Shire of Sherwood
The Shire of Sherwood is a former local government area of Queensland, Australia, located in south-western Brisbane in and around the suburb of Sherwood.
History
On 11 November 1879, the Yeerongpilly Division was created as one of 74 divisions within Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879.On 16 October 1886, parts of Yeerongpilly Division were excised to create Stephens Division.
On 24 January 1891, further parts of Yeerongpilly Division were excised to create Sherwood Division.
With the passage of the Local Authorities Act 1902, Sherwood became a Shire on 31 March 1903.
On 1 October 1925, the Shire of Sherwood was amalgamated into the City of Brisbane.
Chairmen and presidents
- 1900–01: Mr Sutton
- 1906: G. L. Ramsay
- 1925: C. W. Lyon
- Robert Dickson Alison Frew, noted for his development of the Milton Tennis Centre
Early history
Brisbane River
Three shipwrecked and disoriented ticket of leave convicts, Pamphlet, Finnegan and Parsons in June 1823 were walking and were diverted by the river to the mouth of Oxley Creek. The discovery of two native canoes allowed them to cross the river and journey downstream. John Oxley in December 1823 named the creek 'Canoe Creek' in recognition of the discovery, but in time it was renamed Oxley Creek.During the 1820s, the river was used by convicts to convey limestone from Limestone Hill to the penal settlement at Brisbane. From 1842, the river was the regular means of transport between Brisbane and Ipswich. The Seventeen Mile Rocks caused delays to laden vessels until the tide rose sufficiently to pass. From the 1860s, local selectors transported produce by river to Ipswich and Brisbane with tide times influencing the lifestyle of the early farmers. The steamer, 'The Fairy', provided a daily service between Brisbane and Oxley Point until 1875, when it sank when colliding with another vessel.
In 1863, a flash flood caused inconvenience to new selectors, with several, suffering the loss of belongings and equipment. Alexander Boyd, a farmer on Oxley Creek between 1864 and 1870, documented the common occurrence of high floods.The 1893 flood peaked 48 feet above the low tide mark at the Oxley Creek mouth, while upstream, the water rose 20 to 30 feet. The flooded Brisbane River destroyed houses, outbuildings along with farm animals destroying the railway bridge at Oxley Point. As a result of the flood, there was created a beach at Oxley Point, known as 'The Sands' becoming a popular swimming area.
Land features
Several hills, part of a system of low ridges extending from Spring Mountain sixteen miles to the south-west, ranged from 100 to 200 feet. Two of these hills in the now residential suburbs of Corinda and Oxley, lay close to a bend of the river downstream from Seventeen Mile Rocks. From these hills, several seasonal steams coursed towards Oxley Creek forming swamps and lagoons. The largest of these swamps was situated south of Oxley Point in present-day Chelmer. In the 1940s it was designated a municipal rubbish dump and the swamp was filled in. It lay where the current sporting grounds are now situated on the eastern side of the Chelmer Station. The hills and ridges on the southern boundary fed other streams such as Bullock Head Creek and Sandy Creek which combined to form Wolston Creek.Explorers and early selectors in the area recorded descriptions of the original flora. Oxley's made account of rich brush along the river, and the settlers of the 1860s referred to the dense scrub which clothed the river and creek banks and giant fig trees grew abundantly. The land's natural features influenced the lifestyle of the local Aborigines being from Jagarra tribe. This tribe's habitat lay along the Brisbane River, westwards almost to the Great Dividing Range. They referred to the land on either side of Oxley Creek as Bennawarra. The wildlife of swamps and attracted a section of the tribe known as Yerongapan.
Occasionally, white contact with Aborigines led to clashes. In 1828, at Seventeen Mile Rocks, Aborigines attacked a boat from Limestone Hill,, killing a soldier and a convict. In 1832, there was a massacre of a convict fishing party on the Brisbane River. By the 1860s, hostilities had ceased in the local area with white settlers being permitted to witness a corroboree near Oxley Creek. Early selectors found evidence of Aboriginal sites, believing a circular floating island in the large Oxley Point swamp was a bora ring. There were other reported areas used as borra rings one being between the Anglican Cemetery and Oxley Creek, and on the site of the Corinda railway station. Seventeen Mile Rocks at low tide provided crossing to Fig Tree Pocket for aboriginals, known to local Aborigines as Biami Yumba, 'the abode of the good spirits'.
Early exploration and settlement
The white man first exploited the local area during the convict era, extracting pine and other building materials. Between 1825 and 1829, convicts quarried a portion of Corinda Hill for sandstone, which was used in the construction of the Commissariat and Windmill in the penal colony. This quarry was located at the western point of Quarry Street. In 1851, Thomas Boyland leased land of what became the Shire, where he grazed cattle and sheep. The land became to then be known as Boyland's Pocket. After Queensland became a colony in 1859, Boyland declined and offer to purchase the land.In May 1860, the land was subdivided into 25 portions. Each portion averaged 60 acres and initially sold for £1 an acre, the area being eventually known as Oxley West. Between 1861 and 1864, 96 portions of land, were offered for sale in the area known as Oxley. In 1851, Lands Commissioner, Dr. Stephen Simpson leased 5,500 acres of land in the south-western section and purchased 640 acres where he erected his home Wolston House, near Wolston Creek. After using the property as a horse stud, he returned to England in 1860 after the death of his nephew, James Ommaney, killed when thrown from a horse while riding on the Wolston property. A hill close to where the fatality occurred was named Mt. Ommaney. Grazier, Matthew Goggs senior, purchased Simpsons holding, and enlarged it.
Following the subdivision of Oxley West, the subsequent land sale attracted both speculators and immigrant settlers. There were three categories of land purchasers during the 1860s: the speculators the immigrant; and immigrants arriving after most of the land had been sold. Speculators included Governor Bowen's secretary, John Bramston, who purchased land at Oxley Point and Charles Blakeney, Frank McDougall and Arnold Wienholt, who served in either the upper or lower houses of the colonial legislature during the 1860s, but did not reside locally.
Several immigrants paid their fare to Australia from Britain and on arrival received land orders which equaled the cost of their fares. However, the initial price of land, £1 per acre rose to £3, then to £6, thereby reducing the purchasing power of land orders. Original land purchasers such as Alexander Boyd, William Gray and Arthur Francis settled on or near elevated land now known as Corinda Hill. Despite their farming intentions, Boyd, Gray and Francis lacked experience. Having persevered, their contribution lay outside the local area: Boyd, a school inspector; Gray, a Congregational minister; and Francis, a magistrate. Other original land purchasers being the Strong and Orr families,, and the Lucock and Brodie families,, continued to earn their living in the local area as farmers. They instead chose the fertile river and creek flats.
The third category of land purchaser acquired their land from either speculators or selectors. The Berry and Sinnamon families who financed their trip from Northern Ireland, initially worked for original settlers, William Gray and William Dart. Unmarried migrants, John Donaldson assisted government surveyor John Payne and John A. Dunlop labouring for William Gray. They gained an intimate knowledge of the area, and along with the Berry and Sinnamon families and other latecomers like the Nosworthy and Trotter families they farmed the fertile land adjoining the Brisbane River and Oxley Creek.
Farming
A number of selectors intended to grow cotton, as the American civil war disrupted shipments to British cotton manufacturers, but cash crops being bananas, vegetables and citrus fruits provided a reliable income. This idea of growing cotton was probably instilled in prospective immigrants by a Mr. Henry Jordan. He was appointed by the Queensland Government as an immigration agent in England and influenced many in the British Isles to immigrate to Queensland. He resided in Sherwood and in 1890 he died being, buried at the Sherwood Cemetery. By 1870, there was an enthusiasm for growing sugar cane, as the Berry, Jimmieson, Francis and Sinnamon families established plantations along the river flats. Arthur Francis employed male and female Kanakas with Christianity forming the basis of friendly relations between himself and his plantation workers. Initially Berry and Francis constructed primitive horse driven sugar mills; with Berry's mill employing up to sixty men. Thomas Berry Junior also operated a steam driven mill.During 1872, the Oxley Creek district produced 270 tons of sugar from 244 acres of harvested cane. Only half the acreage under cane was harvested, because of the effect of severe winters and accompanying frosts. By 1874 however, a disease referred to as rust, caused problems having devastated cane crops in Southern Queensland and consequently cane farming in the Oxley Creek district waned. Local farmers, like Joseph Tainton depended on reliable cereal crops and by the 1890s, farmers had added dairying to their activities, continuing into the early 1900s. The number of farmers was 58 by 1900.
There were summer heatwaves of the 1860s which contrasted with the severe winters of the 1870s which had adversely affected cane farming. New settlers experienced the humid conditions typical of a semi-tropical climate. Thomas Berry senior noted the hot summer of 1863, when the temperature in Fahrenheit averaged 95 degrees in the shade and 135 degrees outside. There was a drought in 1877 and pressure was put on the State Government to build a water reservoir in the Sherwood area. In 1878 a reservoir was built to dam watercourses at the rear of the Oxley West State School. The most severe drought occurred between 1899 and 1902 when many of the Sinnamon family's stock perished.
The characteristics of generosity, stubbornness and self-determination were attributed to William Gray, who settled locally in 1861. This was matched by the reliability and trustworthiness of John Dunlop, an early farmer and bush carpenter. William Dart, a typical agriculturalist rose at 4 am and conscientiously worked until dark, clearing and developing his holding. Arthur M. Francis, a selector of 1863 and an acquaintance of Governor, Samuel Blackall represented the large East Moreton Electorate in the Queensland Legislative Assembly between 1867 and 1870. Francis, refused to align with either liberal or conservative political parties.
The wives of pioneers of the 1860s persevered living with their husbands initially living in tents and then later in slab huts, raising children, and assisting in the field. The tragic and depressing aspect of pioneering life involved the loss of children at birth or in the months following. This was put down to the lack of pre-natal care and the scarcity of milk which contributed to problems after the birth of a child. The loss of children in infancy had a prolonged effect on Angela Francis. She was motivated to establish a mid-wife training scheme for women in isolated areas. On another occasion, to prevent the possibility of naive female migrants succumbing to the adverse influences of urban life, Angela Francis trained several young females as governesses.
In 1863 the residents presented a petition to government signed by 30 residents, called for the construction of a bridge over Oxley Creek which had the effect of halving the distance to the Brisbane markets. The creek had recently been bridged upstream at Oxley during the construction of a new road from Ipswich to Brisbane. The government responded by building another bridge from Sherwood over Oxley Creek in 1864, one mile from its mouth and in 1865, a road linked this bridge to Rocky Waterholes. In the mid-1870s, the installation of a vehicular ferry between Oxley Point and Indooroopilly provided another avenue of land transport to Brisbane.