Ever wanted to circumnavigate Australia? We still have a way to go...we'll be going on quite a journey, at least virtually, and clockwise. So as to make sure all states and territories are covered, we started in Western Australia and explored a little of the early history of a small part of this massive state via TROVE...
We've had to travel back to Darwin, before leaving the Northern Territory, then across to Cairns, in North Queensland... but we didn't stop there, instead headed to the tropical north, to one of the most beautiful areas you can imagine... isolated yes, but perfect for that great getaway... to Cape Tribulation. It seems you loved that area so well, that Cairns is the obvious place to travel to today... not too far south.
Wikipedia comes to our aid again..here is an excerpt...
Prior to British settlement, the Cairns area was inhabited by the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people,[9] who still claim their Native Title rights.[10] The area is known in the local Yidiny language as Gimuy.[9]
In 1770, James Cook mapped the future site of Cairns, naming it Trinity Bay. Closer investigation by several official expeditions 100 years later established its potential for development into a port. Cairns was founded in 1876, hastened by the need to export gold discovered on the tablelands to the west of the inlet. The site was predominantly mangrove swamps and sand ridges. Labourers gradually cleared the swamps, and the sand ridges were filled with dried mud, sawdust from local sawmills, and ballast from a quarry at Edge Hill.
Debris from the construction of a railway to Herberton on the Atherton Tableland, a project which started in 1886, was also used. The railway opened up land later used for agriculture on the lowlands (sugar cane, corn, rice, bananas, pineapples), and for fruit and dairy production on the Tableland. The success of local agriculture helped establish Cairns as a port, and the creation of a harbour board in 1906 supported its economic future.[11][12] On 25 April 1926 (ANZAC Day), the Cairns Sailors and Soldiers War Memorial was unveiled by Alexander Frederick Draper, the mayor of the City of Cairns.[13][14]
Geography
Cairns is located on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula on a coastal strip between the Coral Sea and the Great Dividing Range. The northern part of the city is located on Trinity Bay and the city centre is located on Trinity Inlet. To the south of the Trinity Inlet lies the Aboriginal community of Yarrabah. Some of the city's suburbs are located on flood plains. The Mulgrave River and Barron River flow within the greater Cairns area but not through the CBD. The city's centre foreshore is located on a mud flat.
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| CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 2220 ID label: 1108403
Selectors Homestead. (Register listing indicates Cairns. (includes house, garden and fence; riders on horseback, horse-drawn vehicles, livestock); Oblong cottage with distinctive zig zag roofline.) 1897
As early as 1884, citizens of Cairns were discussing separation from Queensland.. as per this excerpt from a TROVE newspaper report.. every now and then it is raised again. Queensland is a vast state, but I doubt that separation of north and south will happen in my lifetime, if ever.
Cairns Post (Qld. : 1884 - 1893), Thursday 4 December 1884, page 2
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39421820
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1884.
Cairns has had its separation meeting, and through its medium has sent forth to the rest of the North its willingness to submit to the ill-advised and unsuitable legislation of Brisbane Ministries rather than undertake the responsibilities and duties of self-government. From the rapid advancement which, has characterised the history of Cairns during the past two years and its untiring exertions to make known the claims it possessed to entitle it to the Herberton railway, an uninitiated observer might have expected a different expression of opinion on a subject which seemed so in keeping with the spirit of advance thus manifested. But to the initiated it would have been known that the desire for progress and the energy and capital that enables it to he carried out, were possessed by but few, whilst the followers of stagnation and retrogression were still numerically great, notwithstanding the fresh blood that had recently been infused into the veins of the place. This numerical superiority in a public meeting, where the non-interested and unthinking usually preponderate is no criterion of the real feeling of the district on the subject. Thus, we find those who have the deepest interest in the welfare of Cairns, and who have done most to bring it forward to a position in the colony are in favour of separation. Mr. Swallow, for instance, whose influence over the revival of Cairns, a couple of years since, is un-deniable, although absent from the meeting is well-known to sympathise with the movement, then again, there is the mover of the résolution in favour of separation who is the largest land-owner in the town, whilst the chair was taken by Mr. Kingsford, whose opinion on such a question carries much weight from his long experience of Southern Governments. Against the voice of these and scores of other deeply interested settlers, known partisans of separation, who besides their bona-fides of interests adduce figures and arguments to prove the advantages of self-legislation, what was there brought forward at the meeting to warrant the anti-separation vote passed by a show of nameless hands ? The very man who came forward to propose the amendment in opposition to separation ignored entirely the national importance of the movement, and narrowed down the question of separation or no-separation to the restricted limits of his own breeches pocket, the contents of which he wraps in the fears of a timid mind. (more can be read at Cairns Post (Qld. : 1884 - 1893), Thursday 4 December 1884, page 2 )
By 1885, The Cairns Post was proudly boasting that they guaranteed 700 copies weekly... quite a promise in an ever growing community...
Cairns Post (Qld. : 1884 - 1893), Thursday 9 April 1885, page 2
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39425298
Cairns' tropical weather led to various crops being tried in the area... as portrayed in the Brisbane paper 'Week" on 12 Mar 1887..
Not to be outdone, the Colonial Sugar Company also had great success... as in the Brisbane Courier,
9 June, 1897
By 1889, Cairns port was busier than ever... as it was the only practical way to get goods from Brisbane and other major towns/cities. I note that my inlaws' ancestors were travelling to and fro on coastal steamers for holidays around this time. This excerpt is from the Queenslander, 23 March 1889. Note that customs revenue was increasing, the weather was 'tolerably fine' and the owners of the rice mill were floating the company.
Cairns Post (Qld. : 1884 - 1893), Wednesday 3 July 1889, page 2
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39427060
Cairns Post was the voice of the people...very much like the newspapers of later years.
Cairns Post was the voice of the people...very much like the newspapers of later years.
The Cairns Range Railway was built to connect the mining centre of Herberton with Cairns. Work began on 10 May 1886; the first sod was turned in Cairns by Samuel Griffith, Premier of Queensland, and the first train arrived in Herberton on 20 October 1910 (Information taken from: A.D. Broughton, A pictorial history of the construction of the Cairns Range Railway, 1886–1891, 1991). This image depicts railway workers, their camp and trolley, with a view of Glacier Rock in the background.
Courtesy of the State Library Qld
Railway workers on the Cairns Railway, ca. 1891.
Cairns War Memorial, circa 1936 Public Domain
Though Cairns was initially established because of the 'excellent anchorage and watering place' and as a beech de mer fishing station, it was soon to be valued as a port supporting the extensive gold field which had been found on the Atherton Tableland as referenced. Captain James Cook wasn't the only one impressed by the area, Lieutenant Philip Parker King made three marine surveying expeditions to northern Australia including Fitzroy Island, while Captain Owen Stanley 'undertook a ten day hydrographic depth sounding survey of the Trinity Bay Region... more here...
Later years saw not only tin mining, but also tungsten mining added to the range of industries in the area... the latter two continue today, along with many others, including farming, fishing and tourism.
With a very busy international airport, busy port, far better road and train services and almost year round summer, it is certainly understandable. Cairns is the hub of the tourist areas in the Daintree and Atherton Tablelands, and it has access to a number of islands at the top end of the Barrier Reef... just to name a few of the attractions.
Louise Marshall (Skyrail Rainforest Cableway) CC BY-SA 3.0
Bahnfrend - Own work
View of the Esplanade, Cairns, Far North Queensland, Australia. 2015
CC BY-SA 4.0
Kuranda Scenic Railway Cairns Photnart - Own work CC BY-SA 3.0
Jack Barnes Bicentennial Mangrove Boardwalk
SimoneV87 - Own work
Boardwalk through a beautiful mangrove forest featured in Estuarine Conservation Zone as part of The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Mangroves are vital for keeping good health of marine ecosystems in tropical areas.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Wednesday 4 October 1995, page 2
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130561728
Please click to enlarge..
Glass bottomed boats are very popular so as to see the wonders of the reef...
Glass bottom boats and a Semi submarine at Green Island, Great Barrier Reef, outer Cairns
Photnart - Own work CC BY-SA 4.0
Cairns Marina. Photo taken by Frances76. CC BY-SA 4.0
Mango trees flourish .. but at times, some have not so welcome visitors...
Fruit bats hanging from the mango trees, central Cairns, QLD
Laurel Lodged - Own work CC BY-SA 3.0
Mossman river and Gorge, Daintree National Park, outskirts of Cairns
Photnart - Own work CC BY-SA 3.0
It's been far too long since we've visited Cairns, but as we have family there now, we hope to change that in the future.
Our next exploration will be to a place that has an amazing history, not all that well known, but rest awhile in Cairns and we will return to our travels soon.
Loving the holiday especially since it is free ;) Some beautiful photos there :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Karen...there is so much to see there, so many beautiful areas.... and the good thing is, on this holiday, you don't even have to leave a tip.
ReplyDelete