Some of the factory race teams, Porsche & Audi are a bit more upmarket but still not quite in the F1 league.
Race transporters have to be unpacked. The race cars & pit garages have to be sorted out. This involves tons of equipment being set up. Modern day motor sport requires lots of data analysis, so it’s not just tools & spares. There is information & data collected from the car and the car engine itself which is meant to help drivers and engineers understand the behavior of the machine in the dynamic environment of racing conditions. The amount of electronic equipment & computers required to keep track of the performance of the car on track can be just as much, if not more, than the spares, these days.
Motor sport race transporters of the 1980sOne of Melbourne Performance Centre’s Audi Sport team transporters 2023
The drivers arrive, practice and qualifying starts. If the team has been there before, they have a pretty good idea of what needs to happen, to get them into a position to be in contention on Sunday afternoon. If, like the Bathurst 12H, it’s an early season event, the teams may be slightly rusty, after the Summer/Southern hemisphere & Winter/Northern hemisphere break. They may strike some issues early in the week that may require lots of additional work to get the car on track, and that’s before the event is even under way.
There are fan/media commitments & sponsor & promotional activities that drivers & teams have to attend. The drivers are like any other bunch of athletes. They are dedicated sportsmen & women. They live to race & compete against each other at the highest level. However, sponsors keep the sport alive, which means that many of the drivers have to attend most of the pre-race functions etc & answer all the same questions over & over again. To many of them, this is the only part of their chosen sport that they dislike. Like footy & cricket players, they just want to play the game they love. However the drivers are the face of the team that the public & media want to see. I’m no different when it comes to seeing my favorite drivers & teams performing at their optimum performance at various races that I attend, but I’m not a fan of all the pre-race stuff that goes on.
Porsche Factory driver Patrick Long & a random fan at the Bathurst 12 hour
As an interesting side note – These days, at the Bathurst 12 hour race, we arrive in town on the Friday night, go to the circuit Saturday & Sunday & head home on Monday. In years gone by, we used to drive down on Wednesday. Because the vast majority of the crowds didn’t arrive until Saturday, it was possible to wander around the pit paddock & garages on Thursday & regularly bump into many drivers & team members. The year the above photo was taken, Porsche Factory driver Pat Long saw us wandering past & came over, said hello & had a chat because he noticed I was wearing a Flying Lizards T shirt, the team he drove with back in the old American Le Mans Series days. Arriving earlier certainly has its benefits. Most of the guys are happy to have a break from all the other setup stuff they have to do & are generally up for a chat or a photo. You literally run into Le Mans, Nurburgring, Spa, Daytona & Sebring race winners at every turn.
Like other sports, they are in demand to be interviewed with their thoughts & opinions on the upcoming race, their personal lives & anything else that media interviewers apparently need to know.
Scrutineering (car legality check) takes place. The on track action starts on Friday for Free Practice when the cars are out on the circuit for the first time. This is usually the first time that teams get to see how their car is going to actually perform at any given circuit. Things start to really get real serious on Saturday for Qualifying. They may think they have a fast car, but then the opposition blows past them like they are standing still, and they have to get better times out of the car if they are to be competitive in the race. It’s a fine balance between a quick car on the fast long straights of Mt Panorama, but losing time over the top of the mountain & down the tight twisty sections coming down the mountain circuit.
Endurance sports car racing is a little different from other types of motorsport. Many races have classes for only fully professional drivers who are generally fighting for the outright win & other races also have a mix of pro & amateur drivers, some in the same race car, driving together. There are so many areas that can end a weekends racing for a team. Endurance racing relies on many amateur rich guys to often get cars onto the grid. These guys are quite often handy steerers who can turn in some pretty quick times, in favorable conditions. They’re not pro-drivers who do this for a living, but are guys who love racing and have the finance behind them to buy a drive (or sometimes a whole team) and usually perform quite well. The car may be fast, with a pro driver in it, but the guy who is paying the bills may not be able to get his head around it quite as well. On the other hand, if the weather turns sour, drivers who can perform ok in dry conditions, many times find themselves way out of their comfort zone.
So, qualifying day arrives. Teams prepare their cars for getting the fastest time possible in the conditions, to set the starting grid for the following days race. Usually the quickest guy gets the job to qualify the car in the highest possible grid position for the beginning of the race.
There are a few different schools of thought for qualifying. The race is an endurance event with hours of racing, many pit stops for fuel, tyres & driver changes taking place, so it isn’t the end of the world if the car is not on the front row of the starting grid on race day. But keep in mind, drivers like other athletes have that super competitive streak in them. They all want to be the fastest in qualifying, to start the race up front. There is no doubt that being in front at the start definately has its advantages. You control the pace, you have free air in front of you. Oh, & I forgot to mention, this race being twelve hours duration, starts in the dark at 5.45am in the morning. So the first half hour or so has yet another element of danger & skill to it. Circulating with speeds of up to 300 kmp down Conrod straight in the dark with the blinding lights of 60 cars behind you certainly makes you aware that you are alive, & want to stay that way.
Motor racing being what it is, usually means that most tracks are well away from built up areas. Mt Panorama at Bathurst has yet another skill requirement that many of the overseas teams & drivers have to learn about & contend with.
So, the race is underway. Many teams further back on the starting grid use their amatuer drivers to start, with the strict instructions of – Keep the thing in one piece & stay off the walls. The Am guys have a minimum drive time in the cars, so teams cannot just put the pro guys in to gain an advantage. The ams have to do their fair share of driving.
Many people view endurance racing as a long drawn out affair, but with modern day cars, they are built to last the distance easily. That is not to say that they are totally bullet proof. Do anything stupid with them & your day can be over very early into the race.
The initial plan is to get to the first programmed pit stop & see how well things are going then. The aim of everyone in the race, is to get the car & team into a top ten position heading into the last few hours to give yourself a decent run to the checkered flag. By about half way through the event, most teams start to work back from the finish time (in the B12Hr-5.45pm) & backplan their pit stops, at planned lap count intervals. This is why the team strategist, working in combination with the engineer/controller is so much in important member of a team. With cars usually doing exact lap counts per full fuel load, teams know exactly how far they can go, without the car running out of fuel somewhere out on the track. Tyres only last a set duration too. Flog them too early in the driving stint & they have a point where the tyre wears out prematuraly & litterally drops of the cliff & your lap times plummet. Nobody usually remembers the behind the scenes team members, but they are are vital part of all race teams.
Motor racing being what it is, also means that accidents can happen. Cars tangle with each other. Drivers make mistakes. Rain can hit the circuit turning your high grip, dry weather, slick tyres into ice skates. Weather radar plays an important roll in the team strategists list of things to keep an eye on during a race. Being fully aware of when impending bad weather is to hit the race circuit & knowing exactly when to pit the car to change to wet tyres is vital. Run a car that is on wets when the rain hasn’t yet hit the track can be disastrous. Your car could turn into a mobile chicane with everyone passing you, if you go too early. Anything can happen. If an accident takes place blocking the track, a full course yellow caution usually bunches up the field. Designed to give Race Control another tool to aid recoveries and safely manage on-track incidents during the race, the Full Course Yellow (FCY) system will see all cars required to slow to 80 km/hr in single file on the instruction of Race Control, potentially reducing the use of the Safety Car. Anyone breaking the FCY cops a penalty, which often can take them out of contention for a podium position. Everyone wants to see an incident free race to the checkered flag, but accidents take place for many different reasons, & problems usually crop up towards the end of a race when the adrenylin is pumping at a high rate. There is no such thing as a patient race driver when the end of a race in imminent. These guys are all professional enough to not stupidly end their own races or anyone else’s with a crazy or dangerous manouver. But what they are all paid to do, is take the opportunities when they present themselves. If there is a gap created, a professional driver will take it in a nanosecond. Being patient & waiting for another one won’t win you the race. That is why they are so good at what they do. Porsche factory driver Matt Campbell’s winning move within the final minutes of the 2019 race finish shows that well. There was absolutely nothing between the Aston Martin & binning that Porsche into the wall that day.
As all teams have access to exact timing & electronic information on their cars, it really becomes a total team effort to get the car into a winning position in the final hours of a race. One slipup from the driver, the pit mechanics, the refuelers, the team strategist can lose a race for a team that has battled so hard to get into contention. Everyone has to be at the peak of their game for the winner to cross the line first. There are very rarely any second chances.
Sidenote – That particular day in 2019, I wasn’t actually at the race (2019 Bathurst 12 Hour). I was at the base of the Himalayas with our family, in Northern India, not far away from the tallest mountain in the world- Mt Everest. We were in India for our sons wedding. I think the Nepalese locals thought that this Aussie in their midst had gone stark raving mad. I was watching the final stages of the race on a live stream at the time, when Matty Campbell made that historic pass to go on & win the 2019 Bathurst 12 Hour race for the Porsche Works/Earl Bamber Motorsport team.
Aside from the actual racing, I follow all the team gossip, comings & goings of team members, as other sports fans do with their sports & teams. As I’ve already mentioned, the drivers are only one part of a race team. The owners, managers, strategists & many other team members have become well known to motor racing fans as well, for the vital work they do in making these teams function as well as they do. If you watch the excellant Netflix series, F1 Drive to Survive, it details how the inner workings of a race team works.
There are plenty of racing doco’s & movies out there, but very few manage to explain in detail how teams have to perform & operate as a unit to get success. One of the very best documentaries ever made about motor sport & in particular, endurance sports car racing, is a film commissioned by the German car manufacturer, Audi, detailing their success at the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 2008, called “Truth in24″. It is available free of charge to watch on YouTube. Well worth a watch, even if you only having a passing interest in motorsport.
Sidenote – Sport of all persuations should be a subject that Film Producers should be able to recreate into movies without adding over the top scenes detailing non-factual events, for dramatic effect, that generally don’t happen in the real event. Motor racing (& sport in general) has all the completely natural drama taking place. The preparation, the lead up, the start, the background pitlane drama’s, some serious crashes & then the big exciting finish. So why do movie producers feel the need to add romance, a sex scene, a fight scene, rediculous music scores & crazy AI extras that don’t even look real, to bolster up a generally pathetic script for a sport movie? Production companies apparently deem it necessary to completely overdramatize their films with extra bullshit scenes detailing non-factual events to add something to a sports movie. It never works & consequently, most sports movies are box office failures.
But, I digress……Truth in 24 is a documentary/movie that does work, because all of it actually took place. There’s no actors, or made up dramatic scenes. The drivers, team members & other personalities are the real deal. The footage was all taken at the actual race in 2008, & leading up to it.
So, that is why I love this sport. But I also get why others are so passionate about their sport or interest of choice too. I really believe we all need a passion or hobby to follow. Life would be pretty dull without it.
EDIT – Feb 2024 — My son & I recently arrived home from the 2024 edition of the Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race. It is still only February, but I can honestly say that this race will be my 2024 sporting highlight. Whatever other events in the sporting world take place will have to be something quite incredible to beat this one. Having my favourite Porsche factory team – Manthey Racing win the thing was icing on the cake. The winning car was driven by Queenslander Matt Campbell (who also won the race in 2019), Belgium driver Laurens Vanthoor & Turkish driver Ayhancan Güven.
The fifth born of ten children to Johannes (John) & Louisa Rosina MULLER, was my Grandfather – Adolf Gustav Muller. Alf was born on the 1st May,1889 in the Fassifern Valley and attended Kalbar and Templin State Schools. Alf’s father, dairy farmer – Johannes (John) Muller died at the relatively young age of 52, in 1905. Having lost his father at age 16, young Alf would have had to step up, along with his siblings to keep the farm going. He eventually became a dairy farmer himself, in the Boonah district, where he lived all his life.
On the 12th of January 1910, 21 year old Alf Muller married Annie Lobegeiger (19), a local girl from Roadvale, whose parents Johannes and Emilie Lobegeiger, were also one of the early farming families in the district. Alf and Annie had three daughters -Phyllis (1910), Vera (my Mum 1914), Mavis (1919) and a son Selwyn (1917). The family continued the tradition of Alf’s father John Muller & ran dairy & beef cattle on their grazing property in the Fassifern Valley.
Alf’s father Johannes Muller had decided on serving his community & becoming a local councillor, but sadly died shortly after winning a seat on the local Goolman Shire Council. Alf also had a sense of civic duty, which eventually led him into a life of serving his local community as its local member of state parliament. He also served on many farming regulatory authorities throughout Queensland over his lifetime.
Phyllis, Vera, Selwyn & Mavis in frontState Library photo of a group with Alf 4th from left checking out future Cunningham’s Gap route
Following in his father’s footsteps, Alf became a councillor, and then chairman on both the Boonah and Goolman Shire Councils, before he entered Queensland state politics.
Alf Muller, front row centreStock holding list 1937 on cattle numbers run on each property
Alf was a very busy man, who wore a lot of different hats in his lifetime. He was a member of many agricultural boards including the State Butter Board, the Australian Dairy Producers’ Export Board 1933 to 1953, the Commonwealth Dairy Equalisation Committee, Member and Chairman of the State Butter Marketing Board, Chairman of Directors – Queensland Farmers Cooperative Association and Queensland Cooperative Dairy Companies Association; Director, Producers Cooperative Distributive Society; President, Queensland Branch, Clydesdale Horse Society; Patron: Fassifern Agricultural and Pastoral Society, Beenleigh Agricultural and Pastoral Society, Rosewood Show Society. In amongst all of that, he still found time to be a farmer in the Fassifern Valley.
With Alf being a public figure, as the local state parliamentary member for Fassifern & also being a cabinet minister, he was often quoted on a wide variety of topics.
Alf Muller represented the electorate of Fassifern in the Queensland State Legislative Assembly from 1935 until 1969 when he was eighty years old. He was Deputy Leader of the State Opposition from 1949 until 1957 and the Minister for Public Lands and Irrigation from 1957 until 1960. He was a very popular politician, who had earned a huge amount of respect from both sides of the political divide in Queensland during his time in office. Alf was known far and wide as a pretty humble bloke who’s main focus was to just get a better deal for his local district where he served as their parliamentary representative for 34 years. Although Fassifern was considered one of the safest Country Party seats in the state, Alf never took it for granted. He got just as much satisfaction in getting a win for a constituent on an individual problem that affected them, as he did in getting major issues such as dams & infrastucture approvals passed. When he fought for a particular cause, he was like a dog with a bone. He was never going to give up on it. When he retired as the member for Fassifern, his son Selwyn took over the seat. Later Selwyn became The Speaker of the Queensland State Legislative Assembly.
A G Muller MLA
During Alf’s time serving in the Queensland State Parliament, the Country Party led Government was known for being ultra conservative & extremely right wing in its policies. Many of the ideas that the South African Government introduced in the oppressive Apartheid era were cherry picked from the Queensland Government policies of the day. That staunch conservatism continued on for another three decades.
A G Muller, however was one of the very few Country Party members who had a good sense of social justice, at the time. Trust me, in the Queensland Country Party of the 1930’s, those progressives were an extreme minority. He had, for that period, of pre-WW2, some commendable ideas on the welfare of our indigenous people that weren’t shared by many of his peers. He made many speeches, that are on the Hansard record, calling for better living conditions & access to education for our first nations people. On many occasions, A G found himself swimming against the tide of his own party’s policies. Although, one could never suggest that Alf Muller was even close to being a fan of Labor Party values, he certainly had some admirable standards that were sometimes more in line with the opposition, than that of his own party. He had a strict moral code all of his life & always stuck with his policy of giving everyone a fair go. In doing so, he often got into conflict with his own party over certain issues.
A G Muller – Minister for Lands & irrigation opening the David Low Bridge on the Queensland Sunshine Coast 15-8-1959A G Muller’s last day as Minister for Lands & Irrigation 1969
In his younger days, Alf Muller had also represented his district in both cricket & football.
QT 28 Feb 1911. Alf top scored for Fassifern with 17 runs. Unfortunately the Dugandan team put the cleaners through them that day. My other grandfather Ned Bermingham was playing for Dugandan
Alf started Surradene Clydesdale Stud at his Fassifern Valley grazing property near Kalbar. The Fassifern district where he resided required a considerable number of horses to cultivate the land and the Clydesdale horse was chosen by the farmers for they had the size and stamina to cope with the task. During this period A.G.Muller owned several stallions and was breeding horses on his property. In 1931 he was elected as Queensland Branch President and Federal Delegate of the Commonwealth Clydesdale Horse Society. These positions he was to hold for 17 years until 1948 when the Queensland Branch of CCHS was disbanded. He was the longest standing President that the Queensland Branch has had to date. It is also recorded that he was a federal Clydesdale Judge from 1938 – 1948 officiating at the R.N.A. four times. (Thanks to – Ian Stewart-Koster for his research on this part of A G Muller’s life. My knowledge of horses, & Clydesdales in particular, is strictly limited)
Throughout his life of serving his constituants in state parliament & having his voice heard on the many agricultural boards, Alf Muller always saw himself as just a humble farmer but in doing so, he was always at the forefront of trying new farming practices & trialling different stock breeds from all over the country & around the world. I have no idea how he fitted all of this into one lifetime.
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Alf’s wife, my Grandmother Annie was a quiet private person who wasn’t into the public life of being a politician’s wife and was happy at home in Boonah, cooking, spending time in her garden and being involved with church and community. In fact, my Mum Vera, used to deputise for Annie on many occasions when Alf was out doing the local politician thing, as a councillor and then as a state government local representative for Fassifern.
Did I mention cooking? Annie was your top-shelf, quintessential bush cook! Whenever we visited, we immediately noticed the aroma of either a baked dinner cooking on the wood stove or a batch of scones or cakes laid out on the kitchen table, as we walked up the back stairs on arrival.
My memories of my Grandparents, who were just plain Papa & Nana to the 12 grandkids, are of your typical hardworking country people. Even as he got older, Alf liked nothing more than getting back to Boonah, meeting & chatting with the locals, or out working on the farm, well away from all the rough and tumble of state politics. As a kid, it seemed to me, that he knew just about everyone in Boonah and around the Fassifern Valley. I can remember heading down to High Street on a Saturday morning with him. It took forever to walk down the street, as he stopped to chat with just about everyone we bumped into.
His words of advice to his son Selwyn when he took over the seat of Fassifern were – “Use your common sense. If you have anything worthwhile to say, have the courage to say it; if you wish to comment but are not aware of all the facts, remain silent”
Alf Muller died on the 1st of August 1970 at eighty one years old & was accorded a State Funeral upon his death. He was buried in the Kalbar Cemetery. My Grandmother Annie died five months later and is buried beside him at Kalbar.
He was a great man and a great Husband, Father, and Grandfather. But he was also just one of many people who helped develop this part of our state into the thriving and successful farming community, that it is today.
A G Muller’s Great Great Granddaughter Samara Bermingham, with Mum Pankaj at Moogerah Dam 2023
There are still many descendants living around Boonah, the Fassifern Valley, South East Queensland, and further, across Australia, continuing the family tradition that Alf Muller’s father – Johannes Muller started, when he arrived in Australia from Germany nearly 150 years ago, in 1879.
Vera Isabel Bermingham was my Mum. She was the second of four children to A G (Alf) and Annie Muller (Lobegieger), born in Boonah on 24th March, 1914, just a few months before the start of World War One.
The Muller children – Phyllis, Vera, Selwyn & Mavis in front
The rural countryside of the Fassifern Valley was then, as it is today – a rich and diverse farming and grazing district. Most of the Muller family had been farmers, ever since Johannes Muller had arrived in Australia from Germany in 1879. Alf and Annie’s farm ran beef and dairy cattle and grew market garden crops in the rich black soil country, now known as the Scenic Rim. The four Muller children, Phyllis, Vera, Selwyn, and Mavis enjoyed a typical bush childhood. They rode their horses to the nearby one-teacher school.
From the Queensland Times, written by 10 year old Vera in 1924 Local artists impression of the family home with Mt French in the background2023 view off the top of Mt French.
The decade of the 1920s was a vastly different world from today, especially in the conservative bush. The men worked the farms, ran the businesses, and were given the opportunities for further education, while most of the girls and women were packed off to school to learn typing, shorthand, and what was then known quaintly, as domestic science. It was generally expected that a young woman was preparing herself for marriage and a future family. I hasten to add, that it probably wasn’t like that in all families, but it was in Vera’s. By the time she had reached her teens, Vera was developing a tough and forthright character. She yearned for further education to take on the world in whatever field she chose. However, despite Vera’s protests, her learning was confined to the Commercial High School in Ipswich. After her school years were over, Vera worked at Humphreys and Tow, the local department store in Boonah, from 1929 -1937. Despite her disagreements with her father not allowing her to further her studies, Vera loved her job and life in and around Boonah. She enjoyed playing tennis and going for picnics around the beautiful Fassifern Valley with her friends in the various church and social groups that she was involved in.
Vera’s mother, Annie, was a private shy person with a quiet disposition. Although diligently performing her duties as a local politician’s wife, she was more interested in church, community, her garden, and family.
As Vera’s father – A G Muller began to develop his political career, Annie often preferred not to join him at many of the endless meetings, official openings and party functions, so his daughter Vera often went along, as his assistant. She was a young woman with a confident outgoing personality. Later in life she often talked about how she exasperated her father with her outspoken nature.
Courier Mail Sat 19th August 1939
In 1938, she cut her ties with Boonah, and against her father’s wishes, she left the district to head for Brisbane, where she took up a secretarial position with the Vacuum Oil Company, now known as ExxonMobil. It was a big step for 24-year-old Vera to leave Boonah and move to “The Big Smoke”, but she embraced the change of the country girl who moved to the city. Although it was only a couple of hours away, it meant leaving her family & friends to start a new chapter in her life. Vera took to the social life in Brisbane like a duck to water. Working and living in the bright lights of the city was a massive change from the quiet conservative backwater of Boonah.
By 1939, World War 2 had commenced. Again in defiance of her fathers wishes, at the age of 25, Vera applied to join the Womens naval and air force units. At the same time, she also applied to get into nursing. Many of the existing fully trained Doctors and Nurses were being sent closer to the front line medical units. She was accepted into nursing training at the Brisbane General Hospital, now known as Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Vera threw herself into nursing with a real passion. From a medical training perspective, during the war years it was a fast track to learning the skills that modern day nurses then required, with many seriously injured and wounded troops being returned to Brisbane from the Pacific theatres of war.
Lectures for nurses at Brisbane General & Womens Hospital when Nurse Vera Muller was doing her training
Brisbane General & Womens Hospital 1940 when Vera commenced her nursing training
In amongst all of that, the young wartime trainee nurses found lots of ways to go out on the town to enjoy themselves and evade the 10pm curfew on the nurses quarters. When they did get a bit of time off, they posted a watch, so they could sneak back, in the early hours. Mum often talked about the Matron in charge of the Nurses quarters and the various Matron’s at the many hospitals she served at. They always had reputations for being very strict disciplinarians. The matron’s word was law. There was no ifs, buts or maybe’s. Apparently, some of the Doctors were even afraid of them. I guess it went with the territory.
Nurses quarters at Royal Brisbane Hospital. The heritage listed building has been fully restored & is now part of a campus for the latest trainee nurses
Nurse Vera Muller
I have no doubt, that if her father (A G Muller) was aware of what was happening with his daughter’s life in Brisbane, he would have been mortified. The dedicated Nurses and Doctors all worked incredibly long hours. The pay was terrible, and the work was tough, but she loved it and made a host of lifelong friendships. Vera completed her nursing training and went on to get many promotions, including being in charge of the elite Medical Research Ward at Brisbane General. Here, she saw all the most challenging cases every day. Vera described it as the most interesting job of her life. She had also studied and gained her midwifery certificate. Vera had a hand in delivering many new Queenslanders into the world. Her passion though, was in acute nursing, caring for the most seriously ill, on their road to recovery.
Vera’s life took its most decisive turn in early 1948, on the Ipswich to Boonah railmotor. Anyone who ever took that train trip will never forget it. Today, it’s about a half-hour drive, but in the 1940s/50’s, that train journey lasted about three hours, stopping at every whistlestop and siding for a yarn with the locals, and to drop off the mail and the milk. A perfect start to a lifelong partnership, between the Nurse – Vera Muller, and the PMG (now Telstra) Telephone Linesman – John Francis (Jack) Bermingham. It’s fair to say they had plenty of time to get acquainted on that epic 1948 train trip home to Boonah, to see their respective families.
Boonah Railmotor C1948
Vera was from a strict German Methodist family. Jack was from a devout Irish Catholic family. An interesting ethnic mix in ultra-conservative Boonah in 1948. Jack was also a divorcee, which back then, definitely put him on the outer with the Catholic Church. He had a son (John Francis Leslie Bermingham) from his previous marriage. I’m not sure Jack had ever held any strong religious beliefs, but I do know that he was deeply offended by his ex-communication from his church (& some members of his own family), even to the degree, that I don’t think he ever set foot in a Catholic church again.
Vera and Jack Bermingham were married at Brisbane’s Albert Street Methodist church on 9th February 1949. The newlyweds were straight off to Townsville for a short honeymoon and Jack was back to work installing the new automatic telephone exchanges across North Queensland.
Vera and Jack lived in Townsville, Ayr, Bowen and many other towns during their time in the north. Vera also worked in many different hospitals around North Queensland. She wasn’t overly keen on working in regional hospitals, after working in the busier, metropolitan Brisbane hospitals dealing with acute health care that she had done during and after the war.
The first of their 3 children, Robert was born in Ayr, Nth Qld
Jack was then transferred to work in the south western regions of Queensland, working around the Texas, Wallangarra, Dirranbandi and Goodiwindi areas. Vera & baby Robert (born in Ayr NQ) were based in Boonah, living in a rental house in Church Street. In 1951, Jennifer was born in the Ipswich Maternity Hospital, so Vera and the two young children were now living in Boonah, with both sides of the family nearby.
Vera finally put her foot down with her husbands nomadic lifestyle and Jack retrained as a PMG draftsman in 1954, the year I (Geoffrey) was born. Jack was now drawing up the plans for the new telecommunications systems, that he had formally been installing in country areas, and was now working in the Brisbane CBD.
As an interesting side note, as a child when visiting Boonah, I never once saw the two families together- both sets of grandparents (the Mullers & the Berminghams), and that’s considering they only lived a couple of hundred meters apart in Macquarie Street Boonah. Whenever I was in town, it was always to visit one family or the other. I can’t emphatically state that there was a divide, either by religion, social class, or ancestry. But, even as a kid, I picked up on the fact that there was a gap between them, and it was a gap much wider than just the physical distance between their actual addresses. As I got older, I began to understand how religion, class structure, and racial and ancestral backgrounds operated back in the days when the pioneer settlers first arrived in Queensland, in the mid to late 1800s. Many of the senior conservative residents of Boonah were still functioning on old outdated morals and principles, into the 1950s and 1960s. Both sets of grandparents still carried the strong religous and cultural beliefs, that were the result of the earlier times they were brought up in. Maybe some differences were still considered too hard to agree on. However, it certainly didn’t stop Vera, who always held strong Methodist beliefs from her German background, from marrying her husband who was brought up in a devout Irish Catholic family.
Queenslanders have always copped a lot of jokes, from the people of the southern states of NSW & Victoria about being 10 years culturally behind the rest of Australia. Although only a couple of hours south-west of the state capital Brisbane, Boonah in the 1960s was still operating in the mindset of the early 1900s in its cultural attitudes and outlooks. In saying that, I believe most provincial towns across the state would have been similar. In 2023, some of them (with their racial, religious & environmental beliefs) are still living in that time warp.
Vera’s political beliefs, coming from a traditional farming family, were always going to be on the conservative side. However, in saying that, I know that she was definately a critical thinker who valued rational over dogmatic ideologies. She certainly didn’t always agree with her father’s Country Party (later The National Party) political beliefs or even her husband Jack’s staunch Liberal party views.
Consequently, Vera had a pragmatic, common-sense approach to her views and attitudes on life. She was a realist. One of her favorite sayings was – “Just get on with it”… meaning, there isn’t much point in dwelling on your problems…. move on, and make the best of what you’ve got.
The family had bought a home in suburban southside Brisbane. Vera had wanted a more stable life, instead of the migratory lifestyle they’d had, since being married. Vera and Jack raised the three kids in the post-war baby boom period in Australia and we all attended local primary and high schools.
The modern extensions to the Princess Alexandra Hospital located in Brisbane’s inner suburban southside, hadn’t yet been built in the 1960’s. Acutely ill & post op rehab patients requiring around the clock attention were housed in ward S8, where Vera & the many other rehab nurses & doctors cared for them on their road to full recovery
Vera was always going to be drawn back to her beloved nursing. Now having a more balanced way of life, they both decided that she could return to work, doing daytime shifts at the Princess Alexandra Hospital Acute Nursing Care & re-hab (these days ICU – Intensive Care Unit), and picking up night-time shifts specializing in other hospitals around Brisbane. All while being a mother to three young kids. Besides that, the extra income would be handy. They’d been relatively late starters with a family, with Jack being 43 & Vera being 35 when they were married, so they were also late starters getting into the housing market and commencing to pay off a mortgage.
Vera’s nursing career was long, and filled with great distinction. Throughout her nursing career, she had worked in emergency departments, hospital research wards, ICU, surgical, re-hab, general care & recovery, maternity, and in aged care. I honestly believe that her passion for nursing & health care would likely have seen her continuing to do the job until the day she dropped, if she didn’t have a family. Nurses, by the nature of the profession, have a natural instinct for care. Nursing is considered a noble profession due to the unwavering dedication, care, and compassion that nurses provide to their patients.They are not only tasked with medical responsibilities but also play a vital role in offering emotional and mental support to patients and their families. Vera finally retired from thirty-eight years of nursing in 1978, at age 64. She had to take care of Jack during his last years, up until he passed away in 1984, finally succumbing to Alzeimers disease.
After Jack’s death, Vera wasn’t one to sit around and twiddle her thumbs. She travelled extensively, going to visit Hong Kong & a trip to China, caught up with old friends and continued to live an active lifestyle, now with an ever increasing tribe of Grandchildren to care for. She eventually had thirteen grandkids.
Geoff, Robert, John & Jen with Vera on her 90th birthday
Vera Isabel Bermingham (Muller) lived a long and fruitful life, and she too finally died 11th October, 2008, aged 94. She had outlasted all her siblings.
I am Vera and Jack Bermingham’s son – A G (Geoff) Bermingham. My wife and I have three children – Andrew, Jarryd & Kathryn.
I think Vera would have been very proud to know that her Grandson Andrew Bermingham recently graduated as a Registered Nurse and is now following in her footsteps and working in the health care sector.
Andrew & Pankaj have blessed us with a beautiful grandaughter – Samara Isabel Bermingham (Vera Isabel Bermingham’s Great Grandaughter)
My ancestry DNA is 50% Irish, 42% German, with the remaining 8% being Scandinavian. The first arrivals into Australia, were my Great Great Grandfather Robert Bradbury (b1806) a convict who arrived in Sydney in 1832 & my Great Great Grandmother Catherine Ryan (b1830) who arrived in Brisbane in 1851 as an assisted immigrant from Ireland. They arrived in Australia almost two decades apart, but eventually their paths crossed with them getting married in 1853 in Ipswich Queensland. The other ancestors were all Irish & German arriving in Queensland in the second half of the 19th century.
THE IRISH IMMIGRANTS ☘️🇮🇪
Catherine Ryan – Newport Tipperary (arrived Brisbane Queensland 31-1-1851) on board the “Meridian”
Ellen Dunn (Bowen) – Nenagh Tipperary (arrived Brisbane Queensland 12-10-1856) on the “Lady McDonald”
Nicholas Corcoran – Danesfort Kilkenny (arrived Brisbane Queensland 12-11-1864) on the ship “Hannemore”
Peter Bermingham – Carbury Kildare (arrived Maryborough Queensland 9-10-1874) on the ship “Great Queensland”
THE GERMAN IMMIGRANTS 🇩🇪
George M Kubler, Louisa J Streiner – Biberach, Baden Werttemberg (arrived Brisbane Queensland 14-9-1863) on the ship “Beausite”
Gottleib F Lobegeiger, Wilhelmine F Topp -Templin, Brandenburg (arrived Brisbane Queensland 17-1-1864) on the ship “Suzanne Goddefroy”
Carl F W Krueger, Johanna E Grambauer – Pinnow, Brandenburg (arrived Brisbane Queensland 6-9-1865) on the ship “Suzanne Goddefroy”
Johannes Muller – Tuttlingen, Baden Werttemberg (arrived Brisbane Queensland 7-2-1879) on the ship “Fritz Reuter”
OUR CONVICT ANCESTOR 🏴
Robert Bradbury – St Helens, Lancashire (arrived Sydney New South Wales 27-8-1832) on the ship “Clyde”
Family pathways our ancestors made on arrival in Australia. Robert Bradbury a convict transported to Australia for desertion was the first to arrive in 1832, coming up from Sydney. His future wife, Catherine Ryan arrived in Brisbane in 1851. Ellen Dunn/Bowen 1856, George & Louisa Kubler 1863, Gottleib & Wilhelmine Lobegeiger 1864, Nicholas Corcoran1864, Carl & Johanna Krueger 1865, Peter Bermingham 1874, John Muller 1879.
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I have now done articles on most of my ancestors. When I first started on this ancestry journey, to find out where I came from, my initial thoughts were to find out if we had any high achievers in our family history. It has been said by others that it is a journey of discovery & I can agree. In addition to getting my priorities realigned, I found out more things about myself along the way.
I have my doubts on the accuracy of many of the centuries old records from the original home countries. The world has had to go through two World Wars & way too many other conflicts, since just the beginning of the 20th century.
Even prior to the 20th century, both Ireland & Germany, where my ancestors were from, had endured the ravages of wars, famines & civil unrest throughout their history of the last 500-plus years. Many of the original archives, museums & historic records had been destroyed by invasions, fires & civil disobedience through these periods of fighting between nations & also during internal disputes. So, the chances are greatly decreased, of finding detailed accurate information on the ancestors from the old countries, before they arrived in Australia. The Irish records were dodgy, to say the least. On the other hand, what records I have found on the German side of the tree have been pretty good. The Germans have always had a reputation for being fastidious & some of the ancestral details I have located have been well recorded. I haven’t completely drawn a line on the home country ancestry tracking, but have preferred to stick to the details after they stepped off the boats, upon arrival in Australia.
In saying that, I have tracked the German ancestral line of our family back about 600 years. As anyone who has gone back a few generations can testify, the tree can become a maze of very doubtful lines. Think of it as driving a car in reverse down a network of crossing streets & intersections. One wrong turn & you could easily end up going in a wrong direction. You can find yourself stuck up many dead end streets & alley ways, having to head out & pick up a correct thread/direction & commence again. There are lots of clues on the way. But are they all correct? It is a fascinating journey, but can also be a very frustrating exercise in finding the truth.
Australia, since the arrival of white colonization, has never been invaded by an external country.
That statement depends of course, on your perspectives on the arrival of the First Fleet, in Australia in 1788. Many people will have differing views on that subject. The acts of genocide committed on First Nations people by the colonial inhabitants should not go without acknowledgment & are well covered by modern historians now publishing the uncomfortable truths about Australia’s early colonization. The frontier wars fought between colonists and indigenous peoples in Queensland, were the bloodiest and most brutal in colonial Australia, with Aboriginal fatalities alone comprising no less than 65000 & that figure is considered to be a conservative estimate. I know, in my case, that it only dawned on me as I got older, as to exactly how horrific it must have been for our first nations people to have watched their country invaded & overun by the colonial onslaught that followed after the arrival of the First Fleet. The disease, genocide, the stolen generations, poisoning of food & water supplies, the unbelievable brutality on an entire race made me realise what an absolute load of trash we were taught in our education system at the time of my schooling in the 1960’s. Our colonial governments were no better than the brutal English & German governments that our ancestors had fled from. Right up until the 1960’s, Australia had a “White Australia” policy enshrined in our federal & state government legislation. Sadly, modern day Australia is still a racist country. We all know some of these specimens, some of whom are in our parliaments. Many of us have racists in our families, that in the interest of family unity, we have to tolerate. These are the ones who like to hold the floor & push their views on the rest of us, whenever a friends & family get together takes place, somehow believing that their racist & retarded political outlooks are the answers to all the nations current problems that exist. Detailed proof, photographic & historical records, & first hand experiences don’t mean a thing to them. They live in their own little world of hate & bigotry and tend to surround themselves with like minded people. My own home state of Queensland is probably the most racist state in Australia. Head north of the Sunshine Coast & west of the great Dividing Range & you are really heading into redneck country. But, I digress.
Nevertheless, the majority of our Australian historic migration records have been kept, more or less intact, since the arrival of the First Fleet. The colonial Brits were great record keepers & there were also newspapers recording information right from the early days of settlement. By the 1850s, photography was also becoming more common, so pictures were also being recorded of people, places & events in Australia’s history.
As a fifth generation Queenslander, our earliest ancestral arrival was a convict, Robert Bradbury,who got transported for desertion from the British Army in 1832.
Sidenote – My wife’s earliest recorded ancestor arriving in Australia, was also given an all-expenses paid trip out here. He was a convict on the 2nd fleet – James Beckett arriving in 1790 (17 months after the First Fleet). That makes her an 8th-generation Australian, with an ancestor who became one of the very first Aussie’s. Unfortunately, James didn’t make the trip by choice. He was convicted & transported to Australia after receiving a life sentence. Later, James Beckett was given his freedom & became a brickmaker.
The first census of Queensland was conducted on 7 April 1861 when the population was 30,059 comprising 18,121 males and 11,938 females.
My thoughts on the subject of tracing ancestors are not meant to be interpreted as a perfect way of undertaking the exercise, or to find faults in anyone else’s research. It is primarily just the way I have attempted to trace my past relatives. The reality is that I’m still relatively new to this, having only started after I retired a few years ago. There is no doubt that it is a very time-consuming pastime, however, it becomes very addictive. Some people have been doing this for decades. I must admit, that when we were kids, hearing our parents, grandparents & relatives banging on about the old people in the family’s past, used to make us run a mile in the other direction. Like many others who have only just gotten the bug in later life, we all feel like we should have paid more attention when we were younger.
When you start to unearth details & stories about your ancestors, it only makes you want to find more. It is also an incredible learning experience because you are not just learning about your old relatives, but also getting an insight into how people viewed the world back in the day. How religion played a big part in their lives. What was their generational thinking, on politics, education standards & many other facets of day-to-day life at the time? We’re inclined to think of our ancestors as always being elderly people, with old world views & opinions, but they too, were young once & were full of hope & enthusiasm for their futures. I think we’ve all seen plenty of documentaries, read stories & seen old drawings, depictions & photographs of past history. But when it is your own people – our Grandparents, our Great Grandparents, our G G Grandparents, our Uncles & Aunties etc, it takes on a special significance when you see photos & detailed records of what they saw, what their living conditions were like & what they had to contend with, when they arrived in Australia. What they had to do, to make a better life for themselves, and how they raised a family. Starting from scratch to build & operate their farms. They had to clear the land from the thick scrub. They built their own homes, fenced their farms, and transported their own produce & animals with no cars or trucks. There wasn’t much in the way of equipment & they only had basic tools to work with. Everything was done by hand or by using horsepower. Earthmoving & farming machinery were still on the future horizon. But our ancestors were also very innovative. They often came up with ideas & inventions of their own to make their lives easier on the farm. Naturally, they had no idea of what the future held, so they took everything on at face value, with whatever they had at their disposal, back in the day. When you start to dig deeper into their lives, it becomes an enthralling time travel view back into the past, of what life was all about, over a hundred years ago.
One of the other aspects of this exercise, that many people of the current generation tend to view with a certain amount of disdain, is the attitudes that people of past generations had, & dealt with, the issues of racism & the environment, of a hundred-plus years ago. Keep in mind…Everyone was a product of those colonial times. In the British Empire, of which Australia was then still a part, slavery was still very much in vogue. Colonialism, with all its brutal, unethical & antiquated attitudes & laws was still the way governments who formed part of the British Empire, operated in the Victorian era. It’s easy to look back with hindsight & be critical. There was no Social Services safety net for the people who fell through the cracks. The early settlers had to hit the ground running & were just trying to stay alive. Australia was called the lucky country in the early days. But luck didn’t just present itself. It was all hard work & an attitude of never giving up under adversity. Our ancestors had traveled from Ireland & Germany to get out of the mess, that both countries were in at the time. As terrible as it sounds, other issues were superfluous. It doesn’t take away the fact that our First Nations & Pacific Islander people were treated abysmally, but again, without diminishing responsibility, the people of the pioneering years in Australia, were a product of their time & place.
The environment was generally treated as something to be used, not protected. But would we have been any different, if we had been shifted back in time? My guess is…probably not. It is very easy to be critical of some of those stances, looking at them from a present-day perspective. Realistically, it’s probably only been in the last 20 or so years, that we, as a modern society, are now getting very serious about the environment & global warming & we still have a long way to go. Those problems wouldn’t have even been on the radar for most of our ancestors. I think one thing about the environment, that they learned very early, was that if you looked after the land, the land will look after you. So, in some ways, the early farming settlers were already learning about protecting the land & environment, well before it became an issue.
Similar comparisons could be made about our ancestors strict religious beliefs. Religion was a huge part of their lives, in colonial Australia. It was a case of….if you weren’t in, you were out! If you weren’t part of the status quo of following a religious faith, families were often ostracized. Communities were very close-knit. The various church denominations stuck together, even to the point of being, what we would consider these days, as being obsessive & cult-like. Church congregations were full to overflowing every Sunday in all the various religions that most localities had.
Education standards were improving & consequently, people became more tolerant in future generations. In the 19th century, print media (newspapers) had become more readily available & by the early 20th century, radio was also becoming more accessible so people could hear & understand more about what was happening in their communities & the wider world.
Like many others, I steered down particular pathways, that showed persons with interesting backgrounds. I made the mistake of temporarily discarding an ancestoral trail that wasn’t quite as fascinating as others. In time, I came to the conclusion that generally, our mob weren’t as captivating as I would have liked them to be. It quickly dawned on me that this wasn’t the point of the whole exercise. Ancestry tracking is all about finding your roots.
When you start down this pathway & delve deeper into your past, you find out some absolutely amazing facts & details about your forebears. A recurring thought was – How cool would it have been to actually meet these people from our past & have a one on one dialogue with them. How & why they chose a particular destination in Australia, & to gain a detailed understanding what their lives were like back in the old country. For most of them, it came down to simply having a gutful of the dystopian way of life that was being forced onto them. Unfortunately, I never had access to a flux capacitor, to make this happen. Maybe….One day!😊
It is easy to get carried away reading some of the facts that become unearthed from a century & a half ago. These people….my relatives, really did some incredible things. They up & left their country of birth. They travelled on a flimsy wooden sailing ship, endured attrocious weather & accomadation, to journey to the other side of the planet. Many never made it, with some dieing from disease on board the ships. Some vessels were lost at sea with all hands going down. Think about that, when you’re sitting in economy class watching a movie on your next flight overseas, & silently thinking 😠😠 Are we there yet!
To put that into perspective…Some of our ancestors had never traveled more than 20 kilometers from their homes during their lives to that point. Some had never seen the ocean. Most had never been on a boat. In our families case, they were all farmers who were used to the Northern Hemisphere agricultural practices & climate conditions, so they would have had no idea what conditions were going to be like in Australia. I wonder, how many knew that Australia was, & still is the driest continent in the world. I’d be willing to bet that the Queensland Government delegations to Germany & the UK back in the 1800s, drumming up prospective immigration, weren’t passing on that information. Our ancestors all made an incredible leap of faith in what was awaiting them on the other side of the world.
I treat all of these ancestry stories as a work in progress. It isn’t totally possible to put together a detailed, factual report on their lives when they lived & died well over a century ago. I’m certainly not suggesting that you prop it up with fiction or inaccurate guesswork, but by necessity, you have to attempt to join some dots. The reality of ancestry tracking, is that unless your relative was a person who led a very public life as a politician, a celebrity, an influential personality or a criminal, there wasn’t much to find, other than shipping logs, births, marriages, obituary notices, cemetery headstones, plus occasionally some land ownership records, military service or the odd rare photograph.
So, in many ways, looking at the living conditions for the general population from Germany & Ireland, & the economic situation in their home countries at the time, helped to fill in some of the gaps & gain some sort of perspective of what they had left behind.
Some official records don’t correspond to other documents that I have found over ancestors’ life spans. I can only put this down to poor record-keeping of the day. On the flip side, a lot of people make the mistake of sometimes disregarding some information, because of a minor discrepancy.
For instance, back in the day when Catherine Ryan (my great-great-grandmother) arrived in Queensland after migrating from Ireland, Brisbane was literally no bigger than a village, with a population of approximately 2000. Many of those were military personel, colonial government employees & convicts. The actual free settler population was considerably smaller.
Queensland only started recording immigration information in 1848, shortly before becoming a state. Prior to 1859, it was part of the colony of New South Wales. Although her name was a very common Irish female name, there weren’t that many “Catherine Ryans” that had arrived in the early 1850s & in her age group (about 23). Following her trail wasn’t going to be impossible, but maybe perhaps just a little bit difficult. I found it easier to sort the arrivals into likely & unlikely categories, discard some of the obviously incorrect records, that in Catherine’s case, didn’t fit her demographic & see what you were left with. It doesn’t always give you the definitive answer you are looking for, but it certainly narrows down the list of possibles from probables. A firm fact is that we know Catherine was married on 8th November 1853. So the natural assertion is that she arrived some time well before then, to have found employment, somewhere to live & to hook up with her future husband (Robert Bradbury).
Catherine Bradbury (nee Ryan) taken in Toowoomba c1876
In the official Queensland Assisted Immigration records, there were only four female Ryans listed in the 18-25 age group who arrived up to 1853 & there was only one “Catherine Ryan”. Some of the assisted migrants, particularly single young women, were known to have adopted a family, for the voyage over here. This scenario took place on many migrant voyages from the UK to the US, Canada, South Africa & Australia. Having a family (whether they were your own or not) on board, no doubt offered a sense of protection for young women who were traveling alone. Security on some of the crowded migrant ships was nonexistent.
There was the possibility, although highly unlikely, that she travelled out here under a false name.
People back then were no different than today. Some lied about their age & activities, for one reason or another. Some records disappeared or were accidentally destroyed over the years, so there’s always going to be a few gaps in government records, archives & museums.
Anyone embarking on this type of ancestry exercise can vouch that not all official records are accurate. The dates, the correct spelling of names & places, shipping records etc, by the original record keepers, were often, fairly dodgy. Once again, to use my great-great grandmother Catherine Ryan as an example, when investigating her life, like all ancestry tracking, it is generally a case of attempting to join those dates, places, records & media reports. I also work on the basis of…..Is the person mentioned in a document in the right place, at the right time, to fit into your ancestor’s timeline? A great way to get into an argument with fellow ancestry investigators, is to hold stubborn unshakeable views on a particular aspect or subject, if you don’t have an ironclad guarantee that they are correct. Going into these tracking exercises, you must have the good grace to accept that you can sometimes get it wrong & the respect, to accept that other people’s version of events may be correct. Anybody who thinks that they get it right the first time is kidding themselves. Another thing that I have learned since I started this ancestry journey of discovery, is that you should talk to, & LISTEN to as many people as possible. Older relatives are a hive of information. Talk to them & hear their accounts before they eventually pass on. Most want to tell their stories, if they have the attention of someone who will listen. That historical item of significance or family gossip may die with them unless someone has taken the time to record it.
There are also plenty of bullshit stories & urban myths that get passed down through the generations too. People were no different a century or so ago about making up malicious stories to discredit a relative or associate that they had a disagreement with. They may not have had modern day digital social media to spread misleading information, but they certainly had word of mouth & later, the ability to write a report, if they wanted to denigrate someone. Being able to sort out fact from fiction can be a big help in getting to the bottom of completing a true story.
Now….this next theory I have is probably going to set a few people off. I have actually thrown a few red herrings on my family tree profiles. Sometimes when I’ve hit what I feel is a brick wall or I am doubtful of a particular direction an ancestry pathway is heading, I have tossed an incorrect story out there. It takes very little time for people to point out my mistake. As I’ve said, I’m quite OK with this, I’ve found that this method certainly gets some quick reactions & responses. Sometimes you have a win, sometimes you don’t.
I also understand the business models of the ancestry tracking sites. They are not benevolent societies. However, a lot of their clues & hints can send you in a completely wrong direction. They tend to bleed information through to you at slow rate, in order to keep you interested. In saying that, it’s well worth the money to get access to their vast records. Just don’t totally rely on what you get from them. There’s plenty of free archives & libraries, many with the original hard copy records, to obtain information from too. The best are often some of the smallest, that are run, usually by a team of volunteers.
I can highly recommend visiting these various local archives & museums in the localities where your ancestor has come from. Many families often donate photo’s & records from deceased estates, so there is always new ancestral records arriving. A new snippet of information that sometimes may come from a source that you previously had never considered, can head you in a totally new direction to uncover more about your past. It can be very time consuming. A single sentence mention in someone else’s ancestors story may shed a completely new light on to the story of a relative of your own.
With all my ancestry blog articles I continue to update them, whenever I find more detailed accurate information. With something like only 3% of Queensland State Government Archive records being available online at present (2023), there will always be more details that are forthcoming & inaccuracies to correct, as online records are expanded & updated. It would certainly help the cause, if our State Archives were a little more pro-active in getting all these old records on line. Their online accessibility to information, is pretty hopeless. Other Australian states are much more advanced.
I was talking to a distant relative recently & he made the point about our mob not being involved in anything crooked in the past. Since I started doing this ancestry tracking, I have held the view that whatever happened in the past, good or bad, will always stay there in that historical timeline. We can’t hide any details of any nefarious activities of an ancestor, & neither should we! Some things would certainly not make us proud of any dishonest or illegal dealings they may have engaged in, but it is now history. It is what it is….. or should I say, what it was! Good or bad, I would want it kept on any of my ancestry records of relatives. Having said that, thankfully, we didn’t have any serial killers or shady characters in our past. Not that I know of, anyway.😃
In this same discussion, that grew into a group of close & distant cousins, talking about ancestry, the point was raised regarding if any of us felt an ancestry bond towards one or more of the family lines that we descended from. Some said they identified with a particular line of the family, due to a farming heritage, growing up in the same district, a religious connection or a common interest etc. For me, when anaylising my own historic connections, I found that I felt a bond with all of them. There were many parts of the stories on each of the grandparents & great & great/ great grand parents that I found were interesting. But it was more of a sense of pride in their accomplishments & what they had achieved since their arrival in this foreign land, from where they had all come from.
SOME FINAL OBSERVATIONS :-
I have found in chasing the trail of past relatives, that most families had a few skeletons in the closet. There appears to have been a generational attitude by our ancestors who had what they felt were embarrassing issues, that may bring shame upon the family name. Sometimes, they went to great lengths to make sure that these details didn’t get spread to the outside world.
It was a much more conservative period, with the vast majority of the population holding strong religious beliefs & commitment to King & country. People had a totally different moral & cultural mindset about how they looked at the world & how the world looked at them. There was no internet & no television & radio was in its infancy. With newspapers being the only form of media, it was a time when people trusted & believed what they read in them. In regional localities around Australia, the traditionalist citizens weren’t known to be very accepting of minority groups that went against the grain of the local social & religious fabric.
How times have changed! These days, if anything, that stance has had a complete 180 degree turnaround. The mainstream TV & print media, manipulate the reporting of news to their own editorial standards & political leanings. Most people try (not always successfully) to get unbiased news from the multitude of internet news outlets. Fake news is in abundance. It is also a world where far too many people want to overshare everything from their personal lives, via social media platforms. Since the introduction of mobile phones c/w cameras, sound & video recording, modesty & privacy hasn’t been a priority for the current generation. Whereas our ancestors could view a photograph of a person or event, as factual evidence, that is no longer the case with the advent of AI – artificial intelligence.
I have also noticed that many of our past relatives carried a certain amount of shame or embarrassment, in relation to their convict ancestry who were transported to Australia from the UK in the 1700’s & 1800’s. Shame is an unusual emotion, given that most of our other emotions – sadness, happiness, anger, fear etc are felt as a reaction to something that is happened directly to us. Shame seems to be a reaction to what other people may think of us. Practically all of the convicts who were sent to Australia were transported here because they committed a rediculously low level crime. Some didn’t commit any offence at all. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most were poor & had no access to legal assistance, so they ended up being put on a boat & sent to the ends of the earth without any chance to prove their innocence. However, on the flip side, there are now many modern day descendants who are proud of their convict ancestry. The convicts who eventually gained their freedom were part of an important chapter of our history & performed a major part in the development of our country.
Despite how much investigation you do in tracking some of your ancestors, you occasionally hit a brick wall. It is definately, an exercise in perseverance.
The only other mystery yet to be put to bed, is about my Great Grandfather – Peter Bermingham. https://porsche91722.wordpress.com/2023/02/22/peter-bermingham/ As mentioned in my blog article about him, I know that he arrived in Australia in 1874 at Maryborough & died sometime around 1908. I know that he married my Great Grandmother – the recently widowed Ellen Dunn, in 1877. They had a child – my grandfather -Edward Bermingham. They had a farm at South Pine. But, that’s just about it! No citizenship, no voting details, no census, no death notice, no official date or place of death, no funeral, no burial, no grave. Nothing, zero, zilch! Who was he? Did he leave the country? Was he placed into a jail or asylum? Was he murdered? Did he take his own life? There’s too many unanswered questions about the life & times of Peter Bermingham. Most of the other ancestors left a few clues along their lifeline. Unfortunately, Peter didn’t leave much of anything that gave us a clue of his life in Australia, after arriving from Ireland. What did he do & why did he disappear without a trace?
While travelling along the journey of tracing ancestors, I have encountered some people who class themselves as the fonts of all information relating to their family’s ancestry records. To those people, I would like to say – Please, be nice & learn to share! The more people we have involved, generally means that we can learn & find out more information & the pool of knowledge, records & photographs is greater. For me, I got interested in our family history when our daughter-in-law asked me about our family’s history & I didn’t have many answers at the time.
It started me out on my quest to find the truth. Our family didn’t have many members who were keeping records. My own parents, for one reason or another had very few family records. There were a few family members, my cousin Mary, in particular, who had a treasure trove of old photos & records that had been passed down to her. Thankfully, she was quite happy to share everything she had in her possession.
Our family have been, in the main, fairly co-operative in sharing. However, I see some sad stories of some families who don’t or won’t share this vital history from their past, & seem hell bent on taking it to the grave with them. I really don’t understand this terrible selfish attitude! Once it has gone, it can never be retrieved. If family members aren’t interested in keeping family historical records, pass it on to a local historical society or museum. DON’T F*****G DUMP IT! Generally speaking, it’s one of those areas where the records & photos are pretty much, only of interest to the descendants. They are like gold to me & hold great historical significance.
One day, a family member will ask the question – “Who are we & where did we come from?” It’s nice to be able to give the factual answers, instead of some made up bullshit nonsense that many families spread. While I respect everyone’s opinions on how they do their research, I honestly believe that we all have to copy & paste the facts that we find on our ancestors. Whether you find it by chatting to the oldies, searching in family records & photos, microfiche/film in an archive, a library, a museum or on the internet, someone else has done the hard yards research before you. This whole exercise/industry is built on copying & pasting.
Since I’ve been on my ancestry journey, I’ve seen plenty of cherry-picking of records, by those who just seem to be interested in finding a great story, whether it is fact or fiction, on their past relatives. The tenuous links that some people use to connect themselves to a well-known person eg Australia’s famous outlaw/bushranger Ned Kelly, are mind-boggling.It’s nice to acknowledge a source, but we pinch everything we can off someone else. That’s how it works! JUST MAKE SURE IT IS FACTUAL & DON’T BE AFRAID TO FIX YOUR MISTAKES.
It is interesting to note how some people become quite short tempered with others, who are questioning their research. I don’t understand this attitude which mainly takes place via the internet, on line. Face to face usually provides a much more pleasureable & productive outcome. I’ve met & had lunch or a coffee with many family & ancestry enthusiasts. As a general rule, I’ve found that most ancestry enthusiasts want to share. This is how it works. It’s a continuous learning process. Most genuine researchers are all in it for the same reason. We want to get to the bottom of a true story. You have to be flexible. For instance, in our extended family, I know of at least a few different versions of our family tree. I have gotten together with a few of them & discussed this issue. I have also found & clarified many things that I have gotten wrong. It works both ways.
I have also seen many people quoting newspaper articles from a hundred years or so ago, as being their factual research. These people need a reality check. It can be a long & frustrating journey, not made any easier by hotheads who can’t see past their own, often wrong, recording of what they steadfastly believe is the truth. Sometimes, that “truth” can be just a feelgood story to satisfy their own fanciful wants. Jounalists & newspapers were no different back then, from what the print & digital media is, in modern times. They were both capable of manufacturing bullshit stories & manipulating the truth. All too often, newspapers were publishing stories & playing to their local readership. Many articles were printed & newspapers were sold, knowing full well that the facts were distorted to satisfy the circulation. Truth telling (or the lack of it) in the media hasn’t changed.
With regard to all our ancestry research, I genuinely believe that we should make our records available, to as many as possible. I welcome both critiques & fact based responses. Personally, I don’t care who copies my records, because, in reality, it ain’t mine. It is just a record of my family’s past history. I’d rather see the true story spread throughout the family to as many as possible, who are genuinely interested.
In closing, the story is about them - the ancestors! Not about you - the descendant. They didn’t all live a wildly exciting life, being bushrangers, scoring a century against the England Cricket team at Lords, making lifesaving discoveries or being a talented celebrity.
With our families ancestors, both men & women, they were all just plain hard working farmers & laborers, who worked the land. They worked their butts off, for all of their lives, just to make a living & provide for their large families. They weren’t perfect! There’s probably plenty of things they would have done differently if they had the chance. But they made the best, with what they had available at the time. Most of those families lost children at birth or as infants. Many of the families had members who served in our military forces. Some lost a family member who served in our Army, Navy & Air forces in wartime. These people are my heroes. The real heroes who fought & died for their country, some of whom were original Anzacs.
We also had ancestors who were members of the medical profession, saving lives & delivering health care to provincial Australia. We had teachers & policemen.We also had people who worked in the media, the trades, politics, communications, transportation, manufacture of food & in supply chains & in many other professions.
Some ancestors died young, from disease or lack of available treatment. Hardship was an expected way of life. There was an old saying that I can remember my parents using – “Life wasn’t meant to be easy”. Well…..It wasn’t, for the vast majority of our ancestors. Most of them lived through wars, financial depressions, famines & hardship, that most people these days thankfully haven’t had to endure. People of the past were only human, like the rest of us! They had lives, loves & encountered happiness, joy, sadness & tragedy.
They enjoyed success, suffered & learned from their failures, but when they fell down, they got up again, brushed themselves off & got on with their lives. They were a tough breed! There was no birth control. Many families had 8, 10 or more children! There was a family in the Fassifern Valley that had 22 kids. Many of our forebears were lucky to survive. We should be extremely greatful that they did. They didn’t live in a McMansion in an upmarket suburb, with a 4WD & a second car parked in the driveway or a swimming pool in the backyard. What they had, was built on hard backbreaking work. There was no pension or superannuation schemes in place for their retirement. What they built has since been expanded to give us all the privileges that we enjoy in modern Australia.
So…..to go back to my initial reasons when I started this research, I’ve come to the belief that they were all high achievers. These people are my Role Models, although I very much doubt that I can emulate their achievements.
To those in our family who grab the baton & continue to chase up further ancestry information – Go for it! Fix up any of my mistakes, & continue to hunt. We will eventually all become part of the story in the long run. Our family’s future generations will thank us for it. Well, perhaps some of them will anyway.😀
Catherine Ryan is my Great Great Grandmother. She was born on the 5th December 1830 near Newport at Tipperary, Ireland. Her parents were John Ryan and Catherine Buckley.
Ireland had reluctantly been officially part of the United Kingdom since 1801, although England had been in control since the Norman invasion in 1169. This resulted in a conquest of the country and marked the beginning of more than 800 years of English political and military involvement in Ireland. In the mid 1800s the British government led Royal Irish Constabulary attempted to control the unrest that had been caused by unrelenting harrassment & persecution of the mainly Catholic population.
Catherine Ryan was a teenager growing up through a devastating period of Irish history, during which time the population of Ireland was reduced by 50 percent. Between 1845 & 1852 Ireland suffered a period of starvation, disease, and emigration that became known as TheGreat Famine.
The initial cause of the famine was a disease that affected the potato crop & which a third of Ireland’s population was dependent on for food. The British government chose not to use the resources of their vast empire to prevent suffering and starvation. The refusal of the government in London to bar the export of food from Ireland exacerbated the problem. If home-grown food crops had been kept in the country to feed the starving millions, instead of being exported, the effects of the famine would not have been so devastating. All of these factors contributed to anti-British sentiment and the campaign for independence. This period was also when most of the mass evictions took place, in which cruel landlords backed by the ruling British Government took the opportunity to ‘clear’ their estates of unprofitable tenants, who could not pay the rent and to replace them in many cases with livestock. Being evicted often meant that Bailiffs and the Sheriff, usually with a police or military escort, not only ejected tenants from their homes but also commonly burned the cabins to prevent their reoccupation. Losing a house and shelter in midst of the famine greatly increased the chances of dying.
Around this time, there was a militant movement called The Young Irish operating around Ballingary Tipperary, very close to where Catherine Ryan lived in the 1840s. I doubt that she was directly involved with the organization, but as a young Catholic woman growing up in the vicinity, she could not have helped being influenced by what was taking place in her community. In Tipperary, the British-led, Irish Constabulary were unceasing in their harassment of the population since the Battle of Ballingary in 1848.
The RIC carrying out evictions in Tipperary during the Famine. The Royal Irish Constabulary were operating under the authority of the protestant British administration
In the wake of the famine, one million Irish peasant farmers and laborers had died & another million had left the country. Like so many thousands of her contemporaries, Catherine Ryan was caught up in the pressures of just trying to survive the ravages of the famine.
Most of the young people that grew up in Ireland at the 1800’s were illiterate. Education standards across the UK weren’t great, but were gradually starting to improve. However, Ireland in particular, was singled out & received practically no assistance from the ruling British government to organise schooling for their children.
The UK government was committing genocide in Ireland. This had been going on for centuries with the none too subtle backing of the British Royal family & the protestant ruling classes in England.
By 1849, as a young adult aged 19, Catherine Ryan had decided to get out of Ireland. Going to live in England was one option. However, in England, industrial changes were taking place. The living standards of English rural workers had suffered a prolonged decline which they were powerless to resist. Urban workers and rural workers of the time had this in common. They had little say in determining their working conditions. Wage levels were poor. Young Irish Catholic women who escaped Ireland & travelled to protestant England looking for work, were also subjected to all kinds of abuse & poor treatment.
There was however, a second option – Assisted emigration. But that involved, getting out of the UK altogether. Moving to another country like America or Australia offered a logical and promising avenue of escape. She opted for Australia. Catherine made arrangements to leave the country of her birth. Between 1848 and well into the 1850s, more than 4,000 young Irish females were resettled in the Australian colonies through the Famine Orphan Scheme. The girls & young women, had been orphaned by the famine and were recruited from workhouses across the 32 counties of Ireland.
The Revd Dr. John Dunmore Lang was one of the most influential, and at the same time, one of the most controversial figures in Australia’s early history. Lang was born in Scotland under the Presbyterian Church of Scotland & brought his traditional evangelical Presbyterian beliefs with him to Australia. He was, in the words of one text- “intelligent but almost blindly impulsive, unflinchingly courageous, indefatigable, self-sufficient, aggressive and intolerant”. In matters of religion he was outspoken and outwardly bigoted, but his interests were wide-ranging, and included politics, education, colonization and writing. He undertook projects with the zeal of a crusader, but the methods he used to extricate himself from financial predicaments were questionable, and his credibility suffered. One such project was his recruitment of migrants for the Moreton Bay area, during his stay in England from 1846 to 1849. He made no secret that he had a distinct dislike of the Catholic Church & its teachings, but also held the Church of England, in contempt.
Migration to Australia started to escalate in the early 1840s. People on farms needed laborers to clear the land, plant crops, and take care of animals. Although in its infancy, industry in Australia was starting to generate a need for a larger labour force. The immigration of poor Irish Catholics was running at a high level. Lang campaigned against bringing them into the country. His fear was that the colony would be swamped by such persons and that Protestant and British liberties would be lost. He strongly opposed Caroline Chisolm’s campaign to sponsor the immigration of single Irish Catholic women to Australia. However, by the late 1840s, he realized that he may have to soften his views & be a little bit more flexible, particularly if he was to get single females to travel to Australia in numbers, to fill the many domestic jobs that were vacant in the expanding colony of New South Wales.
Sidebar – Modern-day South East Queensland residents have probably never heard of the Revd Dr John Dunmore Lang & what part he played in the history of Queensland & Australia. However, our main stadium where our major football codes are played, adjacent to the Brisbane CBD – Lang Park, is named after him. These days, in modern times, sponsor names tend to get used as naming rights for many of our major landmarks, historic buildings & places of significance. As far as I am concerned, it will always be Lang Park.
On May 1st 1852, the 579 ton “Meridian” departed Plymouth England bound for Australia, with Catherine Ryan on board, as an assisted immigrant.
By my reckoning Catherine would have been 21 years old, not 25 on arrival. However, it is not uncommon for ages & other details to be mixed up on immigration records. The “Meridian” is not even listed on Queensland Government immigration archives. I found the details for the ship on historic media reports & via the New South Wales government archives.
For a young single female, travelling alone would have been a quite daunting exercise. Many of the migrant ships that came to Australia encountered terrible weather & the general conditions on board certainly weren’t great. There is no record of the conditions on the voyage out to Australia, but it only took the ship 100 days to travel to Moreton Bay from Plymouth, which in those days was pretty good going. The sailing ships in the 1800s often struck periods of calm weather with no wind (the doldrums) which meant the trip was often prolonged.
The main cargo of the Meridian was the 235 immigrants, but she also carried a consignment of goods on the trip to Moreton BayFrom the Moreton Bay Courier Brisbane Sat 14th August 1852
Rev Lang required his assisted migrants to be healthy and able-bodied, honest, sober, industrious, and of good character. Adult-assisted migrants had to be able to start work immediately & be willing to work for wages. All males were to be of the laboring class, with a predominance of agricultural workers and shepherds. Assisted migrant females were to be domestic or farm servants. Numbers of young children and adults over forty were severely restricted. For a small sum, each migrant received, and later kept, blankets, cutlery, plates, and mugs. In the colony, migrants were expected to be industrious and of good conduct.
The fact that the Emigration Commissioners found it necessary – or at least desirable – to provide such basic items as blankets and mess gear gives some indication of the general economic state of assisted migrants, and perhaps some hint of the conditions on board the ships. The Meridian put to sea carrying 235 migrants (including children), as well as crew. The ship was mainly used to carry migrants but had been earlier used for shifting convicts to Australia. It was one of the smaller ships to carry passengers to Australia at that point in history. There was little space to spare, and one must assume that migrant accommodation offered little privacy.
The Meridian anchored in Moreton Bay in the colony of New South Wales on Tuesday 10th August 1852 but in fact it was not until Friday, 13th August 1852 that the immigrants actually set foot in Brisbane.
The larger sailing ships had trouble making their way up the Brisbane River, which in those days was very shallow in parts, prior to dredging taking place. The passengers & cargo were brought upstream, into Brisbane by smaller schooners, usually landing at Raffs wharf (red arrow) near where the current Eagle St pier is located.
The Story Bridge from roughly the same spot in 2023. Brisbane CBD in background.
There were already rumblings in the colony of too many immigrants arriving in the colony too soon for them all to gain employment.
The newly arrived migrants were usually marched up through town to where the Treasury Casino is now located. This was the very early days of free settler immigration. There was no welcoming function. If anything, the new arrivals were treated in a similar fashion to the convicts upon arrival, the difference being, the doors weren’t locked in their accomadation. No doubt, being able to walk up Queen Street Brisbane would have been a welcome change to the confines of shipboard life for the previous four months.
Catherine Ryan spent her first night on Australian soil in the old military barracks – a relic of the convict settlement period – on the ground now occupied by the Treasury Building, in Queen Street, between George Street and William Street. Catherine Ryan was one of the earlier free settlers to arrive (1852) in Queensland, soon after Dr Langs system of free labour assisted immigration had been instigated in 1849.
1852 Site of the current (2023) Treasury Casino
Being one of Rev John Dunmore Lang’s assisted young female migrants, Catherine Ryan was directed to a job immediately on arrival & took up a position as a domestic servant to one of the early settler families around the Brisbane area. For all of Rev Lang’s faults, he certainly had the best interests of his migrant workers at heart. However, once thay had arrived & were in employment, they were on their own. Again, without over emphasizing the fact, it would have been a fairly daunting exercise for a young woman, like Catherine, to travel across to the other side of the world on her own. I am certain she would have seen & experienced many issues that we would not want our own sons & daughters to experience. Catherine, & many other young people made a huge leap of faith, in coming to Australia in the early days of the nation.
QUEENSLAND POPULATION COUNT 1852 – 9000 (Brisbane & surrounding north/south area pop 4000)
By my reckoning, Catherine would have moved to Ipswich the following year after she arrived in Brisbane in 1852. This period was before Queensland became a colony in 1859. At that stage, the Brisbane town & urban area had a population of only 2000 people & was still seen as a shipping port / penal settlement. Brisbane had kicked ahead after 1842 when convict transportation from England stopped. The town, which was only ever meant to serve as a jail for the worst offenders of the English justice system, was now growing.
While development of Brisbane was taking place, the town of Ipswich was being designed & planned much more neatly & functional, than Brisbane with its narrow streets & laneways. Ipswich had closer access to the developing Darling Downs wool producers & nearby Lockyer Valley farming areas. Coal mining had started in the district in 1848. The areas further north, south & west of Ipswich were to be opened up for intensive farming. The first railway line in Queensland was already in the planning stages to be built from Ipswich to Grandchester in the Lockyer Valley. Ipswich with a population of 1000 people, was being touted as the capital of the future colony.
It made sense for Catherine to relocate to Ipswich to enhance her employment prospects. She would have found plenty of domestic work around the town or as a servant on any of the large grazing stations around the district. There was definitely a class structure emerging in the future new colony of Queensland. Convicts were obtaining their Tickets for Leave & gaining their freedom. Assisted migrants from post-famine Ireland, working-class England, Scotland, and Wales & increasing numbers from Germany were arriving to fill the many laboring jobs available in the growing colony.
At some stage during the period 1852-1853, Catherine met Robert Bradbury, a convict who had been transported for desertion from the British Army in 1832 & had recently gained his Ticket of Leave. A Ticket of Leave allowed convicts to work for themselves provided that they remained in a specified area, reported regularly to local authorities and attended divine worship every Sunday, if possible. They could not leave the colony. He had been a soldier & a baker before being transported from England but had been working as a farm laborer/shepherd at Telemon Station, south of Beaudesert, approximately 60 klms southwest from Ipswich.
Catherine Ryan (22) married Robert Bradbury at St Mary’s Catholic Church Ipswich, on the 8th November 1853.
Robert &Catherine Bradbury lived in the Ipswich – Laidley area, where Robert found plenty of work on the local farms in the district. They had three children, a daughter Johanna Bradbury (my Great Grandmother) was born Laidley on 31st August 1854, followed by a son, Robert Bradbury Jnr born Ipswich on 14th December 1857 & lastly a daughter, Mary Ann Bradbury born Ipswich 22nd July 1859. Robert Bradbury moved around the Ipswich district, working as a shepherd/ labourer on farms, over the next 9 years.
QUEENSLAND POPULATION COUNT 1859 – 25000 (estimate at time of colony being declared)
QUEENSLAND POPULATION COUNT 1862 – 45000 (Ipswich pop 3287)
Catherine’s husband Robert Bradbury died on the 9th October 1862, at Bigges Camp (Grandchester), near Laidley, Queensland, from what appears to be a bad dose of the flu. His death certificate stated that it was a “severe cold lasting six days”. Like many of the other young Irish women who came to Australia on their own, life was difficult, although certainly better than what they had left behind in the old country. Most were illiterate & worked in lowly paid positions to earn a living. Becoming a single mother at age 32 meant she was left to raise three young kids (8, 4 & 3) on her own, without a father figure. They had come over from Ireland, when just trying to stay alive was a difficult prospect. At least life in Queensland offered job security & better employment options. I’ve no doubt that her devout religious values & support from her local Ipswich Catholic parish would have been invaluable during the period after the loss of her husband.
Ipswich 1871
At the time of her daughter Johanna’s marriage to Nicholas Corcoran on 16th May 1872, Catherine Bradbury was aged 41 & living at Clay St Ipswich (not far from the present day Ipswich CBD).
QUEENSLAND POPULATION COUNT 1872 – 134000 (Ipswich pop 5200)
After her children had all left home, at age 46, in1876, Catherine moved to Toowoomba where she lived & worked for approximately 30 years in domestic & nursing positions. Catherine was operating what was known as a Lying in Hospital – private residences run by a nurse (often under supervision of a doctor). As to why she left Ipswich, I don’t know for certain. Historic weather records show that Ipswich suffered some very severe flooding throughout the 1870’s. Where Catherine was living, in Clay street West Ipswich, was in a low lying flood prone area, so she may have had enough & decided to move to higher ground.
She operated Roselein Cottage as a small modest hospice dwelling, providing care & living accomodation for poor, unmarried and destitute women & their babies, from around the Toowoomba region, from 1876 to appoximately 1906.
Toowoomba Chronicle 25th Sept 1884Toowoomba c1878These homes were of the type most likely to have been where Catherine Bradbury was living in Roselein Cottage, James St Toowoomba 1876-1906. They were certainly in a sad way by 1986 when demolition took place. A local historian told me that Roselein Cottage would have been very similar to the house in the top photo.
QUEENSLAND POPULATION COUNT 1882 – 240000 (Toowoomba pop 7734)
Catherine Bradbury attended mass daily at her local church, St Patricks Cathedral, which was within walking distance of her hospice, in James Street Toowoomba.
St Patricks RC church Toowoomba 1894. It was located a few hundred metres further up James Street from Catherines home.
Catherine regularly advertised accommodation for ladies, at Roselein Cottage in the local newspapers. Her home/ hospice was also opposite the local police magistrates’ residence in Toowoomba during the period, 1876-1906.
In looking back at the 30 years that she lived in Toowoomba, I was trying to get an understanding of her life & the times that she lived in. What were her interests, her hobbies, pastimes, etc? But also, to try & understand her mindset, on life in general at the time.
Fast forward to my own lifetime. When I was a child & later as a teenager, I knew Catherine Bradbury’s Grandaughters – my 2 x Great Aunts -Aunty Min (Mary Anne Corcoran – lived to 100) & Aunty Hannah (Johannah Mary O’Donohue – 88) & my own Grandmother – Nana Catherine Bermingham (88). All three sisters were strict Catholics, & when I say strict Catholics, I mean, almost fanatically bigoted. As a young kid visiting their homes, it was quite the traumatic experience. The houses were filled with religious paintings & artifacts throughout all the rooms & hallways. The local Catholic Priest in Boonah, visited weekly to Nana Catherine Bermingham’s home to do a full Catholic mass with her. I don’t say any of this, to denigrate them, but just to show the level of their religious fervour. Trust me, they took their spiritual fanaticism to another level. The homes were always in darkness. I think they all had an aversion to turning on the lights or opening the curtains. In saying that, we cared for them deeply. These three old ladies were the family matriarchs & had unfailingly carried their pious values for their entire lives. I always sensed that there was an overiding fear factor with their fervent devotion. But…then again, this was standard operating procedure for the Catholic Church. Their deep religious beliefs had been heavily instilled in them, from an early age, from their parents & grandmother.
I am also certain that as she was a devoted old-school Irish Catholic, the Church was the pillar of Catherine Bradbury’s journey through life too. In saying that, I am making an educated guess that running the hospice & caring for the many poor & needy women who came into Roselein Cottage for help with illnesses, childbirth or to simply have a roof over their heads, Catherine would not have had much time for anything else. She came from a life in Ipswich where she had lost her husband & raised her kids on her own. So spare time was, more than likely, not a thing that Catherine Bradbury had ever had much of. Her life in Toowoomba was pretty much dedicated to attending to others, under her care. Her church was likely her quiet place of tranquility, when she did actually have any free time.
Catherine Ryan’s residence – Roselein Cottage in James Street Toowoomba would have been located on one of the blocks along the black line between Hume & Phillip Streets, possibly number 149 (red dot). St Patrick’s Cathedral (blue arrow). In the late 1800’s, the original Toowoomba Town Hall (blue pentagon) was located opposite St Pat’s on the south eastern corner of James & Neil Streets.2023 Google street view looking west along James Street Toowoomba. Roselein Cottage would have been where the current Mercedes Benz dealership is located
In 1886, Catherine bought 160 acres of land in the Fassifern Valley.
Lot 114 (160 acres in red) Catherine Bradbury purchased. Blue boundary land is owned by Nicholas Corcoran Lots 107 & 88V.Catherine purchased some land at the same time that Nicholas Corcoran obtained land to extend the farm at Croftby, Fassifern Valley
To my knowledge, Catherine Bradbury had never operated a farm, however she decided to purchase 160 acres of land while she was living in Toowoomba. She bought lot # 114 marked in Red on the above land map, right beside Johanna (her daughter) & Nicholas Corcoran’s property, “Rockmount”. As to how that went over with her other two kids, Robert jnr & Mary Anne, is anyone’s guess. By that stage, both had moved to Mackay in Central Queensland, approximately 1000 klms north of Toowoomba.
QUEENSLAND POPULATION COUNT 1892 – 410000 (Toowoomba pop 13500)
By 1906 it appears that with her failing health & loss of eyesight she had stopped running Roslein Cottage as a nursing home & reverted back to being domestic
QUEENSLAND POPULATION COUNT 1902 – 511000 (Toowoomba pop 14900)
Catherine lost her sight & went totally blind at around age 76. She was then moved down to her daughter Johanna & son-in-law Nicholas’s farm in the Fassifern Valley, in 1906.
Catherine Bradbury, died 8th February 1915 aged 84, at her daughter & son in laws grazing property, “Rockmount” at Moogerah near Croftby, in the Fassifern Valley Queensland. She is buried in the Catholic section of the Ipswich general cemetery.
This is from the original burial book from the Ipswich General Cemetery. TRANSCRIPTION – Grave burial number 147a. Name-Catherine Bradbury. Age 85 years. Religion Roman Catholic. Death date 8-2-1915. Depth 6 ft. Selected next to (probably her husband Robert Bradbury’s grave. He died in 1862) Robert Bradbury was buried in the RC/C section and Catherine Bradbury is buried in R/C 1A . Neither have headstones and exact burial location not known. The cemetery used only burial numbers which were recorded on the pegs which are now lost.
QUEENSLAND POPULATION COUNT 1915 – 677000 (Toowoomba pop 18500)
QUEENSLAND POPULATION COUNT 2023 – 5.4 MILLION
Modern day decendants of Robert & Catherine (Ryan) Bradbury are now spread across Australia.
Their son Robert Bradbury Jnr lived in Mackay Queensland (1857-1934)
Their daughter Mary Anne Regan lived in Mackay Queensland (1859-1893)
Their first child, daughter Johanna Bradbury(1854-1934)married Nicholas Corcoran (my Great Grandparents), and they raised a family & farmed in the Fassifern Valley. Johanna & Nicholas Corcoran’s daughter Catherine Mary Corcoranmarried Edward Bermingham (my Grandparents). They lived in Boonah Queensland. Their son John Francis Bermingham was my Dad.
My Great Great Grandmother – Catherine Ryan, came to Australia in 1852 as an almost destitute young woman, escaping the horrors of the Irish Famine. She was hoping to get a fresh start in Queensland, away from all the hate & persecution that she had left behind in the old country. My Great Great Grandfather – Robert Bradbury, her husband, came on a convict transportion ship in 1832. They were our families earliest ancestral arrivals in Australia. Like the hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the 19th century who followed, they helped develop Queensland.
Unlike our other ancestors, they didn’t arrive here qualifying for a land grant. They started their lives in Australia with barely anything except the clothes on their backs. Catherine & Robert were just ordinary people from poor working class backgrounds, who raised a family & worked hard to get ahead. Catherine lost her husband when he was still relatively young. She would have had to work in lowly paid domestic jobs to keep a roof over their heads & get her kids an education. Queensland was built & developed on the back of all the early settlers – There were explorers, political leaders, surveyors, policemen, teachers, farmers, tradesmen, laborers & of course, the convicts many of whom were transported out to Australia after being convicted of low level or insignificant crimes & later gained their freedom. All had a hand in advancing the state to where it is today.
Geoff Bermingham – great great grandson of Catherine Ryan
My Great Great Grandfather George Michael Kubler was born on 3 February 1840 Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. His father, George Michael Kubler (Snr), was 34 and his mother, Christina Barbara Schonau, was 34.
My Great Great Grandmother Louisa Johanna Streiner was born 9 Feb 1838 Sindringen Olnhausen, Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Her father, Philipp Christian Streiner, was 32, and her mother, Eva Zentler, was 42.
It would be fair to say that Germany was in a total state of disarray at that point in their history. Perhaps, the more accurate statement or better still, a rhetorical question, would be – When was Germany/Prussia not in turmoil, in the last 1000 years? The country was in a never ending state of conflict! By the 1850’s, millions had left or had made plans to get out, at the earliest possible opportunity.
Many of the ultra conservative governments of the fragmented states that made up Germany, were in the process of introducing laws disallowing couples out of wedlock to be together. This, then led to legislation restricting marriage to those considered by the community authorities as morally and financially capable of rearing a family. Women who had become pregnant out of wedlock were ostracized & removed from their communities. Even for many of the far right, ultra conservative German population of the day, a lot of these policies were considered to be steps taken too far. These issues, together with the dismal state of the German economy, were forcing many young people to flee the country in droves. In the early stages, the main emmigration was from South Western Germany and consisted of small farmers, independent village shopkeepers and artisans. Germany’s young working class demographic, was being severely depleted.
In Baden Wurttemberg there was also no inheritance system in place. Land among large families couldn’t be passed down to descendants. This led to the ever decreasing sizes of farms that were being bought out by wealthy landowners. Germany was freefalling into an economy in recession.
By 1859, on the other side of the world in Australia, the Government of Queensland was crying out for laborers, tradesmen & farmers to come to the newly declared colony. It planned to achieve this goal by recruiting industrious settlers to populate, build & farm the new territory. Generous work contracts lured whole villages of peasants and tradesmen to Queensland. Each participant in the scheme was obliged to labor as a shepherd or boundary rider in the first instance. Wages were high and paved the way for land purchases, often to the annoyance of the ‘squattocracy’. There were great incentives to make the move – assisted passage, land grants, religious freedom & minimal government interference with family inheritances. Land orders lay at the heart of Queenslands immigration policies. Queensland was a highly competitive player in the immigrant market. Each full-paying adult was entitled to receive an £18 warrant for a land order. A further £12 land order was awarded after two years of residence in Queensland. The underlying principle in issuing the warrants was that they would be used to purchase as much land as possible & have experienced immigrant farmers growing crops and feeding the colony. Immigrants had an unfettered choice of land offered by the Queensland government anywhere in the colony.
In April 1863, George Kubler & Louisa Streiner were in a relationship, but were struggling to find a reason to stay, in the dystopian state that Germany was in. Louisa was pregnant, so life would have been made even more difficult for her, if she were to stay in Germany. In consultation with their families, the couple made the decision to go to Australia. I am also sure, that financial assistance would have been given by the families in Germany. This would explain why, in the future years, after they were hopefully operating a successful farming venture, many Australian/German families sent money back home to the old country to help those, who had helped them, get started. It wouldn’t have been an easy call for the two young people, George 23 & Louisa 25, to make. I’m sure the promises by the Queensland government representives would have sounded to good to be true. They could have made the twenty seven thousand klm trip, & found out they’d been sold a load of bullshit promises. In any case, they decided on taking the gamble by making a life changing decision. They both made the necessary migration applications & booked their trips.
The journey was no luxury cruise by any standards. Personal hygiene wasn’t great & disease was a big problem on board the ships. Most people did not have room to change their clothing and often wore the same garments or clothing for the entire voyage. One can only imagine the smells of sea sickness, soiled nappies, dysentery, grubby clothes, and unwashed bodies in a crowded environment! The ships were all built from wood. Consequently, they all leaked badly. During storms, below decks were awash, where the passengers were locked down, with water continuously flooding through the compartmental areas. Keeping warm was a problem with no fires allowed. I won’t go into the toilet facilities on board the immigrant ships of the late 1800’s, but you can draw your own conclusions. Deaths at sea were common. Many didn’t make it to their destinations.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the sea conditions were treacherous. Some of the world’s most dangerous stretches of water, had to be navigated on the journey to Australia. In the North East Atlantic Ocean, adjacent to France & Spain, the Bay of Biscay is home to some of the Atlantic Ocean’s worst weather. In the South Atlantic, rounding the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of Africa, many ships were lost without trace, will all hands going down. So…. you can imagine what it would have been like for George & a very pregnant Louisa making the trip to Australia across the attrocious weather of the South Atlantic & Indian oceans.
The Beausite was a 932 tonne passenger & cargo ship under the command of Captain C.I.S. Bruhn, owned & operated by the Cesar J Goddefroy Line out of Hamburg Germany. It was mainly used to carry immigrants. After leaving Hamburg on May 26, with 508 passengers on board, the Beausite arrived in Moreton Bay, 102 days later, on September 5 1863.
Michael Kubler arrival on the Beausite 5th Sept 1863Louisa Johanna Streiner arrival on the Beausite 5th Sept 1863
There were ten deaths onboard due to illness. Five were caused by “various inflammatory affections of the lungs” and the other five were caused by “other complaints, but chiefly from diarrhoea.” On board there were also nine births, six boys and three girls.
The Beausite reached the roadstead at Moreton Bay on September 5 1863but had to wait to complete a health inspection. Two days later on Monday, September 7, the Beausite was visited by Dr. Hobbs the health officer. Dr. Hobbs found the Beausite’s passengers to be of satisfactory health and gave them the all-clear to disembark.
Three days later, the steamer “Settler” left Raff’s wharf (located at present-day Eagle Street, Brisbane CBD) to retrieve passengers on the Beausite out in Moreton Bay. It took the Settler two hours to travel from the wharf to the ship. All 508 passengers disembarked the ship and arrived in Brisbane on the steamer at 5pm.
Brisbane 1863. Raff’s Wharf left of shot on river bank where Eagle St Pier is now located.
After stepping ashore on to Australian soil, on Thursday September 10 1863, George Kubler & Louisa Streiner were taken straight to accomadation at Nundah, on Brisbane’s northside. Missionaries from the Lutheran Church had set up the German Station at Nundah in 1844 with the primary aim of converting the local indigenous people to christianity, but also to assist German immigrants in finding employment after their arrival in Brisbane. The latter was more successful than the former.
George Kubler & Louisa Streiner became husband & wife when they were married four days later, at Nundah in Brisbane, on 14 September 1863.
As George & Louisa paid for their own passage to Australia they were eligible for Queensland Land Grants of £18 land grant each, which they claimed in 1863.
In Aug 1869 George applied for a 74 acre selection at Walloon on what is now known as Caledonian Road. His selection was portion 319 in the parish of Walloon (not far from the present day RAAF base at Amberley). He was issued with the deed of grant for this land in 1875.
Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser Sat 7 Aug 1869
In 1874 George had been issued with the livestock brand of G8K.
Their first baby, Louisa Rosina Kubler (my Great Grandmother) was born on the 11th December 1863 at Ipswich.
Brisbane Courier Land Grant 9th August 1869 Walloon
In August 1869, George’s land grant for Walloon was finalised & approved. The Germans were certainly industrious. They didn’t mess around. In five years, George had made his farm into a profitable operation, starting from scratch. In the 1860’s, the Walloon /Rosewood area, surprisingly was growing successful quantities of sugar cane & cotton. Cane would have done well, as the whole of the decade were heavy rainfall years. The American Civil War had stopped the supply of cotton to the British spinning mills. Queensland grown cotton was in demand.
By the early 1870’s, there were still plenty of German, Irish, English & Scottish migrants regularly arriving in Queensland & many of them were heading west of Brisbane to the newly opened Ipswich Reserve to take up their land grants.
Brisbane Courier 12 June 1876
Although the soil quality at Walloon was passable for growing cane & cotton, it wasn’t great for growing many food crops. They’d had good rain in the 1860’s, but the weather patterns were changing. Maybe an earlier version of what we now know as El Nino. Rainfall had significantly dropped off by the early 1870’s. By around 1874, George needed more land & better access to water for irrigation.
1875 electoral roll
On the 13th Nov 1875 George Michael Kubler became a naturalized citizen of Australia swearing his allegiance at Ipswich , his occupation is listed as a farmer and his age was 35 years old.
1876 electoral roll, shortly after the move to Fassifern Valley
The Fassifern Valley was the next area to be opened up for selection. The Fassifern Station run had been part of the enormous Wienholt Brothers cattle grazing empire. Much of it was resumed and publicly offered up for crop farming selection on 19 April 1877. George Kubler actually worked for the Wienholt’s at Fassifern Station for a time, as Chief Horseman (stockman). I don’t know whether George had “inside” information, but as can be seen from the above Brisbane Courier newspaper ad for 12 June 1876, he was able to purchase 120 acres of prime farming real estate much earlier than others may have been able to do so. George & Louisa Kubler sold the Walloon property after farming there for just over a decade & in 1878, they moved further southwest (approx 50 klms), where they had selected their land not far from the base of the Great Dividing Range & close to a good reliable water source in Reynolds Creek, that flowed off the ranges. The rich & fertile soil of the Fassifern would deliver much better crop yields & superior grazing land than Walloon.
George selected 119 acres of land in the parish of Fassifern in 1878 being portion 204a in the Fassifern Valley on Boonah Fassifern Road , The family departed Walloon heading for their new land in the Fassifern Valley on the only conveyance they had which was a dray with two horses. On this dray were George & Louisa Kubler , their seven children and their bedding and chattels.
Crossing a gully near Harrisville the road was so bad that the dray capsized and the family were deposited on the ground , but fortunately no one was hurt.
George again loaded the dray and got to the journeys end without any further mishap.
Their new home consisted of a selection of standing scrub. George Kubler got to work and soon put up a slab house.
A Kubler family record, referring to one of the sons – Charles John Kubler, states – “Born at Walloon, near Ipswich (in 1870), he came to the Fassifern district at the age of seven (1877) with his parents, the late Mr and Mrs George Kubler. The journey took three days to complete as the family had to walk beside their only dray which was used to carry their utensils. He lived with his parents at Fassifern for some years”.
The Kubler’s land selection was near Engelsburg (Kalbar). Take a minute to think about how you’d go shifting a family, George, Louisa & seven kids (aged 2-14) by horse & cart up to the Valley through an area of thick scrub, with no roads & only a hardly visable rough track. On arrival, they would have had to clear the thick heavy bushland, & then erect a house. Water sources needed to be found for stock & human consumption. Fences had to be built & crops planted. All the pioneer farmers had to be self sufficient & hit the ground running, immediately from day one on their land.
George was paying an annual rent of £5 on his land and was issued with the deed of grant in 1886.
By 1896 George had purchased the neighbouring 120 acres of land being portion 202a giving him a total of 239 acres.
The earliest actual official record of them living at Fassifern Valley is an 1880 rates book, showing a dwelling on 119 acres.
All of the early pioneer families were prodigious breeders. Their first child, Louisa Rosina (my Great Grandmother) was born in 1863 at Ipswich.
Siblings – Phillip George-1865, Catherine Elizabeth -1866, Caroline Mary-1868, Charles John-1870, Helena Christina *- 1871, Helena Eleanor Christina -1872, Christina Sophie* – 1873, & Minnie Margaret -1875 were born while they were residing at Walloon Ipswich.
Siblings – Emma Ernstine* – 1877, Johan Ludwig-1878, Bertha Johanna-1880, Michael-1882 & Alfred Edwin-1886 were born at Fassifern.
*Sadly, three of their babies (all girls) died under one year old. Access to doctors & health care for farmers & their families was non existent. Boonah didn’t get a hospital until 1900. Fassifern to Ipswich was a full day trip in a horse & sulky. There was no proper ambulance service operating in Queensland until 1892 & then it was done on foot with stretchers. Most births took place in the home at the farm. Many families lost babies at birth or soon after.
Google maps location – Great Great Grandfather George Kubler 120 acres selection lot 204A(red) Great Grandfather Johannes Muller 160 acres lot 324(blue) Great Great Grandfather Carl Krueger 250 acres lot 273(green)
It appears that George Kubler grew maize, lucerne (hay) and dabbled with a little bit of sugar cane on the farm at the time. There were attempts to grow cane, cotton & tobacco in the Valley in the early days, but they were never really successful. Some crops needed more rain & irrigation than what the prevailing weather conditions of the time were delivering. This period was prior to any of the large dams being built. Moogerah Dam was still about another 80 years away. Water from Reynolds Creek irrigated the properties in the Fassifern Valley near Kalbar. Most of the farmers were relatively new to the area & were still learning the local elements, but they weren’t afraid to try many different types of crops. Most early farmers grew a mix – maize, potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, lucerne & also ran beef & dairy cattle. Most of the produce was sent into Boonah & Ipswich. Refrigerated transport wasn’t yet available. As with most of the Germans, the Kublers would have also had a vegetable garden & the customary pig sty & chook pen. The following is a newspaper article from the “Brisbane Courier” dated April 16, 1883.
Brisbane Courier article. Misspelling Kuebler & Mueller. Great Great Grandfather George Kubler & Great Grandfather John Muller Queensland Times Ipswich Tuesday 26 May 1885
The first settlers in the Fassifern district tended to select their land by way of their ancestral farming backgrounds. The English settled on creek flats around where the towns were situated. The Scots and Irish were attracted to the undulating timbered country. The Germans chose the rich soil of the Fassifern Scrub, heavily wooded and to the north of the other groups. In the 1870’s, the new arrivals were greeted by severe drought. Not an auspicious beginning. Surviving records show that not one of those first settlers abandoned his selection despite what must have appeared to be almost insurmountable problems. Their tenacity as a group has been attributed to Irish perversity, Scottish unwillingness to part with what they regarded as theirs, English reluctance to admit defeat and sheer dogged persistence on the part of the Germans. The over-riding factor was that, for the first time, the majority of the pioneers were working their own land, as opposed to life as a tenant farmer or an agricultural labourer in their country of origin. The goal of freehold tenure was not to be surrendered lightly.
The Kubler family home was located on the top of the hill on the right hand side of the Boonah – Kalbar turnoff at Fassifern Valley. In 1880 they were known to have a weatherboard house, slab house and barn. They returned to Germany two or three times to visit relatives”.
From Queensland Times Ipswich 12 Sept 1889. The local farmers were already starting to to have a Farmers Association formed in the Fassifern Valley
A major historical event that took place in the development of the Fassifern Valley, was when the railway was opened up to Boonah in 1887. The mixed goods trains carried timber from the many sawmills operating in the Fassifern region, plus live cattle, farm produce & dairy products to the Ipswich & Brisbane markets on a daily basis.
Passenger services were running each day. As kids (in the 1960s), we used to laugh about how long the train journey was – about three hours, to cover the approx 50 klm distance. But, in the late 1800s & into the 20th century, the access to rail transport made a big difference to the people of the Fassifern.
The old red railmotors were the mainstay of the passenger service to Boonah for well over 50 years. My Dad & I had many a trip on these old girls when I was a kid. My Mum & Dad actually met on a trip back to Boonah in 1948 in one of these trains.
Local farmers were able to move their produce, some of it perishable, to markets much quicker than was previously available & they were in a much better positon to compete with the Darling Downs & Lockyer Valley farmers. Toowoomba (1875) & the Lockyer Valley (1865) had a rail link to the Ipswich & Brisbane markets, years earlier.
Both Boonah & Dugandan stations were well set up when the rail head was connected in the late 1800’s. They were the main staging points for freight – timber from the local saw mills, stock – cattle & pigs etc, dairy produce – milk & cream, vegetable produce, all of which was transported to the Ipswich & Brisbane markets
Johann Carl Streiner was the younger brother of Louisa Johanna Kubler, by two years. He also was part of the history of the Boonah & Fassifern district. In April 1905, J.C. Streiner opened his Commercial Hotel on the north-west corner of High Street and Park Street Boonah. It was a two-storey building with filigree lace balustrading on the upper verandah. Streiner had formerly operated the Royal Exchange Hotel (previously known as the Dugandan Hotel, not to be confused with the current hotel of that name in Dugandan). Carl Behncken leased and operated the new Commercial Hotel. Louisa Kubler’s brother, Johann Carl Streiner died in 1915 at Sandgate in Brisbane’s northern suburbs, aged 74.
Queensland PO Directory (Wise) 1894The Kubler house circled1903 electoral roll
Queensland Times Sat 15 Dec 1923
George & Louisa’s home in Boonah
In 1908 George & Louisa retired from farming and moved to a small suburban 1 acre 1 rood block in Athol Terrace at Boonah where they lived out the rest of their lives.
Recent photo’s of George & Louisa’s home in Boonah1912 Electoral roll showing they moved in 1908
George Michael Kubler died on 18 September 1914 in Boonah Queensland at the age of 74. His death certificate shows cause of death as heart failure & exhaustion.
In the death of Mr Kubler the district loses a good resident , an honest man , one whose home was hospitably open to any who were in need , he is buried at the Boonah general cemetery.
His deceased estate was valued at £248 realty & £1260 personalty.
The Kubler home on Athol Terrace was put up for sale in 1923.
Queensland Times Thu 14 Jan 1915
Louise Johanna Kubler died 11th March 1930 at the residence of her son at Boonah in Queensland aged 92. Her death certificate shows cause of death as heart failure, exhaustion & senile decay.
Louisa Johanna Kubler was a skilled nurse and at all hours of the night and day she would go in all weathers to attend to the sick, she could boast of having attended to over 100 maternity cases.
She was of a very kind disposition and many are the sick and needy who have blessed her for hospitality. In the last few years her health failed and she passed peacefully away.
She was laid to rest with her husband at the Boonah general cemetery.
Queensland Times Sat 15 Mar 1930Queensland Times Fri 28 Mar 1930Queensland Times Sat 22 Mar 1930
The photo at the top of this article, courtesy of the Queensland State Library, shows Louisa wearing a bonnet & at the neck of her dress, a Salvation Army brooch. Religion played a large part in the early settlers’ lives. I’m assuming they were allied to the Lutheran Church when they first arrived in the country, 160 years ago. George & Louisa initially resided at the Lutheran Nundah Station & were married as Lutherans, while they were there. They came from a strong Lutheran area of Prussia/Germany. However, it appears that they may have diverted off that path, & joined the Salvo’s at some stage later in their lives. The Baptist, Methodist & Lutheran congregations all went through fazes when some members went their own ways & built their own churches when there were disagreements on faith & church administration. Some of the factions held more progressive belief values than the strict old German conservative parishioners. Others, like George & Louisa, probably had decided they’d had enough of the old ultra conservative religion, with its strict moral codes, that were forced upon them. The Salvation Army were a much more progressive church. I think that all of them, no matter what religion or faction they followed, understood & were happy that they were free to follow the religion of their choice, without resorting to fighting over it.
Having said all of that, they are both buried in the Methodist section at the Boonah cemetery. It will take a sharper mind than mine to work that one out😀.
Descendants of the Kublers are still living around Boonah & the Fassifern Valley, but have also branched out to many other parts of Queensland & across Australia.
Louisa Rosina Kubler (George & Louisa Johanna Kubler’s first child) married local farmer John Muller on 26 January 1881.
Adolf Gustav Muller (John & Louisa Rosina Muller’s son) married Annie Lobegieger (from Roadvale) on 12 January 1910.
See the following article I’ve also done on Johannes (John) Mullers life & his descendants.
Since the early days of the German farming families arriving, the Fassifern Valley has become known for its high-quality vegetable produce, the majority of which goes into the nearby Brisbane markets to feed the (still increasing) South East Queensland population. Produce from the Fassifern Valley is also sent throughout Australia & exported into South East Asian markets.
The original Kublers – George & Louisa (Streiner) – came to Australia, 160 years ago, to escape Germany & to make a new life for themselves. Hard work & a refusal to give up, was their recipe to succeed.
All of our Fassifern Valley, family ancestors (Kubler’s, Muller’s, Lobegeiger’s, Krueger’s & Corcoran’s) who originally settled the district would be proud of the legacies they left for the generations that followed.
My Great Great Grandfather, Gottlieb Friedrich Ferdinand Lobegeiger was born in Templin, Brandenburg Prussia on the 3rd of November, 1826. Wilhelmine Fredericke Topp was born on 28th December 1827, also in Templin. Gottlieb Lobegeiger married Wilhelmine Topp (my Great Great Grandmother), on the 6th October 1850 at Templin Brandenburg Prussia in Germany.
Blue Arrow – Charlottenhof Templin Germany in 1860 Location on Google maps 2023
I have mentioned in previous articles about my other German ancestors, on the reasons why they took the drastic action to leave their country and travel across the other side of the world. The Lobegeiger’s were no different. They got out of Germany because they had to. They wanted to give their kids a chance at a better life away from all insufferable conditions that German citizens were living under at the time. Life in Germany was pretty tough, with the Prussian government breathing down the necks of the citizens in every move they made in their day to day lives. Wars between the neighboring European nations was commonplace. Farm workers were being exploited & the situation showed no sign of improvement in the foreseeable future. So, a move by the Lobegeigers was urgently needed, to escape this dystopian existance.
When Queensland became a separate colony in 1859, the Herbert Ministry named a Select Committee to research the question of immigration, and J.D. Lang who was very much in favour of German Protestants, recommended the bringing out of a set number of them each year. To promote this, the Govemment appointed a Brisbane wine merchant, J.C. Heussler, as Immigrant Agent in Germany, and promised free passage and other advantages, with the result that by 1864 the number of Germans in Queensland had doubled. With what amounted to a pretty good list of options available to them, as immigrants to a new colony on the other side of the world, the family decided to get out of Germany & head to a country, that they knew very little about.
Gottlieb was aged 37 & Wilhelmine was 34 years old when they left Hamburg Germany on 21st September 1863 to travel to Australia on board the maiden voyage of the “Suzanne Goddefroy”. They had four daughters, Emilie (14), Willhelmine (9), Auguste (5) & Marie (2).
The ship struck some heavy weather on the way to Australia, which was fairly normal for most of the ships coming here. They sustained damages to the main mast that extended their time at sea, but still made it to Australia in 98 days. Its sister ship Wilhelmsburg had been lost on the journey with the loss of 282 lives, including 209 single men. After arriving at Cape Moreton the Susanne Goddefroy was boarded by Pilot Cooper, at 7.30pm, Sunday the 17th January 1864. She rounded the Cape and was brought up in the Roadstead off the bar the following day. The family arrived at Moreton Bay on the afternoon of the 18th January 1864. Of the 369 people on board, eleven children and one adult had died on the voyage from Germany.
Shipping log of the Suzzane Goddefroy
The following morning, a steamer named the Settler took them up the Brisbane river where they disembarked at the South Brisbane Immigration depot at about 7am. They stayed there for a short period before moving to Pastor Gottfried Haussmann’s Lutheran Chapel at South Brisbane.
Pastor Hausmann helped many of the new German immigrants get established after their arrival in Queensland. Johann Gottfried Haussmann came to Queensland in 1838 among the Gossner missionaries who established German Station at Nundah. The son of a farmer, he had been taught various trades in preparaton for his missionary work. Hausmann had set up a chapel to prepare for his missionary work on the south side of Brisbane in 1862. He had visited the area around Bethania in the Logan district on many occasions, with a view to establishing a community with new German immigrants. The next step in the beginning of the settlement of the latest arrivals on the Suzzanne Goddefroy, was to move from Brisbane to Bethania, those who had selected land, and also those who intended to acquire land. The Lobegeigers fell into the latter category. To help convey their families together with luggage and stores to the Logan, the settlers, with the help of Pastor Haussmann, chartered the Diamond, a 56 ton paddle steamer with a shallow draft, to convey them down the Brisbane River, along the Bay, and then up the Logan. There were brief mentions in the shipping notes of the Courier and the Guardian that the Diamond left Raffs wharf early on the morning of 17 February 1864 to go to the Logan River with a party of Germans for a station there. There were 22 families, with a total of 98 persons on board. The trip was for an expected duration of two nights.
German farm workers on the banks of the Logan River 1865
The settlers were landed on the bank at a bend of the river with deep water where Portion 26 can be seen on the map below. The approximate site is now marked by a memorial cairn erected in 1964. Their first task was to erect shelter, a ‘greenhouse village’ consisting of huts built of boughs and long grass. There are varying accounts of landing in heavy rain. There were a few fine days, and then the rain commenced and continued. There had been flooding in the area on 10 February and then again on 20 March. From the Brisbane Courier, it appears there was heavy rain for three weeks during which on 19 March 1864 a gale hit Brisbane. Both the Brisbane and Logan Rivers flooded, and on the Logan, punts were washed away and crops of the earlier settlers including cotton were destroyed. With the first 22 families that came to live at Bethania, there shortly after, followed another 14 families that Pastor Haussman brought into the area as well. This total group came to be known in the history of the Bethania district as The original Forty Families.
Check out this short video by Brisbane local historian Robert Braiden about the arrival of the Bethania Germans and the history of the suburb – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LzrNObZBs8
There were problems with poor surveying of the land blocks meaning registration was delayed. The land was only finally registered to the Lobegeigers on the 10th October 1866. Gottleib’s portion of land was only about 8 acres in size, which was much smaller than he would have preferred. Pastor Haussmann certainly can’t be blamed for the small size of the land portions, as he was only attempting to get as many new German settlers as possible on to land were they could commence farming and earn a living. Not all the Forty Families who originally moved to Bethania ended up staying there. Some spent only a brief time in the area.
On 24th July 1865, the Lobegeigers welcomed their only son (& Australian born child), Johannes Lobegeiger, my Great Grandfather, who was born at Bethania.
The family had decided to move on from Bethania shortly after Johannes was born. Eight acres wasn’t anywhere near enough for Gottlieb to carry out successful farming. They moved in about August of 1865 (before the land at Bethania was even registered to them) up into the West Moreton area, between Ipswich and Peak Crossing. The Lobegeigers would have received land grants under the Crown Lands Alienation act of 1860, as did many of the European immigrants arriving on Australian shores, in that period of our history.
When the Ipswich Reserve was opened up, many of the Germans from the Logan/Bethania area came up to farm on the larger blocks that were becoming available. This land was formally part of the thousands of hectares leased station runs that had been under the control of the Wienholt, and the Kent families and was being resumed by the government for farming selection.The rich black soil made it one of the most productive farming areas in South East Queensland. By the end of the century, the number of farmers & their families who were German or of German descent living in the extended Ipswich Reserve, Fassifern Valley & south of Boonah districts was well into the thousands.
After erecting a dwelling, land clearing would have taken place, then building fences & planting some crops. The Lobegeigers would have grown a mix of market garden crops and grazed dairy and beef cattle on their property, to start the process of becoming self sufficient. Most of the farms had a pig sty on the property as well. The Lobegeigers even grew cotton for a short time during the period of the American Civil War, when the English mills were looking for an alternative source.
Just when things were starting to get on track for the Lobegeiger family, tragedy struck. They had only been in Australia for a little over three years and would have been at Roadvale for just under two years, when Gottlieb died from Tetanus, at the relatively young age of 42 on 10th September 1867. Tetanus is usually caught after sustaining an open wound. Gottlieb may have had a severe cut to a limb while working on the farm. Tetanus causes painful muscle contractions, particularly in the jaw and neck. It can interfere with the ability to breathe, eventually causing death. Immunization wasn’t introduced into Australia until the late 1930’s, so at the time, unless emergency care was given immediately, life expectancy wasn’t great. He was taken to Brisbane where he passed away at a hospital at Spring Hill.
Gottlieb was known as “Jeleb”, which was probably a nickname or family name, for most of his life. Most of the documents and records that I’ve found, show with Gottlieb or Friedrich or Ferdinand (in no particular order) as his Christian names. The Lobegeigers came from an ultra conservative, centuries old part of Prussia (Germany) and practiced their strict religious beliefs before & after arriving in Australia.
Gottlieb Lobegeiger was buried in the Baptist section of the Brisbane cemetery, which in those days was located adjacent to where the Lang Park stadium is now situated. By the early 1900’s the Brisbane general cemetery had fallen into disrepair. The whole area had been under floods on many occasions since it was set up in 1844 and it was proposed the grounds be turned into a recreation reserve.
In 1911, the Queensland Parliament passed The Paddington Cemetery Act. This authorised the government to resume the cemetery and to relocate the remains to another cemetery within 12 months. There was a token attempt to move the remains, with only 186 shifted. Another 700 headstones & memorials were moved to other cemeteries around the Brisbane area. In any case, when the sporting reserve/park redevelopment was under construction in 1913 the majority of the 4643 graves were just covered over. However, the Baptist section was situated in the northern area, where the current Paddington Kindergarten is located, adjacent to the stadium, near Caxton Street. So, the Baptists are probably still resting in peace where they were buried a century and a half ago, albeit under where, these days the young kids in the C & K child care centre are playing above.
Present day Paddington Kindergarten directly above the old Brisbane Central Baptist cemetery which was buried over in 1913 & where Gottlieb Lobegeiger’s remains are probably located1870 Brisbane cemetery three years after Gottlieb died & was buried there. Baptist section is in foreground above treeline.Modern day 2023 photo of Lang Park Stadium adjacent to Brisbane CBD. Just north of the stadium (red arrow) is where the old Baptist cemetery was located.
For Wilhelmine and her four daughters & son Johannes aged 2, the death of the husband , father & main farm labourer, would have been a similar set of circumstances that many other families would have also had to contend with. Farming practices back in the early days involved many dangerous tasks. There were lots of chores that could result in sustaining serious injuries. They were constantly handling large animals like horses, cattle & pigs that could kick & bolt quickly if startled. Most of the back breaking work had to be performed manually. They had to contend with the many different local animal & insect pests that were all new to the former, northern hemisphere farmers. Apparently, our dangerous Australian snakes were a major problem in the Fassifern Valley, with lots of land clearing taking place and native animals suffering loss of habitat. Getting to a hospital was the next problem. In modern times, we take for granted that we can call 000 & an ambulance with trained paramedics arrives shortly afterwards. That luxury wasn’t available back then, meaning that many died before getting to a hospital. These issues’s meant that many of the early settlers suffered a loss in the family, usually the father/husband. Serious injuries & fatalities due to farming accidents were fairly common & took place more than most people realise. Not withstanding the loss of a much loved family member, it also meant the family had lost the main labourer on the farm.
It certainly wouldn’t have been an easy life for a widow with a young family, the oldest of the four daughters, Emilie being 17. These pioneer women must have been made of strong stuff.
Most of the early landholders had selected their land in the mid 1860s and the greater average size was the result of buying up neighbours. It was not unusual for partners to select initially, then for one or both to leave that farm to go on to select independently further south in the 1870s, when Fassifern and Dugandan were opened up. Other selectors chose an alternative method of expansion. Rather than sell their home farm to move to a new one, they maintained their initial selection while taking up another one further south. Many of the Ipswich Reserve selectors obtained additional land further up into the newly-opened areas of Fassifern.
The earlier Crown Lands Alienation act of 1860 had been upgraded with some additions, in the new version in 1868. Any lands in a settled district and not under pastoral lease shall be available for selection as agricultural or pastoral class of land. Section 14 provided for pastoralists to make pre-emptive selections of land from the pastoral lease at the rate of one acre for each ten shillings of improvements. Selectors paid annual rent to pay off the price of the land set by government. Agricultural land could be freeholded in three years if conditions were fulfilled and the balance of the rents was paid. So, in a nutshell, if you nominated another new land selection, did the necessary improvements within the allotted time frame and turned a profit, you could expand relatively quickly. The Germans were a well organised crowd, and were better educated at running farms than many of the other immigrants from England, Scotland & Ireland, who were mostly farm laborers. German public education officially began in 1763, when Frederick the Great of Prussia mandated regular school attendance from the ages of 5 through 13 or 14.
Most of the Germans were fully literate on their arrival, only lacking in English speaking skills. The Fassifern Valley must have been like a little corner of Prussia with so many arriving & getting stuck straight into farming simultaneously, in the post 1870’s period. Many of the current day district’s locality & landmark names were named after German towns or the German pioneers who originally settled in the area eg Templin, Engelsburg Park, Wienholt Street, Muller Road, Wiss Street, Podlich Road, Berlin Road, Lobegieger Road, Krueger Road etc.
Great Great Grandmother Willhelmine remarried on the 21st August 1869 to Johann Heinrich “Henry” Schneider who himself was a recent widower. Henry came from an old German family of stonemasons. Henry, his father & brothers had supplied stonework on the Ipswich- Grandchester – Toowoomba rail line. Henry had land at Rosevale, between Kalbar & Laidley. Both Henry & his father Johann George Schneider were Baptist Pastors in the district. Henry’s first wife, Rosina had died on 4th January 1869 from complications following the birth of baby Minnie born two weeks earlier (23-12-1868). Henry brought his five young daughters to the extended family – Fredericke Christine (6), Rosina Sophie (4), Christina Sophia (3), Louisa Fredericke (2) & Wilhelmine Minna (8 months).
I imagine the reality for Willhelmine after Gottlieb had died, was that she needed a male partner to help run the farm. Henry would’ve urgently needed a mother for his five young girls under 6. I don’t think there is any doubt that Wilhelmine wouldn’t have been capable of running a farm on her own and raising her family, as well. But it would have been a union born out of necessity. There were now nine girls in the family, with the oldest being Emilie Lobergeiger aged 19 and little Johannes being the only boy, aged 4 years old. Johannes & Henry would have been the only blokes in the family with 10 females to contend with. Willhelmine & Henry ended up having three more kids together, John, Martha & Henry jnr.
Queensland was going through a migration and population boom in the mid to late 1800’s. There was an increase in residents of over half a million, since becoming a colony in 1859. Farmers were in a great position to sell their produce to feed the fast growing rate of Queensland’s population, & the farmers in the south east region around Brisbane – Southern Moreton Bay, Beaudesert, Lockyer Valley & Fassifern Valley, were in the best location of all. The railway line to Harrisville opened in 1882, & on to Boonah & Dugandan in 1887, giving the local farming community much better access to the Ipswich & Brisbane produce markets. Sometime after her marriage to Henry Schneider in 1869, the family moved into the Fassifern Valley near Kalbar/Boonah.
Henry Schneider died on the 10th June 1905 at Kalbar, aged 68.
Wilhelmine had outlasted two husbands. She moved to Biggenden Queensland (85 klms west of Maryborough) to live with her daughter, Augusta Bertha Stewart & her husband Sam. She died in a tragic accident, while travelling home on the 17th August 1915, aged 86, and is buried in Gayndah cemetery.
They were a tough breed, these Germans who came out here to Australia, 150 years ago, to start a new life in a new country. Practically everything was against them. Gottlieb & Wilhelmine arrived in flood conditions at the Logan/Bethania district. They took their five children to the Fassifern Scrub where they commenced clearing & developing a farming property. Wilhelmine’s husband, Gottlieb died just under two years after their arrival, leaving a wife, four young daughters and a baby son. Wilhelmine then had to run the farm. They struggled through floods and droughts that they had to contend with. The only thing in their favour was the government acts in place to get farmers under way in producing food. It may be seen as charitable by some, however the leaders of Queensland in 1859 knew they needed a locally produced food supply chain set up & fully operational. To achieve this outcome quickly, they needed to get as many experienced farmers out here & start supplying the states requirements urgently, or they could have had a serious problem on their hands. German immigrants, along with other nationalities, were the quick fire answer to their problem.
The other members of the Lobegeiger family – The four girls all married locals around the Fassifern Valley. Only son Johannes (my Great Grandfather) eventually took over the farm and raised a family in the valley too. His daughter Annie Lobegeiger married Alf Muller, who to nobody’s great surprise🙂 was also a farmer living in the valley, with a German background. Alf & Annie Muller were my grandparents & they also raised their family in the Fassifern Valley.
To understand the reasons why people wanted to leave the country where they were born and raised, it’s important to grasp the conditions they were living under, in their homelands at that point in time.
It seems that Germany has always been involved in a war or civil unrest of some sort, throughout their history. At a rough count, in the last thousand years, Germany has been involved in, or instigated somewhere in the vicinity of 100 wars. Germany wasn’t just invading and starting battles with their neighboring countries in Europe, they were also involved in wars with countries in Africa, North, South & Central America, China & other parts of Asia. Closer to Australia, Germany had annexed part of Papua New Guinea in 1884 together with the islands of New Britain and New Ireland. An Australian expeditionary force threw them out in 1914.
Just in the last 110 years, Germany started what eventually became two World Wars. The decades before and after 1860 were no different. Like many other parts of Europe, ordinary citizens had become weary of the battles and political, religious, and sectarian disagreements going on. Large numbers had decided to escape from the never-ending issues that plagued the country. For many, a move to another neighbouring European country was out of the question, as most of them were in the same boat.
Readily available information at the push of a button, on the internet was still another 140 years away. There was no such thing as popping into the local embassy to chat to a diplomat from a foreign country to check out your options on where the best place to migrate to were. No catalogues or brochures, to help you make a decision on the best choices or preferences. There were no phones and very little communication between countries at the time. Like many other European nation-states, the desperation of people conditioned to living in a continuous state of conflict was beginning to take its toll.
In the decade from 1845 to 1855, more than a million Germans fled to the U.S.A. to escape economic hardship. They also sought to escape the political unrest caused by riots, rebellions, and eventually a revolution in 1848.
To make life even more unbearable in Germany, in 1817, Frederick William III of Prussia had forced the merging of the country’s largest Protestant churches (Lutheran and Reformed) into one single and united Prussian Union of churches. This subsequently led to the persecution and suppression of the confessional beliefs of orthodox Lutherans.
By the 1860s, the growing population of Prussia and the independent German states had outstripped the available land. Industrialization could not provide decent-paying jobs, and political and religious rights were limited. The various German governments had also started to impose a strict moral code as well. Dissatisfied with the lack of land and opportunity, many Germans wanted out. The U.S. was beginning to put the brakes on its migration intake of Europeans wanting to escape their own countries.
All the way across the other side of the world, Queensland was practically giving land away, with incentives to farmers to emigrate to the new colony in Australia. So, when representatives from the Queensland government arrived in Germany, telling the citizens about this “promised land” where they could own their own property, live in freedom, practice their religious faith without fear of persecution, and not have an overbearing government breathing down their necks at every opportunity, it probably sounded too good to be true.
My Great Great Grandparents Carl Friedrich Wilhelm & Johanna Elizabeth Krueger (nee Grambauer) left Hamburg Germany on 6th May 1865 on the ship “Suzanne Godeffroy” bound for Australia. Carl was 42 and Johanna was 37 years old. They had five kids in tow – Carl (15), William (11), Ferdinand (9), August (5) & baby Emilie (aged 1). They had originally intended on going to South Africa but decided against it as the ships were massively overcrowded. The trips to Australia back in those days were extremely rough, with all encountering severe storms, causing some ships to disappear without a trace. Even making it through the extreme weather encountered on the voyage didn’t guarantee that you would arrive at your destination. Disease often swept through the close confines of the ships with many not surviving the trip. On their voyage alone, there were 33 deaths, including some babies born at sea. By the time Suzanne Goddefroy arrived in Moreton Bay on the 6th of September, 1865, the food was going off, and freshwater supplies on board the ship were getting low. The new arrivals were then conveyed upstream to Brisbane on a river steamer.
The Kruegers, along with the other newcomers were offloaded at the old South Brisbane immigration depot. It wasn’t exactly a welcoming arrival to Brisbane. There were many other recent immigrants at the Migration depot, some of whom had been there for a month, telling them that they had made a big mistake coming to Australia. The Kruegers stayed there for two weeks with Carl attempting to find work in Brisbane. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much work available with some unscrupulous locals paying poor wages to the new arrivals, knowing they were desperate to find a job. It was a hell of a gamble to travel across the world not knowing exactly what you were getting yourself into. There were some horror stories of migrants from other countries heading to the US, Canada, and South Africa, and finding out on arrival, that a lot of the promises made by foreign governments were false. Some ended up destitute, losing everything. At that point, I’m sure the Kruegers must have been wondering whether they had made the correct call in coming to Australia. Keen to get away from this predicament the family then moved to Ipswich and found work at Redbank Plains on a cotton farm where Carl and the two oldest boys (Carl jnr & William) worked for the next 12 months.
Carl and Johanna Krueger had brought their family to Queensland to acquire land via the “Alienation of Crown Lands Act of 1860”. The short version of the act was – “That agricultural lands to be selected via application to the land agent, identifying the selection on a map and paying 20 shillings per acre of land on the condition that the land be occupied and improved/cultivated within 6 months – at which time a Deed of Grant would be issued”.
At least there were plenty of new German immigrants making the move and all coming to Australia together. Most of them had little or no English speaking skills, so they were pretty much at the mercy of the powers that be, at the time of their arrival. The Kruegers and many of the other European immigrants wanting to get access to land would have been directed to the West Moreton area where land had been surveyed for large acreage farming, under the Crown Lands Alienation Act. After their sojourn in Ipswich, Carl & Johanna eventually took up farming on a 120-acre selection of land at Roadvale, in the West Moreton district, between Boonah and Ipswich.
Carl & Johanna Kruegers first farming land (Lot 42) at Roadvale, between Boonah & Peak Crossing. NB- see near neighbour F Lobegeiger (74) & next door block (45) owned by William Krueger Location from Google maps 2023
There was no time to waste. There were conditions to be met & time frames in place to get access to land ownership. Clearing the scrub, building a dwelling, erecting fences, and planting crops had to be commenced immediately. The Land Ownership Act was legislated, to get farms up and running, as soon as possible. The Government wanted farmers to be growing food crops and producing dairy products and meat from the grazing of cattle, sheep, and pigs, to feed the rapidly growing population of Queensland. It must have been a daunting task for the new arrivals, familiar with Northern Hemisphere farming practices having to quickly get used to the local climate, animals, plants & insect pests, and to start producing a result within the time frames they were given, to qualify for the migrant land grants. The success of attracting migrant families to Queensland was also rapidly increasing the population of the new colony. Locally produced food supplies were crucial.
In the first half of the 1860s, South East Queensland had suffered severe flooding, but by the back end of the decade, the state was then struggling under drought conditions. Most of the new arrivals, had the bare minimum of equipment to set themselves up, to build a roof over their heads and construct fences and commence land clearing. Practically all of the work was done with hand implements. Many of the new German immigrants banded together to help each other out to get the work completed. This no doubt, facilitated and cemented, the lifelong bonds, that the early pioneer farming families had with each other.
On 2nd September, 1867 the family welcomed their only Australian born child, a daughter, Anna Elizabeth.
Carl and Johanna Krueger must have been doing something right, as they were increasing their land holdings further up into the Fassifern Valley. They purchased lot 273 near the town of Engelsburg (Kalbar) where they then moved to, and built a home. Their sons, Carl jnr & August also purchased land nearby, where they too, commenced farming.
As seen on the old land map in the Fassifern Valley, nearby neighbours to the Kruegers -Mullers, Kublers.
Practically all the German new Australians held strong Christian beliefs which they had brought with them from the old country, belonging to either the Baptist, Lutheran, or Methodist churches. The various religions all built their own places of worship in the Fassifern Valley. Many Protestant & Catholic families from England, Scotland & Ireland also made the move to Australia during the back half of the 19th century. As I’ve mentioned in other posts on my ancestors, the many different races and religions were inclined to stick together. These days, in the 21st century, we’re quick to label it as racial and religious bigotry, however, I genuinely believe that all of the first settler families from all nationalities who arrived in Australia, and their following generation, were a product of their times. The Germany of the 19th century, that our ancestors had left behind was an ultra-conservative country with grim de-humanizing laws in place. They weren’t in a position to get a higher education & access to other opinions and ideas. The early settlers were living in a bubble of their close-knit community. Language difficulties also meant they tended to stay close to others they could communicate with. They spoke the German language at home, at church, and dealing with many of the local merchants who were also German immigrants. By the late 1800s, schools and proper education systems had started to be implemented across Queensland. Many of the original pioneer German Baptist churches were only converting to English language services by well into the 1900s.
Taking into consideration that their pioneering parents had moved from the other side of the world, the German settlers’ young adult sons and daughters who had come to Australia certainly didn’t travel too far to look for a future partner. As the old Fassifern land map shows, the Kruegers, Mullers, Lobegeigers & Kublers (all my relatives, some of whom were Great Great Grandparents) were practically next-door neighbors. These and other familiar German family names appear on many records and maps of the Fassifern district’s history.
By the beginning of WW1 in 1914, many families were starting to experience anti-German sentiments that developed at the beginning of the war in Europe. As ludicrous as it sounds, it became such a problem that some individuals were placed in internment camps. These Australians (of German heritage) were considered to be spies or sympathetic to the cause of the German Empire, supposedly feeding information back to the “homeland”. The authorities soon worked out that some of them were farmers and were needed to keep the food supply chains in place so that ridiculous notion was soon somewhat discarded. However, it didn’t stop over 4000 Australian people with a German background from being locked up during 1914-1918. There were also plenty of local Fassifern Valley young men with German ancestry who joined the Australian Armed Forces to serve overseas and fight against the Germans during the war. Carl & Johanna’s grandson, John (Jack) Lobegeiger was killed in action in WW1, fighting for the Australian Army at the battle of The Somme at Villers-Bretonneux in France. Unfortunately, some of the German town & district names around the Fassifern Valley and across Queensland were changed during the period of WW1 due to this prejudice. The town of Engelsburg was changed to Kalbar in 1916.
Carl Krueger Snr died on 14th August 1894 aged 72, at Roadvale, with his wife Johanna Krueger passing on 13th December 1902 aged 74. They are both buried in the Engelsburg (Kalbar) Baptist pioneer cemetery.
Carl and Johanna’s daughter Emilie Albertine Louise Krueger (my Great Grandmother) was born on 16th May 1864 in Steglitz Germany. Barely one year later, the family had left Germany to find a new life in Australia.
Emilie (or Amelia) Albertine Louise Krueger had arrived in Australia with her parents & four siblings in September of 1865. The family settled at Roadvale where they took up farming about 12 months after their arrival. Most of the German farming families arrived in Australia fully literate, but lacking in english speaking skills. The Fassifern Valley & surrounding district was heavily populated with many of their fellow countrymen arriving in Australia in the mid to late 1800s. Interestingly, many of the original families took their time to learn the english language. This comment is not meant to be derogertary, but an observation. Because of the large amount of German migrants living in the district, they only spoke the language of their homeland. Most of the people they dealt with, were Germans. They spoke German at home, at church, & even many of the local merchants were of German origin. The farming families were here to take up land ownership arrangements under Crown Lands Alienation act of 1868, that were made available to immigrants.
Johannes Lobegeiger had been born at Bethania eighteen months after his families arrival from Germany, where they had resided before moving up to Roadvale. His parents, Gottlieb Frederich Ferdinand & Wilhelmine Fredericke (Topp) Lobegeiger had arrived in Brisbane from Germany, on 17th January, 1864 on the”Susanne Godeffroy” with their four daughters, Emilie, Wilhelmine, Augusta & Marie. Johannes uncle, Friedrich Lobegeiger (Gottieb’s brother) was also a farmer who lived nearby at Fassifern Valley. Sadly, Johannes’ father Gottlieb had passed away aged forty, when Johannes was only two years old. His mother remarried a few years later to Henry Schneider.
Emilie Albertine LouiseKruegermarried Johannes Lobegeiger on the 31st of January, 1889.
She was 24 years old & Johannes was 23. Most of the Germans had arrived in Australia holding their strong religious beliefs that they had brought from the old country. The majority were Baptists, Lutherans & Methodists. It appears that Emilies family, the Kruegers, had arrived in Australia as Lutherans & then later became Baptists (Emilies brother Carl Krueger Jnr was a Baptist pastor). There was a strong Baptist presence among the many German families around the Roadvale district.
By 1889, twenty three year old Johannes Lobegeiger had moved to the Fassifern Scrub. He married 24 year old Emilie Albertine Louise Krueger on the 31st Jan 1889.
Subdivided portion 283
Soon after their marriage they moved to the 200 acre portion 283 in the parish of Fassifern at Kulgun which was originally selected by Johann Heinrich Schneider. In 1880 the property had a small slab house upon it. It appears that Johannes (John) Lobegeiger owned the larger (118 acres) part of portion 283 with the original selector Johann Heinrich (Henry) Schneider still owning at least 82 acres of portion 283.
1880 rates bookCadastral map of portion 283Google map of portion 283
He was issued with the livestock brand of UL9 in 1891.
Queensland government gazette 18911895 electoral rollQueensland PO Directory (Wise) 1896
By 1902 Johannes & Emilie had moved to Purga where they bred horses. Johannes had the prize winner trotter stallion Antrim-Rosemary also known as Antrim Junior, the stud fee was £2 2s.
Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser Sat 22 Nov 1902Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser Sat 10 Sep 1904Queensland Times Sat 11 Dec 1909Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser Sat 11 Jun 1904
He must have had quite a number of horses at Purga as he was placing ads looking for agistment for 50-70 horses in 1902.
Antrim-Rosemary placed 1st for the best trotting stallion at the 1903 Ipswich show , Antrim-Rosemary was described as a high quality dark bay , rather light in the legs but a real picture in appearance and shows fair action.
Ipswich show Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser Thu 11 Jun 1903
In 1904 Johannes had purchased Draught stallion “Hero the second” from the Wienholt brothers.
Queensland PO Directory 1904 (Wise)
At the 1904 Queensland pastoral and agricultural society show Johannes took out best foal under 12 months for a foal bred by Antrim Junior , for the 1904 breeding season Johannes was advertising two stallions , one being the Draught stallion Druid II and the other Lord Antrim , terms £2 2s for each stallion.
1905 electoral roll
At the 1905 Ipswich show Johannes won 2nd place for a stallion (for getting weight carrying hacks) and 2nd place for stallion best adapted to sire useful farm horses.
Ipswich show The Queenslander Sat 24 Jun 1905
In 1906 Johann had moved to Obum Obum , in June of that year two of his daughters who were driving a spring cart to church when part of the harness came undone causing the animal to bolt , the vehicle hit a fence and the sisters were thrown onto the ground , the elder sister hit a post and was much bruised about the face resulting in a slight concussion.
Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser Thu 28 Jun 1906
During the 1906 breeding season Johannes advertised the trotting stallion David Harum with a stud fee of £2 2s.
Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser Sat 29 Sep 1906
Johannes advertised the Clydesdale stallion Hector McDonald during the 1908 breeding season which was described as being a handsome bay colt foaled 1st Nov 1904 , stands 18 ½ hands high with fine quality bone and hair and is a great mover.
Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser Sat 12 Sep 1908
Johannes erected a windmill on his farm in 1915.
1915 electoral rollQueensland PO Directory (Wise) 1917
In 1918 Johannes had moved to Buderim on the Sunshine Coast. On the 8th of August 1918 Johannes & Emilie lost their 24 year old son John in World War One. He was killed in action in France.
Chronicle and North Coast Advertiser Fri 21 Jan 1921Chronicle and North Coast Advertiser Fri 30 Sep 1921
Johannes purchased at least two farms at Buderim , one of which was 150 acres where Johannes intended to grow Bananas and dairying , on the 1925 electoral roll he lists his occupation as a fruit grower.
The Daily Mail Sat 7 Jan 19221925 electoral roll
By 1928 Johannes have moved to Eaglesfield street Beaudesert.
1928 electoral roll
The Beaudesert Times Fri 27 Mar 1931
In 1931 Johannes purchased 467 acres in the parishes of Kerry & Sarabah at Cainbable Creek in the mountainous area near Beechmont.
Google map of the Land at Cainbable creek , purchased in 1931 & sold in 1943Land at Cainbable creek , purchased in 1931 & sold in 19431936 electoral rollThe Courier-Mail Thu 15 Mar 1934Beaudesert Pig sales , The Beaudesert Times Fri 11 Feb 1938Queensland Country Life Thu 1 Jun 1939The Beaudesert Times Fri 17 Nov 1939Queensland PO Directory (Wise) 1941 showing the amount of cattle owned
In 1941 Mrs Emilie Lobegeiger passed away suddenly at Beaudesert from a heart seizure and was buried at the Beaudesert Cemetery.
It appears Johannes was breeding cattle and pigs on this property , in 1941 he owned 100 cattle , he sold all his land there in 1943 and continued to live at Eagle Street Beaudesert until his death on the 3rd of June 1955 at the Beaudesert hospital , he was buried with his wife at the Beaudesert cemetery.
The Beaudesert Times Fri 22 Jul 1955
During their marriage Johannes & Emilie had at least 10 children of which seven were daughters and three were sons.
Emilie and Johannes Lobegeiger farmed in the Fassifern area at Roadvale (1889-1915), with a property also at Purga that they had obtained 1905. Many farmers increased their landholdings, as other farmers moved further up into the Fassifern Valley, with more land was being released & made available for farming. They weren’t afraid to try new & different forms of farming throughout their lives. Johannes & Emilie Lobegeiger moved to a farm at Buderim on the Sunshine Coast hinterland for a number of years (1918-1924), growing fruit. They then moved back to Obum Obum (near Roadvale), with a stint also farming at Manly on Brisbane’s bayside. Their last relocation was a move to Beaudesert in 1928, where they resided at Eaglefield Street in their retirement. Emilie and Johannes Lobegeiger had ten children – Agnes, Elizabeth, Annie (my Grandmother), Isabella, John (KIA WW1), Minnie, Violet, William Charles, Florence & Norman. Both William & Norman later had farms in the Beaudesert area.
Photo’s of Emilie when she was quite elderley, around 1940, probably taken in Beaudesert. Child in the background unknown (at a guess-one of her grandaughters)
Emilie Albertine Louise Lobegeiger (nee Krueger) died 26th February 1941 aged 76.
The Beaudesert Times Fri 17 Dec 19431954 electoral roll
Johannes Lobegeiger died on 3 June 1955 (14 years after Emilie) in Beaudesert, Queensland, at the age of 89. Johannes & Emilie Lobegeiger are buried together in the Beaudesert cemetery.
The Beaudesert Times Fri 1 Jul 1955
Queensland Times Fri 28 Feb 1941
Emilie Lobegeiger (died 26 February 1941 age 76) & Johannes Lobegeiger (died 1955 age 89) are buried together in the Beaudesert cemetery.
I must aknowledge the reseach done by local historian Sharon Racine in compiling this record.
Annie Lobegeiger was my Grandmother. She was one of ten children and was born on 27th February, 1891, to parents, Johannes and Emilie Lobegieger, who were farmers at Roadvale, near Peak Crossing, Queensland.
On the 12th January 1910 she married Adolf Gustav (Alf) Muller, a young man from another local farming family.
Annie and Alf Muller had four children – Phyllis, Vera, Mavis and Selwyn. The family lived in the Fassifern Valley, near Kalbar, and the four kids went to the local Templin school. The Muller family were dairy farmers in the Fassifern Valley, and also grew market garden crops.
Phyllis, Vera, Selwyn & Mavis in front
Annie was a very unpretentious lady with a modest, almost shy personality. She had strong religious faith and was more comfortable at home with raising the family and being a good typical Queensland country wife. My apologies to all the feminists in our family, but that was a very characteristic description for conservative country ladies of the time. Her husband Alf was a farmer and by the 1920s, also an aspiring politician. I don’t believe Annie was overly enthusiastic about being involved with all the requirements of being a politician’s wife. The never ending meetings, electioneering, official openings, the ongoing travelling around the Fassifern electorate and the public functions etc weren’t entirely her cup of tea. But, as a dutiful wife, she performed all her obligations without complaint. By the end of the 1930’s decade, Alf & Annie Muller had moved into Boonah to live at 14 Macquarie street. As the girls in the family grew up, their only son, Selwyn was increasingly looking after the farm.By 1934, oldest daughter Phyllis was married to WW1 veteran James Alexander Yarrow & living in Ipswich, Vera had relocated to Brisbane in 1938 to take up a career in nursing and by 1943 Mavis was about to be married to local solicitor Jim Finney in Boonah. Only son Selwyn, was designated to be the farmer, and had taken over the reins of running the farm as Alf’s political career was on the rise. However, WW2 put a damper on that plan, temporarily. Sel enlisted in the army & served in the Middle East and New Guinea. He had married Patricia Margaret O’Callaghan in 1940. Selwyn John Muller later took over the state parliamentary seat of Fassifern, after Alf’s death in 1970, later becoming the Speaker of the house, in the Queensland state government Legislative Assembly.
Annie was at her happiest living in Boonah near family, friends and her involvment with church and local community endeavours. She loved her garden and cooking for the family whenever they visited. With Annie and Alf both coming from strong German religious backgrounds, they were active members of the Boonah Methodist Church community, for all of their lives.
Annie Muller(nee Lobegeiger) photograph of the Boonah Methodist Ladies guild 1951
None of the family photo’s we have, captured her with a smile, however I will always remember her as being a happy, softly spoken, gentle lady who cared deeply for all her kids and grandchildren. To me, as a kid, she was your quintessential Grandma. She loved fussing over us and always took time to spoil us whenever she had the opportunity. We had many happy Christmas family celebrations & family visits at Nana & Papa Muller’s home in MacQuarie street Boonah.
Mavis Finney (Muller), Annie Muller & Vera Bermingham (Muller)
Annie Muller died on New Years Eve 1979, just five months after her husband A G (Alf) Muller had died. Annie & Alf are both buried at Kalbar cemetery. She and Alf had the four kids, who went on to produce twelve grandchildren, one of whom is the author of this article.
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