THEODORE AND MARY ANN BACKHAUS
Granny's younger brother Theo, was only 17 years old when he emigrated to Australia with his guardian Heinrich Matthias Bruehl, settling in Upper Calliope. By 1890 he was living in Goondi, working as a sawyer on the Goondi plantation.
The following year he married Mary Ann Lyons, a schoolteacher from Geraldton, and in 1892 he took up land for cane farming next to his siblings Louise and Heinrich. Eventually Adolph, Henry, and Theo Backhaus, August and Louise, and their families, lived on neighbouring farms near Geraldton, Queensland.
Theo and Mary had 3 sons and 3 daughters, all of whom lived to be adults, though as we discover, their eldest son, William, dies at the age of 25 in a tragic accident in Nambour, where he farmed.
HEINRICH CHRISTIAN AND AUGUSTA BERTHA CLARA BACKHAUS (née SCHICK)
HEINRICH CHRISTIAN BACKHAUS
(Granny's brother Henry)
Henry and Augusta were married in March 1884 when Henry was 24, and his wife 20.
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The couple arrived in Australia in 1889 on the ship Quetta, with their 3 children. The youngest, Helena, was born during the voyage out and was known as "our little India baby".
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Henry worked his brother Adolph's farm at Mundoo when Adolph went to German New Guinea.
There is a newspaper cutting from 1906 reporting Heinrich Backhaus sold a farm at Bamboo Creek to George Berryman (who later became his son-in-law), sold, then bought another farm. The Morning Post (Cairns) April 1906 reports "There is evidently money made in sugar farming".
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In the picture below (1926), Henry is portrayed in his Oddfellows attire.
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CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH CARL TIELKEMEYER
(Granny's second husband, known as 'Grosfodder')
Grosfodder joined the merchant navy as an engineer on Norddeutsche Lloyd ships around 1887, sailing from Bremen, Germany. He sailed the world 3 times and on his 3rd visit to Australia in 1891, aged about 24, he decided to settle in this country. He was known to say it was "an ideal country to live in, couldn't do better".
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In 1894 Grosfodder took up a property at Mundoo growing sugar cane for CSR Co Ltd. He was proud to be one of the first farmers to have his cane cut by white labour. At the time it was commonly believed white people didn't have the physical capability to work in the tropics.
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On 16 February 1895 he married Louise Schilling, widowed the previous year. They had lived on neighbouring farms for about a year.
Grosfodder and Granny on her 79th birthday
In 1922, reluctant to retire at the age of 57, Grosfodder bought a cane farm in Home Hill, where there were numerous family connections.
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This photo - likely taken in the late 1920's - is of Grosfodder and Granny at the house on the Home Hill farm.