Part Two "OCTOPUS''

Fritz Kreiner [later Frank Grainer] aged approximately two years of age, arrived in Adelaide South Australia with his parents and three siblings on a migrant ship from Austria in December 1855. No clue to his personality appears on public record until 1864, two years after his father Carl Kreiner’s one and only term in a jail cell.

1864: In late December 1864, at the age of 11, Frank Kreiner topped his third class with the highest score for mental arithmetic. A talent for manipulating numbers his grandson, composer Ron Erle Grainer, was to share to a considerably greater degree.

The South Australian institution that awarded Frank this recognition, Mr and Mrs Leslies Alberton / Queenstown school, followed a syllabus of seven subjects. Scripture, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography and History. The fourth category was split into normal, probably slate written arithmetic, and mental arithmetic.

1873 Frank’s early scholastic promise was undermined nine years later by his [previously described in part one] four year imprisonment for horse “appropriation”.

1878 Any wild colonial boy impulses Frank still had after his incarceration were probably knocked out of him on 9^th February 1878, the day he was attacked by three Chinese coolies who objected to his insistence on right of way on a cattle droving track. After beating him with bamboo sticks one of the coolies shot Frank twice in the chest and once in the right hand. Frank thought his time had come, His “my last words’ statement to police showed a sense of drama that also could be said to have manifested much more fully and artistically in the music talents of his grandson Ron Grainer.

1880 Apparently calmed down by his near death experience at the hands of “the celestials” and one assumes his earlier term in jail Frank seems to have cut his losses and moved on. In the Queensland electoral listing that closed 1^st January 1880 his electoral division address and status were given as “Cook [North Queensland], Bald Hills, 6 months residence”.

There are no surviving Queensland electoral rolls for the years 1872 - 1876 and prior to those years the records are incomplete.

1883 – 1885 In the roll that closed 8^th February 1883 Franks location had changed to “Walsh River” in the district of Palmer and remained as such for the next three years.

1886 On the 15h June 1886 Frank married Jane Burshall and lived with her at the Wrotham Park cattle station which he was then managing.

There is a possibility Frank may have been managing a Wrotham Park outstation and not the entire property.

1887 Frank and Jane’s first child, Frank [jnr] was born in October 1887 at Maytown.

1889 Sometime around the year 1889 Frank and Jane Grainers family moved to Limestone a conglomerate term for the closely situated North Queensland mining towns of Groganville, Queensborough and Harbord.

1890 Frank and Jane’s second child Joseph was born on 23rd February 1890. He only lived four months and 8 days but his short life was commemorated by a tombstone in the Limestone Cemetery.

A North Queensland historical society guide to the Limestone cemetery misspells the surname of Joseph and his parents as “Grainger” as in “Percy Grainger” the Australian experimental musician.

Sometime during the year of 1890 Frank and well known North Queensland identity Paddy Grogan formed the business partnership of “Grogan and Grainer”.

Grogan and Grainer’s first QPOD listing [1891] based on information provided in 1890, was as “J Grainer [Grogan and Grainer]”.

1891 In April 1891 Grogan and Grainer purchased for 500 pound the Good Hope gold mine. Their listing in the Queensland Post Office Directory for 1891 also includes the occupations of butchering, store keeping, building contracting and construction but within these undertakings are doubtless many other activities.

While all the G and G wheeling and dealing was going on Frank’s family was adding new limbs as well. On7^th July 1891, The third child Ronald Albert Grainer was born at Limestone, an event that would, a generation later, introduce an unexpected direction, music composition, into traditional Grainer clan occupations.

By the 20^th October 1891 Grogan and Grainers involvement in the daily business and mining life of Limestone had grown to such an extent they were affectionately described by the Cooktown Courier newspaper as “an octopus enterprise”.

1892 replaced by just “Grogan and Grainer” which continued until the 1895/96 directory year when this apparently successful firm dissolved. Perhaps like the settlement of Limestone at the end of the 1890s decade, it had reached the end of its usefulness.

1893 saw the birth of the 4th child Linda at Limestone.

1895 Frank added the Miners Home Hotel to his list of things to organize around Limestone in 1895. After 1896 he gradually transferred this license to Jos P Murphy.

1896 Frank became a butcher during 1896 and the fifth child Darcy Albert was born at Limestone.

1897 Frank’s ongoing friendship with Paddy Grogan resulted in the opportunity, on the 5th March 1897, to join the management commission for the Hodgkinson District Hospital a prestigious position of high public trust. Frank returned to store keeping during 1897 / 1898. By 1899 the Miners Home Hotel had been fully transferred to Jos Murphy.

                                             Frank Grainer family Thornborough c1903

left to right Darcy, Linda, Frank, Frank [Jnr], Jane, Samuel, Ron Albert, Mary

Frank Grainer and family relocated to the nearby settlement of Thornborough around 1899 where their 6th child May Jane was born then their 7th child Samuel Ernest in 1901.

1903 On 28th February 1903 Frank was not doubt highly embarrassed by the publishing in the widely read "Capricornian" newspaper of historical information about his 1873 horse rustling conviction especially as he appears to have applied for a position of membership on the Woothakata Shire Council around this time no doubt encouraged by his friend Paddy Grogan a member of the board. Any potential scandal appears to have been averted as Frank attended his first council meeting on the 5th May 1903.

1904 The Grainers 8th child Eva was born at Thornborough in 1904 followed by 9th child Vera in 1906.

1907 On the 12 July 1907 the Morning Post announced a prospectus had been issued for the Union Syndicate Limited a new gold mining company with four directors one of whom was Frank Grainer. The company was to acquire 25 acres of gold mining lease on the old union line near Thornborough.

1908 In January, the same year that the Grainer's 10th child, Donald, was born at Thornborough Frank filled for the bankruptcy of his Thornborough store with liabilities of 2463 pound.

1909 on the 20 May 1909 the Cairns Morning Post newspaper advised that the Wolfram store of Frank Grainer had burnt down.

1910 The Grainer's 11th and last child Harold was born at Thornborough in 1910.

1911 After 13 years of service Feb 4th 1911 was Frank's last attendance as a member of the Hodginson Hospital Board.

1912 On March 15 1912 Frank took a 100 oz gold bar from his company owned Flying Pig Mine at Thrornborough into the Mareeba assay office. 

On the 3rd June 1912 Frank made the last appearance of his nine years as a Woothakarta District councilor. 

The death of Frank Grainer on the 20th June 1912 was announced in the Cairns Post of 22th June 1912 . 

On the 1st July 1912 at the monthly Woothakata Shire meeting the council expressed its loss of their friend and fellow councilor Frank Grainer

Paddy Grogan died on the 27th December 1918 from injuries sustained on Christmas Eve when his horse apparently shied while he was chasing bullocks on his property, South Edge. Paddy's obituary mentioned his long association with Frank Grainer.

All photos courtesy Cairns Historical Society