THE size of the community belies the enormity of the historical items that have been painstakingly collected by volunteers and displayed within the bounds of the Harrisville Historical Society Museum.
The town’s museum is on the other side of the street to its School of Arts, and the Harrisville State School is nearby – the town, its businesses and its community are a conveniently compact package.
Keys to the museum buildings, the School of Arts and other properties she has access to, rattle in Eris Rashford’s pockets, she’s a long time resident and member of most of the town’s organisations.
And Eris knows the local history.
Harrisville was established in 1863 and was once a bustling town with three hotels, a railway station, hospital, shops, industry and primary producers.
“Back then farmers were growing cotton because the civil war in America created a shortage and they were not able to supply British mills,” she said.
“The Australian government made it worthwhile for people to grow several acres of cotton and with that the Harris brothers, who were merchants in Brisbane, set up a gin on which was the corner of Queens Street and Dunns Avenue.
“Families would pick their cotton and bring it to the gin where it would be washed and sent overseas.”
But the end of the American civil war put competition back into the market and cotton growing was no longer profitable for Harrisville farmers.
“When the drive for cotton slowed down farmers grew other crops on whatever land they had available to them,” she said.
“Some people had big acreages, while others smaller, but just about everyone had dairy cows and pigs as a side product.
“The farmers mainly just wanted the cream and the milk was fed to the pigs.
“They benefited from making butter and cream, and then selling the pigs.
She said the town was so busy a branch rail line from Ipswich was constructed in the 1880s.
“The railway eventually went on to Dugandan and opened the town up to visitors from all over,” she said.
She said the advent of the automobile ‘ruined everything’.
“It would have been around the time when people could afford motor cars that things started to go down hill,” she said.“People no longer needed to organise their lives around the train’s timetable or visit the doctor when the Ipswich Hospital board decided to roster him on.
“They could make their own appointments with Ipswich doctors, go into town and even do their shopping while there, pick up machinery parts and so on.”
She said farmers who previously used rail to transport animals began using trucking services to pick them up and take them where they needed to be.
“Fewer people were using the railway and more cars were being bought,” she said.
“The town hospital was taken over by the Ipswich Hospital board so instead of having a resident doctor, they’d send a doctor out one day a week.
“People used their own cars to travel into some of the bigger towns where food and goods prices were cheaper because they weren’t being carted long distances.
“Once people had the ability to travel wherever they liked, they no longer used the local businesses.”
She said Harrisville’s railway station closed in 1963 because the need was no longer there.
“The hospital closed in 1973 for a similar reason,” she said.
“There weren’t that many people attending so the hospital board stopped investing in it.
“Alongside this disinvestment came the inevitable reduction in facilities and so people simply turned to hospitals that offered them more.”
Harrisville slowly wound down and decades passed.
The 1950’s family car ideal soared in popularity and what started as a trend only available to the wealthy, became a part of everyday life.
“While in the 60s, 70s and even 80s, the motorcar led to the downfall of Harrisville ... it is now leading people back,” Mrs Rashford said.
“Today’s folk don’t mind driving an hour or an hour and a half to get home when they live in one of the most beautiful regions in Queensland.
“Those living in the city are spending that sitting in traffic on their way to and from work.
“Living here means you get to truly escape on your time off.”