Fassifern Estate, 1906 (Map of the Week)

State Library of Queensland has an extensive collection of historical maps of Queensland, some of which have been digitised and can be viewed online.

Estate map of Fassifern Estate including Moogera Paddocks and Kents Lagoon, Fassifern, 1906. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

This real estate map from 1906 advertises farm land for sale at Kent's Lagoon and Moogera Paddocks, as part of the Fassifern Estate.

Prior to the auction extensive publicity was published in newspapers describing both sections of land.

"Kent's Lagoon Paddock is nearly alongside Munbilla Railway Station, and has been cut into 13 farms of 124 to 234 acres, some of which are almost ready for the plough, and contain noting but rich alluvial, potato, or lucerne soil, of great depth, equal to the Laidley Creek farms, and similar to the best lands on the Clarence and Richmond. There are also some good ridges, well grassed and suitable for dairying. Abundance of water from Warrill Creek, which has never been known to stop running, and from the Lagoon, which is two miles long, and upwards of 50 feet deep in places, renders the property absolutely drought-proof, and highly suitable for irrigation.  The Moogera Paddock is about 15 miles from the railway, but is within two miles of the permanet survey of the proposed via recta line to Warwick, and has been divided into eight farms, of from 89 to 261 acres. It comprises the choicest dairying land. Rich apple and gum-black soil flats, easy well grassed ridges, with permanent running water in Coulsens and Reynold's Creeks, which are tributaries of Warrill Creek." (The Queenslander, January 20, 1906)

Advertisement, The Queenslander, January 6, 1906

A public auction was held at Munbilla on the afternoon of January 22, 1906. The Darling Downs Gazette newspaper reported the results of the sale -

"The first subdivisions of the well-known Fassifern Estate were offered at auction before a large attendance, at Munbilla, on the 22nd instant, when 350 acres changed hands at an average price of 3 14/6 per acre, the buyers being local men. In most cases the bids at auction failed to reach the reserves, and the balance of the farms were passed in. These are now held for private sale by Messrs Dalgety & Company Ltd., and Messrs Isles, Love and Co., Brisbane, agents in conjunction, from whom full particulars can be obtained. We understand that negotiations are now in progress for a number of the subdivisions."

A higher resolution image of this map can be viewed through our One Search catalogue.

Prints of this map are also available through the Library Shop.

You can browse a compendium of our previous maps of the week on our blog.

Myles Sinnamon – Project Coordinator, State Library of Queensland