The young mother's death stayed a vivid memory until he died

He always alleged positively that the baby, which was a boy, passed away before the mother.

EARLY DAYS: The lonely grave of Gertrude is a grim reminder of the hardships the early pioneers had to contend with. Harry Rashleigh was there at that time and had a clear memory of the tragedy. Picture: Ray Humphrys

When eighteen year old Harry Rashleigh arrived in Moreton Bay in about 1849 he had a trade he could turn to. He entered the Ipswich railway workshops and was employed as a wood turner. He came from Turo, Cornwall apparently on his own.

After six months in the workshop he left seeking to see more of this wild new country. He drifted westward and found work on Jimbour Station, breaking in horses and carrying rations around theproperty. With his wood working experience he could see there was a need for sawn timber. With a partner George Hunt, they set up a saw pit at Range's Bridge. This was the first pit in the district and soon their timber was in demand. They even started a side line by building a big punt to ferry teams across the river.

Buildings were beginning to be built in Dalby. The Greenbank Hotel on the bottom end of Cunningham was built from the timber produced from their saw-pit. Other projects using their timber, was the old Range's Bridge Hotel, the first Q N Bank building in Dalby. The Plough Inn was built from some of their timber too. That hotel became a convent and when the new convent was built some of the original timber was used in that.

The work in the saw pits was hot and arduous and eventually Harry returned to his old trade working as a wheel wright for Dan Corkhill the blacksmith.

It seems he had a yearning to return to the Bunya Mountains where he had been years before. So he returned taking up the hard work of pit-sawing again working with the beautiful red cedar of the mountains.

There were other sawyers in the community such as the Bennies, O'Mays and Carbines. He always remembered the tragedy that took place while he was there. Gertrude Carbines was expecting her first baby. When complication arose her husband Joseph made the long ride to Dalby to get a doctor but they were too late to save the young mother.

Harry always had a clear recollection of the event. He always alleged positively that the baby, which was a boy, passed away before the mother.

It seems Harry never married and lived most of his life in the Dalby district. However he passed away in Bundaberg in 1927 at the ripe old age of ninety-six.