Migrants from Manchester

John Alfred Griffiths was a brilliant, but overlooked Queensland engineer. He built the Griffiths family’s Toowoomba Foundry in the 1870’s where his ‘Zephyr’ windmill led to the development of Southern Cross windmills. He manufactured the metal railway sleepers for the Croydon to Normanton line and then supervised its construction in the 1880s. As Government Inspector of Artesian Bores in the 1890s. He travelled on horseback to survey hundreds of bores for the Queensland Government, leaving comprehensive records that are still in use today. He worked ass local Shire Council engineer in Charters Towers, Nanango and Ipswich.

 This family history is built on the limited childhood memories of J Alfred Griffiths’ granddaughter, Betty. It brings to life a family of leading entrepreneurs, lawyers, engineers and scientists, while uncovering the tragedies and secrets of those family members who battled to survive through illness and war. Griffiths’ great granddaughter , Rosemary Kennedy, has spent twenty years uncovering their lives so that this history could be written.