Jacob Goode and His Burnett Inn

Jacob Goode became one of the colourful characters of the early settlement of Moreton Bay. Becoming an hotelier gave him the opportunity to indulge in his favourite pass times of horse racing and excessive use of alcohol. When things got a bit too hot to handle in 1848 he sold his hotel, packed his dray, and headed for the mountains to the north-west. On this odyssey, he set up camp by a deep waterhole and before long the Burnett Inn was established at Noogoonida. Just like the roaring days of the American West, characters came and went and put life into the buildings that he established. In ten years, Jacob created the genesis of the township of Nanango. Jacob lived a full life but ten years of excessive drinking caused his eventual death and the demise of his dreams.

Judith Grimes was born in Nambour, Queensland, Australia, and educated at Nambour, Brisbane, Darwin, all in Australia, and Hawaii, as well as on the mainland United States of America. She has a doctorate in botany and range science from Brigham Young University, specialising in aquatic ecology. She has taught physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, agriculture, and science at high schools. Previously, she has worked as a medical technologist, analytical chemist, environmental scientist, and director of the Maryborough Family Heritage Institute. Judy is the author of many scientific papers and books, including various history books. The current book's genesis began when Judy wrote Pioneering into the Future: A History of Nanango Shire in 1998. This is the beginning of a series, Burnett River District 1848, that will tell stories of the squatters who settled the Burnett and whose names or properties are on the Burnett District map of 1848.