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Five years of hard work by Claus Johann Stehbens and his family is recorded in this inspection report of his selection "on the Burnett". [The 2 roads shown are Kepnock and Greathead Rds.] His father, Detlef, lived and laboured with Claus and Ottilie and their children. Claus' younger siblings were there too. It was a family affair. Since taking up this 80 acre selection in 1871 they had accomplished a great deal. They had cleared 15 acres of thick rainforst scrub and cropped it with maize. Timber had been sawn, slabs cut, shingles split, a house built and adequately furnished, post & rail fencing completed and a deep brick-lined well dug. (The well, constructed in 1872 was some achievement and was valued at 33% that of the house!) Corn was growing in the winter, to be harvested in early summer - and followed by a second crop for the year. What a contrast from the short growing season of Germany. This selection was the first farm in Bundaberg to be developed by a German immigrant family. Their hardwork did result in the family being able to live comfortably in the first generation. When this farm was sold, a 330 acre property in a large alluvial pocket on the Burnett River on permanent freshwater, just above the head of tide, was bought as well as a Bundaberg town allotment & seaside allotments at Burnett Heads. [The selector was known as "John Stebhens" on most occasions, but in this report his name is rendered "John Stebens". The variant spelling was part of being an immigrant from a non-English Speaking Background (NESB) and part of the process of assimilation into a protestant English society.] Image source: Harris, DD & Stehbens IR, 1981, 1993: Settlement Patterns and Processes, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire.
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