Beef cattle grazing on pasture next to a watercourse Ipswich district Queensland, ca. 1905
Photo: B. Taylor  (State Library Qld)

Rosewood History

BUTCHERS

© Jane Schy 2024
Published 26/02/24

From the time human beings began raising livestock and there was a demand for meat, butchers have existed. Butchers are highly skilled in their field. They have to be strong enough to carry animal carcasses, be able to stand patiently for long periods of time in cold conditions while skilfully using knives etc. to prepare many different cuts of meat. They have to attend to vital hygiene practices, have knowledge of storage and cross contamination, make enticing and attractive displays, maintain the quality of their products and operate machinery. Successful butchers are usually pleasant, amiable and social people who recommend and advise their customers about their choices. They understand their customers’ needs and try to meet them the best they can. 

Butchers in Rosewood District

This list of butchers may be incomplete. The dates shown are the approximate times they worked in the district.

James Ryan 1876-1883
James was born in 1839 in Limerick, Ireland. He married Elizabeth Madden in 1866 in Ipswich. He was engaged as a carrier between Ipswich and the Western districts before the railway line was built and afterwards settled at Rosewood, where he was a butcher and hostlier, opening the “Rising Sun Hotel.” He left Rosewood and settled at Mt. Sylvia in the Gatton district, where he remained until he died in 1920.

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Lawrance Ryan 1883
Son of James and Elizabeth Ryan.

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Henry McGeary 1876-1893

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Edward Boughen 1886

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Butt Bros  1887–June 1888
Cuthbert and Ralph Butt

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Waters Bros. 1888 Rosewood.
William James Waters and Samuel Joseph Waters. Took over from Butt Bros 1st July 1888.

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Iszlaub & Hannant 1889 Rosewood.

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M. O’Sullivan 1892 Rosewood.

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Mrs. Jane McGeary 1894-1900 Rosewood.

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James Patrick Simmonds 1895-1906 Rosewood.

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A. J. O’Sullivan & Pedrazzini 1897 Rosewood.
June 1900 – Mr. A. J. O’Sullivan (Butchers) changed hands to Mr. G. H. Dutney, who only held it a few days, when he, in turn, sold to Mr. W. Hodge, of Ipswich, brother of  hotel-keeper, Mr. R. Hodge, of this township.

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William James Hodge 1900-1905 Rosewood.
(Insolvent debts of £1285)

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McGeary & White 1901-1911 Rosewood.
Henry George McGeary & William White

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Francis Pedrazzini 1903 Rosewood.

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William Henry Collett 1906-1917 Rosewood.

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Robert Elliott 1907-1908 Rosewood.
Robert was the son-in-law of Henry and Jane McGeary. He married Mary Jane McGeary in 1903. Robert’s usual occupation was a bullock driver and timber-getter. Later he became an auctioneer.

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James Patrick Simmonds jnr 1908-1913
A fire at about 7 o’clock on the night of 1st November 1913 destroyed J. P. Simmond’s butcher shop and residence at Rosewood. James was the only one of the family in Rosewood at the time, the remainder having gone to Sandgate on the miners’ excursion trains. The alarm was soon spread round the township, and in a very short time a large number assembled to assist in preventing the fire from spreading. The fire soon got a good hold, and there was no chance of saving the building although a little of the furniture was saved. James had a hotel at Chinchilla in the late 1920s.

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Charles Wass 1902-1957 Rosewood.
Charles Wass was born in 1888 in Toowoomba. He was the son of Limberd Wass and Caroline Needham. He married Alice Bassett at Ashwell in 1913. Charles’s grandson, Arthur Wass, told me (23/4/2025) that Charles worked for McGeary and Grant for 55 years before moving to Greenup Street, Margate about 1958. One day he went into the butcher shop there and asked for a particular cut of meat. When he received it he said, “That’s not what I asked for!” He told the butcher he had been a butcher in Rosewood for 55 years. The butcher said, Well you’d better come behind and get your own.” So Charles ended up working at that butcher shop for some time. Charles died in 1971.

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McGeary & Grant 1911-1954 RosewoodHenry George McGeary (died 1939) & Henry Mark Alexander Grant

Samuel Chalk was slaughterman.

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Gordon Alexander McGeary 1934-54
Master Butcher
Gordon carried on the above business after the death of his father.

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Francis Arthur Kingston 1911-1924  Mt Walker

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H. Harris 1911 Rosewood.

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Richard Smith 1911
Residence: John Street, Rosewood.

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William White 1912-1917 Rosewood.

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Bernard Willmott 1912 Rosewood.

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Frederick Dyson 1912, 1917 Grandchester

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Rodger Toohey 1912 Grandchester

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David Gough 1912, 1922  Rosevale

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Joseph Adam Geiger 1916, 1917
Worked at McGeary & Grant, Rosewood.

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Patrick Joseph Meehan 1917 Calvert

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Edward Alexander Logan 1921
Residence: Railway Street, Rosewood.

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F. Bignell 1924-1925 Rosewood.

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O’Shea Bros 1923-1930
The partnership of William O’Shea and Michael Joseph Carmody was dissolved by mutual consent in October 1930. Carried on by Michael Joseph Carmody. Rosewood.

Michael Coleman was slaughterman there in 1923.

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Ernest George Wright 1925-1930  Rosewood (O’Shea Bros)

Daily Mail (Brisbane, Qld.), Wednesday 11 February 1925, page 5
Mr. Ernest Wright, a butcher, employed by O’Shea Bros., was on horse hack, when the horse he was riding was kicked by another horse, with the result that he was dismounted, his horse falling on his leg. The lad was conveyed to the Ipswich Hospital, where it was found that his leg was badly broken just above the ankle.

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Michael Joseph Carmody 1926-1959 Rosewood.

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Thomas Francis O’Shea 1927, 1932
Residence: Matthew Street, Rosewood.

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Arthur Ronald Waters  c.1929-1943
Born in 1915 at Lanefield, the third son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Thomas Waters and Elizabeth Lane. Arthur attended Ashwell State School. For a considerable number of years he was employed by different butchering firms in Rosewood and was known to be a very trustworthy employee. He married Doreen Esme Blackmore in 1939. They made their home in Railway Street and had three children. Arthur died in 1943 aged 28 years. His youngest child was just seven weeks old.

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James Patrick O’Shea 1929 -1941Residence: Matthew Street, Rosewood.

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Michael Henry Baker 1928 Grandchester

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Edward Herbert Hohnke 1928-1941
Residence: John Street, Rosewood

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Henry Hall  1928 -1941 Mt Forbes

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James Norman Yarrow 1931, 1932 Rosewood.

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Colin Freeman  1924 -1941 Rosewood.
Colin worked for McGeary & Grant. Colin was born 1910 and was the son of Arthur Freeman and Louisa Eunice Embrey. He married Mavis Audrey Dilger in 1937.

Q.T. 9th November 1941 – On severing his connection recently with the butchering business, Messrs. McGeary and Grant at Rosewood, where for 17 years he had been employed, Mr. Colin Freeman received a presentation. Messrs. H. M. A. Grant, G. McGeary. C. Wass, and E. Hohnke paid tributes to Mr. Freeman’s faithful service, and wished him success in his new employment. At the invitation of Mr. Grant. Mr. Wass, who had the longest period of service with the business, presented a fountain pen to Mr. Freeman. Mr. Freeman returned thanks for the good wishes and gift.

Colin died in 2010 aged 100 years and is interred at Warrill Park Lawn Cemetery.

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Bonney & Son 1933-1936
Herbert Alexander Bonney, Herbert Clive Bonney, Ivan Graham Bonney
Residence: Matthew Street, Rosewood.
Sold to C. Morrison from Toowoomba in July 1936.

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C. Morrison & Sons 1936-1942
Charles Morrison and his son Roy Morrison lived in Matthew Street – 1941.

Charles was born in Scotland and came to Queensland when he was 7 years old. His first place of employment was in his father’s butchering business at Toowong. Afterwards he became manager of Cressbrook station. Subsequently he conducted butchering businesses at Pomona, Laidley, and Eumundi (10 years). He then purchased a farm at Toowoomba, and again entered the butchering business there. He purchased Bonney & Son, Rosewood in July 1936. He died in January 1943 and his son Roy took over the business.

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Roy Morrison 1943-1969  (lived in Mill Street)
The business purchased by R. K. Auld jnr in September 1949 and Roy continued working there. The shop was situated in Railway Street opposite the station. It was sold to Alton Walker in 1962.  Roy Morrison had a slaughter shed in Mill St.

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Henry Smith Wilkes 1939, 1941
Residence: Albert Street, Rosewood.

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Leslie Thomas Lawrance  1941 Rosevale

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R. Keith Auld 1949
Residence: Railway Street, Rosewood.

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Victor Birch 1959, 1969Residence: Mill Street, Rosewood.

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Noel Alexander Plant  1959
Residence: Toowoomba Road, Rosewood.

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Roy Clarence Christensen 1959 Rosevale
1969 Residence: Walloon Rd, Rosewood.

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Franklins Butchers 1959-1969  Rosewood.
Stanley Joseph Franklin lived Albert Street, Leonard John Franklin lived Yates Street.
Signs in the shop: “PLEASE TO MEET YOU AND MEAT TO PLEASE YOU”  “NO EXPECTORATING”

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Patrick Joseph O’Reilly 1960
Residence: 58 Albert Street, Rosewood.

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Alton Stewart Walker October 1962–1969  Rosewood.
George Schmitt was the slaughter man for Walker’s. Pat Cameron & Bruce Hinton worked in the shop. Irene Dickfoss worked in the office.

Some of the children in those days would bring newspapers from home to the butcher shop. Alton weighed them and for every pound in weight of papers he would pay the children a small amount. Butchers in those days wrapped their meat orders in newspaper and tied the parcels up with string.

The shop was in Railway Street and Walkers later moved the business to the shop at 38 John Street which is now Rosewood Bakery. Alton had a small shop “Meatworld” at the back of Sellar’s Arcade in the early 1980s.

The Walkers leased the slaughter yard in Mill Street for a number of years before Alton designed and had built (by Muller’s Industries, Gatton) what was at the time, a state of the art slaughter yard on land in O’Reilly’s Rd (Paddy’s paddock). Phil and Maude O’Reilly owned the farm on that road.

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Thomas Patrick Cameron
Residence:  Walloon Road, Rosewood.Worked for Morrison’s then for Walker’s in 1962.

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Eric Crawford 1963 Rosewood.
Eric worked at Morrison’s.

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Slaughtermen
Robert John Davidson 1909
Carl Harold Hohnke 1932, 1939

 

Photo of calendar kindly supplied by Paul McGeary

    Photos of calendars kindly supplied by Zane Sinnamon