Kanyan, south east Queensland, Australia - a brief history from local recollections.

Kanyan … European variation of the Ka’bi words Kani’yango: Kani’yan meaning “son go walking” AND/OR Kan’yian “a large species of wood-boring grub” AND/OR Kani’gan-yango meaning “daughter go walking” – all inferring “a place where one goes walking for the wood-boring grub.”
Source: Brett Green

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The following is mainly taken from my notes from Mrs Joyce Sexton's memoirs.

Frederick Day and Louisa Moore married 19 September 1894. They bought part of Kanyan Estate from Mr Francis. Sloggetty Creek ran through the property. Local carpenter, Jack Woods, built "Day Dawn" with Fred, from timber purchased from the Gundiah Sawmill.

Louisa and Fred's sixth son, Edwin, was born 6 October 1908 soon after their arrival at Kanyan.

Louisa and Fred's children were: Jane (Jinny), Emily (Em), Walter (Mike), Herbert (Bert), Allan (Lal), Owen (Jack), Percy (Perc), Edwin (Ted), and James (Jim).

Around 1908 Frederick Day split and delivered by dray all the fence posts for the railway line, from the level crossing near Theebine School to a point a quarter of a mile north of Kanyan Siding.

Soon after Frederick and Louisa Day moved to Kanyan, a Sunday School was established and conducted on alternate Sundays at the Francis and Day residences. Church services were held at Gundiah, near the entrance to what is now the Groundwater farm, "Avonlea". The Day family used to travel to church on horseback, and in a spring cart, and later in a three seater buggy, which had a hood and a head lamp. Later, services were held at the Theebine Hall, until the Theebine Church was built in 1940. Frederick Day had the honour of opening the church.

"Day Dawn" was the weekend home of the ministers who came from Maryborough - some by train, some by pushbike!

Among the ministers and home missionaries of the Maryborough Circuit were: Frank Leckemby, Jim Moorhouse, George Brown, and Stan Potter.

A double tennis court was built on the corner of Caulleys' paddock near "Day Dawn". Saturday matches with players from Walker Street Church, Maryborough, and luscious afternoon teas provided by Miss Emily Day.

In the early years, entertainment was social evenings, sing songs, picnics, and tennis.

Mr Burghoffer was a German neighbour of the Day family.

Fred Griffin was also a neighbour of the Day family. He lived where the Ross family later lived. On the same property there was a dear little cottage where Fred's parents lived. They were fondly known as Grampy and Granny Griffin. They had a lovely little garden and Joyce Sexton loved going there.

If anything went wrong with man, beast, or machinery, Fred Day's decision usually was "go and get Fred Griffin". Fred Griffin was a great teller of 'tales extraordinary' of his exciting life as a young man.

One day Frederick Day had a horse refuse to go, and it staged a lie down strike in the shafts. Fred harnessed another horse and tried to pull him to his feet, without success. Fred, in desperation, lit a fire near him - which had the desired effect!

Jane Day was church organist before her marriage to Stephen Larner. Her parents gave her fifty pounds for her 'glory box', but Jane used the money to buy an organ from her friend Maud Griffin! Jane lived on the hill at Kanyan, at 'Wy Wurrie', for 68 years. She enjoyed sewing, knitting, crochet, embroidery, and patchwork, and preferred gardening to housework.

Jane and Stephen Larner were married at 'Day Dawn' on October 3, 1917, by Reverend Palethorpe. Emily Day was bridesmaid, and Steve's brother, Art Larner, best man. Maud Strawbridge and Annie Wood were waitresses at the wedding breakfast served in the marquee erected off the verandah.

Jack Wood, assisted by Steve, built Steve and Jane's home on the hill. It was quite a fine farmhouse, with a magnificent view. They called it 'Wy Wurrie'.

On her buggy rides, in the early days of their marriage, Jane Larner sometimes would be lucky enough to see a Regent Bird. (see photos of Regent Birds here and here)

The Strawbridge family (Maud and Arthur Strawbridge, and their children: Doris, Walter, Lily, Eric, and Gordon) were neighbours of Jane and Steve Larner. They later moved to a property which is on what is now called Strawbridge Road.

Jane Larner could kill a snake, set a rat trap, decapitate a chook for Sunday dinner, harness a horse, milk cows, and pick beans faster than the men. She was also an expert jam maker, and kept hens.

The Francis family owned Kanyan Estate. There used to be a large clump of bamboo on the corner, and a few palm trees, and a number of bunya pines. After World War One Kanyan Estate was owned by Captain Gilbert Harry, in partnership with Mr (Harry?) Brand. They had two silos built there. Mr Harry's housekeeper was Miss Bleetham, an Englishwoman, with very white skin, clad in voluminous black silk, and a black hat. The Days took Miss Bleetham to church.

Frederick was the first in the Kanyan district to install milking machines. Previously 80 cows had been milked by hand! He was also one of the first to purchase the "miracle box" radio. Gilbert Harry, of Kanyan Estate, was the first - and also the first in the district to buy a tractor.

Louisa Day died in 1923 and was buried in the Miva Cemetery (Dickabram Cemetery).

The old buggy belonging to the Day family, with its hood, was superceded by a magnificent "Chrysler 1927".

Probably the only telephone in the Kanyan District by 1930 was at Kanyan Estate.

Somewhere between 1926 and 1931, one of the church soloists had a big chest and a shiny bald head. His face went red when he sang a high note. Also, during the service there was always a crash. One of the congregation had fallen asleep and had fallen off his seat.

Walter Day, with his wife, Mabel (nee Black), and son, Colin, lived for a few years on a farm at Kanyan, which was later purchased by Sam and Doreen Mitchell, and is now owned by Bill and Jan Martin.

Alan (Lal) Day and Konny (nee Nahrung) began their married life on a farm at Kanyan, where their children Margery, Frank, and Ivan were born. They had a tiny home, about 8 miles from Theebine, where Cherry Tree Road is now.

At one stage Beryl Nahrung was church organist. Alan Day used to give her points out of five for her hats. She would glance up from the organ and he would hold up one finger or two fingers, denoting how many points she had scored for her hat!

One of Bert Day's first jobs was brushing lantana for Mr Wood, at 8/- a day (1/- an hour). That was in probably 1915-16.

Jack and Tean Day's children, Merle, Mervyn, Bevan and Kevin were born at "Day Dawn". Tean's real name was Ernestina Helena Wilhelmina Sauer! (I'm not sure of the correct spelling.) I knew her as "Auntie Tean", and can still remember her face. When my mother was a young married woman, Auntie Tean taught her how to drive a car.

Ted Day and his sister, Emily, started a Sunday School at Theebine Hall. They travelled to Theebine in their sulky. Emily took the elder class, and Ted the younger class. Tom Dakin was one of the scholars who later became a teacher. Mrs Dick Lipsett (nee Lavina Dakin) was also a teacher.

Ted Day married Doreen Jenkins in the Theebine Hall. Their house was built on the Scrub Farm, which had been purchased from Dick Lipsett. Bob and Joyce Sexton (Jane Day and Stephen Larner's daughter) live there now.

Seven months after Ted and Doreen were married, Fred decided to dig a well on the Scrub Farm, which had been converted into a dairy farm, because of the severe drought. Ted had been slabbing the well, and Fred was lowering the slabs in a bucket. One slipped and hit Ted in the head. There was only a small mark on his forehead, but he said to Jane and Doreen, during his mail train journey to hospital, "I'm all smashed up inside." He died in hospital that afternoon. Doreen was pregnant. Their daughter, Dawn, was born August 15. Frank Lechemby, the young Methodist minister from Maryborough, who had married Ted and Doreen seven months previously, now had to bury his friend. After Ted's death, Frederick with Emily (who managed the household after her mother died), Owen (Jack) and Jim moved to the Scrub Farm. When Jack married "Tean" Sauer in 1935, dairying was again resumed at "Day Dawn".

Jim Day was only nine when his mother, Louisa, died. He was very fond of swaggies, who had a regular camp near Sloggetty Creek, where Jim helped them to build their gunyahs. Most swaggies were decent men forced by desperate circumstances to "hump their bluey" from one town to another, where at the Police Station they were given food rations. They knocked on doors to ask for food, and would chop a heap of firewood in return for a feed. They carried their swag, a few clothes wrapped in a blanket strapped to their back, with a blackened tin billy swinging from it. They regularly "jumped the Rattler" (climbed aboard goods trains and hid under the tarpaulins covering the trucks), jumping off before they pulled into a station, so that they wouldn't be discovered.

Jim Day married Edith Birt. Their children were Graham, Margaret, and Estelle. Edith died in 1975.

Emily Day cared for her father, Frederick Day, until his death at 95. I knew her as "the lovely Miss Day". Emily was an expert needlewoman, and a fine cook, and was noted for her beautiful floral arrangements for church. In her younger days at Kanyan, Emily would walk from "Day Dawn" to the Theebine Hall, train a swarm of rowdy children for a Sunday School concert, then walk home again. It must have taken her about an hour one way.

Mattresses were made from corn husks, and blankets from sack bags covered with cretonne or patchwork. Bedroom furniture was created out of pine cases in which four gallon kerosene tins had been packed. Bert Day once built a shed with flattened out kerosene tins! Scrubbed out kerosene tins cut to various sizes with their sharp edges hammered in became wash dishes, milk containers, and baking dishes. Water was kept cool in a canvas waterbag hung on a shady verandah.

Once a week the fire was lit and tins of hot water were carried to a big round iron tub for the weekly bath. Later there was a tin bath painted white. At "Wy Wurrie", the house on a Kanyan hill where Stephen and Jane Larner lived, there was an enamel bath, with a copper attached to the side of the (wood burning) stove for hot water.

Pioneers believed in preventative measures. A big packet of Epsom Salts was mixed up in a jar and once a week everyone would line up for a dose. The dreaded blue castor oil bottle was a great standby if it was considered your system was 'out of order'.

A few years ago, Miss Emily Day could remember when aborigines roamed the Kanyan district, and camped near Sloggety Creek. The children were afraid of them, and gave them a wide berth.

Bert Day remembered when the new school (Theebine) was built. He and Percy remembered some of the teachers: Mr KD Moore kept chooks, which were often attacked by hawks. The students would warn him when they saw the hawks swooping. Mr Moore would dash off with the shotgun and shoot the hawks on the wing. The children were very impressed.

There was a Mr Williams who camped on the back verandah of the school, and went home to Maryborough for weekends.

Bert Day remembered walking home (from the Theebine School to 'Day Dawn') by the Old Maryborough Road, and sometimes through Shapland's paddock, which was standing scrub. Christie Jensen had snigging tracks through the scrub where he had been snigging timber, and they followed the tracks. (People had either a horse team or a bullock team for hauling timber.) At other times, the boys 'hitched' a ride on goods trains. (They had a mail ticket for the mail train, but it didn't run every day.) If there was a goods train at Theebine heading north, the boys would ask the guard, who would send them up to the engine driver to make their request. Sometimes the boys would be allowed to sit in the van, and the train would be stopped especially to let them out at Kanyan.

The original Old Maryborough Road in the Kanyan district was constructed by convict labour, and the road consisted of heavy logs placed side by side across the road. Later the logs were removed and the road graveled.

There was church at Theebine in the morning, and in the afternoon one of the boys drove the parson to Miva for a service there. Mr and Mrs Black offered the use of their sulky to transport the parsons to Miva. There was another service at Theebine at night.

Ben Balderson and Charles Watson were the early church choir conductors.

In those days people had mixed farms, with a small herd of dairy cattle, pigs, and poultry. Small crops were grown in season. At one stage, cotton was grown at Kanyan, by the Larner family.

In those days if the lady of the house was ill, or busy with a new baby, 'a girl' was employed.

A mail bag came on the 8am rail motor which was bound for Maryborough. Another one came on the 3pm mail train which went to Bundaberg three days a week, yet another bag came on a goods train, 'Three Down', which was due at 7pm but came any time up until 9:30pm.

In the 1920s and 1930s, waiting for 'Three Down' was a social occasion for the local farmers. They sat on the verandah of the goods shed and talked farms, weather, cricket, ran down the government, while Charlie Black, deputising for his wife, Kitty, who was Station Mistress, sat in his chair smoking his pipe. After the mail bag had been sorted, he always said "Gentlemen, the firm's closed," and everyone went home.

Bevan Day, son of Jack Day, owns "Day Dawn" to this day. Joyce and Bob Sexton currently own ' the Scrub Farm' of 160 acres, which had been bought by Fred Day from Dick Lipsett.

Click here for a history of the Theebine School, including a list of past pupils.

The background of this page is a photograph of some of Kanyan, taken from a Kanyan farm hilltop. You can see the roof of "Wy Wurrie" to the left centre.

Another view of Kanyan, with "Wy Wurrie" at the centre of the photograph

Views of & from Mt Kanighan

Dickabram Bridge, at Miva, nearby

A train at Theebine

Apparently, the local aboriginal tribe was the Ka'bi Kga'kgari, who were cannibalistic people of the Theebine, Gundiah, & Bauple regions, see: kgippandingi.html .

The following is courtesy of Brett Green:

1. The clan on the eastern side of the Mary River at Theebine-Gootchi-Gundiah and east towards Tinana Creek were called the "Ka'bi Kga'kgari". They were the "Echidna" people - the "Eaters of sweet meat".Their territory ended at a line from the Mary River-Gundiah-Mt Bauple and Mt Penny eastwards along Bauple Creek towards Tinana Creek. North of that line were the Badtjala clans - they were different people to that of the Ka'bi clans with a different language. The southern line extended from the mouth of Wide Bay Creek towards Gunalda and Sandy Creek to Tinana Creek. They are the only recorded fully cannibalistic clans of S. E. Qld and were feared by all other aboriginal clans and the European settlers. They were wiped out brutally c.1866 during a raid by Tiaro stockmen in revenge for the killing and eating of one of their shepherds. There were no survivors for that clan.

2. The clans to the south of the "Ka'bi Kga'kgari" were the "Ka'bi Kgut'dhirri" - the "Iguana People". These were the clans of the Gunalda- Neerdie region toward Tinana Creek. They were also reported to have practised cannibalism to a lesser degree. They were wiped out for the same reasons as their neighbours c.1866. There were no survivors.

3. The clans on the western side of the Mary River opposite the "Ka'bi Kga'kgari" were called the "Ka'bi Kgi'kgami". They were the "Cockatoo People". They were the clans of the Miva-Munna Creek region. Most died from sickness and disease c.1884 - some older survivors worked at Miva Station for many years but died out - there were no survivors.

4. The clans on the western side of the Mary River south of the "Ka'bi Kgi'kgami" from Wide Bay Creek were called the "Ka'bi Kgai'ya". These were the "Carpet Snake People". They were by far the largest and strongest clans in the whole region. They were great warriors and held the power and influence over all the clans north and south of their territories - they also feared the cannibal peoples but always took revenge for any taking of their people. Most of their clan died out c.1884 during a coughing sickness epidemic. Some old ones escaped to the mountains and died there without descendents. The last member of the warrior clan was "Dhakkan'guini" who died c.8th July 1938 in the Widgee Mountain area of old age.

All in all, there were ten major clans who lived on either side of the Mary River from its source to the Theebine-Gundiah-Bauple region (northern border of the "Ka'bi Clans"). Gundiah was on the border of the Ka'bi and Badtjala clan territories but I think you will find the natives there were Ka'bi - not Badtjala.

Source: Brett Green
Aboriginal Histories Research Officer

President - The Dhamurian Historical Research Society Inc - Gympie ( www.dhamurian.org.au )

Brett Green (Ka'bi Aboriginal Histories) - Gympie ( www.warriors.egympie.com.au )

Kanyan and Theebine area businesses, and things to do in the area:

7's Sauce

Bopple Nut Gallery & Coffee Shop (at Bauple)

Cherax Park Aquaculture Farm (Saturday farm tours, including lunch, at Kanyan)

Fernhill Park (camping & fishing at Munna Creek)

Gympie South Country Markets (2nd & 4th Sunday of the month, about half an hour's drive away)

Kanyan Sawmill

Theebine Hotel

Tiaro Promotions' page of pictures of local attractions