Joh's Place

After the lavender farm, we had booked a tour in the afternoon at Joh's Place. $12.50 for a tour  and the famous pumpkin scones. It was the only tourist thing that we paid for over the four da

ys we were there, we figured that scones and coffee would take up most of the fee.

The place is called Bethany and it is where the most famous Queensland politician and Premier lived. His son John and his wife now run the farm and it was John who conducted the tour. Joh (pron Joe) was in Parliament for 40 years and Premier for almost 20. He ruffled a few feathers while he was in office but he also got a lot of things happening for Queensland.

Lady Flo (Joh's wife) became a senator by default really so John told us, she was nominated to go against another woman to counteract and because she was well known as Joh's wife, she won the poll and stayed in office herself for bout ten years. She made the pumpkin scones famous as they would be served at every meeting that she ran or preceded at.
The family have lived on this farm for just over a hundred years. Sir Joh died in 2005 and Lady Flo is is now 94. The name of Bjenke-Petterson (not sure of spelling) came from Holland apparently Petterson is a very common name and the family was known as the Pettersons who lived on Bjenke street and then was reduced to Bjenke-Petteron. I had always wondered how it was a double barrelled name as this was long before double names were popular.

We were taken up onto the ridge and a wedding was to take place later in the afternoon, the scenery was fantastic. John was very interesting to listen to and with the afternoon tea, it lasted about two hours, he talked about his fathers early life as well as the district and what things they were doing on the farm to survive.

The tours are run from March til Nov, twice and week and it is by bookings only. Warren and I both agreed that it was the most interesting. The name Bettany means Peace or resting at peace.