Oxley - Settlement

Oxley Creek Fact File Menu

Settlement

Main menu text below

Part of map from Aboriginal Pathways (Steele)

Typical timber cutter's camp

Early subdivisions in Sherwood

First government school - West Oxley

Towing the ferry from Lahey's mill down the Oxley Creek, 1925

Building the ferry in Lahey's timber mill

Construction of Albert Railway bridge at Indooroopilly.

Upper Oxley Creek

Mouth of Oxley Creek at Brisbane River

It has been suggested that nearby Old Logan Road was originally an "Aboriginal Pathway" giving access to Brisbane, Ipswich, Upper Oxley Creek and Logan districts. John Steele quotes Meston's view that Oxley Creek was part of the territory of the Yerongpan people of the Browns Plains area, but considers that they were one and the same with the Yerongpan people who, according to Lauterer, "occupied the sandy country" between Brisbane and Ipswich.(1)

Pamphlett, Finnegan and Parsons, the lost "ticket of leave" convicts, travelled up the Brisbane River and found Oxley Creek in June 1823.
They returned downstream and headed north. Parsons reached the Noosa area, while the others stopped at Bribie Island where they met up with local Aborigines.
Finnegan was away from camp with the elders when a cutter in full sail entered the bay on 29th November 1823. The ship's boat landed NSW Surveyor General, John Oxley and Lieutenant Stirling of the Buffs 3rd Regiment. Finnegan returned the next day and on 1st December departed with Oxley's party to locate the river which Oxley then named the Brisbane. They travelled up the Brisbane River and when they arrived at the creek, Oxley noted it in his diary as Canoe River. The name eventually evolved into Oxley's/Oxley Creek. (1, 2)

The first European land use around Oxley Creek was timbergetting. From 1826 to about 1839 convicts from Brisbane Town conducted a pitsaw outpost near the mouth of Oxley Creek. Timber felled (along the creek and nearby) was cut with crosscut saws in a pit and used for buildings.
Convicts also built the original Brisbane to Ipswich Road in 1826 (which took a different route to the present road). The piles of the convict built bridge over Oxley Creek are still visible.
The colony was opened up for free settlement in 1842. From this time up until 1859 when Queensland achieved separation from New South Wales, the (future) Sherwood Shire was largely in the hands of two men - Dr Stephen Simpson and Thomas Boyland. They used the land for grazing.The dominance of spear grass rendered the area unsuitable for sheep and horse breeding which had been originally intended. (2,3,4)

In 1852, Thomas Boyland (referred to by some as Captain Boyland) received a packet licence for the steamship "Hawk" which he acquired from Messrs John Boyland and James Reid. Thomas was granted a pastoral lease by the NSW Government in 1851. It was bounded by Oxley Creek on the east. Controversy reigns over its actual boundaries to the north. Some say it ran to the river at Chelmer, others only to Sherwood near Hall Street. It continued through Corinda and Oxley and may have extended as far south as the Blunder and west to Darra.
As all official NSW records for Queensland prior ro separation are stored in the Mitchell Library in Sydney, research is ongoing.
The lease known as "Boyland's Pocket" or "run" (all leases were called "runs" at that time), was used for pastoral purposes. (1,2,3).

After 1842 there was a period when large blocks of land were leased or rented. This was the pastoral era of huge sheep runs. In the upper reaches of Oxley Creek, for example, between the 1840s and 1860s, William Norris leased over 7,000 hectares from the Logan River to Oxley Creek. His run was named Mun Rubens. Norris was born in Cambridge, England. Aged 16 years in 1838, he was indentured to Charles Wray Finch of NSW as a shepherd, for which he was paid One Pound a week plus victuals. Within a couple of years he was able to take up the above land. With closer settlement, land in the Oxley Creek catchment was broken up into smaller parcels. In 1869, 1488 acres of land on Oxley Creek was surveyed as the Paradise Run which was to be rented by a Mr. Dring (Catalogue M3370 Sunmap). Others said to have had large holdings were James Chambers with 6069 acres (1851), James Fitzgerald, William Slack, James Rankin, James England, James Ivory, Thomas Grenier, Thomas Boyland and Mark Cockerell, all leasing land on or near Oxley Creek. Some of these names, today, are familiar not just in the Oxley Creek catchment but next door at the Logan - Chamber's Flat, Slack's Creek. (1)

Farmers settled after Separation
Up until 1864, the district was divided up into farms of 30-40 acres, for sale at approximatley 1 pound per acre. Most original settlers were agriculturalists who cleared the scrub for crops which they transported to market in Brisbane and Ipswich via Oxley Creek and the Brisbane River. Maize, cotton, sugar cane, fodder crops, root crops and bananas were grown.
A sugar industry was established in the late 1860's - there were four primitive sugar mills in the area with ironbark rollers and operated with a horse gear. Other early processing in the area included a cotton ginning mill in Corinda and an arrowroot mill in Rocklea. The Freney family established a homestead in 1851 in what is now the suburb of Willawong. They mined sand and gravel from the creek, the first recorded use of what would later become a major industry in the catchment.
The first official government school was established in the area in 1867, was known as the West Oxley School. It was located in Sherwood Road, Sherwood and had 117 students. Aboriginal people still lived throughout the catchment area. John Moffat, the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages in the area, recorded personally seeing 600 Aborigines congregated at Oxley Creek on occasion. (2,4)

Creek used for transportation and
the railway brings more people
The 1870s brought the railways to the catchment area and with it, an increase in urban development. Farm land was becoming more valuable, as residential land, shops and services began to proliferate in the suburbs of Oxley, Chelmer, Graceville, Sherwood and Corinda. Winter weather had destroyed the sugar industry and the heavy labour costs of cotton production made it unfeasible. Farmers concentrated their efforts on grazing, dairying and poultry and egg production by the early 1900s. Chinese market gardeners farmed the land near a wooden bridge at Boundary Road over Stable Swamp Creek. This use continued until the 1950s.
The first train line from Ipswich to Sherwood opened on 5th October 1874 and was extended to Oxley Point with the building of the cross-river rail bridge (which later washed away in the 1893 flood). It provided for passengers and goods but there was still no bridge for general traffic.
A ferry ran from Oxley point downstream to Brisbane. it may have called in at Indooroopilly, however it sank after a collision.
The Chelmer to Indooroopilly ferry punt ran cross-river until 1925 when a proper ferry built at Lahey's timber mill at Corinda took over the service. It was discontinued in 1936 when the Walter Taylor Toll Bridge (funded by a listing on the Brisbane Stock Exchange) was opened. It was built upstream of the replacement 'Albert' rail bridge.(2,4)

Because of the Depression in the 1930's, people with little or no money learnt how to survive and support in some instances large families. Vegetables, fruit trees and poultry were grown in backyards and an exchange of excess produce and home cooking created a supportive and caring community.
The flood of 1931 shows changes in the community as although the area was still sparsely settled, houses were being built along Oxley Road.
The post war building boom of the fifties and the cutting up of much low lying ground in the sixties to satisfy the demand for cheaper available land, saw the population in the lower reaches of Oxley Creek increase rapidly. With all these changes came industry, the Brisbane Markets on Sherwood Road, Rocklea, more services and improved commercial and retail outlets.(2)

In the earliest days of white settlement, much of this catchment was known as Oxley Creek although parts would later become known as Cowper's Plains. Today the catchment includes the suburbs of Moorooka, Yeerongpilly, Tennyson, Rocklea, Graceville, Archerfield, Willawong, Sherwood, Corinda, Oxley, Durack, Inala, Richlands, Doolandella, Forest Lake, Pallara, Larapinta, Algester, Acacia Ridge, Calamvale, Heathwood, Forestdale, Greenbank, Parkinson, and the new suburban subdivisions around Undullah.
>Below Edwards Bridge over Oxley Creek is the Greenbank Military Camp which was established as a Reserve c.1951/52. During World War II, the site was an American Army Transport and Munitions Centre. It would appear that the land was taken up from the Crown by William Moody, although later maps indicate that it was held by W.E. Murphy. Oxley Creek traverses this large block of land, which was also crossed by Paradise Road. It was reported in recent years that an Aboriginal Land Claim has been lodged in respect of this area.(1)

Pamphlett Bridge, across Oxley Creek at Graceville to Tennyson on land previously donated by local people, was built in 1964.
By 1974, the increase in population post-war and up to this date, saw houses built on low land that in the previous major flood would have been just used to graze cattle or grow crops. Quite a lot of areas near the creek had been used as dumps over the years and then filled either for parks or housing. The building boom meant even less open ground was available to absorb the increased stormwater runoff from buildings and houses. This, in turn, contributed to the widespread flooding in 1974.
The small remaining pockets of bushland in the upper reaches of Oxley Creek are threatened buy future housing subdivisions. The surrounding naturally vegetated area in the south west which although not all original, inevitably will disappear, as these last undeveloped sections are to be included in a planned major industrial corridor.(2)

References
(1) Libby Wager, Wagers Ageless Series
(2) Jocelyn Clarkson
(3) Ralph Fones
(4) Oxley Creek Display
Harry Pugsley, in the Courier Mail Colour Supplement on 14 Aug 1977
Rocklea State School Centenary 1885-1985, Tapestry of Time
J.G. Steele, 1983, Aboriginal Pathways in Southeast Queensland and the Richmond River, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press.
Moreton Bay Courier
"Romance of the Bremer" M.B. Mills
"God's Acre - Grenier Cemetery", Lona Grantham & Effie Johnson

BRISBANE STORIES HOME | BRISBANE STORIES CONTENTS | BRISBANE STORIES TOURS

A Brisbane City Council / Community web site
Inquiries: info@brisbane-stories.webcentral.com.au

	Part of map from Aboriginal Pathways (Steele) Typical timber cutter's camp Early subdivisions in Sherwood First government school - West Oxley Towing the ferry from Lahey's mill down the Oxley Creek, 1925 Building the ferry in Lahey's timber mill Construction of Albert Railway bridge at Indooroopilly. Upper Oxley Creek Mouth of Oxley Creek at Brisbane River		It has been suggested that nearby Old Logan Road was originally an "Aboriginal Pathway" giving access to Brisbane, Ipswich, Upper Oxley Creek and Logan districts. John Steele quotes Meston's view that Oxley Creek was part of the territory of the Yerongpan people of the Browns Plains area, but considers that they were one and the same with the Yerongpan people who, according to Lauterer, "occupied the sandy country" between Brisbane and Ipswich.(1) Pamphlett, Finnegan and Parsons, the lost "ticket of leave" convicts, travelled up the Brisbane River and found Oxley Creek in June 1823. They returned downstream and headed north. Parsons reached the Noosa area, while the others stopped at Bribie Island where they met up with local Aborigines. Finnegan was away from camp with the elders when a cutter in full sail entered the bay on 29th November 1823. The ship's boat landed NSW Surveyor General, John Oxley and Lieutenant Stirling of the Buffs 3rd Regiment. Finnegan returned the next day and on 1st December departed with Oxley's party to locate the river which Oxley then named the Brisbane. They travelled up the Brisbane River and when they arrived at the creek, Oxley noted it in his diary as Canoe River. The name eventually evolved into Oxley's/Oxley Creek. (1, 2) The first European land use around Oxley Creek was timbergetting. From 1826 to about 1839 convicts from Brisbane Town conducted a pitsaw outpost near the mouth of Oxley Creek. Timber felled (along the creek and nearby) was cut with crosscut saws in a pit and used for buildings. Convicts also built the original Brisbane to Ipswich Road in 1826 (which took a different route to the present road). The piles of the convict built bridge over Oxley Creek are still visible. The colony was opened up for free settlement in 1842. From this time up until 1859 when Queensland achieved separation from New South Wales, the (future) Sherwood Shire was largely in the hands of two men - Dr Stephen Simpson and Thomas Boyland. They used the land for grazing.The dominance of spear grass rendered the area unsuitable for sheep and horse breeding which had been originally intended. (2,3,4) In 1852, Thomas Boyland (referred to by some as Captain Boyland) received a packet licence for the steamship "Hawk" which he acquired from Messrs John Boyland and James Reid. Thomas was granted a pastoral lease by the NSW Government in 1851. It was bounded by Oxley Creek on the east. Controversy reigns over its actual boundaries to the north. Some say it ran to the river at Chelmer, others only to Sherwood near Hall Street. It continued through Corinda and Oxley and may have extended as far south as the Blunder and west to Darra. As all official NSW records for Queensland prior ro separation are stored in the Mitchell Library in Sydney, research is ongoing. The lease known as "Boyland's Pocket" or "run" (all leases were called "runs" at that time), was used for pastoral purposes. (1,2,3). After 1842 there was a period when large blocks of land were leased or rented. This was the pastoral era of huge sheep runs. In the upper reaches of Oxley Creek, for example, between the 1840s and 1860s, William Norris leased over 7,000 hectares from the Logan River to Oxley Creek. His run was named Mun Rubens. Norris was born in Cambridge, England. Aged 16 years in 1838, he was indentured to Charles Wray Finch of NSW as a shepherd, for which he was paid One Pound a week plus victuals. Within a couple of years he was able to take up the above land. With closer settlement, land in the Oxley Creek catchment was broken up into smaller parcels. In 1869, 1488 acres of land on Oxley Creek was surveyed as the Paradise Run which was to be rented by a Mr. Dring (Catalogue M3370 Sunmap). Others said to have had large holdings were James Chambers with 6069 acres (1851), James Fitzgerald, William Slack, James Rankin, James England, James Ivory, Thomas Grenier, Thomas Boyland and Mark Cockerell, all leasing land on or near Oxley Creek. Some of these names, today, are familiar not just in the Oxley Creek catchment but next door at the Logan - Chamber's Flat, Slack's Creek. (1) Farmers settled after Separation Up until 1864, the district was divided up into farms of 30-40 acres, for sale at approximatley 1 pound per acre. Most original settlers were agriculturalists who cleared the scrub for crops which they transported to market in Brisbane and Ipswich via Oxley Creek and the Brisbane River. Maize, cotton, sugar cane, fodder crops, root crops and bananas were grown. A sugar industry was established in the late 1860's - there were four primitive sugar mills in the area with ironbark rollers and operated with a horse gear. Other early processing in the area included a cotton ginning mill in Corinda and an arrowroot mill in Rocklea. The Freney family established a homestead in 1851 in what is now the suburb of Willawong. They mined sand and gravel from the creek, the first recorded use of what would later become a major industry in the catchment. The first official government school was established in the area in 1867, was known as the West Oxley School. It was located in Sherwood Road, Sherwood and had 117 students. Aboriginal people still lived throughout the catchment area. John Moffat, the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages in the area, recorded personally seeing 600 Aborigines congregated at Oxley Creek on occasion. (2,4) Creek used for transportation and the railway brings more people The 1870s brought the railways to the catchment area and with it, an increase in urban development. Farm land was becoming more valuable, as residential land, shops and services began to proliferate in the suburbs of Oxley, Chelmer, Graceville, Sherwood and Corinda. Winter weather had destroyed the sugar industry and the heavy labour costs of cotton production made it unfeasible. Farmers concentrated their efforts on grazing, dairying and poultry and egg production by the early 1900s. Chinese market gardeners farmed the land near a wooden bridge at Boundary Road over Stable Swamp Creek. This use continued until the 1950s. The first train line from Ipswich to Sherwood opened on 5th October 1874 and was extended to Oxley Point with the building of the cross-river rail bridge (which later washed away in the 1893 flood). It provided for passengers and goods but there was still no bridge for general traffic. A ferry ran from Oxley point downstream to Brisbane. it may have called in at Indooroopilly, however it sank after a collision. The Chelmer to Indooroopilly ferry punt ran cross-river until 1925 when a proper ferry built at Lahey's timber mill at Corinda took over the service. It was discontinued in 1936 when the Walter Taylor Toll Bridge (funded by a listing on the Brisbane Stock Exchange) was opened. It was built upstream of the replacement 'Albert' rail bridge.(2,4) Because of the Depression in the 1930's, people with little or no money learnt how to survive and support in some instances large families. Vegetables, fruit trees and poultry were grown in backyards and an exchange of excess produce and home cooking created a supportive and caring community. The flood of 1931 shows changes in the community as although the area was still sparsely settled, houses were being built along Oxley Road. The post war building boom of the fifties and the cutting up of much low lying ground in the sixties to satisfy the demand for cheaper available land, saw the population in the lower reaches of Oxley Creek increase rapidly. With all these changes came industry, the Brisbane Markets on Sherwood Road, Rocklea, more services and improved commercial and retail outlets.(2) In the earliest days of white settlement, much of this catchment was known as Oxley Creek although parts would later become known as Cowper's Plains. Today the catchment includes the suburbs of Moorooka, Yeerongpilly, Tennyson, Rocklea, Graceville, Archerfield, Willawong, Sherwood, Corinda, Oxley, Durack, Inala, Richlands, Doolandella, Forest Lake, Pallara, Larapinta, Algester, Acacia Ridge, Calamvale, Heathwood, Forestdale, Greenbank, Parkinson, and the new suburban subdivisions around Undullah. >Below Edwards Bridge over Oxley Creek is the Greenbank Military Camp which was established as a Reserve c.1951/52. During World War II, the site was an American Army Transport and Munitions Centre. It would appear that the land was taken up from the Crown by William Moody, although later maps indicate that it was held by W.E. Murphy. Oxley Creek traverses this large block of land, which was also crossed by Paradise Road. It was reported in recent years that an Aboriginal Land Claim has been lodged in respect of this area.(1) Pamphlett Bridge, across Oxley Creek at Graceville to Tennyson on land previously donated by local people, was built in 1964. By 1974, the increase in population post-war and up to this date, saw houses built on low land that in the previous major flood would have been just used to graze cattle or grow crops. Quite a lot of areas near the creek had been used as dumps over the years and then filled either for parks or housing. The building boom meant even less open ground was available to absorb the increased stormwater runoff from buildings and houses. This, in turn, contributed to the widespread flooding in 1974. The small remaining pockets of bushland in the upper reaches of Oxley Creek are threatened buy future housing subdivisions. The surrounding naturally vegetated area in the south west which although not all original, inevitably will disappear, as these last undeveloped sections are to be included in a planned major industrial corridor.(2)