Jacob Goode and His Burnett Inn

About the Book

Jacob Goode came first to Sydney in the early 1830’s  but came north after some bad decisions corroded his business. He became one of the colourful characters of the early settlement of Moreton Bay, Queensland.

Becoming an hotelier gave him the opportunity to indulge in his favourite pass times of horse racing and excessive use of alcohol. When things got a bit too hot to handle he sold his hotel, packed his dray, and headed for the mountains to the north-west.

Being given approval by the owner of the station on which he stopped on his odyssey (that’s a good word eh?) he set up camp and before the end of 1848 the Burnett Inn, or Goodes Inn, as it was also known, was established at Noogoonida. Once settled his his wife, Jane, arrived to help him run the Inn.

This area of the South Burnett could have been likened to the roaring days of the American West; characters came and went and put life into the buildings that he established before his death in 1858. In ten years, Jacob had established the area and provided the Inn, Store, Post Office, holding yards, Church, Court Room and Police Quarters and Gaol, which was the genesis of the township of Nanango.

Jacob and Jane lived a full life but ten years of excessive drinking and incurred debts caused their eventual death and the demise of his dreams.

About the Author

Judith Grimes was born in Nambour, Queensland, Australia, and educated at Nambour, Brisbane, Darwin, all in Australia, and Hawaii, as well as on the mainland United States of America. She has a doctorate in botany and range science from Brigham Young University, specialising in aquatic ecology. She has taught physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, agriculture, and science at high schools. Previously, she has worked as a medical technologist, analytical chemist, environmental scientist, and director of the Maryborough Family Heritage Institute. Judy is the author of many scientific papers and books, including various history books. The current book’s genesis began when Judy wrote Pioneering into the Future: A History of Nanango Shire in 1998. This is the beginning of a series, Burnett River District 1848, that will tell stories of the squatters who settled the Burnett and whose names or properties are on the Burnett District map of 1848.