Moggill Pioneer Families

The first pioneers arrived in the Moggill area in 1849 when sub-division of the land had begun following a succession of land acquisition acts by the NSW Government.

Job Twine and Donald Campbell was the first to buy blocks in the lane now known as Lather Road. Job bought portions 1, 2, 3 and 4 nearest to Moggill Road and Donald, portion 5 nearest the river. Joseph Lewis bought the land on the other side of Lather Road and gave part over of this land for the cemetery. Other settlers quickly followed with land purchases including James Shield, Thomas Makepeace, John Anstead and Robert Sexton.

Other speculators bought land but never lived in the area like Thomas Murray-Prior (this will open a new tab) and William Witty. By the end of the 19^th century, some of the early settlers had built up large landholdings: Ann Hallett owned 804 acres running from Sugars Road to Church Road and Thomas Gibson and Thomas Makepeace had 346 acres between them.

Since these early days, the descendants of the settlers have been schooled here, farmed here, married into each other’s families, and ultimately died here and were buried in Moggill Cemetery.

The presence of these families is demonstrated in a report in The Brisbane Courier of 17 December 1914 (view article – this will open a new tab) which notes that pupils awarded annual prizes at Moggill State School included two members of the Twine family, two members of the Sugars family, two Westcotts, and one each from the Anstead, O’Brien and Shield families.