New Beith

Location

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History

Richard Tyson Wilson was a solicitor who took up land in the Maclean district in 1889. He named the district New Beith in honour of his wife Cecelia's home town of Beith in Ayrshire, Scotland. The family house was known as Logan Waters.

John Soden initially settled in Coopers Plains in 1868 and after a disastrous attempt at dairying he turned to shop keeping in 1879. In the 1880s, Soden recognised a local need for public transport and established an omnibus business in Brisbane with bus routes across the south side. In 1881, he had the mail run between Brisbane and Rocky Waterholes (Rocklea). The Sodens had land at New Beith for resting their horses. They also ran the Teviot Junction Hotel in 1897–99. The hotel had been established by Isaac Nash in April 1880.

When Isaac Nash was applying for his publican's licence in 1887, the Teviot Junction Hotel was described as incorporating six bedrooms (apart from what was used by Nash, his wife and two children), three sitting rooms, one bar and four stables. It is possible this was a newer building than his original hotel. Nash’s licence for 1886 had been initially refused. At the same time, Daniel Slack also applied for a publican's licence for a property at Greenbank, near the crossroads running to Upper Logan and Goodna.

In 1888, Nash applied for a licence for a new hotel in Jimboomba. It was opposite the railway station and became known as the Station Hotel. Samuel Manning also applied to transfer his licence to a hotel in Jimboomba at the time. John Grant took over the Teviot Junction Hotel in 1889. It continued to change hands regularly until the turn of the century, when it apparently closed.

A school was established at New Beith in March 1916, with Gladys Heany the teacher of 18 students. The school closed in 1951 as there were not enough children to keep both the Greenbank and New Beith schools open.

A number of sawmills operated in the region around Greenbank in the 1930s, including one at New Beith on Oxley Creek. Woodridge bullocky George Sirett recalled that the mill would buy a batch of standing timber, then contract the local bullockies to fell, snig it and pull it out. Oxley Creek had some good blue gum, flooded gum and tallow wood. During the war years, timber getters were not allowed to enlist, because timber was considered an essential industry. A lot of local timber was used for ammunition cases. The New Beith mill was moved to Runcorn in the 1940s.

The New Beith hall was used by the local Baptists from the 1960s to run Sunday school for local youth. In 1979, the hall was sold and the money donated to the church. With these funds, the Baptists purchased a property adjoining the Park Ridge church in April 1980. The house on this site was eventually demolished to make way for a new church.