German Missionaries in Australia

Pallottine Brother at Beagle Bay,Tardun and Wandering Brook missions.

In the Pallottine Kimberley missions from 1905 to 1920, first as superior of Beagle Bay and then as Parochus in Broome. Was classified as an enemy alien during World War I and later became Regional Superior in South Africa.

Moravian missionary who spent 25 years at Ebenezer and prevented the mission from closing until his own death.

 Pallottine Brother at Beagle Bay, Rockhole, Balgo, and Tardun, 1927-64.

Eipper was one of the two pastors in the first mission in Queensland, and one of the first to leave after seven years. He learned the Turrbal language, travelled extensively in the mission area and wrote some detailed reports of his observations. Unlike the other staff at Zion Hill, he was trained at Basel.

Johann Flierl was the epitomy of the successful German missionary. From a farm in Bavaria, he trained at Neuendettelsau with an early and strong sense of vocation. He was quick to spot opportunities for strategic development. During his period at Bethesda mission at Killalpaninna (1878-1885) Germany acquired territory in New Guinea, and he immediately proceeded to become the first Lutheran missionary in this new contact zone. Along the way he was briefly delayed at Cooktown and used this time to start another mission at Cape Bedford, which he called Elim. He spent the next 44 years as a missionary in New Guinea (1886-1930) where his four children were born, developing a network of missions, and retired at age 72.

G.C. Freiboth is best remembered for taking the remainder of the Mari Yamba people to Hope Valley in 1902. As a lay missionary he was a veteran of the Finke River mission and drew on his Hermannsburg networks to obtain a posting to Mari Yamba. For four years he built up the station which had been neglected, but the mission was forced to close down because no ordained missionary could be found to staff it. Only a diary records his perspective, since few records were kept about lay-missionaries.

Fr. Gsell MCS headed the Catholic mission at Bathurst Island (1911-1938) and became Bishop of Darwin (1938-1948). His autobiography calls him the 'Bishop with the 150 wives' and his response to indigenous marriage customs became strongly contested.

Moravian missionary at Ebenezer (May 1859 - December 1861) and Ramahyuck (1862-1907) and unusual for a missionary, became influential as a government official in Victoria.

Reverend Handt was the first Basel candidate in Australia, and the first missionary in Queensland. He became a victim of the wrangle between the Anglican state church and other Protestant denominations. He had three years’ missionary experience in West Africa before coming to New South Wales in 1831, and worked at Wellington Valley mission (1832-36), Moreton Bay convict settlement (1837-43), as a teacher at Lindfield near Sydney (1842-1854) and as prison chaplain at Geelong (1854-1863).

Moravian brother who helped to establish Lake Boga mission.

During his ninety years Godfrey Haussmann (as he was later called ) maintained a passionate interest in mission work, and was at times the sole advocate of Aboriginal mission work in Queensland. He insisted that ‘these people are meant to be saved’ and that the German Lutherans in Queensland had a ‘moral responsibility’ to do so. He was one of the first Gossner disciples, and like Gossner, he attempted to draw on the loyalty of his surrounding German community. He sought to combine the successful settlement of German migrants with productive enterprise into which Aboriginal people might be drawn. He was instrumental in settling a new wave of German immigrants in the Beenleigh and Logan areas in the 1860s and became the patriarch of the German settlers in southern Queensland. Although not well educated himself, his written English was entirely creditable.

Pallottine Brother at Beagle Bay 1927-1933, later left the Pallottine Society.

Br. Alfons was a locksmith at Lombadina from 1904 to about 1907. He was posted to Cameroon (1911-1914), interned during the war, and left the Pallottine Society in 1921 and later married.

Pallottine carpenter at Beagle Bay from 1902 to 1906. It seems likely that ‘Bernard Well’, one of the picnic spots for Beagle Bay excursions, was named after him. Was dismissed from the Pallottine Society in 1926.

Spent ten years in the Kimberley as rector of Wandering, LaGrange and Beagle Bay. Was briefly interned in 1940. Better known for his work among postwar German migrants in Victoria.

Was in the Pallottine spearhead party to take over Beagle Bay mission from the Trappists in early 1901 and spent 29 uninterrupted years as tailor, book-keeper, carter and labourer. Buried at Beagle Bay cemetery.

Pastor Samuel Gottlieb Klose was in charge of the first school for Aboriginal children in South Australia, at Piltawodli on the banks of the Torrens River near Adelaide, from 1840 to 1845.* He demonstrated that Aboriginal people were capable of education, and his difficulties illustrate a clash of intentions between missionaries and governments.

(*In formal situations in Australia, Lutheran pastors use the title 'Rev.' (Reverend), following Anglican usage. Within the church, Lutheran tradition is followed and they are called 'Pastor', meaning 'shepherd' (Pfarrer in German). 'Pastor' can be used as a title or to refer to the office).

Moravian missionary at Kopperamanna (1866-1868), Ramahyuck (1865-1866, 1869-1876), Ebenezer (1876-1891).

Pastor Kühn was destined for the Moravian Kopperamanna mission but instead conducted a Presbyterian mission at Yorke Peninsula.

John Dunmore Lang was instrumental in bringing the first German missionaries to Moreton Bay. He was one of the movers and shakers of colonial Australia, slightly controversial, and with an eye for opportunity and a great deal of conviction and energy. He was a Scottish preacher, politician and patriot, who fought a number of social justice battles in Australia.

Pallottine Father at Tardun 1951-55, mission superior at Rossmoyne to 1980. Fr. Benedictus in Bran Nue Dae is loosely based on him.

One of the four Moravian missionaries at Kopperamanna (1866-1868).

Rev. Eduard Meyer, from the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Society in Dresden, Germany, was the first missionary to work among the Ngarrindjeri people of South Australia, working among the Ramindjeri of the Encounter Bay area. While his focus was on spiritual work, he started a school, encouraged the people to support themselves through farming and left valuable ethnographic and linguistic records that have informed the present-day revival of Ngarrindjeri language and culture.

Pallottine Br. Frank, a farmer at Tardun appears to have deeply influenced the people around him and was the subject of a published biography.

German Pallottine mission staff for whom it was not possible to conduct original research were Fr. Vill, Fr. Girke, Fr. Härle, Fr. Kieffer, Fr. Wehrmaker, Fr. Christoph, Brothers Hanke, Wendling, Ratajski, Boettcher, Müller, Ochsenknecht, Halder, Brossman, Kröhn, Schreiber, Donhauser, Brossmann, Besenfelder, Birker, Engel, Gunther, the lay helper Liedel, and Bishop Jobst.

Johannes Pingilina, a Dieri speaker from Bethesda mission in South Australia was central to the outreach at Elim (Cape Bedford) and Bloomfield (later Wujal-Wujal). The missionary literature on Queensland pays little attention to native evangelists, and Pingilina has been all but erased from the memory of these two missions. Lay missionaries in general are poorly documented in the missionary archives, so that the information available about Johannes Pingilina is patchy. This account is pieced together from the correspondence extant in the Lutheran Archives in Adelaide, which however contains many gaps. It demonstrates how Pingilina felt isolated and was trying to be taken seriously as a member of the mission staff, but received barely an acknowledgement for his evangelising efforts. Only after World War II did native evangelists play an acknowledged role in Cape York missions.

Filipino member of the poly-ethnic Kimberley community who facilitated the Catholic expansion on Dampier Peninsula and features strongly in the Kimberley mission history. The founder of Lombadina mission.

One of two Pallottine priests in the founding period of Beagle Bay mission, drowned in a creek in 1904, buried at Beagle Bay.

Pallottine farmer who helped to set up Tardun, Rockhole, and the Palottine college in Kew. Served at Tardun, Beagle Bay, Rockhole, Wandering , Kew, Strathfield and Millgrove, and retired in the motherhouse in Limburg.

The Hessian farm boy Georg Schwarz became one of the most prominent missionaries in Queensland. During his 55 years at Cape Bedford Schwarz threatened several times to leave, keenly aware that his purpose was not always aligned with that of the government. Although naturalised he was interned during World War II and completely severed his links to Germany. He died in Cooktown at age 91 and was interred at Hope Vale, where he was known as Muni and is still remembered there with annual celebrations of Muni Day.

One of the first Pallottine Brothers at Beagle Bay, was expelled but maintained close contact with the mission and conducted a market garden nearby, buried at Beagle Bay.

Spent ten years as Pallottine priest at Lombadina (1927-1937) overseeing a massive building programme.

Missionary at the Moravian Ebenezer station (1872-1874) and at the CMS missions of Coranderrk (1874-1875) and Lake Condah (1875-1913).

Lutheran missionary best known for his work on Aranda/Arrernte language and culture at Hermannsburg mission.

Worked as a Pallottine carpenter at Beagle Bay and the St. John of God convent in Broome from 1904 to 1909.

Pallottine carpenter at Tardun, Beagle Bay, Lombadina, La Grange and Balgo, trained many young Aboriginal carpenters and built the bush timber church at Lombadina.

First Pallottine Father at Lombadina, but only stayed in the Kimberley for three years (1909-12) after barely surviving a cyclone.

Under construction

One of four Moravian Brothers sent to Australia to start an inland mission at Kopperamanna.

Fr. Wellems spent 32 years in the Australian Pallottine missions, mostly at Tardun and Wandering.

Br. Wesely was caught up in the staff disputes during the establishment of Beagle Bay mission and left the Pallottines in 1906.

The English-speaker in the first Pallottine expedition to Australia, briefly stayed at Beagle Bay and then ministered at Derby and Broome, and Perth.

One of the first mission anthropologists and the first Pallottine in Australia to gain wide recognition for his work on Australian religion and rock art in the north-west. Worms published profusely on Aboriginal lifeworlds from 1938 until his death, and his second major book was newly released in 2006.