I | Land Equals Wealth land to be Since Separation there has been a persistent which allocated large slabs of made for to £1 acre and who struggle between pastoralists and selectors available anyone who paid per to live it, fence it, it, control of rich landholdings; that conflict has been was willing on and cultivate Similarly the Immigration Regulations of 1861 played out through a plethora of land legislation. immigrants to Queensland Queensland assumed all the land laws of New encouraged choose and farmers. They were entitled to a South Wales and because of distance and become yeoman Land Order £18 initially £30 communication problems the requirement that all worth and eventually they were staying in the land be surveyed first meant great delays in land when they proved that in for least two alienation. Under the New South Wales Orders colony at years. Council dated 9 March 1847, the monopoly of Large numbers of Germans facing poverty and of land was conceded to the Crown and to alienation political strife and violence emigrated to be £1 acre. In all pre-emptive rights were at per Queensland.In the 1850s they came chiefly from Queensland 1866 all land was alientated by 1860s until Hesse, Baden, and Wurtenburg; in the early or Pre-emptions were either pre-emption auction. an immigration wave from Prussia followed those in the Crown Lands Alienation Act of continued from Schleswig Holstein. The majority of German in form a or 1868 the of concession compensation immigrants to Queensland in the 1870s were for improvements. One acre could be pre-empted Prussians. Because of the American Civil War the for ten out of pastoral runs every shillings of a government provided Cotton Bonuses at rate of improvements on the portion. island resumed £10 for every 300 pounds of sea cotton for same The Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1860 produced and £5 the quantity of other The was to encourage provided the basis for a comprehensive land policy varieties. government's aim diversification the economy. for the new colony. The Queensland Parliament settlement and of became crop in the wanted to attract southern squatters with their Cottoil a popular agricultural Valley in 1860s, on Fernvale, capital, skills and experience. The Brisbane Courier Brisbane the centred Harrisborough Stinking Gully. criticized the legislation because it allegedly known then as and Foote had a large there. demonstrated the vested interests of some Cribb and ginnery Parliament. Squatters' management . members of Divided control between the Lands Department were tested before they were issued a skills with and the Survey Office, and the considerable lease. If the failed to the land first squatter stock within contacts and influence of Queensland's ineligible for a licence to a nine months he became Surveyor General, Augustus Charles Gregory, lease the land was forfeited. Local The and enhanced the squatters' influence. civil service Commissioners for Crown Lands had wide was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the survey but were powerless to There long administrative powers and rent assessment problems. was no land or to levels. enforce the regulations set rent term land policy. Common gossip reigned about favours to squatters in the Rates of stocking were twenty-five sheep and oblique and subtle half the run to be five head cattle or horses per square mile. Runs selection of the of resumed. of for in the Brisbane Valley were small by comparison Politicians and pastoralists preferred auctioits high so that often with the rest of Queensland.There was no limit on land at upset prices pastoralists land competition, the number of runs that a lessee could hold, so acquired at auction without hindering Alternatively wealthy pastoralists accumulated several runs in agricultural settlement. to immigration the Valley. Runs were seldom forfeited for failure politicians really wanted encourage labour for the and to raise to stock them but rather for failure to pay rents, to provide pastoralists revenue through land sales? The general conditions of leases were: fourteen government lease, in ten years rent payable advance, shillings The Brisbane Valley was always a dream for any for first four per square mile the years after which investor or grazier. The lush river flats and the Thus rent was reviewed. pastoralists exploited secluded valleys, with dependable rainfall and only forefeited land to and then agriculturalists. four or five days travelling from the port of it However it was these The squatters' concession to agriculturalists was Brisbane, made attractive. the of these the introduction of the Agricultural Reserves Act qualities which caused resumption 13 History of the Shire of Esk properties to satisfy the demand for viable land for McConnels, the Lords, the Moores, the Norths, the selectors. After 1869 many of the runs were halved Bowmans - because of conscientious management under Section 10 of the Crown Lands Alientation practices. The others were taken over by the banks Act of 1868. In many cases the lessee could obtain or sold up. The four decades up to Federation and grazing rights over the resumed portion by paying a the 1902 drought saw enormous initiative taken by rental of £2 per square mile, but no allowance was graziers and selectors; all changes were described made in the assessment for 'unavailable land', as improvements, and where German immigrants meaning poor land useless for grazing. There was, tended to recreate the German landscape. Land however, no hestitation in taking up entitlements management practices suited the goals of the under Section 14 of the 1868 Act which allowed the landholders to maximize profits in cattle and holder to pre-empt up to a maximum of 2,560 agricultural industries, chiefly maize and lucerne. acres, one acre for every ten shillings worth of Capital was invested to fulfill freeholding improvements on the resumed area. Squatters conditions. became expert at 'picking the eyes' out of the country. By 1875 all the runs in the Brisbane Valley Cressbrook except Durundur and Mount Stanley had taken up their maximum allowable pre-emptions.' David McConnel implemented innovative land in 1870s, . management practices the growing There was a tremendous demand for the stock m improved in for . pastures and root crops winter 1860s to supply graziers establishmg runs in cattle feed. He cultivated 150 acres. His turnips northern and western Queenslandand also a large tons acre or £60 acre. yielded twenty-four per per demand from the growing immigrant population m He also grew marigolds, maize, lucerne, oats, Brisbane and the burgeoning sugar planatations. arrowroot, vetches, barley, sorghum and prairie The Caboolture sugar plantation was one of the grass, all to feed stock. The natural grasses were main markets for Durundur station, considered sufficient for the summer but winter At the same time, the graziers were determined feed needed to be cultivated, and molasses was not to allow selectors to control their destinies. A introduced as a cattle feed supplement in the 1870s. Fencing introduced from late 1860s small number of graziers survived - the was the Mary McConnel and family in front of "Grandfather" bunya tree. 1885. Back Row (L to R): David Rose, Mary McLeod. Edward John, JamesHenry McConnel. Front Row (L to R): Henry P. Somerset holding Christina, Katherine Somerset with daughter Joan reclining in front, Hugh Rose in sailor's suit, Mrs Mary McConnel holding Mary Elspeth with Edgar McConnel in sailor's suit in front, Mrs Mary Elizabeth McConnel (wife of J.H.| with Barbara on her lap, Mary Somerset, Dorothea McConnel and Eric Walter McConnel. John Oxley Library 14 Land Equals Wealth i McConnels had Shorthorn as a means of controlling livestock diseases, The predominantly imported It discouraging trespassing, preserving pastures and cattle including the best strains. was to import a bull £600 on saving on labour. The McConnels renewed these not unusual prize costing the improved pasture techniques eighty years later arrival in the Valley (equalto ten per cent of It was when Mr Duncan McConnel planted legumes and cost of one of the station properties). J.H. Herefords to the Valley. clovers in 1956 with Bureau of Industry support.' McConnel who introduced The Shorthorn stud was sold to Bell and Dangar in Disease was as a bargaining tool in offering used New South Wales and in 1887 the Hereford stud for runs; in 1867 JohnMcConnel at first refused to was started, while breeding cattle were kept buy Connondale run because of the mainly at Durundur. By 1880 only cattle were amongst cattle and then , pleuropneumonia grazed. promptly offered £3,750 for it with two thousand a cattle. Originally Cressbrook comprised small township in itself three miles north of present day By 1910 there were over one hundred and fifty Toogoolawah. In the quadrangle were the school miles of fencing on the twenty thousand acres of house, club, head office, large stables, outbuildings Cressbrook. The property is exceptionally well and yards. There was a neat garden around the and in the higher country paddocks with watered house. There was also a chapel on the station. The no surface water, overshot dams were built. The held 25 centena ry celebrations of Cressbrook on McConnels commenced to ringbark trees early and September 1941 attracted descendants of those for several years parts of Cressbrook resembled a for decades who had worked for the McConnels The Mount Beppo land was plain of grey skeletons. including Germans who had come in the 1840s. i as farms with thick scrub with recognized choice There was Mrs L.E. Nicholl of Brisbane whose heavy black soil. Tom grandfather was a shepherd in the 1840s. in Mr & The partnership of David Cannon McConnel and Coleman, Gerald Ryan (who came 1885), Mr & Mrs Stewart Smith, E.C.