Having outlined how Beulah began last time, this month we want to travel the length of Beulah Rd, Beulah to see how the district developed. Next month we will do the same along Lower Beulah Rd. After leaving the Kentish Bridle Track corner, Beulah Rd brings you firstly to the Dasher River where a lot of prospecting for gold took place. Thomas & Harriett Redford, later Herb & Millie Oliver lived there. Vern Frankcombe had a sawmill here, followed by Wayne Weeks. Part way up the Dasher hill is the entrance to The Gates to Heaven, an idyllic bush retreat catering for self-contained caravans and motor homes.
250 Beulah Rd The first families to settle here around 1900 were James & Mary Fidler from Harford with their married sons James Jrn & Joseph Fidler. They farmed the area for over 30 years, losing two houses to fire and a draught horse that fell down a mining shaft. In 1946 Kit & Irene Frankcombe with sons Fred, Tom & Ian built their house from cement bricks made from nearby gravel pits. Kit served on the Kentish Council for some years. Son Ian & Florence Frankcombe followed his father on the farm, while grandson George & Michelle Frankcombe built up the road at 285 Beulah Rd.
413 Beulah Rd First settlers William & Mary Ann (Dalrymple) Walker took up 320acres around 1878 and built their home Beulah Heights. Sadly, Mary Ann Walker and four of their seven children died of TB, causing Wm Walker to burn the house down and built another. Joseph & Sarah Hodgkinson farmed the property until 1933, followed by son Frank & Ada Hodgkinson. Next was Peter & Marie Davenport, then in 1977 schoolteachers Rupert & Anne French until 2021. A 120acre farm was subdivided off Walker’s property to become 435 Beulah Rd, owned by Olivers, Jeffries, Spillanes and since 1993 Lawrence & Gill Appleby.
West of Walkers were the properties of their Christian Brethren friends (the Austins, Cracks, Does, Eaglings, Ferrars and Knowles) who about 1877/78 pioneered this new district they called Beulah. On John & Albert Austins’s property they erected a small gospel hall/school which served their needs for thirty years. Another of Austin Bros’s paddocks became their North Beulah Cricket ground, where the first competitive cricket match was played against South Sunnyside on 30 Nov 1889. Over the following decades, these North Beulah pioneers experienced a problem we see repeated time and time again throughout the Beulah community – a general exodus of Beulah families to better farms closer to markets. When the group’s leader James Knowles died in 1899, of his 8 sons, only the oldest son John & wife Mary remained in Beulah. After their ‘Gospel Hall’ was hauled to Paradise in 1916, John continued their church fellowship in his home until 1921 when his family also moved away.
From Beulah Heights corner, the original Beulah Rd ran westward along the northern boundary of Wm Walker’s property, continuing along the present Golden Gate Rd to the corner of John Austin’s property. There it turned south and ran down his western boundary, through Ferrar’s farm to the future township of Beulah. This section of road contained a notoriously steep decline, up which farmers found it almost impossible to haul their produce to market. So a deviation road was constructed in 1989 from the end of Walkers property, diagonally across Austin and Ferrars properties with a more gradual decline direct to the Beulah township.
494 Beulah Rd John & Albert Austin sold this property in 1903 to Charles & Alice Kelly who built their Hilltop house halfway along this new deviation road. The farm was purchased by Edis & Elizabeth Sharman, followed by son Eric & Beatrice Sharman. Last occupant was well-known and intelligent Beulah identity Colin Sharman (1910-1997) who wore an eye patch after being blinded in one eye by cricket ball when he was 15. His mother Louisa Sharman was a nurse at the Mersey General 0Hospital and confirmed to her family, Colin’s father was Dr Walpole. The property is now owned by Lawrence & Gill Appleby’s son-in-law Mark Chopping.
633 Beulah Rd After marrying in 1890, Richard & Eliza (Webb) Dawkins settled on this property with his widowed mother Catherine Dawkins. Richard’s brother David Dawkins and his sister Martha (Mrs Joseph Spillane) both settled on nearby properties. Richard lived all his life at Beulah, had 9 chn and died Sep 1938 in his 70th year.
Beulah Township
The first Beulah Road Trust was formed in 1890, comprising Thomas Jessop (chairman) Ed (Ted) Sharman, Edward Anderson, George Stephens and John Cooper. For the first ten years they met at Clara Sharman’s PO at Lower Beulah. But in 1900 after a public hall was built in the township, they moved their monthly meeting there. The Beulah Road Trust continued until the new Kentish Municipal Council was formed on 1 Jan 1908.
State School: In 1893 Beulah people were promised a proper school with teacher’s residence. Nothing was done until 1896 when Gideon Robson of Sheffield erected a temporary 18ftx22ft weatherboard school which proved to totally inadequate. Four year later in 1900 a substantial schoolteacher’s residence was erected by Devonport builder George Levy but still no permanent school. Finally, C Adams & Sons built the new school for £187 which opened 5 Aug 1907. This school served the community for over 30 years before closing in Dec 1941 after which all Beulah children were bussed to the new Sheffield area school. Later the Beulah school itself was also relocated to Sheffield. The only building remaining on site was the multi-chimneyed schoolhouse, where its most illustrious school-teacher occupant Joseph Lyons, later Prime Minister of Australia, lived in 1909. When Eric Sharman was appointed school-bus driver to Sheffield, he & wife Beatrice Sharman with Rex, Chloris, Baden & Geraldine moved there; the Government selling them the old schoolhouse in 1954. Baden Sharman played 28 years of Coastal A Grade Cricket, including 18 years as captain/coach of Sheffield, Railton, Latrobe, and 14 games for Tasmania against interstate and international cricket teams.
Memorial Hall: The first public hall built by James Cooper was officially opened in Nov 1900. Fifty years later, Beulah’s new Memorial Hall replaced it in Sept 1950 with a gala ball and the unveiling of the soldier’s memorial plaque listing 30 local names. Built by George McCarthy and son Ernie, it cost about £1200. Beulah became one of the first districts in the whole of Tasmania to complete their local war memorial. Inside this building in Jan 1954, they switched on the electricity for Beulah district. In March 1962, the Hall was burnt down by a Beulah resident apparently because his wife enjoyed attending the dances, but he didn’t. The present hall was built by George Mansell and opened 8 September 1967.
Beulah PO & Shops In 1903 a committee was formed to have the Beulah PO removed from Mrs Clara Sharman’s remote location into a more central position where most people now lived. Under the existing system mail was brought from the Dunorlan railway station to Mrs Sharman PO where twice a week she sent one mailbag four miles further on to Beulah State School where Miss Alice Agar distributed it. The new alternative was to establish a Post Office in the Beulah township and get daily deliveries from Railton. On 1 Jun 1904, five months after Ed (Ted) & Alice Best opened their Beulah shop opposite the school, the new Beulah PO was established in their shop and Mrs Clara Sharman’s original PO was recommissioned as the Lower Beulah PO. Beulah postmistresses were Alice Best to March 1933, Myrtle Febey to June 1967, Thelma Bramich to Dec 1978, Judith Winwood until it closed 31 Jul 1975. A telephone service to Beulah was installed in 1911. Myrtle’s husband Bert Febey had lost his left leg, left arm and all but a thumb and one figure on his other hand in a quarry blasting accident in 1932. Not only did he do the mail run to Sheffield but served as JP.
Churches: Beulah’s St Matthews Anglican Church was dedicated by Bishop Mercer on 18 Sept 1904. A 40ftx25ft weatherboard structure, it was built next to the state school, on land generously given by Wm Richardson. It lasted 40 years. The second Anglican church opened 6 April 1944 after the congregation purchased the Beulah Baptist church. Again it was dedicated as St Matthews in June 1949 and closed in Nov 1998 when the building moved to Lenna at Forth. Earlier the Beulah Baptist church had also been built on land given by Wm Richardson and opened by Rev Britton in Dec 1913. Closed in 1944, its seats, organ and pulpit were given to the new Paradise Baptist church after the previous church was destroyed by bushfires.
Settlers close to Beulah Township
In 1888 several sons of Henry & Emma Cooper from Lowes Bridge’s PO became pioneer settlers adjacent to the future Beulah township. John & wife Elizabeth bought the first horse drawn vehicle to Beulah; James built their first public hall. John & James served on the Beulah Road Trust. ‘Cooper’s track’ that connected Beulah with Lower Beulah Rd was later renamed Beulah Back Rd. This property was bought by Wm & Emma Richardson and called Brookhead. He bought the first steam engine to Beulah and hired the first gang of harvesters. In 1910 Richardson bought the first motor car, a 20-hp Ford in Beulah. He sold out in April 1948. After farming there David Rayner sold the property for tree planation, but kept the house, in which Paul Rayner, Jock Morgan & Laurie Kingshott have lived.
Daveys Rd (originally McCarthys Rd)
James & Alice McCarthy came from Dunorlan about 1888 and raised their 9 children at the end of this road, where a rough track continued down to Duck Marsh becoming the shortest walking distance to Sheffield. Active in the Beulah Road Trust, James McCarthy died 1911, Alice in 1917. Renamed Daveys Rd after Wm & Frances Davey with son Charles farmed on the north side of the road. Ernie Hirt P/L purchased several properties between Davey Rd and Golden Gate Rd, built the house where Allen & Win Furley lived, then sold it all out for planation timber.
Joseph & Martha (Dawkins) Spillane settled on the southern side of Davey Road about 1897 where they raised 11 children. Martha was Beulah’s midwife, then from 1912 Martha Spillane ran a maternity hospital at 123 Main St Sheffield, before moving to Wilmot in 1917. Lambert Spillane took over his father’s Beulah farm, with wife Emily Spillane the next local midwife. In May 1950 Arn & Effie Freeman from Mathinna purchased the property.
Beulah Rd- south of the township
Shortly after the Minnow gold rush, several large bush blocks were purchased by wealthy investors. George Ingram’s long 320-acre block ran down the western side of Beulah Rd to Jacksons Rd corner. Eventually subdivided, the township corner block was bought by Bert & Myrtle Febey; later Des & Mavis Ruttle built a new house there. South of them, 702 Beulah Rd was owned by John Walker, Les Brumby and currently Tony Spillane. Around the corner, on the northern side Kerry Rayner owned Willowdene at 788 & 810 Beulah Rd, and at 852 Brian Caldicutt had his Earlsfield property.
Jacksons Rd was originally the northern route for miners coming to the Minnow gold fields. It was named Jacksons Rd when Eric & Gloria Jackson resided up this road.
789 & 855 Beulah Rd. The 322-acre estate of Henry Bloch (Launceston) was purchased by David & Mary (Webb) Dawkins and named Pine Lane, with hill at rear of their property named Dawkins Hill. David & Mary had 15 sons & 4 daughters. In the 1930s these Dawkins sons formed their own Cricket team. Son Lewis took 100 wickets in 1930 season. Lewis eventually bought 789 Beulah Rd, while his bachelor brother George Dawkins owned 855 Beulah Rd. George was once taken to Mersey Hospital, where the nurse asked: ‘Do you have pyjamas, Mr Dawkins?’ ‘No’ he replied ‘I have appendicitis’.
In the late 1960s three Spillane brothers bought three prime properties along Beulah Rd. Tony bought 702, Neil bought 789, and Robin Spillane bought 855. As schoolboys back in 1959 they clearly remember their father Levick buying his first Massey-Ferguson tractor. This sparked in them a life-long passion to collect tractors. Beside their father’s original one, today they are proud owners of 10 red well-preserved Fergie tractors.
902 Beulah Rd German immigrant Rudolph Wacksmuth from Launceston named his 320a property Roland Park developing it as 30-cow dairy farm and sheep stud. About 1898 he sold out to Sam & Martha Oliver’s sons. Eldest son Arthur Oliver who served on the Beulah Road Trust d1946. In 1953 Laurie & Rita Appleby began leasing Roland Park, plus 80acres on the southside of Beulah Rd. For many years Laurie served as Kentish councilor and member of the Roland Lodge. Then purchased by Kevin & Terri Appleby, afterwards Rodney Green.
964 & 986 Beulah Rd Son of a butcher, William Moore sold meat, dairy food and sly grog to the miners. Later owners were Les Leonard, Eric Gardam and Tom & Mavis Gardam. About 1885 George & Mary Ann Stephens from London purchased Thomas Clement’s property and established his Clyro dairy farm. George was elected to the first Beulah Road Trust in 1890. Son William Stephens, made JP in 1905, developed the Clyro Poultry Farm, with 600/700 head of poultry. Post WW2 Alex Best had his sawmill at the Minnow River. Today this whole area is pine plantation.