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The situation at Hope Vale was somewhat unusual: The two missionaries Schwarz and Poland, while getting on with each other reasonably well, were entirely different natures. Schwarz, the senior missionary, was of an independent nature and a good worker, but did not see the need for reporting to the mission authorities back home. The station was never self-sufficient and continued to be a financial burden to the church. However, his spiritual work bore fruit: He established a church and school and the small congregation continued to grow. In June 1900 the government agreed to fund a school at the mission and to pay a school teacher. The new school teacher was to turn Schwarz’s life around. A year after her arrival, Mary Allen, the daughter of the Cooktown postmaster, married Schwarz on 31 May 1901. The new couple’s plans for a honeymoon in Germany were foiled by the news that Bloomfield was to be closed down and its residents assigned to Hope Valley. One year later the Mari Yamba mission was also closed down and its residents brought to Cape Bedford. Schwarz’s first daughter Grace (later Behrendorff) was born in November 1903, and his second daughter Marie (later Bennett) three years later. These two were not allowed to speak any language other than English, just as their mother taught only in English, with the result that the mission girls were noted for their fine command of the Queen’s English. Surrounded by his Australian family, and with the question of the mission language settled by government funding requirements, Schwarz gradually distanced himself from his German background. Source: missionaries.griffith.edu.au/biography/schwarz-georg-hein...

The Hope Valley Mission, at Hope Valley, was run by Lutheran Church Missionaries. Previously known as the Cape Bedford Mission, it was established around 1896 and closed in May 1942 when the site was taken over by the Australian Army and its residents were removed to Woorabinda, near Rockhampton. It reopened as the Hope Vale Mission in around 1950. The Hope Valley Mission was established when the administrative centre for the Mission at Elim moved to Hope Valley. Before the second world war, the Mission consisted of a number of hamlets or settlements at Springhill, Bridge Creek, and Elim with the administrative centre located at Hope Valley. Hope Valley was known as 'the school station'. This was where the Superintendent's house, the church, the school and the dormitories were situated. All of the Mission children of school age were sent to live in the dormitories at Hope Valley as this was where the Mission school was situated. The Hope Valley dormitories were also used to house orphans or children whose parents were not living on the Mission. The Mission's policy in 1939 was that it was better that Mission children were institutionalised rather than be with their parents. In 1941, 131 children were registered as inmates of the institution. In May 1942, residents of Hope Valley Mission were removed to the Woorabinda Aboriginal Reserve, over 1,000 kilometres south. The Mission site was subsequently taken over by the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Air Force, United States Army and the Civil Construction Corps. The mission reopened in around 1950, with the new name of Hope Vale. Source: www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/qld/biogs/QE00828b.htm

What a crazy looking house! So cool.

Plantation meets gothic.... interesting combination for a house

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called historic porch gingerbread & scrollwork, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.

What a fantastic place! I wonder how long it stood there, and who owned it. The gingerbread trim with the laundry hanging about, and the boarded up window upstairs, is an interesting combination visually and says much about their lives.

Beautiful detail in this photo.