(adapted from “Where the Beech Tree Grows”, by Harry Throssel, Binna Burra Lodge Limited, 1984) Tucked away in a wonderful book entitled ‘Where the Beech Tree Grows: The Story of Binna Burra’, by Harry Throssel, is a chapter on a real German-Australian character, ‘Old Bill’. He became the quintessential Australian […]
Latest Stories
THE RINGING STRINGS OF THE BURNETT: Lost German Zither Traditions of the Queensland Bush
THE RINGING STRINGS OF THE BURNETT: Lost German Zither Traditions of the Queensland Bush Mark Schuster (St Ives, NSW) Early photographs (1919 on the left and 1933 on the right) of Baffle Creek ‘zitherverein’ or zither band. For nearly three decades from the early 1980s until after the new millennium […]
In Search of Professor Lau: Naturalist, Explorer and Musician
By Mark Schuster (St Ives, NSW) During the mid to late Nineteenth Century, many German adventurers, naturalists and scientists came in quest of ‘green treasure’ in the Land Down Under – seeking new and unique plant and animal species on the great southern continent. Perhaps the exploits of the great […]
Welcome To GermanyDownunder
Deutschland Downunder This website and the information and resources contained here is a culmination of a dream and passion to research and document the cultural vestiges and folkways of the German-Queensland pioneer ways. The research has involved many years of talking and getting to know the people, recording and documenting […]
Searching for Albert and Mick: The Hidden History of a German-Sydney Family
Hidden histories, that what I’m into and also that’s what makes my soul tick. Trying to make the past and its many dead come back to life, even putting the clothes and skin back on their decaying bones – and letting their lives be known to our current, media and […]
Der Walfisch von Trial bay (German poem: 1917)
Der walfisch von trial bay poem
Frank Riethmuller – A Son of Toowoomba who Became King of the Roses
Frank Riethmuller – A Son of Toowoomba who became King of the Roses (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Frank Riethmuller (1884–1965) was an expert Australian rose breeder. Studio photo of Frank Riethmuller in Townsville about 1910, when he was 26. Riethmuller began to show roses in Sydney when he was […]
Brisbane’s Pioneering German Doctor – Frederick Staubwasser -article by Dr Owen Harris
german pioneerr Doktor
The Whale and Us – A True Story by Martin Kramer, Trial Bay Internment Camp (1916)
The Whale and Us By internee Martin Kramer, Trial Bay Internment camp, 1916 It was 1916 and for myself and 400 other prisoners of war, in the prison camp at Trial Bay in Australia, the war was over. We had been captured from German held islands, from Ceylon to the […]
Lungfish in the Gardens!
LUNGFISH IN THE GARDENS!! One day in 1872, someone saw two large strange fish in the pond of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. Captain Peake had a seine net and that was taken down to the pond. The fish were caught and caused great astonishment, as no one at the time […]
Poems of Carl Lentz (Southport, QLD)
Carl Lentz poems
