Johannes Muller was my great-grandfather. He was one of a family of eight boys, born on 15th October 1854 to Caspar & Sophie Muller in Tuttlingen, Germany. The Muller family ran a leather goods business. Back in the day, there were state government delegations sent overseas (mainly to the UK & Germany), to increase the population of the growing colony of Queensland. These delegations must have been very successful, as over a quarter of a million new settlers came to Queensland in the second half of the 19th century.
At age 24, Johannes left Hamburg on the Fritz Reuter on 5th October 1878. He kept a log of his voyage to Australia detailing the trip. He mentions some of the terrible weather they encountered on the trip. He talks about the “other Tuttlingeners” on board, so there must have been people from his hometown also making the journey to Australia. There was talk of songs & music but no beer, so they were obviously trying to remain in good spirits for the long sea voyage that lay ahead. Sea sickness was a big problem. Many of the Germans had never been to sea or even seen the ocean before. He talks about some of the violent storms that they encountered & the light winds that also slowed down the progress of the sailing ship. The heat as they crossed the Equator became a problem. They had the first deaths on the trip, from typhus. They must have traveled quite a distance further south to round the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of Africa as he talks about snow & sleet. Some direct quotes from Johannes’ log –
- “12 December – Storm, the sea in frightening breakers the waves climb high like snow capped mountains”
- “14th December – Wind good. The number of sick increases. Daily deaths of children”
- “15th December – Storm & rain. Danish woman & her husband both die from typhus & left behind three young children under 4 years old”
- “31st December As the new year comes with a sharp look & appearing as if it would devour us. Sailing in a storm the whole day, in the afternoon a wave struck me, so that I had to pick myself up”
- “16th January Weak wind, hot weather, land in site, great jubilation, 155 degrees east, 29 degrees south”(east of Yamba Northern NSW)
- “17th January One island after another, a lighthouse, huge excitement. At 4 o’clock in the afternoon the pilot arrived in a small sailing boat. He was received with calls of HOORAY. At 5pm the anchor was cast.”(arrival at Moreton Bay)
- “18 January The arrival of the tugboat, which took us through the chain of islands., a noble sight. 11pm Arrival at the key of the harbour of Brisbane.”
- “19th January Arrival of the government commission at 11 o’clock. Announcment of a ten day quarantine.”
- So finally, after three & a half months at sea, the Fritz Reuter arrived in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 19th January 1879.
Upon arrival, the majority of these new immigrants headed out of Brisbane to populate & develop Queensland. Many went into South Eastern regions – Logan, Bethania, Beenleigh, Southern Moreton Bay, Beaudesert, Lockyer Valley, Darling Downs and the Fassifern Valley.
I can only speculate as to why Johannes Muller was drawn to the Fassifern Valley. Perhaps it may have been that many of his fellow German arrivals were heading in that direction. More likely, the immigration authorities directed them to the Fassifern to increase development in that district at the time. Land had recently become available when the valley had been opened up for farming. They were each allocated an amount to obtain land after a period of residence. To get this government subsidy, there were strict rules that had to be adhered to. Clearing of the land had to be done, fencing had to be set up around properties, a dwelling had to be erected, and farming had to be started as soon as possible. Queensland needed farmers to feed the population of the growing state.
In any case, he selected a block of land near Kalbar, in the Fassifern Valley, immediately commenced clearing, and constructed a small slab hut.
I’m guessing that he would have had his hands full just with getting the farm up and running. However, he certainly didn’t waste any time on the romance side of things, because on the 26th of January 1881, when he was 27 years old, Johannes married a local girl, Louisa Rosina Kubler, the eldest child of George & Louisa Kubler, from a nearby farm. Louisa’s parents were also German immigrants having arrived in Queensland in May of 1863. Louisa was born on 11th May 1864 at the German Station at Nundah, in Brisbane. The Kubler family had farmed at Walloon, prior to shifting to Fassifern in 1877.
The old Engelsburg Primitive Methodist Church from 1881 – 1898, was then known as the Engelsburg Methodist Church. The Engelsburg site of one acre was given by Elijah Horton on the site of where the Engelsburg Methodist Pioneer Cemetery is now.
Johannes Muller (father of A.G.Muller M.L.A) became a Steward at the church.
Johannes became a naturalized citizen on the 17th June 1899 when he swore an oath of allegiance to Australia.
He applied for a certificate of fulfillment of conditions for his homestead selection in Oct 1884 and was issued the deed of grant for his land in 1885.
You can see just how close Louisa’s family lived to Johannes Muller on the map below. Louisa’s mother & father must have been keen to marry her off, because she was a few months under 17 years old when she was married. The couples first child, John Gottlieb Muller was born just over 12 months later on 10th February 1882.
They eventually had ten children – John Gottlieb (b1882), Alfred Willhelm (b1883), Eliza (b1885 d1885), Rosina Louisa (b1886), Adolf Gustav (my Grandfather b1889), Sophia Agnes (b1891), Catherina Elizabeth (b1893 d1893), Wilhelm Caspar (b1897), Harold George (b1902), and Elena (b1905). Sadly, as was the case with many families at the time, they also lost babies at birth or as infants.
Throughout their lives, Johannes and Louisa managed to send £1000 back to the family in Germany. In today’s money, that would be somewhere in the vicinity of $150,000. It was a fairly common practice, for that custom to happen, to assist families back in the old country. They had never forgotten the hardship and the struggle, of the families that they had left behind & who had assisted them to leave Germany & come to Australia.
In Oct 1887 Johannes lost his sliver-plated revolver between Peak Crossing & Fassifern, he offered a 10s reward for its recovery.
Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser Sat 15 Oct 1887
In 1887 the railway line was extended to Boonah & Dugandan. If the opening up of the Fassifern Valley to farming, in the 1870s was a major historical period in the development of the district, the rail connection to Ipswich & Brisbane was an even bigger deal for the locals. It meant faster connection to markets for all the local farmers, like Johannes Muller, with their produce. Beef cattle & pigs then became more important to the district as farmers could get their stock to the meatworks at Churchill outside of Ipswich, easier, and quicker & with less trauma to the animals during transit. Dairy products could be sent to the Ipswich & Brisbane milk processing plants & butter factories overnight or the following day. (It wasn’t until 1916 that Boonah eventually got its own butter factory).
It would most likely have been around the late 1800s when Johannes anglicized his Christian name to John. It seemed to be a fairly common practice among the German settlers. The family name was even pronounced as Miller for a time, by some members of the family. This would have been decided upon, to distance themselves from their German heritage. Germany had been having battles with other European nations & internal uprisings for centuries & was considered to be a country of warring aggressive people. Nothing could be further from the truth for our German ancestors. They travelled to the other side of the planet to get away from all of the hate & prejudice they had left behind in their country of origin. By 1914 & the beginning of WW1, many German locality names across Australia, were even being replaced. It seemed like it was almost embarrassing to be identified as German. Which was pretty crazy, considering that areas like the Fassifern Valley were built by a majority of German pioneering families. It was a different time & a different world back then (although, sadly even in modern day 2023, racial discrimination is still alive & well). John & Louisa’s own son Wilhelm Caspar Muller was KIA in Palestine in WW1 fighting for the AIF against the Germans. When he enlisted, he felt the need to change his name to William Casper Miller on his Army Enlistment papers.
In 1903 Johannes was issued a hawker’s licence. He travelled around in his wagon selling drapery, bed linen, clothing, musical instruments, clocks, watches etc.
In 1905 Johannes donated a small block of land on the northern edge of his portion 324 for the Fassifern Valley School which was built in late 1905 to early 1906.
Sometime prior to 1906 Johannes had purchased the 160 acre portion 70V and the adjoining 624 acre portion 89V in the parish of Clumber which is located near Lake Moogerah Road.
Johannes (John) Muller died on 25th February 1906 and was laid to rest at the Englesburg (Kalbar) Methodist Pioneer Cemetery where the original Engelsburg Primitive Methodist Church was located. He had suffered a severe stroke at age 53, while taking farm produce to Boonah, and died at the home of a friend at Kent’s Pocket. Johannes Muller had only recently won a seat on the Goolman Shire Council, just before his death. was elected to the Goolman shire council as a councillor in early 1906 having been nominated by H.Welge , C.Dusting , J.L.Kilroy , M.G.Kilroy and three others.
Johannes Muller had donated a couple of acres on his farm to establish the Fassifern Valley Provisional School (Red arrow above). Sadly he died a few weeks before the school opened on 13th March 1906.
Louisa was left to raise the family. Although three of their children were young adults, there were still two teenagers and three under 10 years old. Her life without a husband, raising a family, plus running the farm, would have been very challenging.
His estate was left to his widow Rosina Louisa Muller with his realty & personal estate valued at £4795. On the 4th of Aug 1906 Mrs Muller held a clearing out sale at Boonah of her late husbands goods/drapery etc.
However Louisa did remarry, on 6th July 1910. She married Englishman, William Chapman who was a worker on the farm. They never had any children of their own but William was a devoted father figure to the kids, particularly little Elena who was born (1905) only a year before her father John had died. After their marriage, William & Louisa Chapman lived in Ipswich.
The Muller farm in the Fassifern valley was then taken over by her son Adolf Gustav Muller who in Aug 1910 held a deceased estate sale along with his brother John Gottlieb Muller for their fathers 784 acres of land near Moogerah Dam , included in the sale was 125 head of cattle , horses and a hooded buggy.
Family sources say that she was grief stricken after her & Johannes’s son – Wilhelm Caspar Muller, died on the battlefield, in Palestine during WW1 in 1918. She never got over it & suffered loss of memory in her later years, which eventually led to dementia. Louisa Rosina Chapman (Muller – Kubler) died 31st January 1940. Her second husband William Chapman died the following year.
This era was the pioneering stage of most Queensland farming communities. Almost all families struggled to survive and had to live with a lot of adversity. For the Fassifern pioneer families, turning what was thick scrub, into arable farming land must have been a daunting task, with next to no machinery. Most of it was done with hand or horse-drawn implements. In the early days, it would have been mainly subsistence farming. They also had to cope with severe droughts and floods. I’ve read many similar stories, about other families with ancestors in the Fassifern and other parts of regional Queensland. Practically, all of the early settlers had come from countries on the other side of the world, that had suffered through wars and famine’s. They were great risk takers, and quite prepared to do whatever it took, to make their new lives better than what they had left behind.
Credits – I must acknowledge Sharon Racine, who is a local historian for unearthing a lot of this information on Johannes Muller.
A G (Alf) Muller
The fifth born of those ten children, 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. 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, Alf Muller married Annie Lobegeiger, 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, Vera (my Mum), Mavis and a son Selwyn. The family continued the tradition of Alf’s father Johannes (John) Muller, & ran dairy & beef cattle on their grazing property in the Fassifern Valley.
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 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.
Alf was a councilor and chairman on both the Boonah and Goolman Shire Councils before he entered state politics.
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.
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. That 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 admirable ideas on the welfare of our indigenous people that weren’t shared by many of his peers. 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. His main personal platform policy was that of giving everyone a fair go. In doing so, he often got into conflict with his own party over certain issues.
A G Muller’s last day as Minister for Lands & Irrigation 1969.
Alf Muller also represented his district in both cricket & football. 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)
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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.
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.
There are still many descendants living around Boonah, the Fassifern Valley, South East Queensland, and further, across Australia, continuing the family tradition that Johannes Muller started, when he arrived in Australia from Germany nearly 150 years ago, in 1879.
See link to Alf Mullers daughter, my Mum
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