The following is an article from the Brisbane Courier in 1907 explaining how Marburg came to get its name
THE NAME OF MARBURG
MARBURG WAS NAMED after a town in Germany, but it seems it got the name in a rather peculiar way.
HERE IS THE STORY – as told over 70 years ago:
“In the squatting days, the valley where Marburg now stands was known as First Plain, and over the hill, where is now Minden, was called Second Plain.Then the scrub lands, which were regarded as useless, were thrown open and German settlers began to carve out homes for themselves.It was always Germans who took up this class of country, and soon a sturdy little settlement was established. Mr. J. L. Frederick was one of the early comers, and the name of Frederick was selected for the locality.
At the time the German settlers were carting their produce to Walloon Railway Station, and in talking to the station-master they found difficulty in describing their addresses beyond ‘ober dar.’ Some incident had occurred at Marburg in the Prussian provence of Hesse-Nassau at the time and the railway man suggested that the new settlement should be given the same name, and began to call it so. It pleased the Teutonic mind, and stuck.
Then other settlements were given German titles – Minden, after the Prussian namesake; and Kirchheim, meaning really the home of the churches, or as would have been termed in North Britain, Kirk’s Hame”.
THE BRISBANE COURIER 31 Aug.1907.
Proudlock’s Store Marburg 1918 – Image courtesy of Picture Ipswich