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| maroon_and_rathdowney [2025/04/26 22:02] – [Maroon] judith | maroon_and_rathdowney [2025/05/09 21:53] (current) – judith |
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| The following map from Collin Pfeffer's well-researched //The Fassifern Story// shows //Maroon// and adjoining properties.{{:the_fassifern_story_map.jpg?350|}}((Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and surroundings to 1989//, Boonah Shire Council, c.1991, p.21.)) Proximity did not necessarily mean easy access. Deb Stenzel, for example, points out that the boundary between //Maroon// and //Coochin Coochin// was a ridgeway.\\ | The following map from Collin Pfeffer's well-researched //The Fassifern Story// shows //Maroon// and adjoining properties.{{:the_fassifern_story_map.jpg?350|}}((Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and surroundings to 1989//, Boonah Shire Council, c.1991, p.21.)) Proximity did not necessarily mean easy access. Deb Stenzel, for example, points out that the boundary between //Maroon// and //Coochin Coochin// was a ridgeway.\\ |
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| When TLM-P bought //Maroon//, the area was sparsely settled. Rosa Praed wrote that the family went via Ipswich (then the nearest town), and had to hack their way through the Dugandan Scrub to reach their new home.((Angella Collyer, //Rathdowney: federation history of an Australian rural border community// Rathdowney, Qld.: Rathdowney Area Development and Historical Association, 2001 p.17.)): 'It used to take a whole day getting through the Dugandine Scrub, for though its width was not great, progress was extremely slow. A boy had to go in front with his tomahawk to chop away vines and remove logs; and sometimes a huge tree would have fallen, which necessitated camping a while and clearing a fresh track round it ... We children would walk on each side of the buggy ready with large sticks or stones to prop the wheels when the horses jibbedm... The scrub was something like an Indian jungle, only less dense. Here, where the sun never penetrated, the rich soil and decaying vegetation gave out an earthly and unforgettable smell. The trees had glossy leaves, and mostly bore berries - some poisonous, others like the chucky-chuckles and purple plum wholesome and delicious."[Rathdowney display - from My Austn Girlhood?] \\ | When TLM-P bought //Maroon//, the area was sparsely settled. Rosa Praed wrote that the family went via Ipswich (then the nearest town), and had to hack their way through the Dugandan Scrub to reach their new home.((Angella Collyer, //Rathdowney: federation history of an Australian rural border community// Rathdowney, Qld.: Rathdowney Area Development and Historical Association, 2001 p.17.)): 'It used to take a whole day getting through the Dugandine Scrub, for though its width was not great, progress was extremely slow. A boy had to go in front with his tomahawk to chop away vines and remove logs; and sometimes a huge tree would have fallen, which necessitated camping a while and clearing a fresh track round it ... We children would walk on each side of the buggy ready with large sticks or stones to prop the wheels when the horses jibbedm... The scrub was something like an Indian jungle, only less dense. Here, where the sun never penetrated, the rich soil and decaying vegetation gave out an earthly and unforgettable smell. The trees had glossy leaves, and mostly bore berries - some poisonous, others like the chucky-chuckles and purple plum wholesome and delicious."[Rathdowney display - from My Austn Girlhood?] Later Rosa would mourn how the scrub had been cleared: 'The scrub is gone - the lovely,beautiful scrub, which can never be made again. One cannot now hear the dingoes howling and the melancholy note of the morepork[check] nor the faint crying of the native bear. Instead of the long gum stretches there are patches of maize and millet.'((Clipping from unknown newspaper, 13 February 1909 prob quoting My An Girlhood in Rosa Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, MSOM64-01, Box 23/5/1)) \\ |
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| Deb Stenzel explains just how difficult it was to get to and from //Maroon//: 'To reach Maroon from Ipswich (the nearest large trading centre, and where there was a wharf to bring goods up the river from Brisbane), the original road (really just a track) went via Fassifern homestead, then Coochin Coochin, and on to Maroon. After about 1873, a track wide enough to take wagons was cut through the very dense scrub between Mt Flinders run (just south of Ipswich) and Dugandan homestead (near the current town of Boonah). Prior to that, the Dugandan folks had cut a bridle track to get to Ipswich by that more direct route, but any carts, wagons etc had to take the long way around - which, for Dugandan, meant back-tracking about 15kms south to Coochin Coochin, then heading north again on the other side of Mt French range, via Fassifern, Normanby homesteads, and on to Ipswich... Rosa Praed describes stop-overs at Dugandan homestead, on the way to and from Brisbane with her father.'((Deb Stenzel, email to J. Godden, 16 July 2023)) The road/track from Ipswich had to go over the Mt Alford range then on just south of //Coochin Coochin// then to //Maroon//. The mail continued on to the Richmond River.((Deb Stenzel et al, Stenzel Land - the first land holdings of Carl Ludwig Stenzel and his children, ms, 23 July 2023)) We can see from this description how the families on these properties needed to co-operate with each other and how they were in regular communication. As well, the mail route to the Richmond River helps explain the close friendship between the Bundocks and the Murray-Priors, culminating in the later marriage of Mary Bundock and Thomas de M. Murray-Prior.\\ | Deb Stenzel explains just how difficult it was to get to and from //Maroon//: 'To reach Maroon from Ipswich (the nearest large trading centre, and where there was a wharf to bring goods up the river from Brisbane), the original road (really just a track) went via Fassifern homestead, then Coochin Coochin, and on to Maroon. After about 1873, a track wide enough to take wagons was cut through the very dense scrub between Mt Flinders run (just south of Ipswich) and Dugandan homestead (near the current town of Boonah). Prior to that, the Dugandan folks had cut a bridle track to get to Ipswich by that more direct route, but any carts, wagons etc had to take the long way around - which, for Dugandan, meant back-tracking about 15kms south to Coochin Coochin, then heading north again on the other side of Mt French range, via Fassifern, Normanby homesteads, and on to Ipswich... Rosa Praed describes stop-overs at Dugandan homestead, on the way to and from Brisbane with her father.'((Deb Stenzel, email to J. Godden, 16 July 2023)) The road/track from Ipswich had to go over the Mt Alford range then on just south of //Coochin Coochin// then to //Maroon//. The mail continued on to the Richmond River.((Deb Stenzel et al, Stenzel Land - the first land holdings of Carl Ludwig Stenzel and his children, ms, 23 July 2023)) We can see from this description how the families on these properties needed to co-operate with each other and how they were in regular communication. As well, the mail route to the Richmond River helps explain the close friendship between the Bundocks and the Murray-Priors, culminating in the later marriage of Mary Bundock and Thomas de M. Murray-Prior.\\ |