A History of "Mary's Creek" Along the "Bird Trails of Cooloola"
A HISTORY OF MARY’S CREEK The Mary’s Creek Area consists of flat to undulating hills in Forest Country in the lower land, into very hilly mountainous Scrub Country, then into State Forestry Pine Plantations. There is still virgin scrub on these properties. This makes the area a haven for birdlife.
In the early years the lower country was all Dairy Properties, the higher scrub country was selective cleared for timber and Bananas.
Five generations of the Long Family have lived and worked the land, still to this day. Grandfather Long owned a block and his son, Bill Long bought blocks for bananas when “Maryland” owned by Vic. Cross, was put up for auction in 1925, buying the remainder of blocks as they were put up for sale.
This was very rough land, huge rocks, steep gullies and steep mountains, clearing was done with axes, and rubbish burned ready for planting, but bananas grew well.
There were two case mills in Mary’s Creek to saw logs for cases for transporting packed bananas to market.
The Red Cedar, Silky oak and good furniture timbers, where hauled out with bullock teams by Grandfather Anderson, his wife and family lived at the lower end of Mary’s Creek. Grandfather made beautiful furniture which is still in use. Ada May Anderson Married William Edward Long in 1929, They built a house on the new blocks, and had five children.
Australia was again at war in 1939. There was a training camp at the Showgrounds and when the soldiers were on route marches and came down Mary’s Creek Road out of the forestry the young boys of the family sold them fresh milk to drink, all the farms had some dairy cattle, milked by hand, separated for cream to make butter, and the separated milk fed to the pigs.
During the war years, with not enough men left at home to work the farms, the Land Army was formed with willing Women prepared to work on the land.
The labour problem was largely solved by Italian prisoners of war. These were prisoners captured in Egypt early in the war and taken to India. When the Japanese approached India the Italians were shipped to Australia. They were regarded as low risk prisoners and the Australian Government allowed farmers to employ them as labourers.
Most of the farms in this area had two or three Italians at work. They were provided with food and lodgings. There is still an Italian Shed on this farm that has been kept maintained over the years. At the end of the war many prisoners asked to be allowed to remain on the farms, but the government refused their requests. After returning to Italy, many of the Italian workers returned to Australia to rebuild their lives.
When the bananas were mature the large bunches were cut, secured to wires on a Flying Fox at a landing built up at the banana patch, (“Flying Fox” was a Structure with many steel wires attached at the top landing, and down onto another landing stage at the packing Shed.) This was quite a long way down the mountain, so they gained speed on the way down. There was a rope attached to catch to use as a brake to slow down the bunch, or it would slam into the landing. They were then cut down ready to be packed. The eventual collapse of the Banana Industry was caused by oversupply and disease through imports from Fiji.
After the collapse of the bananas, they bought land on the opposite side of the road and moved the house across the road to where it now stands, this land also had to cleared, to grow small crops, and continue dairying, they enlarged the herd, building a new milking shed next to the road, and putting in milking machines, saved carting cream down to the carrier. This building is still standing, another photography site.
After the death of Bill his son Lawrie bought the home farms, joining them to the original Vic. Cross property which he had previously bought, then extending into the two blocks across the road when they went on the market. As the children of the families grew older with the passing years, the farms turned to dairying. As the hilly steep country was mostly out of frost level it was very suitable for growing small-crops.
Citrus Orchards, Tree crops, Pawpaws, potatoes, pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, were some vegetables grown for the local and Interstate Markets.
Beans are the main small crops grown at the present time on these properties. With the decline in dairying, farmers converted to Beef cattle, and some farmers in the district are growing tree crops.
References – Winds of Change. Widgee Shire 100 Years by Ian Pedley. Longing for The Chatsworth by Dennis Long and The Long Family. Memories of Lawrie and Anne Long.
The earliest reference to Mary's Creek being used as the name of the creek is on a survey plan dated 1918 – LX940. The relevant part of this survey plan is shown below.
The earliest reference to the use of Mary's Creek as a place name was on a 1 mile to the inch military topography map – Cooroy dated 1942, the relevant part shown below. It does not show a creek named Marys Creek. The “T “reference near Mary’s Creek is shown to indicate that it is a Post and Telegraph office.
A 1979 Parish map for the Parish of Glastonbury shows both the name on a creek and a locality name as shown below. Qld State Archives may hold earlier parish maps of Glastonbury that could be checked for any references to Marys Creek.
Information & Maps courtesy of Kaye Nardella Senior Curator, Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying Land and Spatial Information, Department of Natural Resources and Mines
Some Further History Of Mary's Creek (Refer Mapping Above) (Information Courtesy of Gympie Regional Libraries)
There is no firm evidence of who Mary’s Creek is named after. A Skyring family story tells that it is named after one of the daughters of Zachariah and Amelia who was born in 1863. It is curious that Mary Louisa Eliza Ann Skyring, who married Ernest William Cross in 1887, had a block of land at the head of Mary’s Creek Rd in 1924. The Skyring family were some of the first settlers in the area of Eel Creek in around 1869. At that stage the land would have been dense scrub that was cleared for cropping and cattle.
The earliest mention of Mary’s Creek in newspapers occurs in 1922. A survey map from 1918 shows the creek named Mary’s Creek. The AF lease No. 1386 which was the property of Mary Cross and her husband appears on an 1890 map but there is no mention of Mary’s Creek at this stage. In 1892/3 Widgee Shire Valuation Registers the Cross’s owned this parcel of land. Zachariah Skyring owned much of the land around it in 1892.
Timber Reserves were part of the area from at least the mid 1800’s. On an 1890 map the reserve that Mary’s Creek Road runs up to is shown as a cancelled timber reserve. This reserve must have been reinstated or became State Forest at a later date as timber operations were run from there in the 1930’s and 40’s. There were temporary forestry camps and then later permanent camps in the Mary’s Creek area.
There is mention of pine tree plantation beginning in the State Forest in this area in the 1930’s. In 1936 Forestry Department contracted H. Dorman to brush part of the reserve ready for the planting of pine trees. Mary’s Creek Sawmill was run sometime through the 1930’s by firstly Oscar Bonney and J Burns and then later by a Mr Pratt. In September 1936 a newspaper report in the Courier Mail boasts 100 000 superficial feet of timber removed from State Forests in the area for various sawmills.
There must have been a thriving community in the 1930’s as there are references to a Tennis Club and other social events. There was a Christmas event at Mr Cross’s farm in 1934 and a dance at the Mary’s Creek Tennis Club in 1936. Farming became more relevant to the community in the 1920’s. There are newspaper references for the growing of fruit such as bananas, pawpaws, pineapples and citrus. Crops such as lucerne and maize were also grown. In the 1930’s beans were grown as well. In the early 1930’s there was much debate about opening up the forestry reserves for settlement and agriculture.
References - Kerr, J. (1998) ‘Forest Industry Heritage Places Study: Sawmills and Tramways South Eastern Queensland’. 1936 ‘(no heading)’, The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld.: 1933 – 1954), 14 July, p. 25, viewed 29 May, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page1965720 1947’(no Heading)’, Worker (Brisbane, Qld.: 1890 – 1955), 4 August, p.7, viewed 29 May, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page6773544 1947 ‘(no heading)’, Queensland Country Life (Qld.: 1900 – 1954), 10 July, p. 10, viewed 29 May, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page10359801 1934 ‘(no heading)’, The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld.: 1933 – 1954), 27 December, p. 18, viewed 29 May, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page1954505 1936 ‘(no heading)’, The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld.: 1933 – 1954), 9 September, p. 10, viewed 29 May, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page1966985 1937 ‘(No heading)’, The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld.: 1933 – 1954), 17 May, p. 10, viewed 29 May, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page1972327 1931 ‘(No heading)’, The Brisbane Courier (Qld.: 1864 – 1933), 11 March, p. 9, viewed 29 May, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page1680106 1902 ‘(No heading)’, Gympie Times and Mary River Mining Gazette (Qld.: 1868 – 1919), p. 4, viewed 29 May, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page19128242 1875 ‘Land Settlement in the Gympie District’, Gympie Times and the Mary River Mining Gazette (Qld.: 1868 – 1919), 16 October, p. 3, viewed 29 May, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168907971 1878 ‘Farming in the Gympie District’, Gympie and Mary River Mining Gazette (Qld.: 1868 – 1919), 13 March, p. 3, viewed 29 May, 2015, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168611605
Some Earlier History of Mary's Creek (Information Courtesy of Gympie Regional Libraries)
This article was written by Clarice Tuck from the recollections of Zachariah Daniel Sparks Skyring’s two surviving daughters, Mrs Ivy Bayliss and Mrs Adele Woolgar, and surviving son, Mr Zachariah Clarence Skyring of their fathers memories. This article was written October 1976