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PEOPLE AND HISTORY OF MOUNT GARNETYou're welcome to send information to PEOPLE AND HISTORY OF MOUNT GARNETMessage received from Alan Moffat. G'day Al, I'm Alan Moffat. No, no relation to John Moffat that I know, but a relation of Ken Moffat, a well borer who surveyed alluvial tin for Tableland Tin. Also related to the Railway Station Mistress, Maud Jewell. I am going to put together some recollections of Mt Garnet including photos, as remembered by a sister who lived there and myself. I did not live there, however remember oral history as passed down to me from my mum & dad and three sisters who lived there in the 1930s and 1940s. I know other info as the Newman's are related to me too.  I
have attached a photo of my mum & dad exiting the Church of
England
building after being the second couple to be married there since it was
completed. The year was 1939. The couple behind them are Mr &
Mrs
Flood, their best man & matron of honour. Mum was the widow
Maud
Jewell (nee Roberts of Charters Towers) and father was Kenneth Moffat.
The girl is, I think, mum's daughter Jean Jewell, my half-sister. After they married they moved to "Tabo Village" as mum had to resign from QR as the Station Mistress. We have photos of the station too, as well as houses at Tabo. In your article about Tabo, is says that Tableland Tin was started by a James Newman. I believe that Malcolm Newman**, born 1880 at Caboolture, was the man, along with partners in Sydney - one being a beer brewing owner, who started TT. James Newman born in Sandgate Qld, was Malcolm's nephew and my cousin. Jim was an engineer who visited Mt Garnet TT. He was a Rhodes Scholar and died 2007 in the USA. Malcolm also was "involved" with the Mt Morgan mine and also in tin mines and rubber in Malaya before WWII. The family residence in Caboolture is now the War Veterans Home. Regards Alan Moffat anemoffo@bigpond.com **EDITOR’S NOTE James Malcolm Newman was actually his correct name according to the AUSTRALIAN DICTIONARY OF BIOGRAPHY Contribution was received from Bronwyn Blair. Both my mother and her mother were born in Mount Garnet. My mother's mother was Muriel Enid DAVIDSON, born 11th of June 1911, daughter of Samuel DAVIDSON & Annie STEPHENS. Grandma married (31st May 1930, "Oakvale", Mount Garnet) Franklin Leslie Meredith GRANT, who was born at Herberton 23rd October 1898, son of Franklin Stanhope GRANT & Jessie Rosina MEREDITH. My grandfather (Franklin Leslie Meredith GRANT) owned the building next to the post office which housed the cafe run by Joe MacDonald ("Joe Mac") and his wife. My family moved to Howard*, Qld in the 1940s, so my grandfather went back to Mount Garnet only once after that. Bronwyn can be contacted at bronwyn.blair@gmail.com NOTE FROM THE EDITOR * Howard is located 38 km west of Hervey Bay and 240 km north of Brisbane. Miners populated this area since 1864, when coal was discovered along the Burrum River. The Howard Colliery began to use the extraction method called ‘longwall mining’ in 1905. |
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