IN JANUARY 1841 Thomas Boyland, a carpenter by trade, arrived in Sydney aboard the barque ‘Alfred’.
A native of County Antrim in Ireland, Thomas soon made his way to the Colony of Moreton Bay where in 1848 he suffered the considerable loss of 40 to 50 pounds after his house in South Brisbane was broken into.
His luck changed, however, when he married Margaret Orr at Kangaroo Point in 1849.
Thomas, along with the Reid Brothers, was a pioneer of the river boat trade between Brisbane and Ipswich.
Initially they operated punts working with the tides, but soon upgraded to steamboats powered by coal from Ipswich.
His interests focused toward farming and dairying when in 1863 the family moved to Coopers Plains and opened the Chilmurah Dairy on their property, Meadowlands.
Born in 1856, George Thomas Boyland was one of Thomas and Margaret’s many children.
George Thomas married Ann Bryans in 1890 and built a home they called Solitude at Coopers Plains.
He served as Chairman of the Yeerongpilly Council for many years before he purchased a parcel of 2000 acres between Canungra and Tamborine Village.
This land had previously been taken up by the stock and station agent John Fenwick and was transferred to George Boyland on June 21, 1899.
George Thomas served as Chairman of the Tamborine Shire Council and led a deputation with then Premier William Kidston to lobby for the railway line to connect Canungra to Logan Village.
Sadly, George Thomas Boyland did not live to see the railway as he passed away suddenly in 1908, leaving behind a widow and two children.
As he died without a will, it took many years for his wife Ann to be able to sell the property and it wasn’t until 1916 that a structured payment arrangement allowed her to receive a regular income.
By this time, she had remarried Henry Tuckett and the couple moved back to Coopers Plains.
In acknowledgement of his contribution to the establishment of the railway, one of the largest stations on the line was named Boyland in his honour and hence the district became known by that name.
Both Thomas and George Thomas Boyland are buried at the historic ‘God’s Acre’, today sited next to Archerfield aerodrome, but then known as Grenier’s Cemetery.
