Closer Settlement

During the 1850s, in response to considerable pressure from immigrants who were clamouring for access to land, the New South Wales Government decided to survey and sell blocks of land suitable for more intensive farming. By the mid 1850s, surveyors had reached an area not far outside the present Shire boundary which became known as the Bald Hills Farms Subdivision. During 1857, the first lots of agricultural land in this area were offered for sale.

In many cases, however, new settlers simply sought out portions of land which had not been claimed as runs and leased land in the hope that they would be able to establish more secure tenure at some stage in the future. James Cash, who settled on the south bank of the South Pine River around 1851, was one such person who became well known in the Pine Rivers area. Eight years later, he became the first freehold landholder in what was to become the Pine Rivers Shire.

Closer settlement of the region commenced in earnest during 1862 with the sale of country farm allotments in that part of the Strathpine/Lawnton area east of Gympie Road and on the north bank of the North Pine River in the area then designated the Redcliffe Agricultural Reserve.