Early history
An early history of The Salvation Army in Nanango.
By Commissioner Heather Lang
Nanango, the fourth oldest town in Queensland is located in the South Burnett area. Forty years after the first settlers arrived, the blood and fire flag was unfurled under an old Bunya pine tree in September 1889 by Lieutenant William Thompson. After being an outpost of Ipswich corps, Nanango was declared a corps by Captain H. Mickle on 2 June 1892. The Blackbutt and Kingaroy districts were also included in a circle corps until they, too, were granted corps status in 1911.
Officers rode on horseback or used a horse and sulky for transport. Because their horse roamed the town to find food, one officer, Dick Haynes, came up with a creative idea to spread the message. On one side of the horse’s rug he emblazoned the words The Salvation Army with God is love on the other.
A brass band, formed under the leadership of 18-year-old bandmaster George (Bert) Knowles, eventually included six of his eight children. Bert remained bandmaster and was also corps sergeant-major for many years. Later on, when the corps was without officers, son Vic and his wife Lil ran the corps as well as giving oversight to Blackbutt. In 1923, land was purchased and an officers quarters built with funds donated by the citizens of Nanango.
Pioneer officer William Thompson later became a pioneer Salvation Army missionary to the aboriginal people in the district. In 1901, he established an aboriginal mission station north of Nanango on 7000 acres secured from Barambah station. He gathered local aborigines onto the mission station and was superintendent until 1904. The rudimentary conditions, worsened by drought and lack of finance meant that control of Barambah passed to the state government in 1905. Barambah became the Cherbourg Aboriginal Settlement in 1931 and as Queensland’s third largest aboriginal community, has greatly impacted the indigenous population of the area.
