Rosewood History

From the Queensland Times (Ipswich), Saturday 28 August 1926, page 7

ROSEWOOD DISTRICT.
PIONEERS OF HAIGSLEA AREA.
LIFE STORY OF MR. F. W. LINNING.
TALE OF ENTERPRISE AND ATTAINMENT.
(No 5)

One of the most interesting and most lovable old men of West Moreton is Mr. F. W. Linning, of Haigslea. At 86 he has a clearer mind and a better memory than most men of half the age. His reminiscences, covering 62 years of colonial development and a long, eventful life, make a striking story of adventure and achievement. Ever enterprising and progressive, he has played a big part in the development of the Rosewood district. He is cheerful and kindly, and his energy still surprises much younger men.

Mr. Linning was born in Germany on March 25, 1840. Seeking better prospects and a brighter land, he set sail from Hamburg on May 4. 1864, on the ship La Rochele. On September 6 of the same year the ship came to anchor in Moreton Bay. From the anchorage in the bay the migrants were taken to the infant Brisbane in the old steamer Ipswich.

Despite its shallow draught of 18 inches, the boat was stranded for two hours on a sandbank in the river mouth before the tide rose enough for the “Ipswich” to steam on to the landing place.

There was then no settlement on the northern side of the river. The migrants landed on the southern side, but had to cross to the northern, side to await arrangements for employ ment No bridge had then been built, and the crossing was made in a ferry punt. The ferryman demanded a penny each for the fare, but not half of the 92 immigrants he carried could pay. Only one of them could speak English, and that imperfectly.  The ferryman, threatened that he would throw all the luggage over board if they did not pay, so two of them held him while the rest walked off the ferry with their belongings, and left him cursing. On the voyage the migrants had had poor and scanty rations, and for many weeks had been looking forward to better fare when they landed in Brisbane. At the “Immigration Bureau” across the river, they received their first Australian meals. A side of beef was hung up, and a fire, bread, and water were provided. Each man cut a piece of beef for himself and cooked it at the fire. 

“THERE’S THE GATE. GET OUT.”
The clerk went round amongst the newcomers, allocating jobs to them. Most of the work for which men were wanted was with bullock teams or shepherding, mainly in the back blocks. If they objected, the reply of the employment clerk was: “Well there’s the gate. Get out!” A bullock driving job 200 miles from the city was offered to Mr. Linning but he refused it and “Got Out”. He went to a farmer on the river bank, and was engaged as labourer and cook, at 10/ a week and rations. His farm work was from daybreak until dark, and the cooking was done mainly at night. Objecting to the night cooking, he left, took up a five-acre block of land at Indooroopllly, cleared it, and grew vegetables. The first railway of the State from Ipswich to Toowoomba, was then being built. The seasons were good, and there was a ready sale for all, he could grow. “I thought I was in Heaven then,” he says. When the railway line was finished, the contractor sacked all hands. The money earned by the big construction gangs had been quickly spent most of it with the publicans. The men flocked to Brisbane, where there was no work for them, and the situation became tense. The doors of the banks were closed, and the stoppage of the circulation of money threw many more out of work. Mr. Linning was taking his produce to Ipswich, but could sell nothing. Brisbane was in a ferment; revolution was expected. Then the finding of rich gold at Gympie provided a safety valve. “Everything that had a leg moved off to the Gympie diggings.” Mr. Linning says, in telling the story.

VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS.
The growing of vegetables had be come unprofitable, and digging for gold did not suit him, so he arranged with three men who had a horse and dray to go to Toowoomba in search of work. When they got to Redbank heavy rain fell for three days. They camped under the dray for the time, and started of again when the rain stopped. At Toowoomba the others decided to go further. Mr. Linning stopped there, and was engaged at a boiling-down works where sheep were being killed for their skins and boiled down for fat and, for feeding pigs. His next work at Toowoomba was as a log carrier in the building of a hotel in Russell-street. He then worked on a six-mile fence contract between Westbrook and Pilton, and returned to Toowoomba when he finished it. A brewery was being started in the town, and he was employed on it, receiving £2 a week for one year and £2/10/ a week for the remaining two years he stayed there.
On July 1, 1872, Mr. Linning took up 120 acres of land at Haigslea as a standing scrub homestead selection. On the selection he went through much hardship and years of unending toil. clearing, fencing, planting, and fighting bad seasons. In 1889 he had a very had season. He could see that, for the time being, farming would not pay, and decided to try some thing else on the place. He started with cheese-making. This went well in the winter when the temperature was no more than 70 to 80 degrees, but in the summer he could do no thing without a cool chamber. The result was that all he gained from the venture was experience. He then started bacon curing, but with the same result. 

QUEENSLAND’S SECOND BUTTER FACTORY.
Next, he bought the first cream separator to be used in the district. The machine had a capacity of 60 gallons an hour. He bought up the milk from the farmers around the district, separated it, and made butter for the Brisbane market and for Ipswich and local supplies. His was the second butter factory in Queensland, the first having been opened by a company at Lowood a while before. The chief difficulty against which he had to contend was still the heat of the summers. He found a ready sale for the butter in Brisbane, by carrying it to the iceworks in Ipswich, chilling it there, and sending it on to Brisbane. The business quickly increased, and in the second year he bought a small cool storage plant. He then opened a branch at Glamorgan Vale, and, later, one at Marburg. He soon found the  Brisbane market insufficient for the butter he produced, and opened sales branches at Charleville, Rockhamp ton, Townsville, and Charters Towers. At Glamorgan Vale alone he was re ceiving 1000 gallons of milk a day. When the general use of separators on the farms started he sent carts around the Pine Mountain, Glamorgan Vale, Marburg, Fernvale, Kirkheim, Thagoona, Rosewood, and Walloon districts to collect the cream for his factories. 

CONTINENTAL TOURS.
As the business was getting bigger than his customers could absorb, he had to find a further outlet for the butter. He sent a big consignment on the first boat that ever took Queens land butter to London, and afterwards exported big quantities of bu ter on every boat. In 1901 he went to London to see his agents and to investigate further marketing possibilities. In the six months he was away he visited the scenes of his youth, and saw the graves of his parents in Germany, and travelled over a great part of the Continent. The business still increased steadily, and eight years later he found it necessary to make another trip to Europe. On the first trip he had been alone, his wife, whom he married at the little Indooroopilly farm in 1867, having died about three years previously. He married again in 1903, and in his second trip overseas was accompanied by his wife. In nine months abroad he visited England. Scotland, Holland, France. Germany, Belgium, and Denmark. He was in a railway collision in Central Germany, when six or seven carriages were telescoped, and there was an appalling death and casualty list, but he escaped with only a bump on the back.
While he was abroad his sons, carrying on the business, had installed bigger machinery and had increased the sales and output. The export trade was still carried on, with butter on every available cargo boat. There was only one loss in transit-£1000 worth of butter in the Pericles, which struck a rock and foundered off Fremantle in 1910. The consignment was well insured. The big butter business was continued until the co-operative com panies started, and their competition proved too strong for the privately owned factories throughout the State. The suppliers supported their own co-operative factories, and Mr. Linning’s, with many other private factories, closed down. 

HAIGSLEA DISTRICT PIONEERS.
The Haigslea district was thrown open for selection in 1871 and in 1872. Mr. Linning settled there. The country was all heavy scrub. Mr. Valentine Heid, who is the only other surviving pioneer, was there a little before him. Others among the pioneers were Messrs. C. Ballin, Hanselien, Schubell, Sippel, Althaus, Krebs, Duhs, C. Voss, C. Retschlag, C. Dahm, Pieper, Lamprecht, Klupfel, Henry Tronc, W. Raabe, John Fleischmann, Hertweck, Kruger, John Schaffer, and William Schmidtchen. Mr. Linning and a number of the other pioneers organised the agitation for the buildling of the Haigslea School, and formed the first school committee. At the school jubilee on July 10 Mr. Linning was honured as the only living member of the original school comnmittee.
Mr. F. W. Linning, junr., is carrying on his father’s farm, now about 300 acres. The old man still lives on the farm. Although he retired from business many years ago he still objects to idleness, and “potters about to keep himself amused,” he explains. The land is used for general farming and dair ing and is well equipped and well managed. Sixty cows are being milked by machines. Fodder conservation is considered an essential to the efficient management of the property, and each year about 100 tons of ensilage is stored in a concrete silo 22ft. by 16ft. in diameter. Mr. Linning pays tribute to the assistance he received as a settler and in his business activities from his bank, and from the early firm of Cribb and Foote. “Cribb and Foote and the Bank of Australasia have stood by my side all the time, and have never refused a reasonable request. Cribb and Foote have done more for the district than all the rest of the people together. Without their financial assistance there would have been very little settlement,” he says.