Whiteside, Queensland

Whiteside Queensland
North Pine Pumping Station, 2007
Whiteside
Coordinates	27°14′48″S152°55′16″E / 27.2466°S 152.9211°E / -27.2466; 152.9211 (Whiteside (centre of suburb))
Population	810 (2021 census) [1]
• Density	52.6/km2 (136.2/sq mi)
Postcode(s)	4503
Area	15.4 km2 (5.9 sq mi)
Time zone	AEST (UTC+10:00)
Location	9.3 km (6 mi) NW of Caboolture 31 km (19 mi) N of Brisbane CBD
LGA(s)	City of Moreton Bay
State electorate(s)	Kurwongbah
Federal division(s)	Dickson
Suburbs around Whiteside: Rush Creek Kurwongbah Kurwongbah Samsonvale Whiteside Petrie Cashmere Cashmere Joyner

Whiteside is a suburb in the City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. ^[2] In the 2021 census, Whiteside had a population of 810 people. ^[1]

Geography

Whiteside is 26 kilometres (16 mi) from Brisbane CBD. Brisbane–Woodford Road (Dayboro Road) runs along the north-eastern boundary. ^[3]

History

The European history of the area began 1843, when Captain Francis Henry (Frank) Griffin (ca. 1813-1881) became the first free settler to occupy the land. A short time later, Frank was joined by his brothers John and William. In 1845 they were joined by the mother Jane and father Gearbe who was the controlling partner in the property. ^{[4] : 579} The run taken up by the Griffins for raising both cattle and sheep, which was named Whiteside, was an extensive portion of 28 square miles of land on the north bank of the North Pine River stretching from the sea coast as far west as Terror's Creek (now Dayboro) and northwards nearly as far as the Caboolture River. ^[5]

Circa April 1847, it was alleged that servants at the Whiteside sheep station of Captain Francis Griffin mixed flour laced with arsenic and left in a hut with the expectation that Aboriginal people "would visit the hut and make use of the mixture". The act was reportedly in revenge for an aboriginal attack on a hutkeeper, who had been blinded by a blow to the head with a waddy. The servants denied mixing the flour with arsenic, claiming that both were separately kept in the hut and that the Aboriginal people must have combined them. ^[6]

The assault on the hut keeper and the killing of a shepherd appear to have been punishment under Aboriginal customary law for a previous incident where three Aboriginal people were murdered and others injured by poisoning by the shepherd in question, according to Tom Petrie. ^{[7] : 85}

After the massacre of the 50-60 Aboriginal men, women and children, on March 2, George Griffin had taken his dray to Brisbane only to discover one of his employees, John Brown, at the court office making a complaint about the massacre. It was reported that George Griffin immediately "galloped back to the station to warn his staff." ^{[4] : 583}

Upon being questioned about the massacre, the Griffins did not deny it, but claimed that it had been perpetrated by a servant no longer in their employ. History does not record any search for the alleged perpetrator or further investigation. ^{[7] : 85} Circa 1866, Edgar Foreman "saw scores of bleached bones including a complete skeleton" while riding in the vicinity, and heard that "fifty or sixty" Aboriginal people had lost their lives there by poisoning. ^{[8] [9]} Freeman claimed John Griffin of the Samsonvale cattle property told him that the deaths were caused by the Aboriginal people stealing from the hut and mixing them into dampers and Johnny cakes as they had seen the white men do and that over 50 Aboriginal people died from eating them. ^[10]

Further violence occurred in September 1847 when a group of Aboriginal men attacked and killed some of the workers at a saw-pit. ^[11]

Demographics

In the 2011 census, Whiteside had a population of 703 people, 50.4% female and 49.6% male. The median age of the Whiteside population was 47 years, 10 years above the national median of 37. 79.3% of people living in Whiteside were born in Australia. The other top responses for country of birth were England 6.2%, New Zealand 2.7%, Germany 1.6%, United States of America 0.9%, Netherlands 0.9%. 91.5% of people spoke only English at home; the next most common languages were 1.7% Dutch, 1% Spanish, 0.6% Croatian, 0.4% German, 0.4% Italian. ^[12]

In the 2016 census, Whiteside had a population of 753 people. ^[13]

In the 2021 census, Whiteside had a population of 810 people. ^[1]

Heritage listings

Whiteside has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

• North Pine Presbyterian Church, Dayboro Road  ^[14]
• North Pine Pumping Station, Lake Kurwongbah-Dayboro Road  ^[15]

Education

There are no schools in Whiteside. The nearest primary school is in neighbouring Petrie. The nearest secondary school is in Bray Park. ^[16]

References

1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Whiteside (SAL)". 2021 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
2. "Whiteside – suburb in Moreton Bay Region (entry 45477)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government . Retrieved 28 December 2020.
3. Google (17 January 2023). "Whiteside" (Map). Google Maps . Google. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
4. Connors, Libby (August 2009). "A house divided: the Griffin family of Whiteside and frontier conflict in the 1840s". Queensland History Journal. 20 (11): 578–592. Archived from the original on 29 May 2022. Retrieved 26 November 2021..
5. "Whiteside History". moretonbay.qld.gov.au/libraries/. Moreton Bay Regional Council. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Archived 16 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine .
6. "MORETON BAY". The Australian . Vol. IV. 13 April 1847. p. 3. Retrieved 7 January 2022– via Trove.
7. Petrie, Constance Campbell; Petrie, Thomas (1904). Tom Petrie's reminiscences of early Queensland dating from 1837 (PDF). Brisbane, Queensland, Australia: Watson, Ferguson and Company. pp. 147–148., quoted in Bottoms, Timothy (2013). Conspiracy of silence: Queensland's frontier killing-times. Crows Nest, New South Wales, Australia: Allen & Unwin. ISBN   9781743313824..
8. Foreman, Edgar (1928). The History and Adventures of a Queensland Pioneer. Exchange Printing. pp. 19–20.
9. Bottoms, Timothy (2013). Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland's Frontier Killing Times. Allen & Unwin. p. 303. ISBN   9781743313824. Archived from the original on 15 October 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
10. "DEATH VALLEY". The Queenslander . Queensland, Australia. 17 March 1932. p. 9. Retrieved 7 January 2022– via Trove.
11. "MORETON BAY". The Sydney Morning Herald . Vol. XXII, no. 3231. New South Wales, Australia. 28 September 1847. p. 2. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2022– via Trove.
12. Australian Bureau of Statistics (31 October 2012). "Whiteside (State Suburb)". 2011 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
13. Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Whiteside (SSC)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
14. "North Pine Presbyterian Church (entry 600767)". Queensland Heritage Register . Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
15. "North Pine Pumping Station (entry 602691)". Queensland Heritage Register . Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
16. "Queensland Globe". State of Queensland . Retrieved 17 August 2019.