Rosewood History

From the Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 26 June 1880, page 808

ROSEWOOD, June 24
In a former communication I furnished you with a brief sketch of the rapid progress of settlement in the Rosewood Scrub. Allow me on this occasion to give you a short account of the township which is rapidly rising up around the railway station at the gate, and is, like that immortalised by Goldsmith.

The loveliest village of the plain,
Where health and plenty cheer the laboring swain. 

The buildings hitherto erected are of a superior description, solid, substantial, and well built. We can boast of two respectable hotels – the Rosewood, kept by Mr. Walter Gosling, on the northern or scrub side of the railway; and the Rising Sun, kept by Mr. B. Sloane, on the opposite, or southern, side of the line. We have two blacksmiths, two butchers, two general stores, a post office and telegraph office; a State school, with an average attendance of about ninety children, under the charge of Mr. F. W. Johns and two pupil teachers, and last, though not least, the railway station. 

We have two constables and a lockup, where larrikins and loafers will get free lodgings for a night or two if they require it; but I am glad to be able to say that it is seldom occupied by any resident of the district. Finally, there is a Government savings bank for those who have money to spare, which is not often the case in these dull times. 

The area of land under crop in the Rosewood Scrub has been variously estimated at 3000 to 5000 acres; but, whatever may have been the quantity under cultivation, it is a fact that 22,000 bags of maize were forwarded from the Rosewood railway station in the year 1879. I have not been able to ascertain the exact quantity forwarded from Walloon or Western Creek during the same period, but I may safely assume that it was about half the quantity that went from the Rosewood Gate; and, allowing 6000 or thereabouts to be carried into Ipswich direct by the farmer’s waggons, it will give nearly 40,000 bags as the total saleable produce of the crop, and calculating four bushels of maize to each bag, it would give a grand total of about 160,000 bushels of maize as the yield of the Rosewood Scrub in the year 1879. Although maize is our staple product, yet we can supply a little of other kinds; for instance, the weight of eggs, poultry, butter, &c, forwarded from the Gate to Ipswich and Brisbane in 1879 was something over 100 tons, or an average of about 2 tons per week. Not so bad from a district that produced nothing but wallabies and turkeys a dozen years ago. 

The maize is coming to market freely enough at present, though the price is very low. Many farmers are holding back their corn in expectation of a rise in price, for it is known that there is a short crop in the Rosewood Scrub this year, and I suppose it is the same in other places. The frost was very severe on Monday and Tuesday nights, with ice nearly a quarter of an inch in thickness. 

The new time-table that came into operation on Monday, 21st instant, will be an improvement for travellers going to Brisbane, for now they can go to Brisbane and return the same day; but for those who have business to transact in Ipswich it will give too much time, as the first train arrives in Ipswich about 11 a.m. and does not depart for the West until after 5 o’clock; therefore it is nearly dark by the time it arrives at Rosewood. A goods train arrives here from Brisbane every day at 3.5 p.m., and if a carriage were attached to it from Ipswich to Gatton it would prove a very great convenience to travellers from the country, as it would enable them to get home before dark.