The Hoschke Family in Australia: 1880–1889
The 1880s were arguably the most transformative decade in the Australian story of Amandus and Mary Ann Hoschke.
At the beginning of the decade, Amandus, Mary Ann and their growing family were living near Orange, where Amandus worked on railway construction. By the end of the decade, they had moved into the newly opened Upper Orara settlement, established a home and farm in the rainforest country, welcomed another child, and become active participants in building the community around them.
The decade began with the family already having five children and ended with eleven.
It was also the decade in which the Hoschke family became permanently associated with Upper Orara, the place that would remain at the heart of their Australian story for generations.
1880 — A new home at Kerrs Creek
In 1880, Amandus and Mary Ann were living at Kerrs Creek, near Orange.
The family had been living in the Orange district after moving from Bathurst, and Amandus was working on railway construction. At this stage they already had five children:
- George William, born 1871
- August Frank, born 1872
- Frederick Amandus, born 1874
- Jessie Caroline, born 1875
- Annie Jane, born 1877
Their sixth child, Albert John, would be born the following year.
Life was changing rapidly for the family. Amandus was supporting an increasingly large household, and the search for land where the family could establish itself became increasingly important.
The opportunity would eventually come from the north coast of New South Wales.
1881 — Albert John Hoschke is born
On 28 January 1881, another son joined the family.
Albert John Hoschke was born in the Orange district and became the sixth child of Amandus and Mary Ann.
The family was continuing to grow at a remarkable rate. Mary Ann was now raising six children, while Amandus worked to provide for them.
The children were being born into a period when the family was still moving between different parts of inland New South Wales. Within only a few years, however, their lives would change dramatically when the family moved to the Orara Valley.
Albert would later become part of the generation that established the Hoschke name in the Upper Orara district.
1882 — Preparing for the future
There is no major individual family event currently recorded for 1882.
For Amandus and Mary Ann, however, these years were part of the period in which they were raising a rapidly expanding family while looking towards a more permanent future.
The northern coastal districts of New South Wales were attracting increasing attention. Reports about the rich timber country and agricultural possibilities of the Orara district were beginning to appear in newspapers and journals.
The family would soon make a decision that would shape the lives of their descendants for generations.
1883 — Harold Robert Hoschke is born
In 1883, the family welcomed another child, Harold Robert Hoschke, their seventh.
Harold was born while the family was still in the Orange district.
By now Amandus and Mary Ann had seven children under their care.
The family’s eventual move north meant that these children would grow up in a very different environment from the one they had known around Orange. Instead of established agricultural districts, they would find themselves in an area that was still largely dense rainforest and newly opened for settlement.
1884 — Amandus Ludwig Hoschke is born
In 1884, the eighth child, Amandus Ludwig Hoschke, was born at Orange.
Named after his father, he would later become known as Amandus junior.
He was the second-youngest child born before the family’s move north.
Amandus junior was only two years old when the family eventually travelled to Upper Orara, meaning that his earliest memories would have been formed in the new settlement rather than in the Orange district.
1885 — The family prepares for change
There is no major individual family event recorded for 1885, but this was an important year in the background of the family’s story.
The Orara district was attracting attention because of its enormous stands of valuable timber, particularly cedar.
Earlier explorers and cedar getters had opened rough tracks through the country, and newspapers were beginning to describe the agricultural potential of the land.
The Hoschke family’s eventual decision to move north was influenced by these reports. The family website records that Eugene F. Rudder’s articles in the Town and Country Journal helped convince Amandus that the Orara country might provide land capable of supporting his growing family.
The opportunity was about to become real.
1886 — The year that changed everything
1886 was the pivotal year in the Hoschke family’s Australian story.
The New South Wales Government made the Upper Orara land available for conditional purchase on 22 July 1886.
At the time, Upper Orara was not the settled farming community that later generations would know. It was largely dense rainforest and timber country.
A contemporary account later recalled that only a small number of applications were made on the day the land was opened. Among those early selectors was Amandus Hoschke.
The Hoschke family then made the long journey north.
Amandus, Mary Ann and their ten children travelled from the Orange district to Upper Orara. Their children ranged in age from about fifteen years to baby Ernest.
The tenth child, Ernest Carl Hoschke, had been born in the Orange district in 1886. He was still an infant when the family made the journey north.
A difficult journey
Upper Orara was an extremely isolated place.
There was no comfortable road into the new settlement. The country was heavily timbered and the existing tracks were rough.
David Small’s later account of the settlement gives an extraordinary picture of the conditions faced by the early settlers. He recalled that in 1886 there were very few houses, Coramba did not yet exist as a township, and the journey involved repeatedly crossing the Orara River.
The nearest established centres were South Grafton and Bellingen, while Coffs Harbour was little more than a small settlement with a hotel, store and rough track over the mountain.
For Mary Ann, travelling with ten children into this environment must have been an enormous undertaking.
Establishing the family home
The family website records that Mary Ann took a particular interest in the construction of their new home.
The house needed to be located near a stream because water had to be carried by hand. The family was establishing itself in a landscape where almost everything had to be created from scratch.
The move would ultimately become one of the defining moments in the history of the Hoschke family.
Upper Orara became home.
1887 — Amandus becomes involved in building the community
The first full year after the family’s arrival was extremely difficult.
The new settlers were trying to clear land, establish farms and find ways to transport their produce.
The greatest obstacle was transport.
The roads were little more than rough bush tracks, and moving produce to market was extremely difficult. The family timeline describes the period from approximately 1886 to 1896 as difficult years for the settlers, particularly because of the lack of transport.
Amandus did not simply concentrate on his own farm.
He became involved in efforts to improve conditions for the entire district.
The Upper Orara Progress Association
In March 1887, a meeting of selectors was held to discuss the requirements of the Upper Orara district.
Amandus Hoschke was among those selected to form the Upper Orara branch of the South Grafton Progress Association.
The settlers were seeking:
- better roads
- a road connecting the district with Coffs Harbour
- a jetty at Coffs Harbour
- better access to their properties
- improvements to the conditions under which they held their land
The contemporary newspaper described the roads as so poor that travellers could need an axe, spade and lever simply to make their way through.
Amandus was therefore involved almost from the beginning in the organised effort to make Upper Orara a viable community.
A community under difficult conditions
The year was also marked by flooding.
The Hoschke family’s history of Orara floods records that in 1887 the Orara River was flooded, with the conditions affecting attendance at a public meeting — only ten people were able to attend.
For settlers such as the Hoschkes, the river was both an essential part of life and a significant obstacle.
1888 — A post office, a new association and Amandus as president
1888 was another important year in the development of Upper Orara — and Amandus was right in the middle of it.
The family timeline records the opening of the Orara Post Office during the year.
The Post Office was enormously important to an isolated rural community. It meant that settlers could communicate with the outside world more easily and receive mail and supplies without having to make such long journeys.
The future Hoschke family connection with the Orara Post Office would become particularly strong. In later decades, Annie Jane Hoschke and Ada Davis would work there, making it an important part of the family’s history.
Amandus becomes president
By May 1888, dissatisfaction had developed with the existing progress association because Upper Orara and the West Branch were not receiving sufficient attention.
A separate Upper Orara and West Branch Progress Association was formed.
Amandus Hoschke became its president.
A meeting was held at John McLeod’s property on 30 July 1888, with Amandus in the chair.
The association was discussing the road from Coffs Harbour to the West Branch and the establishment of a receiving post office.
Amandus was appointed, along with John A. Maclachlan and D. N. Small, to meet with the Postal Inspector and explain the community’s requirements.
The settlers were also considering the possibility of establishing a half-time school.
Cricket comes to Upper Orara
The progress association was not all serious business.
The settlers also formed a cricket club.
This is an interesting glimpse into community life in the early settlement. Even while residents were struggling with roads, postal services and clearing land, they were also beginning to establish the social and recreational traditions that would help turn a collection of isolated farms into a community.
1889 — Mary Gertrude Isabel Hoschke is born
The decade ended with another important family event.
On 10 March 1889, Mary Gertrude Isabel Hoschke was born at Upper Orara.
She was the eleventh child of Amandus and Mary Ann and their third daughter.
Mary’s birth is particularly significant because she was the first of Amandus and Mary Ann’s children to be born in the Orara Valley itself.
Her birthplace represents a clear generational turning point.
The first ten children had been born elsewhere — principally in Bathurst, Orange and the surrounding districts.
Mary was born into the new family home at Upper Orara.
She was therefore an Orara-born Hoschke.
She would later marry William David Tait in Wellington in 1914 and become the mother of several children, creating another substantial branch of the Hoschke descendants.
By the end of 1889, Amandus and Mary Ann had eleven children:
- George William — 1871
- August Frank — 1872
- Frederick Amandus — 1874
- Jessie Caroline — 1875
- Annie Jane — 1877
- Albert John — 1879
- Edward Thomas — 1881
- Harold Robert — 1883
- Amandus Ludwig — 1884
- Ernest Carl — 1886
- Mary Gertrude Isabel — 1889
Two more children would be born in Upper Orara in the following decade — Hulda Minnie in 1892 and Arthur Henry Charles in 1893 — bringing the family to its final total of thirteen children.
The Hoschke family at the end of the 1880s
The difference between 1880 and 1889 was extraordinary.
In 1880, Amandus and Mary Ann were living near Orange with five young children.
Nine years later, they were established at Upper Orara with eleven children.
They had exchanged the more established agricultural districts around Orange for a remote and heavily timbered part of the NSW North Coast.
They had helped clear land and establish a farm.
They had endured poor roads, floods and isolation.
They had joined with their neighbours to campaign for better roads and transport.
Amandus had become president of the Upper Orara and West Branch Progress Association.
A Post Office had been established.
The settlers were forming sporting and social organisations.
And Mary Ann had given birth to the first of her children who would be born at Upper Orara.
The family was no longer simply settling in the district.
They were becoming part of the community that was being created there.
1880–1889: A decade of pioneering
The 1880s can therefore be seen as the decade in which the Hoschke family became firmly rooted in Australia.
Amandus had arrived in Australia as a young man.
He had married Mary Ann Drew at Georges Plains in 1870.
Together they had built a family of eleven children by the end of the 1880s.
But their greatest decision was still relatively recent: the move to Upper Orara in 1886.
The family website’s historical account makes clear just how primitive the settlement was at that time. The area was dense scrub, roads were rudimentary and transport was difficult. The early settlers had to build much of what they needed themselves.
The Hoschkes were among those pioneers.
Amandus’s involvement in the Progress Association shows that he was not simply a farmer working his own land. He was actively involved in trying to improve the district for everyone.
The establishment of the Post Office and the beginnings of organised recreation such as cricket show the community developing around the families who had taken up land there.
And Mary Ann’s role should not be overlooked.
While Amandus was involved in the public affairs of the settlement, she was raising a very large family in circumstances that required enormous physical effort. The family story records her involvement in establishing the home and ensuring that it was situated near water — a practical necessity in a place where there was little infrastructure.
A new generation of Hoschkes
Perhaps the most important legacy of the decade was that Upper Orara became the birthplace of the next generation.
Mary Gertrude Isabel Hoschke, born in 1889, was the first.
Her younger siblings Hulda and Arthur would follow in the early 1890s.
This meant that the family was beginning to develop a connection with Upper Orara that went beyond simply owning land.
It became their home place.
For the descendants who came later, this distinction is important.
Amandus and Mary Ann had chosen Upper Orara.
Their children grew up there.
Their grandchildren were born there.
And many of the stories, memories and family connections that survive today can ultimately be traced back to those first difficult years after 1886.
Closing the decade
The 1880s were the decade in which Amandus and Mary Ann Hoschke put down their roots.
They arrived in Upper Orara with ten children and very little of the infrastructure that later generations would take for granted.
They found dense rainforest, rough tracks, flooded rivers and enormous distances.
But they also found fertile land, a new community and the opportunity to build a future for their family.
By 1889, their eleventh child had been born at Upper Orara, Amandus had taken a leadership role in the local Progress Association, the Post Office had opened and the settlers were beginning to build the institutions that would support their community.
The difficult years were far from over.
But the foundations had been laid.
The Hoschke family had arrived at Upper Orara — and they were there to stay.
Sources and research notes
For the eventual family-history book, I would footnote the 1880s chapter primarily to these sources:
- Hoschke Family Reunion — Timeline of the Hoschke Family and Orara Valley, which records the family births, the 1886 move and the development of the Orara settlement.
- Hoschke Family Reunion — History of Orara Settlement: Progress Associations, which reproduces the contemporary 1887 and 1888 newspaper reports documenting Amandus’s involvement in the Progress Association.
- Hoschke Family Reunion — History of Orara Settlement 1, which preserves David Small’s later recollections of the 1886 settlement and describes the landscape, roads and conditions encountered by the pioneers.
- Hoschke Family Reunion — Mary Gertrude Isabel Hoschke, for Mary’s 1889 birth and later family history.
- Hoschke Family Reunion — Using Trove, for the methodology and explanation of the newspaper research.
