north. When New South Wales passed the Agricultural Reserves Act 1861 and a new wave of settlers moved into the area, Fernie Lawn was divided into smaller selections, with land for sale at £1 per acre and cultivation and fencing to be carried out by the purchaser. These first selectors were predominantly Scots and English, followed by the end of the 1860s by increasing numbers of German settlers. Descendants of many of these early settlers remain in the area today. Farmers engaged in mixed cropping and dairying, and cotton was widely grown in the area in response to the world shortage caused by the American Civil War. Cotton ginneries were established by Carl Sahl at Fernie Lawn and by Cribb & Foote at Stinking Gully. Fernvale at the time consisted of two areas - Harrisborough, named after Harris Brothers cotton stores, and Stinking Gully named after the water course which separated the two areas. The name Stinking Gully was officially changed to Ferny Gully in 1930. The old blacksmith, the tennis court (made by hand from termites nests and river water), the first bakery, Cribb and Foote’s store, the earliest churches, have all gone. But the butcher shop, first opened in remains unchanged, the old dance hall is now ‘Down to a Tea’ tea rooms, and the new ‘Old Fernvale Bakery’ has an interesting collection in its café of memorabilia and photos of days gone by. In 1869, the first German Baptist church services, at first known as the Church of Christ, began in Fernvale followed by the first Methodist church in the Brisbane Valley at Fernvale in 1871. In 1886, the Church of Christ built a new church two miles away at Vernor. Catholic and Anglican services were continued for some time by itinerant priests who travelled widely through the Brisbane Valley. The first Methodist church in the Brisbane Valley was built at Fernvale in 1872, on land close to the river, donated by Emmanuel Denman. The Primitive Methodist Chapel was moved to the present site on the Brisbane Valley Highway in 1882 due to its vulnerability to floods. Another larger church was built in 1894, becoming part of the Methodist Church in the amalgamation of 1902 and then part of the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977, occupying that site (1503 Brisbane Valley Highway) until December 2012. This 1894 church building and its hall were then donated by