Rosewood History. Qld.
Rosewood Pioneers
Charles and Emily DUTNEY
© Jane Schy 2026
Charles DUTNEY (DEWDNEY)
Occupation: Farm Servant (1851); Farmer
Birth: 24th May 1834, Curry Rivel, Somerset, England
Baptised: 30th June 1834, Curry Rivel, Somerset, England
Residence: 1841, Curry Rivel with parents and siblings Mary (15), Caroline (14), Louisa (9), George (5), Hannah (3), Ellenor (14 months)
Immigration: 19th September 1858, the Alfred arrived Moreton Bay, NSW, from Liverpool (departed June 17th).
Land Purchase: 1st December 1869, 101 acres pastoral land, County of Churchill, Parish of Walloon (Portion 343A)
Resided: Lanefield
Death: 14 th February 1906, Rosewood, Queensland aged 71 years.
Burial: 16th February 1906, Stone Quarry Cemetery, Jeebropilly, Queensland.
Religion: Congregational
Father: Henry DEWDNEY (Agricultural Labourer)
Mother: Eliza BUDD (Glove Sewer Lisle)
Marriage: 18th May 1858, St Mary Major, (Church of England), Ilchester, Somerset, England
Spouse: Emily Ann Evans GILLETT
Occupation: Seamstress (1858)
Birth: 3rd October 1838, Yeovil, Somerset, England
Residence 1841 Almshouse Lane, Ilchester with her parents
Residence: 1851 Almshouse Lane, Ilchester with her widower father and brother Herbert (10)
Immigration: 19th September 1858, the Alfred arrived Moreton Bay, NSW, from Liverpool (departed June 17th).
Residence: Lanefield
Death: 27th November 1905, at the residence of Mr John Jacobs, Albert Street, Rosewood aged 67 years
Burial: 28th November 1905, Stone Quarry Cemetery, Jeebropilly, Queensland
Religion: Congregational
Father: Thomas GILLETT (Mason)
Mother: Elizabeth EVANS
Children: 6
Caroline Elizabeth DUTNEY (1859-1933) = John Henry JACOBS
Eliza Ann DUTNEY (1861-1865)
George Herbert DUTNEY (1864-1925) = Elizabeth Clark ELDER
Louisa Ann DUTNEY (1869-1953) = David Ross ELDER
Charles Henry DUTNEY (1873-1944) = Emma YARDLEY
Frederick John DUTNEY (1878-1913) = Edith FREEMAN
The Alfred (1270 tons) was the largest ship to ever enter Moreton Bay with a cargo of immigrants. It carried Charles and Emily Dutney and 435 other immigrants on a voyage of 90 days to Queensland. The records show that Emily had an Uncle in Ipswich. Two of the other passengers were William and Elizabeth Perrem, who were early selectors at Lanefield. Their paths were destined to cross again.
The ship left the dock on 13th June, but her departure from the River Mersey was delayed by the authorities and she didn’t get out to sea until the 17th. Then the Alfred was towed by a steam tug until she was off Tuscar, and on 19th she sailed off on her own account. The passage was one of the most prosperous on record to date. The only land sighted on the voyage were the Isle of Trinidad and the Rocks of Desolation. There were 5 births and 4 deaths, 2 of those being the Medical Superintendent and the ship’s cook. Lectures were delivered on various subjects. There were vocal and instrumental music performances and “the votaries of terpsichore (those devoted to dance) also delighted to trip the light fantastic toe.” A mock trial and a mock execution also took place and the schoolmaster read prayers regularly. Read a poem written about it: The Alfred Crossing The Line
The immigrants were bought to shore at Brisbane by the steamer Clarence. One night in the following week, 12 of the crew jumped ship. Once the officers were all in their cabins for the night, they took a boat and made off. Two had been sent to hospital from the ship earlier feigning illness. Once there, they, escaped and went out and got drunk. This caught the attention of the police and they were put into solitary confinement for 48 hours and then dealt with.
The Dutneys made their way to Ipswich on a steamer. Their daughter Caroline was born at Rosebank (later known as Moorelands) in the days when Rosewood was just a collection of scattered farms. The third child George was born at Newtown in 1864.
The following story was published in the Queenslander in 1934. A Snake Story – In the beginning of 1864 all the tributaries of the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers were in a flooded condition, and much debris and many reptiles were deposited on the banks of Bundamba Creek. Messrs C. Dutney and J. Mitchell were engaged by an Ipswich clergyman, who owned a small farm at Booval, to do some ploughing with bullocks. At an early hour Dutney went in search of his bullocks, and being a small man he stood on a large gum log near the creek in order to obtain a better view of his surroundings. His search was rewarded by seeing the team a considerable distance away. So absorbed was he in looking for them while standing on the log that a carpet snake 10ft. long, and thicker than his wrist, glided quietly up his leg and thigh and its head was almost level with his shoulder, when in his own words: “I grabbed hold of him close to his head, wondering what I should do with him. At the moment Sandy Fraser, the blacksmith, attracted my attention by the sound of his hammer and anvil, more than a mile away. You may be sure I lost no time on my way to the anvil, where Sandy tapped its head with the hammer, and then closed the jaws of a large pair of tongs upon the snake’s head. There was a deal of twisting and pulling before I was free, and much chafing and rubbing of my arms before the circulation was restored.” KOLA KNUT. [1]
Charles Dutney went to work for Sir Joshua Peter Bell who owned a cotton plantation and cotton gin on the western side of Bundamba Creek, near the Old Racecourse. It was there that he met up again with William Perrem. He also became well acquainted with Robert Elliott, an immigrant from Somerset, England. Robert lived in a small cottage in the central portion of Newtown, and prior to coming to the plantation, had been working as a farm labourer for Mr. John Smith on his cotton plantation. The plantation was a large block of land in Newtown, once owned by Mr. William Vowles. John Smith was also managing Bell’s cotton plantation so Robert Elliott moved his employment to there. Charles, Robert and William became firm friends. The three were all practical farming men.
After a while, Charles and Robert decided to go out on their own as partners in their own business. They rented a small paddock from the Mr. Benjamin Cribb, in the vicinity of what was known as “Blaxlands,” where Capt. John Eyre of the firm of Messrs. Eyre and Digby, South Street, lived. There were several people farming out in the racecourse area, later known as The Grange (Raceview).
The partners did well because they acquired orders to supply oaten hay to the large firm of railway contractors, Messrs. Peto, Brassey, and Betts, who built the first railway line between Ipswich and Bigge’s Camp (Grandchester).
In December 1866, Messrs. Cribb & Foote shipped a consignment of cotton per the Lochnagar to Messrs. J. & R. Morley in London. Two of the bales were supplied by Charles Dutney and Robert Elliott and were described as “good, fair, Australia, bright in colour, staple of moderate length, a good deal cut in ginning, and nippy -16½d per bale.”
The Elliott-Dutney partnership lasted three years after which Robert went to Mt Walker and Charles went prospecting.
In October 1867, the Gympie Gold Rush began when James Nash discovered 72 ounces of gold in just 6 days. Charles Dutney, Samuel Waight, William Perrem, Samuel Shelley, John Perrett, Henry Treloar, Joseph Ward, and several others, made for the diggings. They pegged out their claims in Nuggety Gully, and fossicked there for a time, finding payable washings, but making no valuable finds. Some of the men visited the gold fields several times, aand according to the memories of William Perrem, on one occasion, he and his mate Charles Dutney were lost in the Kilcoy Ranges.
When Charles returned to Ipswich, he went back to the land. He took a job for Walter Bunney at Lanefield in late 1869, ploughing a piece of land on Walter’s new selection at Brandy Gully. William Perrem said that Charles Dutney could rightfully claim to have turned the first furrow in the Lanefield-Rosewood district. Charles was so pleased with the soil that he decided to select nearby blocks along with John Lane and William Perrem. Both John Lane and Charles Dutney lived at the Bunney’s while they built their first bush homes.
Charles selected 101acres of pastoral land, Portion 343A, on 1st December 1869 for £15/2/6. See Land Purchase
The Wesleyan Chapel was opened free of debt on a piece of ground given by Mr. John Lane on Sunday 10th August 1873. On Monday a public tea meeting was held and much credit was given to William Perrem, Charles Dutney, and John Lane for their tireless, persistent, and unyielding efforts in connection with the building.
Charles won first prize for the two best bushels of yellow maize at the first Rosewood Show held under the auspices of the Farmers’ Club in 1878. Joseph Hudson was 2nd.
He bought some more land from the Vance estate: Lot 10 – 2 roods on 29th August 1879 and Lot 11a – 3 rood 25 ¾ perches on 2nd December 1884. He also purchased Lots 15 and 56 from Carl Friedrich Christof ARNDT sometime before Carl left Rosewood in 1893.
These hardy men did much in opening up the Ashwell-Lanefield district and Charles was successful in his enterprise. This is reflected in the following article written by a travelling reporter for the Queenslander on Saturday 8th April, 1882.
The first farm that underwent our inspection was only a mile or two from Rosewood and at the very edge of the scrub, the owner’s name being Charles Dutney. He owns 100 acres of first-class land, most of which is cleared and forty of which he cultivates, the main crop being maize. His grain in the past has been of sufficient excellence to carry first prizes wherever shown at Ipswich, Brisbane, and Sydney; but since then he has been eclipsed by a local grower. His present crop is forty acres of maize, the most of which is sufficiently forward to ripen, and looks exceedingly like giving very fair returns-possibly as much as thirty-five or more bushels to the acre. A small plot of lucerne is all that he is cultivating besides, excepting that, like many Rosewood farmers, he has pumpkins growing among much of his corn, a practice which appears to work very satisfactorily. The advantages of such a practice must be of a doubtful character nevertheless, for two crops cannot in the very nature of things find proper nourishment to do their best from the same land. Corn by itself and clean cultivation must be better for the land and the crop. Although from eleven to twelve years resident in the locality and on his farm, he has only recently planted a garden, and is but now making up his mind to put in a few fruit trees. Nor is this an isolated case, for there are very few in the Rosewood Scrub who have thought it worth their while to make a garden, although by doing so they might have had their table supplied with good fruit and vegetables, and their families maintained at less cost and in the enjoyment of better health. It is a great mistake for the farmer to try to do without a garden, so that he may save. There is no economy or saving in it for a garden well kept is either directly or indirectly a great help to the purse. Mr. Dutney’s nearest neighbour some time ago attempted to obtain water by sinking a well, but after going down 40ft. in black soil, without any indication of a change, he relinquished the task as hopeless. But if a well in such a situation is valueless, a dam or tank without good puddling or cementing would be worse. This depth of soil is not the rule in the Rosewood Scrub, however, for it is on the hillsides and narrow gullies barely deep enough in many places for proper tillage. In this exceptional case it is an accumulation of alluvial deposits brought down from the high ground.
Charles retired to town about 1896, leaving his son Charles Henry to work the farm. He built a nice house, Carnebrea, in Rosewood (Lot 10- 58 John Street) and cultivated a splendid garden. This next article tells about their garden.
VISIT OF FRUIT EXPERT. [2]
ON Thursday last Mr. A. H. Benson, fruit expert, paid a visit to this district. He arrived on the previous evening from Marburg, and was met next morning by Mr. P. H. Adams, secretary of the Farmers’ Club, and afterwards by Mr. F. G. Fuchs, of the Grange Farm. Mr. Benson, in company with the first-named, visited the garden of Mr. C. Dutney, sen., in the township. Among the fruit trees Mr. Dutney has several orange trees and mandarins. Mr. Benson expressed surprise at the healthy condition of the trees under the present circumstances, though some of them were suffering from white scale: Mr. Benson gave a remedy for this, and then pruned one of the trees as an example. He advised the removal of all cross branches to prevent rubbing, and pruning of middle of trees to admit light freely.
Emily died in November 1905. Her obituary referred to her as a quiet, retiring disposition, who was much respected by all who knew her. She was a faithful adherent to the Congregational Church. Charles was in precarious health himself at the time, and he survived Emily by 56 days. Both of their funeral corteges left from John and Caroline Jacobs’s home in Albert Street.
Charles’s estate included land holdings that were described as:-
Portion 343a, subdivision 10 of subdivision 2 of free selection 7L
Re-subdivisions 11a, 15 and 56 of subdivision 2 of portion 7
Re-subdivisions 73 and 74 of subdivision 19 of portion 283, county of Churchill, parish of Walloon
Portion 29, county of Churchill, parish of Ferguson
Subdivisions 45 and 69 of re-subdivisions 30 to 33 of subdivisions 112 to 115 of portion 14, county of Ward, parish of Nerang.
Subdivisions 82 and 83 of re-subdivision 45 of subdivision 117 of portion 14, county of Ward, parish of Nerang.
Charles Henry Dutney inherited the farm. Frederick John Dutney inherited resubdivisions 10, 11a and 15, and when he died in 1913, they passed to his wife Edith. I’m not sure what happened to Lot 56, but John Uprichard owned resubdivision 56 when he died in 1931.
In 1935, a plane on a joy flight from Rosewood, made an emergency landing on a patch of corn in the corner of Charles Dutney jnr’s Ashwell farm. On board were with Miss Enid Freeman (18), Mr. William Yarrow jun. (20) and young Dawn Imrie (8).
The plane, a Genairco Moth, was the property of Constable Appleby and was being flown by pilot Norman Blight. He was conducting the ninth joy flight of the day, and as he began to take off, a portion of the crowd gathered at the Pound Reserve (used as a landing ground) moved towards the plane. This caused Norman to steer a little from his usual path, and one of the wheels of the plane came in contact with a small stump when it was about two feet in the air. The wheel was torn off and the undercarriage broken. The plane however, kept its balance, and Norman Blight decided to find a soft spot to land. After circling the town, he brought the machine down in a patch of tall, green corn. As the machine came in contact with the ground, the nose dipped and the propeller was shattered, causing the tail to rise and the plane turned completely over. The passengers were thrown clear. Thankfully they were all fine apart from some slight abrasions and a degree of shock, which Dr. Robert Wallace attended to.
After spending 66 years on the farm, Charles Henry Dutney, who was born on the farm in 1873, sold it to Walter William Loveday in December 1939.
References:
[1] Queenslander, (Brisbane, Qld,) Thursday 6 December 1934, page 2
[2] Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, (Qld.), Saturday 10 May 1902, page 2
New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896
Cemetery Records, Ipswich Shire
Qld Register Births, Deaths, Marriages
1841, 1851 Census England
Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and and Allegations, 1754-1914
Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1914