A Pastor Niemeyer undertook the immigration of Germans commencing about 1909 under a similar arrangement with the State Government but to the Bundaberg area.

From the beginning of 1908 something of a revival occurred to the German migration to Queensland, with a total of 778 settlers landing in Brisbane between February 1908 and the middle of 1910.

[8] The first ship load of immigrants (brought to Australia from London aboard the S.S. Omrah) arrived on the banks of Alligator Creek on 11 January 1910.

[12] The second ship load of immigrants departed London on Friday 28 January 1910 and arrived on the banks of the Alligator Creek in late April 1910 having berthed in Brisbane aboard the S.S. Oswestry Grange on 23 March 1910.

Some German's, believed to be those who abandoned Alligator Creek in January, met the second ship and emphasised to their countrymen the unsatisfactory conditions.

[19] These men were not skilled in using hand tools for the purposes of road building and had to be taught those skills; their professions were (in decreasing order of numbers) Labourers, Locksmiths, Blacksmiths, Cabinet Makers, Stonemasons, Carpenters, Painters, Engineers, Joiners, Dairyman, Tailor, Gardener, Butcher, Tinsmith, Furniture Polisher, Iron Worker, Spinner, Cigar Maker, Mechanic, Gunsmith and Miner.

Inspector Turner can be credited with an enormous effort on his part to help them establish and even helping them during periods of extremely heavy rain and flooding of Alligator Creek (at one time swimming two flooded creeks to report their safety and arrange safety checking by the Yaamba Police[20] ).

The first ship load of immigrants arrived amid torrential rain on 11 January 1910 and already local flooding of streams feeding the Alligator Creek required that the settlers had to be taken by dray an additional distance of about 1½ Miles through the bush (expected to be along ridge lines to avoid flooded creeks).

The settlers on the S.S. Oswestry arrived mid-late April and were located closer to the railway station (opened 1913), on the left of Milman Road and also bounded by Canal Creek Rd (later to become Alligator Creek Rd – never to become trafficable, because of the deep ‘Black Gully’, which the authorities never made into a road.

These settlers had come from the poor areas of eastern Berlin (principally but not entirely) to canvas tents in the middle of heavy summer rains in virgin scrub.

The settlers had to compete: an ‘Application by Alien For Certificate’, an ‘Application to Select an Agricultural Farm’ and they needed obtain a ‘Certificate that Alien is able to Read and Write from Dictation’ before being granted a ‘Licence to Occupy an Agricultural Farm’ and then sign the Lease.

There was in fact a ‘ballot’ conducted within The Alligator Creek Group, presumably overseen by Reverend Bernoth, who must have negotiated an equitable outcome; held sometime after the second boat load of settlers arrived but before August.

[25] The Gazette did not identify the full conditions of sale but it clearly stated they were for selection by "The Alligator Creek Group".

The financial structure required the selector signing a lease with the Government to pay the Rent and Survey Fee and also a mortgage to the Agricultural Bank of Queensland.

[27] The original settlers who set out from Germany, with all the unknowns and risks, who stuck it out through all the challenges that were placed before them and moved on to land, were: from the S. S. Omrah - Herman August Ebelt (Portion 71), Gustaf W. Ebelt (son)(40), Gustav Karl Priebst (55), Friedrich Herrmann Richard Lamain (54), Max Scheibe (51), Max Kossendey (36), Willy Bernhard Ernst Kossendey (39)(brothers), Ernst Lewandowsky (senior), Friedrich Ernst Lewandowsky (son)(settled together on Portion 35), Paul Lewandowsky(son)(37), Max Menzel (33) and Anton Nawrath (27); and from the S. S. Oswestry Grange; Otto Reinhold Paul Hanschen (72), Karl Friedrich Loose (45), George Lennig (42), Fredrich Wilhelm Curt Henke (38), Otto Haase (28) and Heinrich Gottlieb Albert Detjen (44).

All the men had families except Bernhard Kossendey and Otto Hanschen; unfortunately, Anton Nawrath fell ill and about August 1914 had to surrender his portion of land.

While some of the immigrants who came on the two ships abandoned the settlement before the immigrants even obtained their blocks (5 families left within 9 days), some additional Germans joined The Alligator Creek Group; informal communication within the German community was strong and there was plenty of press – Mr. Bernoth kept a high profile in support of his activity.

Those who had not come on the two ships and were given portions of land in the early settlement of the Parish when priority was still being given to immigrants being proposed by the Reverend Bernoth included: Louis Heinrich Wilhelm Meyer (Portion 57 – Mr Meyer an older man and unfortunately he died in 1916; portion taken over by F. Hermann Kunze), Gustav Schulz (53), Franz Joseph Vogel (58), Oswald Reinhard Neubert (56), Johann Gardey (25), Ferdinand Arthur Bahlinger (26), Ernest Bauer (30), A. Radeno (41), Franz Sommerfeld (46), Franz Maleszka (48), Paul Grillmeier (47), Fritz Eske (29), Alfred Yung (75), Willi Yung (son)(74), Franz Grahl (43), Otto Raders (23); , Gustav Schulz is known to have been single.

The original settlers who set out from Germany specifically recruited for Jardine and travelled on the S.S. Omrah and the S.S. Oswestry Grange were: from the S. S. Omrah – Herman August Ebelt (Portion 71), Gustaf W. Ebelt (son)(40), Gustav Karl Priebst (55), Friedrich Herrmann Richard Lamain (54), Max Scheibe (51), Max Kossendey (36), Willy Bernhard Ernst Kossendey (39)(brothers), Ernst Lewandowsky (senior), Friedrich Ernst Lewandowsky (son)(settled together on Portion 35), Paul Lewandowsky(son)(37), C. Max Menzel (33) and Anton Nawrath (27); and from the S. S. Oswestry Grange; Otto Reinhold Paul Hanschen (72), Karl Friedrich Loose (45), George Lennig (42), Fredrich Wilhelm Curt Henke (38), Otto Haase (28) and Heinrich Gottlieb Albert Detjen (44).

[31] On 16 of the 19 blocks visited the growing of maize was the commercial crop but in most of these cases the settlers have small vegetable gardens.

Some of the men were worked at Thompsons Point [six kilometres from the mouth of the Fitzroy River on the north side], Mt Chalmers mine, Many Peaks [the Boyne Valley Railway south of Gladstone and west of the German Settlement of Baffle Creek]; Mt Morgan [working on the Dawson Valley Railway Line - D.V.

The line was opened beyond Jardine to Yaamba, a distance of 2 miles on 1 October 1913 after the construction of the Alligator Creek Railway Bridge.

Approval for renaming of the railway station to Milman was reported in October 1916:[33] whether this was as a result of the policy of removing German place names during World War 1 or that there already existed another station named Jardine Valley on the Great Northern Railway – which, in 1913, ran from Townsville to Duchess (later to Mt Isa); it was more likely the latter.

[34] An Application for the Establishment of a State School was submitted on 3 August 1912 after earlier submissions to the Department of Public Instruction had failed.

A School Building Committee consisting of Anton Nawarth, Max Menzel, Otto Raders, Johann Gardey and Louis Meyer (Secretary) had been elected on 13 March 1912.

While the reserve was adjacent Portion 35, where the school was eventually built, this did not suit many parents whose children were on the other side of Mt Yaamba.

Mr. Ferdinand Arthur Bahlinger offered 5 acres on his property (Portion 26) which was much closer to the majority of potential students and there were bitter feelings in the community about where the school should be located.

The Government tried in vain to get the community to agree[37] on the location, and the last application nominated the existing Crown Land School Reserve, yet controversy persisted with letters to the Minister by dissatisfied parties until the Minister finally made the decision [38] The settlers must have had discussions with Railways and tried to get a framed tent with floor 40’ long and 12’ wide,[39] however this exceeded the budget and on referral to the Department Public Instruction a framed tent consisting of a walled building (tent) of only 10’ 6" x 12’ with a galvanised roof of 17’ 6" by 15’ 6" was installed.

The parents provided the teachers hut, as a condition of obtaining approval for a school and this completed by the settlers at their cost in February 1913.

[43] The names of the first school committee, elected at a meeting on 24 August 1913 attended by 18 settlers, was: Chairman Mr. Otto Haase, Secretary Mr. Louis Meyer, Treasurer Mr. Kurt Henke, Members Messrs Max Menzel and Frank Maleszka."