I acknowledge the Traditional Owners on whose land I walk, I work and I live. I pay my respects to Elders past, present and future.

Thursday 30 May 2019

The Mysteries of Rooney's Pinch



Joan and Jerry Allingham of Stoneleigh, talked about in my last blog, would have passed a small outcrop called Rooney’s Pinch on their way to and from their property. Unlike the Allinghams whose story we know, who was ‘Rooney’ and why did he have a hill named after him?
Being an historian is like being a detective. You spend most of your time looking for clues and following leads. Many will be false leads even though they may sound possible. Some will be heading in the right direction and then peter out.  Sometimes you might build a convincing ‘case’ or story and stick by it only to find later that you have it all wrong. Other times you strike gold and solve the mystery.
Recently I was asked about Rooney’s Pinch, west of Ingham, adjacent to the Stone River Road in the upper Stone area. Did I know anything about it? I did a little cursory digging and what I have come up with is purely speculative but possible. See what you think.
Rooney’s Pinch is a small hill. Why was is called Pinch and not Hill?
Now that word is a bit of a semantic mystery.
‘Pinch’ can be applied to small hills and hamlets:
English place name books suggest that similar names with the pinch element could either be the Old English pinca which means finch or Later English pink meaning minnow. http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/ephraim.htm) 
Another theory suggests that the stinginess of the owner of the land could be why an area was called a ‘pinch’:
There is also one opinion that considers that field names with the pinch element refer to “derogatory names, ambiguously referring to parsimony and torture.” (Paraphrased from: http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/ephraim.htm)  
The Macquarie dictionary suggests that ‘Pinch’ means: a hill, a rise as in - This hill is a bit of a pinch; a slatey pinch, a rocky rise. (https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/resources/aus/word/map/search/word/pinch/Western%20District/ )
From that can be suggested then, is that Rooney’s Pinch was so named because it is a ‘small hill’ or on the other hand it could be referring to the thriftiness or meanness of the mystery ‘Rooney’.
So who was Rooney? That too, remains a mystery without further extensive research. However, I have a theory. I speculate that Rooney was Matthew Rooney of Rooney Bros. (a firm of architects, builders and contractors) established in Townsville by Matthew and his brother John in 1882. They went into partnership with James Harvey, establishing a timber-milling arm of their business.
Now M. Rooney was not a rare moniker in Ingham and Townsville as a search of old newspapers into the twentieth century show. There are M. Rooneys (including Matthew Rooneys getting up to all sorts of good as well as criminal behaviour).
So why do I speculate that Rooney’s Pinch could be taken from Matthew Rooney, respected Townsville builder?
In 1882, in the same year that Matthew and Harvey paired to go into business, a M Rooney and a J. Harvey take up neighbouring blocks in the Parish of Berwick (aka Stone River) as attested by this newspaper reference from the Queenslander, Saturday 30 September 1882, page 2 and consequent Parish of Berwick maps.
INGHAM. Before Commissioner Berwick, on the 30th August. SELECTIONS.—Accepted: W. G. Ewan, 1280a.,
Newton, 1280 a., Lannercost; J. Cassady. 1280 a., Berwick; W. C. Miller, 80a., Trebonne; H. B. Heaphy, 1000 a.. Trebonne; J. E. Palmer. 1000 a., Waterview; J. Harvey, 200 a., Berwick ; M. Rooney, 200 a., Berwick; A. Camp bell. 200 a., Cordelia; A. E. Cummins, 158 a., Berwick ; H. Stone. D. M'Auslan, J. Olson, A. S. B. Sutton, R. Hutchinson, T. Gibson, W. Harvey. J. Bonning. C. Bonning, each 160 a., Berwick. Re jected : J. M. Parkes, 1280 a., Garrawalt; B. Lynn, 1280 a., Marathon; K. A. Goldring, 1280a., Garra walt. Adjourned: W. L. Lynn, 160 a., Marathon.
It was not uncommon for people at that time to speculate on sugar land in the Herbert as in 1881 the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) had arrived in the Valley and had started to build its mill (Victoria Mill) while the Melbourne firm of Edward Fanning, Thomas NanKivell and Sons had also arrived and was building the second Gairloch Mill (1881) and had bought other defunct plantations. People had hopes of getting rich on sugar. While CSR, which had the money to lay an extensive rail system and used steam locomotives, would be anticipated to extend its line from Victoria Mill to the outlying areas such as Stone River.
And indeed, that is just what the Company did, and the line became an important one for the transport of not only sugar cane but goods and people. An article in the Northern Miner 3 September 1908, page 6 entitled “On the Stone River: ‘Along the line’” mentions M. Rooney’s landholding at the terminus of the CSR line. The area was described as “magnificent pockets of the richest land” where you can “grow anything on earth”. Even beyond the need for a terminus with storage shed, Rooney’s Pinch remained a designated siding on the Mt. Fox CSR line.
Matthew Rooney. Source: https://www.historicyongala.com.au/about-us/

Map. Parish of Berwick, County of Cardwell, September 1923

Whether M. Rooney and J. Harvey ever made good of that rich land I am not able to say. We do know however, that, unfortunately, Matthew's life ended prematurely and under tragic circumstances.
Matthew, his wife and daughter were among the 122 people, passengers and crew on board the SS Yongala when it sank, on 23 March 1911. En route from Melbourne to Cairns the Yongala encountered a cyclone and sank without a trace south of Townsville, just off Cape Bowling Green. There were no survivors.
Besides the mystery of the naming of Rooney’s Pinch is the tale of an Afghan trader or hawker who is rumored to have been buried somewhere on or around Rooney’s Pinch. FACT or FICTION?  Look out for the next blog!

SOURCES:
“Ingham,” Queenslander, Saturday 30 September 1882, 2.
“On the Stone River: ‘Along the line’,” Northern Miner 3 September 1908, 6.


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