Bremer Mills

Once home to a thriving industrial village, the site of the former Bremer Mills was lost in the memories of those who have passed before us. The Mills were a prominent landmark for people travelling on the boats that plied the Bremer River.

Joseph Fleming established a boiling down works on the banks of the Bremer River at Bundanba (now spelt Bundamba) with his business partner, Jacob Gorrick in 1850. Joseph purchased additional land in 1851 and established the Bremer Mills which included a Steam Flour Mill, a Steam Saw Mill and a Boiling Down Establishment, on 640 acres of land.

No photographs, paintings or drawings have been found of the Bremer Mills, but we can imagine what it would have looked like from the detailed accounts provided in newspaper advertisements. The Steam sawmill, adjoining steam flourmill, appliances for slip and tramways connecting the mill with the river, superintendents residence, cottages and huts for the workmen were located on one hundred and fifty acres of land. The flour mill was 68 feet long and 35 feet wide and was 3 storey’s high. The walls were 2 feet thick, and the mill was built of stones with floors and framing of white ironbark.

James Ivory who was a pastoralist, diarist and an inventor, purchased the Bremer Mills on 3 November 1868. You might be interested in gaining an insight into the life of James Ivory, his family and early settlers of the area, which is detailed in the James Ivory Diaries, which you will find under 'People of the Bremer Mills'.

By 1895, newspaper articles in the Queensland Times were referring to the ruins of the Bremer Mills. Part of the old masonry stonework was still solid and the bundle of what cut in the stone with the bundle of wheat was still visible. The 1893 was said to have wreaked havoc on the site.

The Stafford Bros. purchased the Ivory Estate and established mining operations on the property.