Keeping plants alive in the harsh Australian climate is a challenge for any gardener, but one remnant plant has beaten the odds, surviving relocation, urbanisation and railway construction 162 years after it was originally planted.
In 1864, German immigrants Nikolaus and Christina Ebert arrived at North Pine (today’s Petrie). At that time, the state government was eager to develop a local wine industry, so the Ebert family brought with them cuttings from hardy German winemaking grapes. Nikolaus established a small vineyard and market garden on land at Ebert Parade, Lawnton. Nikolaus was also a carpenter who worked on projects such as Lawnton’s St Thomas’ Anglican Church (later removed to Old Petrie Town), and the Woody Point and old Redcliffe jetties.
By March 1888, the Ebert grapevines had been ripped up to make way for the railway north to Gympie. Although Nikolaus passed away in 1908, the botanical legacy he left has endured in surprising ways.
A Vine Rediscovered
Interviewed on 29 February 2000, Nikolaus Ebert’s grandson, Henry Ebert, referred to a grapevine that was flourishing along the chain-wire railway fence at Station Road, Lawnton, saying it was so hardy that local families often used it as grafting rootstock. He added that a plaque had been erected, “to recognise that it was granddad who planted it there.”
For decades, the grapevine lay forgotten, yet it continued to grow and produce fruit. In 2014, workers undertaking survey and construction work for the additional railway line to Redcliffe re-discovered the remnant plant on the eastern side of the Lawnton station. It was determined that the vine descended from ancient German rootstocks planted by the Eberts 150 years before.
Realising its historic significance, the council removed it for safekeeping during the railway’s construction. Three cuttings from the vine were re-planted at the corner of Todds Road and Ebert Parade in August 2014, at a dedication ceremony attended by three generations of Ebert family descendants.
North Pine Historical Society president, Judy Dohle, herself an Ebert descendant, told the Courier Mail in August 2014: “It’s a wonderful way to commemorate the contributions of the Ebert family to the area.” She added that it would be some years before the new vine bore fruit. Today’s commuters visiting Lawnton station can attest that the grapevine continues to do exactly that.
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