Rosewood History

Queensland Times (Ipswich, Qld), Saturday 13 November 1926, page 7

TOOWOOMBA ROAD MEMORIES.

A few who remember can spin great tales of the old Toowoomba road. Mr. Alexander B. Collingwood, of Calvert, is one of them. He is now 75 years old. He was born at Bonshaw Station, near Goondiwindi, where his father was head stockman. His boyhood was spent in the bush, far away from any schools, and he never saw the inside of a school building until 15 years ago, when he was elected to the Calvert School Committee. His most vivid memories of Goondiwindi days are of the blacks, who were very numerous. and rather dangerous at the time. When he was still a youngster, his parents came to Calvert, and built a bark-roofed humpy, not far from the site of his store today. The country was then all virgin bush, except for a small paddock near the hut and the clearing of the narrow Toowoomba roadway. Sally Owens’ hotel, a little towards Ipswich, was the: only other habitation. It was built of slab and bark. There were wild days along the main road then.

WET WEATHER AMUSEMENT.
In wet weather, when the track was too bad for travelling there was nothing to do but to drink, and epic fights were the inevitable result. Two bullockies, Pat Hill and “Red Tom.” fought for hours one day, sitting down together now and then for a spell, and then going at it again, A favourite camping place of the carriers was the Seven-Mile Creek and many a tale is told of the doings there by the highway. Once, Mr. Collingwood says, heavy rain fell day after day and the encampment of drovers drew lots to decide who should go for a two-gallon keg of rum. The lot fell to a tall man known as “Yorky.” He set off in pouring rain, and about three hours later returned with the rum. The rain had not abated all day, and the creek had risen so much that “Yorky,” who Could not swim, was cut off from the camp, with the rum. This was too much for the thirsty carriers. They took a rope from a waggon, and threw an end across to the man with the keg. He fastened it around his waist, and clung to the rum keg with both arms. The current swept him from his feet, and the rope slipped down round his legs, but he held to the rum manfully, although it kept his head under water most of the time. Thus he was dragged across, feet first.

BEFORE THE ONE-MILE BRIDGE.
These things happened before there was any bridge across the One-Mile Creek, and Mr. Collingwood remembers watching the building of that bridge. Another hotel was built in the place of Sally Owens’ by a man named McEwan (McKeon). When the railway was opened through to Toowoomba, the road traffic soon ended, and, with others along the route, the hotel closed. Mr. Collingwood cut the first track through the Rosewood Scrub to Marburg, from the head of Thagoona Creek. He had selected land at Marburg, where Mr. T. Smith afterwards settled, and took implements through to it in a bullock waggon. He tried to grow cotton there, but as fast as the cotton came up the wallabies ate it off. He sold the place, and returned to droving. In 1887 he married Miss Eleanor Power. After farming and droving for many years he opened a store at Calvert 15 years ago, and has been there ever since.