Oct2013_DAYBORO DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC
Est. 2004
RAYNBIRD FAMILY RESEARCH DAY:
The Raynbird family research day will now be held on Friday 15th November 2013 at “Dayboro Cottage” commencing at 9.30am.
If you, or anyone you know, have any connections with the Raynbird family, would you please let them know about the research day and suggest they contact us. RSVP is Monday 11th November. Henry and John Raynbird were among the earliest settlers in our district.
DAYBORO HERITAGE TRAIL:
Marker 8 – Day’s Sugar Mill
In 1867 William Henry Day leased Portion 1, Parish of Samsonvale and with the assistance of South Sea Island labourers (Kanakas), established a sugar plantation.
Rody Cruice (c.1834-1911) was employed as plantation overseer and managed the mill which was built in 1870. Ownership of the mill passed to James Kinkead Berry in 1877. Despite some success, the climate was ultimately unsuitable for sugar and the mill closed about 1883/84.
In honour of W.H. Day the name of the township was changed from Terrors Creek to Dayboro in 1917.
Although William Henry Day, then Clerk of Petty Sessions and later Police Magistrate in Brisbane, leased Portion 1, Parish of Samsonvale, known as Terror’s Paddock, in 1867 under the “Sugar and Coffee Regulations of 1864 and 1866”, the property was not registered in his name.
When the Deed of Grant was eventually issued, it was in the name of Edward Wyndham Tufnell, the first Church of England Bishop of Brisbane. It was not uncommon for a mortgagee’s name to appear on a Title Deed, and it can only be assumed that Day’s sugar operations were funded in part by the Church of England.
Day lived in Brisbane and when taking the rough bush track from North Pine (now Petrie) to his plantation, the buggy capsized and Day broke his leg. In January 1876 the plant was advertised for sale. By November 1876 Thomas Berry, a sugar planter from Sherwood, had bought Day’s crop and his sons were “superintending the crushing;” the plantation described as having “a very business-like aspect, some twenty men being employed.” Ownership of Portion 1 and the sugar operation had passed to one of Thomas’s sons, James Kinkead Berry, by 1877. The Brisbane Courier of 20 November 1880 states …“you could not wish to see better cane than that growing on Mr. Day’s old plantation year after year (indeed it took the first prize at the last exhibition”.
All the sugar had to be carted to Brisbane by drays – a distance of some 30 miles. As the local climate was ultimately found to be unsuitable for sugar, the mill closed about 1883/84. James Berry became the manager of the Lincoln Mill at Mt. Mee which operated for a few years around 1885/87 so it is possible that the machinery from the Terrors Creek Mill was used in the Mt. Mee mill. Again the climate in that area was also unsuitable for the growing of sugarcane.
Carmel Bond, President – Ph: 3425 1717 (h)
or 3425 2032 (Dayboro Cottage)
