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Morayfield Plantation is a heritage-listed former farm at 34 Nolan Drive, Morayfield, Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in circa 1860s. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 13 May 2011. == History == In 1866, the Morayfield Plantation was established on the southern bank of the Caboolture River, approximately 40 kilometres north of Brisbane. The plantation was owned by George Raff, a former member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, prominent Brisbane businessman and supporter of the use of indentured South Sea Islander labour in the sugar industry. Cane was grown at Morayfield for the production of sugar, rum and molasses between 1866 and 1889. Raff employed many South Sea Islander labourers in the cane fields during this period. Cane cultivation (and all related production) ceased around 1885-6. Raff died in 1889, with the plantation eventually sold for conversion to dairying in 1901.〔 In 1861 the Cabulture Cotton Company was formed by a group of settlers including George Raff, William Hobbs, Shepherd Smith, Robert Douglas and John Bramston. Raff was a prominent business identity in mid to late 19th century Queensland and was very active in public affairs. Born in Morayshire, Scotland in 1815, he emigrated to Australia in 1839 arriving in Sydney aboard the ''Earl Durham''. In the 1840s he worked in the pastoral industry and as a merchant before moving to Brisbane in 1851.〔 In Brisbane he soon established George Raff & Co., a shipping company with wharves on the Brisbane River situated adjacent to Customs House.〔〔 Raff also founded the Queensland Mercantile and Agency Co., and became a director of the Queensland Steam Navigation Company in 1861.〔 He strongly believed in separation from New South Wales and was one of the 26 members of Sir Robert Herbert's first Queensland Parliament. In 1860 Raff was appointed as a member of the Board of Education.〔 He handed in his resignation as Member of the Legislative Assembly to the speaker of parliament in April 1864.〔 He was re-elected and served again from November 1865, including a period as minister without portfolio in the Herbert and later Macalister ministries until November 1866. He again resigned from parliament in June 1867, only to go on and unsuccessfully contest the seat of Moreton in 1870.〔〔〔 In June 1861, the founders of the Cabulture Cotton Company sailed in the Breadalbane to explore the shores and rivers of Moreton Bay with the intention of selecting land for the purpose of growing cotton.〔 The land selected became Portions 10 and 26, Parish of Caboolture, County of Stanley. After three unsuccessful seasons growing cotton, the Cabulture Cotton Company put the property up for sale.〔 George Raff purchased Portion 10 in 1866 for £1000.〔〔 Raff purchased additional land immediately adjacent to Portion 10. Portions 24 and 25 to the east were purchased in April 1867, and Portion 26 to the west in May 1868.〔〔〔 Raff named his new property "Morayfields", which was later referred to as Morayfield in the early 1870s. Raff switched primary production to sugar cane, but between 1865 and 1868, the plantation continued producing some cotton. In 1868 it was reported that 5 bales of "New Orleans" variety cotton were shipped from Morayfield Plantation to London.〔〔 By 1867 Raff's sugar cultivating, processing and distilling operations were well established. On 19 October of that year, the Brisbane Courier reported in detail the size and scope of his endeavours. Morayfield Plantation then consisted of 2,500 acres of land, the soil being described as "pretty deep" black alluvial, with cultivation on "one great plateau". The whole cultivation of sugar took up an area of 150 acres (60 acres more than on the adjacent Oaklands operation of Claudius Whish), and was chiefly of the "Bourbon" variety of cane. Living quarters were described as:〔 ''...consisting of a large mansion, manager's house, house for married workmen and their families, laborers' () huts, stockyards, stables, sheds, carpenters' shops, blacksmiths' shop, stores, saw mill, and an innumerable number of other buildings'' 〔〔 Additional housing for workers was also provided a little distance from the homestead complex.〔 A substantial sugar processing works is also described at this time. The works was situated about 200 yards from the river and close to a large reservoir. The main building measured ''"120 feet square, 20 feet to the eaves, with a pyramidal roof rather than steep"''. The works were centred around a 30-horse beam engine worked from a large "multitubular boiler, fitted with a patented injector".〔〔 A distillery was also operating by 1867. It was described as being situated on one side of the main sugar processing works building, and being of "Shears" patent, 600 gallons, with three rectifying or condensing boxes above the still head, producing a strong spirit by one operation.〔〔 In 1866, Raff constructed a 3 ft gauge private tramway to transport cane harvested from nearby fields to the mill, and sugar to the wharf. Another visit was made to the plantation one year later by John Dunmore Lang and published in the Brisbane Courier in 1868. He described the total land under cultivation as being 160 acres, though this could have been increased to 300 acres if desired. The majority of cane was still of the "Bourbon" variety though 60 acres of "Rattoon" cane (stems or shoots from the second years' growth of a sugar cane plant) and an unknown quantity of "Ribbon" cane (a subtropical type of cane) was noted. Lang described the tramway as being "an eccentric elipse (), traversing the whole plantation." The railway measured 2 miles in length, had cost £2,000 to build, but still relied on animal power.〔 By 1870, the line was described as 2–3 miles in length and Raff had run his 8-ton locomotive engine over it.〔 Raff is believed to be the first to use a locomotive driven tramway on a Queensland sugar plantation.〔〔 Lang notes the presence of South Sea Islander labourers at Morayfield Plantation in 1868. South Sea Islanders (also referred to as Kanakas at the time) made a major contribution to Queensland's early sugar industry, with between 55,000 and 62,000 individuals being brought here between 1863 and 1904 as indentured labourers usually bound to a three-year contract.〔 George Raff was a prominent supporter of the use of an Islander labour force, as was his immediate neighbour at Oaklands, Claudius Buchanan Whish. Raff was considered one of the "masters" of the trade and a very large employer of Islander labour. He became prominent as one of the abettors of the system in his testimony before a Parliamentary Committee.〔 Islanders provided cheap manual labour, but were also considered essential in a climate considered too harsh for white manual labourers. Most came from eighty islands in Melanesia, mainly those included in present day Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.〔 The method of recruitment involved some instances of kidnap and deception, while the numbers of Islander people brought to Queensland by these illegal means is a matter for debate.〔〔 It is unclear how many Islanders were present at Morayfield Plantation or when Raff first employed them. Lang noted during his 1868 visit the presence of 65 Islanders speaking 5 different languages, working and living on the plantation. Other sources claim about 70 people in total employed on Morayfield Plantation in 1868, of which 15 to 20 were Islanders.〔〔〔 Lang provides descriptions of the contrasting European workers' accommodation and that of the South Sea Islander labourers.〔 The European workmen and their families were provided with "a row of comfortable brick cottages", while the Islander labourers were supplied with a large single timber structure with corrugated iron roof measuring "upwards of eighty feet by forty" and painted on the outside. Sleeping accommodation was described as consisting of〔 ''...a raised platform stretching along each side of the building, like the berths in the steerage of a ship, each of the inmates sleeping on his blanket on the boards, the fire for cooking their provisions being on the floor in the centre of the building, around which they congregate in the evening, after the labors() of the day, as in their native isles.''〔〔 One other description of the Islander accommodation was that is consisted of a ''"circular structure"'' located close to the river bank. By 1925 this structure was used by share farmers for housing and feeding young calves.〔〔 Lang also notes the presence of an additional brick building on the plantation, a "commodious wharf" on the river for landing or embarking goods and people, and a schoolhouse which doubled as a church.〔 Lang described the conduct of a Presbyterian service at the schoolhouse, at which a number of the South Sea Islanders attended, were literate, and read a portion of scripture in their own language.〔 These Islanders were described as being from the Island of Mare, the southern most island of the Loyalty Island Group (New Caledonia).〔 It was not uncommon for Islander labourers to abscond from their employers when conditions were poor. They were commonly provided with insufficient and poor quality food and inadequate clothing.〔 This was particularly the case on those properties located in the more temperate areas of southern Queensland where the cooler temperatures in winter were completely foreign to many of the Islander labourers. In early 1869, eighteen men, originally from the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) and then employed at Morayfield Plantation, fled the plantation for Brisbane. Raff sought a court order in an attempt to force them back to work, which they refused.〔 At their court appearance in January 1869, three Mare men by the names of Tarbucket (alias Kichelho), John Bull and Louis, claimed the reason they left was that Mr Raff was not providing them with enough food or "ki-ki". They also expressed the belief that their agreements had expired after one year, even though Raff explained that they had agreed to three year work agreements, and that they wanted to return to Mare. The court ruled in Raff's favour and forced the men to return to Morayfield.〔〔 Lang, however, reports that Raff treated his Islander labour force "well", paying them at the rate of 10 shillings a month with rations, and under engagements of 3 years. Each man received a pound of beef per day and worked until 6pm in the evening.〔 Raff purchased much of this beef from the local area, particularly from the McConnels of Durundur station, near Woodford.〔〔 At the end of 1868, the Chief Inspector of Distilleries reported that the Morayfield Plantation had 190 acres of land under cultivation with cane, of which 60 acres had been crushed. The total amount of rum distilled since the commencement of operation in October 1867 was 18,431 gallons. The amount of sugar manufactured in 1868 was 100 tons, and molasses 12,000 gallons.〔〔 On 10 October 1869, Levi Walker, a labourer from Heap, near Bury in Lancashire, England, drowned in the Caboolture River.〔 Walker arrived in Australia just 5 weeks earlier on 6 September 1869 aboard the ''Star Queen''.〔 No additional information on Levi Walker has been located and his grave is marked with a headstone erected on the southern bank of the Caboolture River.〔 Sugar cane cultivation and processing continued on Morayfield Plantation throughout the 1870s.〔〔〔 In the 1870s, sugar was being regularly shipped from its wharf to Brisbane via small steamers such as the Tadorna Radjah and the Gneering, both owned by William Pettigrew.〔〔〔〔 In 1877, it was reported that 60 acres of cane was present, about 40 acres under prairie grass, and the remainder of the estate (3,000 - 4,000 acres), in pasture for cattle and horses.〔〔 It is unclear, however, the amount of time Raff and his family actually spent on the plantation, as he maintained a separate residence in New Farm, Brisbane, called "Moray Bank".〔 During the 1870s, South Sea Islander workers were progressively returned to their home islands as their work agreement expired, and were replaced with others from different islands, including three boys from the Island of Sandwich.〔 From 1884 the use of Islanders as labourers was progressively restricted through legislation, starting with an amendment to the Pacific Islanders Labourers Act 1880, which banned them from a range of work and constrained their employment to menial agricultural jobs. Concerns had been and were being voiced by humanitarian and church groups, as well as unions regarding the use and conditions of this labour force. Further legislation sought to end their employment entirely; however this was not finally achieved until after Federation with the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 and the Pacific Islander Labourers Act 1901, the latter of which required deportation of Islanders to begin after December 1906. Of the more than 9000 Islanders in Queensland in 1901, only 1654 were given permission to stay. The last deportation took place in July 1908.〔〔 The valuation register of 1880 noted a number of improvements to Morayfield Plantation though there is no indication as to where on the property such improvements were made. The improvements listed include a dwelling, mill house, two bonded stores, bone house, carpenters' shop, cotton shed, stable, octagon building, Kanakas' outhouse, bakery, managers' dwellings, store, Kanakas' house, eight cottages, hayshed, schoolhouse, kitchen and stables.〔〔 The Morayfield Plantation continued cultivating cane and producing rum until the mid-1880s.〔〔 The Chief Inspector of Distilleries, in his annual report of 1885, noted that there was no work at the Morayfield Plantation distillery that year.〔 The Inspector of Distilleries in Morayfield during 1887 reported a flood on the Caboolture River, but no damage to distillery.〔 In August 1889 however, it was noted that the Morayfield distillery had closed and in May 1891 tenders were invited for the purchase and removal of the sugar mill.〔〔〔 George Raff died on 28 August 1889 at his "Moray Bank" home in New Farm.〔 Ownership of the Morayfield Plantation transferred to three of his surviving sons - Alexander, Robert and Harry.〔 The land on which the Morayfield Plantation was built has changed ownership several times since Raff's death.〔 Subsequent owners of the property used the land mainly for dairying purposes, including share farming. William Henry Jackson purchased the land from the Raff family and trustees in 1901. A 1903 description of the former plantation area states: ''"traces of the old sugar mill, Kanakas" huts, rum bonds and the miles of furrows and drains still show here and there and the great sheet of water known as "the Dam" still exists; but since the "sixties" the old place has seen so many changes that what may be termed relics of those way-back times only remain.〔〔 ''By 1903, the property was divided into 19 paddocks, 6 of which were cultivated, with the rest used for dairy cattle. A dip had been built and 400 head of cattle (250 for dairying) were being grazed. A dairy shed was also erected on the site of the plantation-period horse stables, close to the Caboolture River. Associated dairying infrastructure was also installed, including a turbine steam engine and "de Laval" 150 gallon separator.〔〔 The property was sold again in 1909 to James Buchanan, in 1947 to William George Currant, to Douglas Ashe and James Rowe in 1948, and in 1951 the whole of Portion 10 was sold to Charles Thomas Williams.〔〔〔 In 1960, Portion 10 was again sold to the A.P.M. Forests Pty Ltd and a pine plantation established across the property.〔 Much of the surviving infrastructure from the plantation period is believed to have been removed during that period of ownership. Some equipment, particularly several boilers dating from the plantation-period are allegedly still buried on the site. A.P.M. later sold the land and most of the pine was sold to a local mill or chipped on site. The land has since been sold to Northeast Business Park Pty Ltd for redevelopment as a commercial centre.〔〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Morayfield Plantation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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