Rosewood History

From the Queensland Times Saturday, 25th September 1926, page 7

BREMER VALLEY SETTLEMENT.
THE FIRST SELECTOR OF ROSEVALE.
FORTY YEARS OF RAILWAY PROMISES.
(No. 10.)

The first settlers in the Mount Walker locality, Messrs. James Hockley and Daniel McAuliffe, took up their land from the New South Wales Government, before Queensland obtained separation. Mr. Albert Hinrichsen’s present property is part of this early selection. Opposite to Mr. W. M’Neill’s property was the selection of “Twenty-one O’Sullivan,” whose Christian name was rarely used, and is therefore forgotten by most of the old folk of the district. He was commonly known as “Twenty one” because he had that number of children. His land was also bought from the New South Wales Government. Mr. Martin Laidley soon after this took up some of the choicest patches of land along the Bremer River. One portion of this is now owned by Mr. O’Neill, and another by Mr. Michael Murphy. In 1868 Sergeant Quinn took part of the Mt. Walker settlement. This is now occupied by Mr. William Rice. Within a few years of this, Mr. P. Cannon, the Dooner family, Messrs. James Ahearn and R. Ahearn, F. A. Kingston, Thomas Kingston, Thomas Jenner, Patrick Ahearn, Daniel O’Brien, and Hinrichsen, sen., also settled at Mt. Walker. The first land was alienated from the Franklyn Vale run of the Rosewood sheep station. The surveyor was the late Mr. E. Bostock, and further up the creek, where Messrs. David McLaughlin, Borchert, and W. and E. Collins settled, a Mr. Blake was surveyor. The Land Commissioner of the time was Mr. R. J. Smith.

MANY DISAPPOINTMENTS
Much of the history of Mount Walker and Rosevale has been written in broken promises and disappointments. The residents of the locality were the first to ask for a branch line from the first Queensland railway, and a legion of ministers for railways, premiers, and railway commissioners “from that time forth, even unto the present day” has made a legion of promises. The first agitation was for the line to Warwick to be run from Lanefield along the Bremer Valley the most direct route, and one which, it was contended, would save £100,000 on the route eventually taken. The valley would certainly have been an ideal route, and for the want of a line thousands of acres of some of the richest and best watered, arable country in West Moreton have so far been used for little else than grazing. Through practically the whole of the Valley there is an abundant supply of excellent water at from 30 to 50 feet. No part of West Moreton has stood the drought of this season better, and for some years dry spells have left the valley almost unharmed. Its lucerne flats have made it beautifully green through most of this dry winter, and good cuts have been taken off despite the drought. Rosevale particularly has been the last to feel the drought conditions.

MARCUS FISCHER.
POVERTY TO PROSPERITY.
The most successful farmer of Rosevale, is Mr. R. C. Marcus Fischer. He is 70 years old, a native of Germany, and came to Australia when he was seven years old. He landed at Brisbane with his parents, and then went by boat to Rockhampton, thence to Peak Downs, where he was in 1864 when the bushranger Gardiner was captured there and sentenced to 30 years “chain and block.” These were wild, rough days. The father was out shepherding while the mother and children lived in a bark hut on the Peak Downs. When the rivers were up, the place was inaccessible. After five months they left. The blacks had become bad, and several drovers were killed in the vicinity. The family returned to Rockhampton, and thence went to Ipswich They were about eight months at Sadliers’ Crossing when the Toowoomba railway line was being built. Then they went to Warrill Creek, where they were growing cotton for four years.. Going to Coleyville after this, Mr. Fischer’s father. Mr. Paul Fischer, was the second selector there. In 1875 they came to live at Rosevale they stumped the first six acres of the settlement, and grew a cotton crop. In 1876 the crop yielded about 1200lb. to the acre, and they got 12/6 per cwt. for it.

CATTLE AND KANGAROOS.
“Then there was nothing here, neither white nor black, but cattle and kangaroos,” Mr. Fischer says. The Franklyn Vale station then had a lease running across from Rosevale to Blackfellows’ Creek near Gatton. The track still remains which was used for mustering from Rosevale to Laidley through Edwards’ Gap. On a ride along a postman’s track to Fassifern, Dugandan and Coochin in 1877, all the clearing he saw was in two half-acre patches at King’s Pocket on the Rosevale side of Boonah. Boonah then was not (.?.) Mr. T. Enright was the next selector at Rosevale. He settled just behind the first selection. Mr. Hugh Ahearn was next, and Mr. C. Spann selected on the same day, but did not go to live there until 12 months later. 

Youth then found life a vastly different thing from the life of the youth of to-day. When Mr. Fischer was 12 years old he worked with his father at a big fencing contract at Mount Walker. They split and morticed 4000 posts and 3000 rails at 15/- per 100. When he was 13 he worked for six months as “off-sider” to a bullock driver for two shillings a week and ‘tucker.’ He then had a bed in a barn on a heap of corn, with a bag to put under his head to keep the weevils off. He was afterwards “promoted” to the service of a man named Peacock at the Nine-mile, at 3/ a week. Miss Albertina Wieland, whom he afterwards married, was out at service at 1/2 a week. She considered her sister a plutocrat with a wage of 3/ a week. Mr. Fischer’s first selection was 244 acres which he still holds. He was married in the year that he selected, with £2 in his pocket and nothing in the bank. When his first child was born he had sixpence, and he kept this for four months. 

UNENDING LABOUR.
Heart-breaking toil filled many years. His father lent him his bullocks to plough the first six acres, and exacted a return six weeks work at Coleyville. He laboriously built a cockatoo fence on the boundary of the station. This kept most of the station cattle off, but not the kangaroos, so half the nights as well as all the days, were filled with toll to keep them away. Later, a sapling fence was built, and still later, as the farm be came more prosperous, the fine fencing that now surrounds the paddocks. Between the fencing work and the cultivation, the building of a house had to be done. Mr. Fischer cut and dressed all the timber for the slab hut which was the first home on the selection. To carry him through until his crops were taken off, and to compensate for poor crops and losses from other causes he had to work for other farmers as well as keep his own place in order. To get the £15 for his first instalment on the place he worked at 2/6 and 3/ a day fencing. He rode to Ipswich and paid the £15. He then had sixpence left for himself, and with that paid for a feed for his horse. He then went to the fountain and had a drink of water and went home again. 

WORK BRINGS BETTER DAYS
By much more hard working for other farmers at low pay he was able to buy a few bullocks, and a small plough. He had no scuffler, and had to chip all the land with a hoe. His wife helped him with all the work, and could drive the bullocks as well as he. In 1877 he grew more cotton, but the price, 12/ per cwt., was not enough, and he has grown none since. Dairying and general farming took its place, and by never-ending labour the times were changed. After 12 years, Mr. Fischer bought more land, from Mr. Thomas Kingston, who had settled in 1877. He had been offered the same land 10 years earlier for 25/ an acre, with 90 head of cattle “thrown in,” but he was then unable to buy, and when be did so, paid more than double that price. He has since continued to increase in prosperity, and now has 1200 acres at Rosevale and property in Harrisville. On the Rosevale farm, which is almost completely surrounded by roads, he has nine miles of excellent fencing. The only school education he received was three months at Little Ipswich.

ROSEVALE CREAMERIES.
Thus from his farm near the town ship, Mr. Fischer has seen Rosevale become Rosevale. The first school was opened 42 years ago, Mr. Clarson being the first teacher. Mr. Fischer himself opened the first store. He had a butchers licence for 25 years, selling meat at the farm for 21 years. He later opened a butcher’s shop at Harrisville, and ran this for four years. He also had a wine licence for four years, before the hotel was opened at Rosevale 25 years ago. He opened the store in 1888, near his house. In the early days, before the use of separators on the farms was known, Messrs. Pommer Bros. had a creamery at Rosevale. The separator they installed there was driven by a horse gear. The farmers received 1½d. or 1¾d. a gallon for their milk. Mr. Spann, one of the farmers, started another on his property. An arrangement was made with the Model Dairy, Brisbane, for cream supplies, and a co-operative company was formed to take over Spann’s plant. The farmers used to take the milk there and separate it themselves. This creamery was burned down. uninsured Another was built where the Rosevale store now is, and Mr. Fischer financed the purchase of a new separator. When the use of separators on the farms became general the creamery was closed, and later became the store. Through a difference of opinion, amongst the directors he resigned, and put in his own separator on his farm. In 1902 he lost all but 13 of his 52 cows, and since then he has done no dairying. 

Mr. Fischer was a member of the Mutdapilly Divisional Board for 11 years, and when the Shire Councils were formed was elected to the Normanby Shire Council, of which he was a member for 17 years. He was Chairman in 1909 and 1919. One of the few of his shipmates from Germany now living is Mr. Jacob Born, of Ipswich Mrs. Fischer died about two years ago. Several of the family of seven sons and two daughters are living in various parts of West Moreton.

MR. JAMES ENGLISH.
Mr. James English, of Moorang, in the Bremer Valley, about three miles from Rosevale, said recently that in that part of the district he had not known what drought was. He is now 70 years old, and came to Moorang when he was 22. He was born on the way out from England, when the ship was crossing the line. He attended O’Donnell’s School in Ipswich, leaving when he was 11 years old. Then his father went to Peak Mountain, and was farming at Gammy’s Swamp there for 11 years. When Mr. English took up his land at Moorang he was the first settler there, obtaining the land from the Franklyn Vale Station. Between two and three years afterwards others came, and the whole of the upper portion of the valley was soon taken up. There was no one at what is now Rosevale for a few years after this, and the Rosevale Station of Franklyn Vale remained about five years after he settled. Harrisville, 20 miles away, is the nearest rail-way station. Ipswich is 36 miles distant. Among the settlers who came to the Rosevale district soon after Mr. English were Messrs. Hugh Ahearn, T. Coveney, Marcus Fischer, and Enright.