Welcome!

Welcome to our December 2025 newsletter! This month we are look at Amandus and Mary’s second child, August Frank Hoschke.

We would like to thank everyone for their support this year, we have one more child, George to post about in January 2026! We wish everyone a safe and joyous Christmas and may you be as lucky as young Robert in our photo of the month, what a lovely handmade garage he received on Christmas Day for all his toy cars!

• 🏠 August Frank Hoschke
• 🌲 Upper Orara Christmas Party
• 📸 Photo of the Month – Christmas Day
• 📅 This Month in History

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Article of the Month

August Frank “Frank” Hoschke (1872–1964)

August Frank Hoschke was born on 13 October 1872 in Bathurst, New South Wales, the second of thirteen children of Amandus August Ludwig Hoschke and Mary Ann (Drew) Hoschke.¹ When he was about fourteen, his family moved to the Upper Orara Valley, where the hard work of clearing rainforest and building homes shaped his early years.²

A story about Frank which shows how differently people thought in those days, is about when Eric Hoschke, a great-nephew of Frank was boarding at Frank’s house in Coffs Harbour. This would have been in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. He was fed on bandicoot that Frank had trapped from around his house. Today there are marine parks and huge koala reserves. Frank, and the next generation, were accustomed to taking advantage of every opportunity to harvest native food whether it be animals, birds, fish or native berries. During the early times from 1886 until at least 1900 food was not plentiful.

Michael Secomb, Red Gold to Green Grass: The Early History of the Upper Orara Valley (1986). Coffs Collections, accessed 25/11/2025, https://coffs.recollect.net.au/nodes/view/65990

As a young man, Frank worked alongside his older brother George as a pit sawyer, cutting timber for early settlement buildings before sawmills existed in the district. Their work supplied much of the timber used in the first homes of the Orara Valley.¹ When the farms became well established many of the original bark huts were replaced by better buildings. This was still a long before sawmills operated but in the district were several expert pit-sawyers who cut cedar and beech planks for the new homes that replaced the original bark huts. ³

The change to mill sawn timber did not take place until about 1905, almost 20 years after arrival, when big sawmills were set up in the district.³ All the effort to cut trees, cut sections of the trunk, move them into position and then do the job of a sawmill to produce boards for housing seems to have been rewarding for Frank as he lived to a ripe old age.

On 2 March 1899, Frank acquired 93 acres at Upper Orara (Portion 15, Special Area No. 3285) and farmed there until 1906.¹ On 30 September 1903, he married Henrietta Selina “Hetta” Richards, and together they raised five children: Walter Frank, Lionel Edgar, Selina Mary (“Lina”), Henry Carl, and Anzac K.¹ Their youngest child, Anzac, born in May 1916, died just four days after birth and was buried in the Coffs Harbour Cemetery.¹

In 1906, Frank and Henrietta moved to Inverell to farm wheat, but severe drought followed by heavy rain made the venture unviable. The family returned to the North Coast in November 1912, eventually settling on Bellingen Road near the southern entry to Coffs Harbour — land now occupied by the Premier Motel.¹

Frank resumed work as a carpenter, contributing to construction on the Coffs Harbour Jetty, and later cut railway sleepers as the North Coast line expanded.¹ In 1919, he went to Queensland for tree-felling work while his family remained in Coffs Harbour.¹

Frank and Henrietta were active in church life. At a farewell given before he left Orara, Frank was recognised as a Sunday-school superintendent, church officer, and respected neighbour.¹ Henrietta contributed as a church organist and Ladies’ Guild member, providing music in multiple district churches.¹

In his seventies, Frank suffered a serious accident when he fell from a roof and broke his back, requiring months of immobility supported by sandbags.¹ Despite the severity of the injury, he recovered and remained active into later life.

Henrietta died on 11 March 1947, aged 68, and Frank passed away on 26 August 1964, aged 91.¹ Both were buried in the Anglican section of the Coffs Harbour Historical Cemetery.¹

References

1. Hoschke Family Reunion Website – “Early Days of the Hoschke Family in Australia”
https://hoschkefamilyreunion.com/hoschke-family-history/early-days-of-the-hoschke-family-in-australia/

2. Hoschke Family Reunion Website – “August Frederick Hoschke”
https://hoschkefamilyreunion.com/amandus-mary-ann-hoschke/august-frederick-hoschke/

3. Settlers at Orara (The Hoschke Family in Australia) Ian Hoschke

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Upper Orara Christmas Party

Do you remember community Christmas parties like this one in 1948?

UPPER ORARA CHRISTMAS PARTY (1948, December 21). Coffs Harbour Advocate (NSW : 1907 – 1942; 1946 – 1954), p. 1. Retrieved December 2, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article185057704

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Photo of the Month

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This Month in History

During December, we remember these family members with love:

1 Dec – Muriel Doris Lewis passed away 1 Dec 2002

5 Dec – Norman Frank Hoschke born 5 Dec 1917

9 Dec – Ralph Robert Ide passed away 9 Dec 1985

11 Dec – Clunie Bain Gould (prev Hoschke) passed away 11 Dec 1974

11 Dec – Dorothy Nellie Hoschke born 11 Dec 1913

11 Dec – Frances Mary Joyce Hoschke born 11 Dec 1917

12 Dec – Dulcie Jean Sonter born 12 Dec 1920

15 Dec – Jean Isobel Tait born 15 Dec 1921

16 Dec – Irving James Finucane passed away 16 Dec 1982

22 Dec – Ada Mary Davis passed away 22 Dec 1998

22 Dec – Amandus Ludwig Hoschke & Nellie Dammerel married 22 Dec 1908

22 Dec – Nellie E Davis & William Casson married 22 Dec 1932

23 Dec – Irene Margaret Hoschke & George EV Hidgson married 23 Dec 1939

24 Dec – Jessie Caroline Hoschke born 24 Dec 1875

26 Dec – Herbert Bruce Davis born 26 Dec 1900

26 Dec – Herbert Bruce Davis & Elma Minnie Hofmeier married 26 Dec 1928

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Til next month!