Snakes Alive – Serpents and the German-Queensland Settlers The new settlers to Queensland were not at all familiar with snakes, Germany being home to only a few small and harmless species. In the bush of Queensland I’m sure they thought they must be surviving in a ‘living hell’, populated […]
Author: Mark
Gott ist Gute
Dances, Crossroads, Hexen and Healers – ‘Gott ist gute, but the divil’s not too bad either’! ‘In a storm, you know why they covered mirrors? Because if you looked in a mirror during a storm quite often you could see the devil, that’s what my grandmother said, so you […]
The Long Walk
The Long Walk! Perhaps the most amazing example of all concerning German tenacity in the ‘new world’ is the story of Karl Deuffel. Eleven-year-old Karl left Germany in November 1854 with his parents aboard the Merbz, the first recorded ship to carry German immigrants to Queensland. Karl, his parents […]
Sad Death of a German Pastor
SAD DEATH OF A GERMAN PASTOR At Charters Towers. Poisoned by Mercury. Preserving Butterflies. Many persons in the town and suburbs (says the Charters Towers’ “Standard” of the 14th inst.), who had not heard of the sad and sudden end of the reverend Pastor Siegfried Krieg, of the German […]
Blown to Smithereens!
Blown to Smithereens! Local historian Peter Cullen, who has an immense knowledge and interest in oral history and the amazing stories of the many citizens now resting in the Toowoomba and Drayton Cemetery, told me of a most amazing case of a German-Queensland resident. The headlines of the ‘Darling […]
Dat First Soot!
Dat first Soot! (From Norm Rachow,Beenleigh) Oh, dat first soot of trousers – dere vas sooch a fuss! Uncle Karl und Aunt Charlotte vas staying by us!- Und poor Grandpa sat up in his chair – he vas ill Mit his legs full of gout – I remember it […]
Hans Schnitzel und his Velocipede
Hans Schnitzel und his Velocipede Hans Schnitzel und his velocipede Vas vone of the newest kind, It had no vheels in fronts, Und had no vheels behind. But its had vone in the mittel though, That vone vas as sure as eggs. How he could straddle across dat axle, […]
Poem: Upon the Gowrie Plain
A Railway Tragedy: Upon the Gowrie Plain Upon the Dalby railway line the damage had been great, Long strips of ballast washed away – all in a dangerous state. And though the traffic had been stopped an engine had to run For gangs of laborers to repair the havoc […]
Hoch Munchen – Zither Duet
The stirring march tune ‘Hoch Munchen’ – a real zither classic, here played by the Bundaberg String band with zither player Robert Pukallus leading the melody line. Press Play for song preview.
German march – Bundaberg Apostolic Church of Qld String band
The Bundaberg String Band (Apostolic Church of Queensland) here plays a great old German instrumental piece. This tune is both complex in terms of instrumental arrangements and melody. The zither features as the centrepiece in this rendition. Press Play for song preview.
