Redeemer Lutheran College. A part of Rochedale since 1980.
Redeemer Lutheran College opened at Rochedale in a pleasant, semi-rural setting on the southern outskirts of Brisbane. Since its establishment, Redeemer has grown into a vibrant community with fine facilities on two adjoining campuses.
The College is situated 2.8km from 'The Rochedale Estates' and 'Arise at Rochedale' on 31 hectares (77.5 acres) on Rochedale Road at Rochedale, which was part of the original farm of the Roche family who settled in the area in 1868. The College houses two full size ovals and one training field on our main Rochedale Road campus, with a further two full size ovals on 16.5 hectares (41 acres) at Stolz Sportsfields, situated 3km from the College on Priestdale Road.
A Junior School campus was opened in 2007 as a result of the Rochedale Urban Development project, which incorporates 'The Rochedale Estates' and 'Arise at Rochedale'. Our completed Junior School caters for students in Prep-Year 6 and offers a seamless education for students from Prep-Year 12.
Redeemer. Local, and a part of your Community.
Residents within Rochedale's Urban Development project, have on their doorsteps, one of the greatest assets within the Rochedale precinct. Students have the benefit of living within such a short proximity to one of the finest schools within the southern suburbs of Brisbane.
Did you know? 268 students from Rochedale call Redeemer Lutheran College their local school.
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Redeemer and Rochedale's History
The site of Redeemer Lutheran College was originally owned by George and Joan Nott, stalwarts of the Rochedale farming community. Joan Nott was a member of the Francis family. She had been a foundation student at Rochedale State School when it opened in 1931. Her brother Colin was one of the strongest supporters of the college for many years in a variety of ways. Four of his grandsons attended the college. One taught there for some years. His brother’s son-in-law was a foundation member of the College Council, and for many years its Chair. The Nott family themselves were excellent neighbours to the college, always supportive and understanding, and genuinely interested in the development of the campus.
This was the land the purchase of which the Synodical resolution had approved. The land itself consisted of a block of twenty acres (eight hectares) with frontages to Rochedale Road and Priestdale Road. A two acre block on the corner under different ownership was not included, making the college property roughly L shaped. Rochedale Road ran along a ridge from which the land sloped gently to the west. Priestdale Road was a poorly formed gravel road which in bad weather was difficult to traverse. The Notts retained an adjacent twelve acres (five hectares) on the northern boundary on which their home was situated, and some of which was still under cultivation as a fruit orchard.
The property had an interesting history. It had been purchased in the early 1930’s by George Nott when he was working as a cabinet maker for Mawson, a manufacturer of iceboxes in West End. Rochedale Road where it passed the southern part of the land was an unformed track. Clearing the land of its heavy timber was one of the early contracts for Thiess Brothers, which later became the construction and engineering giant, Thiess Holdings. The work was carried out mainly by tractor and chain. George told me once of the occasion when a large blast of gelignite was needed to remove a huge tree stump. Much of the district population gathered to watch the spectacular event.
Although the potential value of the standing timber was apparently not an issue when the land was first cleared, it is significant that times and values change together, and when the contract of sale to the Lutheran Church was signed, it was conditional on the vendors being permitted to remove as much as they wished of the millable timber before handover. Despite this provision several very large trees still stood when the church took possession of the property.
During 1979 a generous offer was made by Thiess Bros to undertake at no cost the clearing and site preparation for the first college buildings. However although the plans for the work were forwarded to the company, the offer lapsed for reasons which were never made clear.
The conditions of the purchase were remarkably generous, and probably reflected both the interest of the Nott family in the project and their close family and community links with many of the proponents. A holding deposit of $8759 was paid of a total price of $180,000. $90,000 was to be paid on settlement, the balance being subject to negotiation. No fixed settlement date as set, possibly in recognition of the many approvals which had to be negotiated before the church would grant its final approval.
The Nott family
The whole of the property had not been cleared. The whole Rochedale Road frontage and the twelve acres retained by the Notts in 1979 were originally put under cultivation as well as part of the northern section of the land sold for the college. This latter portion was not farmed for many years, however, and at the time of the sale much of it was covered with regrowth of small trees and lantana, as well as bladey grass. As a young bachelor in the early 1930’s George built a tin shed on his land and lived there, riding his bicycle from Rochedale to his cabinet maker’s job at West End every day until the new farm became productive enough to support him. At this point he added to the shed an extension with a dirt floor to serve as a packing shed and equipment storage area. Initially he worked the farm at weekends, growing a range of fruit and vegetables, including pineapples and papaws. The eastern portion close to Rochedale Road was fertile and productive, but he found that the area furthest to the west comprised a different soil type and was given to waterlogging, so after some years he allowed it to revert to pasture.
George’s already firm position in the small Rochedale farming community was strengthened by his marriage into the pioneer Francis family. He and Joan built the house on the north eastern corner of the property in which they both lived until the time of their deaths, and where their younger daughter Cheryl still resides today. The old tin hut was located on the portion of land purchased for the college, and featured in several ways in the early years of its history. Relocated in 1986 and substantially restored in 1988 as a bicentennial project, it still stands on the campus today and serves as a museum of local history, a valuable educational resource, and one which will be appreciated more by some people, and perhaps understood less by students, as the local area loses the rural character which was still so strong at the time of the college’s establishment.
Source: "River of Hope" © 2005, L R Kleinschmidt
