Rosewood History. Qld.

Christian Friedrich Heinrich August HOLBORN – Blacksmith

© Jane Schy 2026

He was known as August. August was born 10th July 1843 at Gottingen, Hanover, Germany to parents Georg Friedrich HOLBORN and Johanna Sophie Wilehmine RUHL. He arrived at Moreton Bay on 16th December 1871 per John Bertram from Hamburg. He was 28 years old and his occupation was “Arbeiter”or Labourer.

August found employment with Grice & Co, in Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley where he learned the trade of a blacksmith. The firm were were manufacturers of cooking ranges, colonial ovens, spring carts, tip drays, wheel barrows, dray and cart wheels, fire proof safes, etc. They quickly specialised as coach and buggy builders selling Cutunder Buggies, Jump Scat Buggies, Melbourne Cars, Furniture Vans, Dog Carts, Whitechapel Carts, Store Carts, Light and Heavy Carriage with Hood and Tip Drays.

In 1872 (11th August) he married Johanna Caroline Christiane BARS in Brisbane. They ultimately had 10 children.

After some years, around 1880, the Holborns left Brisbane and August worked in his own business as a blacksmith. One daughter Augusta (later Mrs Kitzlemann) was born in Minden in February 1882.

By 1885, he was a farmer and blacksmith at Lowood and he had a shop at the intersection of Old Tarampa Road. He was the first blacksmith in the district and his ploughs, made after the American style, became well-known wherever he went.

At age 50 he was thrown from his horse and broke both bones in his left arm.

He went to live at Minden and in September 1891 he exhibited his revolving harrow at the Marburg Show, which proved to be somewhat of a novelty.

August enrolled in the electoral division of Rosewood on 12th  November 1892. He was living on freehold land 124 acres, Portion 528, in the parish of Walloon, originally Ludwig Zabel’s selection. When the electoral division changed to Marburg division, he re-enrolled on 2nd October 1895 and was still there on the roll in 1896. He worked as a blacksmith in the Rosewood district.

On the night of 15th December 1893, August was travelling on a goods train from Woolloongabba to Toowoomba on the South Brisbane railway line. On the approach to Corinda, near the Oxley Creek bridge, there was a steep incline. The train couldn’t pull its135 ton load up the hill, so a decision was made to divide the trucks and take it to the station in two parts. When the driver of the first part started off, the second part rolled off in the opposite direction back down the incline. The guard applied the brakes on a couple of the trucks and then jumped off when he saw another train approaching from Yerongpilly with 25 empty trucks and a guard van for Bundamba. The driver of that train applied all the brake power possible and the train was almost to a standstill when the brake-van from the runaway train crashed into the engine. August Holborn was in the passenger compartment. He escaped with a a good shaking about. Dr. Von Lossberg was immediately summoned and he found that August had received a severe shock as well as some bruises about the head. He stayed at a hotel for the night.

August made a claim for £300 against the Railway Cormissioners for compensation for his injuries and won.

At the 1894 Rosewood Show, he won 2nd prize in the two-horse plough category: for general work and fitted with the most modern appliance.

In November 1895 the annual ploughing matches, which were arranged by the farmers of Tallegalla and Minden, took place at William Austin’s farm at Tallegalla. The land to be ploughed was neatly marked out and there were about 150 people present. Robert Hodge of the Rosewood Hotel put on a first class lunch. Each competitor was required to plough a quarter of an acre of land in a given time to a depth of not less than 4 inches. Carl Ballin came third using one of August’s ploughs in the event – American and local-made ploughs, American pattern.

After he left Rosewood, August conducted businesses in Lowood, Plainland and Glenore Grove, retiring to Ipswich Road, South Brisbane about 1916.

He died at the Brisbane General Hospital on 29th October 1924 and Johanna died on 3rd January 1942. They rest at the South Brisbane Cemetery.