his story is Part 3 of a 3 part series about the Farming and Grazing in the Kilkivan area.  The Article was published over several weeks in The Gympie Times and Mary River Mining Gazette and we will also publish the stories in several parts with this third part features the farms of Kitt, Ortt, Spencer, Woolmaushauser, McCarroll, Angel.   You can find Part 1 of the story here and Part 2 here

“GYMPIE AND DISTRICT FARMING AND GRAZING.
No XXIII.
-— (By Our Special Reporter).
Kilklvan District

“After crossing the Serpentine Creek and proceeding along the Kilkivan-road for about a mile and a-half or two miles, a nice patch of cultivation indicates that I had reached another farm. On arrival at the house I was welcomed by our old friend, Mr. George Kitt and his brothers Herbert, Harold, and Henry, who are pulling to-gether, as brothers should do, to make “Viviana Farm’ a success. Out of the 750 acres, which the property consists of, it is estimated that there were 250 acres of scrub, of which 150 acres have been felled; leaving the bottle trees, for these were the salvation of many of the cattle during the late severe drought. Considerable energy has been displayed by the four brothers since the land was selected, as besides the clearing mentioned above, 32 acres, part scrub, but mostly forest land, have been stumped, ploughed, and put under crop.

Seven acres of lucerne are cut in summer for hay, but in the winter are grazed by the milking cows and pigs. A fine crop of sor-ghum which covers an acre and a-half is be-ing cut for winter green feed: one acre is this season devoted to swede turnips, and last year this crop was sown in February, the roots being fed to the pigs as far into the summer as Christmas; another acre is under sugar-beet, which the pigs prefer to any other food; 14 to 15 acres have been growing maize (Golden King and Hawkes-bury Champion) yielding on an average 30 bushels to the acre, for the season has not been too good for this crop; the rye is just showing above the ground, and seven acres were being sown with oats, which area will be doubled after the last of the corn is pulled; 25 acres of the newly felled scrub are covered with a fine crop of pumpkins, and 60 acres of the same class of land, but felled longer, will be brushed in the spring, and after being burnt off, sown with paspa-lum and prairie grass seeds. Unfortunate-ly, there was evidence that the winter rust which caused such destruction to the oat crops two years ago, is still with us, for some self sown oats that had come up ear-ly were quite red with it.

The crops grown show that considerable attention is paid to pig raising and the number now on the farm, which includes nine breeding sows will be shortly very much increased. Twenty eight baconers were sent away to the Zill-mere Bacon Factory during the first three months of this year. The dairy herd con-sists of 62 head, and the cows are presided over by a grade Jersey-Ayrshire bull; bred by Mr. S. L. Hester; sixteen out of the 30 milkers are put through the bails night and morning. The cows in milk averaged 15lbs. of cream each per week since Christ-mas last. The night paddock is felled scrub ground that was sown two years ago with paspalum and prairie grasses, among which the native couch is growing.

During the drought a large amount of time was oc-cupied in cutting down bottle trees, which were afterwards split open with the axe, to feed the cattle, yet in spite of this 30 head died, and the losses from redwater included 14 of the best milking cows, 2 pure bred Ayrshire bulls, besides some youngsters. Ticks have been seldom seen on the cattle in the past season and they have only been dipped twice, but during the previous year they were dipped every nine days for 4 or 5 months in order to check the pest. The dip, which is a cage one,-constructed on the principal introduced by Mr. W. H. Dureitz, cost Messrs. Kitt only £2 for bolts and wire rope, all the other parts, together with the sinking, and puddling, being done by themselves. I was assured that two of the brothers had put through 78 head of full grown bush cattle in 2½ hours, and this time could have been reduced if there had been a draining yard. Among the imple-ments are a single disc plough that will bury the corn stalks after they are rolled down, a two-horse mower, spring tooth sul-ky cultivator, and a two-knife chaff cutter driven by a new two horse-gear.

Adjoining Messrs. Kitt’s is the grazing farm, consisting of 750 acres, owned by Mr. Joseph Angel, who is doing a good butcher-ing business in Kilkivan and the surround-ing district. The butcher’s shop is situated in the township, but the slaughteryard, boiling down pots, etc., are on the place under review. The land, which is all fenced and subdivided into three paddocks, is characterised by good sound rolling ridges, partly ringbarked. The terms under which this grazing farm is held are a lease from the Government for a period of 30 years (15 of which have yet to run) and the an-nual rent is only £3 3s 4d. Independently of the fat stock required for killing, Mr. Angel has running in the paddocks 80 head of cattle, 100 sheep, and 100 pigs.

After leaving Mr. Angel’s fence the road runs past the Racecourse, crosses Fat Hen Creek, and then enters on the Kilkivan Goldfield: the two freeholds nearest the township on this side being owned respect-ively by Messrs. G. Ortt and Sons and by Messrs. Spencer Bros. Mr. and Mrs. Spen-cer, senior, arrived at Kilkivan in 1868 when travelling from New South Wales to the Gympie diggings, but hearing that gold had been found in what is now known as West Coast Creek, and that the prospectors had gone into Gympie to apply for a reward claim, it was decided to stay where they were and to cast in their lot with the new rush.

Mr. Robert Hunter, who is now living on the bank of the One Mile Creek, arrived on the same day as Mr. and Mrs. Spencer, and Mr. and Mrs. Angel, senior, came onto the diggings just about the same time. These are the three oldest families on Kilkivan to-day, though Mr. Spencer and Mr. and Mrs. Angel have passed over to the great major-ity. During a chat with Mrs. Spencer, she said that not very much alluvial gold was got— although nuggets up to 70ozs. were found occasionally— and none of the men made good rises. “A few hundred pounds was not considered much in those days, and very few of the diggers made more than enough for a good spree. Mr. Spencer did not do much digging, but got together some cows and settling down on the land, at pre-sent owned by his sons, selling milk, which then brought 8d. per quart. Flour was at that time £5 a bag, and a full bag could not always be obtained even at that price.

Messrs. Spencer Bros, are now engaged tim-ber getting and grazing, and own alto-gether about 3,500 acres of land, mostly black soil ridges and flats. They are still breeding up, as the 300 head of cattle do not by any means fully stock the country, but still they manage to turn off from 40 to 50 fats a year. The old shorthorn herd is now being crossed with Devon bulls and though I did not se any of the stock, good judges informed me that they are nice cat-tle. This cross is one of the best to ob-tain good bullocks, for they are good “doers,” for although they may appear not as large as either the Shorthorn or Here-ford, they are compact and thick, and kill well. Not far from the house are a few acres of cultivation, the crops from which are utilized for feed, and it was largely on account of having the barn full of hay that only 3½ per cent of the cattle died during the drought. Still the hay by itself was not sufficient to keep the stock alive during this long trying time, so it was supple-mented by lopping the branches from the river oaks growing on the banks of the creek.

As a precaution against an outbreak of redwater arrangements were made with Mr. Cutler, the Government expert, when he was in the district some years ago to in-oculate all the cattle, the blood being ob-tained from Mr. C. J. Booker’s bleeder. The deaths directly due to inoculation are estimated at 3 per cent, but during the suc-ceeding years one or two have died now and then : the total losses from the redwater disease not reaching ten per cent of the whole herd. The cage dip on this property is very well planned, being an improvement on that put down by Messrs. Kitt Bros. It is arranged as that the whole of the com-pensating weight of the lever can be raised by means of the wire rope used for lifting the cage. This enables one man to work the dip, should occasion arise and to lower the cage sufficiently to total-ly submerge the beast therein.

Rather near-er the township and away over towards “Old Kilkivan,” Mr. George Woolmashauser has a Miner’s Homestead holding where he is dairying; the cream being sent away by rail to the factory. Information was gath-ered that he is milking about 34 cows gen-erally, and does not do much cultivation. Mr. Alexander McCarroll is also dairying on the ‘Old Diggings,” though he owns a se-lection on the upper waters of Wide Bay Creek.

Messrs. G. Ortt and Sons have a nice property of 650 acres with a long frontage to Fat Hen Creek. The fine new house that was erected a few years ago stands on a moderately elevated site over half-a-mile from the road, but as all the timber has been cleared for some distances on both sides of the track, a very fine view is obtained over their own land, across the black soil flats and ridges on the goldfield to the range at the back of the town. All the land is fenced and subdivided into paddocks suitable for working the place economically. At present Mr. James Ortt is working the farm, and he has 45 acres of the loamy chocolate soil flat by the creek under cul-tivation. This flat comprises some 120 acres, 60 of which have been stumped ready for the plough, so that there is plenty of land to increase the area under crops, if such is desired.

Ten acres are under lucerne and another ten acres are being prepared for sowing in July; besides which oats, corn, and potatoes were grown this year. Few places have better facilities for getting the crops to market, for about half-a-mile from the house there is a railway ballast siding, known as the “60 miles 6 chains” where trucks can be loaded, and the town ship of Kilkivan is only 4½ miles distant. Comparatively few cattle were lost during the drought as country was rented to put them on, but the redwater killed betweon 60 and 70 head, the stock dying at times at the rate of 15 animals a week. Very few ticks have been seen this year on the cat-tle.
Horse breeding is carried on from 16 brood mares mated with the stallion “Duke of York,” by “Duke of York” imported from a “Sailor” mare. One of this sire’s progeny took first prizes in the hack classes at the last Gympie Show. On an average about eighteen horses, of the remount class, have been turned off annually and generally realised satisfactory prices. In the yards are 29 pigs of all ages, but as 7 breeding sows are in use, the number is usually larger. The boar is a pure bred Berkshire from the stud of Mr. C. J. Booker, Woo-looga Station. On the slope below the house towards the cultivation flat, about half-an-acre of the surface soil has been excavated to a depth of from one to four feet. The stuff was carted to the creek, where a sluice-box was fixed, and washed for a return of gold at the rate of from 2dwt to 2½dwt to the load. In all between 40 and 50ozs of gold were recovered, including pieces from 1dwt to 2dwt. The ridge has been further tried and from prospects wash-ed it is estimated that there are 60 acres of land, the surface soil of which would yield on an average ¾dwt. to the load.”

Update:  At the time of compiling this story, I was unable to locate details for any on the farmers listed in the story other than George Woolmerhauser who died in 1928 and is buried at the Kilkivan Cemetery.

 This story was compiled by Kathy Punter.

Sources:  Trove; Qld BDM; Gympie Cemetery Trust; GFHS Record Collection;