Gympie and District Farming – 1878 Lagoon Pocket – Part 2

This is the second part in a two part series featuring a newspaper article about the farms in the Lagoon Pocket area near Gympie.  It was published in 1878 in The Gympie Times and Mary River Gazette.  The first blog post covered the farms of James Ogden and Isaac Butler and this post covers the farms of Thomas Corley, Charles Biggers and James Leary.  You will find Part 1 here.

‘Farming in the Gympie District.

Mr: Corley’s farm — Lake View— is situated between the river and the northern boundary of Lagoon Farm. It contains 162 acres, 45 of which have been cleared and cultivated, and the whole securely fenced in ; it is divided into two paddocks, one being reserved for grazing pur-poses. This farm, like the preceding ones, has been regularly cultivated since 1870, in which year the proprietor was so unfortunate as to lose two successive crops by the floods, and was thereby much crippled financially. Subsequent opera-tions, however, happily enabled him to place himself on a firm footing. Within the last few years he has been fairly prosperous, and effected many improvements in the property, among other things having erected a very superior house at a cost of probably over £200. The produce from 40 acres of land for the past twelve months amounts to 1400 bushels of maize, 20 tons of oaten hay, 5 tons of potatoes, 2½ tons of lucerne, and ½ ton of onions, the latter being in all re-spects equal to any grown in the Colonies. For this season about 14 acres of maize have been planted, and oats and potatoes will be set as soon as the weather is sufficiently settled for that purpose. Of live stock Mr. Corley possesses 14 horses and foals, 45 head of cattle, and several pigs. At a distance of about a mile from the farm he has a selection of 250 acres of pastoral land ; and this being considerably above the highest flood-mark, a wise precaution has been taken in making it the site of the homestead, and in erecting the new dwelling-house, barn, hayshed, stables, &c., upon it.

Redbank Farm has an intermediate position, being situated between and surrounded by the other farms in the Pocket. The property con-sists of 320 acres — 45 acres agricultural and 275 acres pastoral. Mr. Biggers, the present pro-prietor, took up the agricultural portion in 1871, and has since continuously resided upon it. The ground was formerly heavily timbered, but about 28 acres have been cleared and brought under cultivation. Last year only 25 acres were planted, and some idea of the richness of the land may be formed from the fact that those produced 900 bushels of maize, 50 tons of oaten hay, 2½ tons of lucerne, and 4 tons of potatoes. For this year’s crop 18 acres of maize, 3 acres of potatoes, and 3 acres of lucerne have been planted, and it is intended to put in about 10 acres of oats in the course of a month or two. Mr. Biggers has hitherto effected the breaking up of his ground by means of a heavy wooden plough and a team of bullocks. For lighter work an iron plough is used. A new hay-shed and barn, 40 feet long by 16 feet in width and 16 feet in height, has lately been constructed, and other improvements are in contemplation, among which may be mentioned sundry sheds and a new dwelling-house. Mr. Biggers esti-mates that in 1875 he lost crops to the value of over £300 through the occurrence of the flood. Since that time, however, he has been more successful, for besides securing his title to 320 acres of land, he has managed to gather around him about 45 head of cattle and 10 head of horses.

By passing through a two-rail fence on the western extremity of Redbank Farm one is safely landed on the proporty of Mr. James Leary, which by-the-way is known, or rather not known, by the name of Hinton Farm. This farm has an area of 118 acres, 73 acres being actually owned by Mr. Lord, but rented from him by Mr. Leary. The whole is securely fenced in and divided into five separate paddocks, the larger being considered a grazing paddock. It may be stated in passing that this plan of forming the agricultural land into small pad-docks meets the approval of all the farmers in Lagoon Pocket, and only a little consideration is necessary to show the advantage of doing so, at all events in the case of farmers who combine grazing with farming. Under ordinary circum-stances when a crop is taken off a piece of ground the latter is allowed to stand some time before the next crop is put in. Meanwhile a rapid growth of grass and herbs takes place, and in a short period these become so thick as to make it impossible to plough the ground unless it be previously burnt or chipped, thus occasioning an extra amount of work, and in many instances considerable delay. On the other hand, when small paddocks are made, the owner of the land on taking off the crop from any one of them has simply to turn a few cows into it, and they will keep down both grass and herbs so effectually that the land is at any time in a fit state for the plough. Mr. Leary cultivated about 40 acres last year, from which he obtained abont 1200 bushels of maize, 10 tons of oaten hay, 3 tons of lucerne, and 10 tons of potatoes. For the cur-rent year he has 50 acres under crop— 45 acres maize, and 5 lucerne. Mr. Leary and his family have resided on their homestead since 1870, and like their neighbors have had several ups and downs in the interval, but are after all satisfied that there are worse things than farming in the universe.

On Hinton Farm much attention is paid to live stock. Twenty head of cattle have been gradually collected, including three first-class milch cows, one of which, Mrs. Leary stated, will give from three to four pounds of butter a week. There are also four heavy draught horses, four saddle horses, and several pigs on the farm. It may be stated that Mr. Leary’s plough horses carried off the first class prize at the late Show of the Gympie Agricul-tural Society. The homestead is nicely situated on a piece of rising ground overlooking the culti-vation paddocks, a well-filled barn being at the back, and a commodious hay-shed, also well filled, in front towards the left. A good stable is being erected, and other improvements cut out. Four or five men are at present employed on the farm, and there is apparently quite enough for them to do.

What strikes a stranger most forcibly on visit-ing the various farms of Lagoon Pocket is the air of contentment which appears to pervade the whole place, and he might therefore naturally suppose that the farmers were not only well satisfied with their prosperity, but really had no grounds for complaint. In this, however, he would be grievously mistaken. As a matter of fact, the farmers have had a smouldering fire in their midst for some time past, and this has very nearly been fanned into a flame by the continued neglect with which they have been treated by the Roads Department. At the present moment they have actually no road for bringing their produce to market. It seems that the old road surveyed by Mr. Clarendon Stuart was summar-ily condemned by both Mr. Bragg and Mr. Ballanger as impracticable, and has since been enclosed by the settlers. Six or seven months ago Mr. Ballanger marked a new road through a part of one of Mr. Ogden’s selections, and it was con-sidered by all practically interested that when properly made it would be suitable for all re-quired purposes. Mr. Bragg himself inspected the line and approved of it, and at the same time made it to be understood that the road would be formed without further delay. Some months have passed away, and the farmers in the meantime have been obliged to fall back upon an old bush track, but this is in such a bad condition that a double team of horses is re-quired for only half the usual load, and even then there is much danger of meeting with acci-dents by coming into collision with trees. In order to make use of this “makeshift” it is moreover necessary to pass through no less than four sets of slip rails. At the time of the Hon. Mr. Miles’ visit to Gympie a deputation of the residents of the Pocket waited upon him, and fairly represented the matter to him. He pro-mised to look into it and see that it was done at once. No action has been taken, and since the rains set in the track is daily becoming worse, and it will soon be a matter of serious inconve-nience to the people of Gympie as well as those of Lagoon Pocket if something is not speedily done to enable the produce to come in. At the Long Flat a road party is engaged in making repairs which are not nearly so urgently required as the making of the piece of road leading into Lagoon Pocket. Why not send this party out to do something absolutely necessary instead of allowing it to potter away at jobs which may be done at any time ?”

Update: It appears that James Leary died from Broncho-pneumonia on the 11th of September 1883 and only 7 days prior, his wife Charlotte had also died from the same condition.  They were both buried at the Tozer St, Gympie Cemetery.   Charles Biggers died at Goodna in 1895.   Thomas Corley died in 1900 and is buried at the Gympie Cemetery. 

 This story was compiled by Kathy Punter.

Sources:  Trove; GFHS Research Collection; Gympie Cemetery Trust; Google Maps; Ancestry Trees;