Virtual
War Memorial
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I started this story as part of the Wooroolin WW1 Honour Board saga and realised that the family story needed to be told separately. So here goes….
The Adermannn family arrived in the Wooroolin district in 1908, leaving the Fernvale/Lowood/Rosewood district after many years. Charles (Carl) Adermann arrived in Australia abt. 1865 from Prussia as a 2 year old. His wife Emilie (nee Litzow) arrived from Brandenburg, Germany 2 years earlier not even 1 year old. They married in 1881.
By the time they moved to Wooroolin they had 12 children. Their 5 younger children were enrolled at Wooroolin School but unfortunately those years are missing from the records. Only the youngest May, born 1906, is shown as pupil no 260. The 1909 electoral rolls show Charles and Emilie as well as their sons Frederick & Robert at Wooroolin - Farmers. The record I have shows them owning Por 236 which I remember as the Woltmann slaughter yards on the road past the swamp.
Having settled at Wooroolin, in 1909 the Adermann’s founded the first congregation of the Churches of Christ in the Kingaroy district. In 1911 at an auction held by AF Jessen block 8 in Andrew St was recorded as owned by “Church of Christ” then “KG Patterson”. Possibly this is where Helena & her husband lived and church services held there…
Charles & Emilie Adermann left the Wooroolin district about 1921 and moved to Lutwyche. Charles died in 1934 and is buried at Lutwyche Cemetery. His wife joined him in 1961 aged 98 years.
Some info on the children of Charles and Emilie.
1. Elizabeth Adermann, born 1882, married Charlie Voss in 1906 and they are recorded as living at Wooroolin in 1909. Their eldest daughter Lily was born at Tallegalla in 1906 and next child, Robert at Wooroolin in 1908. Robert wrote some wonderful memories about his life at Wooroolin School for the school centenary book. The Voss family moved to Bundaberg in 1919.
2. Helena Adermann, born 1884, married Kenneth Patterson in 1908 and they are also recorded at Wooroolin 1909. Mrs Patterson in mentioned in the Wooroolin School Centenary book as having 5 children at the school and that Miss Gray, the school teacher, lived at the Patterson home. Helena’s husband is also on the Wooroolin WW1 Honour Board and I will do a separate story for him. As mentioned above KG Patterson bought Lot 8 in Andrew St about 1911. Maybe this is where the family lived. The Patterson family left Wooroolin in 1925 to live in Brisbane.
3. Frederick Adermann, born 1885, married Mary Domrow in 1910 at Rosewood and moved to Wooroolin in 1918 when their eldest daughter Myrtle was enrolled at Wooroolin School. Their son Ronnie is included in the Wooroolin School photo of 1922/23 and son Robert in the 1926 school photo. The family moved to Strathpine in the mid 1930’s. Their son Robert died in a Truck accident in 1940.
4. Robert Adermann, known as Bob, was born 9 Aug 1888 at Toowoomba per his military records. In 1908 he moved to Wooroolin with his parents and siblings and is listed on the 1909 electoral roll. His story part of the Wooroolin WW1 Honour Board stories.
5. Joseph Adermann, born 1890, married Harriet Magnussen in 1915 and they are the parents of Nerna Adermann who married Elmo Semgreen and their children went to school at Wooroolin at the same time as me. Joseph lived at Booie in 1917.
6. Samuel Charles Adermann was born 8 Dec 1891 near the town of Ipswich per his military records. His story is part of the Wooroolin WW1 Honour Board Stories
7. Ernst Phillip Adermann, born 1894, was a Minister in the Church of Christ and married Phyllis Lowther in 1927 in Qld. They lived in NSW for some time before moving to New Zealand. Mr Adermann held an important position in New Zealand as a teacher in the College of the Bible, and also ministered to the Church of Christ at South Dunedin, NZ. Ernest Adermann represented New Plymouth in the New Zealand parliament in 1943-66.
8. Charles Frederick Adermann, born 1896, is the famous Sir Charles Adermann who married local girl Mildred Turner at St Andrews Church, Wooroolin in 1926. He tried to join the Australian Imperial Force in 1916 when he learned that his brother Robert had been killed in action, but was rejected on medical grounds. Charles attended Wooroolin School from 1908. In 1929 The Adermann family donated £5.0.0 to the St Andrews Organ fund and Mrs Adermann is mentioned many times in the minutes of the Church Guild meetings. Working on his parents' farm, Adermann emerged as a primary industry leader. He was Chairman of the peanut board in 1925-31 and 1934-52. He became involved in government in 1943 and retired from Parliament in 1972. Charlies died in 1979 and is buried at Taabinga Cemetery where Mildred joined him in 1991.
9. Rachel Ruth Adermann, born 1898, married Joseph Steel in 1919 at the Adermann family residence at Wooroolin and a lovely photo of that day was shared by June Stebhens on the Kinga~all FB group. Joseph also served during WW1 and is on the Wooroolin Honour Board and I will do a separate story for him. Rachel attended Wooroolin School.
10. Esther Emily Adermann, born 1900, married Edgar Brecknell in 1934. Esther was a nurse and probably trained at Kingaroy before moving to Brisbane with her parents. Esther attended Wooroolin School.
11. Emilie Johanna Adermann, born 1903, married Andrew Jensen in 1929 and I have found lovely photos of her as Matron of the Cooroy Hospital. They divorced about 1954 and Emily remarried Bill Zerner.
12. May Bridget Adermann, born 1906, moved to Brisbane with her Parents in 1921. She married Peter Taylor in 1938. Peter Taylor joined the Australian Army during WW11 and died At Sea in the Middle East in 1942. He is remembered at Alamein Memorial, El Alamein, Maṭrūḥ, Egypt. May was the oldest living student celebrating Wooroolin Schools centenary in 2001.

Elizabeth Caffery spoke at the Wooroolin Anzac Day Setrvice in 2021, This is an extract from her speech.
Robert Adermann, (26), joined in June 1915. Sent to the Somme as a gunner with the Lewis Machine Gun Section, he was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of Pozieres 23 July 1916. Trench warfare had now moved from bayonets and bullets (as were used in Gallipoli) to the destructive power of artillery. Shrapnel that tore men to pieces, high explosives that blew them to bits and completely destroyed trenches, smoke that covered the churned, stinking ground full of human remains in no man’s land where bodies could never be retrieved for burial. It was cruel carnage which prompted historian Charles Bean to write: ‘Men were turned in there as into some ghastly mincing machine.’
Robert died in that mincing machine. He has no known grave and is remembered as a name inscribed on the magnificent Villers Bretonneux Memorial in France. Robert’s younger brother, Samuel, (22) a police constable, joined a couple of months later in 1915. He too, was attached to an artillery unit but survived. His two sons, Jack and Samuel served during WW2.
Lest We Forget