Hefferan's and Ferndale Villa
I think they owned the loveliest property in all Mount Crosby, nay Queensland ...
I have the honour to report on the progress of the Hefferan's of Ireland and Mount Crosby, long time acquaintances of mine and pioneers of the district. I should say in passing that I think they owned the loveliest property in all Mount Crosby, nay Queensland, and surely that is the sign of a good selector.
Just a couple of hundred metres past Allawah Scout Camp on the back road to Mount Crosby there are a pair of fine fig trees that look out over the Brisbane River. These trees remind us of John and Anne Hefferan. In 1854, nine year old John (of Kilkenny) arrived in Australia with his parents aboard the "Genghis Khan".
The family settled at Moores Pocket, while John boarded in Brisbane to attend the Saint Stephen’s School. After five years, John returned to Ipswich, collected his brother Michael and headed west to be part of the infant Queensland wool industry.
After their return, the brothers were employed at Andrew Wright’s collieries at Tivoli. Wright was, at the time, King Coal of North Ipswich, and he took a definite interest in John’s career and encouraged him to study mining at the Ipswich Technical College (later the Ipswich State High School). Wright subsequently acknowledged John Hefferan’s efforts by appointing him to act as manager of the Tivoli collieries during Wright’s absence in Europe.
In 1869, John married Ann Kerrigan and they settled on a 20 acre property, affectionately known as "the House Paddock" at Mount Crosby taking in the wonderful view previously described. They built a stately and comfortable home – naming it “Ferndale Villa”. In later years other paddocks were acquired, including the ‘the Peoghs-Marstaellers’ and ‘the Cutting Paddock’. Altogether they finished with about 480 acres; the top parts of it very hard. Jim Powell told me (with a smile) that the Cutting Paddock, which went along the top of the cliff toward Colleges Crossing, had such hard ground that a lot of the fence posts weren't dug in, but were propped up tripod style to save the impossible effort required to dig them in.
Despite the hard ground, Ferndale Villa had plenty to recommend it. Flood free and with a fertile skirt of river alluvium, it was on the main road to Mt Crosby, complete with the first glimpse of our mountain for the traveller. After 1913 there was even a train service going past the back door. A sweeping grassy hillside connected the modern age of rail to the old world charm of Ferndale Villa - but ironically it was this commendable attribute that ended its days.
Ann Hefferan lived at Ferndale Villa until her death in June 1925. Just four months later, a locomotive on its way to Mount Crosby, labouring hard to crest the hill near Hefferan's, threw out a spark that set fire to the grassy hillside. The fire swept up the slope and caught on at the house, which nobody was watching at the time. In no time at all, the house that once held the dreams and memory of John and Ann Hefferan became a smouldering heap of iron and char.
I remain your ob. servant and chief engineer (occasionally the bearer of hard news), Joe Stewart.
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