European settlers arrived on the Blackall Range in the 1880s to carve out a place to live among thick vine scrub.
Selection offered them a chance to establish a place of their own, clearing the land using hand tools, felling trees and sawing them into timbers to establish homes, and fence smallholdings which grew into dairy farms.
The predominantly German pioneers named their new home Teutoburg, in memory of the forest they left behind. For 30 years they built a community centred around dairy farms and their Lutheran faith.
All that changed in 1916 when, due to anti-German sentiment, Teutoburg was renamed Witta.
About The Author
Dale Lorna Jacobsen, BSc.
Dale is a freelance writer with a passion for grass-roots history, leading to the publication of three novels: Union Jack (2011), political intrigue set in Queensland in the 1920s; Yenohan's Legacy (2013), a story of love and life in the High Country of Australia, Being Lucy (2018), the story of a mountain recluse set in East Gippsland.
In 2013 she fulfilled a life-long dream, taking part in an expedition to Antarctica, and produced an eBook, Why Antarctica? a Ross Sea odyssey (2015). Dale has since returned twice to Antarctic. In 2018, she published Engineer: memoir of John Russell.
Steve Chaddock, BA MA PhD.
An archaeologist, museum expert, and anthropologist, Steve has 30+ years’ experience in the field of cultural heritage. A Witta resident since 2007, he feels a strong attraction to the invisible pasts in his own back yard and has a passion for sharing these stories.
From 2014 to 2018 he focused on the history of Teutoburg/Witta by surveying public and private archives, reviewing photographic collections, gathering records, and recording oral testimonies. In 2015, 2016, and 2018, in partnership with the Witta Recreational Club, he organised Wittafest, a free local event celebrating Teutoburg/Witta’s unique heritage.
This is Steve’s first jointly authored local history book, a tale about the origins of his neighborhood up on the Blackall Range.
