Rosewood History

From the Queensland Times Saturday, 2nd October 1926, page 7

THE BREMER VALLEY.
ROSEVALE AND MOUNT WALKER.
TRANSPORT DIFFICULTIES RETARD PROGRESS.
A PIONEER’S IRRIGATION SUGGESTIONS.
(No. 11)

Mr. Hugh Ahearn, of Rosevale, has been one of the leaders in 40 years of agitation for a Bremer Valley railway. He was born in Tipperary, Ireland, 74 years ago. He came to Australia with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Ahearn, in 1863, landing in Brisbane. They lived for a few years in Ipswich suburbs. His father and the father of Mr. Edward Collins, of Mount Walker, then went to Walloon, at the Five-Mile, where they had bought land, and grew cotton for about nine years. When Mr. Ahearn sen., selected land on the lower Bremer near Mount Walker, where the family of another son, the late Mr. P. Ahearn, now lives. After being there for a few years, Mr. Ahearn went to the western districts shearing, and worked in almost all the sheds on the Downs. He was shearing near Charleville when the terminus of the western line was Dalby. This was in 1870, shortly after the Franco-German War. He stayed in the West shearing and cattle droving for a time. He then worked on the construction of the Charleville-Tambo telegraph line, for which Messrs. McGlynn Brothers, of Towoomba, were contractors. He then came back to the Bremer Valley, and selected 500 acres tunder the 1876 Land Act: This was in 1877, a heavy drought year.

“That Act was the best and the most liberal Land Act Queensland has had, before or since,” Mr. Ahearn says. “Under it the settler was given adequate scope, and he got the land cheaply. Other Acts imposed such cast-iron restrictions that the settler could do nothing worthwhile. It was then a squatting Government which knew the land conditions, and it passed better land laws because of this knowledge than any other Government has ever done. Sir Arthur Macalister was then Premier and Mr. John Douglas was Minister for Lands. 

FRANKLYN VALE CATTLE.
At that time the Bremer had very few settlers. Most of the valley was in the Franklyn Vale cattle station owned by Messrs. Henry Mort and Sons. The main camp was at Rosevale. In those days, before the timber was cleared and the roads were made, the shorthorn cattle of the run, some of the best in Queensland, grew fat quickly on the succulent grasses of Rosevale’s rich flats. There were great stockmen in the valley then, among them “Yellow Dick” Wilson, father of a present Harrisville plumber. Since the cattle and the stock men have gone, the valley, often filled with the rifle fire of stockwhips, echoing between the great hills beside it, has been strangely silent for the “old hands. Forty years ago the settlers came and the valley was found to be even better for cultivation than for cattle. Water was found everywhere at 30 to 50 feet, and the Bremer and side creeks gave a surface supply. The soil “would grow anything,” and grow it well, producing fresh cuts of lucerne with amazing rapidity, and giving remarkable yields of potatoes and maize. All this delighted the settlers. They wanted nothing more than a railway to carry their produce to the markets, for they were too far away to cart it to the nearest railwlay station, Rosewood, with any profit. They still want a railway. On account of this need, dairying largely took the place of agriculture. Lucerne, maize, and potatoes are the most successful products of the Rosevale locality. In good seasons some farmers cut a ton of lucerne per acre per month.

Mr. Ahearn has grown 80 bushels of maize to the acre. Even this year he took off 40 bushels an acre, and he frequently has crops of more than 60 bushels. Six to seven tons of potatoes to the acre have also been produced on his farm. A big area of land suitable for such production is now being practically wasted. Reasonable transport facilities would encourage agricultural development in the valley. There now seems little hope of a railway, although the agitation has not yet been dropped altogether. “Government Ministers and officials now and then for 40 years have come to make inspections and to attend receptions. and they have drunk our whisky and made promises many times, but they have done nothing for us,” Mr. Ahearn says.

IRRIGATION POSSIBILITIES
Mr. Ahearn points to tremendous possibilities for irrigation development on the Bremer. At present only a few very small patches of land are irrigated. A few thousands of pounds, he says, would build a dam across the Rosevale gorge, where the stream runs between two hills very close to gether. The whole valley could be irrigated from this, he believes. Another irrigation scheme appearing to offer great possibilities would be the damming of Boyd’s Creek at Mount Edward, which would cost very little and provide enormous storage. The settlers of Rosevale have contended with the same great difficulties that were met by all the pioneers. Amongst the worst of these was low prices. Mr. Ahearn has sold magnificent potatoes at half a crown a ton. Despite the hard and continuous work needed for success in pioneer farming, he has taken a prominent part in work for the general good of the community. At well as his service in the railway movement, he was a member of the Mudtapilly Divisional Board for some years, and afterwards was three years on the Normanby Shire Council. For years he rode to Ipswich, 30 miles, to the shire office to attend these meetings. He was married a second time in 1885, his first wife having died five years previously, and has five sons and four daughters. most of whom are in the West Moreton district. Three of the sons are on the home farm. His second son, Hugh, was killed at Pozieres.

THE FIRST SETTLERS.
A typical one of the sons of the pioneers is Mr. James Kelly, of Rosevale, who was born in Ipswich 58 years ago, and went with his parents to Rosevale in 1876. Mr. Kelly remembers much of the history of the district, from the time when his father, the late Mr. Michael Kelly, selected land below the Rosevale school. Messrs. T. and B. Coveney, J. and P. Hogan, W. Coyne, Borchert , E. Collins, and McLaughlin were there before them. Mr. Phil. Milerick selected where Messrs. Sellars and Beckmann now live. On the other side of the creek, the first settlers included Mesers. Marcus Fischer, Hugh Ahearn, Schmidt, John Sellars, T. Lawrence, P. Hoare, and J. Rose, and further up the creek Messrs. M. Nugent, J. Reddy, sen., and J. Reddy. Jun., J. English, sen. and jun., Spann Brothers, Kerwitz, Thomas Enright, M. Dwyer and Humberdross. Later Messrs. Christensen, Hinrichsen, J. and P. Jensen, and Sorensen, all Danes, joined the settlement. Others who purchased land soon after this were Messrs. W. Zahnow, C. Walton, M. Kinnane, John O’Reilly, John Ryan, F. Primus and Schoenfisch. He remembers the early days, when the produce of the settlement, mainly maize and potatoes, was carted right to Ipswich. In all his experience of the district he has seen it standing well out above other localities for production and drought resistance. Practically everywhere on the plains there is water at about 20 feet. The flow of the Bremer River, which d-pends largely on springs, is as good as, or a little better than it was 40 to 50 years ago. In drought years the lucerne on the flats grows as well as in other years because of the abundant underground water supplies at little depth.

Although the whole valley is wonderfully prolific, much of the country is only half used or is not used at all, on account of the lack of transport facilities. For many years the people have been wanting the railway, but now they are more eager to get a good road, so that the motor truck may be given a chance to solve the farm transport problem. Bad roads over the flats have always been a big drawback to the Bremer Valley.

Mr. Kelly has been farming successfully for many years, mainly with dairying and cattle, on a property of 210 acres above the township. He was on the Mutdapilly Divisional Board for three years, and when its area was divided into the Rosewood and Normanby Shire he became a member of the Normanby Shire Council for three years.

An old Englishman at Mount Walker, Mr. John Sellars, first visited at Rosevale in 1876, after having spent five years in New Zealand. He emigrated to New Zealand from the County of Oxford, where he was a policeman in 1870. At first he was at work on the construction of the main Southern Railway, running from Invercargill and later on a big Government reclamation work in the Bay of Dunedin where, a strip of land about two miles long and a quarter of a mile wide was reclaimed from waterside swamps to give better water front age and provide land for Government buildings. Much of the main portion of the city is built on this and adjoining land.

For the last two years of his stay in New Zealand, Mr. Sellars was managing an estate for a man named Cotton. He left late in 1875, to join his brother in Queensland. Early in the following year they both took up land at Rosevale. He stayed there for seven years, doing contract work most of that time, and then leased land at Mt. Walker from Mr. James Hockley, sen. He then lived where Mr. T. Jenner’s home is now. When he was there his first wife died, in 1890. Afterwards he married again, and went to live at his present house, where he has been for 25 years.

Great changes have been made in Mount Walker since Mr. Sellars first saw it. It was then mostly part of Franklyn Vale run. Messrs. Cribb and Kingston bought a big area of the best land from Franklyn Vale and sold it to farmers. It was then nearly all fairly open forest country with a quantity of good building timber on it. He remembers well the annual visitations of blacks when he was at Rosevale. On May 24 of each year they came down in hundreds from the back country to go to Ipswich for the Government issue of blankets. Mr. Sellars has reared 14 children 11 of whom, six sons and five daughters, are living.

MR. M. I. MURPHY.
One of the best known residents of Mount Walker is Mr. M. I. Murphy, of the Post Office. He was born in Ireland 70 years ago, and was married before he came to Australia in 1876. He first worked at Wivenhoe Pocket for Mr. D. Shine for 13 years, and then for Mr. John Roulston in the same district. Afterwards he took a small place of his own at Mount Brisbane, and 29 years ago sold this and went to Mount Walker, where he had bought his present property from Mr. H. Cribb. He began with general farming and dairying. Efforts had been made to get a post office for the residents of Mount Walker, and a year after Mr. Murphy settled there representations by Mr. Cribb were successful, and the post office was opened at his house, where it has remained since. About two years ago Mount Walker was linked to the telephone service, and the exchange was opened at the post office. 

Mr. Murphy has gone through good and hard times in farming. In the 1902 drought he lost all his stock, including 100 head of cattle, and started again with six cows, In one year he was taking £72 a month from 80 cows. Eleven of his children are in various parts of the West Moreton district. The post office handles a daily mail service. The whole of the valley has this advange over many parts of the West Moreton.