History

In the 1860s, settlers from England, Germany and Scandinavia began filtering into and along the Logan River and surrounding districts. They found dense forests growing from generally good soil. Particularly rich was the soil of the Redland Bay District which is said to have had lush rain forest complete with prized red cedar.

The labour of clearing the forest was long and arduous. One man with an axe might labour for years to clear an area of land that could support a viable farm. The felled timber would then milled to provide building material for the first houses. Locally milled cedar was used for doors, architraves and other feature work on the early houses, such as the original farmhouse on what was to become Mt Carmel Orchard (see pictorial). The character of the red soil was such that over time, it infiltrated itself into and on farm buildings, giving them a characteristic red tinge.

One early settler was Arnold Friedrich Muller who took up fifty acres of coastal forest north of what is now Point Talburpin. Muller’s farmhouse was removed in the 1990’s to make way for a stage of the Orchard Beach estate, but its site is still marked by a pair of mature fig trees, planted around 1905, at the top of School of Arts road where it meets Collins Street. While these trees were likely to have been planted for the practical purposes of shading the house from the intense afternoon sun and cold winter westerly winds, they also stand as a symbol of the enduring husband and wife farming partnerships that helped to define the character of Redland Bay.

Arnold’s eldest son William was born around 1879, the first white man to be born in the district. He lived to the ripe old age of 99, dying in 1978.

The early farms produced sugar cane, pineapples and citrus. The produce was taken to market by horse-drawn wagon at first, then by the steamboats Pearl, Eucalypta, Louisa and Porpoise, operated by one Captain John Burke.

The viability of these crops was reduced as larger farms to the north at Thornside, Cleveland and Ormiston gained a competitive advantage over Redland Bay, possibly due to access to rail transport. Redland Bay farmers moved towards producing tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower and passionfruit. These crops continued until farming finally gave way to suburban development around the year 2000.

Redland Bay, due to its relative remoteness but abundant resources developed into a largely self-sufficient community – having its own brick works, timber, sugar and arrowroot mills, baker and general store.