Rosewood History

From the Queensland Times Wednesday, 28th July 1926, page 10

ROSEWOOD TODAY
OTHER PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
STORMY HISTORY OF SHIRE COUNCIL.
EARLY TOOWOOMBA ROAD SETTLEMENTS.
(No. 2.)

Rosewood is the natural centre for the Shire of Rosewood, which has its offices in the town. Few shire councils in the State have such a stormy history, although now all signs of the old turmoil are dead. At first, the shire was portion of the Walloon division. When the divisional boards were replaced by shire councils, Mutdapilly and Rosewood Shires were formed. The Mutdapilly meetings at first were held at Mount Walker, and the Rosewood at Rosewood itself. Later, the Mutdapilly Council moved to Rosewood where it had offices opposite to the State school. The Government decided to amalgamate the shires, whereupon there were many violent disputes as to the name of the composite shire, the office it should use, and the officers that should be retained. The reports of the meetings of the two councils, and afterwards of the combined council, were for many months read as eagerly as news of a murder. Councillors were called lunatics by fellow-councillors, who retorted by calling them champion liars-in one case “as bad as Tom Pepper, who was kicked out of hell for telling lies.” The quarrellings in the meetings were continued outside. One councillor, invited to “step down from his buggy,” did so, to some effect. A newly elected member, pleading for peace, said that instead of attending to road making the council had been bickering and quarrelling. This had led up to unseemly fights in the street, and it was reported that even a justice of the peace had been seen wallowing in his own blood in the street. A by-election soon after the election of the first combined council, in 1906, led to more disturbances. Inquiries made into the election and the rolls resulted in the Home Secretary declaring the election invalid, and appointing a new council, retaining only two of the original members. A new clerk was appointed, but the old one refused to give up the keys. Police and a lorry were brought from Ipswich by the Chairman and other councillors and the office was broken into.  The safe and books were loaded on the lorry and taken to Ipswich, and the office door lock was removed and a new one was fitted and locked. A safe breaker was brought to open the safe, but all the skeleton keys he had or could make would not open it. He therefore, chiselled the lock out, and a new one was fitted. The meetings were held in Ipswich for several months after this, until the storm had lulled. High feeling lasted for a long time, and many fights, verbal and otherwise, occurred. Several Supreme Court actions were involved. 

The population of the shire is now about 5600, on an area of 245 square miles. It has 1139 miles of roads, only 85 miles of which are metalled. The total rates in two divisions are 5½d. in the pound, and in the other divisions 4½d. Last year, £4000 was spent on main roads work, and this year a £5000 section of construction work is being done on the Ipswich -Toowoomba-road, under Commonwealth assistance. Two bridges are also to be built shortly, at Hopkins’ Crossing, near Lanefleld, over the Western Creek, and over the Bremer, at Moorlands. The cost of these will he approximately £3000. The shire revenue is now about £7000, exclusive of loan money. The Chairman is Mr. H. Dutney, and the Clerk Mr. L. J. Lucas.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
An institution which has done much in the development of the town, but has not held a meeting recently is the Rosewood Chamber of Commerce. The chamber was started 20 years ago, and throughout its life has actively interested itself in the progress of the town in every possible way. Many improvements in railway facilities, in the roads of the district, the postal service, and the school have been the results of its agitations. Through its activities Rosewood was given a continuous telephone service. Interest in the development of the district and the town has been inspired by the association, and indirectly several ether public bodies have derived considerable benefit from this interest. Its last big movement was for the installation of electric light in the town. This was carried, by means of a public meeting, to the Shire Council, which decided to send out notices for a referendum, several months ago. Nothing further has yet been done. The President of the Chamber of Commerce is Mr. W. E. Thomas, and, the Secretary, Mr. H. Capern. 

SCHOOL OF ARTS.
The Rosewood School of Arts has a library of about 1700 volumes, kept up to date by frequent additions of new books, chiefly fiction, but with a few general works. The institution, which is about 15 years old, was started largely, through the work of its first President, Mr. A. McLean. The President is now Mr. C. E. McDonald. Miss D. Allen, the Secretary, attends the library on Tuesday and Friday nights for the changing of books. With the stronger public support which it deserves, the School of Arts could be made a such more effective institution. 

COUNTRY WOMEN.
Although it is only in its second year, the district branch of the Country Women’s Association has a membership of over 100. It has attained its aim of developing a pleasant social spirit among the women of the district. Two months after the branch was formed, a rest room was opened in the main street, and was furnished by the members. Quietly, a considerable amount of charitable work has been done, and the School of Arts and other deserving institutions have been helped. In its endeavours to make home life more pleasant, the association aims at stimulating an interest in gardening, and has conducted a very successful flower show. The Bush Book Club has been assisted by the country and town members. The officers of the branch are-President, Mrs. H. M. Stevens (Lanefleld); Vice-Presidents, Mesdames Evans, D. Morgan (School), and W. Cooper (Marburg); Secretary, Miss J. Pender; Treasurer, Mrs. McGuckin.

THE EARLY DAYS.
A PIONEER’S MEMORIES.
One of the oldest residents of the  Rosewood locality is Mr. John Henry Jacobs, who has lived close to and in the town since his infancy. His wife, formerly Miss Caroline Dutney, was born at Keane’s Lagoon, near the town. Mr. Jacobs, who is 73 years of age, was born in England, and was brought to Australia by his parents, the late Mr. and Mrs Henry Jacobs when he was about 12 months old. They landed in Sydney, and, after a few weeks there, came on to Brisbane, and then to Ipswich as the father had a brother in the district, at Franklyn Vale. The bullock waggon which formed the regular Ipswich – Franklyn Vale transport service ran once a fortnight, and they had missed it by a day or two. They did not want to wait for the next trip, and decided to walk. They carried the baby in turns, and his older sister walked beside them. A few miles out of the town, in a lonely part of the bush, they quickly regretted their decision. Two big old men kangaroos hopped out on the bullock track a few chains ahead of them, and terrified the travellers. “Clearly they be not blacks, but they appear dangerous,” said the father, finding two stout sticks in the bush. “If they should tackle us, you whack into them with this stick, and I’ll do my best with this other one.” They pushed bravely on,  Mr. Jacobs in the van, and the enemy, which had previously not seen them, hopped off in as great a scare as the newcomers had had. When they arrived at Franklyn Vale, and Mr. Jacobs was talking to his brother, whom he had not seen for many years, he heard two kookaburras laughing uproariously. “What be that?” he cried in alarm, “Jackasses,” his brother replied. “They are up in that tree, but you can’t see them for the leaves.” “Well, I’ll be jiggered if ever I saw an ass at home that could get up a tree or make a noise like that,” he said incredulously. 

The family settled at Rosebank, afterwards called Keane’s Lagoon, on the “half-a-crown an acre” system, and began dairying. Mr Jacobs had had much experience in England, particularly at cheese making, and soon built up a big business at Rosebank. His cheeses were exhibited all over Queensland, and even at shows in the southern States, winning practically everywhere. His most formidable competitor was Mr. Hockley, another Rosewood district dairyman, with whom he generally divided honours in the bigger shows. He soon had a number of men working on the dairy. Among these were parents  and grandparents of present residents of the district. The blacks were very numerous in those days and had big camping places in many parts of the West Moreton district. Some of the tribes were considered dangerous. 

The earliest incident Mr. Jacobs remembers is that of a night when his father was away from home, and his mother was sitting beside the fire sewing. He and his older sister were playing on the floor when a light at the door caught his eye. A fierce looking black, stark naked, and flourishing a fire-stick and a stone tomahawk, had silently opened the door, and was entering the room, a frightful picture in the ruddy light of the fire-stick. Mrs Jacobs screamed, and one of the men from the dairy came running with a gun. Seeing the black fellow, he fired two shots. The black ran off, yelling. At dawn two of the men went armed to the blacks’ camp near the farm, but found it deserted, and the ashes of its fires still warm. 

WALK TO IPSWICH.
With a childish curiosity to see the silver spade which was to be presented to Lady Bowen, wife of the Governor of the day, Jacobs, aged 10 walked 12 miles into Ipswich to the ceremony of the  turning of the first sod of the Queensland railway system, by Lady Bowen, on February 25, 1864. The youngsters squeezed through the crowd, treading on many toes and adroitly turning to their advantage every movement of the forest of legs until they reached the front, where they had an excellent view of the whole of the proceedings, and the silver spade. Satisfied with the day’s excitement, and realising very little of its significance, the young colonists walked home again. A little later, Mr. Jacobs was present at the opening of the first section of the line, at Bigge’s Camp (Grandchester). He lived with his father until he was about 19 years old, and then went west with cattle for Mr. C. H. Gibbs,. father of Mr. H. V. Gibbs, solicitor, of Ipswich. After this trip he went to the west again with Mr. Gibbs, finding their way through the untravelled bush by quadrant. Dalby was then the terminus of the railway line, and he was for a time carrying provisions to the out-back stations in a big part of the western and southwestern areas, and taking wool back to the rail head. After three and a half years at this work, and with stock and horse-breaking, he returned to the Rosewood district, and In 1882 was married to Miss Dutney. He then went to live at Rosewood itself. Rosewood then was scrub, mainly brigalow and magnificent rosewood, from which it got its name.

WALLABIES AND WILD CATTLE.
Mr. Jacobs remembers wallabies and wild cattle as the only inhabitants of Rosewood, in the days before the railway line was built. He recalls the construction of the Toowoomba-road, anal states that the impression that this work was done by convict labour was incorrect. He knew of only eight convicts in the road gangs which were supervised by a man named Watts. These men were on parole, and were receiving the same pay and working under the same conditions as the other men of the gangs. When the road was being built, colonial fever swept through the construction camp, and many of the men died. Seven men and a young woman were taken from the camps near Rosewood, and their comrades of the construction gangs were given permission by Mr. Jacobs’ father to bury them on on Island on Rosebank, below Keane’s Lagoon. The men were buried in slab coffins, and two young men of the camp walked to Ipswich for a better coffin for the girl, and carried it back, 12 miles on their shoulders. The graves were fenced and marked but a bush fire came years afterwards, burned the fence, and the growth of bushes and grass in more than 50 years have hidden all traces of the graves. Mr. Jacobs alone of living men knows where the graves are. 

Before the railway, when the track to Toowoomba was always busy with bullock teams carting timber and wool and maize to the river steamers at Ipswich and provisions to the settlers in the far-back bush, the Inns at the Seven-Mile and near the site of Rosewood did a busy trade. At the Seven-Mile there was a community of carriers and small settlers, Messrs. Alexander Grant, T. Donaldson, K. Welsh, George Williams, William Barrow, Thomas Head, W. Parrish, and F. Moore. Mr. Moore opened the first hotel on the road, at the Seven-Mile, and hung over its door the sign of “The White Lion.” “The Rising Sun,” near Rosewood, was opened by a man named O’Brien. Both hostelries are long gone. “The Rising Sun” became a residence, and then a school, and finally was burned down. Its name was taken by a later hotel in Rosewood, Sloane’s Hotel, which is more than 50 years old. In the days of “The Rising Sun” the only settlers on the Bremer near Rosewood were “Twenty-one” Sullivan (whose Christian name is not remembered as well as the name the settlers gave him because of the number of children he had), P. Allam and Dan McAuliffe. 

EARLY SETTLEMENT.
Messrs. William Matthews and John Vance selected a great part of the township of Rosewood, then all scrub, the dividing line between their properties being approximately the present John-street. Mr. Vance in those days kept the railway gatehouse. Other gatehouse keepers before the station was opened and Mr. Black was appointed as station master were Messrs. Mathews and John Farrell, father of Mrs. B. Sloane. Settlement spread quickly, and the scrub was cleared, enormous quantities of beautiful timber being burned. The production of the district was assuming fair proportions. In 1877, when the Farmers’ Club, which preceded the Agricultural and, Horticultural Association, was formed. The station was built soon afterwards. Within 20 years Rosewood had become a progressive township, which was quickly growing. Maize growing, dairying, and cotton growing developed most, and the first co-operative butter factory in Queensland was established in the district at Lanefield. Rosewood was for years loading more maize than any station on the line. Mr. Jacobs has seen 25 trucks of pumpkins loaded at Rosewood in one day. On such production the town was built. Mrs. Jacobs remembers school picnics in the Rosewood scrub when the children had to pull aside the scrub vines to walk along a track in John-street. She was one of the first pupils at the Calvert school, which was one of the earliest schools in West Moreton outside of Ipswich, and later at the first school in Rosewood. Mr. George Vowles, the first teacher at Calvert, was the first white child born in Newtown, Ipswich.