"A" is for Alice, Alma and Anderssen - street naming in the Hinchinbrook Shire

 

In the Hinchinbrook Shire there are 608 roads/lanes/streets. When I started out on the project to discover the reason why each of those were named I didn’t anticipate the scale of the task I was taking on. While the reason for the naming of some were obvious, many were not and there were those that could only be guessed at or at worst not able to be explained at all.

Let’s take a look at those streets of HALIFAX that begin with the letter A.

The first land taken up for agricultural crops, including sugar, was in the low coastal reaches of the Herbert River. Because of the river’s length it was demarcated into two areas, upper and lower. The Lower Herbert’s major business centre became Halifax. Land along the lower Herbert that had been surveyed for a town selection was sold off in the 1881 ‘land rush’ for agriculture to small selectors who hoped to grow sugar cane. The few remaining blocks were later sold as township blocks but unfortunately in a flood the riverbank gave way and these blocks were washed into the river.

After that catastrophe, one of those who had purchased land in the ‘rush’ was August Anderssen who offered some of his land for sale as township allotments. Anderssen engaged a surveyor and auctioneer and a Government land auction was held in 1886 and so the town of Halifax was born, taking its name from the neighbouring Halifax Bay, which Captain Janes Cook had named in 1770. 

So, starting with A.

Firstly, we first have ACACIA ROAD. There are many roads and streets named for flora or fauna in the district and this is one of them. Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae. More commonly this genus is known as acacia, mimosa, thorn tree or wattle.

ALICE STREET. The street was named for the mother of artist John Coburn. His mother Alice Biggs married Edgar Cockburn in Halifax in 1922. John was born in Ingham in 1925. Edgar was a bank accountant and so with his transfer to the Darling Downs, the family moved there. Edgar passed away in 1936, so Alice returned to Halifax to live with her mother Christina Biggs (nee Beatts).

Alice and her sister Jess opened a clothing store in Halifax and this business continued until Alice remarried in 1939 to Walter Beatts. They had two sons, Geoffrey and Barry.

Source: Herbert River Express September 1973

ALMA STREET was possibly named for Alma Uliana Anderssen, eighth child of August and Eva Anderssen (nee Johannesdotter). Alma married Charles Otto Randell in 1906 in Halifax. She died in Tully in 1928. Her parents, August and Eva, were pioneering small farmers.

ANDERSSEN STREET is named for August and Eva Anderssen who are variously described as Swedish or Norwegian because when they immigrated to Australia Sweden and Norway were a single political entity known as the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway (1814–1905). Foreign nations categorized Swedish and Norwegian citizens together, commonly referring to them in immigration records as Scandinavians. August was a carpenter and wheelwright who first worked for Arthur and Frank Neame of Macknade Plantation. He took up land in 1880 in lower Herbert.  His family home was called Riverview (the original house was relocated to become the Halifax Hotel). He was the inaugural chairman of the Herbert River Farmers' Association which was founded in 1882 to negotiate for small farmers to supply cane to Victoria Plantation Mill for crushing.

Terry Lyons, A little of the story of August Anderssen “The Father of Halifax”.

ARGAET STREET. Many streets are named for former Hinchinbrook Shire Councillors. Argaet Street was named for Joseph William Argaet who was a Hinchinbrook Shire Councillor from 1947 to 1955. He was born in Charters Towers and served in World War 1 on the Western Front as a Private with the 1st Australian Machine Gun Battalion. He returned to Australia in 1919 and came to the Hinchinbrook district in1920 as a locomotive driver at Macknade Mill. He was the President of the Halifax Australian Labour Party until he left the party and joined the Democratic Labour Party after the split in 1955. In that same year he took up farming at Abergowrie. The street name was approved in 1974.

Another instalment of Halifax streets and the origins of their names to follow!

Sources include:

‘John Coburn (1925 – 2006)’. Blog entry researched by Christopher and Vivienne Parry for blog Interpreting Ingham History.

HSC Box 195 Naming of Roads, Streets and Parks etc.

Terry Lyons, A little of the story of August Anderssen “The Father of Halifax”.

Janice Wegner, Hinchinbrook: A History of local government in the Hinchinbrook Shire, M.A. thesis, James Cook University of North Queensland, 1984.

Wikipedia

Planters, farmers and Premiers

When Jonathan Pavetto went to personally petition government regarding the proposed bypass it was an easy trip by plane. In the days before farmers could travel to the southern capitals to petition Premiers or Prime Ministers the latter would travel by steamer to the north and farmers were invited on board to present their petitions. And just as today, candidates would come north to canvass for votes.

Samual Griffith (later Premier) came to the Herbert River Valley on an electioneering tour in 1883 it was a plantation stronghold though the small farmers had just formed the Herbert River Farmers’ Association (HRFA) and were hoping to supply the newly opened Victoria Mill. He had to convince the planters and small farmers that he would look after their interests. He met with businessmen, small farmers, planters and plantation managers. A photograph was taken to mark the event.

Samuel Griffith on an electioneering tour to the Herbert. Pictured with local landowners and businessmen including Lewis and Alfred Cowley, Frank Neame, Farrand Haig, and Charles Watson (a member of the HRFA), 1883. (Source: Hinchinbrook Shire Council Library Photographic Collection)

In 1890 when CSR threatened to close down Victoria Mill the HRFA wrote the Premier a ‘strong’ letter urging the continuance of Melanesian labour which the Association argued would keep CSR Company in the district. The Premier replied the he was planning a visit to the north and that the farmers would be advised when he was to visit Halifax. Sir Samuel Griffith sailed up the coast in the Government steamer, the Lucinda in December 1890. On the afternoon of the second day of his visit to the district, 25 December, the farmers presented to him the papers they had prepared. Griffith returned two weeks later, docked at Dungeness, and again invited farmer representatives to meet with him again on board the Lucinda. Those who met with him were August Anderssen, A. W. Carr, N. C. Rosendahl and John Alm, stalwarts of the HRFA.

In his memoirs, John Alm gave a first-hand account of that meeting. After general conversation, “the private Secretary, Mr Bell, appeared and informed the party that there were refreshments waiting below. They found a table neatly set in the saloon. The Premier sat down with the party, and the private Secretary acted as waiter. Sir Samuel was in excellent humour. He continually told the visitors not to be afraid of his whisky; stating it was good - no doubt it was, but it had the trick of mounting to the head; so they had to be careful, as they had a couple of hours work ahead of them, pulling their boat home.”

The Lucinda pictured on the city side of Brisbane River, opposite South Brisbane Wharves, n.d. (Source: State Library of Queensland. Lucinda (ship). (2004). Image number: 51548)

In May 1894 a farmers’ deputation again was brought to the steamer the Palmer when it docked at Dungeness where it was received by Premier, the Hon. H. Nelson. John Lely, Secretary of the HRFA, presented the farmers’ petition about the need for labour for the cane fields. A photograph of the steamer was taken by Harriett Pettifore Brim when she was a photographer in Ingham.

Steamboat the Palmer, Queensland, circa 1890-1900.(Source: Harriett Pettifore Brim, photographer on the Herbert River 1894-1902. State Library of Queensland. Image number: 31054 Harriett Brims collection 1890-1930)

Sources:

Bianka Vidonja Balanzategui, “The Herbert River Farmers’ Association:  'clique of insignificant cockies' or 'agents of change'?” (PhD manuscript, James Cook University).

John Alm, Early History of the Herbert River District: Being "The Memoirs of the Early Settlement of the Lower Herbert and the Start and Progress of the Sugar Industry in the District (Aitkenvale: Terry Lyons, 2002, original edition published in Herbert River Express, 11th October 1932 to 20th January 1934), 59.

“clique of insignificant ‘cockies’ with a soul a little above sweet potatoes and pumpkins”

As you walk Mercer’s lane looking at the mosaic you may pause and wonder at a panel where a full moon is seen through an open window. It shines over men sitting inside a cottage at a table lit by lamplight. One of the men’s horses is tethered outside.  Why were they gathered? What were they discussing? Is the full moon significant?

Yearning for a sense of community and needing mutual support in a hostile new environment the European pioneers of the Herbert River district worked quickly towards creating community facilities such as churches, schools and halls. A particular characteristic of settler communities in Australia was the formation of associations and in agricultural areas, farmer and pastoral  associations. The first farmer association in this district was the Herbert River Farmers’ Association formed in 1882.  Its story begins when a number of small portions of land were taken up between 1879 and 1881 in the area between what was called the Washaway and Gentle Annie Creek. This area was formerly an Aboriginal camping ground and the Europeans that came to live there called it Blacks’ Township. August Anderssen and Francis Herron were the first to show active interest in the area for farming. Others who took up land and/or would become significant to the story of this association were Harald Hoffensetz,  John Alm, A.W. Carr, N. Rosendahl, W. Johnson, John Buchanan, J. Loder, Henry Beardsworth and R.S. Alston.

When the Colonial Sugar Refining Company came to the district with the promise of a mill (the Victoria Mill which first crushed in 1883) it gave hopes to the small land holders that they might be able to grow cane that could be milled by the CSR Company because the company was already doing that in NSW.  Two representatives of the Blacks’ Township, August Anderssen and John Alm, were deputised to approach an officer of the CSR Company with a proposal that the smaller landholders grow sugar cane for supply to the new mill. This officer suggested that the Blacks' Township settlers form an association through which they could communicate their proposal to the CSR General Manager via the local officer. Undoubtedly he was of the mind that a collective approach to the Company would be more effective.  Following that a meeting of the Blacks' Township settlers was called at August Anderssen’s farm, Riverview, so that Anderssen and Alm could report back on what had transpired in their meeting with the CSR officer. Six settlers attended the meeting: Harald Hoffensetz, August Anderssen, A.W. Carr, N.C. Rosendahl, John Alm and Francis Herron. It was decided at this meeting to form an association which would be henceforth known as the Herbert River Farmers ‘Association. The founding premise was “to work for and promote the interests of the farming industry in general and the welfare and progress of the Herbert River district in particular”. Given the latter broad aim, membership was open to anyone regardless of occupation. Nevertheless A.W. Carr confirmed, that the new association would be first and foremost, a “Bureau through which the farmers could communicate with the Government or others on any matter of common interest” with one voice. These men were convinced of their ability to work and thrive in the tropics. Nevertheless they still maintained that Melanesian labour was required for certain aspects of field work and that this labour should be available to planter and small grower alike. Harald Hoffensetz is credited with proposing the formal motion for the formation of an association to be named the Herbert River Farmers’ Association and A.W. Carr is on record as the seconder of the motion”. August Anderssen was elected as the first Chairman, John Alm as Secretary mid A.W. Carr as Treasurer. Meetings would be held at the homes of each of the foundation members in rotation. Membership subscription was set at £1.  Our mosaic panel then pays tribute to the first farmer’s associations that came into being in this district including the Herbert River Farmers’ League and the Halifax Planters’ Club and their first informal and then formal meetings held in their outlying cottages .

But why the full moon?  Getting around the district from one small holding to another, from outlying farm to Ingham town was no mean feat in those times. Clouds of choking dust rose from unpaved roads in dry weather, while in the wet season the roads became a quagmire of cloying mud. Lesser used roads would become overgrown with vegetation after long periods of rainfall and impassability, and would then need the undergrowth to be cut away in order to become passable again. Streams were unbridged and crossing a full stream of water risked an encounter with crocodiles.  Travelling around the district in daylight hours was hazardous enough let alone at night. Therefore meetings of the Herbert River Farmers’ Association were scheduled on the Saturday night nearest each full moon so that the way would be lit and hazards could be avoided. While farmers travelled to the meetings on horseback they might also bring their families in a sulky as the meetings provided an opportunity for sorely needed fellowship amongst the farmers and their families The women especially, appreciated the chance to gather, chat and share a cuppa while their menfolk held their meeting. August Anderssen and his wife had set the precedent from the first of serving a supper for both the members and their wives after the meeting.

These first meetings of the Association quickly proved the value of unified action. Nevertheless there were detractors who regarded the Association members as a “clique of insignificant ‘cockies’ with a soul a little above sweet potatoes and pumpkins”. This attitude changed somewhat when in 1882, six months after its formation, upon receiving an unsolicited letter of support from Frank Neame accompanied by a donation of five guineas, the Association invited him to become the President of the Association. He eagerly accepted the position but due to illness was unable to go out at night to attend meetings. Meetings were henceforth held on Saturday afternoons in a room at the Hotel. At this time membership had grown to around 20 members. Frank Neame had been a long time resident of the Herbert River district, a successful planter and Chairman of the Hinchinbrook Divisional Board in 1880. His approval of the Association and the small grower ideals quietened any criticisms for he “was so universally admired and respected by all sections of the public that they would not adversely criticise anything in which he took a leading part.” As President he pledged to “do all he could to advance the causes of the Association” believing that cooperation amongst farmers was much needed in the district. It is argued that his presidency added weight to the Association’s petitions to both CSR and the Divisional Board. Twelve months after formation the Association was able to boast 30 members.

The Herbert River Farmers’ Association was the first small sugar cane farmers’ association formed in tropical north Queensland (north of Townsville) and did successfully negotiate the supply of small grower cane to the CSR mill. In 1884 the Association received the long awaited letter from CSR offering a seven year contract for cane supply. No limitations were put on how much cane the farmers could supply to the mill. The Mill offered a price of 10/- a ton and would harvest the cane. The Association had achieved a major victory for north Queensland small cane growers and had made them the first tropical north Queensland small growers to sell cane to a mill.

Herbert River Farmers' League Building built 1925
Hinchinbrook Shire Council Library collection

Sources:

Alm, John. Early History of the Herbert River District being “The Memoirs of the Early Settlement of the Lower Herbert and the Start and Progress of the Sugar Industry in the District. Ingham: Herbert River Express, 1932,33,34.  

Vidonja Balanzategui, Bianka. The Herbert River Story. Ingham: Hinchinbrook Shire Council, 2011.