History of Whiteside

In the middle of 1843, Captain Frank (Francis Henry) Griffin (ca. 1813-1881) of Sydney became the first free settler to occupy land currently part of the Pine Rivers Shire. A short time later, Frank was joined by his brothers John and William. The run taken up by the Griffins for raising both cattle and sheep, which was named Whiteside, was an extensive portion of 28 square miles of land on the north bank of the North Pine River stretching from the seacoast as far west as Terror's Creek and northwards nearly as far as the Caboolture River.

The father of the Griffin brothers, Captain George Griffin (1783-1851), a former Royal Navy Officer, East India Company Master and Agent and latterly Ship's Master for a Sydney firm, was head of the family company, but Frank continued to manage the property for some time while his father carried on his profession as a master mariner.

By 1845, Captain George Griffin was residing full time at Whiteside with his wife Jane (nee Taylor, ca. 1793-1863). During that year, as changes to the land legislation limited the size of a run which could be held under one licence to 20 square miles, the Griffins were required to split Whiteside into two sections, thereby creating the coastal Redbanks run east of Sideling Creek. After the death of George Griffin at Whiteside in 1851, the properties were operated by George's widow, Jane, assisted by one of the sons, John Broomfield Saunders Griffin (ca. 1824-1885), the other sons having moved elsewhere.

The following year, by marrying Isabella Joyner, the widow of William Joyner and then owner of the neighbouring Samsonvale run, John Griffin came to play a significant part in the management of both the large runs then covering most of the Pine Rivers area, especially after his mother's death in 1863. By the late 1860s, however, with increasing closer settlement, the Griffin family had relinquished all connection with lands to the north of the North Pine River.

The Whiteside run is remembered today by names such as Whiteside Road, which formerly led to the homestead, the Parish of Whiteside which incorporated most of the land once part of the station and, more recently, by the locality of Whiteside. The Griffin family's pioneering achievements have also been perpetuated by the name of the locality of Griffin and Griffin Court in Murrumba Downs.