June 2025 Newsletter

Welcome!

Welcome to our June 2025 newsletter! We’d love it if you would like to contribute a photo or story for your Hoschke ancestor too. We have so much to share this month, grab a cuppa and read along!

ICYMI – Mary’s Story – Ian asked his children to read it and they were both impressed!
This Month’s Article: Harold Robert Hoschke
Family History Interview Questions
History of Floods in Orara Valley
This Month in History
Hoschke Collection – Coffs Collection

ICYMI – Mary’s Story: A Life Carved from the Land

In case you missed it – for Mother’s Day this year, we trialled a new format, where we combined written accounts by old-timers, used AI to draft a narrative story about Mary’s life which we then reviewed and edited.

If you haven’t yet checked it out, we’d love it if you did now, let us know what you think, is this something you would like to see more of?

Mary’s Story: A Life Carved from the Land

Article of the Month

Harold Robert Hoschke

Harold Robert Hoschke was born into a large and bustling household as the eighth child of Amandus and Mary’s family. At the tender age of three, his life changed course when the family relocated to the rural area of Upper Orara. It was here that Harold’s deep-rooted connection to the land and community began to take shape.

Harold followed in the footsteps of his father and brothers by taking up Conditional Purchase of land at Orara. In 1905 he purchased 200 acres of land at the Friday Creek branch of Upper Orara. As with others he developed the land as a dairy farm and at some stage raised pigs which is in line with the practice of separating the milk into cream and skim milk used to feed pigs.

Harold married Alice Maud Margaret Morris, daughter of Daniel and Margaret Morris, on 3 September 1907 at Moonee, just north of Coffs Harbour.

_{1907 ‘Family Notices’, Queensland Figaro (Brisbane, Qld. : 1901 – 1936), 19 September, p. 14. , viewed 25 May 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article84137847}

They had five children: Edith May (1908), Irene Margaret (1910), Nellie Enid (1912), Arnold Arthur Charles (1915) and Leslie Harold (1918).

Harold was a hardworking farmer, and records from 1912 show that he managed a modest holding with three horses and 61 head of cattle. That same year, his involvement in the local dairy industry was recognised when he was elected treasurer of the Dairy Farmers’ Union during its annual meeting—a sign of both his industrious nature and his role in the community.

STOCK ACT, 1901. (1909, January 20). Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 – 2001), p. 324. Retrieved May 28, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article227059046

Harold and Alice separated in the early 1920s. Harold moved to Sydney about 1922, splitting the family, with the children initially living with family members on the north coast.

Harold later married Muriel Esther Roberts, daughter of William Roberts and Jessie Kingston Briggs, on 7 June 1930 in St. Silas Church, Waterloo, NSW. They lived at 7 Reserve Avenue, Alexandria. He was a parish councillor and churchwarden at St James Church, Beaconsfield and St Andrews, Rosebery.

Seeking a return to the land, Harold and Muriel moved in late 1932 to a five-acre property at 680 Merrylands Road in Merrylands. There, Harold turned to poultry farming, embarking on what would become a spirited, lifelong contest with the Egg Marketing Board—a regulatory body that tightly controlled egg prices and distribution in New South Wales.

Undeterred by bureaucracy, Harold sold his eggs directly at the markets. Each week, he would load his bicycle with cartons of eggs, ride six miles to Merrylands Station, and take the train to Homebush to sell his goods on his own terms. It was an act that embodied Harold’s quiet defiance and dedication to honest labour.

Harold lived with Muriel at Merrylands until his death at the age of 75, on 2 October 1958.

Information for this article contributed by Robert Hoschke, Ian Hoschke, Trove and AI.

Family History

History of Floods in Orara Valley

The Orara Valley has long been shaped by its waterways. Recent events have brought this history into sharp focus once again, with an extraordinary 358mm of rain recorded at the Hoschke farm over just two days last week. As the community grapples with the aftermath, it’s a poignant moment to reflect on the Orara River’s hsitory of flood events.

Drawing from historical newspaper records and local accounts, this article presents a snapshot of major floods that have left their mark on the region. While digitised records after 1954 remain sparse, the earlier chronicles paint a vivid picture of a landscape repeatedly tested—and transformed—by water.

Click here to read about the history of floods in the Orara Valley.