Sketch of the German Mission Station at Nundah by Carl Freidrich Gerler

At Zion Hill, Gerler portrayed life at the mission in a drawing that suggests that the colonists quickly developed a deep sense of place, of presence and of accomplishment. Gerler arrived at Zion Hill in 1844, and dated this drawing as 1846. It shows Aboriginal children being taught by the white teacher and Aborigines working in the fields using European farming implements. The cattle, the well-ploughed fields, the peach trees in front of the houses, the straight lines of crops of corn and sweet potato, all  demonstrate how the missionaries brought ‘civilisation’ to the indigenous inhabitants,  how they brought the stamp of the European world to the new country.