Rosewood History

Queensland Times (Ipswich, Qld.), Friday 29 November 1912, page 6

A WEST MORETON PIONEER.
CR JOHN YATES OF MOUNT WALKER
A RESIDENT OF THIS DISTRICT FOR 70 YEARS. ( By “Red Gum.”)

Cr. John Yates, a well-known resident of the Mount Walker district, who has recently come to dwell in Ipswich, has had an interesting career both in the early days of Ipswich and in the West Moreton district during a course of some 70 odd years. He was born in 1838, in Manchester, where his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Yates (both since deceased), were cotton-workers in that renowned manufacturing city; but, owing to slackness of work there, they determined to emigrate to Australia in 1840, their eldest son—the subject of this sketch—being only two years of age at the time. There was also an elder daughter, who subsequently became the wife of Mr. John Guilfoyle, who was one of the pioneer soft-drink manufacturers in Ipswich, besides being one of the early cotton-growers in the Walloon district, in the sixties. Both are since deceased.

To return, however, to the doings of Mr. and Mrs. William Yates: On leaving England in 1840 their port of destination was Port Jackson, which harbour was reached after six month’s tossing about in a sailing vessel. Subsequent to the arrival of the ship at Sydney, Mr. William Yates accepted an engagement to come to Moreton Bay to work on a sheep-station owned by a Mr. Bell (nothing to do with the Joshua Peter family of that name), which, says Cr. Yates, was situated somewhere near the Old Laidley township. The then new arrivals (or “jim-migrants” as the old hands termed them), accompanied by their son and daughter, came from Sydney to Brisbane in a sailing vessel, reaching Moreton Bay towards the end of the year, 1840. They were conveyed from South Brisbane to Mr. Bell’s station via “Limestone” (for that was the name this city bore 72 years ago).

“My parents,” (from whom, of course, he gained the information), said Cr. Yates, “remained in the Laidley district some nine months, and after a short period of shepherding in the vicinity of Mount Walker, where the blacks were very troublesome, my father removed to ‘The Springs’ (Drayton), and we remained there for about 12 months, when my parents decided to return to Ipswich, the Moreton Bay district having previously been proclaimed a free settlement. My father accepted employment with Mr. Thompson, a brother-in-law of, and who had succeeded, Mr. George Thorn, sen., as superintendent of the Ploughed Station, on the site of the old Ipswich (Grange) racecourse, and who then lived in a cottage situated on what is now Thorn street, near ‘Claremont’ which, however, was built at a later period by the late Mr. John Panton.” “I often,” continued Cr. Yates, “accompanied Mr. Thompson, during his visits to the Ploughed Station, and intimately knew all the old hands employed there (principally in agricultural work).”

Cr. Yates here stated that his father, on leaving the employ of Mr. Thompson, entered the service of the senior Mr. George Thorn, who had built, and was granted a publican’s license by the New South Wales Government for the Queen’s Arms Hotel, erected on the corner of East and Brisbane-streets, the present site of the Queensland National Bank. His father occupied the position of groom at the Queen’s Arms Hotel for some 13 years, during the jolly days of Squatterdom, there having occurred, in the meantime, several changes in the licences—from Mr. George Thorn to a Mr. Young; from the last-named to Mr. J. Burgess, who transferred his license to Mr. John McDonald, whose wife is still with us, hale and hearty, residing at North Ipswich.

At a land sale of Ipswich property, during the forties Cr. Yates’s father purchased an allotment in Nicholas-street for, it is said, £5, subsequently erecting on it a slab cottage, in which the Yates family resided for years. That properly was subsequently purchased by Messrs. Cribb and Foote, being the block situated be-tween Mr. D. Kennedy’s boot shop and Mr. J. A. Berkeley’s fruit establishment. Cr. Yates passed his youthful days in Nicholas-street, and during that period of his life he was associated with several of the veteran residents of this city —particularly Messrs. Hugh Campbell and Samuel Watson.

His early school-days were spent under the regime of a Mr. Jones (who kept a school in East-street, on the site adjoining Messrs. F. S. Cole and Co.’s sale-yards), Daniel McGrath, and E. P. Welsby (the father of Mrs. C. C. Cameron), who kept a school in those days on a site near the present Methodist Church, in Limestone-street. He also attended the school kept by Mr. P. Dwyer in the vicinity of St. Mary’s Church, and for a period was a pupil at St. Paul’s Church day-school during its early existence, when it occupied the site of the present Bank of Australasia at the corner of Brisbane and Nicholas-streets. There was, of course, no roadway there, as now, from Brisbane-street to Lime-stone-street—it was all one green.

He well remembers all the early ministers of the several denominations represented in Ipswich during the latter part of the forties and in the fifties—the Revs. J. Wallace, John Moseley, L. H. Rumsey, M.A., for St. Paul’s Anglican Church), Dr. Nelson (of the Presbyterian Church), and Dean Hanley and W. McGinty (of St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church), as well as all the doctors of between 50 and 60 years ago— namely. Drs. W. McT. Dorsey, P. Nicol, Henry Challinor, F. Lucas, and T. Rowlands. There were no established church buildings, such as now exist, when he was a growing lad.

The old Court-House (then erected on the site of the present post-office), public-houses, and other public buildings were utilised, and he well recollects the services of the Presbyterian Church being held in Ellenborough-street, on the site of the present railway goods-shed. Cr. Yates can recall the time when corn was grown on the land between Mortimer-street and Limestone Hill; also that the blacks generally camped close to the east side of Ipswich. They were very troublesome at times.

His boyhood carried him over the period of the early growth of this city, when the “Red Cow,” in Bell-street, was kept by Black Neal; he also remembers Black Perry keeping an hotel at the corner of Nicholas and Brisbane streets (Greenham’s corner). He well remembers old Mr. Martin Byrne, and spoke of the commotion there was among the Ipswichians on the arrival, in 1846, at the head of navigation, of the pioneer steamer Experiment (Capt. Alymeer Campbell in command), she having been tied up to the bank in the vicinity of what is now the termination of Wharf-street. The river-banks were then well studded with trees and vines. This steamer, stated Cr. Yates, brought the Beverley family to Ipswich from Sydney, as well as Capt. Campbell’s own family, and the two families supplemented the then meagre population of this city.

About this time, he thought, the late Mr. John (“Schemer”) Smith kept a general store in Bell-street, and he (Cr. Yates) is sure that the Queen’s Arms Hotel was then in the occupation of Mr. George Thorn. The butcher in Bell-street, at the corner of Union-street, was one “Hoppy” Dwyer, so called on account of his lameness. He distinctly remembers the advent in Ipswich of the respective families of the McLeans, the Wilkinsons, McAnallens, and others, and he was always on the lest of terms with the late Mr. James Josey, William Vowles, and a host of the early builders of this city.

Other incidents which occurred during his young days, and which made lasting impressions on his mind, were the arrivals here, at different periods of the batches of Dr. Lane’s immigrants, 63 years ago, especially the pioneering efforts of the late Mr. Benjamin Cribb, the founder of the firm of Messrs. Cribb and Foote, as there was only a fence dividing the site where Mr. Cribb ultimately established his premises in Bell-street, and the residence of Cr. Yates’s parents in Nicholas-street. Indeed, Cr. Yates grew with the progress of Ipswich from 1843, to, any rate, 1856, and he was well acquainted with most of the pioneer squatters of the Darling Downs during that time.

As to the early racing days of the old North Australian Jockey Club, he is one of the riders of those days. He piloted a horse named Maniford, owned by the late Mr. John Blaine, on several occasions. Cr. Yates also stated that Mr. Arthur Murphy, a resident of the Basin Pocket, was a contemporary horseman with him during the mid-fifties, and he thought he rode Mr. W. Kent’s Blue Bonnet. Mr. Donald Cameron, who owned a racehorse named Lightfoot, was a fine amateur horseman, and the late Mr. Colin Peacock was also another fine rider. The course was a straight run at that time. Here it might be stated, as regards Cr. Yates’s ability as a horseman, that he, along with another young fellow named ” Jack” Tattan, acted as postillion riders to the team of coach horses used by the late Mr. Thomas Alford in travelling from Drayton to Ipswich and vice-versa, via the old Toowoomba-road.

As to the steamer traffic, Cr. Yates states that, after the initiation of a regular service between Brisbane and Ipswich, the boys of that time were kept very busy in watching their arrival and departures, and stores soon sprang up in various parts of the city adjacent to the river, in the vicinity of which teams were always to be seen waiting either to unload wool or to load goods of every description for the West. These were gay periods for the rising youngsters. Public-houses too, began to appear on the scene. He recalled to memory the time when the site of Hughes and Cameron’s auction room, in Nicholas-street, was occupied by a public-house, owned by Mr. H. Foley (since deceased); also when the late popular Mr. “Charley” Watkins, an alderman, auctioneer, and collector of hospital fame, kept an hotel in Ellenborough-street, on the site of the railway-bridge in that thoroughfare, “which, by-the-bye,” said Cr. Yates, “was long occupied by the ‘Queensland Times’ as a printing establishment.” The Clare Castle Hotel (now the North Australian Hotel, in Nicholas-street), too, was opened by the late Mr. John Clune somewhere about this period, in 1850.

During 1855 Cr. Yates’s father started business on his own account, chiefly connected with the delivery of wood and water to the residents of Ipswich. About this period Mr. Yates accepted employment with the late Mr. Frank North, at Fernie Lawn, where he remained for some years, only visiting his parents in Ipswich occasionally. His father in the meantime entered on the carrying business with horse teams between Ipswich and the Condamine, the title which the Downs country was better known by in those days.

In 1857, however, the career of his father was cut short through an unfortunate accident which occurred at a spot near Rosewood—subsequently known as “Brandy Gully”—on the old Toowoomba-road. The team of which his father was in charge got into difficulties while crossing this dangerous part, the loaded dray was capsized, and a cask of brandy fell on his father’s leg, crushing it terribly; hence the name of “Brandy Gully.” His father was carried to Ipswich to his residence in Nicholas-street, where he died through loss of blood.

Mr. Yates then, for a period, took up the business of carrying in his father’s place between Ipswich and Drayton. He subsequently returned to North Fernie Lawn station, where he remained for several years, eventually leaving there to go to Sydney, New South Wales. Here he entered into horse-dealing for 12 months or so.

Tiring of New South Wales, he came to Queensland, and again started in the carrying business between this city and Drayton; which he continued for about five years, when be took up some 80 acres of forest land at Mount Walker under the Land Act of 1866. About this period he married Miss M. A. Phelp, daughter of the late Mr. Abraham Phelp, one of the early settlers in the Rosewood district. Settling down on the land selected, he purchased an additional 170 acres, and Cr. Yates devoted his attention to farming, including cotton growing. He, later on, bought an adjoining farm from Mr. S. Grimley, as well as other properties.

Cr. Yates has resided in the Mount Walker district for 45 years. During his long residence at “Bremer View”, Mount Walker, Cr. Yates has greatly identified himself with the progress of the Mutdapilly district, and he has at all times done his utmost to further the interests not only of that centre but the welfare of the Rosewood area generally. He has, with the exception of a break during the carrying out of some contract work at the Gladstone wharves (in partnership with the late Mr. Thomas Green), represented the Mutdapilly and Rosewood district as councillor for nearly 32 years.

The Divisional Boards Act was assented to on the 2nd October, 1879, and the Mutdapilly division, when initiated, comprised a population of 1809 people. The first nomination of candidates for the newly-formed Mutdapilly Board took place on the 18th February, 1880, the result being that the following were gazetted as councillors :—Subdivision No. 1: John Moore, E. J. Sealy, and J. Pampling; subdivision No. 2: P. O’Sullivan, E. Pender, and J. P. Jost; and subdivision No. 3; John Yates, R. McLaughlin, and P. R. Ricardo, who was then managing Franklyn Vale station; auditors. Messrs. Thomas O’Sullivan and E. Quinn.

The first meeting of the board, presided over by Mr. P. O’Sullivan, was held at the North Star Hotel, on the 27th February, for the purpose of electing a chairman, to which Cr. (subsequently widely known as Colonel) P. R. Ricardo was unanimously elected. Since then Cr. Yates has filled the position of chairman to the Mutdapilly Divisional Board on three or four occasions, and when, in 1906, Mutdapilly and Rosewood were amalgamated, he was gazetted a councillor for No. 3 division of the Rosewood Council, of which he was elected chairman, in 1910. He is still a councillor, but since the lamented death of his wife he has disposed of his property at Mount Walker and come to reside in Ipswich with his son-in-law (Mr. J. Perrett) in the East Ward. All of his children are grown up.

Cr. Yates has one sister alive—Mrs. Alexander McCallum, of Linville. Altogether, he think he deserves a well-earned rest in the city which he has witnessed grow from very few houses to its present dimensions.