Theresia Kodel
| Town/City | Cairns |
|---|---|
| First name | Theresia |
| Last name | Kodel |
| Country of Origin | Germany |
| Date of Birth | 1816 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1855 |
| Submitted by | Kathleen Cantarella |
Story
Theresia Kodel, nee Kuhnmunch, was the daughter of millers in 19th century Bavaria. At just 17 she married Joseph Kodel. Theresia and Joseph worked as vine-dressers in the vineyards of the beautiful Tauber Valley more than 150 years ago. They were persuaded to travel to Queensland by one Edward Lord who went to Germany looking for labourers to work the farms of the colony.
The Marbs, out of Hamburg, was the ship on which the Kodels sailed to Australia. It was desperately under-provisioned. There was no lime-juice on board to prevent scurvy, the other food rations were meager, and the passengers who disembarked in Sydney most have been shadows of their former selves. 47 passengers died at sea of cholera, typhoid, and measles. Two of these were the eldest males of Theresia’s family: her husband Joseph and her son Joseph Jr. With three surviving children to feed, Theresia kept the dream alive and sailed north to Ipswich on the Swallow. Her young son, Balthazar, was my great great grandfather.
The ruins of the Kuhnmunch’s mill on the Tauberbischopheim were still in existence in the 1980’s.