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| maroon_and_rathdowney [2024/04/01 17:27] – judith | maroon_and_rathdowney [2024/04/12 15:10] (current) – [Land selections on and near Maroon] judith |
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| The 1871 census recorded Maroon as having two houses with 20 people living there, so presumably the original homestead became the workers' quarters.((Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and surroundings to 1989//, Boonah Shire Council, c.1991, p.20.)) By 1880, the local council's rate book valued the buildings at £52.10.((Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and surroundings to 1989//Boonah Shire Council, c.1991, p.27.)) As with all such properties, there were quarters for the employees, stores for meat and other goods, and workshops. The local //Fassifern Guardian// described it as one of Queensland's 'most historic homesteads', with 'walls of locally dressed cedar, its impressive fireplaces of Ipswich limestone slabs and its shingle roof'.((//Fassifern Guardian//, 19 November 1947, p.1.)) Maroon by this stage was more like a small village. TLM-P's children, his grandchildren, neighbours and relatives lived there and/or visited. As well, there were employees and their families. The result, Nora wrote to Rosa in 1881, no-one could 'go around a corner ... without tumbling over a child'((Nora to Rosa, 29 October 1881)). The employees' names were not always recorded, though in his 1888 diary, TLM-P noted that he was welcomed home by "Mrs Smails and the children'.((24 August)) \\ | The 1871 census recorded Maroon as having two houses with 20 people living there, so presumably the original homestead became the workers' quarters.((Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and surroundings to 1989//, Boonah Shire Council, c.1991, p.20.)) By 1880, the local council's rate book valued the buildings at £52.10.((Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and surroundings to 1989//Boonah Shire Council, c.1991, p.27.)) As with all such properties, there were quarters for the employees, stores for meat and other goods, and workshops. The local //Fassifern Guardian// described it as one of Queensland's 'most historic homesteads', with 'walls of locally dressed cedar, its impressive fireplaces of Ipswich limestone slabs and its shingle roof'.((//Fassifern Guardian//, 19 November 1947, p.1.)) Maroon by this stage was more like a small village. TLM-P's children, his grandchildren, neighbours and relatives lived there and/or visited. As well, there were employees and their families. The result, Nora wrote to Rosa in 1881, no-one could 'go around a corner ... without tumbling over a child'((Nora to Rosa, 29 October 1881)). The employees' names were not always recorded, though in his 1888 diary, TLM-P noted that he was welcomed home by "Mrs Smails and the children'.((24 August)) \\ |
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| {{:clearer_drawing_room_thumbnail_img_2245.jpg?400|}} An undated photograph of the drawing room at Maroon [check if Maroon or Kangaroo Point].((Provenance: T.A. & M.T. M-P)) The player piano remains in the family, along with the large painting of TLM-P's father, two of the ornamental vases on the mantelpiece, and the three swords and battleaxe hanging on the wall.((pers. comm. M.T.M-P)) Sadly the homestead was destroyed by fire in 1947, some 27 years after [[thomas_bertram_and_lizzie_m-p|Thomas B. M-P]] sold it.((//The Courier-Mail//, 14 November 1947, p.3))\\ | {{:clearer_drawing_room_thumbnail_img_2245.jpg?400|}} An undated photograph of the drawing room at Maroon.((Provenance: T.A. & M.T. M-P)) The player piano remains in the family, along with the large painting of TLM-P's father, two of the ornamental vases on the mantelpiece, and the three swords and battleaxe hanging on the wall.((pers. comm. M.T.M-P)) Sadly the homestead was destroyed by fire in 1947, some 27 years after [[thomas_bertram_and_lizzie_m-p|Thomas B. M-P]] sold it.((//The Courier-Mail//, 14 November 1947, p.3))\\ |
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| In the 1860s, with governments resuming land to break up into smaller farms, landowners such as TLM-P secured their (leased) land by buying it freehold. TLM-P had been 'freeholding [i.e. converting to freehold] parts of his run, including 2560 acres on 16 November 1868 alone. In 1876 he allowed what was left of the leasehold to lapse or revert to the government.' From then on, Maroon comprised entirely of freehold land.((Angella Collyer, //Rathdowney: federation history of an Australian rural border community// Rathdowney, Qld.: Rathdowney Area Development and Historical Association, 2001 p.17.)) In his 1888 diary, TLM-P notes that 'the scrub around Mt Maroon is almost if not all taken up'.(Diary, 3 July) \\ | In the 1860s, with governments resuming land to break up into smaller farms, landowners such as TLM-P secured their (leased) land by buying it freehold. TLM-P had been 'freeholding [i.e. converting to freehold] parts of his run, including 2560 acres on 16 November 1868 alone. In 1876 he allowed what was left of the leasehold to lapse or revert to the government.' From then on, Maroon comprised entirely of freehold land.((Angella Collyer, //Rathdowney: federation history of an Australian rural border community// Rathdowney, Qld.: Rathdowney Area Development and Historical Association, 2001 p.17.)) In his 1888 diary, TLM-P notes that 'the scrub around Mt Maroon is almost if not all taken up'.(Diary, 3 July) \\ |
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| ====Land selections on and near Maroon ==== | ====Land selections on and near Maroon ==== |
| For an overview of the relevant Queensland land acts and government attempts to allocate land to squatters and smaller selectors, see [[wp>Land_selection_in_Queensland]]. TLM-P and his eldest son Thomas de M. M-P (Tom) took advantage of the 1868 Crown Land Alienation Act which allowed people to 'select' land to farm. Bill Kitson summarises, 'This Act allowed the Government to acquire half of the squatter's run either by resumption or voluntary surrender. This resumed half was then to be surveyed into blocks suitable for selectors looking for smaller agricultural farms. The run holder in return would receive a new lease on his half of the original run as well as other benefits. By this policy the Government was able to achieve their objectives of closer settlement with more people using the same area of land with the added benefit of an increase in rent.'((Bill Kitson, 'From Runs to Closer Settlement', [[http://www.qhatlas.com.au/content/runs-closer-settlement|//Queensland Historical Atlas//]])) The Act limited 'selections' of land to 640 acres and specified that the 'selector' had to have lived permanently on the land and farmed it, before its ownership was transferred.\\ | For an overview of the relevant Queensland land acts and government attempts to allocate land to squatters and smaller selectors, see [[wp>Land_selection_in_Queensland]]. TLM-P and his eldest son Thomas de M. M-P (Tom) took advantage of the //Crown Land Alienation Act// 1868 (Qld) which allowed people to 'select' land to farm. Bill Kitson summarises, 'This Act allowed the Government to acquire half of the squatter's run either by resumption or voluntary surrender. This resumed half was then to be surveyed into blocks suitable for selectors looking for smaller agricultural farms. The run holder in return would receive a new lease on his half of the original run as well as other benefits. By this policy the Government was able to achieve their objectives of closer settlement with more people using the same area of land with the added benefit of an increase in rent.'((Bill Kitson, 'From Runs to Closer Settlement', [[http://www.qhatlas.com.au/content/runs-closer-settlement|//Queensland Historical Atlas//]])) The Act limited 'selections' of land to 640 acres and specified that the 'selector' had to have lived permanently on the land and farmed it, before its ownership was transferred.\\ |
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| Wives and dependent children were ineligible to select land, in what proved to be a somewhat fruitless exercise to prevent what became known as 'dummying', i.e. paying trusted family members or employees to select then to transfer the land when ownership was confirmed. Queensland historian Ross Fitzgerald concluded that the squatters regarded selectors as intruders and manipulated land regulations to keep the newcomers out:'many [squatters] resorted to "dummying" their runs (i.e., lodging land claims using the name of a family member or employee)... Most of the distinguished squatting families of the [Darling] Downs were involved'.((Ross Fitzgerald, //From the Dreaming to 1915. A History of Queensland//, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1982, p.189.)) TLM-P and Tom were no exception. \\ | Wives and dependent children were ineligible to select land, in what proved to be a somewhat fruitless exercise to prevent what became known as 'dummying', i.e. paying trusted family members or employees to select then to transfer the land when ownership was confirmed. Queensland historian Ross Fitzgerald concluded that the squatters regarded selectors as intruders and manipulated land regulations to keep the newcomers out:'many [squatters] resorted to "dummying" their runs (i.e., lodging land claims using the name of a family member or employee)... Most of the distinguished squatting families of the [Darling] Downs were involved'.((Ross Fitzgerald, //From the Dreaming to 1915. A History of Queensland//, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1982, p.189.)) TLM-P and Tom were no exception. \\ |