Married in England in 1870
Sailed from England on the “Juliet” and arrived
in Moreton Bay in May 1874.
The couple with their 2 children - Selina (3) and Mary (1) made their way to Humpybong and established a Dairy Farm.
They had a further 6 children from 1879 – 1896 – Robert, Sarah Jane, Elizabeth, James, Violet & Samuel.
William & Sarah Jane Sparkes
Life in this remote part of the Moreton Bay settlement was extremely hard.
Sarah reports, “People had a very hard life; snakes very bad; dingoes in great numbers; hundreds of kangaroos; ducks in abundance; nothing to see carpet snakes 9 feet long; Aborigines used to eat these.”
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Sparkes‘ house was the first built near the beachfront that later was named Deception Bay.
William Sparkes died on 31 July 1903 when a house he was moving fell on him.
The Brisbane Courier reported on 1 August 1903:
‘Killed by a Falling Building
William Sparkes, a middle-aged man residing at Humpybong, was engaged in making alterations to a house yesterday, and had sawn through the stumps when a strong gust of wind blew the building over and it fell on Sparkes. The unfortunate man was brought to the Brisbane General Hospital and on arrival at the institution he was found to be dead.’
Information from an article by Viv Tucker
