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What fruit trees did the Mayes Family grow?

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What fruit trees did the Mayes Family grow?

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The final stop in the Mayes Cottage Audio Tour Narrative: The area adjacent to the house was cleared and heavily planted with fruit trees (mangos, pineapples, citrus and guavas), some of which still exist today. When the trees matured the family became one of the chief fruit suppliers to the Brisbane Markets.

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Washing clothes during European Settlement.

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Washing clothes during European Settlement.

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How are you going to keep your clothes clean when you have no power? Pioneer clothes washing. Hand pump water and hot water over the fire.

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Last week we did some history hunting in our Logan City, which adjoins Brisbane City. We went to the suburb of Kingston where there is an early pioneer cottage. John and Emily Mayes and two children arrived from England in1871, he had been a gardener and she a servant. They took up a selection (free government land, which had to be developed) of 321 acres and built a slab hut, built fences and dug a well.

They lived in the hut for many years before building the cottage.

They planted fruit trees, sold timber from the property, had dairy cows and kept bees. They had 5 more children. After some years they bought the property from the government.

The kitchen was built away from the house in case of fire, but it is connected by a walk way, .

A later model stove sits in an alcove.

There were 3 bedrooms, this one for the parents , one for the girls and one for the boys.

The house stayed in the family until 1973. The Qld government acquired the estate except for 2 hectares around the cottage, which is now a park where we had a picnic lunch. The house was saved by local citizens storming parliament house and protesting against its destruction in 1979.

Some remaining mango trees from the original orchard planted over 200 years ago. I have enjoyed reading the family histories from the booklets given to us. The cottage museum is run by volunteers and maintained by the Logan City Council.

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Last week we did some history hunting in our Logan City, which adjoins Brisbane City. We went to the suburb of Kingston where there is an early pioneer cottage. John and Emily Mayes and two children arrived from England in1871, he had been a gardener and she a servant.

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Description:
Extracted from the Logan City Council website:

"According to family stories, the Mayes initially made their income from selling timber as they cleared the land. Fruit trees, pineapples and grapes were planted and the produce sold in Brisbane or Beenleigh. Bees were also kept. By 1887, the Mayes had prospered and were able to build a new house of sawn timber. They called it "Pleasant Place" and it survives today as "Mayes Cottage". The Mayes family continued to supply timber including pit props for Ipswich coal mines, fence posts and long poles for foundation piles or bridge bearers.

History

John and Emily Mayes may well have been attracted to Australia by the stories they had heard from their relations, the Kingstons. Although the living conditions here then were rough, they represented an improvement to the prospects many working men faced back in England. It is thought that stories of these opportunities were major factors in attracting new settlers to the colony. John and Emily Mayes and their two children, Joshua (3) and Ruth (1), sailed from England in the sailing ship Indus in 1871. The family grew to seven children. The district was beginning to expand as well, with more and more settlers coming in to take up the available land.

The railway made a huge difference to the development prospects in the area. The late 1880s were a time of great prosperity. Not only did the coming of the railway mean that people could more easily transport their foods to markets in Brisbane, but building materials could also be accessed. The arrival of the railway was probably a factor in John Mayes' decision to build the house we now know as Mayes Cottage, which was completed in January 1887.

Despite the hardships endured in those early years, we can assume that this was a happy home by the name given to the home by John and Emily - "Pleasant Place", an ideal name for a cottage that commands such beautiful views. It symbolises the pride and the ideals of Logan residents.

Slab hut, cow shed and dairy

The slab hut was the original home of John and Emily Mayes, the founders of this property. Most of the slabs were cut from the outer timbers of large logs. Those logs would have been cut on the property, by axe and wedge, then trimmed with an adze. The original roof was made of bark and was later replaced with shingles.

When the house was completed in 1887, the family moved and the hut became a shelter for a buggy and much later a car. As an example of the craftsmanship involved, lan Rohl remembers that the hut was still secure against rain and the wind sixty years after it was built. You might think that this was a hard way for a family to live, especially when there was little here but scrub. Emily cooked on an open fire and used a hollowed-out anthill as an oven.

Consider then what John and Emily had left behind. John had been employed as a gardener on an estate in Bedfordshire England, while his wife worked as a house servant. There, they had little to look forward to but a life of uncertain servitude. Here, in Australia they owned 320 acres, an unheard of opportunity back in England.

Front rooms

Mayes Cottage is a genuine relic of Australia's and Queensland's pioneering age. Genuine because it is almost exactly as it was when it was built over a hundred years ago, in 1887. This house, and what remains of the original slab hut that stands outside, are originals, not reproductions.

The house was built sixteen years after John and Emily Mayes had first arrived here. It contains original family furniture dating from the 1880s until the 1930s, when John and Emily's eldest surviving son, Josiah, lived here. Comparing what you see here, with the many conveniences we enjoy these days, the lounge may seem small and sparsely furnished. But, to Josiah and Daisy, and to the whole Mayes family, this was a "better than average" home. It remains to this day, a touchstone for them all.
Dining room

John and Emily Mayes brought their family up in this house, after surviving their first years in a simple slab hut. The dining room was the place where the family gathered on formal occasions.

When Josiah and Daisy lived here, the dining room was the place where the family would meet for Sunday dinner. That was, of course, if they weren't involved in choir practice after the morning church service. On those occasions, the family would take lunch with them, as the trip to and from Loganlea where the nearest church was located, would have made the more formal dinner at home far too late.

Ian Rohl, Josiah's grandson, remembers occasions when the family would gather around the piano for a good old sing along. In this era, few people had a wireless and no one had tv. This was the era when you made your own fun and you learned to appreciate your family's voices and each one's ability to entertain the rest of the gathering. This was the most precious time of family life.

Kitchen and laundry

Built separate from the rest of the house, partly as a means of limiting the potential for a fire to take hold and destroy the entire house, the kitchen was the real centre of the family's daily life. Beyond all of the other rooms in the house, this was the place where Daisy, like most pioneering women, spent the great bulk of her time.

Daisy was always busy making cream, butter and jams, and bottling fruit, preserving what she could for the off-season. Daisy would make or mend cloths on the sewing machine and then cook what was needed for a family hungry after a full day's work. There was no timer on the wood-burning stove and certainly no microwave to speed up the cooking. Baking bread was a daily necessity. It would take anything up to three hours to prepare a roast dinner for the table. When Daisy wasn't busy in the kitchen, she was boiling clothes in the copper so her family had clean sheets and underwear."

Location: Kingston

Address:
20 Mawarra Street, Kingston

Costing: No Cost

Suitability: Kingston, 3 - 5 Years Old, Family, Lower Primary, Upper Primary

Accessibility: Kingston, 3 - 5 Years Old, Family, Lower Primary, Upper Primary, Car Park, Public Transport

Bookings:
Bookings Required

Booking Details:
Bookings required for groups of 15 people or more.

Phone Number: 07 3412 4147

Website: http://www.logan.qld.gov.au/facilities-and-recreation/arts-culture-and-heritage/mayes-cottage

Opening Hours: 10:30am-4:00pm, Thursdays and Fridays

Recurring: Not Recurring

Listing Type: Business Listing

Get Driving Directions

#mayescottage

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Description: Extracted from the Logan City Council website: "According to family stories, the Mayes initially made their income from selling timber as they cleared the land. Fruit trees, pineapples and grapes were planted and the produce sold in Brisbane or Beenleigh. Bees were also kept.

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Mayes Cottage in Kingston, open to the public for visits, offers a fascinating insight into early pioneer life in the Logan area.
In 1871 young couple John and Emily Hayes immigrated from England, having apparently been lured by stories they heard from relatives and local settlers the Kingstons. With 2 small children in tow they sailed on the ship 'Indus' and made their home on this hilly cottage site in what is now the Logan municipality.

Although times were tough in this relatively wild district and they lived in a tiny slab hut (which still stands on the property) they persevered and went on to have four more children in the two-roomed hut. John made a living through the growing of fruit trees, pineapples and grapes which were on-sold to Brisbane.

With the 1880s came prosperous times in south east Queensland and a railway was built to the region then in 1887 John built the cottage, christened 'Pleasant Place' that is now known as Mayes Cottage, before going on to have two more children there. (Sadly, the daughter, Ruth, that arrived on the boat with them drowned at age 12 in the property's well).

The original slab hut became a shelter for their buggy and later a motor car 'garage'. The house, meantime, still contains family furniture from the 1880s to the 1930s, when their eldest surviving son Josiah lived there and the original dairy and cow bells survive. As such, it is an priceless time capsule of a pioneering family.

John and Emily are buried, along with other settlers the Kingstons in the nearby Kingston Pioneer Cemetery on Bega Rd.

Open Thu-Fri 10.30-4 Free Entry

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Mayes Cottage Kingston | History of Brisbane | Must do Brisbane

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Mayes Cottage in Kingston, open to the public for visits, offers a fascinating insight into early pioneer life in the Logan area. In 1871 young couple John and Emily Hayes immigrated from England, having apparently been lured by stories they heard from relatives and local settlers the Kingstons.

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Mayes Cottage is a heritage-listed house and now museum at 36 Mawarra Street, Kingston, City of Logan, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1877. It was also known as Pleasant Place. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

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Mayes Cottage is open on Thursday to Saturday from 10.30am to 4pm.

Mayes Cottage is a genuine relic of Queensland's pioneering age. Genuine, because it is almost exactly as it was when it was built over a hundred years ago, in 1887. This house, and what remains of the slab hut that stands outside, are originals, not reproductions. For visitors this is a rare opportunity to experience a unique part of Logan's heritage.

Download the Mayes Cottage brochure (PDF 1125 KB) before you visit, to find out more about Logan's heritage.

Tours

Mayes Cottage House Museum is open for tours from Thursday to Saturday from 10.30am to 4pm, at 20 Mawarra Street, Kingston. Entry is free. For enquiries or to book groups of over 15 people, please phone 07 3412 4147 (week days only number) or email council@logan.qld.gov.au. School visits are welcome. To assist in your planning you can download a risk assessment for school visits (PDF 120 KB).

Brief history

John and Emily Mayes and their two small children, Joshua and Ruth, arrived in Brisbane from England aboard the Indus on 21 July 1871. On 27 June 1873 John took up 321 acres of land in the area that was later to become Kingston. At that time it was simply known as Scrubby Creek.

According to family stories, the Mayes initially made their income from selling timber as they cleared the land. They built a slab hut, planted fruit trees, pineapples and grapes, and kept bees. Their produce was sold in Brisbane or Beenleigh. By 1887, the Mayes had prospered and built a new house of sawn timber. They called it Pleasant Place and it survives today as Mayes Cottage.

Slab hut, cow shed and dairy

The slab hut was the Mayes' original home. Most of the slabs were cut from the outer timbers of large logs. Those logs were split by driving metal wedges into the wood along the grain, to make the slabs for the sidewalls of the hut. The original roof was made of bark and was later replaced with shingles.

When the house was completed in 1887, the family moved and the hut became a shelter for a buggy and much later a car. As an example of the craftsmanship involved, lan Rohl, Josiah Mayes' grandson, remembers that the hut was still secure against rain and the wind sixty years after it was built. You might think that this was a hard way for a family to live, especially when there was little here but scrub. Emily cooked on an open fire and used a hollowed-out anthill as an oven.

The interior

Mayes Cottage contains original family furniture dating from the 1880s until the 1930s, when John and Emily Mayes' eldest surviving son, Josiah, lived here. The interior rooms may seem small and sparsely furnished, but to the Mayes family this was a 'better than average' home.

The dining room was the place where the family gathered on formal occasions. When Josiah and Daisy Mayes lived in the cottage, the dining room was the place where the family would meet for Sunday dinners. Ian Rohl recalled many family 'sing-alongs' which, in the absence of radio or television, were the only source of home musical entertainment.

The kitchen was separate from the rest of the house, limiting the potential for a fire to destroy the entire house, but was the real centre of the family's daily life. This was the place where Daisy, like most pioneering women, spent the great bulk of her time. In the kitchen, she would make her own butter, jams and bottled fruit, preserving what she could for the off-season. Daisy would also make and mend clothes on the sewing machine and then cook what was needed for a family, hungry after a full day's work.

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Mayes Cottage is a genuine relic of Queensland's pioneering age. Genuine, because it is almost exactly as it was when it was built over a hundred years ago, in 1887. This house, and what remains of the slab hut that stands outside, are originals, not reproductions.