This following are key events in Stanthorpe during 1921:
• Pozieres State School takes first enrolments (16 June, 1921), the new school children
• Stanthorpe Co-operative Jam and Pulping Factory opened at Passmore.
August 21
• The Summit State School opens with 26 pupils
1922:
• Official opening of the “new” Carnarvon Bridge, coinciding with Stanthorpe’s Silver Jubilee on February 1.
• Stanthorpe celebrated jubilee dancing on Carnarvon Bridge, celebrations at the showgrounds.
• The Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan, opened the Stanthorpe Show, a highlight of the Jubilee Year.
• QFS organised a special train for fruit from Wallangarra to Brisbane.
• Charles Chauvel leaves Stanthorpe to study filmmaking in the United States.
• Contract for St. Joseph’s new church let to Messrs A & D McDonald for £5650, to be built on the site occupied by the school-church. “The new building is a credit to the town. It’s early completion is eagerly looked forward to by the Catholics of the district.”
• February 17: Pikedale Soldier Settlement Canning, Jam and Preserving Co management under attack. There is an absence of any payment in cash for produce delivered for pulping, considerable hardship to settlers. Barnes & Co advises it will only stock two brands of soup Heinz and Pikedale Soldier Settlers Tomato Soup.
• The Fruit Fly: Fruit Growers District Council is informed that an entomologist is to be appointed. The President said the problem was so serious and it meant so much to Stanthorpe district that every other problem should be sub-ordinated to the fruit fly.
As a result of growers advocacy, the Department of Agriculture has appointed Mr. Jarvis as Entomologist for the Stanthorpe district to make a scientific study.
• February 24: The Minister for Education, J. Huxton will open the new Ballandean School today, and the new school at Pozieres tomorrow, calling at Applethorpe and The Summit School on the way.
• 52 allotments are to be offered at Sentimental Rocks Estate tomorrow
• Obituaries: Peter Jeffrey, E.J. Mooney, Mrs. McCosker
• The Southern Queensland Fruitgrowers Society delegation to the Minister for Agriculture reports that losses to growers from the fruit fly are between £40,000 to £50,000.
A government entomologist instructed to investigate a lure in 1920 found that the fly Dacus Tryone (Queensland Fruit Fly) did the damage, but flies trapped by lure were the Solanum Fly, harmless to growers.
“Owing to its practically unchecked development in Southern Queensland during the past few years, it had become serious menace to the fruit growing industry. The heavy frosts and extremely cold spells in Stanthorpe district had kept it in check and only in occasional seasons did it cause serious troubles here. The last two winters however had been extremely mild and a wet spring had supervened. This had just suited the fly and it had multiplied, causing considerable damage.”
• A film of the Granite Belt Fruit Industry is shown at the Olympic Picture Theatre.
• March 3: Stanthorpe Jubilee Report (Bridge Ball, Old Pioneers Dinner, Motor Gymkhana, Fireworks)
• Events made a profit of £35 from expenditure of £196. A copy of the Jubilee Issue of the Border Post is to be forward to the Public Library of
Queensland.
• The Minister for Education opened school as Ballandean (recently moved to a more central location and provided with more accommodation) and Pozieres.
• The Summit requests that the capacity of the school be doubled. Since the school opened on August 28, 1921, with 26 pupils, enrolment had increased to 73.
• Pozieres already has a post office, railway station, store and school.
