The pandemic and subsequent worldwide lockdown has opened our eyes to the need for food security, diversification of local industries, and reducing our dependence on imported goods.
Here are three agricultural industries that were practiced around Ipswich that no longer exist here.
Like me, you may be surprised to learn that pineapples were grown in the local area. From the late 19th century to about the mid-1950s this distinctive crop could be seen growing on hillsides or near the river.
Cultivation of pineapples was not widespread in the Ipswich area but must have been economically viable for some farmers to persist over those many years. A newspaper reporter in 1880 opined that pineapple growing was many times more lucrative than maize or corn, mainly due to their market value, apparent ease of production and twice per annum harvesting.1
Mr Deuce at Kirchheim (now Haigslea) had approximately 1000 pineapple plants in 1898, while the Noble family at Walloon and Kraatz family at Tallegalla were growing pineapples in the 1920s. Mr Zabel had a pineapple plantation at Frenchton, near Minden around the same time (1929). Pineapples were also cultivated by Jack Jones at Pine Mountain until his death in 1932.
At the end of 1942, during World War II when adult male labour was in short supply at home, the Mayor of Ipswich formed a committee to organise weekend work parties of townspeople to provide general farm labour and harvest potatoes, turnips, onions and pineapples.2
As early as the 1870s sugar cane was being grown and milled at Redbank Plains. 3
And at Walloon, Biggingee Sorabjee Pochee was farming sugar and using horse driven machinery to mill the crop.4
We would find it surreal to drive along the Warrego Highway to Marburg today and see sugar cane growing in the fields around Woodlands, yet this crop flourished there in days gone-by. Thomas Lorimer Smith commenced sugar-cropping near Marburg in the early 1880s when the family’s sawmilling business faltered due to a scarcity of timber to mill. Smith built a modern steam operated sugar mill and contracted other farmers in the district to grow sugar for him. At this time his workforce numbered up to 70 so the plantation was a significant enterprise. He briefly distilled rum, as a by-product of the cane, however this endeavour was short-lived after the water in Black Snake Creek became polluted. In the following decade drought, economic depression and poor crops initiated a slow demise for sugar cane growing in the Ipswich area. Still, ‘in 1906 there were about 80 local growers including some at Glamorganvale, Thagoona, Haigslea and Tallegalla.’5 However, in 1918 the Woodlands mill closed for good.
Cotton growing is another industry that has been lost in the mists of time. Cotton seed was brought to Australia on the First Fleet however its cultivation in this country has been a roller coaster ride of hope and decline. In June 1861, Ipswich Cotton Company was formed, inviting the public to buy shares and invest in the company, or by farming cotton itself. It was an opportunity to cash in, supplying Britain with product for their mills that America was unable to supply due to the Civil War. Future prospects for the industry were seen as very rosy with revenue expected to surpass that of the goldfields.6
John Panton took up the challenge to plant cotton on 12 acres of land at Woodend (only about 1.6 kms from the centre of town where Panton, Macgregor and Hume Streets now are) and that was how he wrote himself into the history books. Panton became the first farmer in Australia to grow cotton commercially. In 1862 he shipped 4 bales weighing 868 lbs (349 kgs) to Britain, beating out the Ipswich Cotton Company at Booval.7
Following Panton’s success other farmers in the area began to plant cotton and by 1863 about 300 acres in the District of Ipswich were under cultivation. This included 150 acres owned by the Ipswich Cotton Company. John Panton now had 25 acres in play, and many small farmers were testing the waters by sowing a few acres.8
In 1864 some of those farmers were Mr Challinor near Churchill; George Faircloth at Booval House; the Guilfoyle’s on Seven Mile Creek; Bell at Bundamba; and Mr Ironmonger at Pine Mountain.9
Cotton was also part of the landscape at Redbank Plains, Goodna Creek and Purga. Just 5 years after the first shipment of cotton to Great Britain, 1376 bales were exported in 1867.10
For a while West Moreton led Queensland in the production of cotton as thousands of acres became cotton fields. ‘..Ipswich was soon described as a sea of white. Farmers planted cotton everywhere including on the old racecourse at Raceview (at the end of Grange Road) and Yamahnto (now spelled Yamanto.)’11
Cotton’s heyday in the Ipswich area was relatively brief as the end of the American Civil War brought the U.S. back into large-scale production and exportation. This impacted prices and local production. Pests and weather also played a part in its demise. In the mid-1870s the roller coaster ride began although cotton farming was still part of the local scene well into the 20th century.
Ipswich Cotton Company had opened their cotton mill at East Ipswich in 1892. They were the first cotton manufacturers in Australia however the mill’s fortunes were tied to the local crop and it suffered a similar fate of closures and revivals, until finally finishing with cotton in 1913 and becoming a woollen mill.12
Of course, times change. Agriculture and industry respond to economic conditions, social trends and innovation so industries come and go for very good reasons. However, it is interesting to contemplate not only the contribution these endeavours made to the local economy and community but how different the landscape is today. Just imagine boats on the Bremer carrying cotton bales to Brisbane, the physical presence of the cotton mill just down the road near East Ipswich Station, or driving through a tall cane crop on your way west.
Information Taken from:
2. Queensland Times, Saturday 24 April 1943, P2, Did Fine Job.
5. Buchanan, Robyn. Ipswich in the 20th century, Ipswich: Ipswich City Council, 2004, P40.
6. Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, Friday 14 June 1861, P2, Advertising.
9. Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, Tuesday 17 May 1864, P3, Agriculture.
10. Queensland Times, Monday 10 May 1982.
12. Buchanan, Robyn. Ipswich in the 20th century, Ipswich: Ipswich City Council, 2004, P16.
Additional Sources:
Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, Tuesday 26 April 1904, P10, Cotton-growing.
Queensland Times, Saturday 11 November 2000, P19, Historic Ipswich with Beryl Johnston: Ipswich cottons on.