The first wave of selectors comprised mainly Irish immigrants, followed within a few years by German settlers. In the 1880s development of Rosevale as a community gathered momentum. A school was erected on a central site (approximately north-east of the later site of St Patrick's Church) and opened in late November 1884 with 42 students. In July 1885, portions 83 to 86, Rosevale old head station, were reserved for township purposes. Although a town survey was never made, some businesses were attracted to the district, including a general store, butcher, baker, blacksmith, and in the 1890s a cheese factory and the Rosevale Co-operative Dairy Company. As settlement in the Rosevale district expanded, the community's spiritual needs were met with the construction of a number of denominational buildings, including a Catholic church, Anglican church and Lutheran church. In the 1870s, Irish Catholic families were among the first to take up agricultural land in the Rosevale district. Here they created a "little Ireland" centred on St Patrick's Church and the Catholic faith, which was sustained well into the 1930s. Initially the Rosevale district was part of the Catholic parish of Ipswich established on 1 January 1849 within the Diocese of Sydney. This was a vast parish extending from Brisbane west to Warwick, south to Tenterfield and the Clarence and Richmond rivers districts, north to Maryborough, and north-west to Gayndah. In August 1852 the first parish priest, Father William McGinty, arrived and was stationed at Ipswich. In the 1850s and early 1860s he held masses in the Rosevale area in private homes. In December 1859 the colony of Queensland separated from New South Wales and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brisbane, covering the whole of Queensland, was established. The parish of Ipswich was reduced at this time but was still a vast area extending from near Brisbane to the foot of the Great Dividing Range in the west and north to Nanango. Later, many smaller parishes were excised from the parent Ipswich parish. The expansion of facilities in the Ipswich parish in the last quarter of the nineteenth century is closely associated with the 44 years of service by Father Andrew Horan as parish priest (1873-1917). Andrew Horan and his brothers Matthew and James - respectively parish priests of Gympie (1868-1923) and Warwick (1876-1905) - were nephews of James Quinn, first Bishop of Brisbane (1861-1881).