|
a.
|
Note: OCCUPATION: MINER
PLACE OF BURIAL: RAVENSWOOD Plot.672
BIO: Hans Heuer left Busum, Holstein (now part of Germany) in 1865. Hans was an 'arbeiter' or workman. The previous year, the Prussian andAustrian armies invaded the united duchies of Schleswig-Holstein whichhad been under Danish rule for four centuries. It can be imagined thatmany people were uprooted, and that this was a likely reason for Hans
seeking a new life in the new worlds. Hans, aged 27, together with his wife Elsabea 28 and their threechildren, Mathilde 6, Gustav 4, and Elise 1, boarded the ship 'LaRochelle' at Hamburg and set sail for Queensland on 12th August 1865.The following is a newspaper report that appeared in the Brisbane
Courier on 15/2/66 which summarizes the voyage. "The Hamburg ship La Rochelle, Captain J. Junge, left the Elbe on the 12th August, and meeting with head-winds was detained in the North Sea for 8 days; passed Dover on the 20th, and cleared the British channel on the 30th of the same month; thence to the Line she had a good easterly wind, and crossed on the 20th December, in 39 degrees west longitude, 39 days out. From there to the Cape she had mostly southerly winds, and was off the Cape on the 18th October, when the captain thought it necessary to put in, as a great number of passengers were sick. She lay there at Simon's town to the 19th November, when the Health Officer of that place thought it safe for the ship to proceed on the voyage. From that time she met mostly strong easterly winds. She ran down her easting in 47 to 48 degrees south, and rounded Tasmania on the 14th December, made Cape Morton on the 25th, and came to anchor
in Brisbane on the 27th December." In fact 62 passengers had died on the voyage from dysentery andtyphus, which led to the ship being quarantined at Stradbroke Islandfor almost two months until 20th February. Among the dead was Hans'1 year old daughter Elise who died on 11th December, 16 days fromBrisbane. A death certificate was issued at Brisbane. An ImmigrationBoard enquiry was held into charges against the captain regarding the
standard of provisions and accommodation aboard ship. Having survived this tragedy Hans and Elsabea went on to spawn nineother children, the first, Anna Wilhemina was born on 11/4/1867fifteen months after their arrival in the colony. Then on 11/11/1869at Bowen, Elsabea gave birth to triplets, Annie, David and John, all
who died within five months of their birth. Presumably, Hans pursued whatever work was available and gravitatedtoward the frontiers of the colony. First to Bowen and then west toRavenswood where gold had been discovered in 1870, and where Hans took
up mining. The first trace of Hans at Ravenswood is in the Electoral roll of1874 where he is listed as residing at 'Maincamp'. It was here at thisquintessential gold 'boom town' that Hans seems to have found apermanent home. It was here that his remaining children were born,where his children married, and where his grandchildren, great grand-children, and some of his great great grandchildren were born. Thereare still residents of this now 'ghost town' with the name Heuer. Hans died at Chapel St. Ravenswood on 22nd May 1905 aged 66. - J.Cooney
Index References
Death German Shipping Records - Arrived Morton Bay 25th December 1865 aboard
'LA ROCHELLE' departed Hamburg 5th August 1865. - Hans 27, Elsabea 28, Mathilde 6, Gustav 4, Elise 1. - Origin BUSUM HOLSTEINElectoral Roll (Kennedy 1875) - Earliest reference to Ravenswood
Hans Heuer residing Maincamp.
|
