Chapter 1 – The Sugar Men

         Just off the Maryborough – Cooloola Road and beyond the urban sprawl of the city of Maryborough lies Bidwill Road. Running from the end of Granville all the way through to the Teddington Weir at the furthest end of Tinana Creek, Bidwill Road has its own community, just as it has had for over 130 years. In the 1870’s it was named Government Road with the land on both sides being Crown Land. Although now most of the land is under farmland, there are still pockets of thick virgin scrub, too impenetrable to be harvested and too infested with snakes to encourage any attempts. The road signs at each junction hark back to the early settlers, Tulasco Road, Vomerhause Road, Willowbank Road. A sign that once Bidwill Road housed vast plantations of the product that bought prosperity to the region, sugar and just as quickly, bought the owners of these plantations into financial ruin. At the south-west end of Bidwill Road the bitumen tapers off to an unsealed road that continues to run up into the National Forest, the last of the Crown Land and protected by the state.

            At the beginning of 1870 when sugarcane was becoming the crop of the rich and prosperous, two large plantations dwarfed both sides of Bidwill Road, Kirkcubbin – encompassing Charleville and Tulasco and Magnolia. Although the largest of all the plantations, Kirkcubbin was the least successful and a succession of owners and managers tried and failed to run the business.

Maryborough Chronicle 12^th August, 1871 – KIRKCUBBIN SUGAR PLANTATION AND MILL: About two years and a half ago Mr Joseph Rankin, a merchant residing in Maryborough gave up business here, partly on account of ill health, and took up a block of country on the southern side of Tinana Creek, some six miles from town, where he commenced to form a sugar plantation. Quietly but energetically he has pursued his work, and the place has thriven wonderfully under his hands the erection of a sugar mill on the estate being just completed … the way to the plantation lies across the Victoria ferry, and thence by an excellent road running along the back of the several farms on that side of the Mary and Tinana Creek … every watercourse is culverted or logged, and every serious impediment to traffic removed and one can bowl along in a vehicle almost the whole distance without hindrance. Mr Rankin’s original selection consisted of 549 acres away from the creek, but he has since purchased two freehold farms on Tinana and has also selected, under the Act of 1868, 1000 acres of grazing land for his stock so that the whole estate now comprises about 1750 acres.

Maryborough Chronicle 19^th March, 1872 – SUGAR GROWING AND MAKING – TOOTHS PROCESS: It was remarked to me by an old friend, now a resident of Maryborough, who kindly accompanied me on a trip up the river, that not the least important result of the new industry of sugar growing was its educating influence so to speak, upon the farmers. Men who had previously never given a thought to the composition of the soil they were tilling have been driven to the study of agricultural chemistry …

Maryborough Chronicle 29^th Oct, 1874 – KIRKCUBBIN PLANTATION, SUGAR MILL, AND DISTILLERY: On the right bank of Tinana Creek, eight or nine miles from Maryborough, via the Victoria Ferry, in the property of Messrs. Power and Lyons, who bought it about two years ago from the late Mr Rankin … in mere area, it exceeds all the other properties I have described hitherto, and with the exception (perhaps) of Yengarie, I believe it to be the largest plantation in the district. The original was only a small part of the present Kirkcubbin, an estate of something more than 3000 acres, which includes a number of smaller and originally independent selections, the principal of these being Charleville, once Mr Bogilds, and the farm of the later Captain Tredwen … Charleville may be called the eye of the estate. The cane here is magnificent; as a whole, I have never seen it equalled. A large patch of … more than sixty acres, planted in October and just a year old, is equal to most crops of stand-over elsewhere; and close to this again is a large field of stand-over equally excellent … I think I have described everything that ought to be described; and, if I have left upon my readers minds the impression that Kirkcubbin, so far as my experience goes, is the finest plantation in Wide Bay, I am satisfied, for that is just the impression I wished to leave.

         Many of the earlier plantations such as Eatonvale, Yengarie, Iindah and Wilson’s Mill were well known and highly profitable and lay along the banks of the upper Mary River near Baddow. The first settler in the Wide Bay to try his hand at growing sugarcane was Edgar Aldridge who planted a small strip on his property at Baddow. The experiment proved that the district was suitable for the sustainable growth of sugarcane and where fields that were once destined for cotton or sheep were quickly taken over by sugarcane. The land along the banks of Tinana Creek were originally selected for the purpose of growing cotton but this venture barely had time to find a footing before the sugar growers moved in and took over the majority of the lands along the creeks banks.

            The land that formed Kirkcubbin plantation was first selected by Joseph Rankin, the son of John Rankin and Lydia Boyd. Kirkcubbin was a rather large selection of 754 hectares that Rankin had initially purchased in order to breed horses. Unfortunately for him, by 1869 his health was failing and he was forced to retire from his merchant business in Maryborough and turn his attentions to growing sugarcane rather than breeding horses at Kirkcubbin. With the financial assistance of George Moore, the brother of Charles Moore, Mayor of Sydney at the time, Rankin moved to Kirkcubbin permanently to take a more hands-on role in the setting up and running of the mill. By 1972, the mill was running at full capacity and it looked as if Kirkcubbin would prove to be the golden venture that Rankin had hoped forever. However, by April of 1873 the property was up for sale in its entirety. A series of unfortunate mishaps at the mill and Rankin’s increasingly bad health had forced him to step back in the running of the mill and George Moore, fearing for his investment was given no alternative but to foreclose, forcing Rankin to sell. By September of that same year, Joseph Rankin was dead. 

            In sheer size Kirkcubbin dwarfed its neighbouring plantations and when offered up for sale at a fraction of its true worth, its new owners Dr John Joseph Power and his solicitor partner Robert Lyons thought that they had acquired the buy of the century. But those who knew the plantation well and knew the pitfalls of growing sugarcane, the mill was a white elephant, haemorrhaging money at a rapid rate. 

            Born in 1854 to Michael Power an Anna Maria Connolly, Dr Power and his partner were sure they were about to make their fortunes. They were especially pleased with their purchase as it also contained the neighbouring plantation, Charleville which was prized for its healthy yields in the past. By comparison Charleville was only small, just 330 hectares that was previously owned by Jens August Bogild. Jens had entered into a partnership with Rankin while he owned Kirkcubbin and as a result of Rankin’s insolvency, Jens also lost his beloved Charleville.

            Power and Lyons employed a manager to run the plantation while they continued their individual practices in town. At one point they had over 100 employees, the majority of which came from the indentured labour of the South Sea Islanders, known as Kanakas. Kirkcubbin, compared to other plantations was an envious place of employment as it had onsite its own baker, butcher, grocer and doctor. But for all their capital and dreams of owning the most profitable plantation in the district the one thing they could not have foreseen was the devastation that would be caused by a blight common to sugarcane known as Rust.

            Rust, so called because of the reddish brown blemish it left on the leaves of the cane, would at worst, reduce the level of juice the cane would produce or at worst, rot the plant at the root causing it fall over onto the ground. Under the microscope the rust was seen to be a tiny insect and its eggs. The first outbreaks in the Wide Bay began around 1871 but were patchy and insignificant as to not warrant much concern. But in 1872 after a severe drought that lasted almost the entire year, the rust spread rapidly and took particularly to one variety of cane, Bourbon. The fields were all cleared of this variety of cane and for the next three years, the district remained relatively free of Rust.

            In 1875 the Mary River and its tributaries including Tinana Creek rose and quickly flooded the district. Low lying cane crops were lost beneath the fast moving muddy waters and when the floodwaters finally receded, the Rust returned wiping out any remaining crops left standing after the floods. Power and Lyons could do little else but sit back and wait for the creditors to foreclose on them which they did in 1876. The Kirkcubbin plantation was once again insolvent and its owners forced to sell. Powers and Lyons continued in their private practices but as the locals had lost faith in their abilities as businessmen, they were forced to abandon these as well. Dr Power moved to Gympie and in 1885 he attempted to turn his luck around by standing for parliament but when is business failings were made public he lost the election. In March of 1886, Dr Powers was dead.

            The once grand plantation of Kirkcubbin was subdivided and sold off. The bulk of the property was purchased by Lancelot Bernard Rawson from a well known and established cane farming family from Mackay. The “eye” of Kirkcubbin, Charleville, was sold separately for the sum of £3000 to a recent arrival from Gloucestershire, Henry Augustus Paul, the son of Henry John Paul and Elizabeth Ford.

            While Rawson was an experienced cane farmer he had no head for business. He had purchased Kirkcubbin under the advice of a friend, Colonel Francis Richard Ravenhill and soon after Rawson’s marriage to Wilhelmina (Mina) Frances Cahill of the colony of New South Wales. By 1979 the plantation was once again back on the market and Rawson had petitioned for insolvency. Patrick Lillis who had also financed Power and Lyons in their venture had provided financial backing for Rawson as well and unable to sustain another significant loss immediately sent in the bailiffs to seize Kirkcubbin. But in his hurried state of mind, Lillis was careless and it cost him dearly. In his rush to save his investment he failed to prepare accounts or to call a statutory meeting of creditors. In December of 1881, Rawson was discharged from insolvency and was allowed to take back Kirkcubbin. In the years since his failed attempt to run Kirkcubbin and his release from insolvency, Rawson had obtained a position as a Crown Lands Ranger and had moved his family to Boonaroo. He chose not to return to Kirkcubbin. He died in 1899 and in 1903 his wife, Mina, married his old friend, Colonel Ravenhill.

            The Hanley Brothers, acting as bailiffs for Lillis continued to run Kirkcubbin until its sale in 1883 but the plantation never sold, its curse had become too well known. Instead, the once vast lands that made up the plantation were subdivided into small-hold farms and sold off piece by piece. The mill built by Ranking remained on site until 1893 until it too was sold to Larsen and Broadhurst of the Isis Mill. The curse of Kirkcubbin went with it and after a string of costly repairs, the mill crushed no more.

            Magnolia Plantation lay on the same side of Bidwill Road as Kirkcubbin but its borders were with Charleville. It was the second largest plantation in the district after Kirkcubbin and was owned by General the Hon. William Henry Adelbert Fielding and his business partner, a rather flamboyant and well connected Italian named Octavious Louis Frances Stephen Farioli Del Rozzoli De Libert.

            Fielding was born on the 6^th January 1836, the son of William Basil Percy Fielding, the 7^th Earl of Denbigh and Lady Mary Elizabth Kitty Moreton. The title of Earl of Denbigh was created in the 17^th century with William Fielding who died at Whitehall in 1643. The family seat was in Warwickshire at Newnham Paddox, a vast estate that was famously restored in 1745 by Capability Brown. The estate remained in the Fielding family for over 500 years and during that time they built three large houses upon it, the last of which was only demolished in 1952 as its sheer size was a drain upon the funds of the estate.

            General Fielding began his military career in the Coldstream Guards, the oldest regiment in the regular army and those that stand outside the palaces of London in their bright red jackets and tall hats.

            In 1869 a private emigration scheme was formed known as the Emigrants and Colonist Aid Corporation for which Fielding was a director along with his brother, Rudolph, the 8^th Earl of Denbigh. General Fielding was given the task of visiting the colonies, India, Australia and New Zealand to select suitable blocks of land of some 100,000 hectares which could be cleared and new settlements established. Those selected to be recipients of the Emigrant and Colonist Aid Fund would be carefully selected for their suitability by a group of noble gentlemen. In 1871, General Fielding arrived in Auckland to establish the first of the settlements and hence the township of Fielding was born.

            The newly formed colony of Queensland approached General Fielding about heading an expedition from Roma to Point Parker with the view of opening up the barren inland via a railway system that was to be known as the Trans-continental Railway. Upon his arrival in the Colony of Queensland on the 23^rd December, 1881, General Fielding wrote in his diary:

“I go north tomorrow to Maryborough and Rockhampton. I go to Maryborough to inspect the Burrum Coal Mine and Railing and Railway and to go by railway to Gympie to inspect the very extensive quartz reef … which resulted in such wealth to the gold mining … I shall also spend Christmas Day on my own property (Magnolia) near Maryborough.”

It is thought that this was the only time that General Fielding spent at Magnolia but according to letters to his sister back in England, the postmark often read, Maryborough.

            In December of 1868, realising his agreement with Fielding was void under the Queensland Land Laws; Octavious de Libert selected all the land of Magnolia under his own name, even though he and Fielding remained in partnership in respect to the running of the plantation. In April 1893, at the age of fifty-seven, General Fielding married Charlotte Leighton, the daughter of Sir Baldwin Leighton but the marriage was short lived as just two years later on the 25^th March, 1895, Fielding contracted cholera while in Thailand and died. He was laid to rest at the Bangkok Protestant Cemetery.

            De Libert had a fearsome reputation, not just amongst the workers on the plantation but also against his own wife. The extent of his violence toward her was outlined in their divorce proceedings and custody battle over their only surviving child, a daughter.

            De Libert married Jeanne Philomena Newtkins at the Roman Catholic Church in Brussels, Belgium on the 15^th October, 1861. In 1869, they returned to Maryborough and settled on Magnolia. The union produced two daughters, Octavia Marguerite on the 3^rd November, 1862 and Emilia Jane Margaret who was born in March, 1874 but the child survived for just six weeks. It was the death of this child that featured strongly in Jeanne’s custody battle against her husband as proof of his continual cruelty toward her, even when she was heavily pregnant. On the 24^th November, 1874 Jeanne petitioned for divorce in the Supreme Court of Brisbane. She stated that in November of 1873 she had been forced to flee the marital home at Magnolia Plantation with her daughter, Octavia to Brisbane. The case was outline in some detail in the Maryborough Chronicle dated 1^st December, 1874:

            In this cause the petitioner … prays for dissolution of her marriage with the respondent … on the grounds of cruelty and adultery. The petitioner also prays that she may have the custody of her only child, a daughter. The respondent, in his answer to the petition, denies the several acts of cruelty and adultery complained of, and sets up a plea of adultery on the part of the petitioner … the witness, who stated her age to be twenty-nine years and the respondent, thirty-four years, then proceeded to enumerate certain acts of cruelty alleged to have been committed toward her by the respondent. In the early of 1870, when the respondent was about to leave home for Maryborough, the petitioner, who was in bed, asked him to leave sufficient work for the labouring men and remonstrated with him for occupying too much of his time in pleasure; whereupon the respondent took up a jug of water, poured it over her head, and dragged her out of bed. On another occasion … he struck her a blow in the face, which gave her neuralgia for three days … spat in her face and at several different times pulled her hair and knocked her down. Upon his return home from Maryborough the petitioner once complained that he had left her nothing to eat but dry bread and sweet potatoes. He told her he did not want her on the plantation, threw her out the door and dragged her to the gate and said she was never to enter again. Sitting on a log until midnight she was finally induced to return home by a labouring man. Upon finding the door locked she climbed through a window. The following morning while attempting to climb out the same window to escape her husband she fell and cut her arm severely. She went to an adjacent hut to have the wound dressed but her husband followed her and dragged her outside causing her to feint … she described finding the respondent in improper intimacy with a woman living on the plantation, on which occasion respondent dragged her about and struck her on the breast, and then threw water over her … prayed for mercy but the respondent said he had no mercy for her. Her knees were bleeding and on reaching the homestead he asked her to forgive him and on her declining to do so and declaring that she would not live with him as his wife, he fetched a loaded revolver and told her that if she would not agree to his request to keep the matter secret he would blow her brains out … her child had been born a few weeks previously but after the conduct of her husband previously stated she was unable to suckle the child which soon afterwards died.

The article goes on to detail other evidence of brutality, adultery and even an incident where he had held the gun to his infant daughters head and threatened to kill her if his wife did not adhere to his ways. She finally left him on the 27^th April, 1874.

            On the 19^th December, 1874, the partnership between de Libert and Fielding was dissolved and de Libert abandoned Magnolia and moved to Brisbane. By now he was in serious financial difficulty and the bank had stepped in and taken possession of his share of the plantation.

            Fielding appointed William Boughey, the son of Sir Thomas Boughey, Baronet, as manager of the plantation but Boughey suffered from ill health and after a few years resigned from his post in November of 1883. The management of Magnolia was taken over by R.B. Clayton of the nearby Alpha Plantation. Mr Clayton was the father of “Tubby” Clayton of Toc H. fame.

            Under Fielding, Magnolia fared well and he purchased another estate on the Isis from R.M. Hyne with the understanding that the whole of Magnolia would be moved north to the new site. However in 1890, Premier Griffith of the Queensland Government announced the end of coloured labour and the largely South Sea Islander workforce at Magnolia was sent home to their island homes and Magnolia was forced to close. A bushfire wiped out the last of the structures an the land was eventually sub-divided and sold off.

            At its height, the life of the sugar men was a charmed one but the fickle industry would soon bring them all undone. But for all the stories of greed, corruption, brutality and adultery, the ultimate downfall belonged to the once aristocratic family of Paul of Charleville and Tulasco plantations. It is their story that continues to intrigue historians to this day.