James Josey

The Father of Redbank Plains

James Josey was known as the 'Father of Redbank Plains' after becoming the largest landowner in the district.

He was born in Aldworth, England on 12 August 1821, the second son of Richard Josey and Elizabeth Nichol. Richard Josey was a sawyer by trade. James was transported as a convict to Australia in 1840. He was sent to Moreton Bay in 1841. The area was not open to free settlement until 1842, and Limestone (now Ipswich) was a very young town. James was put to work on one of the many farms supporting the colony. He went into partnership with a carpenter, William Vowles, and together they are attributed with having built some of the first wooden houses of central Ipswich. They began a saw mill at Pine Mountain.

On 22 December 1849, he married Harriet Catherine Harris, the eldest child of John and Harriet Harris of Woodend, Ipswich. John Harris was involved in the building trade after settling in Ipswich in 1844. James and Harriet went on to produce seventeen children, thirteen of whom survived infancy; Harriet, Emma, Elizabeth, Eve, James, Benjamin George, Alfred William, Thirza Ellen, Mahala, Naomi, John North, Andrew and Ruth Jessie. The Joseys employed a governess on the Opposum Creek estate to teach the children, and when a school opened at Redbank Plains, those children still of school age rode their horses to and from the school.

James and Harriet Josey acquired and operated a massive landholding of 13 lots parcelled together to form the site then known as Eden Station and now recognised as Springfield.

It was in 1859, before the separation of Queensland from New South Wales, that the Joseys together with George Faircloth, purchased the first 1000 acres around Opossum Creek from the New South Wales Government. They paid 1 pound an acre to buy Portions 1, 2 and 3 in the County of Stanley from the Crown. In 1862, James Josey bought Faircloth's half share, and from 1868 he continued to acquire portions. They went on to lease 5700 adjoining acres before later purchasing them outright. In addition to Eden Station, the Joseys owned other acreage in Redbank Plains, Newchum and Goodna.

Most of the land was purchased at one pound per acre. By the 1870s, Josey owned approximately 27 square kilometers.

Josey was originally a sawyer and his skills in this field were put to good use at Eden to generate a large proportion of the Station's income. In addition to timber, the other main source of income was cattle. The station was considered an impressive operation and historical accounts indicate the Governor would bring visitors to Eden to demonstrate how convicts could succeed in the new colony.

Harriet died in 1880 and soon after, in 1890, the now aging James married Margaret Jones, a Welsh woman, and moved with her to the Redbank Plains home of his son and daughter-in-law. (James was 69 years of age, and Margaret was 48 years old). James' son, Alfred William Josey, had married Edith Austin and lived at 'Langley' (now 83 Johnston Street, Redbank Plains), James had built this house for the couple as a wedding gift. Alfred and Edith and their family moved out to Eden Station.

James outlived his second wife by four months. Following his death at Redbank Plains on 21 February 1903, the land passed to his trustee, Thomas Cribb, and in 1907, to James and Alice Cribb. In 1922, it was sold to John Fenwick of New South Wales, and in 1938 the Moreton Shire Council acquired the land for arrears in rates and subsequently sold it to C. A. Kruger and Sons who held the land until 1953.