"River traffic by barge between Ipswich and Brisbane was sufficiently impressive to induce J.C. Pearce to establish a steam boat service in 1846; in the following year a second steamer was placed in service by Messrs Boyland and Reid.." Gordon Greenwood

Noel Lahey's grandfather David Lahey was responsible for building the timber mill at Corinda which was one of several owned by the family, the other were at Tygum (near Waterford), Hillview, Beaudesert and the most well known at Canungra.
Noel worked in the Corinda mill from 1934 to 1970. Although it was connected to electricity it was steam driven, the boilers were kept fired by the waste sawdust with the occasional need for logs as a booster. The vital piece of equipment for the boilers was the sawdust separator housed in its own building.
Sadly the sawdust separator building is one of the few remnants of the mill standing today, it's now divided up into small industrial units but has fallen into disrepair.
Some old-timers describe it as an eyesore, but it is a monument to a lifestyle that many of us have never known.
"Memories of Oxley Creek" March 1997 (Audio tape)

Laheys' Mill (Noel Lahey Family Collection)

Building the Indooroopilly/Chelmer vehicular ferry on the Banks of Oxley Creek-Corinda
at Laheys' Timber Mill in 1925 (Lahey Family Collection)

Harry describes the way the camp pie used to get down the creek and how it was packed in heavy pine cases
"...those cases had seventy two tins in them and those cases were heavy. They had a big covered ramp and in the ramp they had rollers. They'd put them up there at the bacon factory to take them right down to the creek. they used to put them on the rollers, and they had a speed roller and a slow roller otherwise they'd get too quick.
They'd go underground, they'd go right down and the men would be down there and packing them in the barge. The cases were beautifully made, pine cases, they weren't ordinary ply they were first class pine. You'd get 25 tons maximum load. They couldn't make it any bigger they had to have a certain depth in the boat otherwise they wouldn't have got up the creek.
They were especially made, these boats, the bottom was made with this flat business on them, you couldn't see, it was under water, but that's they way it was done...."

Harry Woodings has lived for 60 years in his house. He worked in the bacon factoryfrom 1928-1934 owned by Foggitt Jones, later to become Huttons and then Tancreds. The pigs for processing were brought to Oxley Station by train and herded down Blunder Road to the factory in the early hours of the morning where they were penned. Cans of camp pie were also produced by this factory. The tins packed in wooden boxes were sent down to the creek on a conveyor belt for loading onto a barge then transported down to the company warehouse at Davies Park near where Pauls factory is now situated.

Foggitt Jones Bacon Factory (Lona Gratham)

Les Wilson whose grandfather ran a timber business in the upper reaches of Oxley Creek remembers some of the early sawmills:

"....Kruger's (Mill, Riverview Road, Dinmore, now owned by Pioneer International) is still going. The mill itself is bigger and better than ever, but I was in there with a load of logs yesterday and I had more logs on the truck than what they had in the yard. I've never seen the mill so empty, and informed opinion in the timber industry here .... said they wouldn't be surprised to see them closed after Christmas because they just cannot get logs any more. Kruger's management told me yesterday that they were going over to Casino and carting logs from there now to try and get timber in the quantity they want ....
The very first mill ... Andrew Russell had a mill up here at Lyon's .... and he later shifted down to Jones's country....

He cut a lot of the timber, the first cutting of timber that came off Jimmy Everdell's country up here.... a fairly small plant but still he was operating it, a truckload a day. Franklin had quite a big mill here employing something like fifteen men. .... He shifted the mill from here to Runcorn .... But Franklin's mill took a fair slab of the timber here in the days of the earlier decades of this century... We pulled in there ... Tullys had the bulk supply to it ... They had an old solid tyre International with a trailer on it and they had a little Chev with a trailer on it, and they were doing two or three loads a day with each truck into the mill, and all big logs. Some timber would have gone out, apart from the earlier days - poles, and piles, and specialist timber like that, at good price, went out by bullock wagon to Brisbane or Ipswich or wherever - Joe Gardiner pulled a bit....."

Sand mining

George Sirett, also remembers some of the industries along the creek:
"...This was around 1934-35, up to just a few a few years ago there were some big stumps where I had cut logs 50 years before and the stumps were still standing. The big main changes that have occurred was sandmining that didn't start there until the 1970's it was all really good virgin scrub and forest until that time but once that started they ruined a lot of the creek even where the dairy farms were up at the top end.

They mostly sold out to the sandmining companies so it was sandmining nearly right down except for the military paddock that's still as it was at that time. In the military paddock alone there's nearly 10,000 acres and the rest of the creek about 70% of its been mined and like I said it is really the military paddock now, where there is the natural scrub. So just for money and royalties the whole creek, well 70% of it has been ruined I think it's a real shame myself."

Sureway Smash Repairs is located at Sherwood and employs 10 staff. In 1997 it was awarded a Green Licence by Brisbane City Council for good environmental practices.
		These practices include stormwater interception and separation interception of all runoff in the wash-down area, provision of a rainwater tank for washing and rubbing down, staff training in environmental practices, dust extractors on all grinders, spill mop-up policy (for paints and other materials), recycling of cardboard, bumper bars, headlights and metal.

Paint manufacturers Wattyl (Qld), and lockmakers Lockwood Whitco at Sherwood also are quality endorsed companies to ISO 9000. Wattyl is located beside Rocky Water Holes at Rocklea. Lockwood Whitco is located beside Oxley Creek at Sherwood. Both companies are implementing policies to minimise the impact on the environment.

	Lockwood Whitco has also begun a creek bank revegetation project on its factory property in partnership with the Brisbane City Council.

References:
Interview by Ron Tooth with George Sirett, February 1998
Interview by Jeanine Herbert with Les Wilson on 1 September 1988.
Interview by Jocelyn Clarkson with Noel Lahey and Harry Woodings, "Memories of Oxley Creek" March 1997 (Audio tape)
Know your Creek - Oxley Creek, Oxley Creek Environment Group
Gordon Greenwood (1959) in Brisbane 1859-1959: a History of Local Government, p.42

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