Did you know that Tesch Park was named after Mr Ludwig Tesch who had a Wheelwright and Blacksmith business on the site? Ludwig Gottfried Tesch was born in Berlin in 1862, and migrated to Australia as an 11 month old infant. The family selected land at Teutoberg, Witta in 1887, along with many other German immigrants at the time, all settling at Witta.
A newspaper clipping in the Tesch family’s collection describes the donation of the land for a park to the Council: “Land recently acquired by the Landsborough Shire Council, bounded by Maple Street, Coral Street and the Obi Obi creek, for the purpose of developing the site as a park, has been cleared and levelled. The park will be named “Tesch Park” as a memorial to the late Mr Ludwig Tesch, who was one of the early settlers in the Maleny District, having selected land at Teutoberg, now Witta, in 1887. The late Mr Tesch established the first commercial blacksmith shop in Maleny on the park site. He also started Tesch’s sawmill. He was one of the provisional board of directors of the Maleny Co-Operative Dairy Association and together with Mr Fred Vandreik, held the first contract for the cartage of butter from Maleny to Landsborough in 1904. When the Landsborough Shire was proclaimed in 1912 prior to which it was part of the Caboolture Shire, Mr Tesch was one of the original Councillors, the first meeting being held on April 12 in 1912. The park will fill a long felt want in the town, and the council will have the co-operation of the local Apexians with the project.”
Not much has changed; Maleny has a long tradition of our wonderful service organisations getting hands-on and working with the Council creating and maintaining parks for the community. Other families have donated land for parks and there is some information at this link: https://malenysportandrec.org.au/local-public-amenities/