Rosewood History

From the Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld), Saturday 14 January 1905, page 32

OUR AGRICULTURAL CENTRES.
MOUNT WALKER AND ROSEVALE.
A BIG DAIRYING DISTRICT.
By J.C.M.

Mount Walker and Rosevale are situate between Rosewood and Harrisville, and though by no means the largest, both arc important centres of dairying activity; in fact, when one speaks of other terms of agricultural employment, one goes back to a period when dairying was young in the State. They originally formed part of the Franklyn Vale run, the property of Messrs. Mort and Son of Sydney, and were resumed by the Government early in the seventies. The country may be described as forest country, not heavily timbered, with occasional patches of scrub on the Bremer, and more adapted for grazing than agriculture. The Rosevale Plains and the river flats, however, contain some fair land, but the area is limited, and coupled with the distance from the railways will always prevent agricultural development upon anything like a large scale. The soil is mostly clay in the arable portions; in fact, fully two-thirds of the arable lands are clay and heavy loams. On the ridges they are thinner and totally unworkable for green crops under our climate. That kind of soil hardens into a brick-like substance during our periods of occasional drought. The lighter lands are comprised in small, narrow strips along the Bremer River, but relatively are less adapted for agriculture than our rich scrub lands. 

The year 1872 witnessed the first settlement. when the land passed from the occupation of one firm to many hands, and it speaks well for the Mort family that during the whole of these years the most amicable relations have existed between them and the farmers. The original selectors are men well known in West Moreton, and prominent among them are: Mr. P. Ahearn, William and Edward Collins, W. Borchert, Hugh Ahearn, and Dan O’Brien. These all remain, and are large landowners, and during the intervening years they have not only married and brought up families, but have risen, to positions of comfort-in some cases independence. The individuality of these pioneers is impressed on the industries of the district. 

There is pathos in the struggles of the early days-men in the pride of early manhood making homes in the wilderness and carving out their future in sweat, toil, and in some cases poverty. Of such men Queensland is worthy. More than once during the winter nights have the writer and the genial Paddy Ahearn sat by the fire with our pipes when he spoke of he and others leaving their selections every year for the shearing, and then back again to their holding. The cheques thus made kept things going. That Paddy now sits behind 2000 acres and the largest diary herd in West Moreton comes as the reward of early struggles, and his is only a typical case of the selectors of the district. The memories of the first twenty years of occupation are those of a long, bitter, and continuous series of hardships, men tempting fortune, and fighting fate. Thousands would have put up “Matilda,” and left for parts unknown! Not so these men; their names still stand registered for their holdings in the archives of the Lands Office; they put down their anchor in hope, and the stamina characteristic of our early settlers has pulled them through. 

For two decades farming and grazing on a small scale were the occupations of the people, the industrious housewife adding a few shillings by eggs, poultry, and butter, which were sold in Ipswich. The system of exchange was barter-produce for rations-coin of the realm being generally an unknown quantity. The storekeeper was king, and his sway was only disputed by the hawker, who generally added for an inferior article 25 per cent upon cost price. The bacon (home-cured) of the farmer, when not sold elsewhere, was disposed of at the door, and at a price which make men of a later day stand aghast, fowls at less than 6d. per pair, bacon at 2d. per lb. and the price of all lines of produce on the same scale offered little inducement to go on and remain on the land. The lot of the selector was not a happy one. And thus things went on at Mount Walker and Rosevale for nearly a quarter of a century, fighting poverty, struggling against adverse seasons, hoping against hope, yet holding on, knocked down but still fighting, working, pinching, planning, but never defeated. The later men on the land are built of other material; only the men of the stamina of those who laid the foundations of our producing interests would fight so good a fight and land themselves in positions of affluence, as have done the men of whom we are writing. 

But the change came in 1896. It was the dawn of an era of prosperity, the uplifting of a district, and the passing away of the old order of things, the bringing about a transformation as though old things had become new. Dairying today is the dominant industry; little or no produce is grown for market, and the selector who years ago craved for time or rations now occupies the commending position and is master of the situation. Nine years ago the travelling dairy in charge of Mr. John Mahon spent twenty days in the district, and dating from that year everything has been on the up grade. The change is a revolution in the industries of the people and John Mahon is remembered with respect and appreciation. 

At this period the farmers were ignorant of the fundamental principles of dairy farming, and were so much employed in eking out a crust that dairying on scientific lines came to them as a revelation? And dairying as an art, and introduced into the common life of the people, has brought about the transition in the social and industrial status of the district, which never fails in striking the passing stranger favourably. Mount Walker and Rosevale under a regime of agriculture was a chase for a crust, but under dairying it is prosperity, contentment, and wealth. 

The change in the character of the herds shows that the people are up-to-date, and this may be regarded as a hopeful sign. In all the leading herds you won’t find a “scrub.” The Hereford and the Devon have place in some herds, as, for example, that of Mr. P. Ahearn, and in all one finds specimens of the best milking breeds. The dairymen here are enthusiasts in their business, and why should they not be ? They talk cows, their ideas seem to circle around butterfat, tests in cream, and the best milking strain. Even politics and change of Government give place to the relative value of Herefords, Jerseys, and Shorthorns. 

The holdings of the selectors are large, and in no place in the State has dairying so superseded every other kind of employment. 

There are two factories in the district-the Lamington cheese factory (A. Sealy) and the Farmers’ Co-operative Creamery Company-and both are situate at Rosevale. The chairman of the Creamery Company (Mr. Hugh Ahearn) is known as the father of co-operation.” The private separator is largely in evidence, and in five places milk is treated by steam. Six cream waggons, representing the principal factories, run regularly to Rosewood and Harrisville; and there is talk of a local butter factory. 

The writer was asked some days ago his opinion of the social status of the people, and he replied: “If buggies, sulkies, pianos, and well-furnished houses are signs of poverty, then the dairymen of Mount Walker and Rosevale are the poorest men in Queensland.”