Stanthorpe railway extension
The following information is sourced from the Queensland Government (2018, Queensland Places):
The Warwick to Stanthorpe railway opened in 1881 and was extended through Glen Aplin to Wallangarra in 1887.
At that time, Glen Aplin was mainly under open-range grazing, with a few farm selections and orchards.
A primary school opened in 1887, but as late as 1901, the post office directory could only record seven farmers and selectors at Glen Aplin.
Their number increased to 19 in 1913, but soldier settlement after World War I completely changed local agriculture.
In 1924 there were 42 orchardists, 21 farmers and selectors, the Glen Aplin Hostel, a store and a mining dredge.
Twenty five years later there were 54 farms recorded, 50 of them fruit orchards.
There were also a motor garage, a butcher, a baker and a sawmill, and the Glen Aplin dredge was still mining local waters.
According to Queensland State Archives, Glen Aplin State School originally school that opened in 1887 as the Severn River Provisional School near Stanthorpe.
After becoming a State School, the school changed its name in March 1916.
The Department of Education lists the school’s exact opening date as 4 August 1887.
Growers
The following is an excerpt from ‘They Came to a Plateau (The Stanthorpe Saga)’ by Jean Harslett and Mervyn Royle (1972):
1887: Fruit trees were offered by Toowoomba nurseyman C. Hartmann and growers were not very discerning and varieties of little import.
“Apples with blight proof branches and roots, cherries and plums non suckering and grape vines blight and wet resistant were of top priority.
Orchard reports were, Mr T.H. Fetcher’s grapes a total failure, except for Isabella’s owing to ravages of odium.
Mr Malachi Rowen’s orchard, Sugarloaf, and Mr. Farrar Kyoomba suffered severe hail damage, while Mr. Day’s orchard at Dalcouth showed a prolific crop of plums and peaches and the vegetable crop was as good as could be seen in the colony.
Mr. Scholz had a fine crop, Sommerville’s and Hannigan’s wheat crops were good.”
