His father Charles Parsons died in 1875, so William was working the family farms, his father Charles had remarried Elizabeth, and in 1881 William was working Marsh Court, one of the farms with Elizabeth in residence.

He married Eliza Smith in February 1882 -

William and Eliza were distantly related - they are both descended from George Parsons, who had 3 children - James his son is the ancestor of William and his other son Moses is the ancestor of Eliza - so it is a very complicated kinship chart where William is related to himself in about 3 different ways.

His wife, Eliza did not particularly want to come -and his family did not seem to be particularly keen on the idea.

They paid their own way in steerage (Third Class) and had purchased a land order to select land.

In January 1889, Eliza and the children came up from Brisbane - and I can only shudder at the journey Eliza must have had in a coach from Brisbane on rough roads, and then on whatever conveyance could be found to get to close to the river and then to cross the river in a boat -

when you see photographs of the comfortable two storey brick homes they had lived in in England - and the secure lifestyle they had, it never ceases to amaze me that they stayed and not only stayed but prospered in the long term -

A new baby, Albert Edward Conrad Parsons - was born in February 1889 -

it was said that William delivered his own children - and there are stories that he had some medical training -

There were aboriginal families camped nearby and one of the women also had a small baby - it's cradle was the hard round bowl from the end of palm frond.

She asked Eliza what her baby's name was and Eliza said “ Albert - what's your baby's name - “

“Albert, same as yours,” came the reply - we wonder whether there was another small Albert running about somewhere in the group -

Eliza had 8 babies between February 1889 and January 1896 - that's a fairly frightening statistic - as it is barely 8 years .

The neighbours were prone to say-'oh dear, another one, Mrs Parsons

if they hadn't seen Eliza for a while ” -

From the fence post lines around the old house garden, this would make it somewhere near the mango trees - and there are still hippeastrum lilies coming up under the trees.

It would be nice to think they were a memento of a Geraldine - particularly as all the family seem to be enthusiastic gardeners and the hippeastrum bulbs are handed down from generation to generation in some of the families.

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Eliza lived in the upstairs floor with a couple of the older girls who helped to look after the babies, and the younger ones did the housework downstairs and helped with the farm.

They built a wharf out from the bank to receive supplies when the supply boats came into the river - the Tadornah Rajah, the Tarshaw and the Gneering -

And William built a raised causeway from the house down to the wharf on the river to collect supplies - they had a little trolley with wooden wheels which they used to bring all the bags of flour and supplies up to the house -

Families like the neighbouring Wilkins and Peatlings came down to this wharf to get their supplies too -

William also rowed across the river to the store at Picnic Point on the other side to get supplies. His family tells the story of an aboriginal gril who begged a ride on his little rowing boat filled with bags of flour as she could not swim -

when they got to the middle of the river, the boat sank with all the flour and the aboriginal woman swam off like a fish!

The elder children like William who was 2 when he arrived, learnt to row the boat up to the creek to go across to Didillibah - they carried mail to various points and the older girls used to row across the river to take the mail to Thomas O'Connor at Alexandra Headland -

None of the children went to school for years - according to Pearl , one of the younger daughters. William got the schoolbooks up from Brisbane and taught the children himself .

He was certainly vocal on the topic of education and the siting of schools and wrote numerous letters - mostly complaining about how far away the school would be and how his children had not been to school for years.

William Parsons kept goats on an island called Goat Island in the Maroochy River. There was fresh water spring on the island and for the goats - it was said that he kept them there so the foxes didn't get them - but there were no foxes - and the dingoes could swim the river if they wanted to.

So it was purely for the water supply that he kept them there.

The island has since disappeared as the river has moved over the years, but there is still an island called Goat Island, just not in quite the same position as in the 1880s.

When William Parsons needed to go to Brisbane, he walked, It took two days, with the first stage to Caboolture and then on to Brisbane.

I wonder whether he stopped

His aim was to produce cheese and he imported his cheese press from Somerset along with other tools he needed, This more or less exhausted his available funds and the family faced some lean years as they struggled to produce food for a growing family.

Just after Xmas on 29th December 1891 he wrote to the Minister for Lands seeking an advance of 40 pounds to tide him over, The cattle had gone wild.

The Minister advised there was no legal power to make advances on selections.

By March 1892 - William was in dire straits. He wrote again enclosing his land order to pay the rent now due - but had no money to pay the survey fee .

In his letter he said we are nine in family and for weeks have been without flour, sugar, tea and meat - living on sweet potatoes, butter and cheese milk .

In April 1892, the government returned the Land Order and advised him that he had time to pay the survey fee.

Somewhere after this his sister Ann Hannam in England sent him some money and the fees were paid .

My grandmother, Dorothy Keturah was born in October of 1892 - just in time for one of wettest seasons on record.

In February 1893 one of the worst floods hit the Maroochy River - it was said the cattle stood in water for months -and all their fur fell out -

Eliza was paddling about in the kitchen downstairs in inches of water - a neighbour brought over a billy of milk as they had so many children to feed -

All the supply boats were washed ashore or damaged -

One can only imagine how difficult it must have been to continue -

But continue they did - the children grew older and were able to help with the farm.

They swam cattle across the river, resting them on Chambers Island . My grandmother used to row the boat alongside the cattle - Albert and Earl swam with the cattle .

There were sharks in the river in those days, so it was not a venture for the faint hearted.

The children played games in the river - walking out on tiptoes up to their necks to see who could go out the farthest -

My grandmother always said it was lucky she was alive as Jane her elder sister was much taller and it was her idea to play the game.

They stayed for 11 years until 1899 when they moved to a new property.

After successive floods in 1893 and 1897 ...- then William purchased a property on Maroochydore Road and called it Knoll Park - after one of the farms in Somerset.

Most of that property remains in the hands of his descendants even today -

The children married and most remained in the area - many on properties and continuing as farmers -

It was said that you could walk from Palmwoods to the Maroochy River and never set foot outside land owned by the family -

William died in 1914 aged 64 - he had been injured when carrying an iron bedstead on a horse - when it shied the leg of the bed hit him in the stomach - he died of liver cancer just days after his daughter Maggie married in February 1914 -

As the war had broken out, he left the property in the hands of trustees and they administered the estate until the 1920's when the sons were of age and the war over -

Several of the children bought blocks - and continued farming till the present day.

This block was not sold until 1920 when the Gill brothers bought it - they were fisherman and had been at school with Williams' children at Didillibah -

Eliza moved to Maroochydore with her daughter Phyllis - and lived where Ocean St is today -

She died in 1946 aged 85 .