Page Eigliteen Queensland Heritage Capo Di Monte, Tamborine

·.:f~ . ::~:: Capo di Monte, Tamborine Mountain ca. 1914 (8\' cour1cs\' of the author) Page Eigliteen Queensland Heritage A Land of Hills and Valleys Tamborine Mountain - 1875 to 1914 by Mrs. E. Curtis Tamborine Mountain lies about sixty kilometres south east sold their land to a syndicate formed to buy up these small holdings. of the centre of Brisbane, halfway between Southport to the east Of the men who took up land in the last century, the descendants and Beaudesert to the west. Although forming part of the Darlington of only one family still live on Tamborine Mountain, and Portion Range (itself a northward running spur of the McPherson Range, 103, Parish of Tamborine, selected by Sydney Curtis, comprises itself a spur of the Main Divide) it stands as a semi-isolated block the only area lived on by his descendants. His two daughters-in-law, with an average height of five hundred and fifty metres. Farming ~ and his niece, live on this land today. ~ avocadoes, rhubarb, small crops, and flowers are grown continues In 1875, late in August and early in September, a number of on the Mountain, although some recent subdivision has taken place. landholders living near the Mountain decided to apply for leases The Mountain is frequently visited by day trippers from Brisbs.ne on it. These men could never have regarded Mountain land as and the nearby Gold Coast. There are three small centres, North either a home or a livelihood. At the time of making application Tamborine, Eagle Heights and Mount Tamborine. The landscape for leases, the six men between them already held twenty-two in 1975 contrasts strongly with that of 1875, as much of the leases, amounting to 4,820 acres, and later took out a further original rainforest in the higher rainfall area on the east has been fifteen leases, these totalling 3,604 acres. 5 Thomas Plunkett cleared, although some areas have survived in National Parks. The applied for Brisbane selection 2532 on 30 August 1875, and one eucalypt forest of the western aspect still contains many of the week later four other men went to Brisbane from the Tamborine original species, including bloodwood (E intermedia), grey gum district to apply for leases ~ John Ryan, Anthony Flanagan, (E proprinqua)) spotted gum (E maculata)) blue gum (E Michael Yore, and William Walsh in partnership with his uncle, teriticornis)) red gum (E salina), box (E tristania) and grey iron John Callaghan. 6 Of the four leases applied for on that day, 6 bark (E drepanophylla). September 1875, two were forfeited for non-payment of rent, and The settlement of Tamborine Mountain was not a logical not lived on. Michael Yore lived on freehold land within fifteen extension of the settlement of the surrounding lands. The miles of his new lease (Portion 80, Parish of Tamborine) and so did 2 Tamborine Run was taken up in about 1843 , but it was not until not need to live there to fulfil residence requirements. Similarly, thirty years later that men began to live on Tamborine Mountain. Arthur Binstead applied in 1875 to lease Portion 43, Parish of Even then, the Mountain was settled almost as an island, and bred Cedar, on the eastern edge of the Mountain. 7 (This is now the in its inhabitants an interdependence and spirit of co-operation site of the Golf Club.) Tohn Callaghan was different from the that showed itself for many years. Access roads were built by other men; he owned no land, and was prepared to spend his community effort, and as recently as 1958, Mountain residents money, time and effort to fulfill the homestead conditions necessary surveyed and built a road down McDonnell Ridge to the Coomera for the attainment of the deeds. He was not a young man, and Valley, to link up with a road over the Wonga Wallan range, and walked with a limp and a stick, but slowly and methodically he thence to Oxenford and the coast. worked to clear fifteen acres,' plant maize and built a slab house The early isolation and the slow settlement of the Mountain with a shingle roof. 8 Thomas Plunkett (who applied for Portion were caused not only by the difficulty of access, but also bv the 83, Parish of Tamborine) had other more important leases 9 and onerous task of clearing the rainforest, said to be some of the never lived on this land, but his bailiff Callaghan Callaghan, resided densest in South East Queensland. That the rainforest, or scrub, there from 10 May 1878 until 29 June 1882, when a deed was was difficult to fell, and slow to burn is shown by the improvements issued to Plunkett. 10 listed by early settlers. In Selection files of the Lands Department On 15 September 1875, James Henderson applied to lease ~ appear such entries as '5 acres scrub land cleared', '10 acres Portion 85A, Parish of Tamborine, now known as the Beacon. 11 cleared', and '12 acres cleared', and this over a period of several Like Michael Yore, Henderson lived on freehold land within years. 3 Even when the land was cleared it was extremely difficult fifteen miles of this Portion, so residence there was not necessary, to make a living, for all its fertility. Small clearings in high timber and a bailiff later effected his improvements. So, after the arrival received little sunlight, and crops were poor. of John Callaghan in September 1875, for eighteen months he was The accounts left by the first settlers confirm that the the only man living on Tamborine Mountain. Letters in the Queens Aborigines did not live on the Mountain, but used it regularly land State Archives written by his wife, Margaret Callaghan, tell as a hunting ground. Edmund Ford Curtis told of finding wild of her living there with him at various times, but whether together ginger that had been chewed and spat out, and many artefacts or alone, it must have been a lonely life, and their eldest daughter have been found. 4 Stones foreign to this Mountain have been worked in Brisbane to help support the family. 12 discovered under black bean trees, indicating that they could have Taking advantage of the Homestead provisions contained in the been used for crushing the beans, while stone axes and cutting Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1876, Edmund Ford Curtis selected flints, not of Mountain stone, have also been found. Portion 100, Parish of Tamborine, on 20 April 1877. '3 In 1870, Before settlement, timber was taken from the Mountain, when only 16 years old, he and his younger brother Sydney had both cedar (Cedrela australis) and beech (Gmelina leichardtia) , walked up the Mountain via Sandy Creek, from their father's land through in many instances trees were cut and the logs left to rot, on the Albert River (Caleb Curtis). Both young men were im owing to the lack of easy access. When Edmund Ford Curtis pressed with the untouched beauty of the Mountain, and both selected land in 1877 he found beech stumps and logs on his decided to live there when they were old enough. Accordingly, selection, and other settlers had the same experience. Any cedar early in 1877 Edmund returned to the Mountain, to find Tohn logs left would have rotted away. After settlement, timber Callaghan living there. Edmund Ford Curtis always said how 'kind getting was tried as a means of earning a living and numerous Callaghan was to him, and to later settlers, and how he helped him varieties of crops were grown with differing success, but it was choose an area for selection. Edmund Curtis cleared a small area not until orchards came to maturity and dairying was begun early deep in the rainforest, and two years later brought to the Mountain in this century that a real living was possible for farmers on the his bride, Mary Curtis. In 1866, as Mary Pollock, aged eight, she Mountain. In the meantime, many had tried and failed, and had had travelled from England in the Maryborough) the same ship as Queensland Heritage Page Nineteen did Edmund, aged eleven, and his father Caleb, and later the two and to have used the proceeds of the sale for the first of three families had lived on adjoining properties on the Albert River. 14 trips to Ireland. 24 It was on Portion 83 that the steam sawmill, Before his marriage, Edmund Ford Curtis had found the Mountain known as Carter's Mill, was built, but it was not an economic a lonely place, and late one afternoon, finding he could endure proposition, mainly due to the problem of freighting timber. During the solitude no longer, he had grabbed his coat and returned to the short time it was in operation a road was opened to the his family's home on the Albert River. He spent the night there, Coomera, to enable timber to be shipped from there. This road, and returned the next morning. From his clearing he had followed now known as Long Road, divided the properties of four settlers, the survey line until he met the ridge that led to the Knoll, and and caused a certain amount of inconvenience to James McDonnell, the track that went down beside and to the north west of the who claimed that the road went through his south eastern boundary. Knoll, and to the foot of the Mountain. This became the approx His efforts to have it closed were of no avail. 25 imate route of the old road. At a meeting called to discuss the road Another settler of 1879 was Cornelius Brady, who applied some years later, an official gave it as his considered opinion that for Portion 113 on the eastern side of the Mountain.

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