History
 

Mary Ann's Cottage stands on 12 acres of restored rainforest along the Burpengary Creek, all that is left of the half square mile selection (320 acres) taken up by Maurice Schneider and his wife Mary Ann  under "The Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1868".

 Maurice's father, Dr. Moritz Schnieder, was one of the "Moravian Missionaries" who arrived in the colony of New South Wales in January 1838.
 An outbreak of typhus occurred during the voyage and having cared for the ill whilst at sea,
Dr. Schneider himself died of the disease  shortly after the ship  docked in Sydney.  His widow who was expecting a child, came on to Moreton Bay with the remaining missionaries eventually settling at
"The German Station" in Nundah, Brisbane, where young Maurice was born and raised.

By 1850 the mission at Nundah had been abandoned with most of the brethren taking up farming, some of them around Upper Caboolture which included the areas of Rocksberg and  Moorina, west of Morayfield.  Nine years later the colony of Moreton Bay ceased to be part of New South Wales and became known as Queensland.

Mary Ann's Cottage was not the first house built on the selection.  Documents from 1868 describe Maurice and Mary Ann's selection as :
"the whole piece of land (is) enclosed by a substantial two rail split fence also two acres of scrub land under cultivation and grubbed and one two roomed house built on sleepers with
shingled roof". 
A Photo showing this "two roomed house" suggest that it was about a quarter of the size of Mary Ann's Cottage, which is itself small by modern standards.
 
Visit the photo gallery to see the two houses together. Mary Ann's Cottage is on the extreme left in the photograph.

Maurice and MaryAnn married in 1859 and by 1868 they were parents to five children. 
Sadly, in 1871 at the age of  33 Maurice died of pneumonia, their sixth and youngest child being only 10 days old.  Mary Ann went on to have the property transferred to her own name 
and it remained so until her death in 1901.

Mary Ann's Cottage is believed to have been built around 1880.




 

 

 
 
 
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