Community & Business
9 December, 2025
Resilience in the face of tragedy for Stehn family
Regardless of what country they came from, European migrants of the 19th century made the momentous decision to start a new life on the other side of the world because of dramatic political, religious and social changes in their homelands.
Twelve years old Johann Stehn’s German family was one of the many thousands deciding to book a ship’s passage to Australia and his story from childhood to adulthood is one of great success, but also great personal tragedy.
Johann’s parents, Diedrich and Katharina arrived in Australia in 1858 with their four children and settled in South Australia.
After working in Red Creek with Hans Stehn (Johann’s uncle), Diedrich was successful in 1865, buying land in the Lake Alexandrina and Coorong region of South Australia.
Johann along with his brothers helped their father clear the land, build fences, ploughing and reaping with horse-drawn implements and so it was at this time that Johann learnt the art of farming.
In 1872 Johann married Elisabeth Ampt in St. Michael’s Church, Hahndorf and it is believed she was the first bride to be married in white, as black had previously been the custom in the church.
Johann and Elisabeth had their first home near Point McLeay close to the mouth of the Murray River and had their first child, Freidrich Alfred there in 1874.
By this time it was apparent that Diedrich’s 149 acres were not sufficient to support the extended Stehn family of fifteen and by 1875 they had moved to Tooan East in Victoria.
Here the parents and their sons bought adjoining blocks that totalled over 1000 acres meaning they could pool their labour and resources.
Gradually they built their own houses on their individual blocks and the next few years were ones of growing prosperity.
It was only eighteen years since Diedrich’s father had died in the poorhouse in Politz, Holstein.
Johann and Elisabeth had twelve children while at Tooan East.
There were thirty-four cousins from the three families on those adjoining farms, making for plenty of interaction for children.
Johann became very involved in community matters being on the local Education Board of Advice, Secretary of the Tooan East branch of the Farmers Union and most importantly between 1893 and 1896 he held the position of Water Commissioner.
Unfortunately the new prosperity and community involvement was soon accompanied by family tragedies.
Between 1876 and 1899 eight members of the family died although some were elderly family members.
More alarming were the deaths of four of Johann and Elisabeth’s children over just a few years.
In 1884 six years old Carl drowned just one month after the birth of their sixth child.
Tragedy struck again six years later when eight years old Dietrich also drowned on the property.
On 13th May 1897 Elisabeth and Johann celebrated the birth of their thirteenth child, Ernst August, but he died just before Christmas 1898, of stomach cramps.
Then only two months later eleven years old Paul Stehn entered a six feet deep waterhole and drowned.
These tragedies must have placed a dark cloud over what should have been a period of growing contentment for the Stehns.
Realising there were too many bad memories in Tooan East they heroically decided to start again in a new environment.
In 1898 Johann had visited the Darling Downs on behalf of the Farmers Union and had written a glowing report on the area.
In 1900 Johann and Elisabeth packed up their belongings and with eight of their children moved to the Darling Downs to escape the past tragedies.
Johann Stehn had been in Victoria for 25 years and was much respected as a person and a farmer, Elisabeth had dozens of relatives and friends in the area so it was a difficult decision but one they felt had to be made.
They arrived on the Darling Downs just as the Headington Hill Station was being broken up and sold as smaller selections.
The Headington Hill Station had come about in 1867 after the government took possession of the Clifton Station lands.
G. H. Davenport and C. B. Fisher sabotaged the process by acquiring 36,000 acres through dummying and established the Headington Hill Station.
It survived for only thirty years as the huge expenditure on machinery, dams, cottages, barns, wells etc. required huge amounts of capital and by the mid- 1890s the venture was in financial ruin.
Farming had changed since 1867 with the invention of refrigeration now making dairy farming possible.
At the opening of the first ballot for blocks in January 1898 the Darling Downs Gazette described the atmosphere: “Earth Hunger” is the only term that can convey any idea of the rush at Clifton yesterday and the excitement that prevailed over the selection of the famous Headington Hill land.
It was a momentous week in the Clifton district because it changed the nature of farming in the area for the next 100 years.
Sheep gave way to dairy cows; homesteads to homes; a few absentee station owners to hundreds of families making an independent living.
This time the break up of Headington Hill was successful as small farmers bought the land rather than large-scale company men.
It was in this atmosphere that Johann Stehn brought his family to the Darling Downs and within three weeks of leaving Tooan East they arrived in Clifton on 17th March 1900 and moved into the King’s Hotel (now O’Shanley’s).
The land they eventually bought was described as having good brown soil with gum and apple (angophora) forest.
Johann was fifty-four and Elisabeth forty-seven years of age and they lived in a barn on their land until 1902 when they built a house.
A new climate demanded new farming practices and the Stehns had arrived in the middle of the worst drought for 23 years.
These must have been challenging years requiring courage and determination.
Water was found and in the Queensland Stock Return of 1902 it listed Johann’s property as having 8 horses, 27 cattle and 250 sheep.
Their youngest children Minna, Otto, and Bill attended school in Clifton until 1903 when the Nevilton School just three miles away was opened.
The arrival of the Stehns in the district boosted the number of Lutherans allowing for a congregation and by 1902 a church had been built.
This church served the local community until 1940 when a decision was made to combine the Headington Hill and Mount Kent congregations in the more central point of Nobby.
Johann had been the Chairman of the Headington Hill congregation for sixteen years, a Sunday School teacher and a Trustee of the congregation.
In the twenty years between 1902 and 1922, the next generation of Stehns became adults and took the family story in many more different directions.
In 1932 Johann and Elisabeth celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary and one month later Johann died aged 86.
Elisabeth then lived with various family members until she died in 1940, aged 86, and was buried in the Clifton Cemetery, as was Johann.
Johann and Elisabeth had thirteen children, five of whom had died in heart breaking circumstances.
Theirs is a story of courage and resilience while establishing the Stehn family on the Darling Downs.
The Courier would like to acknowledge the use of family historian, Jennifer Stehn’s book on the Stehn Family History in writing this article.
