Memories of Pialba- by an early day resident.

Pialba Hotel. Source: Image Gallery

A delightful article in Maryborough Chronicle discusses the early days of Pialba. The article from Friday 10th March, 1950 talks about the first time the reader went to Pialba in 1882 at the age of four and half years. The reader lived at Pialba until she was fifteen.
"My father (or strictly speaking my step-father), W.H. Caldwell, was appointed from Brisbane as post and telegraph master there to relieve Mr Dear who had only been there for a short period" (Maryborough Chronicle).  The father had gone ahead of the family and they travelled to Maryborough by steamer and were met by Mr Horsburgh. He took the family to Hervey by mail coach -which ran a mail and passenger service to Pialba twice a week- the next morning. The reader recollects that it was a horribly tiresome trip by canvas covered wagonette. They stopped at a halfway house kept by Mr Sinfield and had lunch and a change of horses. They travelled till dark. "It was and ordeal for my mother with a young baby and three others" (Maryborough Chronicle). The neighbour Mr McLiver let them stay overnight. "Mr McLiver gave us our first taste of wild plums or congerines which grew lavishly along the water front" (Maryborough Chronicle).  "We beat the sun the next morning to the beach, but when we caught sight of the blacks we went back quicker, than we came. However, we soon lost all fear of them and quite loved it all" (Maryborough Chronicle). The post office was one room of the dwelling they lived in. Pialba had a very small population. "At Nikenbah, Danish and German people who were wonderful farmers ...grew pineapples, bananas, citrus fruit and produce and vegetables which they carted in German wagons to Maryborough" (Maryborough Chronicle). The reader says that "Pialba was generally spoken of as the Bay, starting with the Pialba Hotel, there was a stretch for about half a mile to Mr Watson's house (which he had bought from Mr Boyle Martin)" about one mile to Mr Southerden's, with Mr McLiver's home next. The latter was care taker and butcher and conducted a one-room general grocery store. Then another half a mile or so was the Vernon Hotel kept by Mr Antcliffe, half a mile or so on was Mr Corser's residence and care takers cottage. That at the time constituted The Bay" (Maryborough Chronicle). She goes on to explain that Maryborough people bought seaside houses and these filled in between the above mentioned buildings. Torquay was started by a Mr W. Bennett who built a galvanised dwelling and a Mrs Bennett who conducted a small store and later a post office. Mr Wylie was put in charge of the post office. A German couple  Mr and Mrs Scheffler started a farm and orchard around where Zephyr Street is now.  When Mr Scheffler died, Mrs Scheffler oversaw a boarding house (Maryborough Chronicle).  A cable test house where cables which crossed to Woody Island and Fraser Island were tested by the readers step father was next. "Further inland Sergeant King (retired) took up an area of grazing land, and with him lived his two sons, Nat and Tom. who entered the police force and who were called to help capture the Dora Dora Blackfellows who had run amok. Tom King helped to capture the Kelly Gang"(Maryborough Chronicle). Mr Bromiley began growing coffee on his farm at the back of where the Vernon hotel was. "My late husband, Duncan Martin was the first white child born at Pialba. This was in 1868".

Vernon Hotel. Source: Image Gallery

Do you have any early memories of The Bay?

References
Maryborough Chronicle 10th March retrieved from Trove  on 17th February, 2020.

Tags #Thebay #HerveyBay #Pialba #Nikenbah #postoffice #boardinghouse.