Gympie days

Another weekend, another round of parkrun tourism, or so I hoped. This weekend’s plan was to get the Brisbane suburban train all the way to the end of the line in Gympie, stay overnight, do the Victory Heights trail parkrun in the morning and get the bus home (the train timetables did not align for a return by rail). So after over three hours of slow rattling we got into Gympie North station around lunchtime Friday. The weather was overcast with rain forecasted, as I found my nearby Airbnb and walked 3km into town. I crossed fingers the parkrun would not be cancelled.

On the way, I passed Gympie station, which is prettier than the functional Gympie North and much closer to town, but is sadly no longer on the main line. A station first opened here in 1881 to connect Gympie’s goldfields with the port of Maryborough and within 10 years there was a connection to Brisbane. The current building, designed in Pagoda style with multiple layered eaves, dates to 1913 and is the largest timber railway station in Queensland. Gympie’s station became neglected with the rise of car travel and in 1989 Queensland Rail built Gympie North in an 8km diversion on the newly electrified Brisbane-Rockhampton route. Freight stopped coming through Gympie by 1995. The station got a new lease of life in 1998 when QR leased it to the Mary Valley Heritage Railway. The Valley Rattler steam train now plies the route to Amamoor.

Gold was first found 4km south of Gympie in 1867 and Scottish prospector William Ferguson named the area Monkland for a locality west of Glasgow. By 1873, there were shops and four hotels to serve the goldrush and the railway station was added in 1889 on the Brisbane line. Like Gympie station, it was bypassed a century later though the Valley Rattler still trundles through.

Goldrush memories are preserved in the nearby Gympie Gold Mining and Historical Museum. The tagline outside reads “the town that saved Queensland” and that’s not too much of an exaggeration. When Queensland left New South Wales in 1859, the parent colony took the treasury leaving the northerners broke. Unemployment was high, railway works had stopped, and the Bank of Queensland failed, leaving the new colony to survive in hand-to-mouth fashion. Then the Brisbane Courier announced in 1867 the discovery of gold at “Gympy Creek”. Prospectors poured into the region and found large deposits of gold. Within 12 months, Gympie had 30,000 people. Queensland’s unemployment problem vanished overnight.

The Upper Mary River goldfield was officially proclaimed in 1867 in a 25 square mile radius. But the finds were so good, the radius was expanded to 120 square miles in 1877. By then the alluvial gold was exhausted. Shallow and deep reef mining commenced and by 1881 intensive gold mining marked a new era of wealth and prosperity. While payable gold ran out by the 1920s, there is still a fossicking area nearby. The museum’s No 2 South Great Eastern shaft is accessible via a reconstructed gantry. It contains an operational boiler house and steam powered winding engine, air compressor, generator and anciliary machinery.

The museum also features exhibits from the timber industry, dairy, agriculture, gems, transport, and military and social history including the relocated cottage of early Australian prime minister Andrew Fisher. Fisher, aged 10, came to Australia with his Scottish family during Queensland’s goldrush. He moved to Gympie in 1888, worked in the mines and was a trade unionist and Labor party activist. He help found the Gympie cooperative, and in 1891 became secretary of the Gympie Joint Labour Committee. He was elected to Queensland’s assembly as the member for Gympie before winning the seat of Wide Bay in the first federal election in 1901. He became Labor leader in 1905 and served three terms as prime minister in 1908-09, 1910-13 and 1914-15.

Near the museum is Lake Alford, an important bird sanctuary, named for neighbour Frank “Tiny” Alford (nicknamed in Australian fashion because he was very tall) who helped develop the park. This was a swampy area which Gympie Council drained and filled with water. The lake is home to numerous bird species. The signature black swans (Cygnus atratus) are completely black except for the red bill and white flight feathers on their wings while chicks are light grey.

I wandered down a wet track to the Mary River. The river rises at Booroobin west of Landsborough and flows north through Gympie and Maryborough before emptying into the Great Sandy Strait near Fraser Island. The river was important to the Gubbi Gubbi people who called it “Moocooboola” (not to be confused with Mooloolaba which has a different root). The Gubbi Gubbi named a tributary creek for the gimpi-gimpi, the fearsome stinging tree found across the region. Europeans encroached onto Gubbi Gubbi lands in 1842 and found what they called the Wide Bay River. Five years later NSW governor Charles FitzRoy renamed it for his wife Mary. Settlers were attracted to the rich cedar which they threw into the river and exported to Sydney via Maryborough. After gold transformed the region, the Gubbi Gubbi were reduced by massacres and disease and were eventually forced into reservations at Fraser Island and Cherbourg.

The first Gympie Volunteer Fire Brigade was formed in 1876 but lapsed before re-forming in 1901 with a fire station built in 1902. The current magnificent brick and concrete fire station dates to 1940. The station is believed to be haunted by the ghost of a fireman who died in a fall from the lookout on the tower in 1943. In 2023 the state government announced plans to build a new station south of town.

Gympie was gazetted as a town on January 26, 1880 and a reserve for a town hall was soon created. The original town hall and clock tower dates from 1890 and witnessed the creation of Gympie city in 1905. As gold production declined, Gympie transformed into an agricultural service centre. The building received a makeover in 1939 with a post office and reception hall added. It was heritage listed in 2011 for its original structure representing the importance of a highly profitable gold mining town and its 1930s extension reflecting Gympie’s evolution as the service town of an important dairy and agricultural district.

The town centre winds its way up from the river along flood-prone Mary Street. The Cullinane brothers started a drapery business in 1868, a year after the town was founded. They established a large presence on both sides of the street selling everything from dress material and accessories to china, linen and household goods. Gympie’s worst flood was in 1893 with a peak of 25.45 metres, inundating many businesses to the rooftops in lower Mary Street. On November 6, 1939 Cullinanes’ store burnt down with damage estimated at £60,000.

The influx of money and yield of gold was reflected in the redevelopment of upper Mary Street during the 1880s and 1890s. Derry-born architect Richard Gailey built the neo-classical Bank of New South Wales in 1890–1891 to replace a branch on the goldfields. In 1940 the bank sold the building to Widgee Shire Council which administered the rural area around Gympie. In 1993, Widgee amalgamated with the city of Gympie and the building became the Cooloola Shire Council Chambers. In 2008, Cooloola, Kilkivan and part of Tiaro were amalgamated into Gympie Regional Council. The building is now the Gympie Regional Council Chambers. It is heritage listed as “physical evidence of the evolution of Gympie gold mining, a major contributor to the wealth of Queensland”.

Around the corner on Channon St is the original courthouse and now home to the Australian Institute of Country Music. Irish-born Henry Edward King was appointed gold commissioner for Wide Bay in 1867 and conducted business on the Gympie goldfields until a Court of Petty Sessions was established in 1868. A new court was erected on Channon St in 1876 and it became the land office when the court house moved up the road in 1893. It continued to be used by state departments until 2002 when Cooloola Shire took it over and made the building available to the AICM.

Across the road is the old bank building. The Queensland National Bank established a timber branch here in 1872, and enjoyed the gold bonanza, purchasing over 6000 ounces in its first three weeks. Three years later the current brick building was erected. When Gympie’s commercial centre moved to eastern Mary St the bank sold the building. It was used by industries until Widgee Council bought it in 1990. It is now used as council offices.

Further up Channon St is the new courthouse. In the 1890s local MP Andrew Fisher pushed for a larger replacement to the old courthouse. In 1900 colonial architect Alfred Barton Brady, who designed Brisbane’s old Victoria Bridge, selected the site and commissioned fellow architect John Smith Murdoch to design the building in Federation Free style. The building was designed to be seen from across town and the clock tower dominated the landscape. It has been heritage listed as a significant landmark with high quality design and workmanship.

Gympie’s third important colonial-era bank building is the Royal Bank of Queensland. A great fire in 1891 destroyed many timber buildings on Mary St and this neoclassical single-storey building was one of many permanent structures erected the following year. The Royal Bank was established to help Queensland farming and mining investors who could not get loans with other banks. In 1922 the Royal merged with the Bank of Northern Queensland to become the Bank of Queensland and then merged with the National Australia Bank in 1948. NAB closed this branch in 1979 and it became commercial premises, and offices for the Gympie Muster. It is heritage listed as a “good example of a masonry structure in a classical style”.

The following morning I went out to Victory Heights Trail Network, which comprises 60 hectares of eucalypt forest and 25km of mountain biking trails. It also hosts Gympie’s parkrun. While Saturday was perfect for running, the damage had already been done and Gympie Regional Council asked organisers to cancel it to give the course time to dry out. I sadly trudged the 3km back to town to get my bus home.

I had breakfast at a Mary Street cafe and admired the nearby “Lady of the Mary” statue. The statue honours British aristocrat Lady Mary Fitzroy, who moved to Australia when her husband Charles Fitzroy was made governor of NSW in 1846. In 1847 Fitzroy renamed the Wide Bay River and Maryborough in her honour. A few months later, Lady Mary was killed in a carriage accident in Sydney. The 2017 statue imagines her dipping her feet in the Mary river, which she never saw.

The parkrun cancellation gave me more walking time and I checked out St Patrick’s Church. Many Irish Catholics joined the Gympie gold rush and priests followed them, with the first Mass in the new town in 1868. Gympie’s early churches were basic affairs until the massive sandstone St Patrick’s was constructed on a prominent spot on Calton Hill in 1883. The architect was prolific Scottish-born government architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley, who also built Brisbane’s GPO, Roma St station, Toowoomba’s courthouse and post office, and some of Charters Towers’ grand buildings. Queensland’s first Catholic archbishop Robert Dunne officially opened St Patrick’s in 1887. It is heritage listed as a good example of 1880s church architecture, “influenced by Gothic revival styles and of the ecclesiastical work of the prominent Queensland architect, FDG Stanley.”

It is appropriate that a city associated with country music was once called Nashville. A Memorial Park monument celebrates Wiltshire-born James Nash “who discovered the Gympie Goldfield 16th October 1867.” Nash emigrated to Sydney aged 23 and became a labourer and NSW gold prospector. Nash moved to Calliope, Queensland in 1863 then to Nanango. He was attracted by the news of a £3000 government reward for a new gold field, and set off from Nanango to Gladstone. As he came down from Imbil, he thought the Mary River might be payable. Nash found quantities of gold and reported his findings in Maryborough. Within a month, the port town was full of excited prospectors “off to the diggings” at what was soon dubbed “Nashville, Gympie Creek”. However the miserly colonial government haggled with Nash before granting only £1000 after twelve months’ debate while the field quickly shed his name and became Gympie. Though Nash and his brother earned £7000 from their claims, they lost their winnings in poorly-performing mining stock and an ill-fated drapery store. The government finally helped the near penniless Nash in 1888 it made him the local powder-magazine keeper at £100 a year. He died in 1913 in Gympie, aged 79, suffering from bronchitis and asthma.

The bus back to Brisbane stopped at a service station in Traveston, 20 minutes south of town. In the car park was a glorious piece of 1980s Queensland kitsch. The 13-metre-tall Matilda was the kangaroo mascot for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. Matilda became a favourite when she was wheeled into the opening ceremony, turned her head, wiggled her ears and winked at the crowd. In 1984 Matilda was placed alongside the Pacific Highway at Wet N Wild, Oxenford. Matilda Fuel Services bought the namesake kangaroo in 2009 for their Tugun outlet but the massive marsupial breached Gold Coast planning regulations. The owners moved her to another travel centre at Kybong, 20km south of Gympie. Anticipating the Gympie bypass, the Traveston Service Centre was opened 5km away in 2020 and Matilda made the short hop south down the Bruce Hwy. She gave me a sly wink before sending me on my way home.

Toowoomba days

Once a month I try to attend a new parkrun venue. The original idea for March was a train to the Sunshine Coast and cycle to Caloundra for an ocean swim before doing the run on Saturday morning. However early in the week, my bike played up and the bottom bracket broke, a part my local shop said would take a fortnight to get. Cooling my heels I decided on plan B, a bus to Toowoomba for a run in the Garden City. And so an hour and a half after leaving Roma St station we were trundling up the range 700 metres above sea level, on the road shown below. Toowoomba was a few minutes away at the top of the hill. This was the main Warrego Highway west until the Toowoomba bypass was built to the north in 2018.

Emerging from Neil Street bus station on a gorgeous Friday afternoon I pass by the heritage-listed old court house. As the sign on this classical building states this was Toowoomba’s court house between 1878 and 1979. Toowoomba was surveyed in 1852 as a replacement for the settlement of Drayton as it was closer to the edge of the range. Toowoomba is thought to be named either after a property in the area in the 1850s, or from an Aboriginal word meaning “place where water sits” or “place of melon” or “place where reeds grow” or “berries place” or “white man”. Whichever it was, Toowoomba became the main town on the Darling Downs when Queensland became a colony in 1859. A small court opened in Margaret St in 1863 but wealthy Downs citizens commissioned this imposing replacement of locally-quarried stone in 1876 designed by prolific Scottish-born government architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley, who was also responsible for Brisbane’s GPO, Roma St station and some of Charters Towers’ grand buildings. When Toowoomba’s court moved to a new building in 1979, it was used as government buildings before being sold privately in 2000.

Nearby is Toowoomba’s former post office. The post office was also designed by Stanley in classical revival style and complements the Court House in form and material. The post office opened in 1880 as a major staging point on the intercolonial telegraph and operated for 120 years before Australia Post moved to a new building in 1999. It functions now as a cafe and offices.

The third major heritage-listed building in the Margaret-Neil St precinct is Toowoomba’s police headquarters. This Raymond Nowland designed-building is of later vintage than the other two, dating to 1935, replacing an earlier timber structure. There are four parts to the complex: a police station, garage, watch house and keeper’s residence. The Heritage Register says the impressive form is indicative of Toowoomba’s importance as “Queensland’s second city in the urban hierarchy of the state.”

I decided on a long walk from the city to Picnic Point. I passed Queens Park where I would be doing the parkrun in the morning. The 25-hectare park was gazetted as a public reserve in 1869.

I then took the long walkway besides East Creek. There are a number of parks along the creek, all with unimaginative numerical names. Below is East Creek Park 2 between Margaret and Herries St, a pretty and popular lunch destination for city workers with barbecue and picnic facilities. The park is the start of the East Creek cycle route to Spring St, Middle Ridge.

A feature of Park 2 is the Mothers Memorial Garden. The Mothers` Memorial (rear of image below) was the site of military recruitment during the First World War and where Toowoomba’s Anzac Day commemoration has been held since 1916. After the war bereaved mothers sold flowers to raise funds for a Mothers’ Memorial which was originally at the corner of Margaret and Ruthven St in 1922. Calls to move it away from its busy location began in the 1960s and after much controversy it was moved to its present peaceful location in 1985. The trachyte stone memorial is unique in Queensland.

I followed the East Creek path to Long St then diverted up the hill to Picnic Point. These lovely parklands are at the top of the range looking east towards the Lockyer Valley. It is the home of many native birds including the red-browed finch, striated pardalote and pale-headed rosella.

Carnival Falls is an artificial waterfall below the Bill Gould lookout (where the first photo in this blogpost was taken). A bluestone quarry was established here in 1890 to provide stone for roads and buildings including the post office and court house. The quarry closed by the 1940s. The Carnival of Flowers Association built the falls in 1965 in the disused quarry as a planned beautification to attract more carnival visitors. Nearby a Camera Obscura was erected in 1967 with two six-inch lenses offering views of the city and the valley below. It was closed in 1990 and demolished three years later.

Along the path are markers for a scaled model of the solar system. I first spotted Neptune (4.4 billion kms from the sun) and gradually passed most of the remaining inner planets in the next few kilometres. The only sign I missed was the one for Uranus. Perhaps the model had taken Neptune’s elliptical orbit into consideration and Uranus was hidden somewhere beyond it. The marker for Mars (213 million kms from the sun) was just around the corner from Earth, Venus, Mercury and the sun.

Below is the view from the Tobruk Memorial Drive Lookout. On the right is Sugar Loaf and left centre is Table Top Mountain. Over millions of years Table Top eroded leaving only the flat-topped basalt plug and scree slopes. Local tribes knew the mountain as Meewah and in 1840 a white land overseer shot dead Aboriginal men dancing on the mountain peak. The incident unleashed attacks between white and black. By 1843 an alliance of south-east Queensland tribes tried to starve white colonists out. Multuggerah led 100 warriors to ambush a convoy of drays up the Range from Grantham. Angry settlers followed them to Table Top but wandered into a trap of hurled boulders and stones in what became known as the Battle of One Tree Hill. Clashes persisted until 1850 when superior weaponry and the introduction of native police turned the tide.

Walking back to town, I diverted again to Queen’s Park’s Botanic Gardens. Every September the gardens are a centrepiece of internationally renowned Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers. Each year, thousands of seedlings are planted in attractive geometric-shaped garden beds to ensure their blooms peak in time for the Carnival.

A short walk from the Botanic Gardens is “Whyembah” on Campbell St, Toowoomba’s “Grand Lady”. Built around 1896 for commercial traveller John Rosser, the weatherboard house is heritage-listed because it “demonstrates the principal characteristics of an 1890s ornate timber house in Toowoomba”. Rosser was a first class cricketer for Victoria in the 1880s. He also enjoyed lawn bowls and installed a bowling green on the property, though this is now long gone. Rosser died in 1925 and his widow Margaret continued to live there until her death in the 1940s.

As the evening closed in, I passed more heritage-listed buildings. The Strand Theatre on Margaret St was built as a cinema in 1915. Toowoomba councillor James Newman commissioned Brisbane architect George Addison to build it on the site of picture gardens. The American-derived design with its large semi-circular glazed arch was similar to cinemas from the same era in Brisbane and Melbourne though the top level was designed as additional accommodation for Newman’s next door Crown Hotel. Pioneering movie exhibitor Mary Stuart “Señora” Spencer (billed as “The Only Lady Cinematograph Artist in the World”) leased the theatre and named it the Strand like her theatres in Brisbane and Newcastle. The April 5, 1916 Darling Downs said “SEÑORA SPENCER seeing no reason to doubt that the high class features, style, and novelty, that characterise the enormously successful Cinematograph Exhibitions conducted by her at the Strand Theatre, Brisbane, would prove immensely popular with the Toowoomba public.” Though Spencer sold up in 1918, the Strand flourished through the golden age of cinema and still shows movies. Its heritage listing hails its demonstration of “the emergence of cinema as a 20th-century social phenomenon.”

On Neil St is the art deco Empire Theatre. Like the Strand, the Empire was built as a cinema by Brisbane entertainment promoter EJ Carroll in 1911. Although destroyed by fire, substantial sections were included in the 1933 rebuild. Brisbane’s TR Hall & LB Phillips was architect for the new building which accommodated 2500 people, the second largest venue in Queensland. The cinema declined with the advent of television and the local council bought it in 1997 and restored it as a performing arts venue. Its heritage listing calls it “rare and important evidence of the increasingly sophisticated expectations of interwar cinema audiences”.

St Luke’s Anglican Church on Herries St is another heritage-listed building. A primitive church was established on the site in 1857 as Toowoomba began to replace Drayton as the leading town on the Downs. The foundation stone for the current bluestone structure was laid in 1895 and the church opened two years later. St Luke’s was designed in traditional Gothic revival style though it took several phases to complete. A stained glass window is a replica of one at Chartres Cathedral and the church retains a magnificent Norman and Beard pipe organ from 1907. The heritage listing hails St Luke’s as a major work of 19th century English-born ecclesiastical architect John Hingeston Buckeridge, who built 60 churches in Queensland.

The first elected Toowoomba Council in 1861 petitioned the new colony of Queensland for a land grant to build a town hall, originally on the corner of James and Neil Sts. The city expanded greatly that decade with the arrival of the railway from Brisbane and the founding of the Chronicle newspaper. In 1898 the School of Arts on Ruthven St burned down and Council hired English architect Willoughby Powell to design a new city hall on the site in 1900. The new building also incorporated a school of arts, a technical college and a theatre. It opened late that year with the clock added in 1901, which remains a focal point of Ruthven St. The building was heritage listed in the 1990s as its “generous size and grand character provide evidence of the prosperity and importance of Toowoomba as a major regional centre at the turn of the century.”

The White Horse Hotel on Ruthven St is also heritage-listed. The July 7, 1866 Chronicle reported that the hotel “lately opened by worthy Boniface Daniel Donovan” was “capacious” with 19 rooms and built of brick on stone foundations. The hotel changed hands a number of times and in 1912 new owners decided on an ornately detailed rebuild including a new facade and remodelled wings. The pub closed in 1986 and the ground floor is now shops. Its heritage listing promotes its importance as an early 20th century hotel, “in particular the flamboyant facade and interior elements such as the main stair, pressed metal ceilings, doorways, and fanlight.”

I was up early on Saturday morning for my run. I wandered across to Queen’s Park, just 10 minutes away, accompanied only by occasional pedestrians and four-legged friends.

There were a lot more people at the Margaret St end where the parkrun begins. Toowoomba is one of the biggest parkruns in the world and there were over 800 participants the prior week. For reasons unknown, there were a “mere” 550 runners this week but it still made for a crowded start line.

The course is two laps around the park, including the scenic Botanic Gardens. My efforts in my 217th parkrun and 93rd course were captured in this grimacing photo as I cross the finish line in a time of 24:30. Having freshened up and then enjoyed breakfast, I went to the station to get the bus down the range to Brisbane. But I’ll be back. T-Bar has plenty to offer – not least two other parkrun courses to conquer.

Around Ingham, Wallaman Falls and Balgal Beach

Two weeks ago, I did a quick trip to the coast for the Tyto Wetlands parkrun course in Ingham. After 10 hours in the car on Friday from Mount Isa, I arrived in Ingham late on a hot and humid afternoon and after checking into a motel I stretched my legs at the wetlands.

Tyto Wetlands is a 90-hectare natural wetland with lookouts and viewing points for many birds, native Australian wildlife and tropical plants. The area is named for the endangered Eastern Grass Owl (Tyto Longimembris). Hinchinbrook Shire is one of the few places in the world where this owl can be spotted regularly leaving their grassy habitat at dusk. The view below looks towards the Cardwell Range to the north.

With four kilometres of walking tracks, four bird viewing platforms and a multitude of ecosystems, I decide to go for a deeper walk in the wetlands. As well as the Eastern Grass Owl, it is home to over 240 species of birds and many agile wallabies. Thanks to signposts I found the track where I would do the parkrun the following morning. It’s a trail run with two loops around a lake.

After my walk it was time for dinner and a beer. Despite the name the place I chose was “the pub with no beer.” I thought the original pub with no beer was in Northern New South Wales at Taylor’s Arm but apparently that one is the imposter. The official Pub with No Beer made famous by Slim Dusty’s song of that name is this one, Lee’s Hotel in Ingham. The song is based on the poem A Pub Without Beer written by Ingham sugarcane farmer and poet Dan Sheahan in what was then called the Day Dawn Hotel in 1943.

After I’d eaten and wanted to walk off my dinner, I found this second watering hole, the impressive looking Royal Hotel. The original Royal was built by hotelier couple, James and Mary Shewcroft who moved south from Cardwell in 1883 to build the pub. But new owners in the 1920s didn’t like it and rebuilt it from scratch to the current configuration. Since the 1950s it has been run by the Quagliotto family. They are among the half of Ingham’s population of Italian descent. Many came to work in the sugar cane industry after the town began in 1864.

The following morning I was up early for the parkrun. Trail runs are tough at the best of times but the combination of mid 30s heat and high humidity made it a very sweaty exercise. Happy enough with a 26.48 time and despite my grimacing I enjoyed the views.

After freshening up and breakfast I headed to Wallaman Falls, 50km west. The road is flat through fields of sugar cane but as I approached the Seaview Range some climbing lay ahead. The range is the headwaters for the Burdekin and Herbert Rivers.

The last 20km are winding mountain roads. There are signs warning to be cautious of cassowaries, thought because of the bends I’m not going very fast. The southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) live in tropical forests in southern New Guinea, northeastern Australia, and the Aru Islands. There are 2000 of the flightless birds in Australia mainly around here and the Cassowary Coast to the north but this sign was as close as I got to one.

After an hour from Ingham I got to the carpark for the Falls. There they were, right in front of me – the highest permanent single-drop waterfall in Australia, the largest drop 268 metres. Wallaman Falls is in the traditional lands of the Warrgamaygan Aboriginal People at Girringun National Park. The falls descend over small cascades before the 268m horsetail drop for a total of 305 metres. They were formed 50 million years ago by continental margin uplift. The Herbert River previously flowed west but cut through the terrain towards Coral Sea. The gorge produced by erosive action gradually retreated inland but tributaries were left suspended forming their own gorges.

It’s a stunning sight but I wanted to know what it looked like from the bottom. There was a 2km walk down which was difficult in the heat especially the return leg uphill.

It was worth the trudge through tropical rainforest to get close to the falls. There is a swimming hole beneath the falls but I didn’t fancy climbing over slippery rocks to get to it.

The Wallaman Falls are part of Queensland’s world heritage-listed Wet Tropics. These lands are the oldest surviving rainforests on earth and host rare animal and plant species. In Warrgamaygan culture Yamanie came down from the sky in the form of a rainbow, transforming into the great rainbow serpent and creating the hills, rivers and creeks. Yamanie rested in the waterhole at the bottom of the falls. The Warrgamaygan try not to make him angry as he then shows his displeasure by making the waterhole overflow.

I drove back to Ingham for lunch and then an hour-long drive to Townsville. Half way down at Rollingstone I took a diversion to the beach. Balgal Beach is a pleasant unspoiled place looking out to the Palm Island group and Magnetic Island to the south. There was a protected swimming spot so it was a great place to cool down on a hot day.

Rollingstone is named for the smooth rounded stones in the creek bed. It was originally called Armidale but renamed in 1915 to avoid confusion with the NSW town. The railway came through the same year. It was founded as an overnight stop on the mail coach from Townsville to Ingham. Rollingstone Beach was founded in 1947 and later renamed Balgal Beach for an Aboriginal word for stone. The beach is a popular spot for fishers, daytrippers and weekend visitors from Townsville.

UPDATE LATE 2023: Sadly the Tyto Wetlands parkrun has closed due to an “increase in crocodile population”. I believe a new Ingham parkrun called Palm Creek has opened instead.

Mount Isa to Brisbane via Charleville

Last weekend was time for another big drive from Mount Isa to Brisbane. I’ve done it several times stopping in different places such as Winton, Blackall, or doing it in one hit. This time I stayed in Charleville, not a normal stop as I usually take the short cut from Augathella to Morven. But I wanted to visit the Cosmos Centre observatory on a Friday night plus the town’s parkrun the following morning. I left Mount Isa in the dark at 5am and caught the dawn south of Cloncurry, with bonus cattle crossing their field.

About 100km south of Cloncurry is McKinlay. There’s not much here as the town’s service station-cum-shop closed down a couple of years ago leaving Walkabout Creek Hotel as the town’s only business. It is the site of the pub scenes in the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee. The movie set is at the back of the pub for people to visit. I was there in 2016 when the town celebrated the 30th anniversary of the movie with a weekend of celebrations as the town swelled from 15 to 300 people.

A further 200km south there are reminders of other movies as I drive through the striking terrain of Winton Shire. Winton is the home of the Outback Film Festival, held a week ago and its wild west locations attracts many filmmakers. John Hillcoat filmed the Meat Pie western The Proposition here in 2005.

For a remote Western Queensland town, Barcaldine, 110km east of Longreach, has a surprisingly strong link to the Labor Party. Labor mythology says the party was founded under the town’s Tree of Knowledge after the 1891 Shearers’ Strike. Near the tree is the Workers Heritage Centre, in the grounds of the former Barcaldine State School. It opened in 1991 containing historical exhibits about labour history and the strike. After a major upgrade, the Queensland premier reopened the facility on the 130th anniversary of the Shearers’ Strike in May.

The oldest town in Central West Queensland is Tambo. Many tribes lived in this fertile area on the Barcoo including the Wadjabangai. Sir Thomas Mitchell was the first European to explore here in 1846 and selectors followed in the 1860s. The town of Carrangarra was founded in 1863, renamed Tambo in 1868, the name from an Indigenous word meaning hidden place. Tambo remains charming and the Shire Hall is one of many grand buildings in the town.

I arrived at Charleville as the sun was setting, 12 hours after leaving Mount Isa. Glistening in the late evening sunshine is the 30 metre-high water tower on which Brisbane artist Guido van Helten painted a mural in May 2019. The mural is in Van Helten’s 3D monochromatic mural style and features four children intertwined through sport. Van Helten painted another tower on the same theme in Cunnamulla, 200km south.

My home for the night was the wonderful 1920s-style Corones Hotel. Remarkable Greek immigrant Harry Corones built the hotel when Charleville was a stopping point for international air travellers from Brisbane. Completed in 1929 after five years of planning and construction, the new hotel contained a lounge and writing room, a dining-room for 150 people, a barber’s shop, and a magnificent ballroom seating 320 people. Upstairs were ornate bathrooms, 40 rooms and a private lounge. It was “the best equipped and most up-to-date hotel outside the metropolis”. Aviator Amy Johnson stayed here on her flight from Britain to Australia in 1930, filling her hotel bath with 24 magnums of champagne which guests drank in her honour. Other visitors included Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, the Wright brothers, Nancy Bird and English singer Gracie Fields. Fields caused a sensation when she stood at the open windows and sang the song “Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye” in Beatles Let it Be-style to a large crowd outside.

That evening I braved the south-west Queensland winter chill and went to the Cosmos Centre observatory on the edge of town. I hadn’t been here in 10 years and I was looking forward to stargazing. I was doubly lucky. Firstly they had unusual winter rain and a cloudy evening 24 hours earlier, and secondly it was a new moon, so perfect for stargazing. They had three telescopes for 30 people and we had opportunities to look at the Alpha Centauri double star, the Jewel Box star cluster, Omega Centauri cluster, a nebula in Carinae, and finished with Saturn and her rings, magnificently rising in the low eastern sky.

On my way to parkrun the following morning I passed a peculiar Charleville attraction, the Vortex Rainmaking Guns off the road to Cunnamulla. The guns were the brainchild of Queensland meteorologist Clement Wragge, the man who first named cyclones, in his 1902 plan to seed clouds with rain during the five-year Federation Drought. The idea was based on guns Italian grapegrowers successfully used to dispel hailstorms. Wragge’s guns were unsuccessful. The drought eventually broke at the end of 1902 and 10 Charleville guns were abandoned and left to rot until most became dilapidated and sold for scrap. Today two guns remain intact, lovingly restored in Charleville’s biggest park.

That park, Graham Andrews park, gives its name to Charleville’s parkrun. Andrews was mayor of Murweh Shire (which includes Charleville) from 1988-2008. The Graham Andrews parkrun was tricky thanks to recent rain making the course slippery. I found the complex figure eight course hard to follow in places. Those are my excuses anyway, for a time of 24.18 for the 5km, about 30 seconds slower than usual. It was my 90th parkrun and my 32nd different course.

After freshening up and enjoying breakfast, I continued east along the Warrego Highway to Morven. Named for a town in Aberdeenshire, Morven lost its only pub to fire in 2016. Devastated by its absence in the community, eight families banded together to build a new one. The result is Sadleir’s Waterhole, which was the town’s name until 1876. The pub is a low-set, modern-looking building with a big front deck built on the site of the old hotel. Down the road in Muckadilla, another pub is rising from the ashes of a 2019 fire, which I’m pleased about having fond memories of the Mucka pub from my Roma days.

Around 50km east of Morven, near the even smaller town of Mungallala is Ooline Park. The Ooline tree (Cadellia pentastylis) is a vulnerable species with rainforest origins two million years back to the Pleistocene Era when Australia was much wetter. The tree is of biogeographic and horticultural interest as a relic of an extensive rainforest vegetation that once covered much of Australia and it is a sole species. Oolines grow to 10m, and rarely to 25m with dark, hard and scaly bark. It was widespread in the bottle tree-dominated softwood scrubs, brigalow and belah areas of central and southern Queensland and north-western New South Wales but after extensive land clearing (now outlawed), it is now restricted from west of Rockhampton to the NSW border.

South of the Warrego, 50km west of Roma, is Mount Abundance. The area was the home of the Mandandanji people who enjoyed its rich landscape and fertile soil. NSW Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell also saw the area’s potential when he came through in 1846 naming the mountain for its sign of plenty. “I ascended an elevated north-eastern extremity of Mount Abundance, and from it beheld the finest country I had ever seen in a primeval state—a champagne region, spotted with wood, stretching as far as human vision or even the telescope could reach,” he wrote. Mitchell’s “champagne” meant lightly wooded though others were drunk at the prospects he described. A son of Mitchell’s friend named Allan Macpherson was quick to take up Mt Abundance and though Macpherson failed in his accommodation with unhappy prior owners, less scrupulous owners cleared out the black inhabitants in the frontier war that followed, with the assistance of Native Police. Mt Abundance was also the last place Ludwig Leichhardt was heard from before his party disappeared in 1848.

Mitchell was the first European to see Brachychiton rupestris, the Queensland Bottle Tree, which like the ooline thrives in south-western Queensland. He selected the genus name to honour Henry De la Beche, head of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, while rupestris (meaning living among rocks) alludes to the rocky hilltop habitat Mitchell observed at Mt Abundance. The fat tree trunk reaches a 2m diameter after five to eight years, with a maximum height of 18-20m. The tree drops leaves before the flowering period of October to December. The characteristic bottle shape develops in five to eight years. The canopy will also thin out during a drought. This hardy species is endemic to Central Queensland through to northern New South Wales, growing in heavy clay soil, silt, sand and volcanic rocks. Roma’s largest bottle tree has a girth of 9.51 metres, a height of six metres and a crown of 20 metres, The century-old tree was transplanted in 1927 from a local property to site in town near the Bungil Creek. Roma historian Peter Keegan tells me there is an even wider tree near Mt Abundance, though we never got around to looking for it.

Entitled “A Bush Conversation” this Dion Cross installation featuring two chatty cockatoos was the People’s Choice winner in the Sculptures Out Back Exhibition 2021 by the side of the highway on the eastern approach to Roma near the Big Rig. Dion’s vision was to show the need for conversation in the often lonely bush environment. “A yarn in the back paddock can make a big difference,” Dion said. Sculptures Out Back is an outdoor exhibition that runs annually from July to September. Artists are invited to display their works by contacting the Roma on Bungil Gallery Committee.

The Boonarga Cactoblastic Hall, 12km east of Chinchilla, is probably the only building in Australia named for an insect. The South American cactoblastis was introduced to consume prickly pear, the common name for several cacti species of the American native genus Opuntia. Prickly pears arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in 1788 as Governor Arthur Phillip saw them as the basis for a possible cochineal industry. The prickly pear got out of control as it was drought resistant, had no natural predators, loved the climate and its tough seeds passed through the digestive system of birds ready for germination. With much of Queensland’s pasture land overrun by the pest, government scientist Dr Jean White turned to another invader to solve the problem. Her experiments at Chinchilla led to the introduction of the Cactoblastis cactorum moth in 1926 that eventually brought prickly pear under control. Cactoblastis is a moth which feeds on cacti in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and southern Brazil. It proved ideal for the Australian task, a rare example of an introduced predator achieving its outcome without unintended consequences.

Around 30km west of Dalby is Macalister, named for an early Queensland premier. Macalister is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town where traffic is only forced to slow down to 80kph. There are no shops but it has two distinguishing features. In the foreground is the chute that loaded coal from nearby Wilkie Creek mine to the rail line by the side of the highway. Peabody closed the mine in 2013 and when I was working in Dalby in 2015 there was a shortlived plan for a Japanese company to reopen it. But making money from coal is increasingly difficult and climate change will ensure the remaining coal will stay in the ground. In the background is the still active GrainCorp silo. The country between Dalby and Chinchilla is renowned for its high yield crops which end up in the Macalister silo for processing.

To Maryborough by train

A couple of weeks ago I made the 250km journey to Maryborough for a mate’s 60th birthday while in Brisbane. Having flown down from Mount Isa, I didn’t have my car so I used Queensland Rail services, boarding the 4.55pm from Roma St to Bundaberg. That train was a pleasant experience which got me into Maryborough West around 8.25pm where a friend picked me up and took me the 10km or so into town.

The following morning I walked into town and spotted the first of Maryborough’s many heritage-listed buildings, the city hall. Maryborough was originally situated north of the Mary River with wharves established in 1847 to transport wool from Burnett sheep stations. In 1852 the town was transferred north where ships could better navigate the river. Maryborough was declared a municipality in 1861 and a timber town hall was built in 1874 on Kent Street. Maryborough developed rapidly for the Gympie goldrush in 1867. As Maryborough so did the demand for a new town hall, finally built in 1908 on the opposite side of Kent St. It was heritage listed in 1992 “demonstrating the growth of Maryborough in the early 20th century”. The day I passed it was used as a Covid mass vaccination centre.

The day I was there was a Thursday and the Maryborough City Markets were on at Adelaide St as they were every Thursday. at Lennox St in the city centre. The markets have been going since 1987 and visitors combine browsing with a heritage walk which starts at the next door town hall. As I found out, tomorrow was Maryborough Show Day so there was a particular holiday atmosphere in town that day.

Maryborough Post Office is another heritage-listed building at 227 Bazaar Street. It was designed by Queensland Colonial Architect Charles Tiffin and built in 1865-1866. This was in the middle of a thriving period for the town, after the Maryborough Sugar Company was set up in 1865 and gold was discovered in Gympie in 1867. It is the oldest post office known to survive in Queensland, and is one of three remaining masonry post offices from between 1859 and 1878. In 1869 a single faced clock, facing Wharf Street, was installed in the third level of the tower. The telephone exchange opened here in 1882.

Queens Park was established in 1860 and many of its beautiful huge trees are over a century old as they look down on the majestic Mary River. The river, named Moocooboola ( “river that twists and turns”) by the Kabi people, is responsible for the name of the city and its reason for existence. Early Europeans called it the Wide Bay River but in September 1847 New South Wales governor Charles FitzRoy changed the name for his wife Lady Mary Lennox. It was an ill omen for Lady Mary. Three months later, she was in a carriage when the horses bolted and crashed down a hill. The carriage fell on top of her. killing her instantly. The port opened the same year, fared better. The Mary has suffered many major floods over the years with the river peaking at 8.2m here in the 2011 floods.

Maryborough School of Arts is another heritage-listed building on Kent Street opposite the city hall. It was designed by John Harry Grainger and built from 1887 to 1888 by Jacob & John Rooney. It replaced the first Maryborough School of Arts, a small brick building built in 1861 soon after the establishment of a local School of Arts committee. The school of arts movement, also known as the mechanics’ institute movement, spread through the English-speaking world in the mid-nineteenth century. Public lectures were popular as a way of spreading scientific knowledge. Scottish emigrants brought the concept to Australia and most towns had their own school of arts for “the diffusion of Scientific and other useful knowledge as extensively as possible throughout the Colony.”

Maryborough Courthouse is a heritage-listed courthouse on Richmond Street. It was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and built in 1877 by John Thomas Annear for the Queensland Government, the first large court building designed for a rural town in Queensland. It was the forerunner for several other buildings in regional areas. The building is rectangular in form with corner towers and connecting verandahs, and was constructed in rendered brick, with timber work forming the verandahs. The building stands as part of the historic Wharf Street precinct. The courthouse has been used by the supreme, district and magistrates courts of Queensland since completed in 1878, making it the longest serving and oldest courthouse in use in Queensland.

From Queens Park a rail line was visible next to the river. I could also hear the toot of a steam train and a few minutes later it came into view down the track. A dedicated team of volunteers crew the Mary Ann which operates each Thursday along the riverside. The original Mary Ann was used to haul timber in the 1870s, named for the daughters of Scottish timber pioneers and the timber offcuts fuelled the engine. It ran on a 3’3 gauge, even narrower than the Queensland 3’6 gauge. The current engine is a replica built in the 1990s.

J E Brown commenced business as a provisions and victuals merchant in 1857 in Richmond Street. In 1879 he had this two-storey brick warehouse built and was designed by local architect James Buchanan. In later years, the premises were used for dances, balls, boxing tournaments, a restaurant, and currently houses the Maryborough Military and Colonial Museum.

Maryborough Heritage Centre is a heritage-listed former bank building at 164 Richmond Street. It was designed by George Allen Mansfield and James Cowlishaw and built in 1877 with goldrush wealth for the Bank of New South Wales. It is also known as National Parks and Wildlife Service Headquarters, Post Master General’s Department, and Telecom Building.

The following day was Friday and it was Fraser Coast show day. It seemed everyone in town was at the Maryborough Showgrounds to the west of the city. It was a typical boisterous show with all the usual ingredients. But after a while I became uneasy at so much close contact in these Covid times and went back to town.

This sculpture commemorates the work of Pamela Lyndon Travers, born Helen Lyndon Goff in Maryborough in 1899. P. L.Travers is most famous for the series of Mary Poppins children’s novels. Travers was an actress and journalist whose most abiding creation was the magical English nanny, Mary Poppins, famously played by Julie Andrews in the smash hit 1964 Hollywood film. Walt Disney’s daughters loved the novels when they were children, and Disney spent 20 years trying to purchase the film rights. Travers was an adviser in the production, but disapproved of the watered-down Disney Poppins character. She so hated the animation she ruled out any further adaptations of the series. At the premiere after-party she told Disney “The first thing that has to go is the animation sequence.” Disney replied, “Pamela, the ship has sailed” and walked away. Travers died in England in 1996 aged 96.

On the Saturday I went down to Anzac Park for the weekly local parkrun at 7am. The 5km track takes runners and walkers around the lovely Ululah Lagoon taking the pain off the exertion. The park also houses Maryborough golf club.

I had just enough time for shower and breakfast before getting a lift back to Maryborough West station for the 11.05am train back to Brisbane. This one was the tilt train originating in Rockhampton.

Unlike the trip up, the trip back to Brisbane was in full daylight so I was able to enjoy the scenery. A highlight is Mount Tibrogargan, one of the 13 peaks of the Glass House Mountains. Lieutenant James Cook gave them that name in 1770 because the peaks reminded him of the glass furnaces in his native Yorkshire. The range was formed as molten lava cooled to form hard rock in the cores of volcanoes 26-27 million years ago. Tibrogargan is the third tallest of the peaks. The name comes from the local aboriginal words chibur for flying squirrel and kaiyathin for biting. Tibrogargan was the father of all the other Glass House Mountains except Beerwah, his wife. Tibrogargan saw a rising of the waters from the sea, and called to his son Coonowrin to take his mother Beerwah to a safe place. However Coonowrin failed to do so, and in anger Tibrogargan clubbed himand broke his neck. Tibrogargan is said to have turned his back to face Coonowrin. We turned our backs on Tibrogargan as we tilted effortlessly back to Brisbane.

In search of Doomadgee’s outstations

Doomadgee housing. Late 1950s.

Author Mark Moran shares his experiences of Doomadgee in his excellent book Serious Whitefella Stuff (2016). Doomadgee is an Aboriginal shire and township in North West Queensland, 100km from Burketown and 500km from Mount Isa. It began in the 1930s as a mission called Old Doomadgee further north at Bayley Point on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Old Doomadgee brought together the remnant population of Ganggalida, Waanyi, Garawa and Yanyula people from the western Gulf region. Their lands had been overrun in the 1870s and by the 1910s they lived in camps and shanties outside white properties, where they worked for rations. In 1933 they were herded up by Christian Brethren missionaries into Old Doomadgee.

A shortage of fresh water led the Queensland Government to believe that Old Doomadgee was unsuitable for population expansion. When a cyclone destroyed the mission in 1936, they decided to relocate the mission despite local objections. Around 50 children and 20 adults at Old Doomadgee were moved 100km south to the current site of Doomadgee on the banks of the mostly dry Nicholson River, named by Ludwig Leichhardt in his first expedition.

The site grew rapidly in the 1930s and 1940s, when the Queensland Government removed Aboriginal families from pastoral stations including Westmoreland, Lawn Hills and Gregory Downs. The Christian Brethren were strict, conservative rulers with no time for Aboriginal culture and Doomadgee was one of the most authoritarian missions in Queensland. Women had to wear ankle-length dresses while younger women were locked up at night and forced into domestic duties by day. As in Palm Island, children were separated from parents into same-sex dorms. They were not allowed to speak their language or practise customs. The superintendent’s word was law. Punishments included confinement or, for women, cutting off their hair.

The tribes initially had little in common. Some were from Queensland and some from the Territory, some from near the sea and some from inland. But they eventually bonded, calling Doomadgee home. The adults had to work on pastoral stations. Moran says that in 1965, half of Doomadgee’s population – 274 people – were working on 74 pastoral properties across the region, with the Mission receiving what little money they made. In 1968 when the Commonwealth Arbitration Commission decided Aboriginal workers were entitled to fair wages, the stations sacked their black workforce rather than give them equal pay and Doomadgee’s function as a regional cheap labour pool came to an abrupt end.

The Christian Brethren handed control to Queensland in 1983 but premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen would not grant the town autonomy. It wasn’t until 1988, the year after Joh was replaced, that Doomadgee became a local government region given trusteeship over the Doomadgee reserve land held in Deed of Grant in Trust, known as DOGITs. Many townsfolk established outstations including at Old Doomadgee after the road gang cut a 120km road “using a combination of local knowledge, compass dead reckoning and radio reports from a ministry pilot overhead.” The outstation movement was a Whitlam-era response to the problem of centralised missions and the assimilation era. In Doomadgee and elsewhere a land claim became a pathway to land rights. Elder Tom O’Keefe established one of the town’s first outstations at Six Mile, on traditional land owned by the Waanyi People of which Tom’s mother was one.

When Mark Moran arrived in Doomadgee in 1991 as a council superviser, all white people in town lived separate from the rest of the community, a legacy of mission days. The outstation movement was gathering momentum. Around a quarter of the town’s 1000-strong population wanted to move out in search of the bush life to strengthen culture. The outstations were ad hoc affairs using family labour and whatever materials they could scrounge. When the federal government introduced Community Development Employment Projects, (pejoratively, work for the dole) unemployment benefits were converted into community development projects which spurred on more outstations in Doomadgee.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was formed a year earlier and provided useful funds and functions for Aboriginal communities. ATSIC provided 1000 cattle to four outstations to manage and each station got a $10,000 construction grant. The cattle were never profitable – helicopter mustering was prohibitively expensive – but they enabled young people to learn pastoral skills and helped the dormant Doomadgee Rodeo to resume. Young Jason Ned, now Doomadgee mayor, won the bareback bull ride in the 1993 event. Doomadgee had desperately-needed money to spend on new sewerage, street works, the airstrip and water infrastructure. But ATSIC reined in outstation funding after many splurged on huge cars, with expensive maintenance costs in rough conditions. There was funding for housing in town and Moran helped families who wanted to build more permanent accommodation on their outstations. Then Council went broke and an administrator sacked all contractors including Moran.

Undeterred, Moran returned to Doomadgee a year later working for the Centre for Appropriate Technology to prepare a planning report for the outstation housing grant he had brokered. They built eight homes using steel frames, full perimeter verandahs, external ablution blocks, elevated rainwater tanks and ventilated pit latrines. ATSIC called a moratorium on outstations in 1996 after hearing that many were abandoned or trashed. In Doomadgee some had done better than others with Merv Peter incorporating Gumhole Aboriginal Corporation to open avenues to government funding. With the help of ATSIC, Moran delivered an outstation plan and an outstation committee but it was never put to practise as funds dried up.

Outstations became an ideological battle front. In 2005 prime minister John Howard abolished ATSIC without a proper replacement. Indigenous Affairs minister Amanda Vanstone called remote communities “cultural museums“. Before the 2007 NT Intervention, crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers said outstations were “highly dangerous places for women and children because they are unable to escape any of the violence.” The free-market Centre for Independent Studies’ Helen Hughes called them a form of apartheid and a “socialist utopia”. Right winger Gary Johns said Aboriginal people should live in towns to escape from humbugging though Moran argues the need to escape was the impetus for the outstations in the first place. He admits that while there was improved health outcomes living on outstations, there were problems with providing education in remote environments.

Anthropologist Diane Austin-Broos defended the outstations saying they eased the pressure on larger communities. Despite the lack of jobs and schooling, people could paint, care for their country and enjoy well-being. She also said residents were less worried about comparative disadvantage than outsiders. “Clothing (often second hand), shelter (often makeshift) and food (a mix of foraged and store bought)…might look second rate to the outsider but…this mattered less to remote Aboriginal people,” she said. Moran said people moved to Doomadgee outstations for many reasons: culture, history, subsistence, autonomy, wellbeing and safety but they also expected similar housing, infrastructure and services they got in town and that proved to be beyond the funding they could source from governments.

The Commonwealth government restricted funding in 2007. Outstations could still get money but only if they were running a business on site. Work for the dole was harder to get and the Doomadgee CDEP corporation remained the only outstation resource agency in the area. Without ATSIC there was competitive tendering for contracts and in 2009 the corporation lost the contract to external employment services company, Mount Isa Skills. Moran says the result was Doomadgee lost its last lifeline to the outstations.

Under a new Labor government, Doomadgee was named as one of 29 “remote hub settlements” where services would be concentrated on larger communities. Each hub would have a Local Implementation Plan and Doomadgee’s LIP made no mention of the outstations. Most outstation residents were forced back into the quarter-acre social housing blocks in town. When Moran returned again in 2014, Merv Peter’s Gumhole was the only permanently occupied outstation left though Merv had died after a long illness. Rodeo champion turned mayor Jason Ned founded another at Spoon Creek as money flowed into the town via nearby Century Mine. Moran met Tom O’Keefe, then in his eighties, who was still at Six Mile which he described as his life achievement. “Built my outstation and now there are four mango trees,” O’Keefe told Moran.

From Townsville to Cairns

I’ve done the northernmost 400km of the Bruce Hwy from Townsville to Cairns numerous times and these photos are from different journeys. Townsville does not have the tourist cachet of Cairns but has plenty of charm and history. Jezzine Fort looks offshore to the magnificent Magnetic Island but this view looks inland to Castle Hill. Jezzine Barracks has been home to Australian military units for over 120 years. The site was a crucial defence outpost in the Second World War and the American connection is still celebrated. Along the path is a diagram of the battle of the Coral Sea which was supplied from Townsville. A lesser known tale occurred when 600 African-American troops came to the city to help build airfields but mutinied against racist officers. After a siege lasting eight hours sparked by taunts and violence, the mutineers machine gunned the officers’ tents killing one and injuring a dozen others.

About 60km north of Townsville is Paluma National Park. To get there you turn off the highway and drive up Mount Spec Rd and cross Little Crystal Creek Bridge. Both the road and bridge are heritage listed. Townsville Council lobbied the government to build the road to secure the water supply. They were constructed during the 1930s Great Depression, using mostly unskilled labour funded by the Unemployment Relief Scheme. A township at Paluma was established in 1934 and the road officially opened in 1937. Engineers decided that rather than make the bridge out of timber, it would be a masonry arch to “harmonise with a rather picturesque spot.”

The first town north of Townsville is Ingham, 110km away. Situated in sugar cane country on the Herbert River, it is the administrative centre for the Hinchinbrook Shire. There is a strong Italian population with an Australian-Italian Festival on the first weekend in August each year. Near the highway on the way into town is the Tyto Wetlands, a 90-hectare natural wetland with lookouts and viewing points for 250 species of birds, native Australian wildlife and tropical plants. The area is named for the endangered Eastern Grass Owl (Tyto Longimembris). The Hinchinbrook Shire is one of the few places in the world where this owl can be spotted regularly leaving its grassy habitat at dusk.

East of Ingham is the port of Lucinda. The port exports raw sugar grown in the Ingham district. It is equipped with on-shore sugar handling and storage facilities, and a single trestle jetty and conveyor to an off-shore berth and shiploader. The 6km-long jetty is the world’s largest bulk sugar loading facility. The town and point are named for the Queensland government paddle steamer Lucinda, built in 1884. Lucinda is the gateway to the Aboriginal community on Palm Island.

Back on the Bruce Hwy we climb over the Cardwell range heading north. At the top there are two lookouts, the Hinchinbrook Lookout and the Panjoo lookout in Girringun National Park. This is Bandjin country and “Panjoo” means nice or beautiful place. The view is terrific out past the Seymour River to Hinchinbrook Island.

There is another view of Hinchinbrook from the Cardwell foreshore, one of three places where the Bruce Hwy hugs the Pacific Ocean (along with Clairview and Bowen). There was a bushfire on the island the day before I took this photo and smoke is still visible. Cardwell was originally named Port Hinchinbrook and proclaimed a town in 1864, the first port north of Bowen. Queensland colonial secretary George Dalrymple renamed the port for Edward Cardwell, Secretary of State for the Colonies. The port is the jumping off point for the four day Hinchinbrook Island National Park walk. The town suffered damage in Cyclone Yasi in 2011.

Inland from Cardwell is another beautiful spot, Girramay National Park. The clear waters of the Murray River cascade 20-30m over boulders into rock pools in this picturesque spot where rainforest-clad mountains meet tropical lowlands in the scenic foothills of the Kirrama Range. The river and falls are named for British Native Police officer John Murray and is overdue a new name. Murray was a murderer renowned for conducting large and well organised Aboriginal punitive missions north of Gladstone.

In the shadow of Mount Tyson in Djirbal country 50km north of Cardwell is Tully. Like the nearby river, the town was named for Surveyor-General William Alcock Tully in the 1870s. Sugar cane and bananas dominate the local economy with a big mill in town. The average annual rainfall exceeds 4000 millimetres making Tully one of the wettest places in Australia.

Tully to Innisfail is a short and uneventful trip up the highway but there are two more interesting routes. The inland route passes via the extraordinary Paronella Park while the coastal deviation goes past Mission Beach. Mission Beach is named for the Hull River Aboriginal Settlement set up in 1914. It was a government settlement rather than a religious mission but had a chequered history and 200 people died there in 1917 during an epidemic. A year later it was destroyed by a cyclone and authorities moved the mission to Palm Island. Today Mission Beach is a string of villages serving the tourist industry to Dunk Island and the Great Barrier Reef. The photo below is of Perry Harvey jetty on Narragon Beach heading towards the lookout on Bicton Hill.

Innisfail in Mamu country is on the junction of North Johnstone and South Johnstone Rivers. It is the largest town between Townsville and Cairns, and like Tully is important for the sugar and banana industries and subject to heavy rainfall in monsoon season. Irishman Thomas Henry Fitzgerald gave the town its name in 1879 for the Irish Inis Fáil “island of destiny”, a metonym for Ireland itself. Like Ingham it attracted many Italian labourers in the 20th century. In 1959 the Italian community commissioned a memorial to celebrate the centenary of Queensland. Benato Beretta, an instructor at the Carrara Academy of the Arts, designed the monument of white marble of a life-sized man cutting cane by hand. Innisfail was smashed by Cyclone Larry in 2006.

The road north of Innisfail takes us through satellite towns of Cairns such as Babinba, Gordonvale and Edmonton. A stand-out feature is the 922m high Walsh’s Pyramid, an independent peak with a pyramidal appearance, 20km south of Cairns in Wooroonooran National Park. There is a walking track to the summit.

A detour east towards Cape Grafton brings us to the Aboriginal settlement of Yarrabah. Traditionally Yagaljida in the Yidin language spoken by the Yidinji people, Yarrabah was the site of an Anglican Church Mission led by Ernest Gribble in 1893. Gribble had a rare reputation for kindness and the mission quickly attracted wider interest. Later leaders were not as accommodating and in 1957, residents staged a strike to protest poor working conditions, inadequate food, health problems and harsh administration. The church expelled ringleaders and a few years later, Queensland assumed control of the mission. In 1986, the community received Deed of Grant in Trust land tenure, making it subject to the Community Services (Aborigines) Act 1984. It became a self-governing Aboriginal Community Council with power and control over the land. In 2005, the Council became an Aboriginal Shire and gained the authority of a legal local government.

A detour in the opposite direction takes us to Kuranda on the Barron River where the Barron Falls are spectacular especially in the wet season. But for most of the year like when this photo was taken, the river is little more than a trickle, due to a weir behind the head of the falls that supplies Barron Gorge Hydroelectric Power Station downstream in the gorge. There is a walking path from Kuranda to the falls and the Kuranda Scenic Railway stops briefly at the Falls lookout on its journey from Cairns.

Cairns marks the end of the 1700km Bruce Hwy from Brisbane. Access to the reef and the rainforest make Carins the international tourist hub of North Queensland (it is suffering particularly during the pandemic with a billion dollar economic hit in 2020). It is situated on the mudflats of Trinity Bay, named by Cook who arrived on Trinity Sunday, June 10, 1770. Unlike outlying suburbs, Cairns city does not have a beach (though outlying suburbs do) so the Esplanade pool is always popular without worrying about marine stingers, crocodiles or sharks. However the extreme temperature is often concerning, like the day I visited.

Situated 50km north of Cairns on the Captain Cook Hwy to Port Douglas, the Rex Lookout is beyond the remit of “Townsville to Cairns” but it’s a beautiful spot. Named for Douglas shire councillor Raymond Rex who lobbied to build the highway as another Depression-era project, the lookout point over Trinity Bay has become a popular spot for hang gliders, as well as a must-stop meeting point for travellers and their cameras.

On to Townsville and Cape Hillsborough

After our stay at Cobbold Gorge, we had a long day’s drive to Townsville via Einasleigh and The Lynd, much of it on gravel roads. It was pleasing to finally see the coast as we came down the Hervey Range into Townsville, six hours later. Castle Hill is in the centre of the photo with Magnetic Island off to the left.

We got a closer look at Magnetic Island when we got to Townsville and walked down the Strand that afternoon. A statue of a green sea turtle is in the foreground. Green sea and fatback turtles come ashore to nest on local beaches. Sea turtles exhibit a strong homing behaviour to return to nest on beaches where they themselves hatched from eggs. A female turtle hatched in the Townsville region is highly likely to return to breed here again in 30 to 50 years when she matures.

The following morning we set off for a bracing walk up the Goat Track to Castle Hill. I’ve seen various suggestions as to how many steps there are anything from 1000 to 1300. I only counted about 800 but it’s a tough walk under any circumstances.

The view from the top makes the climb worthwhile. Morning sunshine glistens down on Cleveland Bay next to the port where ferries for Magnetic Island jostle with ships full of copper and zinc bound for China.

The view north is towards the airport and Cape Pallerenda, the latter where we were headed for walking trails later in the day.

We came back down the track to seek out coffee in the city. Street art is an important outlet for tourism in the city with council putting out a street art trail. This massive goanna is on an Ogden St wall. Belgian artist “ROA” said it was inspired by an encounter during a previous trip to Australia. “The last time I was in Australia I witnessed my friend Keith, who lives in the Pilbara region and is native to the land, catch a goanna to barbecue with his family. It was amazing to witness how he caught the lizard – he asked the goanna for permission to kill him and feed his family, all in his traditional language”.

After coffee we headed out to Cape Pallerenda. I’d been there before but was keen to do the Freshwater Trail. It had an appealing setting between the hills and the wetlands.

The main reason we chose this trail was because it had two bird hides. The view was enchanting but sadly we didn’t see any birds at either hide. That was probably because we were doing the walk at midday but two young P-Plate hoons driving their car illegally down the vehicle-free track to the hide didn’t help.

Heading back to the carpark we looked out to the Town Common where in the distance we spotted brolgas (Grus rubicunda) and a black-necked stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus). In northern Australia, the stork is traditionally called the Jabiru. It’s a beautiful word but is not Indigenous. Jabiru is a Tupi–Guaraní language name which refers to a different species of stork found in South and Central America. Brolga, however, is a genuine Indigenous word from the Kamilaroi language.

Back at the carpark there is a slice of history that feels bang up to date. The Cape Pallerenda quarantine station was built in 1915-16 to deal with diseases coming in to Australia from Townsville port. The 1918 flu epidemic did not get to Australia until January 1919 and it didn’t take long for it to arrive in the busy port. The Townsville Daily Bulletin of May 21, 1919 said the population of the quarantine station was gradually increasing. “Two more cases, one mild and one suspicious were yesterday added from Wodonga,” the paper revealed.

Afterwards, we retired to the city for drinks and dinner. The following morning it was time to leave Townsville and head south. First stop was Bowen 200km south, a town I’ve written about before. The photo below is from Bowen pier looking towards a hill behind the town.

Our destination was another two hours south at Cape Hillsborough, which I’ve also written about before. This is a beautiful spot on a peninsula 40km north of Mackay. Like many east coast spots it was named by James Cook, for Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough, secretary of state for the colonies. On June 2, 1770 Cook wrote “A pretty high Promontary which I named Cape Hillsborough bore W1/2N distant 7 Miles – the Mainland is here pretty much deversified with Mountains, Hills plains and Vallies and seems to be tolerably cloathed with wood and Verdure the Islands which lay parallel with the Coast and from 5 to 8 or 9 Leagues off are of Various extent both for height and circuit, hardly any exceeds 5 Leagues in circuit and many again are very small besides this chain of Islands which lay at a distance from the coast there are other small ones laying scatterd under the land. Some few smoaks were seen on the Mainland.”

We were staying at the resort directly behind the beach, which as Cook noticed were “tolerably cloathed with wood”. It reminded us more of south-east Asian beaches than Australian ones.

We did the Andrews Point walk which climbs over the Cape with five great lookouts including this one out to Wedge Island. Because it was low tide we could get out to the island and then return along the beach.

Butterflies patrolled the Cape in great swarms. These were Blue Tigers (Tirumala limniace), one of 25 species in the area. Blue Tigers are a mostly tropical butterfly seen nearly all year round in North Queensland. They fly south during spring and summer reaching southern Queensland, NSW and even Victoria. Their main larvae host plant is the Corky Milk Vine (Secamone elliptica). Corky Milk Vine contains chemicals poisonous to many animals but not to Blue Tiger larvae. When the larvae eat the vine, the poisonous chemicals are passed on to the pupae and adult butterflies. These toxins protect adult Blue Tigers from being eaten by birds.

Cape Hillsborough was formed from eruptions 30 million years ago, when lava flows covered the area creating the dramatic rhyolite rock and cave formations that book-end Casuarina Bay. Below is the view from the top of the Andrews Point track back to the beach.

We were soon stopped in our tracks. I almost trod on this green tree snake basking in the middle of the path in no hurry to move. The green tree is non-venomous but when threatened, this diurnal snake secretes a smelly oil from its vent glands. Found predominately in trees or shrubs, it will also inflate its throat to display blue skin between his scales. It will bite, but only as a last resort. I resorted to a stick to prod it and it scurried away into the bush.

This was the view from Turtle Lookout looking back west towards the hills behind Belmunda.

At Turtle Lookout, there were indeed turtles in the water below. Though I couldn’t be sure, I think this is a loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) named for their large heads that support powerful jaw muscles, allowing them to crush hard-shelled prey like clams and sea urchins. Loggerheads are carnivorous, feeding on shellfish, crabs, sea urchins and jellyfish in Queensland and WA waters.

When we explored Wedge Island, the birds were in full evening voice. More than 130 species of birds have been identified in the national park. These olive-backed sunbirds (Cinnyris jugularis) enjoying the foliage with a sea view.

The following morning we were up at dawn to watch the kangaroos on the beach. The dawn was lovely and the kangaroos were a delight. But there were more people than kangaroos and it didn’t seem right that someone was feeding them out of a bucket.

Later we took the walk to the Diversity Boardwalk. The area was the home of the Yuwi people. The Yuwi were wiped out by settlers but evidence of their habitation can be seen in numerous shell middens like this one.

There was further evidence of their practices on the Yuwi walk south of the Cape with this stone fish trap at Hidden Valley. A line of stones sealed two rock outcrops which were collected from at low tide.

When we returned to Wedge Island later that day, the weather was turning. Dark grey clouds were about to pour rain that would follow us all the way to Brisbane in the coming days. The sunbirds lived up to their name and were nowhere to be found as the rains came. Nonetheless Cape Hillsborough’s beauty shines through regardless of the weather. 

Around Cardwell

The fires that followed me as I drove north up the Bruce Highway in November were well evident around Cardwell. They were obvious in the hills at the back of the town and they were also prominent on Hinchinbrook Island, as seen from the Cardwell jetty. The island is accessible by ferry from Cardwell and is home to the beautiful 32km Thorsborne Trail along its eastern seaboard which takes about four or five days to complete. Though some of the island remains closed due to the fire damage, the Trail is still open despite a further major rain event on December 16 from ex-tropical cyclone Owen.

The fires were also visible in the hills behind Cardwell but when I went to the visitors’ centre, they told me that Murray Falls, about 40km north of town, was still open. The Seaview Deli Cafe was most certainly open as when I asked them what time did they close, they told me they don’t close. It is a rare 24 hour cafe which caters for the Bruce Highway bus stop traffic throughout the night. They may or may not be aware they are under attack from a giant crayfish.

I set off 20km north up the highway before finding the turn-off to Murray Falls and then another 20km to get to the carpark. The area was deserted and the falls looked cool and inviting.

The falls are in the Girramay National Park tumbling 30 metres down the mountain. A short walking track through the rainforest leads to a lookout above the falls. Murray Falls are unhappily named. John Murray was a senior officer in Queensland’s notorious Native Police and was direct and indirectly involved in many deaths of hundreds if not thousands of Aboriginal people as the Queensland frontier moved north and west. After one massacre, Murray wrote they had been “taught a lesson which will show them their inferiority in war”. The Girramay People have successfully reclaimed native title over the region. I prefer the Girramay word for the falls, Jibirrji.

In November 1848, an exploration party led by Edmund Kennedy landed north of what is now Cardwell. Kennedy wanted to travel norths along the coast to Cape York but he was was immediately frustrated by the thick rainforest, swamps and rivers of the area. After two months, his party found an inland path through the mountains to the west of Cardwell and Tully. Kennedy maintained friendly relations with the Cardwell tribes but he was speared to death just 20km short of the Cape.

The Queensland Government officially opened the Kennedy district in 1861. George Dalrymple took up a pastoral run in the Valley of Lagoons in 1863 and established a port settlement on Rockingham Bay a year later. The port was originally known as Port Hinchinbrook, but was renamed for British secretary of state for war, Edmund Cardwell.  Though the first port in the region, Cardwell was quickly superseded by Townsville.

The region has yet to fully recover from the damage of Cyclone Yasi which made landfall near Cardwell in 2011. Yasi damaged three quarters of the town’s buildings, destroyed the marina and wiped out crops. Attractions like Girramay National Park remain mostly unknown to the wider public despite Cardwell’s obvious attraction as one of the few towns on the highway that fronts the ocean.

The Girramay story is that Jibirrji falls were created by Guyurru, the brown pigeon. Guyurru cut a steep wall out of the rock with a tomahawk turning it into a circular falls. The pigeon then filled the plunge pool at the bottom with tasty witchetty grubs wrapped inside leaves. I didn’t see the pigeon or the grubs it feasted on, but I did enjoy a cool dip in the croc-free waterhole. The fires seemed a million miles away.

Afterwards I went back to town and enjoyed the 5km-long coastal front walk from Port Hinchinbrook in the south to the war memorial in the north. Cardwell was an important supply depot for the Battle of the Coral Sea which took place 800km offshore in 1942. The town’s monument celebrates the actions of the USS Lexington which was sunk during the battle. In 2017 a 92-year-old survivor from the ship, led Cardwell’s 75th year anniversary commemorations.

That evening as I returned to the cafe for some fish and chips I looked out over Rockingham Bay and Hinchinbrook Island. The sky and sea were basked in eerie shades of blue and purple as the fires eased into the evening with smoke still wrapping the island. The photo below is exactly as I took it on my phone, like Cardwell itself, needing no filters or enhancements.

Back to Bowen

I had stayed the night in Bowen on a similar trip last year and enjoyed a lovely walk around Cape Edgecumbe that I wanted to repeat. I forgot however that the last time I was here was in the month of May when the temps were a pleasant mid 20s. This time was November so the walk would be in temperatures at least ten degrees warmer. The last time I did it was anti-clockwise so to vary the mix I did it clockwise this time starting with the Rotary Lookout walk from Horseshoe Bay.

With temperatures well into the 30s it doesn’t take long to work up a sweat as you climb the hill out of the bay. But there is a fine view from the Lookout to compensate. Below is the vista back to Horseshoe Bay and looking north into the Pacific.

Looking south, the town of Bowen is lost in the hazy distance. More prominent is the rock formation and local landmark called Mother Beddock. Mother Beddock is apparently named for her prominent nose, although no historical information on such a person has been identified. Early spelling appears to have been ‘Beddick’.

Beyond the Rotary lookout is another more functional lookout post used by the army in World War II. A Japanese attempt to capture Port Moresby and gain a foothold in the Solomon Islands was thwarted in early May 1942 during the Battle of the Coral Sea. RAAF Catalinas flew many hours of reconnaissance missions over the Coral Sea searching for the Port Moresby invasion fleet. They were helped by the radar station on this hill.

Then it was back down the hill to Murray Bay. I fancied a swim in the ocean though was worried by the prospect of the stingers that infest North Queensland waters in the warmer months. However it didn’t bother a trio of teenagers having fun in the ocean. I thought that if it was alright for them, it would be fine for me too so joined them in the drink. It was a blissful escape from the heat of the day and the stingers stayed clear.

Then it was another climb to Mother Beddock and looking beyond to Rose Bay and the town of Bowen. Mother Beddock’s precarious position is as a result of thousands of years of weathering and erosion.

The Don River’s alluvial plain provides fertile soil that supports a prosperous farming industry. The river flows north by northeast through the Eungella National Park and is joined by thirteen minor tributaries before emptying into the Coral Sea north of Bowen.

Every year, during winter, the day time tides are low enough for a special event – Bowen’s Walk to the Lighthouse. North Head Island is home to one of Queensland’s oldest lighthouses. Port Denison was the first port established in North Queensland, with Bowen officially proclaimed on April 11, 1861. Built in 1866 this six-sided wooden tower lighthouse protected ships entering the busy port. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1985 and the original lens shifted to the Bowen Historical Museum. Community groups restored the lighthouse in 2017.

Below is the view back along King’s Beach to Cape Edgecumbe from Flagstaff Hill. The walk looks tempting but a creek two thirds of the way down prevents beach access to the cape.

Finally to the kiosk at Flagstaff Hill for a coffee and to check out the story of the region at the interpretative centre. Sadly it was closed and may have been since Cyclone Debbie ripped through the region last year.