Here are some snippets about German bounty immigration to the Darling Downs region of Queensland, as background to the voyage and life of my gg-grandfather, Frederick Kyling who arrived at Moreton Bay aboard the Johan Caesar in 1856.
The Darling Downs during the 1830s to 1860s was divided into large lease land holdings. These settlers had come out from England, with reserves of capital, and had come to the Darling Downs taking large tracts of land under lease. The rich grasslands of the Downs and the low lease rents gave rise to a rich pastoral aristocracy. They chose to graze rather than till the rich soil. Most of these holdings were self-sufficient in that they maintained tradesmen and workers on the station and as such relied very little on the services of the nearby towns of Toowoomba and Warwick. This powerful squatter class held dominance over Queensland’s affairs. In the 1850s there was a labour shortage on the pastoral properties of the Darling Downs due to the pastoral workers vanishing to the gold fields. To counter this phenomenon, the squatter aristocracy used German agents to recruit German shepherd migrants. German immigration to Australia under contract occurred between 1852 and 1855. As the squatter’s properties were unfenced, a Shepherd’s job was to live in isolated areas of the property and protect a flock of sheep from dingoes, aboriginal hunters and generally keep the flock in the boundaries of the station. They proved to be reliable, frugal and sober workers who managed to save sufficient cash out of their wages of 20 to 30 pounds per year (and rations) to enable them to purchase land in the Sixties. These immigrants were forced to come out not through religious persecution as their South Australian counterparts had done but through agricultural disasters that caused famine and abandonment of uneconomical land holdings caused by generations of land division. The Germans’ initial willingness ‘to hire themselves for whatever they could get’ was an early source of friction but in general, they were not competitors on the labour market. British-German relationships were regarded as excellent in the nineteenth century, but cordial, surface attitudes did conceal some economic and political animosity. ... German immigrants were regarded as; white, Protestant, apparently ‘liberal’ politically, and present in manageable numbers. The British minority overlooked their initial non-conformity to social mores. (Condensed from D.E. Waterson's Squatter Selector and Storekeeper)
In simplistic terms, German immigration commenced with the settlement of the Gossner group missionaries at ‘German Station’ (Nundah) in the 1830s – soon after Queensland gained separation from New South Wales as a free colony, until the era just prior to World War I with the influx of assisted German migrants for the Apostolic Church of Queensland community ventures.
After the small settlement of missionary pastors and their families at Nundah (now a suburb of Brisbane), the next major phase of immigration and settlement was in the 1850s/1860s with the need for shepherds in the Darling Downs region of southern Queensland.
Large pastoral holdings were being established and assisted passages were provided to many folk – the chance for a shepherding position for 2-3 years with an established wage. This enabled many immigrants to work, ‘learn the country’ and then set themselves up with their own (small) property. German labour was well regarded and the possibility of an assisted passage to Queensland was looked upon favourably.
Many hundreds of Germans partook of this opportunity, and with the associated need for skilled tradesmen, large regional centres, such as Toowoomba, were centres of this ‘second phase’ of German settlement. Many labourers and shepherds brought their families.
From: ‘A Little Bit of History’ by L.M. Tooth
The unmarried Frederick Kyling aged 26 experienced a similar voyage from Hamburg. Germany, travelling directly to Moreton Bay on the ·'Johann Caesar'' arriving on 8th February 1856. He travelled to the Downs to Ipswich via paddle steamer, and then by dray on the very treacherous Spicer's Gap Road to Woolpack lnn. He then went to work on Sandy Creek for his assigned squatter. He met his future wife Caroline Schweinsberg there on the Downs and started his family. Both new arrivals appeared to have started their new lives on Rosenthal, a property owned by the Steel family (future in-laws). Warwick was first established as an administrative centre on the Darling Downs in 1847 for the colony of New South Wales. This type of centre usually formed around river crossings for provision drays, becoming change stations for Cobb & Co. with usually a simple hotel and a store that often doubled as a post office and bank.
Christine's Compendium of Family History 