The elements that make up Old Laura Homestead include station buildings, stockyards, structural foundations and footings, native and introduced trees and vegetation, and the homestead grounds.
Main House:
The main house is a two-room high-set timber-frame building clad with corrugated galvanised iron. The building is elevated on bush timber stumps of a local ironwood. Two upstairs bedrooms form a central core with enclosed verandahs on three sides. The upstairs floor is of pit-sawn boards on a pit-sawn frame. Upstairs rooms are externally clad with wide horizontal chamfer boards, beaded on the inside at joints to give a narrow pattern on the interior. The rooms are internally clad with narrower horizontal boards that also form the ceiling. Internal cross-wall partitions are clad in corrugated iron on sawn timber studs. Bays of timber louvre shutters enclose the front and sides of the upstairs verandah area above the former handrail. Corrugated iron cladding has been added below the handrail. The verandah area also contains corrugated iron push-out shutters. A gable hip roof clad with corrugated iron covers the central core of the building. Roof rafters are of sapling bush timber. Original purlins are pit sawn, with some milled timber purlins introduced c1940 and in 1986.
The underfloor space is the main living area and is partly enclosed at the rear with kitchen, dining, storeroom and bathroom facilities that are variously clad with corrugated iron, asbestos cement and plyboard sheets. The house is surrounded by an open lean-to corrugated iron verandah that shades the front and sides of the underfloor space. The verandah awning frame is of bush timber saplings. A recent steel mesh security screen encloses the entire underfloor area at the external edge of the verandahs. A recess in the security screen at the front of the house allows visitors to view three interpretive panels containing photographs and historical information. The ground floor is of cement. The house is equipped with a corrugated iron water tank on a concrete base, and also with an underground septic tank. The house is wired for DC generator power with lighting.
Workshop and Saddle Shed:
The alignment of the outbuildings varies slightly from the main house to match the alignment of the adjacent yards.
The workshop and saddle shed combine to form a large covered work space to serve a number of functions - garage, workshop, stables and saddle shed. A feature of these buildings is the use of corrugated iron bow roofs. The workshop is constructed of heavy bush timber uprights and bearers supporting the central bow-roof section, descending to skillion roof sections on each side of the shed. The building, which was used at various times as a workshop, garage, storeroom and living quarters; is open except on the eastern side where corrugated iron partitions form two lock-up rooms fitted with sawn timber storage shelves and corrugated iron push-out shutters. The floor for the storerooms is of concrete. The remainder of the building has an earth floor. Timber shelves for tools and spare parts extend along one wall. The interior of the workshop also retains a heavy timber anvil stand. A low-set timber tank stand is located at the southern end of the workshop adjacent to the horse yard site. As Laura station covers mainly black soil and sandy country the stock horses did not require shoeing. There has not been a smithy for shoeing at the homestead since the early 1940s.
The adjoining saddle shed is similarly built with bush timber uprights and top plates, though of lighter construction. Roof rafters and purlins are of milled timber. The shed is covered with a shallow bow-roof central core with lean-to roofs on all four sides. The shed is open on all sides. The shed was at times used as stables for the manager's and owner's race horses during the 1950s and 1960s. Timber racks for the storage of harness and saddles are keyed into the uprights. Many of the racks have been removed. A timber 44 gallon drum rack for the storage of molasses and fuel drums is located at the rear of the saddle shed.
Meat House:
A small building of conventional meat house design with an enclosed butchering room at the core, shaded on all four sides by an overhanging pyramidal roof. The building is supported by bush timber uprights and top plates of local ironwood. Roof rafters and purlins are of milled timber. The lower walls of the butchering room are clad with corrugated iron on a milled timber frame. The upper sections are enclosed with flyproof wire gauze. The interior of the room is dominated by a large tree-trunk chopping block. A high-set bush timber bench for curing salt corn beef is located outside the room under the verandah roof. The floor of the meat house is of cement and the floor under the verandah is of antbed and cement.
Stockmen's Quarters:
A small building supported by early bush timber uprights and top plates. The building was almost completely rebuilt in 1986 using new milled timber and new bush timber saplings as rafters. A new iron roof and a wall were added. The corrugated iron walls with push-out shutters survive from the original construction. Existing doors and internal partitions are of recent construction. The floor of the quarters is of cement with cement haunching around the base of the iron to stop the entry of snakes. Three Aboriginal families, including two with children, were living in the quarters during the 1960s.
About 30 metres north of the stockmen's quarters is the site of a demolished building that contained a concrete floor and corrugated iron walls and roof. This building accommodated up to six families of Aboriginal stockmen during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1960 the building was converted into a white stockmen's quarters, and by the late 1960s it become an ablutions block. The building was bulldozed post 1979 and the floor is still evident as a pile of broken concrete north of the site.
Stockyards and Dip:
The homestead contains an extensive set of horse and stock working yards which demonstrate a continuous process of adaptation, replacement and repair over the span of the station's operating life. The sections of the yards for handling horses are located at the eastern end closest to the saddle shed. The horse yards include a round breaking-in yard. The cattle killing yard with a ruined butchering gallows is also located in this section, close to the meat house.
The central core of the cattle yards comprises crushes for de-horning, cutting, drafting, dipping, and branding. Surrounding the stock working facilities of the central core, are the receiving, forcing and holding yards. The de-horning and cutting crush, cattle dip and stock loading ramp are in better condition than most sections of the yards, possibly through having remained in use and repair until the closure of the station. The loading ramp was built in the early 1960s and is the most recent structure. The most substantial feature of the yards is the cattle dip, which is of the conventional design and construction. The dip was built during the O'Beirne's tenure and is the earliest surviving structure within the yards. The walls of the dip are of concrete with concrete rendered steps and pit. Bush timber uprights and rafters support a corrugated iron roof that covers the dip itself. Steps lead out of the dip to a concrete-surfaced draining and pound yard. Beyond the dip is a large circular holding yard over 50 metres in diameter which forms a significant feature of the stockyards.
The stockyards are mostly constructed of local Cooktown Ironwood posts keyed for five rail panels. Many of the keyed rails have over the years been damaged or removed and replaced with rails that are hitched to the posts with fencing wire. A number of different configurations are evident with the use and re-use of timber fence rails. An early and significant section of panels is located at the northern end of the large tailing, or cooling, yard alongside the present access track where several heavy ironwood posts still stand. The posts are toggled and keyed for quick removal and replacement of rails. The unchecked actions of termites and the introduction of fire management practices in recent years have made it more difficult to understand the chronology of the changes that have occurred in the stockyards.
Milking Yards and Dairy:
These yards form a part of the domestic precinct at the eastern end of the homestead area and are separated from the stockyards by the main house and grounds. It is difficult to fully understand the former layout of the milking yards because of recent fire damage to posts and uprights. The yards appear to have included a fowl run in addition to the milking yards and dairy.
The cement floor and bush timber uprights of the dairy remain, though the timber posts are severely fire-damaged. Scattered sheets of iron cladding from the dairy can be found on the ground. Timber fence posts of the milking yards are evident adjacent to the dairy on its northern side. One of two surviving log stock feed troughs, for salt and molasses, is located on the site. The yards were enclosed with K wire mesh on bush timber posts. Most of the K wire mesh within the yards has been removed or damaged. There is widespread use of K wire mesh throughout the station, particularly in stockyards. The mesh is effective pig fencing and may have been used around the homestead to prevent damage by feral pigs. The remains of a pigsty is located at the far eastern end of the yards fenced by lengths of low corrugated iron sheeting. Sheets of iron lie scattered around this area. A ship's tank for watering is also located in the vicinity.
Grounds and Surroundings:
The homestead grounds contain introduced trees and evidence of former gardens and maintained lawns. Posts of the former fence around the house remain standing, including the front gate posts with a pole of the former trellis alongside. This fence was originally covered with K wire mesh. There is no evidence of a tennis court that was constructed in front of the house, just beyond the fence, in 1945. The tennis court was made of antbed and had a high wire fence around it. Close to the house, alongside the front fence, is a concrete collared well, the bush timber uprights of an elevated tank stand, a windmill base, the concrete floor and stumps of a lighting generator and a 44 gallon fuel drum rack. The oil engine for the generator is now on the verandah of the main house. Adjacent to the present car park is a yard enclosed with a post and K wire mesh fence that was formerly used as a stallion paddock, and as a plot for growing experimental pastures including Townsville stylo.
The gravel surface of the former Battle Camp road remains visible between the main house and the outbuildings although the alignment has recently been ploughed and rehabilitated. The road, which was put through the homestead during construction, was later re-routed and now by-passes the homestead around the western end of the stockyards. The eastern end of the former east-west airstrip is evident about 200 metres north of the main house. The earth airstrip is now covered with sapling and shrub regrowth.
Plantings of introduced trees are concentrated around the house and outbuildings. The main house is surrounded by three mature frangipani trees and two large mango trees. Some of these trees were planted in the 1920s and 1930s. The house yards also contain a small mature mango tree, a large eucalyptus tree and a bean tree. A further three mature mango trees shade the stockmen's quarters and the workshop. Most of the mature native trees within the homestead area are locally occurring eucalyptus varieties including blackbutt, with some box and ironwood.
The Laura River bank is located immediately below the homestead grounds and yards. The river bank in this area contains a mixture of native and introduced plants within a gallery forest environment dominated by mature mango trees in the early fruit garden area. The fruit garden also contained custard apples. This area is a habitat for the spectacular Corypha utan palm which reaches its southern-most regional extent on Lakefield National Park. The homestead potato garden occupied a cleared flat among the mango trees and is now used as an occasional camping area.
Graves:
The sites of three graves are claimed to exist within the homestead area. The locations of these graves are shown on the site plan of the homestead contained in this study. The grave of Mick O'Keefe is identified by remnants of bush timber stumps (not insitu) and a bent star picket on the fence nearby. O'Keefe was a white stockman who died at Laura homestead in the early 1940s after a fall with a horse on Olive Vale station. The grave of an unknown Aboriginal stockman near the branding yard is identified by the occurrence of an area of redder sandy soil. The graves of Polly Seagren, who was buried in 1954, and another Aboriginal woman are located between the cattle dip and the top of the river bank in an area which was subsequently enclosed by yards.
","history":"McDermott and O'Beirne (1879-1924)
\nThe earliest record of an official application for a license to occupy a new run on the lower Laura River was made by Peter McDermott and Fergus O'Beirne on 14 October 1879. Occupational licenses were granted for twelve month terms and could be converted to form part of a pastoral lease once the run had been stocked to one quarter of its grazing capacity. Brixton and Fox Vale (Old Fairview) runs on the Little Laura River, Boralga Spring and the better grazing country on the Kennedy River at Lakefield and Breeza Plains, had already been occupied and unofficially stocked by this period.
\nMcDermott and O'Beirne were cousins from Ireland who had travelled overland from Rockhampton to Cooktown where they established a butcher's business and resided. O'Beirne was accompanied by his wife, Mary, and two small children, John and Julia. Their third child, Margaret, was born in Cooktown in 1880 and was followed by four other children - Matthew, Fergus, Roderick, and Kathleen.
\nThe license to occupy the Laura run by the firm of McDermott and O'Beirne was authorised by the Commissioner for Crown Lands for the District of Cook on 23 October 1879. A lease document was applied for in August 1880 for a 21 year period. The lease was issued in July 1881. The early homestead on Laura run was a building of slab construction. Part of the original structure was incorporated into the present house when it was constructed in 1902 and was probably demolished in the 1930's during erection of a new kitchen.
\nOn 10 March 1883 an application for a lease for Laura, Lakeview and Upper Laura runs, was applied for by William Hartley on behalf of Peter McDermott and Fergus O'Beirne and approved. The station was officially carrying 250 cattle in 1883. Peter McDermott died in 1884. The headstone on McDermott's grave at Laura Native Mounted Police Camp, shows that his death occurred on 12 July 1884. The headstone inscription also shows that McDermott was aged 39 years and was a native of Elphin, Roscommon, in Ireland. O'Beirne was probably from the same district.
\nFergus O'Beirne acquired the leases of the runs associated with Laura station for he is listed as lessee from 1886 to 1892. In 1892 the Laura leases were transferred to the Queensland National Bank. Transfer of early pastoral leases to banks was the equivalent of taking out a mortgage, and it would appear most likely that a loan was granted to Fergus O'Beirne at this time. The run file shows that in 1892 a mortgage for £879 was taken out on Laura which in that year had a declared value of £1,200. This loan from the Queensland National Bank was most probably associated with the purchase of cattle, or the purchase of runs, or improvements to runs, rather than with the construction of the earliest portion of the present homestead at Laura. By 1894 it was recorded that the Laura herd had been built up to about 8,000 head with the purchase of new stock from Dunbar station when the district was hit by cattle tick.
\nFergus O'Beirne's death occurred in 1896 and his family continued to operate the station in conjunction with their Cooktown butchering business.
\nThe year of construction of the present Old Laura main house is given as 1902 by Vivienne Gostelow in a narrative history of the district titled Sunshine and Shadow. This appears to be the only record of the year of construction of the present house. There is no reference to the house on the run file. Mrs Gostelow's husband took up management of Violet Vale station, near Musgrave telegraph office, in the late 1940s. In her book she writes that both houses were constructed by the same builder (possibly Charlie Weiss), Laura in 1902 and Violet Vale in 1911.
\nIn 1908 Laura Holding commenced over an area comprising Laura and Primrose No.2 runs. The lease was issued to O'Beirne and Company for a term of 30 years, with Julia Beddek, Matthew O'Beirne, Mary Margaret O'Beirne and Kathleen Rose O'Beirne all listed as shareholders in the company. The O'Beirne family bought Lakefield and Breeza Plains in September and October 1908. In 1910 Kennedy Pastoral Holding, comprising Lakefield station, was acquired by O'Beirne and Company. All of these holdings were converted into one property called Lakefield Holdings in 1914. Laura station was still separate. The Laura and Lakefield leases remained with the O'Beirne family to 1925.
\nGrogan Family (1925-1959)
\nAfter 46 years under the O'Beirne family, control of Laura station changed for the first time in 1925 when it was acquired by brothers Bernard Grogan and David Grogan. The Grogan's acquired the leases for both Laura and Lakefield runs.
\nThe Grogan family had butchering businesses in Cooktown and in Mossman. The father, Patrick Grogan, was a miner, publican and butcher who was closely associated with the Limestone district on the Palmer River Goldfield. Groganville, the town which developed in association with the rich Anglo Saxon mine and in which he held several blocks at the time of its survey in 1889, was named after him. Grogan later had businesses in Thomborough and Mount Mulligan.
\nIn 1930 David Grogan left the property and was replaced in the shared lease arrangement by a younger brother, Patrick Grogan. In October 1934 Bernard and Patrick Grogan were issued a new lease over Laura Holding (Laura and Primrose No.2 runs) for a term of 30 years.
\nIn 1941 the lease for the Laura Holdings was transferred from Patrick and Bernard Grogan to Patrick Grogan. To avoid evacuation to Townsville upon the outbreak of war with Japan, Patrick Grogan decided to move his family from Cairns to Laura homestead which he considered would be safer than Townsville. In October 1942 Kennedy Pastoral Holding was sub-divided into two parts with the southern part (part Laura station) being transferred to Patrick Grogan. The two families did not have a close relationship.
\nAfter World War 2 Patrick and Doreen Grogan remained on at Laura until 1948 when they returned to Cairns. George Watkins and Jack Dwyer, from Kalpowar station, took over management of Laura station from about 1949 to 1952, initially with the intention of buying the property. Jack Dwyer and his wife Mavis were living at Laura homestead during this period. The Laura Holding lease was surrendered in February 1949 for a new lease, Laura Pastoral Development Holding, issued to Patrick Grogan in January and combining the Laura and Kennedy (Lakefield station) holdings. In the early 1950s the various leases were acquired, in part or whole, by the Mossman Butchering Company.
\nIn 1950 Patrick Grogan took up a dairy farm near Malanda and ended hic direct involvement in the running of Lakefield and Laura. In 1952 George Ahlers returned, with his wife and young children, as manager of Laura Holdings. By this period there were still two white stockmen, Bluey Cowan and Pluto Sykes, and about six Aboriginal stockmen and their families living at Laura homestead. About 1954 George Ahlers left Laura to manage the whole station from Lakefield homestead. From 1954 to 1960 Laura homestead was occupied by various caretakers including John Alexander and Herb Denford of the Mossman Butchering Company. In 1957 Lakefield station, with Laura Holding, was transferred to the Mossman Butchering Company in which the Grogan family had shares. These shares were sold to the Mossman Butchering Company in 1958. George Ahlers held an interest in the Mossman Butchering Company and remained as the manager of Lakefield station until the property was sold in 1960.
\nRecent Leaseholders (1960-1978)
\nIn 1960 the Lakefield lease passed to James, Susanne and David Rollinson and Robert and Margaret Whelan who jointly held the property until 1966 as Rollinson Whelan and Company. The Rollinson and Whelan families were related. The Whelan's lived at Laura homestead and the Rollinson's lived at Lakefield where they erected a large shed and fitted out half of it as a new house. There were 13,000 head of cattle running on the combined holdings at the time of the purchase from the Mossman Butchering Company. About 3,500 to 4,000 were on Laura station, the remainder were on the better fattening country of Lakefield.
\nRollinson and Whelan set out to introduce new stock management practices on the property and began programs of dip yard construction and rebuilding, and a different approach to the use of yards. Broncoing was stopped and the cattle were worked along the watercourses that formed the central core of the property. The first ramp on the station for loading cattle from yard to truck was built at Lakefield in 1960 The partners planned to take advantage of opportunities for shipping fat cattle south on the Wewak, through neighbouring Marina Plains. Small numbers of breeding stock were also brought in on the Wewak and walked upriver to Laura station. Whelan installed a sawmill for cutting ironwood and rebuilt the dip yards at the Twelve Mile Yard and Caulders Yard. Caulders Yard was never completed The yards at Laura homestead were also repaired and patched up.
\nRollinson and Whelan took advantage of the generous credit on offer from stock agents such as Dalgettys during the early 1960s. Sale of existing stock was the main source of income for repaying the agents and all available stock were mustered and sold during their tenure. When the credit flow dried in the mid 1960s the agents called for the sale of the property.
\nLakefield Cattle Company
\nIn late 1965 or early 1966, the Lakefield-Laura lease was transferred to the U.S.-based Lakefield Cattle Company of Midlands, Texas, which was associated with a scheme by a Sydney-based company, Gunn Rural Management, to purchase and manage properties in Cape York and the Northern Territory for U.S. investors. The nearby Silver Plains station was acquired by the company at the same time. The Lakefield Cattle Company was not registered as an Australian company.
\nTipperary Land Corporation
\nIn the early 1960s, the Tipperary Pastoral Company which owned Tipperary station in the Daly River district of the Northern Territory, was purchased by a syndicate of Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur investors. The Tipperary Land and Exploration Company was formed about 1965. An equity interest in this company was allotted to Sir William Gunn, of Gunn Rural Management, who became managing director. The remainder of shares were held by U.S. investors. In June 1968, Tipperary station was purchased by the Tipperary Land and Exploration Company. By 1969 the Lakefield-Laura and Silver Plains properties, of the Lakefield Cattle Company, were merged through an exchange of shares to become the Tipperary Land and Exploration Corporation.
\nThe Tipperary Land Corporation invested $1.5 million in the Peninsula properties in acquisition and improvements. Gunn Rural Management, on behalf of the U.S. owners, initiated a program of large scale development on Lakefield involving the construction of roads and fencing and the improvement of pastures and breeding. The open range system of grazing with year-round mustering, which had been practiced on Laura and Lakefield since before the Grogan brothers took over the properties in 1925, came to an end in an effort to control calving and reduce stock losses. Areas of suitable country near Lakefield homestead were cleared and planted with Townsville stylo for pasture improvement and with lucerne and other feed crops. Old Laura homestead continued to be occupied as an outstation. New outstations were established at New Laura and Bizant, where contract musterers were employed until 1974. New Laura was planned as the bull breeding base for the station, centred on Caulders Lake and yards.
\nThe Tipperary Land Corporation's primary interest was in agriculture and oil exploration and investment in both these areas was unsuccessful on the Peninsula. Development of Lakefield station failed to reach fruition due to over-capitalisation and a slump in the Australian cattle market in the early 1970s. The payment of award wages to Aboriginal station workers became law in 1970 causing social and economic upheaval with many families on Lakefield-Laura having to leave for the Laura, Cooktown and Coen fringe camps, and the reserves. The last caretakers of Old Laura were Bill Crisp and his wife, who were withdrawn by the company in 1973 when the homestead was finally abandoned.
\nIn 1974 or 1975 the Tipperary Land Corporation was acquired by the Sydney-based investors, Anderson and McCormack who may have had an interest in the agricultural and pastoral development of Tipperary station. In 1975 the Tipperary Land Corporation sold Lakefield-Laura and Silver Plains to a Sydney-based company, Stereotype (No.142) Pty Ltd which became Bizant Pty Ltd. It is understood that the principals of this group were Anderson and McCormack who were also involved with the Tipperary Land Corporation. No new development was undertaken on the properties and the purchase bore similarities with the so-called 'bottom of the harbour' investment schemes that were prevalent during the period. This company surrendered the leases to the Queensland Government in 1978 for the establishment of the Lakefield National Park which was declared on 25 October 1978 and gazetted on 27 October 1979.
\n","criteria":"
Laura Station played an important role in the establishment of a pastoral industry on Cape York Peninsula, as one of the earliest pastoral holdings on Cape York Peninsula to operate under a license to occupy a new run of crown land. The place has associations with the development of Cooktown as a regional centre the Palmer River Goldfield, and with the establishment of transport and telegraphic communications on Cape York Peninsula.
The establishment of Laura Station contributed to the dispersal of Aboriginal people in the Laura district, and to the disruption of a traditional lifestyle, and to economic and social dependence on the Cape York Peninsula pastoral industry.
|Laura Station contains a rare surviving example of an early Cape York Peninsula pastoral station house that is still structurally sound and in an intact and essentially original condition. The place contains outbuildings and yards which typify traditional methods of construction that are no longer practiced, and which demonstrate a continued reliance on the superior qualities of local building materials.
|Laura Station represents an early example of the Cape York Peninsula 'timber and iron' pastoral homestead tradition. The main house demonstrates regional construction characteristics of the time of its erection. The house, lean-to verandah, workshop and saddle shed, meat house and stockmen's quarters, station stockyards each demonstrate the principal characteristics of these types of place.
|Laura Station has strong and special associations for Aboriginal people through traditional affiliations with the land. The place also has strong and special associations for Aboriginal people through cultural and social ties with the homestead, and through economic dependence on the station as a component of the regional pastoral industry.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":3908,"place_ref":602257,"name":"Collingwood Water Race","alternate_name":"Annan River Company Water Race","street_address":"To be determined","suburb":"ROSSVILLE","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-04-13","description":"During its operation, the water race extended from an intake dam near the head of Parrot Creek at about 315768E 8252434N, northward around the western side of Mount Walker, to sluicing faces south of Rossville, a distance of approximately 11 km by map. The length of surviving race is approximately 8 kms.
In 2005, the Collingwood Water Race was located and surveyed in three sections: near its start point (between 315324E 8253163N and 315151E 8253315N); at its midpoint high on the south-western slopes of Mt Walker above Shipton's Flat (between 312801E 8254039N and 312359E 8254336N); and at its lower end on the north-western slopes of Mt Walker (between 312389E 8255393N and 312999E 8255831). All of the surveyed sections of the race were covered with medium to dense rainforest.
The race now comprises on average a 1 m deep ditch about 1.8 m in width with a 2 m wide bank on the downhill side made up of the excavated material - earth and small rocks. However in some places the ditch is up to 2 metres deep. Sections where the race crosses gullies have been bridged with timber fluming. In the surveyed sections a number of the timber upright supports for the fluming remain standing, but no fluming has survived.
There is also evidence of the use of explosives during construction and/or maintenance of the race in the form of blasting scars on rock faces along the race.
In the mid-section of the race (north of Shipton's Flat) there is some evidence of stone pitching.
A second race of slightly smaller dimensions is constructed a consistent 20 m below the main race to catch overflow or seepage.
While the intake point at the head of Parrot Creek was not surveyed, at 315223E 8253206N (approximately 600 metres north-west) the race passes through a bedrock tunnel situated in dense rainforest. The form of the race changes into a deep cutting at the tunnel entrance, about 15 metres long and three metres deep. The section of tunnel that remains intact is about 30 metres long, 1.5 metres wide and 1.2 metres high. A rectangular shaft, presumably an air intake shaft, marks the point at which the tunnel has become blocked and is impenetrable. Further along the race to the west, sections of the tunnel have collapsed entirely.
The lower end of the race was recorded at 312999E 8255831N, at a point about 60 m past where it is crossed by a four-wheel drive track on the northern side of Mount Walker. Evidence of the race close to Rossville is indiscernible and either has been obliterated or was never constructed formally, as the natural contour of the hillside would have taken the water down to the sluice face.
","history":"Construction of the Collingwood Water Race commenced in 1902 for the Collingwood Company but was halted within the year. The project was re-commenced and completed in 1905-06 for the Annan River Company. On completion, the race was 11 kms in length. The purpose of this project was to enable sluicing of tin bearing deposits on the northern face of Mount Walker in the Annan River Tin field.
During the 1870s gold dominated mining activity in northern Queensland and few prospectors were interested in base metals. However, in the late 19th century there was a general shift in North Queensland exploration and development activity towards tin, lead, silver and copper. Tin mining was particularly attractive as it employed mining and crushing techniques similar to those used for gold. Tin was first worked commercially in North Queensland by the Chinese. Probably as early as the wet season of 1876-7 and certainly by 1878, declining gold yields had encouraged Chinese miners to test the tin deposits on Granite Creek and Cannibal Creek, southeast of Maytown.
Tin discoveries in 1880 on the banks of the Wild River led to the development of Herberton and from here fossicker's fanned out reporting new finds every year. Discoveries were made at locations nearby throughout the 1880s, then Charles Ross discovered tin in 1885 at Mount Amos, south of Cooktown, and then at Mounts Hartley, Leswell and Romeo on the upper Annan River. North of Cooktown tin sluicing commenced on the Annan River in 1885, and a small rush followed in 1886.
For a few years, the rugged country of the Annan River's upper waters was able to sustain a small but vibrant tin mining industry, with lucrative tin deposits obtained directly from underground lodes, or from the creek beds and banks by sluicing in the fast flowing streams. However, this was labour intensive and dangerous work. In addition, high cartage rates on stores was a drawback to tin mining in the district.
As the accessible deposits were exhausted along the lower banks of the creeks, miners turned to the more difficult extraction of tin bearing deposits of sand and gravel from the higher terraces of the creek banks. This form of mining demanded alternative sources of water to that of the creeks below. The higher terraces could only be worked economically by bringing in water from a higher point, which then could be used to wash off the alluvial overlying the tin-bearing wash by carrying it over the face of the banks. This process necessitated expensive outlay in the construction of races to procure water for operations. Races fed water into pipes, which narrowed into a nozzle which forced water out into a strong stream. This was then used to blast the overburden down into the river or the tin-bearing wash down into the creek.
The most impressive of these structures was the Annan River Company's water race. Construction had commenced in 1902 for the Adelaide-based Collingwood Company, which planned to divert water from the southern face of Mount Walker over a distance of 11km to its leases on the northern face of the mountain. Nearly 40 men were employed on the construction. However, the Collingwood Company quickly ran out of working capital and construction ceased. A Melbourne-based company, the Annan River Tin Mines Company NL, resurrected the project in 1905, commencing work on 22 November. More than 150 men were employed to erect fluming over valleys and to construct a road up the range. In one place the race was tunnelled through a hill. Completion of the project in 1906 enabled the Annan River Company to commence sluicing on the former Collingwood leases and at Mount Leswell. Hydraulic sluicing began in January 1907 with water coming from the head of Parrot Creek.
However, in 1909 the Annan River Company withdrew and for some years the race was let on tribute to four miners: D Francis, M Davies, F Trevorrow and R Yeatman.
Floods damaged the race in 1910 and in 1911-12 the Annan River Company spent £14,000 installing new sluicing boxes and repairing the race and fluming. Operations were successful in 1913 after sluicing commenced on 13 January, treating 35,000 cubic yards of earth from the Collingwood face for 23.5 tons of tin valued at £2,967 and 33,500 cubic yards of earth from the Daly face yielded 32 tons of tin valued at £3,884.
Sluicing took place for about five months each year. A new sluicing plant and pump were installed in 1914, along with 1,830m of 50cm diameter spiral riveted pipes. A sawmill was set up on site to cut timber for the race. Shortage of water prevented continuous operations in 1915 and because of falling tin prices and lack of labour the whole of the plant was dismantled in September 1916 and removed to Cooktown.
Extensive repairs to the race were undertaken in 1917 and following bushfires in 1918, 5,500 feet of timber was used to repair the damage. Seven and a half tons of tin was obtained in 1918, but lack of labour was a problem for future operations. In 1919 the race was diverted to the Winifred United Claim but only 19cwt of tin was produced from 800 tons of dirt.
A cyclone in 1920 caused extensive damage to the race, necessitating the renewal of 3,050m of timber at a cost of £700. Sluicing commenced on 20 March 1920 and continued until the water ran out on 11 August 1920. Twelve tons of tin were obtained in this period. The Collingwood leases were then let on tribute again, but in 1921 the tunnel through the hill collapsed due to heavy rain.
The Annan River Company sold out to J Kerr, J Baker and R Yeatman in September 1921. The new owners spent four months repairing the race. However production was declining year by year and there was little activity after 1923.
","criteria":"The Collingwood Water Race is significant in Queensland's history as one of the longest water races recorded in North Queensland. It was constructed in 1902 and 1905-06 to enable sluicing of tin bearing deposits on the northern face of Mount Walker in the Annan River Tin Field. The Collingwood Water Race is important in demonstrating the evolution of early 20th century tin-mining practices in Queensland.
|The Collingwood Water Race is the only Queensland race recorded which was constructed with a second race below to catch overflow. The extent of the race (originally 11 kms in length, now 8 kms surviving) is unusual also, most races being of much shorter lengths.
|The water race is representative of practices used for the extraction of base metal resources in north Queensland and is significant as an early example of the effort, both manual and financial, that was applied to mine base metals in a remote location reliant on seasonal rains. Many of the principal characteristics of the race survive, including the two channels or ditches (surviving for close to its original 10km extent), excavated material forming banks on the downhill side of the race, evidence of blasting along the sides of the race, a rock tunnel, a ventilation shaft to the tunnel, stone pitching, and remnant flume supports and fluming.
|Natural and cultural landscape values combine along the route of the water race from its head on Parrot Creek to its end point on the northern face of Mount Walker above the Rossville town site, engendering aesthetic significance.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":4014,"place_ref":602255,"name":"Maytown","alternate_name":"Maytown Township","street_address":"Maytown Town Reserve and Palmer Goldfield Resources Reserve","suburb":"PALMER","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-06-01","description":"Maytown
\nMaytown is located on the north bank of the Palmer River south of its junction with Butcher's Creek. It is located approximately 55km southwest of Laura. The town reserve contains a high concentration of building platforms and remnant footings, and various archaeological features and artefact scatters. Some street alignments are easily discernible with Leslie Street, the main street through the centre of the town, featuring carefully laid stone kerbing and channelling. Structural remains within the township itself include:
\nA stone commemorative cairn and a replica of a miner's hut have also been constructed by the PRHPS in the centre of the town in Duff Street. Southeast of the town is the site of the Warden’s residence.
\nTown Wells
\nWithin the Palmer River itself are two town wells:
\nCemeteries
\nThe main Maytown Cemetery is located southeast of the town, with a Chinese cemetery immediately adjacent to the European section.
\nSlaughter Yards
\nApproximately 500m north east of the township is One Mile Creek. Situated close to the creek are the remains of the Maytown Slaughter Yards. The yards consist of a double row of thirteen timber posts (with five rail holes) erected in an east-west alignment. The posts are 4m apart. All but two posts are upright. Some posts still have nails, bolts and wire with ‘Cobb & Co.’ hitches still attached. There are remnants of flagstone flooring at each end of the yards and many spent cartridge shells at the western end.
\nChinese Occupation
\nSeveral Chinese occupation sites are located at the top of a very steep gully into One Mile Creek:
\nNear the junction of One Mile Creek and the Palmer River, two Chinese graves are situated on the eastern side of the creek. One grave has been exhumed. Next to this grave is an upright marker stone indicating another possible grave, though no mound is evident.
\nImmediately north of Maytown, Butcher’s Creek runs in a general northeast to southwest direction before it meets with the Palmer River. A number of archaeological sites are located along this creek and within the broader township area including:
\nSouth of the Palmer River, notable archaeological sites include several intact and exhumed Chinese graves.
\nKilns
\nFurther inland along Butcher’s Creek are three structures, possibly charcoal kilns all of similar design, though their exact purpose remains unknown.
\nAnother stone structure of unknown function is located on the edge of a small gully, close to the second charcoal kiln on Butcher’s Creek. Three walls remain with the open side facing the gully. Internal measurements are 1.6x1.6m. The structure may have been a cooking oven.
\nRifle Range
\nApproximately 1km southeast of the town are the remains of the Maytown Rifle Range. Remains include the rifle range butt and firing mounds spaced at 200, 300, 400 and 500 yard intervals.
\nBoatshed Complex
\nThe Maytown Boatshed complex consists of three key elements - the remnants of the shed, a ‘corduroy’[1] ramp and a mooring in the river.
\nFeatures not of State-level heritage significance
\nModern mining features, concrete slabs, fencing, interpretation signage and reconstructed elements are not of State-level cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Maytown, approximately 120 kilometres southwest of Cooktown, was established on the banks of the Palmer River, north Queensland, in 1874. Known as Edwardstown until 1878, the township became the dominant settlement on the Palmer Goldfield, Queensland’s premier 19th century alluvial goldfield. Maytown’s population peaked at over 1,500 residents in 1876, and the township featured most of the goldfield’s facilities and administrative services. The population declined significantly in the 1880s and into the 1890s due to the end of alluvial mining and the unprofitability of reef mining ventures on the Palmer Goldfield. By the mid-1920s few people remained, and most of the buildings were removed by the 1940s. Maytown’s last resident departed in the 1950s.
\nGold mining played a major role in the economic and geographic development of Queensland in the late 19th century. Between 1873 and 1906, Queensland's gold and metal exports regularly exceeded that of wool. Prior to 1865, little thought had been given to the prospect of gold in North Queensland, but as settlement spread north to Townsville, alluvial gold was discovered on Star River Station (1865), in the Cape River area (1867), on the Gilbert River (1869) and at Etheridge (1870). The country to the north of these finds was systematically explored for pastoral potential and mineral deposits from the early 1870s. In 1872, William Hann led a Queensland Government-sponsored expedition into Cape York, the territory of the Western Yalanji people.[1] Expedition surveyor Frederick Warner located gold on a tributary of the Mitchell River, about 450km from Townsville, in August 1872. The tributary was named the Palmer River after then Premier of Queensland, Arthur Hunter Palmer.[2]
\nEncouraged by the report of gold, James Venture Mulligan led a prospecting party in June 1873 to investigate the Palmer River deposits. Mulligan’s party located some of the richest alluvial deposits in North Queensland, returning to Georgetown with 102oz (2.89kg) of gold. News of the find quickly spread and triggered a rush to the area, and a 2,000 square mile (5,180km2) was proclaimed in 1873. Travelling conditions were difficult, and unprepared miners died en route from lack of supplies, drowning, or confrontation with the Kuku-Yalanji and Kuku-Mini people.[3]
\nUnlike other goldfields in Australia, the rush to the Palmer predated pastoral settlement of the region. The nearest major centre was Townsville, over 450km to the southeast. Cooktown, established as the goldfield’s port, was 200km east over difficult terrain. To accommodate and provision the influx of miners, small canvas towns sprang up across the goldfield. Most of the diggings were concentrated around Upper Camp, a settlement near the junction of the Palmer River and Butcher’s Creek. The well-grassed site which was selected by John Edwards in September 1873 to open a butcher’s business, supplying miners with meat. Promising alluvial deposits and quartz reefs were found nearby, turning Upper Camp into a large settlement, known as ‘Edwards Camp’ or ‘Edwards Gully’. A gold commissioner was stationed there in 1874. The Palmer’s Gold Commissioner Howard St George roughly surveyed the town in the same year, and renamed it ‘Edwardstown’.[4]
\nThe name ‘Maytown’ emerged in late 1874, after a post office and police barracks on the outskirts of the township were granted the name. The name was gradually adopted for Edwardstown, to the chagrin of the miners.[5]
\nUnprecedented alluvial gold returns were reported from the Palmer; between March and September 1874, 78,429oz (2,223kg) of high quality gold passed through Cooktown customs. Sensational reports of the goldfield’s wealth spread, encouraging a population increase from around 800 in February 1874 to an estimated 6,000 in December. 118 miners’ rights were issued on the Palmer in 1873, leaping to 2,643 in 1874. With the majority of this mining activity centred on Maytown, Gold Warden Phillip Sellheim moved his camp there in July 1875. Sellheim’s residence, a small weatherboard structure housing himself and his family, stood east of the township near the site of the goldfield’s first ore processing battery, the Pioneer. [6]
\nAs the new administrative centre of the Palmer, Maytown grew rapidly: its building works and population doubled within a month, and by October, Maytown was ‘assuming the proportions of a populous and prosperous township’.[7] As the mining population continued to increase, surveyor James Reid was despatched to Maytown in December 1875 to survey allotments around the Edwardstown machine site, ‘or rather to lay out in symmetrical order the straggling and irregular collection of hotels, stores, &c., that are already on the ground,’ as the Daily Northern Argus noted.[8] Reid’s survey altered the original proposed township layout marked by St George, to the outrage of business owners whose buildings stood within the old alignment. [9]
\nThe Palmer’s gold returns peaked in 1876 and 1877, and it became the highest producing alluvial goldfield in Queensland.[10] Its population climbed above 20,000, and Maytown grew correspondingly. Sellheim encouraged the establishment of a school and social institutions including a Miners' Institute Library and School of Arts.[11] An assay office and three banks were opened, cementing Maytown’s position as the Palmer’s financial centre.[12] Twelve hotels, 17 stores, three bakeries, three tobacconists and stationers, a butchery, blacksmiths, chemists, doctors, jewellers, billiard-rooms and a lemonade factory lined both sides of the ‘tolerably straight and wide’ main street, Leslie Street, for a distance of about 500m.[13] A £600 courthouse and a ten-patient hospital were opened, and a telegraph extension line began.[14] A new police barracks and lock-up were also built within the township in 1876.[15]
\nThe township’s water supply came from two wells in the Palmer River.[16] Cattle, driven to the goldfield from neighbouring pastoral stations, were held in yards on the edge of Maytown to supply the butcher.[17] Sly-grog establishments were also scattered throughout the township.[18] An 1876 census recorded the township’s population at 1,500 people, swelling on Sundays when goldfield miners visited the township for provisions and entertainment.[19]
\nA number of the stores and businesses in Maytown were operated by Chinese merchants and professionals, and vegetables were grown in a Chinese market garden planted on the edge of Butcher’s Creek.[20] Favourable returns and a direct steamer service between Cooktown and Hong Kong (inaugurated in 1875) encouraged regular immigration from China to the Palmer. By 1877 an estimated 18,000 people formed the largest Chinese community in Australia, and comprised nearly 90% of the Palmer’s population.[21] Maytown was the only township on the Palmer with a predominantly European population (approximately 900 Europeans and 300 Chinese); by 1883, this had changed to a reported 300 Europeans and 4,000 Chinese.[22] A ‘joss house’ temple was built circa 1878,[23] and remnants of Chinese settlement, including graves, cooking ovens and kilns, are evident in and around the township. [24]
\nThe cost of transporting building material to the Palmer was prohibitive, and the trouble and expense was rarely considered necessary by transitory alluvial miners. Despite ‘several good substantial buildings’, most of Maytown’s pre-1880 structures were canvas, bark or rough-cut local timber, giving the township an appearance ‘more like a great fair than anything else’.[25] The main bakery, on an allotment partway up Leslie Street, featured one of the township’s only brick structures, a baking oven.[26] The most imposing building in the township was the Queensland National Bank’s galvanised iron structure.[27]
\nThe expansion of reef mining activities in the early 1880s encouraged the construction of permanent structures in Maytown.[28] The company-operated reef mines which dominated the Palmer offered reef miners relatively stable employment, allowing them to settle for longer periods than the alluvial miners. Though a much smaller population than the alluvial miners, their stability encouraged the development of a permanent town with a greater range of educational and entertainment facilities and services. Timber was imported for new building work, and tenders called for public buildings.[29] Town lots were offered for sale from 1883, and Leslie Street was kerbed and channelled.[30] The warden’s quarters were improved for a new warden, who arrived in 1880. Substantial timber and iron stores were built for Chinese storekeepers in 1880, and new iron fronts installed on other stores.[31] A local divisional board hall was built, hosting a school of arts library, balls and social events.[32] A three acre hospital reserve and a seven acre cemetery, both southeast of the township on the bank of the Palmer River, were gazetted in February 1883, although both were already in use.[33] A school, which had operated briefly in 1878, reopened in 1882 and a reserve for it was gazetted in April 1883.[34] A new police station was also completed in 1883. Reserves for a new School of Arts and post and telegraph office were proclaimed in 1885; the new post office was built four years later, and the School of Arts moved into the old post office.[35] East of the township, a rifle range was opened for Maytown’s Excelsior rifle club (1886-1901).[36] The 640 acre town reserve was officially proclaimed in 1890.[37]
\nMaytown’s growth came at the end of the Palmer’s boom. Gold warden WO Hodgkinson proclaimed the field’s alluvial deposits ‘exhausted’ in 1883.[38] The collapse of alluvial mining operations, as well as restrictive legislation and tariffs introduced to Queensland in 1877,[39] reduced the Chinese population precipitously. The Palmer’s reef mines proved far less profitable than anticipated. After an unfavourable report in the Palmer’s reef mines in 1884, much of the mining activity and external investment ceased. Maytown’s Bank of New South Wales branch closed in 1884.[40] The total mining population on the goldfield dropped from 3,303 in 1881 to 946 in 1883, and to 542 in 1885.[41] By 1886 Maytown’s population was 154 Europeans and 450 Chinese. Reef mining revived briefly in the early 1890s, but its returns were limited, and as a proposed railway failed to eventuate, the goldfield’s population continued to fall.[42] Only 11 business licences were issued for the goldfield in 1891, from a high of 477 issued in 1876.[43] The mining warden’s office closed in 1893, as did the Queensland National Bank branch. The warden’s quarters were sold and removed in 1899.[44] By the end of the 19th century, the Palmer’s importance as a gold-producing field had been severely diminished, though it remained the fourth-highest producer in Queensland.[45]
\nA small population remained in Maytown, which in 1900 featured a branch of the Government Savings Bank, a state school, courthouse, hospital, police barracks, one hotel, eight stores (four Chinese, four European), a baker, saddler and the School of Arts (renamed the Miners’ Institute).[46] Reef mining activity continued intermittently through the first half of the 20th century, but by 1920, Wah Chong and Company's was the only store still open in Maytown. The school and police station closed in the 1920s.[47] The post office and mail routes operated until 1945. In 1948 residents of nearby towns, affected by postwar material shortages, successfully applied to remove Maytown’s abandoned buildings for reuse.[48] The last Maytown resident left in the 1950s.[49]
\nIn the 1980s and early 1990s, reconstruction and interpretation work was undertaken on some parts of Maytown. Signage identifying the location of former structures and other features was erected by members of the Palmer River Historic Preservation Society (PRHPS). The PRHPS also erected a commemorative cairn, a replica of a miner’s house in the centre of township in Duff Street, undertook reconstruction works on two kilns and erected protective shelters.[50]
\nBoatshed
\nA ferry service across the North Palmer River at Edwardstown was commissioned at after the wet season of 1873-74. The first road to Edwardstown approached the township from the south, necessitating a river crossing to reach the mining camps on the left-hand branch. While the river often stopped flowing in the dry season, during the wet season the track became difficult to traverse or impassable without a vessel. In October 1874, the Engineer of Roads AC Macmillan recommended that ferries should be established over the four major rivers that affected access to the field: the Laura, Normanby, Kennedy and Palmer Rivers. The 18ftx15ft (5.5x4.4m) vessels were to have a capacity for 18 people. The Commissioner of Work approved the construction in October 1874 and the vessels arrived in mid-December, in time for the next wet season. Privately operated punts for bulk carriage of supplies were considered too slow and costly.[51]
\nThe Laura to Maytown coach road, which opened in 1876, provided a route from Cooktown to Maytown from the north, but a boat remained vital for Maytown’s access to the southern parts of the field and new gold discoveries on the Hodgkinson field and Limestone (Groganville). The Hann Divisional Board, created in 1879, assumed responsibility for the river crossings.[52] The board commissioned its own boat for the crossing in 1884.[53] By 1890 the boat was stored ‘about one mile from town’, conveying mail and passengers across the river during the wet season.[54] The ferry service was operated by lessees, often Chinese men.[55] The boat was lost in floods on multiple occasions, but was generally recovered. In 1894, the ferry was washed away, and the board commissioned two iron boats to be made in Brisbane at a cost of £39 each. One boat was sent to the Coen goldfield (which was also under their jurisdiction); the other, to Maytown.[56]
\nLocal sources indicate that the ferry service continued to operate into the 1930s, although by that time there was no ferry master and passengers rowed themselves. The last ferry, the May-Belle, was recovered in 1973 and donated to the James Cook Museum. It is listed on the Australian Register of Historic Vessels.[57]
","criteria":"Maytown (established 1874 as Edwardstown, now an abandoned settlement) is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland’s history, particularly the development of north Queensland. Maytown was founded beyond the pastoral frontier and became the principal settlement on the Palmer Goldfield, and was critical in supporting mining activity and other settlements in the region. The Palmer goldfield was Queensland’s premier alluvial goldfield in the late 19th century and Queensland’s fourth highest producing goldfield in the 19th and 20th centuries.
|The extensive and largely intact stone kerbing and channelling within Maytown is rare on north Queensland goldfields. The stone kerbing and channelling survives as testimony to the desire for a permanent settlement in the region.
\nThe ruins of the Maytown Boatshed is significant as rare and early surviving evidence of the transportation network that was developed to service the Palmer goldfield. The isolation and harsh seasonal conditions of the field necessitated the quick development of an all-weather transport and communication network. The archaeological remains of this ferry service are the only known surviving example of a ferry service dating from the earliest period of colonial occupation of north Queensland.
|Maytown has potential to contribute new knowledge that may lead to a greater understanding of important aspects of Queensland’s history through historical and archaeological investigations. Archaeological investigations of surviving features may increase our understandings of industrial, commercial, administrative and domestic conditions on an extensive, early, remote and important goldfield. Such investigations may also reveal important information on European and Chinese activities on the Palmer Goldfield and assist in comparative analysis with other settlements (permanent and ephemeral) which survive on other early goldfields found across Queensland.
|Maytown demonstrates the principal characteristics of an abandoned settlement established on an extensive 19th century goldfield. As the commercial centre for the Palmer Goldfield, Maytown still contains extensive ruins of commercial, residential, industrial and administrative infrastructure, including the police station and school, European and Chinese cemeteries, telegraph poles and extensive flagstone flooring that illustrate the associated planning and layout of the town. Other characteristic features include fringing campsites, Chinese graves, remnant ovens and kilns.
|Maytown demonstrates the principal characteristics of an abandoned settlement established on an extensive 19th century goldfield. As the commercial centre for the Palmer Goldfield, Maytown still contains extensive ruins of commercial, residential, industrial and administrative infrastructure, including the police station and school, European and Chinese cemeteries, telegraph poles and extensive flagstone flooring that illustrate the associated planning and layout of the town. Other characteristic features include fringing campsites, Chinese graves, remnant ovens and kilns.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15192,"place_ref":600417,"name":"Annan River Bridge","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Development Road","suburb":"ANNAN RIVER","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Superstructure:
The Annan River Bridge is 275m long with 18 metal box girder spans each 15.3m long. The two end spans are 12.4m long, having been reduced in the 1970s. Each span incorporates five wrought iron plate girders, 0.76m deep, spaced at 1.52m intervals. Originally 5.6m wide, the bridge is now 6.1m wide and in recent years was fitted with timber kerbs 3.7 metres apart and vehicle running strips each 940mm wide and 610 mm apart to accommodate single lane traffic.
The three inner girders are conventional being 0.76m deep and built up of a web plate, four angles and top and bottom cover plates. The outer girders are less conventional, with the angles n one side of the web left off to provide a flush face. The 5/16 inch (a standard recommendation in the early twentieth century) web plates are fastened with 8 rivets to the 100 x 75 x 9.5 mm vertical angles. The horizontal angles are 100 x 75 x 16 mm and secured with an additional 13 or 14 rivets per web plate. Corners are bolted through with 28 mm bolts.
Substructure:
The original headstocks, now encased in concrete, are 610mm deep wrought iron girders of similar construction to the deck girders. Cast iron piles 2.4m and 1.2m sections and bolted through either internal or external flanges are used to support the headstocks. The piles are 610mm in diameter with 25mm thick wall. Attempts have been made, unsuccessfully, to fill the piles with concrete.
Originally Wales (horizontal braces) and diagonal braces were installed on the piers. These braces have been replaced by a pair of 150 x 75 mm rolled steel channels acting as the wale brace and a single diagonal consisting of a pair of 100 x 12 mm plates.
Rakers were installed on the outer face of each pile. Manufactured from 125mm wrought iron, they are secured to the wrought iron 'helmet' at the end of the headstocks. Several are detached due to corrosion while others show extensive loss of material at the inter-tidal zone.
","history":"The Annan River Bridge was designed by John Henry Daniells, Engineer for Bridges (1884-1889), and constructed between 1886-89, and was important in servicing the developing industry in the Rossville and Bloomfield areas. Following the establishment of the overland route to Cairns, the importance of the Annan River Bridge decreased. Construction of the Annan River Bridge was a controversial and prolonged project mainly due to misinformation, remoteness and challenging conditions. It became necessary to modify the bridge when it was discovered that the site proved unsuitable for a screw piling technique.
Cooktown was founded in October 1873 as the Endeavour River port for the Palmer River goldfields, and within six months had 20 restaurants, 12 large and 20 smaller stores, 6 butchers, 5 bakers, 3 tinsmiths, and chemists, fancygoods shops, watchmakers, bootmakers and saddlers; 65 publican's licenses had been issued for the Cooktown-Palmer River district, with 30 more applied for by April 1874. Two Cooktown newspapers were established in 1874, and the town was declared a municipality on 5 April 1876. The 1880s saw a number of infrastructure developments in the district such as the Cooktown to Laura railway built in 1884-88. Road developments were also required to upgrade the local roads between the Palmer River goldfields, the Annan River tin mines and the wharves at Cooktown.
Construction of the bridge appears to have been first discussed in 1883. In December 1883 the Daintree Divisional Board requested that the new Griffith ministry comply with the decision of the previous McIlwraith government to fund the construction of a bridge over the Annan River south of Cooktown. While urgently required, the project was beyond the resources of the local authority:
"As for the necessity of this Bridge, little need be said, it would afford a safe crossing at all times over a tidal River which at present is only fordable at dead low water once or twice a day according to the tides, and then it is both difficult and dangerous..."
In April 1884, the Daintree Divisional Board upgraded their initial estimate of £4000 to £5000 after flooding had made it evident that many additional piles and supports must be used to render the structure permanent. A telegram from Public Works on 16 April 1884 informed the Daintree Divisional Board that a departmental officer would be sent to take levels and prepare designs prior to any tenders being called.
By early January 1885, Daniells had inspected potential bridge sites on the Annan River. Daniells recommended the site known as the 'Old Crossing', saying it offered good holding for piers, being affordable at low water. Engineering drawings were drafted and on 30 May through to June 1885, the Government Gazette and local newspapers advertised the tender notice for the supply and erection of an iron bridge over the Annan River near Cooktown.
GH Royce and Co, Sydney and London, were contracted to build the bridge which was officially opened on 13 February 1889. GH Royce and Co were awarded two separate contracts. The first contract, for which Royce tendered £8201 was to provide all wrought and cast iron, steel and gunmetal for the piers and superstructure of an iron bridge over the Annan River...and to deliver the whole, complete, free on the Wharf at Cooktown...The second contract for which Royce tendered £10213 was for the construction of the bridge which was to be completed within three months of the receipt of the ironwork.. Daniells stated that construction would commence after the wet season and the bridge was expected to be open for traffic on 12 November 1886. The bridgework for the Annan River Bridge was ordered from manufacturers in England. Other ironwork for the project was ordered from W Robertson's Victoria Foundry in Mackay. All the ironwork was unloaded at Cooktown by 29 July 1886.
The project was subject to a variety of delays both prior to and during the construction of the bridge. The most serious delays occurred after the commencement of construction and were mostly due to misinformation received by Daniells regarding the suitability of the site as a location for a bridge of screw-pile construction. After receiving a sample of the strata in September 1886, Daniells responded to site superintendent Mansfield that such strata is evidently not fit to screw into, other means must be adopted and I sent him instructions to have the screw blades cut off some of the cylinders, the bottoms serrated.... Daniells' alternative method involved sinking sleeve cylinders and excavating the disturbed material by hand. Most of the excavation was undertaken by divers in extremely arduous conditions, including the presence of crocodiles. Daniells stated that it is very difficult to induce men to undertake work at all. Difficulties were also encountered during the North Queensland wet season. Added to this was flood damage to the construction site in early 1888.
The completed bridge was finally opened on 13 February 1889. The Cooktown Independent wrote that about 150 Cooktownites joined another hundred people at Mr Ross's hotel or at the new bridge nearby decorated with a profuse display of British and colonial bunting. An unusual collapsible handrail which could be laid flush with the deck during floods, was originally installed. It appears to have been removed sometime before 1905. The single-wire cable handrail was threaded through swivelling uprights and connected to a windlass.
In 1947 the Annan River Bridge was integrated into a proposed road link between Cooktown and Cairns. The first exploratory trip by District Engineer RD Gallop took about four days. Development of the road followed relatively quickly. By 1950 the Mulligan Highway had been gazetted and progressive upgrading has continued. Bridges were required at several major rivers including the East Normanby (1951), McLeod River (1952), the 'Little Annan' (1956) and the Palmer River (1970). The 'Big Annan' crossing utilised the original plate and girder-bridge completed in 1889.
Maintenance work to the bridge has been carried out on numerous occasions. In 1962 an investigation of the bridge was undertaken and a specification for major repairs was produced. Work included removal of concrete headstock encasement where necessary, replacement of bolts joining headstocks to piles, replacement of corroded bolts and nuts to pile sections above low water mark and the installation of new wales, braces and bolts.
In 1969 further assessment of the Annan River Bridge was undertaken. A report was produced the following year which recommended 'extensive treatment' being carried out. The piles were also considered to be a major concern. The bridge was thought to be in good condition above water line, however, below water line was not so good. It was noted in the report that existing girders required immediate cleaning and painting. The need for a new bridge 'adjacent to the existing structure' was also recognised.
Following an inspection in 1992, it was reported that significant areas braces and girders were subject to erosion. It was noted that the re-encasement of headstocks was deteriorating and the concrete had been poorly compacted. In late 1998 engineering staff from the Main Roads Department noted that the bridge was in need of priority attention. There was also a concern that major flooding could severely damage the bridge. It was not considered economically desirable to repair the existing bridge and preliminary designs of a replacement bridge were initiated. Attention also turned to determining an appropriate management approach for the old bridge.
","criteria":"Construction of the Annan River Bridge in 1886-89 was a major element in the development of the Cooktown hinterland. Prior to the construction of the bridge major difficulties occurred in accessing the tin fields around Rossville and agricultural developments around Bloomfield district, key areas in the development of northern Queensland.
|The Annan River Bridge is a rare example of a plate girder and screw pile bridge. It is also an uncommon example of a low-level bridge. Low-level bridges are being progressively replaced with those at much higher levels in order to avoid road closures during floods. The Annan River Bridge is one of the last remaining bridges of its type in Australia. At 275 metres in length, it is also one of the longest structures of its type.
|The Annan River Bridge is significant for its potential to yield further information about modifications to screw piles to allow for sleeve-sinking construction. The structure, particularly that part of the bridge which is underwater, may contribute to increasing knowledge of a major, controversial engineering project of the late nineteenth century.
|The Annan River Bridge is characteristic of other plate girder bridges consisting of a vertical web plate. Riveted horizontal pairs of angles form flanges to which are attached vertical angles which transmit the load to supports.
|With its flat deck, sheer length and low profile the Annan River Bridge exhibits distinctive aesthetic qualities.
|Innovative redesign was found to be necessary when it was discovered that the site was unsuitable for a bridge of screw-pile construction. Adaptations over an extended period of construction had to be made to allow for sleeve sinking facilities.
|The Annan River Bridge continues to be a popular recreational fishing spot for both locals and tourists in the area.
|The Annan River Bridge is significant for its association with JH Daniells, Queensland Engineer for Bridges, 1884-1889.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15194,"place_ref":600419,"name":"Westpac Bank, Cooktown","alternate_name":"Queensland National Bank | Bank of New South Wales","street_address":"Charlotte Street","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1994-03-11","description":"Located in the main street of Cooktown, the Cooktown Westpac Bank is a two-storeyed brick building with a corrugated iron roof and timber verandahs to three sides. It has a rendered street facade, with a substantial colonnade to the ground floor, a more delicately detailed upper storey, and a central entrance portico. The building has an L-shaped plan. The street-facing wing has the bank on the ground floor, with a public banking area to the north-west, and the managers residence above, with bedrooms and lounge overlooking the street. An adjoining wing extending to the rear contains staff quarters and a single storeyed kitchen.
The ground floor colonnade comprises round rendered concrete columns with an entablature with rectangular motifs, and a rendered concrete balustrade with shaped balusters. The first floor has cast iron columns with floriated capitals, a wrought iron balustrade, and a timber frieze. The entrance portico has paired columns to the ground floor flanking an arch with a keystone. An arched pediment spans the width of the entry, and is surmounted by a projecting bay with arched timber work and a triangular timber pediment. The eaves have shaped timber brackets, and a rendered masonry chimney rises above the roofline. Windows and doors to the ground floor street facade are arched, linked with string courses, and decorated with keystones. The upper level openings are rectangular.
The treatment of side and rear elevations is more modest, but with fine detailing. The walls are unrendered brickwork with rectangular openings to ground and first floors, and the verandahs have paired timber posts with timber valances and capitals, boarded timber sunscreens, and cast iron balustrades. The side verandahs are partially enclosed.
The building has timber double hung sash windows, and timber french doors opening onto the verandah.
Internally, the bank contains fine decorative elements. It has plaster ceilings with elaborately decorated plaster cornices, ceiling roses and beam encasings. Timber work includes finely carved and turned stairs, and panelled cedar doors with ventilated fanlights. The public banking area contains a particularly impressive richly carved counter inset with ventilation grilles.
The Cooktown Westpac Bank has a fine and intact facade which contributes to the streetscape of Charlotte St, and contains fine interior decorative elements.
","history":"This two-storeyed brick building was completed in 1891, as the premises for the Queensland National Bank. The building was designed by FDG Stanley, who was responsible for the design of a number of bank buildings in Queensland during the 1880s and 1890s.
The gold rush of the early 1870s which attracted miners and speculators to the Palmer River goldfield provided the impetus for the permanent settlement of Cooktown, becoming a municipality in 1876. Cooktown developed rapidly in the mid 1880s and the substantial nature of the buildings in Charlotte Street indicated the town's importance as a port and business centre. The growth of Cooktown and success of the Palmer River goldfields stimulated the growth of the surrounding district and settlement of the Peninsula.
The Queensland National Bank commenced business in Cooktown in 1874 and built a small timber premises adjacent to the current site. These premises were demolished when the new building was completed. The other portion of the current site was occupied by John Walsh, a Cooktown storekeeper, Mayor of Cooktown in 1876 and the first Member of Parliament for Cook in 1878.
The premises were purchased by the Bank of New South Wales in 1934.
Restoration work was undertaken on the premises in 1941, and dry rot and white ant activity required further maintenance work during the 1950s. The residential areas of the premises were altered during the 1960s, and maintenance has been ongoing since the 1970s. A garage was erected during the 1960s which is now used as a storage shed.
","criteria":"The Westpac Bank at Cooktown, completed in 1891, is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the development of North Queensland, and the development of Cooktown as a port and business centre to service the important Palmer River goldfields.
|The place also demonstrates the principal characteristics of a substantial 1890s masonry bank building.
|The building exhibits aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular: its fine exterior detailing; its fine interior decorative elements; and its contribution to the streetscape of Charlotte Street.
|As a banking premises in Cooktown since 1891, it has a strong association with the community.
|It has special association with the work of architect FDG Stanley, as one of a number of premises designed by Stanley for the Queensland National Bank during the late 19th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15195,"place_ref":600420,"name":"Motor Inn Motel","alternate_name":"Seagren's Building; Cooktown Motor Inn Motel","street_address":"Charlotte Street","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The site rises from Charlotte Street to the east and the building responds to this. The two-storeyed front section is at street level and the adjoining rear single-storeyed section is at a half level above this.
The front section has a steep hipped roof which runs back to a gable end and drops down to a lower gable roof. Attached to this is a single storey lean-to.
The building is constructed in timber and has an exposed frame at first floor level. The remainder of the building is clad in fibrous cement sheeting either replacing or covering original corrugated iron.
A two-storeyed verandah with cast iron balustrade at first floor level runs along Charlotte Street and returns along the northside. The balustrade panels appear to have been re-positioned. There are two varieties of verandah bracket some of which are later. A deep valance exists below the verandah level which traditionally has been used for signage. The verandah is supported on timber posts that divide the original section of the verandah into four equal bays with a fifth wider bay, that was added, on the northern end. A divider is situated on the verandah at first floor level to the north of the central hall.
A shop is situated on the ground floor that runs the depth of the two storey section and has a set of French doors at the entrance with large timber-framed windows each side. The original wide horizontal timber panelling is in evidence on the walls.
An entrance to the stair from the street is situated on the south side that leads up to the verandah along Charlotte Street. Early 20th century extensions enclose the north side. The first floor is divided into guest rooms running off a central hall. The interior of the rear section of the building appears to have been altered.
","history":"This two-storeyed timber and galvanised iron building was constructed in the 1880s for Cooktown cabinet maker and furniture dealer, Phers Erick Seagren [Sjorgren], who acquired the site [allotment 11 of section 3, parish of Cook] in 1880. Photographic evidence reveals that the building was extant by the late 1880s at least, although the northern side verandah was not added until around the turn of the century. The upper level of the building was the Seagren family residence, with the lower level a furniture display room/shop. A c1888 photograph also indicates a large workshop attached to the rear of the building. Whether part of this survives in the present rear extension has yet to be determined.
PE Seagren was born in Sweden in 1845. Following an apprenticeship in cabinetmaking, he worked in his trade in Copenhagen before emigrating to the Queensland in his mid-twenties, arriving at Rockhampton in 1871. In 1873 he married, at Rockhampton, Rosetta Bradish, a London emigrant who also had arrived in Rockhampton in 1871. Intending to join in the Palmer River goldrush, Seagren travelled to Cooktown in February 1874, but chose instead to establish himself in his trade at the burgeoning port. He was one of the town's earliest citizens, and according to local tradition his son, William Erick Endeavour, was the first white male born at Cooktown, on 26 August 1874.
Cooktown was founded in October 1873 as the Endeavour River port for the Palmer River goldfields, and within six months had 20 restaurants, 12 large and 20 smaller stores, 6 butchers, 5 bakers, 3 tinsmiths, and chemists, fancygoods shops, watchmakers, bootmakers and saddlers; 65 publican's licenses had been issued for the Cooktown-Palmer River district, with 30 more applied for by April 1874. Two Cooktown newspapers were established in 1874, and the town was declared a municipality on 5 April 1876. A railway was constructed from Cooktown to Laura between 1884 and 1888, further opening the port to development. By the turn of the century the Cooktown-Palmer River district had a population of 35,000 [15,000 Europeans and 20,000 Chinese] and Cooktown had become the important centre not only of a thriving mining district, but also of pearling, bêche-de-mer, and pastoral activity.
In the 1880s Queensland Post Office Directories Seagren was listed as a cabinetmaker and furniture dealer and upholsterer; general importer, and a furniture, glass and china dealer. In August 1889, Seagren advertised as a cabinetmaker and upholsterer, whose furniture warehouse and china and glass bazaar was located near the Queensland National Bank in Charlotte Street, the principal thoroughfare of Cooktown. This equates with the position of the present building.
By 1898 PE Seagren had acquired the adjoining northern allotment, containing two shops, and c1900 an upper level verandah was added to the northern side of his shop-house. This was enclosed below as shop space. Seagren acquired the adjoining southern allotment, which contained a small shop, in 1915.
By the early 1900s output from the Palmer goldfield was declining, and Cooktown's significance as a regional port correspondingly decreased. The Charlotte Street building survived the cyclone of 1907 and the 1918 fire which destroyed the buildings on the opposite side of the street, but following PE Seagren's death at Cooktown in 1934, aged 88, the furniture warehouse was closed. Seagren-manufactured furniture reputedly became collectors' items.
PE Seagren was one of the earliest settlers of Cooktown, a substantial landholder in the district, a resident of Cooktown for 60 years, and a prominent and highly respected member of his community. He was keen to encourage Cooktown's progress, and was actively involved in municipal work for many years, beginning with three years on the Daintree Divisional Board [1892-95] prior to being elected to the Cooktown Municipal Council in 1895. He served as mayor of Cooktown for two terms: 1898-1901 and 1905-08. MJ Fox in his History of Queensland Vol.3 [1923] wrote of Seagren's contribution to his community: He has laboured for the improvement of the town with unsparing energy, and the excellent condition of the streets, footpaths, and other public works is due to his progressive methods when mayor.[p672] Seagren was a Justice of the Peace, and held positions on the Hospital Board and School Advisory Board.
In 1924 title to the Charlotte Street property was transferred to Seagren's only surviving child, Mrs Gertrude Blanche Muller, and following her death in 1949, to her children Mrs Malvine Rosetta Blanche Johnson and Erick Seagren Muller, who sold the building in 1952. Little has been recorded of the use of the building between the mid-1930s and the late 1960s, when Margaret Edmonds and Adrienne [Bobby] Gravenor established a newsagency, boutique and tourist information centre in the downstairs shop. They acquired title to the property in 1973, and by 1975 had converted the building into the Motor Inn Motel.
","criteria":"The former Seagren's Building, erected in the 1880s, illustrates the pattern of Queensland's history. It is important surviving evidence of the establishment of Cooktown as an important regional centre and port in far north Queensland in the last quarter of the 19th century. The place is illustrative of the boom years of the mid-to-late 1880s when Cooktown appeared to have an unlimited future. It is important also in illustrating the contribution of non-English-speaking immigration to the development of Queensland.
|The building illustrates some rare aspects of Queensland's heritage: it is one of a small group of surviving Charlotte Street buildings which illustrate the hub of activity that was Cooktown in the 1870s, 1880s and early 1890s; it is one of Cooktown's oldest buildings and the last remaining structure of its type along Charlotte Street; and, despite the conversion to a motel, also provides rare surviving evidence of a far north Queensland shop-house of this period.
|The place has the potential to contribute to our understanding of Queensland's cultural heritage. Little is known to date of the influence of Scandinavian building techniques and/or design on 19th century Queensland construction, and the former Seagren's Building may prove important in future studies.
|Despite adaptation to a motel, the core and fabric survive substantially intact. The building remains a rare example of its type: a two-storeyed late 19th century North Queensland shop-house constructed of timber framing and galvanised iron cladding, with front and side verandahs to the upper level, illustrating the adaptive use of portable building materials and of design in a remote tropical locale.
|The building, located in the main commercial street in Cooktown, contributes aesthetically to an historical streetscape which includes the adjacent Westpac Bank [600419] and former Bank of North Queensland [600422]; the Cook Shire Council Chambers [601535], Mary Watson's Monument [600421] and the former Cooktown Post Office on the opposite side of the street; and the early stone kerbing and channelling in Charlotte Street [601731].
|The place is significant for its long association with the life and work of Cooktown cabinet maker, furniture dealer and civic leader, Phers Erick Seagren, a Swedish immigrant who was instrumental in shaping the development of Cooktown in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15196,"place_ref":600421,"name":"Mary Watson's Monument","alternate_name":"Mary Watsons Monument","street_address":"Charlotte Street","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Mary Watson's monument is situated at the corner of Adelaide and Charlotte Streets, Cooktown, on the edge of the Charlotte Street footpath abutting the road, a little south of, and on the same side of the street as, the Cook Shire Council Chambers. It straddles the stone kerbing and guttering of Charlotte Street, and lacks a formal setting.
The structure is of painted concrete, and comprises plinth, square base and octagonal tapering spire. On the plinth the names S Greenway and Ipswich are inscribed. The four faces of the base have insets with two centred and shouldered arches. Floral carved relief are located in the cusp of the shouldered arches and above the two centred arches. The base is surmounted by ogee hood moulds which have a cyma recta profile and tracery below. Working-order water fountains with semi-circular bowls finished in a leaf pattern are located on the north and south faces, and there is an inscribed marble panel on each of the east and west faces. The inscription on the western panel reads:
Five fearful days beneath
the scorching glare
Her babe she nursed.
God knows the pangs that
woman had to bear,
Whose last sad entry showed
a mother's care'
Then - "Near dead with thirst".
John Davis\t\tMayor 1886
The inscription on the eastern panel is:
IN
MEMORIAM
MRS WATSON,
The Heroine of Lizard Island
Cooktown
North Queensland
AD 1881
Erected 1886.\t\tEdward D'Arcy
\t\t\tMayor.
\t\t\t\t1885
A tapering octagonal spire sits above the base and is finished with an acanthus leaf finial.
In recent years work to repair the water pipes to the fountains has necessitated the concrete being cut into, the pipes exposed, and then the concrete repaired. This appears as a narrow vertical incision down the northern face of the monument, from the fountain to the ground.
","history":"This monument was erected in 1886 by the citizens of Cooktown to honour Mrs Mary Watson, who perished, along with her infant son and her Chinese employee Ah Sam, from thirst and exposure on one of the islands of the Howick group, northeast of Cooktown, in October 1881.
Mary Watson's tragic death reverberated through far North Queensland. To her contemporaries, she epitomised the self-sacrifice of countless women who were helping to 'civilise' the bush, and her youth, her brave struggle to save her infant, and the sad little journal she kept until the end, created an additional pathos and sense of the heroic to her story which captured the public imagination.
Mary Watson [neé Oxnam] emigrated from England to Maryborough with her parents in 1877, when she was aged 17. Her father took up farm work near Maryborough and Mary established a small private school in town. She closed this in 1879 and took up a position as a governess in Cooktown, but soon opened her own school there. In May 1880, at Christ Church Cooktown, Mary [aged 20] married Captain Robert Watson, who was in partnership with PC Fuller in a bêche-de-mer station on Lizard Island, approximately 50 miles northeast of Cooktown. Following the marriage the Watsons moved to Lizard Island, where in 1879 Watson had erected a dwelling and smoke and store-house, and established a small fruit and vegetable garden. Two Chinese men, Ah Sam and Ah Leong, were employed to assist in the house and garden respectively. Mary returned to Cooktown in March 1881 to await the birth of her first child early in June, and was back on Lizard Island with her baby by July.
On 1 September 1881 Watson and Fuller took their bêche-de-mer boats 200 miles north to Night Island, where they set up an out-station and smoke house, anticipating an absence from Lizard Island of about 6 weeks. Mary was left on the island with her infant son and the two Chinese employees. On 27 September a group of mainland Aborigines arrived at Lizard Island, which, according to oral tradition, contained a sacred site in the approximate vicinity of the bêche-de-mer station. Mary Watson's journal reveals that these Aborigines clearly wanted the foreigners to leave the place. It is thought that on 29 September they speared and killed Ah Leong, who was working in the garden approximately quarter of a mile from Mrs Watson's dwelling, although his body was never found. On 30 September they gathered on the beach below the dwelling, dispersed when Mary fired a rifle and revolver, but returned on 1 October and severely wounded Ah Sam.
Fearing a further attack and lacking any other means of escape, Mary packed a few belongings, food, water and two paddles into a cut-down iron ship's tank used for boiling the bêche-de-mer, and set off with Ah Sam and the baby on 2 October. By 4 October they had reached a reef, where they remained another day, hoping to sight a passing ship. On 6 October they pulled onto No.1 Howick Island to replenish their fresh water. As Aborigines were camped there, the refugees moved to a reef as soon as the tide was in and on 7 October pulled to No.5 Howick Island which, although it lay along the steamer route, unfortunately lacked fresh water. Too weak to continue, they hoped to attract the attention of a passing ship, but were unsuccessful. Mary kept a brief diary throughout the ordeal. The last entry is dated 11 October:
Still all alive. Ferrier [her child] very much better this morning. Self feeling very weak. I think it will rain to-day; clouds very heavy; winds not quite so hard.
No rain. Morning weather fine. Ah Sam preparing to die. Have not seen him since 9. Ferrier more cheerful. Self not feeling at all well. Have not seen any boat of any description.
No water. (Nearly dead with thirst.)
Their remains were found by crew from a passing fishing vessel on 19 January 1882 and later were identified by Captain Watson. Watson was still fishing [at Restoration Island] in late October when informed by a passing vessel that Aborigines had sacked the Lizard Island buildings and that his wife, child and the two Chinese employees were missing. He had returned immediately to Lizard Island, and had been searching for his family since 7 November 1881.
Mary Watson's ordeal and heroism captured the hearts and minds of her contemporaries. On 29 January 1882 a public funeral attended by approximately 650 persons was accorded Mrs Watson, her child and Ah Sam by the citizens of Cooktown, and their remains were buried in the Cooktown Cemetery.
The tragedy exacerbated European antagonism toward Aborigines in the Cooktown area. A punitive raid was carried out, but historian Geoffrey Bolton suggests the wrong group of Aborigines were dealt with.
In 1885 public subscription was called for a drinking-fountain memorial to Mary Watson, and this was erected with the co-operation of the Cooktown Municipal Council in 1886 at a cost of £165. The memorial was unveiled in February 1886 by Mayor John Davis. It was erected just outside the grounds of the town hall, straddling the stone kerbing and guttering in Charlotte Street, and is the work of monumental mason S Greenway of Ipswich.
","criteria":"Mary Watson's Monument is significant as an important reminder of the tragedies which accompanied early European settlement in Queensland, and of the lack of communication and understanding between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples during this 'frontier' phase of our history.
That the memorial does not commemorate Ah Sam, the young Chinese man who perished with Mrs Watson, is evidence of the disjunctive nature of Queensland's early colonial society, and in the omission, remains a clear illustration of the racist attitudes of the time.
|It is also the only known public monument to an individual woman [other than a head of state] in Queensland.
|It has heritage value as a good example of its type: a decorative, late 19th century public memorial drinking fountain which encompasses both utilitarian and commemorative functions.
|It has aesthetic value, and makes a pleasing contribution to the historic streetscape of Charlotte Street, Cooktown's principal thoroughfare.
|The place is valued by the Cooktown community for its historical significance, and it is a tourist attraction in the town.
|It has a strong association with Mary Watson, and serves to perpetuate the legend [and mythology] of her death.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15197,"place_ref":600422,"name":"Ferrari Estates Building","alternate_name":"Bank of North Queensland","street_address":"126 Charlotte Street","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The site faces due west to Charlotte Street and runs to the east rising to a large granite outcrop. The building which is two-storeyed and of rendered brick, has a rectangular plan form which runs to the street alignment. A single-storeyed wing runs off the north east corner at the rear of the building. The existing roof over the two-storeyed section is asymmetrically hipped.
At ground level the facade has a symmetrical three bay colonnade that has semi-circular headed openings with hood moulds and a keystone. The openings are supported on bracketed piers which are recessed between squared piers. At the carriage opening the semi-circular opening sits on brackets. A cornice divides the facade between ground and first floor levels.
The upper level is also divided into three bays with semi -circular headed openings similar to ground level but of lower in height, they are divided by pilasters and have been infilled with glazing. Above these windows is a further cornice with central triangular pediment. A balustrade rises above this. The southern openings provides access to what was the coach entry. The original wrought iron gates remain.
Internally a large proportion of the evidence of the original use of the building has been lost due to refurbishment, but evidence of the strongroom and position of the manager's office survives on the ground floor, and the original timber stair between floors remains against the east wall. The timber verandah along the south wall has been infilled with fibrous cement cladding.
","history":"This two-storeyed brick building was erected in 1890-91 as the banking premises and manager's residence for the Cooktown branch of the Bank of North Queensland.
Established in Townsville in July 1888, the Bank of North Queensland, was one of only three 19th century indigenous Queensland banks, the other two being the Queensland National Bank, established 1872, and the Royal Bank of Queensland, established 1885. Actively supported by Robert Philp, politician, businessman and separationist, formation of the Bank of North Queensland was allied closely to the separation movement, and promoted as a source of North Queensland development capital free from southern [QNB] influences. Within 6 months, the new bank had established 7 branches, including Cooktown, which opened on 1 September 1888. The Brisbane branch was opened in November 1888, and the bank's headquarters transferred there from Townsville in 1894. Several of the smaller North Queensland branches closed during the 1890s, but by 1900 additional branches had been established at Childers, Mareeba, Mount Morgan, Thornborough and Thursday Island, reflecting the shifting fortunes of North Queensland industries [mining, pastoralism, and the bêche-de-mer trade].
When the Cooktown branch was established in 1888, alluvial goldmining on the Palmer River gold fields was still paying high dividends, the Annam tinfields had just been opened, and the local bêche-de-mer industry was booming. Cooktown, which serviced a district population of approximately 30,000, was thriving, and both the Bank of New South Wales and the Queensland National Bank had opened branches there already. Such was local business confidence in the future of far North Queensland, that within two years the Bank of North Queensland had commissioned Townsville architects Eyre & Munro to design substantial new premises for the Cooktown branch. Title to the Charlotte Street site was acquired by the bank in June 1890, tenders were called in August-September, and the contract was let to John Armstrong of Cooktown, with a price of £2,188. Work on the site excavation had begun by mid-September, and the foundation was laid on 13 October 1890 by Mr AJ Charker, manager of the bank's Cooktown branch.
The two-storeyed brick building was one of Cooktown's more substantial buildings. The ground floor contained the banking chamber, manager's room and strong room. A private entrance at the side of the building led to the manager's residence, which comprised entrance hall and dining room on the ground floor, and drawing room, 3 bedrooms, bathroom and linen press on the upper level. The bedrooms opened onto the side balcony. The single-storeyed kitchen wing beyond the dining room contained kitchen, servant's room and store., with high ceilings and plenty of windows to ensure adequate ventilation in a tropical climate. The whole was constructed of brick, initially supplied from Mrs Savage's brickyard at the 'Two-mile' just outside Cooktown. Difficulties in their manufacture and heavy rain during February delayed work on the bank building, and it was finally completed in mid-1891.
Even as the new building was opened, Cooktown's fortunes were waning. Output from the Palmer River gold fields declined as the alluvial gold was worked out, and Cooktown's importance as the principal supply port to the interior diminished accordingly. Just after the turn of the century, there was some renewed activity on the Palmer, but this was not sustained at the volume anticipated. Cyclone damage in 1907 destroyed large numbers of Cooktown buildings which were never re-built, and the Cooktown branch of the Bank of North Queensland finally closed in January 1908. For some years it remained bank property, but was rented out as a residence - the Police Magistrate occupied the building in 1917.
In 1917 the Bank of North Queensland merged with the Royal Bank of Queensland to form the Bank of Queensland, and this in turn was taken over in 1922 by the National Bank of Australasia Ltd, which disposed of the Cooktown property in 1924. Title to the building was held by Walter Colley, and later his widow, from 1926 until 1948, when it passed to Cairns auctioneer and insurance agent Cornelius O'Leary. It has been held by the Ferrari family since 1963. The building is understood to have been used mostly as a residence until the 1970s. It was occupied for some years as a grocery store until closed in December 1992.
","criteria":"The former Bank of North Queensland at Cooktown, erected 1890-91, is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland's history. It is surviving evidence of the establishment of Cooktown as an important regional centre and port in far north Queensland in the last quarter of the 19th century, and a symbol of both local and Queensland-wide business confidence in the future of Cooktown at this period.
|The building illustrates some rare aspects of Queensland's heritage: it is one of a small group of surviving Charlotte Street buildings which illustrate the hub of activity that was Cooktown from the 1870s to the 1890s; it is one of Cooktown's oldest buildings; it is of brick construction, which is rare in Cooktown; and, despite the refurbishments, still provides strong evidence of the adaptation of traditional European design to a tropical climate.
|Despite the removal of a number of interior walls, the form and street presence survive. The building remains a rare example of its type: a substantial, two-storeyed late 19th century North Queensland bank building containing banking chamber and manager's residence, constructed of rendered brick, with front and side verandahs to the upper level, illustrating the adaptive use of design in a remote tropical locale.
|The building, located in the main commercial street in Cooktown, contributes aesthetically to an historical streetscape which includes the adjacent Motor Inn Motel [600420] and nearby Westpac Bank [600419]; the Cook Shire Council Chambers [601535], Mary Watson's Monument [600421] and the former Cooktown Post Office on the opposite side of the street; and the early stone kerbing and channelling in Charlotte Street [601731].
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15198,"place_ref":600423,"name":"James Cook Historical Museum","alternate_name":"St Mary's Convent and School; Cooktown Museum; James Cook Museum","street_address":"50 Helen Street","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former St Mary's Convent is sited on a hill overlooking the Endeavour River. It is constructed in red brick in a Victorian Gothic style. It has an "L" shaped floor plan with a bay projecting to the west on its northern end. Brick cornices surround the building below the ground and first floor window levels and at first floor level.
The roof has a steep pitch and is now clad in corrugated iron replacing the original ribbed pan. The roof finishes as a gable over the western bay and as a truncated hipped form at the southern end. The original decorative ridge cast iron work and roof vents have been removed from the truncated section of roof. Later dormer windows have been installed with four along the east elevation, one on north side and two on the west elevation.
There are verandahs on the east and west elevation. The west or front verandah is supported on paired cast iron corinthian columns which divide it into five bays. Each bay is finished with arching decorative cast iron brackets. The paired columns at first floor level rise in doric detailing to support the verandah roof. The rear or eastern verandah is infilled but retains its original detailing of single columns cast iron first floor balustrade and deep vertical timbered valance at ground floor level.
The former single-storeyed hipped roof brick kitchen building remains to the rear on the north side; additions have been made adjacent to this to service the museum.
On the western bay there are three centrally positioned long narrow windows at ground and first floor levels, and above these a round vent with hood mould. On the north elevation there are sets of four double hung timber windows symmetrically positioned at the ground and first floor levels, these have window hoods with scalloped fascias.
The central timber doorway with side lights is accessed via a set of stone stairs from the western verandah. This doorway is flanked on each side by double hung windows with shallow arched heads and hood moulds over.
The apex of the western gable roof has cast iron panels fixed between a collar tie supported by decorative timber brackets and a king post running up to the roof and supporting a cross.
The central hall contains a fine timber staircase. Rooms of various dimension run off central corridors at ground and first floor levels. The rooms in the northern end of the building provide large museum display space. Walls are plaster over brick and ceilings lath and plaster with moulded decorative cornices.
","history":"This substantial, two-storeyed brick building was erected in 1888-89 as St Mary's Convent and School. It was the inspiration of the first Vicar Apostolic of Cooktown, Bishop John Hutchinson; designed by former colonial architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley, of Brisbane; and staffed initially by Sisters of Mercy from Dunvargan in Ireland.
Bishop Hutchinson was one of three Irish Augustinian Fathers who arrived in Cooktown in 1884 to take charge of the Pro-Vicariate of North Queensland, established in 1876 and extending from Cardwell to Cape York. In the mid-1880s it was appropriate that the Augustinians were based at Cooktown, rather than Cairns, as the former was emerging as the principal town and port of far North Queensland. Such was the rapid progress of Cooktown during the second half of the 1880s that the Pro-Vicariate of North Queensland was constituted the Vicariate Apostolic of Cooktown in 1887. Father Hutchinson was appointed the first Vicar Apostolic and was consecrated a Bishop in August the same year. In late 1887 Bishop Hutchinson returned to Ireland to recruit more priests and to encourage an order of sisters to establish a convent school at Cooktown. There was an existing primary school, staffed by lay teachers, attached to St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Cooktown, but Bishop Hutchinson envisaged a grander establishment which could offer a superior education, both religious and academic, to the girls [future wives and mothers] of far North Queensland. It was to operate as both a day school and a boarding school for girls.
St Mary's Convent and School was designed by former colonial architect FDG Stanley, one of Queensland's most prolific late 19th century architects. In the 1880s he designed a number of other Catholic churches and institutional buildings, including St Patrick's Church at Gympie (1883-88), additions to St Mary's Church at Maryborough (1884-85), dormitories at St Vincent's Orphanage, Nudgee (1886-87), Holy Cross Church at Bundaberg (1886-88), the Magdalene Asylum at Wooloowin, Brisbane (1888-89), and the Sisters of Mercy Convent at South Brisbane (1889).
The tender for St Mary's Convent and School at Cooktown was let about May 1888 to Brisbane contractors Hobbs & Carter, who had erected the much admired Cook Monument at Cooktown in 1887. When Bishop Hutchinson returned from Ireland in June 1888 with five Sisters of Mercy to staff the school, the convent building was far from complete, but work continued rapidly and the building was occupied by May 1889.
Stanley's original design was for a two-storeyed brick core with two transverse wings, but when officially opened by Bishop Hutchinson on 12 May 1889, only the core and north wing had been completed, at a cost of nearly £5,000. The intention was to complete the second wing as funds permitted, but this did not eventuate. The substantial brick building was the most imposing structure in Cooktown, pre-dating the Queensland National Bank building (QHR 600419) in Charlotte Street by about two years. The footings were of concrete and the plinth was constructed of Cooktown granite. Most of the bricks were obtained from Campbell & Sons' brickworks in Brisbane, and shipped to Cooktown. Much of the skilled labour required for the construction also came from Brisbane.
Internally, the ground floor comprised a central entrance hall, off which opened a large dining room [also used as the school chapel] to the right and a large reception room for visitors to the left. Behind these rooms were two classrooms, each divided by folding doors. Beyond the reception room was the school hall, a large room 44ft by 18ft, which occupied most of the ground floor of the north wing. Beyond the eastern end of the hall were the lavatories. A central staircase led from the entrance hall to the upper floor, which contained boarders' dormitories at the north end and dormitories for the sisters at the south end. Upper floor lavatories and bathrooms were located above the ground floor lavatories at the east end of the north wing. Boarders used a second staircase on the rear verandah, rather than the grand central stair. At the rear, the kitchen, scullery and servant's room formed a detached wing, connected to the main building via a covered way. Stanley had taken account of the Cooktown climate: the rooms were large, light and airy, and there were deep verandahs front and back. The rear verandahs were enclosed with 'curtain boards', and the front verandahs were decorated with cast iron.
The site selected was on the crest of the ridge running south from Grassy Hill, above the main street of Cooktown, with a spectacular view over the Endeavour River estuary. By the 1890s the imposing building had become a Cooktown landmark, regularly featured in visiting journalists' descriptions of the town.
Bishop Hutchinson had made the establishment of the convent school at Cooktown a personal project, donating much of his own money and borrowing from his relatives in Ireland, but substantial funds were raised locally as well. The community clearly recognised the need for an educational institution for girls in far North Queensland which offered a superior education to that available in small local state schools, and St Mary's was patronised by families of all denominations. It was the first girls' high school in the area and gained a strong reputation for the quality of its music curriculum. World-acclaimed Queensland singer Gladys Moncrieff was educated there.
The significance of Cooktown as a port deteriorated in the 1890s, as production from the alluvial diggings on the Palmer Goldfields declined. Bishop Hutchinson died in 1897, and his successor, Bishop Murray, is understood to have paid off the debt on the convent building by conducting a lecture tour in the United States. In 1906 Bishop Murray moved his residence to Cairns, which had eclipsed Cooktown as the principal port of far North Queensland.
Despite the decline of Cooktown - both in population and significance - St Mary's Convent and School remained an important educational facility for girls in far North Queensland until the 1930s. The building suffered substantial damage during the cyclone of January 1907, which demolished the Catholic Church behind the convent and removed part of the convent roof, but was repaired immediately. However, many of the businesses destroyed in the 1907 cyclone were not re-established, and an entire block of shops and offices in the main street of Cooktown, destroyed by fire in 1919, were never re-built. St Mary's boarding school closed in the 1930s but co-educational day classes were continued until 1941, when the building is understood to have been commandeered by United States military authorities.
Although the building was returned to the Church in 1945, the school was not re-opened and the Sisters never returned. Another cyclone damaged the building in 1949 and by 1969 it was considered to be in such a ruinous state that tenders for its demolition were called. Following public protest the building was donated to the National Trust of Queensland on condition that it be restored to house the collection of the James Cook Historical Museum at Cooktown. The new Museum was opened on 22 April 1970 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, during her visit to Australia to celebrate the bi-centenary of Cook's charting of the east coast. The former St Mary's Convent and School continues to be maintained by the National Trust, and is one of the principal tourist attractions in Cooktown. In the early 1970s, extensions were made to the rear of the building to house the museum collection. The grounds have been landscaped as the Joseph Banks Memorial Garden, planted with about 40 of the 186 plants catalogued by Banks and Dr Solander during their 7 week stay at the Endeavour River in 1770. Each of these 40 plants is peculiar to the Cooktown area.
","criteria":"The former St Mary's Convent and School, erected 1888-89, is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, in particular the dramatic rise and fall of Cooktown as a port, supply and administrative centre to the Palmer River goldfields in the last quarter of the 19th century.
Its construction evidences the buoyant Cooktown economy of the late 1880s and survives as a highly evocative illustration of late 19th century confidence in the future of Cooktown as the principal port and town of far North Queensland. Construction of the convent and school also demonstrates the importance attached by the colonising culture to establishing [religious] education, considered a 'civilising' influence in remote districts of Queensland during the frontier phase of our history.
|It is significant for its rarity value: few late 19th century buildings of this substance and decorative detail were erected in centres as remote as Cooktown, accessible only by sea in the 1880s.
|The former convent and school is an excellent, highly intact example of a substantial, 1880s boom era brick institutional building with decorative detailing, designed to accommodate the tropical Cooktown climate and to cater for both convent and school purposes.
|The building is well maintained, retains its aesthetic appeal, and makes a significant contribution to the Cooktown townscape. Situated prominently on the ridge running south from Grassy Hill, the place is visible from the sea approach to the town, and has been considered a Cooktown landmark since its construction in the late 1880s.
|The place has a strong association for the people of Cooktown and district with the town's earlier prominence in Queensland's history. This was evidenced by the public outcry in the late 1960s when the Catholic Church called for the place to be demolished. As the James Cook Historical Museum, the place has become a major Cooktown tourist attraction.
|The place has significant associations with the work of the Augustinian fathers, in particular Bishops Hutchinson and Murray, and the Sisters of Mercy, in the Vicariate Apostolic of Cooktown in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and with the American military during the Second World War. Since 1970, it has had an important and close connection with the James Cook Historical Museum collection. The Joseph Banks Memorial Garden was established in the grounds of the former convent as a memorial to the work of botanist Joseph Banks and Dr Solander during their 7 week encampment at the Endeavour River in 1770.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15199,"place_ref":600424,"name":"Cooktown Hospital (former)","alternate_name":"Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall | Cooktown Hospital","street_address":"May Street","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former Cooktown Hospital is constructed in timber. It has a two-storeyed front section facing west to May Street and a long single-storeyed wing attached at the rear and supported on steel stumps. The relationships of the front and rear sections are not original.
The ground floor level is surrounded by a wide verandah retaining parts of the original structure. It is supported on evenly spaced timber posts which have timber brackets and a simple later battened balustrade. The ground floor has an exposed timber frame with single double hung windows and French doors in regular positions along each elevation.
The upper storey is clad in rusticated weatherboard [chamferboards]. The western elevation has a triple set of double hung windows with pairs of double hung windows each side. This bank of windows has a continuous hood which has a decorated fascia and is supported on timber brackets. There are single hooded double hung windows on the northern and southern sides. The roof, which is clad in corrugated iron, is a pyramid form with a glazed lantern at the top with the soffits supported on paired timber brackets. Small gabled roofs are positioned centrally at the verandah and the second storey roof, accentuating the entrance to the building.
Internally at ground floor level the original tongue and groove wall boarding has been covered with plasterboard. Ceilings at this level have been clad in plaster board in the front section and the original exposed timber truss and tongue and groove boarded ceilings remain in the rear section. The original staircase to the first floor has been retained and the ceiling at this level is an exposed truss system with timber tongue and groove boarding.
","history":"The former Cooktown Hospital was erected in 1879-81 to the design of Queensland colonial architect FDG Stanley, replacing an earlier temporary hospital building erected in 1874.
Cooktown was established in October 1873 as the Endeavour River port, supply and administrative centre for the Palmer River goldfields. In the earliest days of Cooktown settlement [the summer of 1873-74], new arrivals to the Endeavour River district faced food shortages, floods and fever, and the establishment of a hospital at Cooktown became urgent. In March 1874 a committee was formed to raise local subscriptions for a temporary hospital building, and the first Cook District Hospital, a small timber structure situated on the ridge above Charlotte Street [between Banks and Green Streets], was erected in April 1874. In the same month a Government Medical Officer was appointed, and the colonial government promised £300 for a permanent hospital, if public subscription of an equal amount was raised.
Cook District Hospital serviced the whole of the Endeavour, Palmer, Daintree and Mossman rivers districts, and the small building soon proved inadequate. In 1878 the colonial government acceded to local pressure and voted £2,000 for the construction of a permanent hospital at Cooktown. In April 1879 colonial architect Stanley was instructed to prepare plans.
Stanley's original plan was for a hardwood building comprising on the ground floor: 3 large wards [central, accident and female], a day room, dispensary and ophthalmic [operating?] room. Bathrooms were located at each end of the rear verandah, and earth closets in the backyard were connected by walkways to this rear verandah. The middle section of this long, hipped-roofed building had an upper floor, which comprised one large, light, airy ward. While the original plan does not show any proposed extensions, the fact that 'central' ward was located at the eastern end of the main building may suggest that Stanley intended an eastern extension. On the original plan there is a rear service wing, at right angles to the main building, comprising warders' quarters, store, laundry, kitchen and wash house. This appears to have been built as intended, but at a later period, was re-positioned parallel to the rear of the main building.
Stanley's design for the Cooktown Hospital, like almost all hospitals erected in Queensland from the 1860s to the 1930s, was based on the principles of the pavilion plan, which emphasised the importance of good ventilation and sanitation. This reflected current 'miasmatic theory' accepted by the medical profession: that disease was transmitted by breathing air contaminated with noxious vapours from decomposing organic matter. The Cooktown Hospital was sited on the crest of the ridge above the main street of Cooktown, contained large, airy wards with access to wide surrounding verandahs on the lower level, and the lighting and ventilation of the upper level ward was augmented by a clerestory.
Tenders were called in June 1879 and that of South Brisbane builders Alfred Doorey & Son, with a price of £1945, was accepted in August. In September Stanley travelled to Cooktown and fixed the site for the hospital on the 11.5 acres Hospital Reserve [R.91] surveyed in July 1879 by CA Starcke and gazetted in 1880. The site occupied an entire town block - bounded by Hope, Boundary, May and Ida Streets - it's size illustrative of the colonial government's commitment to Cooktown's development at this period. Stanley placed the hospital mid-way along Hope St on the western side of the reserve, but orientated the building to face north.
The hospital appears to have been erected under 2 contracts, one let to Doorey & Son in 1879, and a second contract, to erect kitchen and outbuildings, advertised in September 1880 and let to Cooktown builders Gordon and Menzies in November. It has not been determined in which year the additional ward at the eastern end of the building was erected. Oral history records that at some later date, additional accommodation was provided for 'aliens' and Aborigines in blocks to the south of the services wing, and connected to this by covered walkways. At some period in the 20th century, the area between the re-positioned kitchen wing and the main building was enclosed as a staff dining room. Over the c105 years that this building functioned as a hospital, a number of internal alterations were made to accommodate changes in medical, surgical and nursing practice.
The Cooktown Hospital survived the cyclones of 1907 and 1949, and during the Second World War functioned as an Air Force hospital. In the mid-1980s a new hospital was erected in the grounds, and in 1986 the original building was acquired by the local congregation of the Jehovah's Witness, and moved to its present location in May Street, where it now faces west. The building was re-configured when removed to the second site, and the service wing does not appear to have survived. However, the place is still considered symbolic of Cooktown's goldrush days, and is a tourist attraction.
","criteria":"The former Cooktown Hospital, erected 1879-81, is important to Queensland history, being illustrative of the 1870s establishment of Cooktown as the principal port, supply and administrative centre to the important Palmer River goldfields.
|It is rare as one of Queensland's few surviving 19th century hospital buildings, and even rarer as an 1870s hospital building, based on pavilion plan design, addressing a tropical climate.
|Although re-located within Cooktown and re-configured, the building retains much early fabric and in the two-storeyed section, illustrates late 19th century concerns with adequate ventilation and light in hospital design for a tropical climate.
|The building, re-sited with Mt Cook as a backdrop, retains its late 19th century aesthetic appeal.
|The place has an important association for the local community, which regards the building as still strongly associated with Cooktown's late 19th century boom, and which promotes the building as a tourist attraction.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15200,"place_ref":600425,"name":"Cooktown Powder Magazine","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Webber Esplanade","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The magazine is situated above high water mark, away from the centre of Cooktown, at the northern edge of Grassy Hill at the mouth of the Endeavour River. Its isolated location by the water's edge makes it a landmark, particularly when viewed from the estuary.
The building is single-storeyed and rectangular and contains one room with a door facing west. There are slit windows on the southern, eastern and western elevations. Wide openings have been roughly made in the north and south walls but signs of the earlier narrow openings remain. There is a new roof - timber framed with corrugated iron cladding - constructed in 1996, in the form of the original.
The Magazine is built of brick on a stone plinth with a dilapidated timber floor pegged into joists. The walls have in the past been white washed inside and out. Timber joinery is missing. There is no visible evidence above ground of the early fence, paths or landing.
","history":"The Cooktown Powder Magazine was constructed in 1875-76 for the Department of Ports & Harbours, Queensland, by Cooktown contractor Henry J Meldrum, working to designs prepared in the office of the Queensland colonial architect, FDG Stanley. It remains one of the earliest known surviving powder magazines in Queensland.
For over a century, from 1860 to 1963, control of all explosives and gunpowder imported into Queensland was the province of the Harbour Master's Department (1860-62), the Department of Ports & Harbours (1862-93), the Marine Department (1894-1928), and the Department of Harbours and Marine (1929-63). In 1964, responsibility was shifted to the Queensland Department of Health. Under The Navigation Act of 1876, the master of any ship entering a Queensland port with gunpowder to be unloaded, had to ensure that it was placed in a government magazine. The Ports & Harbours Department therefore was responsible for the provision of magazines and for the safe storage of explosives at Queensland ports of entry. The Act further regulated the conveyance and storage of gunpowder in any place in Queensland, not just in the ports.
From the late 1860s, government magazines were being erected at the principal ports and goldfields of Queensland. On the goldfields, magazines were administered by the Mines Department; control of magazines other than in ports was not vested in the Marine Department until 1907, under the provisions of the Explosives Act of 1906. Magazines were constructed of stone, brick, timber, iron or concrete, often dependent on the local availability of materials. At some ports, floating magazines were utilised. By 1900, magazines under the control of the Marine Department were situated at Brisbane, Maryborough, Bundaberg, Gladstone, Rockhampton, Bowen, Townsville, Cairns, Cooktown and Normanton.
Construction of the Cooktown Powder Magazine in the mid-1870s was closely associated with the anticipated exploitation of the gold-bearing reefs of the Palmer River district, following the initial rush to the Palmer in 1873-74. Cooktown had been established in October 1873 as the Endeavour River port for the Palmer, and developed almost overnight as a supply and administrative centre. Within six months of its establishment, the town had 20 restaurants, 12 large and 20 smaller stores, 6 butchers, 5 bakers, 3 tinsmiths, and chemists, fancygoods shops, watchmakers, bootmakers and saddlers; 65 publican's licenses had been issued for the Cooktown-Palmer River district, with 30 more applied for by April 1874. There was an estimated 3,000 floating population in the town itself, and thousands of men en route to the goldfields. Two Cooktown newspapers were established in 1874, a state school, customs house, court house, and several churches were erected by 1875, and the town was declared a municipality on 5 April 1876. The 1876 census revealed a population of over 9,200 persons on the Palmer River goldfields, and the town of Cooktown had a population of just under 2,200.
Considering the increasing use of explosives on the Palmer by 1875, and the inherent threat to public safety generated by the storage of explosives in local Cooktown warehouses, the Department of Public Works called tenders for a powder magazine at Cooktown in July 1875. The contract, which was for a brick store 26 feet by 15 feet, roofed with galvanised iron and surrounded at a distance of 25ft by a 7ft high timber fence, was won in September 1875 by HJ Meldrum, with a price of £590. For safety reasons, the structure was to be located at the rocks by the sea at the northern edge of Grassy Hill, a considerable distance from the pilot station. [Operation of the magazine was the responsibility of the local Harbour Master.]
The building was completed by late January 1876. It was constructed of imported bricks, with windows stone faced and fitted with copper-faced shutters. The large hardwood door into the building was also coppered from the outside, and there appears to have been a sloping platform leading up to this door. The roof overhung the structure 4ft all around and had earthed lightning conductors. The interior had a hardwood floor with trestles on which the powder was stored about a foot above the flooring. No nails were used in the construction - all the timber work was pegged with wooden pegs - and any necessary metal fastenings were of copper. There was an 8ft high paling fence surrounding the building - this sustained severe white ant damage within a few years, and was replaced in 1883 with a galvanised iron fence.
When completed in January 1876, the Cooktown magazine was accessible only by boat. Local agitation led to a road being made along the seafront to the magazine, and Webber Esplanade was extended around the northern edge of Grassy Hill in the mid-1880s. By the late 1880s a number of dwellings had been erected at the base of Grassy Hill in the vicinity of the magazine, and the local volunteer defence force had installed a gun nearby. Despite an 1889 recommendation by Foreman McMillan of the Works Department that the magazine be removed two or three miles up the railway line from the port, this did not eventuate. Treasury funds for the removal were allocated in 1890, but by mid-1891 Queensland had entered a severe economic depression, and the funding was curtailed.
From the mid-1880s alluvial output from the Palmer River goldfields declined, and money to develop the extensive reefs in the district was not forthcoming. By 1894 the amount of explosives stored in the Cooktown Powder Magazine was very small, and little was being expended on maintaining the building. In 1907 repairs to the roof sheeting, roof framing, batteries and fence were carried out.
By May 1941 most of the iron fence had collapsed. Much of the sheeting had already been removed, and the Harbour Master was making arrangements to offer the remaining sheets for sale.
The building and site [218m²] were transferred to the National Trust of Queensland by Deed of Grant dated 25 March 1976, upon trust for Museum (Historic Relic) Purposes. In 1992 the National Trust, with local council and community support, removed the old roof, which was unsafe. This was replaced in 1996, and a programme of conservation and restoration of the brickwork commenced.
","criteria":"The Cooktown Powder Magazine is significant for its historical association with the development of the rich Palmer River goldfields in the mid-1870s, and survives as poignant evidence of the establishment of Cooktown as the principal administrative centre and supply port for the Palmer at this period.
|It is rare as one of the few government buildings surviving from Cooktown's establishment phase, and as one of the earliest known surviving Government powder magazines in Queensland.
|As an 1870s brick powder magazine of standard proportions it remains a good example of its type and has the potential to contribute significantly to any future study of Queensland powder magazines.
|The place contains good evidence of 1870s construction techniques for this special type of building use - especially the pegged timber floors, heavy hardwood framing, and small windows.
As an 1870s brick powder magazine of standard proportions it remains a good example of its type and has the potential to contribute significantly to any future study of Queensland powder magazines.
|The building, isolated by the water's edge at the northern edge of Grassy Hill, is a Cooktown landmark, particularly when viewed from the estuary approach to the town.
|The place is valued by the local community for its historical association with Cooktown's past and as a tourist attraction, and by the present owners, the National Trust of Queensland, for its rarity and historical, typological, technological and landmark values.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15201,"place_ref":600426,"name":"Nuggety Gully Water Race and Chinese Camp","alternate_name":"Star of Normanby Mine | Prospect Creek Stone Walls | Greasy Bill Creek water race","street_address":"Mareeba Mining District","suburb":"LAKELAND","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Nuggety Gully is a deep ravine with a dry rocky watercourse which drains into Prospect (originally Prospector's) Creek The place includes a series of stone-pitched retaining walls that extend intermittently along Nuggety Gully for a distance of 600 m north of the Prospect Creek junction from co-ordinates 15.58.53 S - 144.55.54 E to 15.58.37 S - 144.55.56 E. The retaining walls are constructed predominantly on the western side of the Gully. On some bends they are constructed on both sides of the creek, and in two or more tiers. The narrowest sections of the creek between retaining walls are about 2 m in width. The walls vary from 1 m to 2 m in height.
The Star of Normanby gold mine workings, comprising a small open cut and a caved shaft, extend across Nuggety Gully about 300 m north of Prospect Creek and are in direct association with the retaining walls.
A Chinese settlement site is located on Prospect Creek at its junction with Nuggety Gully. The site comprises nine small earth terraces, several containing stone edging and two containing fireplaces. The larger stone fireplace or oven has recently been partially reconstructed and sticks have been placed across the top. This structure has been wrongly described in a nomination to the Australian Heritage Commission for entry on the Register of the National Estate as "a fort in which Chinese miners hid from attacking Aborigines and fired on them".
","history":"Gold was first discovered "officially" in the West Normanby River area, southwest of Cooktown, in November 1874. The first official figures estimate that by the end of January 1875, over 600 men were on the field, many from Maytown. At this point no Chinese appear to have been allowed (by Mining Warden Phillip Sellheim) to enter the diggings. However, by February 1878, at least 200 Chinese were reported to be working the alluvials.
In May 1886 Mining Warden Howard Saint George visited the diggings and reported 34 Europeans working the reefs and thirty to forty Chinese employed exclusively in alluvial workings and in gardening. There were three gardens principally devoted to maize, for which there was a ready sale at the reefs.
In 1898 R. L. Jack, the Government Geologist, took a hurried look at the reefs long after most of the diggings had been abandoned. His map shows Chinese camps in the district but not at Nuggety Gully, between "Prospector's Gully" and the Star of Normanby reef. Therefore it is likely that the retaining walls and terraced camp site were constructed between 1878 (the heyday of early mining) and 1886.
","criteria":"The Nuggety Gully stone-pitched retaining walls and Chinese camp are significant in Queensland's history as the finest and most extensive surviving example of Chinese stonework.
|The direct associations of stone retaining walls, Chinese camp sites and conventional mine workings is exceptional.
|Further archaeological and archival investigation could yield information on the extent of Chinese activities and involvement in the Star of Normanby mine area.
|The quality of the stonework is significant and it has remained intact due to the broken nature of the country and the difficulties in achieving vehicle access, discouraging subsequent attempts at remining.
|(Criterion under review)
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15202,"place_ref":600427,"name":"Palmer Goldfield Mining Landscape","alternate_name":"Laura to Maytown Coach Road","street_address":"Palmer Goldfield Resources Reserve","suburb":"PALMER","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Palmer Goldfield Mining Landscape comprises a 13km stretch of road and the ruins of eight isolated mining settlements, dispersed across a 16,200ha resources reserve. The reserve is located approximately 120km southwest of Cooktown, in a rugged, isolated area of innumerable ridges and incised, seasonal creeks; it extends from the Conglomerate Range[1] (north) to the Palmer River (south), and is dissected from northeast to southwest by the winding North Palmer River.
\nFrom north to south the Palmer Goldfield Mining Landscape comprises the ruins of the:
\nThe historic goldfield retains important physical evidence of late-19th and early-20th century mining and associated domestic and commercial activities in the area including: transport infrastructure; remnant reef mining works, batteries and equipment; alluvial mining works including sluice gullies, stone pitched water races and dams; remnant forges and ovens; former townships, hotels, camps and other occupation sites; cemeteries and isolated graves; and various other associated features and artefacts.
\nLaura to Maytown Coach Road
\nThe place includes an approximately 13km long portion of the former Laura to Maytown Coach Road, from the northwest corner of the Reserve to where the road reaches the northern extremities of former town camp at German Bar (south). This portion of the route represents much of the last leg of the journey from Laura.
\nSeparate alignments for the western route (1876) and eastern route (deviations) descending the Conglomerate Range commence at the northern boundary of the Reserve and intersect approximately 3.5km to the south, from where the formation resumes the 1876 route south via Cradle Creek, Jessop’s Creek and Jessop’s Hill.
\nAssociated occupation sites include (from north to south): Folders Hotel and yards, and a Chinese camp and grave sites, along the western route; house sites, near the intersection of the western and eastern routes; a forge, near the Cradle Creek crossing; and campsites, graves, workings and dams, near the Jessop’s Creek crossing.
\nWinding through the rugged terrain, the original road formation is characterised by hand-cut road surfaces and drains, cuttings, retaining walls of varying sizes and quality, and quarrying undertaken to clear the road and reduce the slope. The route has been partly re-formed as a graded road but retains sections of original construction and early modifications.
\nEastern route formation
\nCommencing approximately 1.5km east of the western route, on the northern boundary, the eastern route descends east then south around the eastern side of the range, before aligning southwest towards the intersection with the western road.
\nA retaining wall of unsorted and uncut stone with clay mortar is found either side of a ramp that commences approximately 600m from the start of the descent. On the western side of the road at this point are two side drains that have been hand chiselled and cut through bedrock. The retaining wall extends southwest along the ramp for 100m and has an uneven batter of approximately 45-55 degrees. The stone used has been quarried from a cutting located to the north. The retaining wall reaches a maximum height of 10m in one section.
\nThe section south of the intersection with the track to Cradle Creek is particularly well represented by elements of original construction including steep pinches, cuttings and stone drains. At the junction with Cradle Creek, the western side of the road features a stone retaining wall of medium sized unsorted stone with a smaller coping course. The wall is 35m in length and up to 1m high.
\nContinuing south, the winding route crosses Jessop’s Creek, where numerous occupation sites are located near the road, before reaching the northern extents of the former German Bar town camp.
\nWestern route formation
\nFrom the northern boundary the western route continues in a southerly direction through the Reserve and takes a detour (c1895) to Ripple Creek via a track to the west of the original road alignment. The track then heads to the memorial to Robert Logan Jack and his trigonometric station (memorial not of State-level heritage significance).
\nSituated about 200m east of the memorial is the beginning of the ‘Western’ route down the escarpment of the Conglomerate Range. This descent is characterised by an extensive cutting into the native sandstone to produce a smooth road surface, the western side of which has been cut out a further 200m for the entire length of the road at this point. The western side also contains additional check-outs for squared timbers (0.25x0.25m) that may have been used to hold a corduroy road to assist coaches and drays to climb to the top of the conglomerates. These check-outs are between 4m and 5.5m apart down this western side of the road at this point.
\nThe route continues in a general southeast direction for a further 1km until it reaches the remains of Folder’s Hotel and yards. From Folder’s Hotel, the road heads south. Approximately 300m along the road and to the west are the remains of a Chinese camp and graves. The road then continues towards the intersection with the original 1876 alignment.
\nOccupation sites
\nFolders Hotel and yards (western route)
\nThe remains of former Folders Hotel are located east of the western road and comprise:
\nHorse yard posts associated with former Folder’s Hotel are located approximately 70m southeast of the hotel remains. They include:
\nChinese camp and graves (western route)
\nA Chinese camp, located west of the western road, is situated on a flat on a bend in a creek and may have had as many as 20 huts. Occupation evidence includes:
\nHouse sites (eastern and western route intersection)
\nAt least two house sites are located adjacent to the intersection of the eastern and western route alignments. They include:
\nForge (Cradle Creek crossing, eastern route)
\nThe remains of a square stone structure, probably a forge, measuring 1.4x1.1x0.7m high, is located adjacent to the road, immediately north of the Cradle Creek crossing.
\nCampsites, graves, workings and dams (Jessop’s Creek crossing)
\nNumerous Chinese and European campsites, graves, alluvial workings and small dams are located immediately adjacent to the road at the Jessop’s Creek crossing. The campsites are located east and west of the road and include:
\nTwo Chinese burial grounds are located approximately 400m north of the Jessop’s Creek campsite. They comprise:
\nGerman Bar to Thompson’s Loop
\nThe German Bar Complex is a large area (approximately 142.8ha) that comprises the remains of the former German Bar Township, a Chinese cemetery, numerous isolated graves, Binnie’s Gang Forward Battery, and a collection of Chinese alluvial mining remnants, graves and an occupation site. The complex is spread out along a section of the North Palmer River approximately 4km north of Maytown.
\nThe northern section of the complex includes the German Bar Township area, with evidence of occupation along both banks of the river and a small section of the Laura to Maytown Coach Road (north to south). The wide variety of archaeological evidence in this section primarily relates to domestic and commercial practices on the Palmer Goldfield, rather than mining activities, and is predominantly located on high river terraces situated immediately above the river.
\nThe southern section of the complex is limited to the southern bank of the river at a bend known locally as Thompson’s Loop and is close to a major junction of roads/tracks and includes a popular contemporary camp site. It includes archaeological evidence of domestic occupation as well as alluvial workings.
\nNorthern Section
\nGerman Bar Township
\nA large occupation site is located on the northern bank of the North Palmer River. It includes an earthen oven, dug into the top of a sloping bank near the junction of two drainage creeks, and low density camp sites, the heaviest concentration of which are located along a ridge immediately to the northwest of and parallel to the North Palmer River. Along the top of this ridge runs the Laura to Maytown Coach Road.
\nThe ruins of a comparatively large structure (possible store or hotel) are located immediately west of the coach road, just as it enters the German Bar Township. It comprises:
\nAn exhumed Chinese grave is located near the northwest edge of the township. Largely overgrown with grass, the grave is marked by a linear hole orientated northeast-southwest, with the lowest section down slope towards a drainage creek.
\nThe German Bar Township also extends over the southern bank of the North Palmer River. Camp sites and isolated graves are scattered over the southern bank and extend down to the first river terrace, and a large terraced structure overlooks the river.
\nChinese Cemetery
\nA concentrated area of graves that has become known as ‘the cemetery’, is located on the southern bank of the river near the top of a large ridge. A modern three-string barbed wire fence surrounds the cemetery, with a gate in the northeast corner; however, graves are not confined to the fenced area.
\nSite of Binnie’s Gang Forward Battery
\nThe site of Binnie’s Gang Forward Battery is located southwest of the German Bar Township, on the first river terrace on the northern bank of the North Palmer River. The battery platform and rear retaining wall have been destroyed; however, it retains: an artefact scatter on the steep slope immediately behind the former battery location; a large occupation site (the Binnies’ house), situated up the slope to the north; and nearby stock yard remnants, located immediately adjacent to the Laura to Maytown Coach Road.
\nSouthern Section (Thompson’s Loop Area)
\nChinese Graves
\nAlthough Chinese graves are spread throughout the Palmer, two sets of graves located near Thompson’s Loop are unique and potentially very significant. The first set comprises two interments located beside an active road and marked by modern wooden posts with faded white paint. A historical pack track running east-west is located 10m to the south of the two graves. A further set of three graves is located nearby to the southwest.
\nAdditional isolated graves are located nearby and further to the southwest, although they do not exhibit the ornate cairns.
\nOccupation Sites
\nA former occupation site that includes remnants of a former Chinese market garden and an intact in-ground oven, is located on a ridge immediately above a small drainage creek that sweeps around the southwest toward Thompson’s Gully, which contains considerable evidence of historical alluvial workings. The site has been substantially affected by environmental and human impacts and a current road bisects the high river terrace/ridge.
\nThe slopes above the alluvial works are littered with remnants of camps and occupation sites.
\nAlluvial Workings
\nThe former alluvial workings follow the creek line toward the southwest and include a wide variety of features, such as stone pitching within the creek bed, mullock heaps and water diversions.
\nRevolver Point Township
\nThe Revolver Point Township site is located 7km northeast of Maytown, on a promontory of land formed by one of the many sweeping bends in the North Palmer River. The 20ha township area is vegetated with native woodland and grassy understorey, and includes:
\nOn the western side of the area and close to the river, rocks have been stacked into lines to create terracing either for house sites or to define streets. There are drains associated with the terracing and several collapsed stone fireplaces on levelled terraced sites overlooking the river.
\nThree cemeteries and several isolated graves are sited overlooking the river.
\nMt Atlas and Echotown Complex
\nMt Atlas dominates and sits at the north end of the west side of the roughly triangular shaped Echotown Complex, which is bounded on the east, south and west by the North Palmer River. Pack tracks from Revolver Point to the west and from the Emily Battery and Wild Irish Girl Mine (QHR 600428) to the north skirt around the northeast side of Mt Atlas.
\nThe area is predominantly native woodland with grassy understorey. It slopes east and south down from Mt Atlas to the North Palmer River. In several places the river is contained within near vertical cliffs over 10m high. The river contains one 50m by up to 15m wide semi-permanent water hole at the southeast corner of the area, known as Binnie’s Pool.
\nThe area contains undisturbed examples of stone pitched alluvial gullies and minor quartz reef workings, as well as the site of the Gang Forward or Binnie's Battery and Echotown.
\nGang Forward or Binnie's Battery
\nThe Gang Forward or Binnie's Battery Site is on the east bank of the North Palmer River adjoining Binnie's Pool. The western bank of the river at this point is a near vertical cliff, which forms a natural boundary of the area being recommended for protection. The battery site consists of levelled benches cut into the natural land surface, some collapsed stone work, the remains of a boiler setting and a section of flagstone wall. There is no sign of any machinery present and it is not readily apparent how the battery operated.
\nEchotown
\nEchotown is located a short distance northeast of the battery site. From the battery site, the land rises gently from the river with levelled sites where buildings once stood within an area up to 100m from the river. Most of the township area is covered with grass. The township contains three substantial levelled building sites and two graves are located east of and overlooking Echotown.
\nQuartz reef workings
\nThere are two sets of small scale quartz reef workings located 700m northeast of Binnie’s Battery site.
\nMinor, or eastern gully, stone pitching
\nA gully, 20m southwest of the quartz reefing workings and running roughly north to south, has been mined for alluvial gold. It has coarse stone pitching up to 2m high for a distance of 50m along the gully.
\nMt Atlas stone pitching
\nThe Mt Atlas stone pitching commences approximately 350m north of Binnie’s Pool, in a gully that heads east from the North Palmer River before turning north and heading upstream toward Mt Atlas.
\nLouisa Mines and Enterprise Battery Complex
\nLocated approximately 2km northeast of Maytown, there are three key components to this complex: the remains of the Louisa No.1 West and Louisa PC Mine, situated in Thompson’s Gully; the Enterprise Battery, located 150m south of the main mine shaft; and the Louisa Mine manager’s house, located 120m northeast of the Enterprise Battery and 100m southeast of the remains of the Louisa Mines.
\nLouisa No.1 West and Louisa PC Mine
\nExtant mine remains comprise two collapsed mine shafts, and associated concrete foundations and metal machinery from varying phases of mining operations.
\nEnterprise Battery
\nThe Enterprise Battery is an almost complete battery, with most of its machinery still in-situ. It includes:
\nLouisa Mine manager’s house site
\nThe site of the former mine manager’s residence is located on a small rise adjacent to the road. It comprises:
\nParson’s house site
\nAlso within the boundary are the stone foundations of former Parson’s house site, associated with mining operations at the nearby Comet mine in the 1890s. The site contains remains of corrugated iron sheeting, glass shards, pieces of iron and metal, brick fragments, bottles, and a stamp shoe with the shank broken off. The area outside the house is littered with glass fragments.
\nButcher’s Creek Complex
\nLocated approximately 2.3km northeast of Maytown, the Butcher’s Creek Complex comprises: the Comet Mine and Mill, situated beside the road from Laura to Maytown, on a sloping site west of and above Butcher’s Creek; the King of the Ranges Mine, situated on the eastern bank of Butcher’s Creek and 150m northeast of the Comet mine; and various alluvial workings immediately adjacent to or within Butcher’s Creek.
\nComet Mine and Mill
\nThe Comet mine site consists of a collapsing shaft and associated partially removed mullock heap between the shaft and Butcher’s Creek. Pieces of mining plant scattered around the shaft include a sheave wheel and several lengths of pipe from a pumping column.
\nThe Comet mill or battery site is 30m west of the shaft. While the battery has been removed, the Cornish boiler, steam engine and Berdan pans remain.
\nKing of the Ranges Mine
\nThe King of the Ranges is a small quartz reef mine with surface features covering a 20x30m area between the creek and a ridge. It comprises:
\nRecent reconstructions include shelters, an ore truck and tramlines that extend west from the shaft along the top of the mullock heap.
\nOther elements along Butcher’s Creek
\nButcher’s Creek No 1 Dam and associated alluvial workings are located 120m northwest of the King of the Ranges mine along the eastern side of the creek.
\nA second stone dam, Butcher’s Creek No. 2 Dam, is 280m southeast of the King of the Ranges Mine, and has an associated area of alluvial workings located east of the Comet Mine on the north side of Butcher’s Creek. The dam collects water from a gully running into the creek from the north side and diverts it into a race taking water to the alluvial workings northwest of the dam.
\nOther artefact scatters are found on the west side of the Laura to Maytown Road. One site contains a safe; another a collapsed stone fireplace; another four galvanised iron wash basins, parts of a stove, battery screens segments and a scatter of small artefacts. At another site, sheets of corrugated iron, segments of cast iron plus other artefacts are found. There is a water race located west of the road. A house site, vacated in the 1920s, is situated near the water race.
\nIda Complex
\nThe Ida Complex is located approximately 1.5km northeast of Maytown. Within the 35ha area adjacent to the Butcher’s, Caledonian and Ida Creeks are the remnants of (from northwest to southeast): a Chinese market garden; the Perseverance and Mabel Louise battery sites; houses and other buildings from Ida Township; and the Ida PC Mine. The former Laura to Maytown Road alignment passes through the town site and the area is traversed by modern tracks.
\nButcher’s Creek market garden
\nThe main feature of the Chinese garden site is a grove of six mature mango trees in two rows. The trees are growing on a flat area surrounded on three sides by Butcher’s Creek. There are two stone fireplaces on the northern side of the trees and an open drain west of the trees and what may have been a well.
\nPerseverance Battery
\nThe Perseverance Battery is located approximately 100m south of the garden site. It consists of a cast iron battery frame set on a concrete foundation, a single battery box and five stamp rods within the box, a scatter of metal artefacts and a sand dump which extends 40m west of the battery. A brick and stone fireplace or possible furnace is located on the west side of the sand dump.
\nMabel Louise Battery
\nThe Mabel Louise Battery is located 20m east of the Perseverance Battery frame, and although quite disturbed still contains several of the original 1877 components of the battery. Features at the site include a ship’s water tank, sections of the pump arm and piping, an incomplete Robey twin cylinder portable engine, two battery cam shafts marked ‘Langlands FC’ one with ring gear attached, one mortar box lying on the ground with stamp rods inside, plus a scatter of stamp rods and numerous other metal artefacts. The battery was prefabricated with some care; individually hand-forged bolts and bolt-holes on the stamp guides have been marked with Roman numerals for accurate reassembly, and the tappets are also numbered.
\nIda Town
\nThe remains of Ida Town are mostly located midway between the Mabel Louise Battery and the Ida Mine. Visible remains include the site of the former Mechanics’ Institute building, multiple house and dump sites, the remnants of two footbridges, a well, collapsed stone chimneys and associated artefacts.
\nThe remains of the former Mechanics’ Institute building are located in the centre of the town and include:
\nOne well-defined house site comprises:
\nThe remains of two former footbridges that crossed Caledonian Creek are located approximately 50m southeast of the town site.
\nThe main well which serviced Ida Town is located 50m northeast of the township in Caledonia Creek. The well is filled in with sand and is now also covered with sand and gravel. The location of the well is marked by a pole with a painted white tip situated on the creek bank immediately above the site. The well has a rusting metal hinged and rotting wooden door measuring 0.57m across.
\nA large rubbish dump containing bottles, pottery and ceramic sherds, glass stoppers and bone, is located south of Caledonian Creek and close to the main track through the township site. It extends over 20m down a slope toward the track and has evidence of disturbance from bottle-collecting activities. Above the dump is the site of a building which comprises a flagstone floor, a scatter of broken bricks, and a camp oven.
\nIda PC Mine
\nLocated southeast of the township, the former Ida Mine site is dissected by a modern vehicle track; it includes both the mine site and a well-defined house site, located 50m to the north.
\nThe former mine comprises:
\nThe house site comprises:
\nPioneer Complex
\nLocated approximately 1.5km southeast of Maytown, the Pioneer Complex is a large sprawling site that incorporates a wide variety of site types, including stone ruins, a large open camp, a cemetery and the foundations of the Pioneer Mill.
\nPioneer Mill (Battery Site)
\nThe site of the Pioneer Mill is located on the north bank of the Palmer River. No machinery remains but the footprint of the battery, engine and boiler area is clearly visible and readable as a large recess cut into the bank of the river terrace – likely to be site of the mortar box. The remains of a possible forge are also located at this site. Immediately to the east are two uneven platforms that include stone retaining walls and drainage channels which were probably the foundations for the boiler and engine. Immediately below the foundations is a flattened terrace formed from tailings which has been partly eroded by seasonal flooding.
\nPioneer Settlement
\nTo the north of the Pioneer Mill foundations are ruins of the Pioneer Settlement, which consists of a number of small camp sites, terraced platforms, and a square stone structure of unknown purpose.
\nSlightly to the south of the camps is a steep gully that contains a small square shaped stone ruin. The isolation of this structure away from campsites, its design and size suggest that it may have been a former explosives store or safe.
\nCampsite
\nTo the southeast of the stone ruin is a large campsite comprising a dense scatter of building materials and associated domestic artefacts.
\nCemetery
\nTo the northwest of the campsite is a small cemetery. Located on a small spur immediately above the Palmer River, it contains at least five identifiable graves, three orientated perpendicular to the river and have a clear mound; one is also marked with small stone cairns similar to Chinese graves found elsewhere on the Palmer. Two others are orientated parallel to the river, one with a corrugated iron cover. A small upright stone marker is also visible which may indicate the location of another grave, although there is no visible associated mound.
\nGregory Gully
\nLocated approximately 3km southeast of Maytown, Gregory Gully comprises an approximately 420.3ha area containing: a series of gullies with alluvial workings and associated occupation sites to the north; a concentration of campsites in the central area; the remains of the Gregory Township and the former Queen of the North PC Mine, to the west; and a complex of alluvial workings, and associated domestic occupation sites and graves, to the southeast.
\nGregory Gully – Northern Area
\nThe northern section of Gregory Gully is an open forest environment with grassy understorey, dissected by three gullies roughly running from northwest to southeast. The 420.3ha area contains a large number of largely undisturbed alluvial workings. At the head of the two main gullies on the west of the area are the quartz reefs – probably the original source of the gold that was mined from alluvial gravels in the gullies below. Domestic artefacts are found scattered throughout the area, with concentrations at small domestic and industrial occupation sites.
\nThe northern gully is the widest and most open gully of the three and contains less dramatic evidence of the alluvial mining activity. Archaeological features include:
\nThe central gully is 470m long, narrow and steep-sided and comprises stone pitching and terracing for much of its length, a horizontal shaft (adit), pack track and dray road to the east (adit and tracks post-date the alluvial workings), and associated occupation and quartz reef mining sites.
\nThe southern gully is a mostly broad gully that winds in a roughly east-west direction. It contains extensive low stone pitching and some associated domestic and/or industrial occupation sites.
\nGregory Gully – Central Area
\nAn extensive campsite is situated approximately 800m east-north-east of the Queen of the North PC ruins and adjacent the eastern boundary of the Gregory Gully area. The campsite extends approximately 100m north-south and 300m east-west and includes:
\nThe remains of a domestic site and the Live and Let Live Battery are located approximately 300m south of the extensive campsite.
\nAdditional campsites and Chinese graves are located north of the extensive campsite. Two cairns, one intact the other highly disturbed, mark the site of severely eroded grave mounds approximately 200m north-east of the large campsite. Modern mining activity has occurred immediately to the north of these graves.
\nA second large campsite, located immediately east of these graves, is evidenced by numerous occupation sites and associated artefact scatters including:
\nModern mining has impacted on the areas immediately east and north of the second large campsite.
\nGregory Township
\nThe remains of the Gregory Township follow the road behind and west of the remains of the Queen of the North PC, commencing about 100m west and continuing for approximately 1km. The main features in this former township include numerous benched hut and house sites, building foundations, flagstones, fireplaces, and scatters of artefacts including corrugated iron, ore buckets, tin and other metal artefacts and glass sherds. Notable features include:
\nQueen of the North PC Mine
\nThe remains of the Queen of the North PC are on the brow of a ridge overlooking Gregory Gully and the clearing which was the township of Gregory, located approximately 100m west of the mine. The focal point is the relatively intact set of Cornish boilers and horizontal steam engine sitting in situ next to the collapsed main shaft. The plant and equipment are located east of the shaft and a large mullock heap extends south and west from the shaft toward Gregory Gully.
\nOther shafts and mullock heaps are located both southeast and northwest of the main shaft.
\nGregory Gully – Southern Area
\nThese Chinese alluvial workings consist of a large complex including stone pitched gullies and small dams, alluvial mining workings, and small campsites and settlements, all located in the southeast corner of the Palmer Goldfield Resources Reserve. Most of the physical evidence is concentrated along three roughly parallel gullies that contain creek beds that have been extensively pitched with stone. The stone pitching varies in quality, size and extent; in some areas it is restricted to one side, while in others it is on both sides of the gully.
\nIn numerous locations along the creeks are the remnants of other mining processes such as dams, diversions, water races and ‘cradle sumps’. Dispersed along the banks above the creeks are numerous discrete campsites, consisting mainly of small hearths and low density and fragmentary artefact scatters.
\nA long gully runs in a northwest to southeast direction through the centre of the site. This gully has been extensively worked for alluvial gold, is extensively pitched with stone, and features a number of small dams along its length.
\nA second stone pitched gully is located in the northeast portion of this site and contains intermittent stone pitching up to 1.5m in height extending 200-300m in length. A number of small dams are also located along its length (one to three stone courses in height).
\nThe Palmer River Chinese Campsite is located along the terraced slopes of the Palmer River, approximately 300m east of the Gregory Beach Dam. The site includes the remains of a settlement extending approximately 50x50m above the Palmer River. Numerous house sites are identifiable and located close together along the terraces, including flagstones and stone building foundations.
\nA group of six graves, all orientated east-west are located approximately 200m west of Gregory Beach Dam and north of the Palmer River. Three of the graves are complete with cairns and mounds while the other graves have been exhumed. Remnants of a campsite are located along the ridge adjacent the graves. Artefacts include tin debris, square bottle bases and other glass fragments, iron pipe fragments, stone building foundations and a raised square stone structure, probably a fireplace. A nearby gully immediately to the west of the graves contains stone pitching, which is in poor condition.
\nFeatures not of State-level heritage significance
\nModern mining features, concrete slabs, fencing, interpretation signage and reconstructed elements are not of State-level cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The Laura to Maytown Coach Road was surveyed in 1876 to provide an access route to the isolated Palmer Goldfield, proclaimed in 1873. The Revolver Point Township, Mount Atlas and Echotown Complex, German Bar Complex, Louisa Mines and Enterprise Battery Complex, Butcher’s Creek Complex, Ida Complex, Pioneer Mill Complex and Gregory Gully were established in the 1870s and 1880s during the height of the Palmer gold rush. These self-sufficient settlements sprang up on the isolated goldfield to serve alluvial and reef miners, and contain remnants of their mining activities. Most were abandoned by 1900, though sporadic mining activity continued on the Palmer until World War II.
\nGold mining played a major role in Queensland’s economic and geographic development in the late 19th century. Between 1873 and 1906, Queensland's gold and other metal exports regularly exceeded that of wool. Before 1865, little thought was given to the prospect of gold in North Queensland, but as settlement spread north to Townsville, alluvial gold was discovered on Star River Station (1865), in the Cape River area (1867), on the Gilbert River (1869) and at Etheridge (1870). The country north of these finds was explored for pastoral potential and mineral deposits from the early 1870s. In 1872, William Hann led a Queensland Government-sponsored expedition into Cape York, the territory of the Western Yalanji people.[1] Expedition surveyor Frederick Warner located gold on a tributary of the Mitchell River, about 450km from Townsville, in August 1872. The tributary was named the Palmer River after the then Premier of Queensland, Arthur Hunter Palmer.[2]
\nEncouraged by the report of gold, James Venture Mulligan led a prospecting party to investigate the Palmer River in June 1873. Mulligan’s party located some of the richest alluvial deposits in North Queensland, triggering a rush to the area. The 2,000 square mile (5,180km2) goldfield was proclaimed in December 1873.[3] Initially, miners and carriers approached the goldfield from Georgetown, a 380km walk north via Mount Surprise Station, with a major river crossing at the Mitchell River.[4] Unprepared miners died en route from lack of supplies, drowning, or confrontation with the Kuku-Yalanji and Kuku-Mini people.[5] In 1874 a coastal port for the goldfield was established at Endeavour Inlet, later renamed Cooktown.[6]
\nDespite warnings about the difficult conditions, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people proceeded to the goldfield, establishing camps on or near their claims. Over a million ounces of highly pure gold were exported from the goldfield between 1873 and 1879, with returns over the first decade valued at nearly £5,000,000.[7] Most of the Palmer’s gold came from alluvial deposits, and it became Queensland’s premier alluvial goldfield in the 1870s. An administrative centre, including the mining warden’s camp, was established at Palmerville, near the centre of the goldfield, but in 1875 shifted east to Maytown (QHR 602255), where mining activity was concentrated.[8]
\nUnusually, the majority of the Palmer goldfield’s population in the 1870s consisted of Chinese miners. Arriving overland from goldfields in the southern colonies, they totalled around 40% of the Palmer’s population at the end of 1874. From 1875 a steamship service ran between Hong Kong and Cooktown, bringing around 1,000 Chinese miners per month directly to the goldfield. By 1877, an estimated 18,000 Chinese miners comprised 90% of the Palmer population, the largest Chinese community in Australia.[9] The miners were mostly young single men who intended to return to China once their goldmining activities yielded profit. They engaged almost exclusively in alluvial mining, replacing European miners who found the Palmer less profitable than expected and moved to other goldfields. Living and working cooperatively, the Chinese were better provisioned and obtained more consistent gold returns than Europeans.[10] Over 500,000 ounces of gold valued at £200,000 were officially exported to China in both 1876 and 1877.[11]
\nNew settlements developed around the goldfield as discoveries were made some distance from Maytown. The demographics of the settlements were determined by the gold mining activity taking place nearby: reef mining settlements were dominated by Europeans; alluvial settlements, mostly along the Left Hand Bank (North Palmer River), were inhabited by Chinese miners.[12] The speed of the gold rush and high cost of importing building materials discouraged permanent buildings, so the settlements comprised small canvas townships with dwellings, cemeteries, businesses including butchers’ shops and general stores, Chinese ovens for cooking meat and bread, and market gardens. Cattle were driven overland to the goldfield to supply the settlements’ butchers’ stores, while Chinese merchants arranged to import goods. The remoteness of the Palmer and challenges of transporting goods there pushed the price of goods so high that the rich gold returns were neutralised by the cost of living.[13]
\nThe death rate on the Palmer, particularly in the early years of the rush, was high. Europeans were buried in cemeteries on the goldfield or in unmarked graves where they died.[14] Chinese miners who died on the goldfield were buried in makeshift graves or cemeteries with little ceremony by kin, neighbours, friends or European authorities. 148 Chinese burials were recorded between 1873 and 1883, observing feng shui traditions where possible. The Palmer graves were viewed as temporary resting places, while families or local associations raised money to return bodies home for burial. Some were exhumed and returned to China in the late 19th and early 20th century.[15]
\nDespite relatively peaceful interactions between Chinese and European miners,[16] the large influx of single Chinese men onto the goldfield caused concern in other parts of the colony. In 1877 the Goldfields Act Amendment Act and Chinese Immigrants Regulation Act were passed, restricting immigrant numbers and activities, and imposing high tariffs and mining licence fees.[17] Diminishing alluvial returns, the high cost and poor standard of living, and the discovery of new alluvial goldfields exacerbated the impact of the legislation. Chinese miners departed the Palmer, with the total population plummeting from 18,000 in 1877 to just 2,000 in 1882.[18] Most returned to China; some sought other goldfields; and some settled in Cooktown. Alluvial mining ceased on the Palmer almost entirely, and in 1883 the mining warden reported that the alluvial material had been exhausted. The population of Chinese miners dropped to 450 in 1886, and 282 in 1897.[19]
\nGiven the high quantity and quality alluvial returns, a fortune was anticipated to be waiting in the Palmer’s underground quartz reefs. European miners began small-scale reef mining in 1874. Three principal reefs were located, with reef mining concentrated on five districts: Butcher’s Creek, Gregory Gully, German Bar, Revolver Point, and Cradle Creek.[20] Expensive sinking equipment was required to dig shafts and dewater flood-prone mines in the wet season, but high carriage costs limited what could be brought in. The first ore processing battery, the Pioneer, was installed on the goldfield in 1876, and was joined by another four machines in 1877.[21] New settlements developed near major reef mines, including Ida, Gregory and Echotown, while small camps grew around the Pioneer and Louisa machines. Permanent building materials were introduced to the reef mining settlements, which were less ephemeral than alluvial ones, allowing miners’ families to settle on the goldfield. 100-200 women and children reported living on the Palmer in the late 19th century.[22]
\nBy the 1880s, reef mining activity had surpassed alluvial works on the goldfield, though this was due more to the falling off of alluvial activity than the proliferation of reef works. Most mines were operated by companies, which could raise capital to fund operations. Boilers, pumps, winding machines and batteries were installed at the company mines in the 1880s as the reefs continued to produce sparse but tantalisingly rewarding returns. However, companies underinvested on equipment or installed machines which were inappropriate for the local conditions. To make matters worse, most of the 145 auriferous reefs found on the Palmer were small and of average value. In 1884, the limited profitability of the Palmer’s reef mines became public, and investment wound down, ceasing almost entirely when a financial depression struck in the early 1890s. The reef mines were amongst the most expensive to run in Australia, and the Palmer’s reef mining legacy was as ‘a model of the ways in which a goldfield could be plundered and mismanaged into virtual extinction.’[23] Despite this, the Palmer remained the fourth highest producing Queensland goldfield of the 19th and 20th centuries.[24]
\nIn 1893 the Palmer’s total population was 386.[25] The mining warden was withdrawn in 1893, though intermittent reef mining activity continued. In 1897, Government Geologist Robert Logan Jack reported that the Palmer reefs had ‘never had a fair trial, although many of them more than deserve it’,[26] sparking reef mining revivals over the first half of the 20th century. Government funding was provided to aid revivals in the 1920s and 1930s, though like their predecessors, few reported profit.[27] The material of permanent buildings was too valuable to waste in the remote area, and much was removed and repurposed in the 1940s. The goldfield was gazetted as the Palmer Goldfields Resources Reserve in 1986.
\nCoach Road
\nThe Palmer’s remoteness and the absence of pre-existing European settlement created particular problems for transport. New roads were established to replace the route via Georgetown, including Macmillan’s, which ran along the Conglomerate Range to Palmerville (1874); the ‘Douglas Track or ‘Hell’s Gate’ track through the ranges to Maytown (1875); and ‘Coward’s Track’ or ‘Byerstown Road’ to Byerstown (1875).[28] The roads travelled significant distances from the goldfield, crossing difficult terrain, were inaccessible to wheeled traffic, and obtained carriage costs of up to £120 per ton, hampering the goldfield’s development.[29]
\nReef mining activity, requiring heavy mining machinery, stimulated the search for a trafficable route to the goldfield. In August 1876 ‘Robinson’s Track’ was established to Maytown. The 54 mile (87km) track ran south from Macmillan’s track at Laura, along the Little Laura River, crossed the Conglomerate Range and into Maytown via Cradle Creek, Jessop’s Hill, Jessop’s Gully, German Bar and Thompson’s Gully.[30] It shortened the distance from Maytown to Cooktown to 160km, and allowed heavy machinery to be carried to the goldfield for the first time.[31]
\nFunds were raised locally and £1,500 was diverted from the Byerstown Road project to develop the track.[32] Road parties were sent from Maytown in September 1876 to clear trees and blast sections of rock. The track was in use by October,[33] but had a number of drawbacks, including several hazardous sections ‘in places like a series of ladders at an angle as nearly to the perpendicular as is possible’.[34] Creek and river crossings were difficult or impassable during the wet season, and the Conglomerate Range crossing ran along a ridge ‘on the brink of a gorge’.[35] Heavy wheeled traffic cut through the soft sandstone descent of the range, eroding the road and making it particularly dangerous after rain. Local European and Chinese labourers were engaged to improve the road, blasting or excavating cuttings by hand, constructing retaining walls and strengthening the sections near the range. Cuttings were made in the rock for squared timbers, possibly for a corduroy road[36] to help coaches and drays over the hill.[37] With improvements made, a regular Cobb and Company coach service to the goldfield was introduced in 1880, and Robinson’s Track became known as the Laura to Maytown Coach Track or Road.[38] A railway line to Maytown was surveyed in the late 1880s but did not eventuate, leaving the coach road and auxiliary tracks as the only transport routes to the goldfield.[39]
\nThe coach journey from Cooktown to Maytown took about 30 hours in good weather conditions; in the wet season, the trip could take up to three months. Rest stops, hotels and guest houses were established along the track to accommodate delayed passengers.[40] Conditions were basic and prices high.[41] Folder’s Hotel was established at the base of the Conglomerate Range, on the banks of a tributary of Catalpa Creek. The hotel, run by Alfred Folder, was operational by 1887 and included a handful of structures, yards, sawpit, and gardens.[42] Chinese campsites were also dotted along the Laura to Maytown road, as prospectors slowly progressed towards the field or sought gold along the track.[43] Some Chinese graves are still visible, including at Folder’s Hotel and Jessop’s Hill crossings.
\nCoaching services dwindled with the Palmer goldfield’s decline in the 1890s, though the track remained in use when new gold discoveries were made south of Maytown at Groganville (QHR 600982).[44] Deviations were made across difficult or flooded sections of the coach road, including sections in the north east of the original coach road.[45]
\nIn 1910 the Public Estate Improvements branch improved the Laura-Maytown road for a brief mining revival. ‘Checkouts’, visible along part of this track after the Conglomerate Ranges, may have been added at this time. Two deviations were made near the steepest parts of the road at Folder’s Hill (1910) and Jessop’s Hill (1912).[46] The track served as the main access route into the goldfields into the 20th century. A mail route operated along the road until the 1930s, and prospectors used the road during later mining revivals. A portion of the Laura-Maytown Coach Road was included in the Palmer Goldfields Resources Reserve gazettal in 1986.[47] The unmaintained road continues to provide access to the goldfield from Laura and is a popular recreational vehicle track.
\nGerman Bar
\nLocated on the North Palmer River and Thompson’s Gully about 4km north-northeast of Maytown, German Bar was one of the earliest towns on the goldfield. It originated from a claim made in 1873 by three German miners, who reportedly extracted 125oz (3.54kg) of gold from a bar within the river.[48] European miners hastily staked claims in the area, establishing a settlement of canvas tents, which journalist Spencer Brown used as the setting for his tale of ‘How the Hatter Died’.[49] German Bar’s easiest finds were exhausted by mid-1874, and European miners departed.[50] Chinese miners took up the deserted claims, and by late 1874 German Bar was the goldfield’s main Chinese camp. ‘The German Bar is alive with Chinamen’, wrote one correspondent in December 1874, with ‘butcher’s stalls with quarters of good beef hanging on to the hooks, restaurants, and doctors.’[51]
\nThe town was ‘a small village on the river’, encircled by a series of ridgelines. A number of small camps dotted the ridgelines, where alluvial deposits were rich.[52] Chinese New Year festivities were held on the town’s sportsground, celebrated by approximately 5,000 Chinese miners from the surrounding districts.[53] Three hotels – the Shanghai, Sin King Nury and the Canton – were operating by 1876.[54] Food for the settlement was provided by Chinese settlers: the local butcher slaughtered cattle in the town’s stockyard weekly;[55] and Ah Gun (or Gum)’s market garden provided fresh produce, including mangoes.[56] Stone and earthen ovens were built in the town and at surrounding camps, likely for cooking meat. Near the edge of the town was German Bar’s cemetery, one of the largest on the goldfield.[57]
\nIn 1876 Robinson’s Track was laid directly past German Bar, bringing foot traffic, dray traffic and coaches into the town. European prospectors returned, discovering reefs nearby and commencing mining operations.[58] In 1880 Scottish engineer Andrew Binnie installed the ‘Gang Forward’ machine in the district, southwest of the town, and took up residence nearby.[59] German Bar briefly became a social and supply centre for nearby reef mines,[60] but by 1883, Europeans had largely abandoned the district.[61] A lack of capital was blamed for the decline of reef mining.[62] The local authority cut a new path to the Gang Forward battery to improve access from other mining districts, but the battery sat idle and ‘rusting for want of stone to operate upon’.[63] The battery site was destroyed during the construction of a haul road in the 1980s.
\nMost of German Bar’s Chinese residents had left after the Chinese Immigrants Regulation Act 1877. A small number stayed, operating a store, hotel and butchering business for the remaining miners.[64] Alluvial mining activity continued in the southwestern section of the district at Thompson’s Loop, where substantial gold discoveries were made in the early 1890s.[65] References to German Bar ceased in 1893.
\nRevolver Point
\nRevolver Point, about 7km northeast of Maytown and 4km upstream of German Bar, grew out of a European prospector’s claim laid out in 1873.[66] As at other alluvial settlements, European miners panned for gold at the ‘Point’, but soon declared it a ‘duffer’ and were replaced by Chinese miners. A small settlement of about 20ha developed on the riverbank near the claims, containing dwellings, butchers’ stalls and restaurants. Visitors crossing the river were afforded a view ‘through the timber of the white tents at Revolver Point’.[67]
\nBy December 1874 Revolver Point, like German Bar, was renowned as a Chinese settlement. Its reported population in 1876 was 500 Chinese and 40 European miners, with estimates of up to 2,000 additional unreported occupants. Five public houses, including the Hongkong and the Lenn Tenn, provided alcohol and accommodation. The handful of Europeans settlers in Revolver Point operated three stores, a butcher’s shop, and one of the public houses. Three cemeteries were located in the town and surrounds.[68]
\nRevolver Point, which was difficult to reach, developed a reputation as a ‘frontier’ town. Away from the police presence in Maytown, miners turned to crime when their provisions were in short supply. The European-owned butchery was robbed five times in 1875, losing £20 of silver and gold specimens, nuggets, chains, and papers valued at £100.[69] The settlement also experienced deviations from accepted social norms, including a reported family group of a European woman, Kate Knowles Ennis, Chinese storekeeper Ah Bin, and their three children.[70]
\nA new wave of European miners arrived after Revolver Point’s deep lead was discovered in November 1875, and an ore-processing battery was installed about two miles away. In December 1878 returns from the Revolver Point district’s Independent, Walhalla, Home Rule and Lord Nelson reef mines reached 1,131 tons of ore, yielding 1,204 ounces (34kg) of gold.[71] The reefs quickly proved unprofitable, however, and disappointed miners moved on, returning Revolver Point to the Chinese alluvial miners.[72]
\nDespite the passage of the Chinese Immigrants Regulation Act 1877, Revolver Point was still a ‘thriving (Chinese) mining centre’ in 1879. Further alluvial discoveries were reported at Revolver Point in the late 1880s and early 1890s, and stores, a blacksmith, garden and piggery operated from the town through the 1880s. Apart from rumours of fossicking activity in 1904, references to Revolver Point stopped after 1900.[73] It appears to have been abandoned with the decline of the field in the early 20th century.
\nMount Atlas and Echotown
\nThe Mount Atlas and Echotown Complex was occupied by Chinese and European mining communities after a prospecting claim was made in mid-1876. The town was laid out and named by Gold Warden Sellheim later that year. It sat at the base of Mount Atlas, 11km northeast of Maytown, and formed part of the Revolver Point mining district. The town was connected via pack tracks to Maytown and Revolver Point, 3km west. By 1877 buildings were ‘going up on every available spot’, though carters to carry essential supplies were scarce. Market gardens and businesses in the town were run by Chinese settlers, providing essential supplies for the miners. The deceased were buried in the town or at the nearby reef workings.[74]
\nChinese alluvial miners created extensive stone pitching in the Mount Atlas gullies, while sluicing the gullies of their gold-bearing gravels. The neat formations were part of a mining technique not practised by Europeans, which ensured that all material was checked and maximum profits extracted from the alluvial deposits. The Mount Atlas stone pitching, 200m long and several metres high, may have been partially restored by a local historical society in the 1980s.[75]
\nThe heyday of the complex was brief. A battery was opened in 1876, crushing stone from surrounding mines, but was idle within a year, as new gold discoveries drew miners away from Echotown. A second battery (the ‘Gang Forward’), was installed in 1877 next to a water source known as ‘Binnie’s Pool’ after the battery’s proprietor. Binnie had anticipated further reef mining, but within a year the battery was proposed for removal to German Bar.[76] It was dismantled and taken there in 1880, reportedly rafted down the North Palmer River. By 1882 Echotown, ‘at one time the centre of quartz mining’ was ‘quite deserted’.[77] Mount Atlas was targeted in the revivals of the 1920s and 1930s,[78] but with no reported success.
\nLouisa Mines and Enterprise Battery
\nThe Louisa Complex, north of Maytown, includes two mines (the Louisa and Louisa No 1 West, laid off in 1874 and 1875), the Enterprise Battery (installed in 1937), and the site of the Louisa Mine Manager’s House (likely built in the 1910s). A house site, the residence of a Comet miner, also sits within the complex.
\nThe gold-bearing Louisa reef system, striking west-northwest crossing Thompson’s Gully and Thompson’s Creek, was discovered during the early stages of the rush. The reef’s most prominent mines, the Louisa and Louisa No.1 West, were laid off in 1874 and 1875. Prospectors sunk 15 shafts onto the reef, but the mines were overwhelmed by flooding, despite the installation of a horse whim. In 1878, the manager of the Louisa No 1 West added a steam action pump, one of the first steam-powered machines on the goldfield, and purchased the Pioneer battery, which he reconstructed and renamed the ‘Duo Juncta’. In January 1879 a ‘perfect jeweller’s shop’ of gold was found on the reef at 82 foot (25m), with crushings at the Duo Juncta in March 1879.[79]
\nAfter further flooding, the No 1 West was closed and sold to a syndicate (the Louisa Company) in 1881.[80] The company installed an English-made Tangye pump in January 1882, and the Louisa Company reported payable stone in March 1882. As the reef was ‘known to be a rich one’, the company ordered new machinery, including two seven-ton 25hp Cornish tubular boilers, both on specially cast iron beds; a winding engine; an air compressor made by Brisbane company Smith, Forrester and Co; and two more Tangye pumps. The air compressor was the ‘first of the kind manufactured in Brisbane’, and the first installed on the Palmer.[81] A poppet head was also erected. The new machinery was installed in April 1883 and pumped the mine almost dry in September.
\nThanks to an unusually dry summer, the crushing machine remained in constant employment for several months, and 52.3kg of gold was raised from the Louisa mines. In May 1884, however, costs overwhelmed profit. The company was unable to pay the 35 men employed at the Louisa, who were discharged. The mine was declared unviable and the Queensland National Bank foreclosed. A number of revivals were attempted in the 1890s but only one further crushing was reported before most of the machinery was removed to the Ida Mine in 1894.[82]
\nIn 1897 Robert Logan Jack reported that the Louisa’s reputation for ‘heavy water’ had been overstated,[83] sparking renewed interest in the reef. Multiple enterprises were subsequently launched to restart mining operations, though few proceeded beyond initial investigations. In 1915 a Cooktown company installed electrical machinery powered by a diesel engine, the first on the goldfield. A mining manager was appointed, and was likely provided with an on-site residence. The diesel engine struggled and was replaced by a 96hp oil engine and centrifugal pump in 1917. After further technical, financial and staffing problems, the undertaking was abandoned.[84]
\nIn 1920, under an attempt to revive the mining industry, the Queensland Government reopened the Louisa, pumping it dry with new machinery. Government Geologist EC Saint-Smith inspected the mine, finding water pouring out of the walls, a patchy reef averaging only half an ounce per ton, and machinery requiring three tons of fuel per week from Laura. This was considered unpayable, and the mine closed. A group of Cairns businessmen reopened the Louisa, powering it with machinery from the Ida Mine, but abandoned the attempt in 1924. The same group attempted another unsuccessful revival in 1930. The mine was pumped dry over the course of the 1930s by a succession of syndicates, but no ore was mined.[85]
\nThe Louisa was revived again in 1939 by Charles E Barnes, horse breeder of Canning Downs Homestead (QHR 600525) and later a Commonwealth Government minister. After extensive earthworks and the installation of new machinery, Barnes mined 23 tons of ore and processed it at Cyril Denman’s ‘Perseverance’ battery. Encouraged by the Louisa’s potential, Denman leased a one acre machinery area adjoining the mine and erected a steam-powered ten-head battery called the Enterprise. The Enterprise, composed of machinery parts already on the goldfield, undertook crushings across the field for the next three years. With wartime shortages and a low gold yield, the Louisa closed in May 1941, followed by the Enterprise in 1942.[86] In 1947 the Louisa’s diesel engine, generator, pump and steel-head frame were purchased and removed to Totley. Winding gear was left on the coach road near Maytown.[87] The Louisa site has been abandoned and unused since.
\nNot far from the Louisa mine, a house was built in the early 1880s for William Parsons, a former carrier who had invested in the nearby Comet mine. Parsons resided in the house until his death in 1895. His son Percy and Percy’s family were among the last permanent residents of Maytown.[88]
\nButcher’s Creek Complex
\nThe Butcher’s Creek Complex, approximately 2.5km northeast of Maytown, comprises remnant alluvial and reef mining sites, including two prominent reef mines, the King of the Ranges and the Comet.
\nGold mining commenced in Butcher’s Creek in 1874, with both alluvial mining activity, and reef mining at the King of the Ranges. Unlike most of the Palmer’s reef mines, King of the Ranges was a non-company mine; its individual claimants worked it intermittently for small but steady returns from 1874 until 1903, and again briefly between 1939 and 1942. Two shafts and a large tunnel were dug on the reef between 1874 and 1881, the latter considered ‘one of the greatest mining undertakings ever attempted on the Palmer’.[89] Initial returns of over 3oz of gold per ton were promising, and the mine made moderate returns to the end of the 1870s. The lack of company capital limited the equipment used at the mine to a single pump, installed in 1882 to dewater the flood-prone shaft. Work fell away in the 1890s, but recommenced in 1901 after a new discovery was made. With the main shaft under ‘heavy water’ in 1902, miners installed a 6inch draw lift pump and 16hp winding engine.[90] By December 1902 the King of the Ranges was the focus of a Palmer revival, and a company was floated in Brisbane to fund mining efforts, but unfavourable reports on the mine shut down work by 1904.[91]
\nThe dewatering of the Louisa mine in 1939 lowered the water level in surrounding mines, including the long abandoned King of the Ranges mine. Herbert Silk took out a lease over the King of the Ranges, reopened old shafts and established new workings, but the small scale operation was abandoned in 1942 when Silk departed for war service.[92]
\nThe Comet mine was taken up in 1880 and became one of the largest and most prolific of the Palmer reef mines, despite being regularly affected by water problems. It was discovered by Chinese alluvial miners working on Butcher’s Creek, and initially named the ‘Canton’. Prospecting claims were laid off for European miners DM Jones (the ‘Canton’ prospecting claim), Howell (No 1 north-west Canton) and Thompson (No 2 north-west Canton) in 1880.[93] Over 400 tons of ore was sent for crushing from the mines in 1880.[94] In July 1881, the No 1 Canton and neighbouring Canton leases were amalgamated, becoming the six acre ‘Comet’ lease.[95] By the end of 1882 the Comet had yielded 64.72kg of gold.[96]
\nThe Comet reef ran through Butcher’s Creek, making the shafts prone to annual flooding. Despite pumping equipment installed to control the inflow, the mine was overwhelmed by water in mid-1883 and the managers closed the debt-riddled mine. Tributors were engaged in June 1884, sinking the mine a further 15m and making a 12m cross-cutting, before the Comet was transferred to a company. A battery, engine and Cornish boiler were installed in 1886. The 9 ton boiler was 27ft 6in (8.4m) long and 6ft 6in (2m) high, requiring a custom-made carriage to bring it over the difficult terrain, and a team of 68 bullocks to carry it. Its arrival caused great excitement on the field.[97]
\nA company office was on the mine site by 1888.[98]
\nThe Comet experienced its best returns in 1887 and 1888, yielding 55.28kg of gold. Berdan pans were added for fine grinding, improving returns; reef shafts were sunk to 257ft (78m), 380ft (116m); and crosscuts were driven at two levels. In 1889, however, the mine flooded in a heavy wet season and was abandoned.[99] The mine was leased to syndicates, and figured in several schemes to revive the Maytown mines, but apart from a state drilling test in 1922, was not reopened.[100]
\nThe Comet battery continued to crush stone for nearby mines between 1892 and 1915. In 1937 some of the milling machinery was removed to the Independent mine, in the north of the goldfield. The boiler and engine installed in 1886 appear to be extant.[101]
\nAlluvial deposits at Bucher’s Creek were ‘exceptionally good’,[102] with significant alluvial finds reported in 1878 and 1880, the former during an unusually dry season which uncovered new ground[103]. The work was mostly undertaken by Chinese miners, leaving physical evidence including two dam walls, a water race and sluice gully, and a forge, likely used by miners to maintain their tools. Stone pitching was likely created from alluvial sluicing activities in 1893.[104]
\nIda Complex
\nThe Ida Complex, comprising remnants of a settlement (Ida Town), reef mines and machinery, is located approximately 2km north of Maytown. Primarily a reefing area, its mining activity centred on two mines, the Ida Prospecting Claim (PC) and Ida No 1 west.
\nThe Ida PC was registered in June 1874, striking west-northwest along a ridge between Caledonian and Ida Creeks, both tributaries of Butcher’s Creek.[105] Multiple shafts were sunk onto the reef and provided good returns. In 1877 a private company installed the fifteen-head Mabel Louise Battery 500m northwest of the mine. As the largest and most centrally located battery on the goldfield, it was in great demand from surrounding reef mines.[106] A hotel was built to accommodate the Mabel Louise battery workers, which quickly developed into the community of ‘Ida Town’.[107] Ida Town’s population was predominantly European, but a Chinese butcher and market gardener supplied fresh produce for the town. Six of the market garden’s mango trees survive on the banks of Butcher’s Creek.
\nThe low-lying Ida PC Mine claim was flood-prone and had to be dewatered after significant rainfall. Steam pumps and winding gear were installed to sink the shaft 100 feet (30.5m) deeper. With improvements made, the Ida PC Mine became the best performing reef claim on the Palmer, playing a major role in convincing the mining community of the goldfield’s reefing prospects. The mine employed 21 men on three shifts who lived on the claim, with structures including a forge, two huts, a kitchen, fowl house, pig sty and public house in place by 1878.[108] In 1880, £3,900 worth of machinery was installed at the mine to improve its returns, including two horizontal engines, three boilers, and pumping, winding and crushing gear.[109]
\nIda Town, the principal centre for five large reefs and three crushing machines,[110] grew with mining success. In 1882, Ida Town residents raised £100 toward establishing a Mechanics’ Institute, which was doubled by visiting Premier Thomas McIlwraith.[111] The ‘extremely picturesque’ town was predicted to be ‘a place of great importance ere long.’[112] There were 26 rateable properties in the town by 1883, including miners’ cottages, market garden, two butchers (Alfred Dimes and Ah Ping), a brickmaker, store, and three hotels.
\nThe Ida PC Mine’s good returns continued until 1883, when an intrusion of barren stone was struck at 250 feet (76.2m). The suspension of work at the Ida ‘had the effect of almost stopping business at the township.’[113] The mine was taken over by the Queensland National Bank, which owned several reef mines on the Palmer. Unbeknownst to the public, the Ida was also part-owned by the Premier, Thomas McIlwraith, who accumulated debts of over £32,500 investing in the Ida PC Mine and the Palmer River Gold Mining Company.[114] In 1883, as Acting Mines Minister, McIlwraith asked the Palmer’s mining warden WO Hodgkinson to prepare a report on the Palmer Goldfield. Hodgkinson reported favourably on the Ida Mine, encouraging investment. He was accused of attempting to defraud the public, and ‘the Ida Affair’ became the subject of a Parliamentary inquiry. The inquiry exonerated Hodgkinson but gave a less positive assessment of the mine, which promptly closed.[115]
\nIda Town declined with the fall in fortunes from the reef mines. The Mechanics’ Institute was built by 1886, but by February 1887 the town’s batteries were out of operation. In 1890 Ida Town’s population dropped to 150, including the president of the Mechanics’ Institute, a mining agent, builder, butcher, postmaster and storekeeper, and two hoteliers. The town was removed from Pugh’s Almanac in 1895.[116]
\nRevivals of the Ida mines were attempted in the 1890s, and were promoted in Sydney and London, but ceased after unfavourable financial reports. The Mabel Louise battery was sold in the 1890s[117] and last referenced in 1900.[118] Machinery from nearby abandoned mines was shifted to the Ida in 1894, and the battery at the Ida undertook custom crushes until early 1896. The Ida was held under lease well into the 20th century, but not mined.[119]
\nIn 1938 Cyril Denman constructed a small battery from the field’s abandoned machinery, including material from the Mabel Louise Battery, and named it ‘Perseverance’. In the early 1940s the nearby Louisa Mine was reopened on a large scale, and a trial of ore was crushed at the Perseverance, but both were abandoned by the mid-1940s. The Perseverance’s portable engine, drive and camshaft were removed. Ida Town’s last recorded resident left in 1966.[120]
\nPioneer Mill
\nThe Pioneer Mill complex, situated approximately 1km southeast of Maytown, is the site of the Palmer’s first crushing battery, brought to the field in 1875. The Pioneer was vital in establishing the viability of the reef mines. When reef mining began in 1874, ore could only be processed by hand or transported off the field at high cost, both of which drastically reduced profits. In July 1875, a syndicate of Palmer businessmen purchased a 10-stamp battery with blanket tables and engine for £5,000, and shipped it from Sydney to Maytown. It was installed on a site near the Warden’s camp on the north bank of the Palmer River. Construction took nearly six months due to the lack of available timber and grass for workhorses.[121] The first crushing in January 1876 was attended by over 200 miners. The battery was christened the ‘Pioneer’ mill by Maytown’s first female resident, and toasted by the miners at day-long celebrations.
\nThough relatively simple in design, the Pioneer Mill was capable of processing an average 90 tons of ore per week, yielding 4,401oz (124.77kg) of gold in three months.[122] A settlement sprang up near the Pioneer machine, likely containing the residences of the engineer and seven machine operators. A hotel or boarding house may also have been built.[123]
\nBy the end of 1876, the Pioneer had processed 4,500 tons of ore, but was facing unsurmountable problems. The machine was too simple to process fine gold and yielded low returns. As reefing activity shifted north, cartage costs to the Pioneer increased, and reef miners elected to await the arrival of new batteries. Seasonal unavailability of water near the Pioneer also caused problems for the horse teams carrying ore to the mill. Improvements were made and the crushing fee halved, but the Pioneer was unable to compete against the six other mills operating on the field by 1878. The Pioneer’s machinery was sold and re-erected at the Louisa mine in 1878.[124]
\nThe Pioneer settlement buildings were likely removed with the mill. An extant stone structure may have been an explosives store; the deserted area was ideal for this purpose, and a Powder Magazine Keeper, Jacob Smith, was appointed to the Palmer in 1878.[125] The settlement was deserted by 1885.[126] A campsite and small cemetery were reportedly occupied during the mining revivals of the 1920s and 1930s.[127]
\nGregory Gully
\nAlluvial and reef mining began at Gregory Gully, in the goldfield’s southeast, in 1874.[128] The gully was declared a ‘place of importance’ in April 1874 when about 150 men were reported working there, but within a few months, ‘there [was] nothing being got to warrant any one rushing’.[129] European miners turned to reefing after a promising specimen was found at the gully’s Queen of the North reef in March 1874,[130] while Chinese miners took up alluvial activities at Gregory Beach, stacking unwanted stone and other materials to form stone pitching, a water race and a dam. These structures were highly useful in alluvial mining, impounding and redirecting water to break up the wash-dirt and reveal any gold.[131]
\nBy mid-1874, 12 prospecting claims along the reef were ‘in full work and raising rich stone, with very good prospects of making a fortune’.[132] The reef was so rich that even by hand crushing the Queen of the North yielded 50oz (1.4kg) of gold, enough to cover expenses.[133] Multiple shafts were dug along the reef, and tents, huts, forges, blacksmith, butcher’s shop, boarding house and public house were dotted around the claims by 1880.[134]
\nA smattering of camps, concentrated around the alluvial deposits and quartz reef, coalesced into a township known as Gregory (sometimes Queen). Unlike many other towns on the Palmer, Gregory’s population was largely European reef miners. In the late 1870s the town threatened to overtake Maytown as the premier settlement on the goldfield. By 1885 it featured 26 rateable properties, including a Miners’ Institute and a significant library; ‘Cosmopolitan’ boarding house; Miners Arms Hotel; stores; rifle range and Chinese market garden. Most were constructed of permanent materials like wood and iron, with some wood and bark miners’ cottages.[135]
\nGregory Gully’s extensive reef mining activity encouraged a private company to import a five-head public battery (the ‘Live and Let Live’) for the district. After ‘numerous and most unaccountable delays’ the machine was erected in April 1877, increasing production at the Queen of the North mine. [136] In 1878 it was sunk to 270 feet (90m), and 100oz (2.83kg) of gold was produced in 1879.[137] However, operational costs were high and the mine was overcapitalised. The mine’s creditor, the Queensland National Bank, foreclosed in 1879 and leased the mine on tribute. It produced only ‘desultory’ returns in the 1880s, and was flooded by 1887.[138] Gregory township was heavily influenced by the fluctuations in reef mining, and businesses merged or closed as the Queen of the North declined. The number of rateable properties in town halved by 1891.[139] The boarding house closed in 1890; the post office followed in 1894. In 1900, Gregory’s reported population was 34.[140]
\nIn 1897, Robert Logan Jack calculated that the Queen of the North had produced 7,916 tons of ore for 16,516oz (468.22kg) of gold, the best returns of the Maytown reefs.[141] The report solidified Gregory’s reputation as the Palmer’s chief reefing district[142] and encouraged syndicates, who dewatered and inspected the shafts in the early 1900s, but found them unviable.[143] Proposed investment in the 1910s did not eventuate.[144]
\nThe Queen of the North’s crushing mill was removed for use at Cooktown in 1939, and Gregory town was deserted by the 1940s.[145]
","criteria":"The Palmer Goldfield Mining Landscape is important in demonstrating the 19th century gold rushes which exploited the mineral wealth of Queensland, contributing greatly to its economy. The Palmer Goldfield (discovered in 1872) was the largest alluvial mining field of its time, Queensland’s fourth largest producing goldfield of the 19th and 20th centuries, and influenced the pattern of settlement in north Queensland.
\nThe mining landscape, including the Laura to Maytown Coach Road and the ruins of eight alluvial and reef mining settlements (the Butcher’s Creek complex, Gregory Gully, German Bar complex, Ida complex, Louisa Mines and Enterprise Battery complex, Mount Atlas and Echotown complex, Pioneer Mill complex and the Revolver Point Township), is a physical legacy of the challenges of mining in a remote 19th century goldfield. Modifications to the landscape, including stone pitching, sluice gullies, dams, water races and diversions, demonstrate the mining operations to exploit the Palmer’s extensive, rich and highly pure alluvial gold deposits, and provide important evidence of Chinese mining methods. The reef mining batteries, mine shafts and associated equipment also provide important surviving evidence of the attempts at reef mining on the goldfield, when it was predicted to hold significant gold deposits in underground quartz veins.
\nThe Coach Road largely hand-cut with retaining walls, cuttings, drains, checkouts, steep pinches and associated works; and hotel and staging post sites, and mine workings, is significant as the major arterial route to the Palmer Goldfield. It allowed large reef mining equipment to be brought to the goldfield, and provided a path for wheeled traffic, including Cobb and Co coach services from the 1880s.
\nAs the site of the largest Chinese settlement in Australia from 1873-1877, the Palmer Goldfield Mining Landscape is also important in demonstrating Chinese involvement in the exploitation of natural resources and the evolution of mining settlements in Queensland, and provides important surviving evidence of the domestic and social conditions of 19th century Chinese goldminers.
|The Laura to Maytown Coach Road, as one of the few remaining historic access routes on the Palmer which has not been subject to extensive upgrading, is a rare surviving example of a substantial 19th century road system providing access to a remote goldfield. It also provides rare surviving evidence of 19th century road construction techniques and materials employed in Queensland.
|The Palmer Goldfield Mining Landscape has the potential to reveal important information about 19th century mining operations and transport infrastructure, and the people who lived and worked on this early and important goldfield, through historical and archaeological investigations.
\nThe extensive mining landscape – its remnant alluvial and reef mine workings, infrastructure and equipment, and associated artefact scatters – has the potential to yield information about 19th century mining technology and practices.
\nThe former townships, camps and other domestic and commercial occupation sites – evidenced by surface ruins, building footings and platforms, cemeteries and isolated burials, and associated artefact scatters – have the potential to contribute to our understanding of domestic and social conditions on a remote 19th century goldfield. As the former largest settlement of Chinese people in Australia, it has the particular potential to yield knowledge about 19th century diasporic Chinese customs and living and working conditions.
\nGiven the high degree of intactness of certain sections of the Laura to Maytown Coach Road, investigation of its construction and design would be likely to produce valuable information on the technological and physical challenges that had to be faced and overcome to provide a reliable transportation route to the Palmer Goldfield.
|Characterised by areas of modified ground and a collection of ruins and other features from alluvial and reef mining practices, and from domestic, commercial, social and industrial occupation, the Palmer Goldfield Mining Landscape is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a historic goldfield. It retains the ruins of eight alluvial and reef mining complexes and transport infrastructure that are collectively important in illustrating the principal characteristics of goldmining operations on a remote goldfield in the 19th and 20th centuries.
\nThe reef mining and battery sites retain evidence of caved shafts and adits, open cuts and stopes, mullock heaps, winding plant and engine mounts, steam engines and boilers, tanks, mortar boxes and stamps, forges, and associated equipment and other artefacts - key features that demonstrate the ore extraction and crushing process.
\nThe alluvial mining sites retain evidence of stone pitching, mullock heaps, water diversions, races and dams, sluice gullies, shallow sinkings, and associated artefacts - complex assemblages that demonstrate the infrastructure and processes required to extract the alluvial deposits for which the Palmer goldfield was renowned.
\nDistributed across the rugged mining landscape, and ranging from townships and camps concentrated around mining operations and transport infrastructure to more isolated sites, evidence of domestic and commercial occupation includes hotels, yards, house and building sites; cemeteries and graves; forges, ovens and market gardens; infrastructure including footbridge remains and wells; and artefact scatters and deposits, including rubbish dumps – physical evidence in spatial arrangements that demonstrate the proximity of industrial and domestic life on the goldfield.
\nThe Laura to Maytown Coach Road, featuring hand-cut surfaces, retaining walls, cuttings, draining works, checkouts, steep pinches and associated works, is a rare surviving example of a substantial 19th century road system providing access to a remote goldfield.
|As a remote, isolated and largely deserted 19th and 20th century goldfield, the Palmer Goldfield Mining Landscape is important for its evocative qualities, particularly the contrast of remnant mining machinery and settlements against the rugged natural environment. The mining complexes, dispersed across the goldfield, are an evocative reminder of the precarious and short-lived nature of Queensland’s mining booms. The coach road, which continues to provide access to the goldfield, is recognised as a landmark feature by local residents and visitors.
|The Laura to Maytown Coach Road features large stretches of intact road surfaces, retaining walls, hand cuttings and associated features, and in areas traverses steep and rocky terrain in an isolated part of north Queensland. The place is important as a demonstration of the high degree of technical achievement required to employ 19th century road making techniques to provide reliable access to remote parts of north Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15203,"place_ref":600428,"name":"Wild Irish Girl Mine and Emily Battery","alternate_name":"Wild Irish Girl Mine and Battery, Emily Battery; Wild Irish Girl Mine;","street_address":"Palmer Goldfield Resources Reserve","suburb":"PALMER","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Wild Irish Girl Mine and Emily Battery site is situated on the edge of the Conglomerate Range[1] escarpment approximately 13km north-northeast of Maytown. The place comprises:
\nThe Emily Battery
\nThe highly intact battery is located in a shed positioned at the bottom of a spur in a steep sided gully at the base of the Conglomerate Range, where a number of creeks converge. The intact 7x10m shed comprises four connected sections: the main gable-roofed structure, which is aligned northwest-southeast and contains the stamp battery; a high skillion attached to the northwest (rear), which contains the boiler and engine; a low enclosed skillion to the northeast, which contains the former workshop; and a low open-sided flat-roofed verandah (partly collapsed) to the southwest, which contains the former living quarters. A caved well and water tank are located alongside the shed. The remnants of a stone forge are located to the east and a small watercourse which runs past the battery contains three stone overshot weirs.
\nReef Mine Workings
\nThe remains of the reef mines that provided most of the stone to the Emily Battery are located to the north-northwest and connected to the battery shed by a skid path. There are three groups of mine workings, of which the Wild Irish Girls was historically the main source:
\nWonnacott’s House Site
\nThe remains of a house site are located 85m south-southeast of the shed structure. The remains have been previously identified as Wonnacott's residence and comprise flagstone and earth surfaces, timber uprights and a scatter of domestic items including two iron beds with bedsteads. Although sometimes referred to as a camp, it appears to have been a substantial residence surrounded by large terraces. Bush fires, white ants and recycling of materials have effectively destroyed the fabric of the structure, but substantial archaeological evidence remains.
\nAlluvial Workings
\nImmediately south of the former Wonnacott’s House site, and extending towards Cradle Creek, is evidence of alluvial workings including a water race, stone pitching and stone forge.
\nChinese graves
\nNumerous grave sites, probably of Chinese origin, are also located throughout this area and extending west along Cradle Creek.
","history":"The Wild Irish Girl Mine and Emily Battery is a small mining complex located on the edge of the Conglomerate Range escarpment approximately 13km north-northeast of Maytown [QHR 602255] on the Palmer Goldfields Resources Reserve. Part of the Cradle Creek mining subdivision, it was initially exploited by Chinese and European alluvial miners, and European reef miners, in the 1870s before being abandoned. Mining was revived in 1893, and the Emily battery was erected in 1894 to process ore recovered from nearby reef mines, though it crushed ore transported from other parts of the Palmer Goldfield and mines beyond. It operated on an intermittent basis over an 82 year period before crushing ceased in 1976.
\nGold mining played a major role in the economic and geographic development of Queensland in the late 19th century. Between 1873 and 1906, Queensland's exports of gold and metals regularly exceeded that of wool. The total value of gold produced in Queensland to 1898 was £44,499,955, six times as much as tin, copper and silver combined.[1] The lure of gold also brought more people to Queensland and had a greater influence on white settlement patterns in Queensland's tropics than contemporaneous pastoral or agricultural pursuits.[2] The northern ports of Cairns and Cooktown were created to serve gold mines, while the importance of Townsville was magnified by the establishment of mining fields.[3]
\nPrior to 1865, little thought was given to the prospect of gold in North Queensland. George Dalrymple’s 1859-1860 expedition of the region for pastoral and agricultural lands noted strong indications of gold, but his discovery met with little interest; North Queensland was considered too far from the established goldfields to attract prospectors. [4] In 1865, a small, short-lived rush followed the discovery of alluvial gold on Star River Station, about 50km inland from Townsville. Payable gold was also located in the Cape River area in mid-1867, the Gilbert River in 1869 and Etheridge in 1870.
\nThe country to the north of these finds and into Cape York was little known to Europeans in the 1870s. In 1872, William Hann led a Queensland Government-sponsored expedition into Cape York, the territory of the Western Yalanji people.[5] Expedition surveyor Frederick Warner located gold on a tributary of the Mitchell River in August 1872. The tributary was named the Palmer River after then Premier of Queensland Arthur Hunter Palmer.[6] Encouraged by the report of gold, James Venture Mulligan led a prospecting party to investigate the Palmer River deposits in June 1873.[7] Mulligan’s party located some of the richest alluvial deposits in North Queensland, returning to Georgetown with 102 ounces (2.89kg) of gold. News of the find quickly spread and triggered a rush to the area.[8] The 2,000 square mile (5,180km2) field was officially proclaimed a goldfield in December 1873, and surveyor AC Macmillan quickly blazed a track to the field.[9] Unprepared miners died en route from lack of supplies, drowning, or confrontation with the original inhabitants,[10] but an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people made their way north to the field’s coastal port of Cooktown.[11]
\nThe Palmer held extensive shallow deposits of gold, and it quickly became the main and most prolific alluvial gold-producing field in Queensland.[12] Between 1873 and 1879, the Palmer Goldfield produced over one million ounces (28 tons) of gold.[13] Combined returns from the Palmer over the first decade reached nearly £5,000,000, more than the combined gold production of the rest of North Queensland over the same period.[14]
\nChinese alluvial workings and graves
\nMuch of the Palmer’s mining activity centred on settlements near Maytown, in the southwest of the goldfield. However, in early 1874 there was a rush to Cradle Creek, twelve miles (20km) north of Maytown. James Mulligan reported favourably on the area in February 1874, though noting that work had to stop when the rain began and flooded the area.[15] Alluvial miners were soon discouraged, and abandoned the claims for more promising gold rushes at Sandy Creek (1874) and the Hodgkinson (1876). Chinese miners worked the abandoned alluvial claims, with an estimated 1,000 Chinese miners at Cradle Creek ‘doing well in alluvial’ in March 1876.[16]
\nThe Palmer had an unusually high population of Chinese miners in the 1870s. Arriving overland from the southern colonies, they totalled around 40% of the Palmer’s population at the end of 1874. From 1875 a steamship service ran between Hong Kong and Cooktown, bringing an average of 1,000 Chinese miners per month directly to the goldfield. By 1877, an estimated 18,000 Chinese miners comprised 90% of the Palmer population, forming the largest Chinese community in Australia.[17] The Palmer’s Chinese miners were mostly young single men who intended to return to China once their goldmining activities yielded profit. Living and working cooperatively, they were better provisioned and obtained more consistent gold returns than Europeans. They scoured and reworked their claims multiple times, and used an efficient cooperative cradling system, with two miners digging up the gold bearing wash-dirt, two carting the wash-dirt, two operating the cradle and one bagging gold.[18] Unwanted stones from the creek were stacked systematically to form water races and dams, vital to the water-based alluvial mining methods. Chinese miners also erected forges for fixing mining tools and ovens for communal cooking, affording them self-sufficiency in remote mining settlements.[19]
\nChinese miners who died on the field were buried in makeshift graves or cemeteries with little ceremony by kin, neighbours, friends or European authorities. 148 Chinese burials were recorded between 1873 and 1883. The Palmer burials were viewed as temporary resting places, while families or local associations raised money to return bodies home for burial. Where possible, burials observed feng shui traditions and some were exhumed and returned to China in the late 19th and early 20th century.[20]
\nDespite relatively peaceful interactions between Chinese and European miners[21]the large influx of single Chinese men onto the goldfield caused concern in parts of the colony.[22] In 1877 the Goldfields Act Amendment Act and the Chinese Immigrants Regulation Act (Qld) were passed to restrict immigrant numbers and activities, and impose high tariffs and mining licence fees. Diminishing alluvial returns, the high cost of living, poor living conditions and the discovery of new alluvial goldfields exacerbated the impact of the legislation. Chinese miners departed Cradle Creek and the Palmer, with the total population plummeting from 18,000 in 1877 to just 2,000 in 1882.[23] Most returned to China, but some sought other goldfields; and some settled in Cooktown, which became home to a diverse population. Alluvial mining ceased almost entirely, and in 1883 the Palmer’s mining warden reported that the alluvial material had been exhausted. The population of alluvial miners dropped to 450 in 1886 and remained around this level until 1900.
\nWild Irish Girl Mine
\nAs miners attempted to extract maximum yields from the goldfield, reef mining processes were introduced to the Palmer.[24] Reef mining involved the location of veins of ore in situ, rather than in the Palmer’s rich and shallow alluvial deposits. Surface deposits of gold were worked and, if the results warranted it, deep shafts sunk to mine the reef. Reef mining required additional equipment, including boilers, pumps and winding equipment, and crushing batteries to process the ore on site. Three principal quartz reefs were located, and reef mining concentrated on five reef subdivisions north and east of Maytown: Butcher’s Creek, Gregory Gully, German Bar, Revolver Point, and Cradle Creek.[25]
\nEuropean prospectors began searching for Cradle Creek’s reefs in 1874, finding promising leads, but the lack of ore processing machinery, and high cost of transporting ore, discouraged activity. In 1876, a machine was despatched to the area and erected at Lone Star, northwest of Cradle Creek.[26] A small reef was located under the escarpment of the Conglomerate Range, northeast of Cradle Creek, and was named the ‘Wild Irish Girl’. Good stone was obtained from the claim in 1879 and carted to the Lone Star battery. However, the mine was abandoned and reportedly dynamited closed shortly afterwards.[27]
\nA total of 145 reefs were discovered on the Palmer by 1883, but the majority of the reefs were small and of average value.[28] The cost of mining, processing and transporting gold was so high that the reef mines of the Palmer were among the most expensive to operate in Australia. Almost all of the reef mining operations on the Palmer, funded with insufficient capital and backed by companies with limited mining experience, were short-lived and unprofitable. Attempts at extensive and expensive reef mining operations at the Palmer’s most prominent reefs – the Ida, Louisa and Queen of the North – had appeared promising until 1883, when an investigation revealed the limited potential of the reefs. Investment stopped, and reef mining activity trickled away until the Palmer gold warden was removed in 1893.[29]
\nTowards the end of 1893, however, Gold Warden orderly Sam Wonnacott and miners John Trainor and James Burchell began exploring the abandoned Wild Irish Girl reef. The party took over the Wild Irish Girl prospecting claim (PC) in 1894, employing six men to excavate a shaft and drive a 190ft tunnel into the side of the escarpment. They struck new formations which they named the Native Girl Reef, and began mining ore.[30] Trainor and Burchell also worked the nearby Baal Gammon reef, about 1km south of the Wild Irish Girl, while another miner began working the Best Friend reef, about 200m from the Wild Irish Girl mine, in 1895.[31]
\nTrainor and Burchell left the Palmer goldfield around the turn of the century. Wonnacott remained at the Wild Irish Girl mine until circa 1925, working the reef occasionally. A residence for the Wonnacott family (including Sam, wife Emily and three daughters) stood on the mine site south of the main shaft; it was removed by 1946.[32]
\nEmily Battery
\nAs the reef was several kilometres from the nearest crushing plant, the Wild Irish Girl proprietors invested in a small ore processing machine to save on cartage costs. The crushing plant or battery, originally named the ‘Emily’, began operating in October 1894.[33]
\nThe Emily – possibly named for Wonnacott’s wife – was a compact crushing plant comprising three head of gravity stamps powered by a small vertical Tangye engine and boiler.[34] The three-head battery was a fifth of the size of the Palmer’s largest battery, and its value (£300) about a sixteenth of the most expensive Maytown machines.[35] The battery was a Marcolino quartz crusher, a small portable machine invented in 1885 by New South Wales gold miner Paolo Marcolino. The Marcolino was purpose designed for single operators in rugged country, being inexpensive, light and transportable in pieces. In 1889 a Marcolino machine had been installed at the ‘Star of the East’ claim, about 4km north of the Wild Irish Girl, but after being reported to ‘do its work well’,[36] no crushing results were recorded, and the battery was apparently abandoned. The Wild Irish Girl proprietors purchased the machine in late 1893, relocating it to the Wild Irish Girl reef in 1894. Water for the operation came from a small well near the battery.[37]
\nBy January 1895, the Wild Irish Girl mine had not met ‘the sanguine expectations of Sam and party’, but as the Emily battery did ‘good work,’ the North Queensland Register reported that ‘our Sam is confident of making good wages, enjoying the freedom of being his own master, and finally have sufficient to live comfortably.’[38] For a fee, Wonnacott processed ore from nearby mines, greatly improving their profitability by reducing transport costs.[39] This, as well as Government Geologist RL Jack’s declaration that the Palmer reefs ‘have never had a fair trial’,[40] helped to spark a revival in the Cradle Creek region. Between 1894 and 1897 the Emily crushed 342 tons which yielded 427oz (12.11kg), returning five times the cost of the battery.[41]
\nInterest in the area slowly declined, but in the early years of the 20th century the battery periodically crushed material from local reefs.[42] A Mining Inspector visited the Emily in 1903, noting the machine’s Tangye engine and vertical boiler.[43] The Emily continued to process stones for the few remaining reef miners, and by 1909 was the only functioning battery on the Palmer.[44] Its boiler was replaced in 1913.[45]
\nProspectors continued small-scale reefing operations on the Palmer through World War I and the 1920s. Reefs were discovered and worked near Kipling's Crossing, not far from the Wild Irish Girl reef, and claims were reopened at the Star of the East and Mount Atlas. Ore was again sent to the Emily for crushing, though the costs of transporting stone to the battery were high.[46]
\nNo operations were reported from 1925 until 1932, when the battery, by now renamed the ‘Wild Irish Girl’, was transferred to a new operator, William (Bill) Lane.[47] Lane appears to have undertaken substantial repairs with the assistance of William Condron, constructing engineer for the Palmer River Gold Company dredge.[48] The fireplace is believed to have been added to the battery complex at this time.[49] After the alterations were made, Lane went into partnership with Percy Parsons, a Maytown ore packer and postmaster, but the partnership folded.[50] By 1939 Lane reportedly sold the battery to Sam Elliott, but with the outbreak of World War II, Elliott enlisted and did not commence operations until 1945.[51]
\nElliott continued to occasionally operate the Wild Irish Girl for the small population remaining on the Palmer until circa 1976, when crushing finally stopped.[52] In conjunction with a local preservation society, Elliott restored the mill between 1982 and 1986, with tool and boiler sheds rebuilt. Elliott died at the battery site in January 1986 and was buried in the Maytown Cemetery.[53] Some elements on the site deteriorated following Elliott’s death: a well on the site which supplied water to the operation collapsed and was repaired with sandbags in the 1990s; and the shed was damaged in a wildfire in 2016.
\nThe Palmer Goldfield was declared a resources reserve in 1986, and some mining activity continues on the reserve in 2018.
The Wild Irish Girl Mine (1879) and Emily Battery (1894) is important in demonstrating the evolution and pattern of Queensland’s history, particularly the development of gold mining. The Palmer Goldfield was one of Queensland’s most important goldfields during the 19th century and made a significant contribution to the economic and cultural development of north Queensland. The gold rush to the Palmer River region heavily influenced settlement patterns in north Queensland, attracting a large and diverse population into a region previously unsettled by Europeans. The Emily Battery is important surviving evidence of reef mining and associated ore processing operations on the Palmer Goldfield and is representative of the significant capital investment made by small-scale reef mining operators.
\nThe Chinese alluvial workings and graves, located within the place, are important in demonstrating the presence of Chinese miners on the Palmer goldfield, where they comprised the largest Chinese settlement in Australia in the 1870s.
|The Wild Irish Girl Mine and Emily Battery provides rare surviving evidence of ore processing operations on the Palmer Goldfield. The battery has an exceptional degree of intactness, which is rare in Queensland’s historic mining places and includes a steam-powered three-head battery and associated plant, intact Tangye Archer vertical engine, boiler and battery shed.
\nThe Emily Battery is the only surviving and highly intact stamp mill on the Palmer Goldfield, and the shed enclosing the Emily Battery is the only known example in north Queensland that includes living quarters. The integrity of these features is rare for a historic mining site in Queensland.
|The Wild Irish Girl Mine and Emily Battery has potential to contribute new knowledge that will lead to a greater understanding of important aspects about Queensland’s mining history through historical and archaeological investigations. Investigations may increase our understanding of a 19th century-era ore processing operation as well as living conditions on a remote and challenging mining operation. The results of such investigations may assist in comparative analysis and our understanding of the remains of other processing facilities on the Palmer and other historic goldfields in Queensland.
\nThe Chinese alluvial workings and graves within the site have the particular potential to yield information about domestic and social conditions, and mining technology and methods of Chinese miners on a remote 19th century goldfield.
|The Wild Irish Girl Mine and Emily Battery is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of late 19th and early 20th century ore processing complex on a north Queensland goldfield. The place comprises a steam-powered three-head crushing battery, battery shed, associated plant and equipment such as an intact vertical engine, and separate manager’s residence. Together these demonstrate the main elements of small-scale ore processing on remote north Queensland’s goldfields.
|The Wild Irish Girl Mine and Emily Battery has strong evocative qualities. The setting of the battery at the base of a spur of the Conglomerate Range evokes a strong sense of isolation, is illustrative of a way of life that no longer exists and provides consideration of the many challenges associated with mining in remote areas of Queensland. These qualities are enhanced by the intactness and integrity of the place.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15204,"place_ref":600429,"name":"Alexandra Mine and Battery","alternate_name":"Alexandra PC","street_address":"Palmerville Station","suburb":"MAYTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The place is situated on a ridge at the head of a gully, about 500 m south of the Palmer River, at co-ordinates 16.06.01S - 144.19.00E. The mine workings and battery are closely confined on a terraced bench. The site of the managers house is evident alongside the road on top of the ridge and comprises a broken cement surface. A grinding pan has been removed to the house site.
The mine workings are aligned along the strike of the reef and include, on the terrace level, a caved main shaft and an earlier shaft. An adit has been driven in from the gully to meet the main shaft. A single cylinder portable steam engine is located alongside the main shaft. (Since a survey of the site in 1982 a pump arm has been placed alongside the main shaft). Mullock has been dumped into the gully to form a dam. The watercourse now bypasses the dump. Another group of workings comprising a shaft and mullock dumps is located about 100 m south-east on a spur of the ridge.
The battery plant includes a Cornish boiler in a brick mount with a flue leading to an intact nine metre high metal chimney. Immediately alongside the boiler is the body of a single cylinder horizontal engine. Alongside the engine are two mortar boxes which appear to have remained insitu although the stamper frame has been removed. Seven of the ten stamper rods are still standing in the mortar boxes. The camshaft is nearby.
Plant:
Cornish boiler - J.W.Sutton & Co Brisbane.
One-cylinder portable steam engine - no brand (Clayton & Shuttleworth ?).
One-cylinder horizontal steam engine - no brand.
Boiler casing (converted to a water tank) - no brand.
Pump arm (not insitu).
2 Five-stamp mortar boxes - no brands.
Grinding pan (at manager's house site, not part of battery) - Langlands Foundry.
","history":"Mining began in the Palmer River area in 1876 and production commenced from the "Alexander PC" (one of the earliest prospecting claims) in 1878. Crushings of selected ore enabled the mine to average a spectacular eight ounces of gold per ton during the 1870s. By 1880, the Alexandra had crushed a mere 183 tons of stone for a yield of 1,262 ounces of gold, grossing well over £5,000. However cartage and crushing costs were high as the ore had to be packed 16 km to the battery. Therefore a gold yield of two-three ounces per ton was required before a profit could be considered.
Small scale production went on intermittently until 1895 when Edwin Field installed a steam pump and winding gear, taken from the Louisa and Queen mines in 1895 and erected a battery at the Alexandra. He undertook development work, pumping out the mine and retimbering and began crushing in 1897. But, although operations continued on a small scale for nearly two years, the reef yielded just over one ounce to the ton.
At the end of 1898 the mine closed. In twenty years 499 tons of ore had been raised for a total of 1,810 ounces of gold, an average of 3.6 ounces to the ton. The mine was never worked again and the battery frame was removed in 1940.
","criteria":"The Alexandra mine and battery are significant in the evolution and pattern of reef mining in North Queensland from 1876 to 1898.
The existence of a tin battery on a gold mining site illustrates the ad hoc and practical development of mining on the Palmer goldfield.
|The survival of the mine and battery site, complete with a Cornish boiler still in its brick bed and with an intact steel chimney, is rare, both in Queensland and in Australia. The single cylinder horizontal steam engine is also very early and rare.
|The place demonstrates unusual technology in the use of a three outlet mortar box, usually associated with tin mining, and the site has the potential to yield more information about nineteenth century milling techniques.
|The Alexandra battery is situated on a narrow hillside terrace directly adjacent to the mine workings. The tightly grouped plant and machinery and nine metre high chimney form a compact and easily interpreted site. The place is one of the best preserved and most intact mining sites on the Palmer goldfield.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15205,"place_ref":600430,"name":"Stone ruin at Lizard Island","alternate_name":"'Mrs Watson's Cottage'","street_address":"Lizard Island","suburb":"LIZARD ISLAND","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The stone ruins are located approximately 60 metres from Watson's Beach and 35 metres north west of Ferrier's Creek at Watson's Bay on the north side of Lizard Island. This is a high rocky island 90 km NNE of Cooktown and 31 km from the coast NE of Cape Flattery.
The ruins consist of footings and sections of wall of what was a five-roomed building measuring approximately 14 metres by 10 metres and which appears to have been built in several stages. It is aligned parallel with the beach and has substantially collapsed with only the northwestern corner surviving to its full height, which is approximately two metres above the existing ground level. A portion of a collapsed interior wall and scattered stones also remain. The walls are constructed of local Finlayson granite, using a coursed rubble technique with the stones laid in rough courses with banding at quarter, half and three quarter heights. The stones are cemented with a mortar made of burnt coral and beach sand.
","history":"The stone ruins overlooking Watson's Bay on the north side of Lizard Island may be linked to the use of the island for bêche-de-mer fishing by Europeans in the 19th century. They are popularly associated with the incidents surrounding the deaths of Mary Watson, her baby son and two Chinese employees in 1881, following a confrontation with mainland Aborigines.
Aboriginal people used Lizard Island for thousands of years before Europeans arrived in north Queensland. The island is thought to have been used for ceremonial purposes and Captain Cook recorded observing several frames of huts and large middens during his voyage along the coast in 1770.
The harvesting of bêche-de-mer, prized by Chinese as a culinary delicacy, was carried out along the north Australian coast from about 1700 by fishermen from the south of Sulawesi, who made regular trips to catch and process the creatures. They require preservation by boiling and smoking before transportation and this meant that camps for the purpose were set up on shore until preservation began to be carried out on board ship in the 1890s. Europeans took up this trade in the early 19th century, following a suggestion of Matthew Flinders. In 1827, 10 tons of bêche-de-mer was exported from the Cooktown area to Timor. In 1860 a group of Europeans, Chinese and South Sea Islanders arrived on Lizard Island to establish a processing base there and appear to have settled on Watson's Bay. Although the venture was not successful and was abandoned in October 1861 after a number of them died, they constructed a stone building during their occupancy. Other groups subsequently worked there including more than 40 South Sea Islanders employed by Captain Delargy in the late 1860s.
In 1879 Captain Robert Watson and P C Fuller established a station to carry out bêche-de-mer processing on Watson's Bay. It is possible that they used or adapted this building, however, this is not known and they did construct buildings themselves. In May 1880, Robert Watson married the 20-year-old Mary Oxnam, who emigrated from England with her parents in 1877 and had worked briefly as a teacher before her marriage. The Watsons moved to Lizard Island, where Watson had erected a dwelling, smokehouse and store, and established a small fruit and vegetable garden. Two Chinese men, Ah Sam and Ah Leong, were employed to assist in the house and garden respectively. Mary returned to Cooktown in March 1881 to await the birth of her first child early in June, and was back on Lizard Island by July.
On 1 September 1881 Watson and Fuller took their boats 200 miles north to Night Island, intending to be away for about 6 weeks. Mary was left on the island with her infant son and the two Chinese employees. On 27 September a group of Aborigines from Starke and Point Lookout arrived at Lizard Island, which, according to oral tradition, contained a sacred site in the approximate vicinity of the bêche-de-mer station. It is thought that on 29 September they speared and killed Ah Leong, who was working in the garden approximately quarter of a mile from Mrs Watson's dwelling. The next day they gathered on the beach below the house, dispersed when Mary fired a rifle and revolver, but returned on 1 October and speared Ah Sam, severely wounding him.
Fearing a further attack and lacking other means of escape, Mary packed a few belongings, food, water and two paddles into a cut-down iron ship's tank used for boiling the bêche-de-mer, and set off with Ah Sam and the baby on 2 October. They eventually reached No.5 Howick Island, which, although it lay along the steamer route, unfortunately lacked fresh water. Too weak to continue, they hoped to attract the attention of a passing ship, but were unsuccessful and died from thirst. Mary kept a brief diary throughout the ordeal. The contents were later made public and her uncomplaining courage, composure and efforts to protect her child evoked widespread pity and admiration. The last entry is dated 11 October 1881.
In the meantime, Robert Watson had returned to find signs of an Aboriginal attack having taken place and his wife and child missing. He began to search for them and the incident exacerbated European antagonism toward Aborigines in the Cooktown area. A punitive raid was carried out, during which many people were killed, though people at Cape Flattery rather than those actually responsible were targeted.
The crew of a passing fishing vessel found the remains of Mrs. Watson, Ah Sam and baby Ferrier on 19 January 1882 and they were accorded a huge public funeral in Cooktown. In 1885 public subscriptions were called for a drinking-fountain memorial to Mary Watson, and this was erected with the co-operation of the Cooktown Municipal Council in 1886. The tank in which she escaped was on display at the Queensland Museum for many years.
Lizard Island was gazetted as a National Park in 1939 and now contains a resort to the west of the ruins. The story has continued to stir the public imagination and the site of the ruins generally believed to be Watson's cottage remains a focus for the memory this tragic incident in the European settlement of the North.
","criteria":"Whether or not Mrs Watson inhabited the ruins, which is in some doubt, they symbolize the intrusion of Europeans into areas long used by Aboriginal people and the often tragic confrontations that took place in the subsequent competition for land and resources. Mrs. Watson's sad and courageous death evoked widespread public admiration and respect and affected public attitudes towards Aborigines in the area. The building may well be associated with bêche-de-mer fishing, an important industry in the Cooktown area in the 19th century.
|The age, origin and use of the building is unproven and the ruins and surrounding area have the potential to provide information about this and possibly about the late 19th bêche-de-mer industry in north Queensland.
|The Lizard Island ruins have visual appeal as a picturesque standing ruin in a isolated setting overlooking the sea and evoke the empathy of visitors towards Mrs. Watson's tragic story.
|The Dingaal traditional owners consider the site significant as a symbol of the end of traditional ways, their displacement from traditional lands, the violation of sacred sites and completion with Europeans for resources.
|The ruins are widely believed to be associated with Mrs. Watson and act as evocative memorial of her ordeal and death.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15206,"place_ref":600431,"name":"Musgrave Telegraph Station (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Peninsula Development Road","suburb":"MUSGRAVE","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"The former Musgrave Telegraph Station (now known as the Musgrave Roadhouse) is located along the Peninsula Developmental Road at the intersection with Lilyvale Road in the Cape York Peninsula, approximately half way between Cairns and Weipa and 136 kilometres north of Laura. The former station complex consists of a number of buildings and structures dating from a range of periods, the most significant of which are the original Telegraph Office building (1886, with later alterations), an original butchers shop (date unknown) and a remaining telegraph pole. The former Office building faces east and is located near the centre of the eastern boundary of the complex. A wide strip of cleared land, used as car parking space and forming the southern end of an airstrip, lies between the complex and the Peninsula Developmental Road. Adjacent to the south-east corner of this area is a mature Mango tree (possibly of early date) near which two early graves are located. This tree and the graves are also considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
The former Musgrave Telegraph Office is a high-set, timber-framed building with a corrugated metal-clad hipped roof over a U-shaped plan, and supported on substantial timber stumps. The undercroft has been partially enclosed and the central courtyard roofed. Access to the raised floor level is via a staircase located at the rear of the building. This floor features an enclosed verandah on its eastern side that wraps around the north-east and south-east corners.
The main elevation is unenclosed at ground level with a garden laid out in front of the line of timber stumps. The enclosed first floor verandah is clad in flat sheeting to sill height with a continuous bank of glass-louvered windows above. The north-east corner of the verandah is chamfered, marking the position of the original gun-post enclosure. The name 'MUSGRAVE' is discernable on the roof, painted in large green lettering. Three windows with individual hoods open out of the western facade of the upper floor, which appears to be clad in corrugated iron sheeting.
A metal pole and cyclone wire fence bounds the front of the property in approximately the same location as earlier fences (according to early photographs). A remaining telegraph pole stands just behind this fence, roughly centered on the eastern façade of the former Office building.
The butcher shop appears to be located to the west of the former Telegraph Office. It is a single-storey, square, timber structure consisting of a corrugated iron-clad hipped roof supported on thick timber posts. It features an enclosed room in the centre and a concrete slab floor.
Several mature trees remain over the end of the allotment addressing the road. The very large Mango tree at the south-east corner of the parking area acts as an entrance marker for the Station.
Two early graves are in the vicinity of the Mango tree: a marked one beneath the canopy belonging to Sam Thompson, a linesman who died in 1919; and approximately 25 metres north of this spot, within the cleared parking area, is a slightly raised gravel patch measuring about 3 x 2 metres in plan that is believed to be the otherwise unmarked grave of Billy Beirne(s), an early pioneer stockman and pack-horseman of the area.
The extremely remote location of the station means that the property is surrounded by natural vegetation and no other residences or buildings. The Peninsula Developmental Road remained unsealed in the late 2000s.
","history":"The Musgrave Telegraph Office, named in honour of the then Governor of Queensland, Sir Anthony Musgrave, was erected in 1886 and commenced operation on 23 December that year. It was constructed in association with the important overland Cape York Telegraph Line from Laura, at the southern end of Cape York Peninsula, to Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. This is considered one of the outstanding achievements in the development of Queensland's colonial telegraph network.
The line was explored and surveyed in 1883 by JR Bradford, Inspector of Lines and Mail Route Services from 1882 to 1895, later appointed Electrical Engineer for Queensland. The first section of the line, 200 miles from Laura to Mein, was completed on 13 October 1886, and the second section from Mein to Paterson (192½ miles) was completed on 18 August 1887. The line consisted of one 400 pound to the mile galvanised iron wire mounted on the apex of a steel Oppenheimer pole imported from England. The cable from Paterson to Thursday Island was completed in November 1886, but the Thursday Island Telegraph Office did not open until 25 August 1887.
The overland telegraph provided important contact between the isolated communities of the peninsula, as well as a link to southern capitals via Cooktown, and played a significant role in the development of the region. The expansion of telegraphic communication on the peninsula was also an integral element of Brisbane's administrative control of far north Queensland and of communication with British-annexed southern New Guinea [Queensland had annexed southern New Guinea in 1883, but this was revoked by Britain, which annexed the territory itself in 1885] and the Torres Straits [included as Queensland territory from 1879], and in the late 19th century was considered important for the defence of Queensland. It also delineated the major overland axis north through Cape York, and today the Peninsula Development Road and Bamaga Road follow much of the route of the 1880s telegraph line. During the Second World War the overland telegraph line was upgraded and provided the principal communications link for the Allied offensive in New Guinea. Although a dedicated defence facility, the wartime upgrade was linked directly to the 1880s overland telegraph.
In the period 1884-1887, the Queensland Department of Posts and Telegraph erected seven timber-framed, corrugated-iron clad telegraph offices associated with the construction of the Cape York Telegraph Line. These were designed in the office of the Colonial Architect, pre-cut in Brisbane for assembly on site, and erected at Fairview, Musgrave, Coen, Mein, Moreton, McDonnell, and Paterson. It is likely the Thursday Island Telegraph Office opened in an existing post office. Unlike other telegraph offices, those on the Cape York line were designed to provide protection from attack by Aborigines, and included sliding shutters on the front verandah windows, an internal verandah for the quarters, gun posts at diagonally opposite corners of the verandahs, an enclosure for water tanks under the building (which was elevated on high stumps), and a corrugated iron fence surrounding the yard. Later, once the perceived threat from Aborigines had passed, the gun posts were used as bathrooms, or removed. With the exception of the Musgrave Telegraph Office, which is now part of a roadhouse complex, all the other Cape York Telegraph Line offices have been demolished.
There are two graves at the Musgrave Telegraph Station associated with post and telegraph workers. Lineman-in-charge at Musgrave, Sam Thompson, was killed in a fall from a horse in late December 1918 or early January 1919, and was buried beneath a mango tree near the station. Billie Biernes, a mail contractor who died at Musgrave after he retired there, was buried nearby. Both these men were local identities.
On 22 June 1929, telegraph facilities at Musgrave, Mein and McDonnell were closed. Telegraph officers and linemen were withdrawn and the buildings were sold by the Commonwealth Government, which had taken over post and telegraph responsibilities after Federation. The former Musgrave Telegraph Office remained in situ and was used as a station homestead.
","criteria":"Completed in 1886, the former Musgrave Telegraph Station is an important remnant of the infrastructure that supported the overland Cape York Telegraph Line connecting Brisbane with the northern extremities of the colony of Queensland during the mid to late1880s. The line contributed significantly to the expanding economy of northern Queensland; while no longer in use its course has been impressed upon the landscape via the length of much of the Peninsula Development Road as well as the location of the former Musgrave Telegraph Station.
|Of the seven purpose-built telegraph offices constructed by the Queensland Department of Posts and Telegraph between 1884 and 1887 to service the overland Cape York Telegraph Line, which stretched from Laura at the southern end of the Cape York Peninsula to Thursday Island in the Torres Strait, that built at Musgrave in 1886 is the only one extant; making it rare evidence of what was once a vital communication link.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15207,"place_ref":600432,"name":"Raine Island Beacon","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Eastern end of Raine Island","suburb":"RAINE ISLAND","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Raine Island Beacon is a substantial structure about 12 metres high with a base diameter of 9 metres, and is visible for 13 nautical miles. Constructed of good quality coral limestone trimmed to produce a continuous curve inside and out, its cylindrical form decreases in diameter in four steps upwards and is topped by a crenellated parapet. A lightning conductor of wrought copper is fitted from top to bottom of the east face. The only opening in the walls is a semi-circular arched doorway surmounted by the standard inscription VR and date: 1844. Two inscribed stone plaques inserted into the wall above the keystone are illegible due to erosion. The interior originally comprised three levels of wooden floors which were reached by ladders and topped by a dome of timber ribs covered with canvas.
","history":"Ships bound north from Australia to Asia generally took the Outer Passage before turning west through the Great Barrier Reef to Torres Strait. As the area was notorious for shipwrecks, the beacon was built in 1844 to assist navigation. The beacon was built mostly of local materials: coral limestone quarried on site; shells burned to make lime for mortar; and timber from the Martha Ridgway which was wrecked nearby in 1842. Though serving as a landmark for shipping and used by crews, the beacon soon became obsolete after the northern passage was discovered. In 1890 the JT Arundel Company began mining guano on Raine Island, with a workforce of 100 Chinese. Their extensive quarries are evident over much of the island, though there is little sign of the former jetty, buildings, tramway and locomotive. The most obvious gravesite, which is marked by a tombstone, is that of Annie Eliza Ellis who died in 1891. No commercial activity is known to have occurred since 1892, though the beacon tower has been used unofficially for conveying messages, as seen in hundreds of inscriptions on the inner walls. Raine Island, with its beacon, quarries and tombstone, remains a principal wildlife habitat, while dominated by the convict-built beacon.
","criteria":"Constructed as early as 1844, the Raine Island Beacon served briefly as an aid to navigation and a shelter for shipwrecked sailors, and is one of the oldest and most significant structures remaining in Queensland. Its associations with northern navigation and maritime transport, as well as the penal system and island industry are reflected in the fabric of the structure and site.
|As an early navigation aid built of masonry on an isolated coral cay, the beacon is unique in form and context.
|As an early navigation aid built of masonry on an isolated coral cay, the beacon is unique in form and context.
|It remains a landmark structure, and has an aesthetic appeal generated by its rustic materials, early workmanship, derelict nature, and dramatic, isolated ocean setting.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15208,"place_ref":600433,"name":"Stonyville Township, Water Race and Cemetery","alternate_name":"Stony Creek Township","street_address":"Mareeba Mining District","suburb":"STONY CREEK","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The township and cemetery occupy a cleared flat on a horseshoe bend of Stony Creek. A haulage road has recently been driven through the centre of the township to a large area of surface workings that scour the hillside to the north-west of the creek. Evidence of structures in Stony Creek township is now largely archaeological and includes stone surfaces, rock-lined borders and stone cooking places in scattered and disturbed condition. There are two small groups of mango trees.
The cemetery is situated immediately adjacent to the township on the north-west. Cemetery boundaries have recently been assumed with the erection of four corner posts. The area was covered with long grass at the time of survey and only two disturbed arrangements of stones, which may form the perimeter of the cemetery, were evident. The cemetery is reported to contain the foot stones of 15 graves. Two grave markers are reported to have been removed for "safe-keeping" by the Palmer River Historic Preservation Society.
The water race extends for about 1000 m along the northern and eastern banks of Stony Creek. For most of its length the race consists of a 1 m to 2 m wide channel partially cut into bed-rock and raised on a rubble and earth aquaduct up to 6 m above the creekbed. Several short sections contain packed stone retaining walls 1 m to 2.4 m in height. The race is cut through bed rock for about 20 m through a gorge. The race terminates at an area of past alluvial workings adjacent to Stonyville township.
","history":"Stony Creek is one of a number of tributaries of Sandy Creek, in the Limestone district south of the Palmer River, that were subjected to a major rush and intensive alluvial mining by Chinese prospectors following J. V. Mulligan's discovery of gold in Sandy Creek in 1874. The alluvial gravels yielded fine gold for several years.
It is not recorded when prospecting first commenced in Stony Creek but presumably in the gold rush of 1874. A township developed on the southern side of a wide bend in the creek and in 1882 Len Yue had the hotel, John McLean and Sam Marris had butcher shops, and there were several Chinese stores. By September 1896 when the Government Geologist, Robert Logan Jack, passed through "Stony Creek Township" on his way from Groganville to the Palmer, he noted:
"... there are now only four inhabited houses in the street, and a few huts around, all occupied by Chinese.
The chief feature of Stony Creek is a huge outcrop of micaceous quartzite-schist....There is a remarkable water-race on the right bank of the creek, which must have cost, inparts at least £500 per mile. The quartzite-schist crosses the creek again and again".
The water race is evidence of Chinese alluvial mining in the area and of the construction skills that had been developed. Prior to the arrival of the Chinese on Stony Creek in large numbers, the European prospectors are reported to have obtained "fantastic amounts" of alluvial gold. Later, the Chinese were reported to be "particularly strong" on Stony Creek. Hence their continuing presence at the time of R. L. Jack's visit in 1896 and their cemetery. It is presumed the area was abandoned in the first decade of this century.
","criteria":"The place is significant in Queensland's history for illustrating the pattern of Chinese settlement and alluvial mining operations in a rugged and remote area of North Queensland.
|The archaeologically intact combination of water race, stone dams, creek alluvial workings, township site and cemetery is unique and the best surviving example of this type of place in Queensland.
|The archaeologically intact combination of water race, stone dams, creek alluvial workings, township site and cemetery is unique and the best surviving example of this type of place in Queensland.
|The archaeologically intact combination of water race, stone dams, creek alluvial workings, township site and cemetery is unique and the best surviving example of this type of place in Queensland.
|The place exhibits strong visual qualities.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15919,"place_ref":601147,"name":"Cooktown Cemetery","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Charlotte Street","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-04-08","description":"Cooktown Cemetery is a 9.72 hectare reserve situated approximately 1.7kms southwest from the centre of town. The reserve fronts the Cooktown-McIvor River Road [formerly the Palmer Road] to the southeast, and gazetted but unmade roads form its northern and southern boundaries. On the west it is bounded by a local government reserve for slaughtering purposes, and on the east by freehold land. There is a prominent, locally devised interpretative sign in front of the reserve.
The northern and southwestern portions of the reserve are covered in native vegetation: Melaleuca spp., Eucalyptus spp [principally Bloodwood], Pandanus palms, native gingers and various grasses. A granite outcrop about two-thirds of the distance into the reserve from the Cooktown-McIcvor River Road entrance has restricted most of the 3,000 plus burials to the southern and eastern sections of the reserve. The majority of the marked graves are located in an open, grassed section in the southeast quarter of the reserve. There are some trees in this section, mostly self-sown, but a number of frangipanni - possibly remnants of a tree-lined drive - and coconut palms, appear to be early planting.
There is an early cast-iron palisade fence with spear-headed stakes, manufactured by Bayliss Jones and Bayliss of London, along the front boundary of the reserve addressing the Cooktown-McIvor River Road. Early main entrance gates have been removed and replaced by a metal chain. From this entrance a road extends northward, forking in the middle of the reserve. The track to the west terminates at a Chinese Shrine in the middle western section of the reserve, and the other extends to the eastern boundary. These tracks and two secondary pathways divide the cemetery into denominational sections - Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Church of England, Methodist - and there are also Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, Aboriginal and 'pagan' groupings. The most recent graves, in less distinct denominational groupings, are found along the eastern boundary.
The graves in the grassed section of the cemetery are mostly Christian and are aligned roughly east-west, although there are some exceptions, and one faces directly west. Approximately 300 memorials of diverse design, mostly in sandstone or marble and some iron, are scattered through this area. Headstones mostly survive for the social elite and professional classes - the medical, religious and administrative group, along with successful Cooktown merchants, businesspersons and civic leaders. Graves of working people - labourers, carriers, dressmakers, market gardeners, miners - now tend to lie unmarked. Most of the stone memorials were constructed in Brisbane, Townsville or Cairns and shipped to Cooktown, and costs could well have been prohibitive. The surviving headstones and memorials reflect over 120 years of diverse memorial and cultural symbolism and illustrate the work of stonemasons Lowther, J Simmonds, and Hobbs & Carter of Brisbane; Patten Bros of Sydney; E Greenway of Ipswich; and Melrose & Fenwick of Townsville and Cairns. A number of the graves in this section have ornate cast-iron railings, the most elaborate of which is that around the graves of the Sisters of Mercy.
Other graves of note include those of Mrs Mary Watson, who died of thirst escaping hostile Aborigines on Lizard Island in 1881; Albert Ross Hovell, a prominent mariner and son of the explorer William Hovell, but known more specifically for his involvement in 'blackbirding'; Elizabeth Jardine, whose husband John founded Somerset on Cape York, and whose sons were pioneer cattlemen in Northern Australia; Mother Mary de Sales Meagher, founder of the Sisters of Mercy Convent in Cooktown; Albert McLaren, founder of the New Guinea Mission in 1891; Brinsley Guise Sheridan, police magistrate at Cooktown and Cardwell; Rev. John Hutchinson, first Roman Catholic Bishop of the Vicariate Apostolic of Cooktown; Dr H Kortum, understood to be Cooktown's and Queensland's last German consul; and a 1907 memorial to French mariners who died of yellow fever.
To the west of the grassy section is a small grouping of Jewish gravestones and some Aboriginal graves, marked with sapling branches at each corner, and north of these is the Chinese Shrine. Native vegetation has re-established in these areas. A few relict trees, including mangoes, line the main track to the Chinese shrine for a short distance.
The Chinese shrine comprises a rectangular concrete platform approximately 6 metres long by 3 metres wide lying in a north-south direction, at the southern end of which, and facing to the north, is an upright concrete memorial tablet, on which are written in large script the Chinese characters Tjin Ju Tsai: 'Respect the dead as if they are present'. There are two other, smaller, inscriptions on this tablet. That to the right gives the date the shrine was erected: 'a lucky spring day in the third month of the thirteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Kuang Hsu [1874-1908], Ch'ing dynasty'. On the left the inscription reads: 'Erected, with respect, by the Chinese community of Cooktown'. In front of this tablet is a low concrete altar, on which food offerings were placed for the spirit of the departed. The platform is enclosed by a concrete edging and an ornate cast-iron railing. Beyond the northern end of the platform and approximately 2 metres away are two ceremonial fire-boxes, constructed of fire bricks rendered with cement. Each is approximately 1.2m³ with a grate at the bottom. The open tops permitted paper prayers and temple 'money' to be burned, assisting the spirits on their journey to a life beyond this world.
Northwest of the consecrated ground lie the graves of individuals such as the 'Normanby Woman' and, in dense melaleuca scrub beyond this, the grave of Elizabeth Cooper, who drowned in the Endeavour River in August 1874, prior to the cemetery survey. Within this regrowth area is located a clay brick-pitched well, and beyond this a rectangular arrangement of shallow ditches , remnants of an irrigation channelling system purported to be of Chinese origin. The original cemetery survey indicated Chinese gardens adjacent to the Cemetery reserve, along Two-Mile Creek, but none within the reserve, so it is likely that if such a garden was established on the reserve, it was at some period after 1874.
","history":"Cooktown Cemetery, with over 3,000 burials, has been in continuous use since soon after the town was established in October 1873. Although gazettal was not until mid-1875 the site was used earlier: the oldest marked grave is that of Rev. Francis Tripp, an Anglican clergyman who died at Cooktown on 20 May 1874. Cemetery records date from 1875, with approximately 1830 burials recorded in the period 1877 to 1920. The colourful mix of nationalities and religions evident in these records and in the cemetery itself reflect the nature of Cooktown in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the Endeavour River port for the Palmer River goldfields.
Cooktown 'mushroomed' in the mid-1870s as a port and supply and administrative centre. Within six months of its establishment in October 1873 there were 20 restaurants, 12 large and 20 smaller stores, 6 butchers, 5 bakers, 3 tinsmiths, and chemists, fancygoods shops, watchmakers, bootmakers and saddlers, conducting businesses in the town; 65 publican's licenses had been issued for the Cooktown-Palmer River district, with 30 more applied for by April 1874. There was an estimated 3,000 floating population in the town itself, and thousands of men en route to the goldfields. Large numbers of Chinese made their way to the Palmer goldfields via Cooktown in the period 1873-77, and Chinese storekeepers were amongst the earliest to establish businesses in Cooktown. Two Cooktown newspapers were established in 1874, a state school, customs house, court house, post office and several churches were erected by 1875, and the town was declared a municipality on 5 April 1876. The 1876 census revealed a population of over 9,200 persons on the then extensive Palmer goldfields, and the town of Cooktown had a population of just under 2,200.
In the 1880s Cooktown business 'boomed'. A railway was constructed from Cooktown to Laura between 1884 and 1888, further opening the port to development. By the late 1880s it was the centre not only of a thriving mining district [boosted by the 1887 discovery of tin along the Annan River], but also of pearling, bêche-de-mer, and pastoral activity. After 1885 Cooktown was also the main port for Queensland trade with New Guinea. Despite the decline in alluvial output from the Palmer River goldfields in the mid-1880s and the corresponding decline in the town's importance as the principal port of Far North Queensland from the early 1890s, by the turn of the century the Cook and Palmer census districts still had a population of just under 6,000, [despite less than 1,300 persons on the Palmer, Coen and Hamilton goldfields] and the municipality of Cooktown retained a population of nearly 2,000.
In the earliest days of Cooktown settlement [the summer of 1873-74], there were a number of burials along the ridge above Charlotte Street, between Banks and Green Streets. When the town was surveyed in April 1874, this burial ground was surveyed as building allotments and roadway, and in the same month the first Cooktown Hospital was erected on some of these blocks. By September 1874 the Hospital Committee, which considered the shallow graves within the hospital grounds and on the adjacent roadway to be a health risk, was urging the colonial government to provide funds to remove the remains to the Cooktown Cemetery, apparently in use at that time although neither surveyed nor gazetted. In reaction to public concern, surveyor James Reid was instructed to formally survey the Cooktown Cemetery, a reserve of 15 acres south of the town near the Two-Mile Creek, and this was completed by early November 1874. What appear to be a number of graves are indicated on the survey plan, suggesting that the cemetery was in use already.
The Cooktown Cemetery was proclaimed formally in June 1875 and 5 trustees appointed - one representing each of the principal denominations in Cooktown: Church of England, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Hebrew and Wesleyan Methodist. No Chinese person was appointed, despite the high proportion of Chinese resident in Cooktown and surrounding district at this period. During the second half of 1875 the cemetery reserve was fenced [probably in timber] and cemetery gates erected. When the land around the cemetery was surveyed by surveyor Berwick in February 1876 as suburban subdivisions, the cemetery reserve was extended to the east by just over 9 acres, establishing a frontage to the Palmer Road and necessitating a repositioning of the cemetery gates.
In 1876 the cemetery was established more formally. From mid-June 1876 a sexton was employed, and timber was purchased for a sexton's cottage and separate office in the grounds; surveyor Berwick was contracted to lay out the grounds in subdivisions [denominational divisions?]; and roads were made through the cemetery. In September 1876 cemetery rules and regulations were gazetted.
The cemetery appears to have been well maintained during the 19th century. In April 1891 the trustees were commended by the community for improvements to the Cemetery avenue and flower beds, and visitors were warned against allowing dogs into the grounds.
The cemetery bears testimony to the diverse nationalities who came to Cooktown and the Palmer goldfields in the late 19th century, and includes the graves of French, Chinese, English, Swedish, Germans and South Sea Islanders. Of particular prominence are the Chinese - mostly gardeners, miners, labourers and storekeepers - who account for approximately one-sixth [about 300] of the burials in the period 1877-1920. It is understood that most Chinese initially interred here were later exhumed and returned to China. The contribution of the Chinese to the development of Cooktown and the Palmer River goldfields in the late 19th century cannot be underestimated. As late as 1901, when the population of the Palmer River goldfield was just 600 persons, 377 of them were Chinese, and Chinese accounted for approximately 7.5% of the population of the Cook and Palmer census districts. Cooktown itself had a substantial 'Chinatown' - storekeepers, boardinghouse keepers, restauranteurs - and in 1887 the local Chinese community erected a Shrine in the cemetery to honour their dead.
With the decline of Cooktown during the first half of the 20th century, Cooktown Cemetery fell into disrepair. Deliberately-lit grassfires caused considerable damage. Numerous complaints about the condition of the grounds and lack of maintenance prompted the Cook Shire Council in August 1941 to request to the Lands Department that the Council take over trusteeship of the cemetery. The surviving trustees finally tendered their resignations in February 1943, and the cemetery was placed under the control of Cook Shire Council. However, under Council control, responsibility for burials was left for many years to local undertakers, who appear to have worked to two different cemetery layouts, causing considerable confusion. Some community interpretative work has been undertaken in recent years, with a large sign erected at the entrance to the cemetery and several of the more historically significant graves decorated. In the mid-1990s, Cook Shire Council commenced a conservation programme.
","criteria":"Cooktown Cemetery is important in illustrating the evolution of Queensland's history - in particular, the unique and multi-cultural history of Cooktown. The place has been in use as a cemetery since 1874, and the several thousand interments provide rare evidence of the diversity of national, ethnic and religious groups which shaped the development of Cooktown and district in the last quarter of the 19th century.
|Also, it is rare as the only identified Queensland cemetery in which a Chinese shrine is erected within the cemetery reserve. This shrine survives as an intact and in Queensland, rare, example of its type.
|Cooktown Cemetery offers a unique source of historical information, and also has the potential to reveal important information about the development of Cooktown and its multicultural society, through archaeological investigation.
|Cooktown Cemetery survives as a good example of its type, with denominational divisions, Christian graves aligned to the east, and a variety of headstones and monuments illustrating changing public attitudes to commemoration of the dead.
|Cooktown Cemetery is significant for its aesthetic qualities, which include the diversity and workmanship of the in situ monuments and cast iron railings, the hilly terrain and tropical vegetation as a backdrop to vistas both within and without the cemetery reserve, and the rustic cast-iron fencing along the front boundary. The Chinese shrine, with its simplicity of form and materials and its setting within a dense re-growth area, is of particular aesthetic significance.
|Cooktown Cemetery has a strong association for local residents with the town's flamboyant history, and is associated with generations of Cooktown families who have contributed to the development and identity of the town and district. It is valued as a strong and unique illustration of the special history of Cooktown, and is considered a major Far North Queensland tourist attraction.
|The place has a special association with several notable individuals and families who have contributed to the historical evolution of Cooktown and district and to the mythology associated with pioneering life and the late 19th century goldrush era.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16005,"place_ref":601241,"name":"Grassy Hill Lighthouse","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Grassy Hill","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-04-08","description":"The lighthouse is sited a few metres below the summit of Grassy Hill 170m above sea level and 1km northeast of Cooktown, within a 3.766ha Reserve [R.134] for Lighthouse Purposes. The tower is visible from sea during the day for many miles to the north and northeast, and is a prominent Cooktown landmark from the air.
A few metres above the lighthouse, at the summit of Grassy Hill, is a level viewing platform with interpretative signage and a sandstone cairn marking the bi-centenary of Lieutenant James Cook's visual survey of the reef at the mouth of the Endeavour River in 1770. This vantage point offers spectacular views of Cooktown and hinterland, and of the Endeavour River estuary and the reefs and ocean beyond. A graded road circumnavigates the summit, permitting vehicular access to the lighthouse and viewing platform.
The lighthouse tower, located at the side of the access road, is 6 metres high and has a truncated conical base approximately 3metres in diameter at the concrete ground floor level. The base has a timber frame with corrugated iron cladding and small rectangular windows situated on the south and east sides.
A small corrugated iron-clad, timber-framed entry with a convex corrugated iron roof is situated on the west side. The entry has tongue and groove timber double doors.
A surrounding walkway which is supported on timber brackets sits above the conical base and has a lightweight tubular balustrade. The cylindrical lantern with a hemispherical dome sits above the base and has a glazed top half divided octagonally on plan with cast iron skirt below.
Internal access to the light is via a timber stair. There are a number of large gas cylinders inside the tower, relics of the unmanned acetylene gas apparatus which functioned from 1927 to c1993.
Of the 7 timber-framed, corrugated iron-clad lighthouses erected by the Queensland colonial government in the late 19th century, only those on Grassy Hill [1886], Little Sea Hill [1886] and Goode Island [1886-87] remain in use and in situ. Caloundra Head [1896] has been decommissioned, removed to Golden Beach, and is now maintained by the Caloundra City Council. The lighthouse at Bay Rock [erected 1886 near Townsville] has been removed to the Townsville Maritime Museum and re-erected on a steel frame. Two other timber-framed, corrugated iron clad lighthouses - North Point Hummock [1894] on Moreton Island and Gatcombe Head [1900] near Gladstone - have been demolished.
","history":"Grassy Hill lighthouse was erected for the Queensland Department of Harbours and Rivers in 1886 to mark a safe passage to the port of Cooktown, at the mouth of the Endeavour River.
\nCooktown was established in October 1873 as the Endeavour River port and administrative centre to the important Palmer River goldfields. Within six months of its establishment the town contained 20 restaurants, 12 large and 20 smaller stores, 6 butchers, 5 bakers, 3 tinsmiths, and chemists, fancygoods shops, watchmakers, bootmakers and saddlers; 65 publican's licenses had been issued for the Cooktown-Palmer River district, with 30 more applied for by April 1874. There was an estimated 3,000 floating population in the town itself, and thousands of men en route to the goldfields. Two Cooktown newspapers were established in 1874, a state school, customs house, court house, post office and several churches were erected by 1875, and the town was declared a municipality on 5 April 1876. The 1876 census revealed a population of over 9,200 persons on the then extensive Palmer goldfields, and the town of Cooktown had a population of just under 2,200.
\nIn the 1880s Cooktown developed as the principal port of far North Queensland, and local business 'boomed'. Between 1884 and 1888 a railway was constructed from Cooktown to Laura, further opening the port to development. By the late 1880s it was the centre not only of a thriving mining district [boosted by the 1887 discovery of tin along the Annan River], but also of pearling, bêche-de-mer, and pastoral activity. After 1885 Cooktown was also the main port for Queensland trade with New Guinea.
\nPrior to the establishment of the light station at Grassy Hill in 1886, leading lights at the gable ends of the sheds on the Cooktown wharves enabled vessels to enter and leave the port at night. By 1882 a temporary light had been placed on the hill, but George Poynter Heath, Portmaster of Queensland 1862-90 and Chairman of the Queensland Marine Board 1869-90, reported to Parliament in 1883 and again in 1884 that this was very inefficient, and recommended that it be replaced by a proper building and apparatus. In the Estimates of 1884-85, the colonial government provided a £10,000 loan for the construction of a number of coastal lights, including that at Grassy Hill.
\nIn mid-1885 Heath undertook a tour of inspection of Queensland lighthouses, and at Grassy Hill fixed the site for a new light. Grassy Hill already had strong historical significance for the European community. Lieutenant James Cook, camped beneath this hill from 13 June to 4 August 1770 to repair the Endeavour, climbed Grassy Hill to survey the ocean for a passage for his ship between the reefs at Endeavour River Bay. Besides the temporary light, a signal staff erected in May 1874, and a small cottage constructed 1878-79 for the signalman, were extant on Grassy Hill when the position of the new light was fixed.
\nThe Grassy Hill lighthouse was erected in 1886 at a cost of £842/8/7 for the building and £156 for the lighting apparatus - a 4th Order Fixed Dioptric Light 180 made by Chance Bros & Co., Lighthouse Works, near Birmingham. GP Heath supervised the placing of the apparatus in the completed tower in mid-September 1886. It was a manned light, lit by kerosene. [As early as 1864 Heath had introduced the substitution of kerosene for oil, the former burning with greater brilliance.] The lighthouse keeper at Grassy Hill also maintained the signal station.
\nGrassy Hill lighthouse employs an innovative style of construction unique to Queensland. When separated from New South Wales in 1859, Queensland inherited only one lighthouse - the station at Cape Moreton, erected in 1857. The first lighthouses erected by the Queensland colonial government –Bustard Head in 1868 [QHR 601260] and Sandy Cape in 1870 [QHR 601712] – were constructed of cast-iron plates bolted to iron frames with internal iron staircases, the whole being prefabricated in England. However, for the Lady Elliott Island lighthouse [1872-73], Colonial Architect FDG Stanley designed a structure which utilised readily available local timber, specifying a hardwood frame clad with plated iron sheeting. This reduced the cost of construction substantially, and despite problems of termite infestation and rusting, this type of construction, or its derivative, a wooden frame with corrugated galvanised iron sheeting, became the standard for subsequent 19th century Queensland lighthouses. Between 1873 and 1901, 14 lighthouses were constructed in Queensland using hardwood framing and plated iron sheeting, and another 7 were constructed with hardwood frames and corrugated iron cladding. The latter were associated mostly with harbour entrances, such as at Grassy Hill at the mouth of the Endeavour River.
\nThe lighthouse was maintained as single-man station by a series of lighthouse keepers who served as signalman and keeper. The lighthouse, situated within walking distance of Cooktown, was less isolated than many of Queensland’s other lighthouses. Keepers could participate in Cooktown’s social life, and those with families could send their children to school and access civic services. The position of the lighthouse was also praised by keepers, with the family of keeper Thomas Carter (1912-18) describing it as ‘an ideal spot – 500ft above sea level – got every breeze that blew… On clear days, with the telescope, it was possible to see the surf breaking on the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef.’[1]
\nFrom 1 July 1915, the Commonwealth Government assumed control of Australian coastal lights, and the Grassy Hill light was among 28 Queensland lightstations transferred. At time of transfer, the Grassy Hill station comprised a circular galvanised iron tower on a concrete base, with nearby a flagpole and signal house and store. There was also the lightkeeper's quarters [erected in 1900 - possibly replacing the 1878-79 signalman's cottage] with a detached wooden kitchen, iron bathroom and sundry outhouses. The whole occupied a reserve of 10 acres, and buildings and optical apparatus were valued at £1,219. It was categorised as a 'Class C' station.
\nPrior to the 1915 transfer, a 1912 report commissioned by the Commonwealth Government, recommended that the Grassy Hill light be converted to an unwatched light. The light-keeper was to remain at the station for signal duties. Although all Queensland coastal light stations were provided with flag staffs and signal flags, at this period Grassy Hill was one of only 12 light stations connected with the State telegraph network. In 1913 a wireless station had been erected on a spur of Grassy Hill to permit radio contact with shipping, superseding the signal flag and heliograph previously used.
\nThe lighthouse had been unsupervised from time to time; after keeper Thomas Carter died on Christmas Eve 1918, the light was unwatched until a new keeper was appointed in 1920.[2] Later in 1920, however, it was announced that the lighthouse would be made an unattended light, due to improved tidal conditions and reduced shipping at Cooktown.[3] The last keeper, Harry Geater, transferred from Grassy Hill with his family in May 1927, and the light was converted to automatic operation in June and July.[4] The prisms were glazed, allowing the light to be seen from Cooktown,[5] and the apparatus replaced with an open flame acetylene gas burner. The flagstaff was also removed.[6]
\nAlthough Cooktown was not accessible by land until 1937, by 1929 there was little traffic into the port. By 1959 this was limited to small tourist and supply vessels operating from Cairns. The Grassy Hill lighthouse had been maintained regularly by the Commonwealth Works Department during the 1930s and 1940s, with yearly inspections and maintenance. The Grassy Hill light which had been a significant landmark for the shipping which made Cooktown a bustling and prosperous port during the heyday of the Palmer River goldfields in the late 19th century, became a popular tourist attraction in the second half of the 20th century. In 1970 a sandstone cairn was placed on the crest of Grassy Hill, on the lighthouse reserve just above the lighthouse, to commemorate the bi-centenary of Cook's survey from the summit.
\nIn November 1987 control of the Grassy Hill lighthouse was transferred from the Commonwealth back to the Queensland Government. Subsequently the lighthouse reserve was transferred unofficially to the Cook Shire Council as trustees, with the Queensland Department of Transport retaining responsibility for maintaining the light, and local community groups maintaining the tower. The light was converted to solar power c1993, and is maintained principally for the benefit of small craft and fishing vessels.
Grassy Hill lighthouse has been in continuous use as a navigation aid marking the entrance to the port of Cooktown at the mouth of the Endeavour River since 1886. It is significant for its close association with the growth of Cooktown as an important port in the 1880s, and illustrates the continued importance of maritime traffic to Cooktown, which was not accessible by land until 1937. It has historical significance as an early highway light on the Queensland coast, the site having been chosen by Captain George Poynter Heath, the first Portmaster of Queensland (1862-90) and a significant figure in the development of the Queensland lighthouse service. The place has historical significance also for marking Grassy Hill, the site of Cook's observation of the reef at the mouth of the Endeavour River, in 1770.
|The tower remains substantially intact, and survives as a good example of a type of lighthouse construction - a round, timber-framed tower clad with corrugated iron - unique to Queensland and incorporating Queensland materials and building skills.
Only 7 of this specific type of lighthouse were constructed in Queensland in the last quarter of the 19th century, and only 3 remain in use and on their original site.
Grassy Hill lighthouse therefore is significant for its rarity and high degree of innovation.
|The tower remains substantially intact, and survives as a good example of a type of lighthouse construction - a round, timber-framed tower clad with corrugated iron - unique to Queensland and incorporating Queensland materials and building skills.
|The lighthouse is significant also as a Cooktown landmark, visible from sea and air approaches for many miles. Although a comparatively small structure, the lighthouse has aesthetic value, with the white tower, capped by a bright red dome, isolated against the green foliage of Grassy Hill. It makes a dramatic visual statement in the natural landscape.
|The tower remains substantially intact, and survives as a good example of a type of lighthouse construction - a round, timber-framed tower clad with corrugated iron - unique to Queensland and incorporating Queensland materials and building skills. This technology was innovative, and illustrates a unique adaptation of British technology to colonial economic and physical conditions.
Grassy Hill lighthouse therefore is significant for its rarity and high degree of innovation.
|The place has a strong association for the local and Queensland community with Cooktown history and identity.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16248,"place_ref":601485,"name":"Coen Carrier Station (former)","alternate_name":"Coen Carrier Repeater Station | Coen Telegraph Station","street_address":"Coleman Close","suburb":"COEN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-05-27","description":"Coen Carrier Station is located on a gently sloping site, approximately 45 x 50 m, to the north side of Coen at the junction of the Coen River and Lankelly Creek. It is adjacent to the site of the original Telegraph Station. The Carrier Station building is essentially rectangular in form, set on a concrete slab. The framing of the building is a combination of timber and steel. The base plates are timber while all the vertical members are steel. Timber frames house the windows and doors. The timber is generally in sound condition throughout the building, although termite damage is evident in some locations. The exterior walls are 1-inch ripple iron that is screwed to the steel frame. The interior fibrous cement sheet walls are also screwed to the steel frame. The joints are covered with wide timber cover-strips which are nailed to the base plates and the occasional timber members. The original windows are timber framed, and located on the west elevation. Louvres have been installed on the southern elevation.
\nThe original part of the building consists of three rooms; an equipment room, power room and battery room. Two rooms of equal size and shape are located at the southern end of the building with the third across the whole of the northern end. No original telegraph equipment remains in the building. Attached to the eastern side is a glazed verandah running the full length of the building that is clad in ripple iron up to the height of the sill. The internal rear wall of the verandah is clad in 1-inch ripple iron. At the southern end of the verandah there is a kitchen annexe. This projects slightly and is clad in standard 3-inch corrugated iron.
\nA laundry and bathroom are attached at the northern end of the building and have been constructed on a concrete slab, higher than the level of the main floor. The structure is timber framed, clad both internally and externally in fibrous cement sheeting. It has a skillion roof and louvred windows. There is a path leading north-west out from the laundry. At the north and south ends of the building, the original fixtures for the telegraph and electric wires are still visible.
\nThe ceiling framing, like the walls, is a mixture of timber and iron. The rafters and king-posts are iron, while the battens are timber. The gable roof is clad with 3-inch corrugated fibrous cement nailed to battens. The roof eaves are supported on timber and steel brackets. A corrugated iron awning over the eastern verandah is attached to the main roof and is supported on timber brackets. A large ventilator runs along the ridge of the roof and small circular one set into the roof is located near the north-west corner.
\nThe remains of three water tanks are located at the north-east, south-east and sout-west corners of the building. A colourbond steel shed with a flat roof has recently been erected at the north-west corner of the site.
","history":"Coen Carrier Station, a prefabricated steel and corrugated iron building, was erected in 1942 as part of an urgent upgrading of the Cape York Peninsula overland telegraph line [established in the 1880s], undertaken in response to Japanese aggression in the Pacific and South East Asia. It was one of four identical carrier stations.
Far North Queensland had emerged as the new 'frontier' following the discovery of gold on the Palmer River in the early 1870s, and the resultant impetus to prospect further north. Various smaller goldfields were opened at this period. An abortive gold rush at Coen in 1878-80 was re-kindled in 1886, and by 1889 Coen comprised a one-street township of tents and bark huts. The Coen Goldfield was proclaimed in 1892.
A telegraph station had been erected at Coen in 1886, when the overland telegraph line from Laura, at the southern end of Cape York Peninsula, to Thursday Island at the northern end, was being constructed. The line, which opened to Thursday Island on 25 August 1887, provided contact between the isolated communities of the peninsula, as well as a link to southern capitals via Cooktown, and played an important role in the development of the region. The expansion of telegraphic communication on the peninsula was also an integral element of Brisbane's administrative control of far north Queensland and of communication with British-annexed New Guinea and the Torres Straits from 1885, and was considered important for the defence of Queensland in the late 19th century.
From the late 1930s, with the impending threat of war with Japan in the Pacific, telecommunications once again were identified as an important element of national defence. Even before Australia's declaration of war on Japan on 9 December 1941, [following simultaneous attacks by the Japanese on Hawaii, Hong Kong and Malaya], there was urgent interest in upgrading defence facilities on Cape York Peninsula. The two priorities were serviceable airfields and adequate communications. By July 1941 a new airfield about 35 km north of Coen, and a new runway at Iron Range (near Lockhart River), had been completed, yet at this period the Coen Telegraph Station had only morse facilities and a 6-line pyramid switchboard [local telephone only].
The bombing of Darwin and Townsville by the Japanese in March and July 1942 respectively, and the arrival of American troops in north Queensland from March 1942, hastened the plans to deliver improved telecommunications to the Peninsula. Australia became the centre of communications in the South Pacific. Following the Coral Sea and Midway campaigns in May 1942, and the shifting of the war north to New Guinea, it was clear that north Queensland and Cape York Peninsula would play a crucial role in the offensive against Japan. Adequate telecommunications were essential to link the airfields of far north Queensland and the fighting fronts in New Guinea and beyond, with the command centres in Townsville, Brisbane and the southern capitals.
The wartime upgrading of telecommunications from Townsville to Thursday Island was a dedicated defence facility, but was linked directly to the 1880s overland telegraph. An R Type Carrier System, developed in Australia during World War II to cater for pockets of telecommunications traffic congestion, particularly in places where a telephone carrier was not available to supply a channel for a voice frequency system, was installed along the old overland telegraph route from Mt Surprise to Cape York. The R Type system was limited to four duo-directional channels using a frequency between 3300 and 5220 cycles per second, which was above normal voice frequency but below the range of other established carrier systems, which used high frequency bands. There was no interference when both normal speech frequency and the carrier frequency operated over the same pair of copper wires. In effect, one pair of copper wires from Townsville to Thursday Island was to carry 3 facilities: normal voice frequency telephone, upgraded telegraph carrier, and a telephone carrier.
Cape York Peninsula's R Type Carrier System necessitated the installation of:
* a pair of copper wires strung on the existing pole route between Townsville and Cape York, with loops into Cooktown and Iron Range [total 1036 miles]
* a three channel carrier system [telephone] with terminals at Townsville and Cape York and repeaters at Charters Towers, Mt Surprise, Fairview and Coen
* a four channel telegraph system with terminals at Townsville and Cape York
* voice frequency repeaters at Charters Towers, Mt Surprise, Fairview, Coen and Cape York
* submarine cable from Cape York to Horn Island and from Horn Island to Thursday Island
* power equipment, including diesel generators and batteries, at Mt Surprise, Fairview, Coen and Cape York
* buildings [carrier stations] at Mt Surprise, Fairview, Coen and Cape York to accommodate equipment.
The work of upgrading telecommunications on Cape York Peninsula commenced in August 1942, and was a major undertaking. The US Army Signal Corps provided 1200 men, the Australian Army Signals made 600 men available, and the Postmaster-General's Department [PMG] provided 60 supervisors. Australian Army Engineers under the supervision of the PMG were responsible for that part of the line northwards from the Hann River, including the upgrading of facilities at Coen and the construction of the new loop line from Coen to Iron Range, a massive job. Progress was rapid, and the whole of the line work was completed by 23 November 1942.
At Coen, a carrier station was erected adjacent to the 1886 telegraph station and connected to it. Like the buildings erected at Mt Surprise, Fairview and Cape York, the Coen Carrier Station was of pre-fabricated steel frame construction, with outer walls of corrugated iron, concrete floors, and fibrous cement roofing. They were partitioned internally with fibrous-cement sheeting to provide equipment, power and battery rooms, and living accommodation for two or three maintenance staff. It is thought that these buildings were designed and pre-fabricated in one of the PMG's workshops in Melbourne, Adelaide or Sydney.
Due to the impossibility of obtaining carrier telegraph equipment from overseas during the war years, the PMG's Melbourne workshops manufactured and assembled a prototype four-channel VF telegraph [Type R], which was in design early in 1942, and intended principally for use by the Army Signals Corps in forward areas and for combat use in New Guinea and the Pacific. This was the equipment installed between October and December 1942 at the Cape York Peninsula carrier stations. The buildings were far from complete during installation. All telecommunications channels between Townsville and Cape York were in service on 9 December 1942, but the Coen Carrier Station was not completed until Boxing Day. A PMG officer and two Army signals personnel staffed each of the carrier stations, with the PMG officers in charge.
The improved telecommunications on Cape York Peninsula played a vital role in defeating Japanese aggression. In 1945, following the cessation of hostilities, control of the telecommunications facilities reverted to the Postmaster-General's Department. The circuits were now available for public use, permitting for the first time telephone trunk calls from Cape York Peninsula to the rest of Australia. In the mid-1950s, improvements in the system enabled the telephone exchange in Coen to be removed to a building in the main street of the town, although working equipment remained in the 1886 Telegraph Station and in the Carrier Station. By the second half of the 1960s, the 1886 Telegraph Station in Coen had become redundant and it was removed to Rokeby Pastoral Station and re-used as a house. It has since been destroyed.
In 1982 a broadband radio system was in service as far as Coen, at which time the open-wire route to the south was abandoned as a trunk route, and the installation of an automatic exchange at Coen was made possible. Broadband was extended to Thursday Island in 1987, at which time the open-wire line north of Coen was abandoned.
Throughout this era of improvement, Coen Carrier Station was used chiefly to house telephone equipment. During the installation of the broadband system, it served as living quarters for PMG workers. Following completion of the broadband system, the building was used to accommodate Telecom service personnel working in the region; but has been unoccupied since 1990. The site is now located within a Ranger Station operated by the Department of Environment.
Of the four carrier stations erected on Cape York Peninsula in 1942, the Coen Carrier Station is the most intact. Fairview Carrier Station was closed in 1949 and, although still in situ, is now an outstation of Olive Vale Station. In 1958 the Mt Surprise to Coen system was re-routed from Cooktown to Coen and the original line from Mt Surprise to Fairview via Palmerville was abandoned as a trunk route in 1963. The Cape York Carrier Station was closed in 1960.
","criteria":"The Coen Carrier Station is significant for the important role it played as part of the defence and communications network of Cape York Peninsula, which was crucial to Australia during World War II. The place includes the site of the adjacent 1886 Telegraph Office [demolished], and illustrates the continued association of Coen with telecommunications on Cape York Peninsula for well over a century, providing contact between isolated communities on the peninsula and with southern capitals and beyond.
|The building, constructed in 1942, is rare as one of Queensland's few remaining carrier station buildings designed and prefabricated in Australia by the Postmaster-General's workshops during World War II, and installed under difficult circumstances.
|The station has a special association with the work of the Postmaster-General's Department in developing new technology in Australia during World War II, and with the important work of the Australian Army Signals Corps, who installed the Cape York Peninsula line and carrier equipment in 1942 and staffed the building during the war.
|The former Coen Carrier Station is significant in relation to criterion f.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion H | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16298,"place_ref":601535,"name":"Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office (former)","alternate_name":"Cook Shire Council Chambers","street_address":"121 Charlotte Street","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-04-08","description":"Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office (former) (1877) is located in the centre of Cooktown’s central business district. The building stands at the front of the site, facing east to Charlotte Street, the town’s principal street. The open rear yard slopes down to the west to the Endeavour River, which runs along the rear boundary.
\nThrough its form, materials and siting, the place contributes to an attractive streetscape of nearby, related 19th and early 20th century buildings and civic infrastructure, including: Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office (1887); Mary Watson's Monument (1886) [QHR600421]; former Seagren's Building (1880s) [QHR600420]; former Bank of North Queensland (1892) [QHR600422]; former Queensland National Bank (1892) [QHR600419] and Early Granite Kerbing and Channelling (1880s) [QHR601731].
\nIt is a timber-framed, low-set, single-storey building clad with chamferboards and with a hipped roof clad with corrugated metal clad sheets. The long narrow building stretches along Charlotte Street. A wide rear block projects from the rear to form a T-shape in plan. This projection is the truncated remnant of a longer residential wing with semi-detached kitchen wing that has been demolished/removed off site. A verandah wraps the building on all sides except the rear side of the rear block; its roof is continuous with the main roof. Topping the centre of the main roof is a broad, hipped lantern roof, ventilated by fixed louvres on all sides.
\nThe subfloor stumps have been replaced with short steel posts and a small, semi-detached masonry extension has been made to the north side toward the rear.
\nThe front verandah remains open and has stop-chamfered timber posts and features a central gable roof over the main entrance to the building. The gable is infilled with v-jointed timber boards and features a non-original stop-chamfered finial. The verandah balustrade of battens is a later replacement not to the original cross-braced design. All other verandahs, which were originally open, have been enclosed.
\nThe windows and doors of the building provide evidence of the building’s original public post and telegraph office and residential use and its 1888 conversion for residential use only. The two central double doors (originally the main entrance doors into the two separate offices) are timber-framed, glazed double doors with moulded panels and fanlights. One of them (the telegraph office’s double doors) has been converted to be outward opening c1888 for the residence conversion. Either side of the main entrance doors are double-hung windows with fine, moulded glazing bars. The windows also retain their sash flaps – hinged timber pieces on the window jamb supporting or releasing the upper sash. The building has other windows which have been converted to French doors in c1888.
\nThe interior layout, originally divided in half into the two separate offices by a party wall, has been adapted for use as council offices with open plan areas and individual offices and rooms. The party wall has had some openings made in it to connect the two sides of the building and some partitions have been removed and new ones added in new locations. The original ceilings and walls are lined with timber boards. Some original partitions have been lined over with flat sheet material.
\nFeatures of Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office (former) of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office (former) not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nThe Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office (former) was constructed in 1877, on the west side of Charlotte Street, Cooktown, by the Queensland Government. It is a rare surviving example of a large timber Combined Post Office, Telegraph Office & Quarters building, which was designed with separate offices for a post office and a telegraph office at the front, and separate symmetrical quarters for the Post Master and Telegraph Manager to the rear. It is also a rare and early surviving government building from the first decade of Cooktown’s existence. It was converted to residential use only in 1888, after a new post and telegraph office (extant) was built to its immediate north the previous year, and it was later used as the offices of the Cooktown Municipal Council (later Cook Shire Council) from late 1892 until 2007.
\nBuilt on part of the traditional land of the Guugu Yimithirr people, the Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office (former) is one of the earliest surviving in Cooktown. In 1770, HM Bark Endeavour, captained by Lieutenant James Cook, struck a coral reef before being beached for repairs for seven weeks on the south bank of the mouth of what Cook named the Endeavour River. Although relations between the visitors and the Guugu Yimithirr people were initially cordial, a cultural misunderstanding led to a confrontation, which was soon followed an act of reconciliation.[1] The Endeavour River was not visited by Europeans again until 1819, by Lieutenant Phillip King in HM Cutter Mermaid, while the next recorded visit was made by John Jardine in 1865.[2]
\nGold was discovered on the Palmer River, over 100km southwest of Cooktown, by surveyor Frederick Warner in August 1872, although explorer William Hann’s report to this effect was not tabled in Parliament until May 1873. Between June and September 1873, James Venture Mulligan led a prospecting party from the Etheridge River to the Palmer River, and a rush to the Palmer from the Etheridge ensued after his return. Cooktown (initially called Cook’s Town) was established when a party of police, government officials and miners landed on the south bank of the Endeavour River on 25 October 1873, with the aim of establishing a port and supply line for miners already on the Palmer. A party of miners soon left the Endeavour River for the Palmer.[3] The Palmer goldfield was declared on 27 November 1873.[4]
\nCooktown developed almost overnight as a port and supply and administrative centre, initially as a disorganised tent city, until the Government surveyor James Read arrived in February 1874. The first land sale occurred in May 1874, and a government reserve was located east of Charlotte Street, to the north of Hill Street.[5] Within six months of its establishment, the town had 20 restaurants, 12 large and 20 smaller stores, 6 butchers, 5 bakers, 3 tinsmiths, and chemists, fancygoods shops, watchmakers, bootmakers and saddlers; 65 publican's licenses had been issued for the Cooktown-Palmer River district, with 30 more applied for by April 1874. There was an estimated floating population of 3,000 in the town itself, and thousands of men en route to the goldfields. Large numbers of Chinese miners made their way to the Palmer goldfield via Cooktown, and Chinese storekeepers were amongst the earliest to establish businesses in Cooktown. Two Cooktown newspapers were established in 1874, a state school, customs house, courthouse, and several churches were erected by 1875, and the town was declared a municipality on 5 April 1876. The 1876 census revealed a population of over 9,200 persons on the Palmer goldfield, and Cooktown had a population of just under 2,200.[6]
\nRudimentary government buildings were soon erected. By February 1874 they consisted of two small timber and iron buildings for the police, and one small hut for the acting sub-collector of customs. In April, a prefabricated customs house and a bonded store arrived. These were located in the government reserve north of Hill Street, although the western side of Charlotte Street was also reserved for government purposes.[7]
\nAn unofficial post office was established in Cooktown from 1 January 1874, and became official later in the year. It was originally based in one of two timber and iron huts erected for the police, on the government reserve, but in July 1874 it relocated into its own building on this reserve, north of the police. In 1875 this was described as a two-room building, with an office and a bedroom for one of its two staff. A line for the telegraph from Cooktown to Maytown, on the Palmer goldfield, was opened on 25 April 1876.[8]
\nTenders for a new purpose-built post and telegraph office were called in 1875, and again in 1876. The contract was let in July 1876 to Cooktown contractor HJ Meldrum, with a price of £1,940. Meldrum disappeared later in the year, believed drowned, and the work was completed by Cooktown builder John Sullivan by February 1877. At this time it was reported ‘the erection of the Post and Telegraph offices at Cooktown has been completed. They are in one building, the walls of which are of timber, and roof covered with galvanised iron. It provides large offices for each department, also quarters for officers…’[9]
\nThe new post and telegraph office was located on the west side of Charlotte Street, north of Adelaide Street, on a post office reserve of 1 rood 16p (1,416m2) gazetted by 1879. A town hall was later erected c1880 between the post office reserve and Adelaide Street, on a small town hall reserve gazetted in 1879, and extended to the west in 1887.[10]
\nPost and telegraph offices were designed in the office of the Colonial Architect. In the late 1870s the Colonial Architect was Francis Drummond Greville Stanley, who also designed the Cooktown Powder Magazine (1875-6) [QHR 600425], and the first wing of the Cooktown Hospital (1879) [QHR 600424]. Later, in private practice, he prepared plans for St Mary's Convent at Cooktown (1888-89) [QHR 600423], and the former Cooktown Queensland National Bank (1890-92) [QHR 600419].
\nThe provision of post and telegraph services was an important responsibility of the Queensland (then colonial) Government, as communication was vital in such a large colony, with a dispersed regional population. Before post and telegraph services were taken over by the Commonwealth Government in 1901, the Queensland Government constructed 200 post offices, with the most active decades being the 1870s-80s. Telegraph offices had their own buildings until the early 1870s, when dual-use buildings, with both post and telegraph offices, were designed. When plans were prepared for the Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office, Queensland post and telegraph services were still operating independently, and the two departments did not amalgamate until 1879. Post and telegraph offices were often grouped near other government buildings, were usually timber, and often resembled houses in scale and form, although they were generally built closer to the street. Compared with earlier designs, which were little more than cottages with one room or an enclosed verandah serving as a post or telegraph office, mid-1870s designs provided more generous space for post and telegraph functions. [11]
\nThere was little standardisation in design, but the post and telegraph office at Cooktown has been classified as a ‘Combined Post Office, Telegraph Office & Quarters’– a large, single-storey timber design with a symmetrical layout of separate offices and quarters, and a centrally placed pediment marking the entrance. Only three of this type were built, in the 1870s, at Roma, Cooktown and Gladstone, and in 2020 only Cooktown’s remains.[12]
\nThe Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office was constructed with two offices at the front (east end): one for the post office (south), and one for the telegraph office (north). The southern end of the telegraph office also contained two smaller rooms; a lobby on the east side, and a battery room on the west side. Each office had symmetrical quarters to the rear (west), for the Post Master and the Telegraph Manager, separated from each other by a party wall down the centre of the building. Each quarters consisted of a sitting room west of their respective office, then three bedrooms in a row, off a central hall. Verandahs were included along the east, north and south sides of the building. At the rear, both quarters were joined to a semi-detached kitchen wing; which had two mirrored halves, each including a kitchen and a servant’s room, with a washing shed on the west side.[13] In December 1876 The Cooktown Courier described the building as ‘nice looking and commodious… with both the public offices and private apartments being spacious and lofty [while] the roof is admirably arranged to allow the free circulation of air’.[14]
\nWhen the new Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office opened in 1877, the Palmer goldfield was at its peak of production. Customs duties collected at Cooktown were second only to Brisbane, during 1875-1877; and in 1877 the Palmer goldfield produced 45% of the Queensland’s gold. However, as alluvial yields dropped, the flow of Chinese miners bound for the Palmer through Cooktown decreased, and reef mining proved uneconomical, the town’s fortunes began to decline, and Cooktown’s gold boom was over by 1885.[15]
\nDespite the decline of the Palmer goldfield’s yields, Cooktown’s economy was kept afloat by the discovery of tin along the Annan River in 1887, the pearling, bêche-de-mer, and pastoral industries, and the use of Cooktown as the main port for Queensland’s trade with New Guinea from 1885. Public improvements continued in Cooktown during the 1880s, including granite kerbing and channelling from 1884 [QHR 601731], and the building of a monument to Mary Watson, a victim of frontier conflict, [QHR 600421] in 1886, and a monument to Captain Cook [QHR 601044] in 1887. A boarding school and convent was also built at Cooktown for the Sisters of Mercy [QHR 600423] in 1888-9.[16] Another source of economic stimulus during the 1880s was the construction, from 1884, of a railway. This officially opened to Laura in October 1888, but the line never paid and was never extended to Maytown (established 1874) on the Palmer River.[17]
\nThe Post and Telegraph Office proved inadequate for the volume of mail and telegraph services being demanded. In 1887, a new post and telegraph office (without quarters) was constructed adjacent to the north, by CFA Sparkes for £975, and was ready for occupation by October 1887. A new post and telegraph reserve, incorporating the 1877 post and telegraph office, and a closed section of Green Street to its north, had been gazetted in 1886.[18]
\nThe offices of the old post and telegraph office were modified during 1888, as additions to the existing quarters. At this time some of the windows in the front rooms of the building were replaced with French doors, and a lattice screen was erected along the front verandah. However, the building remained in residential use for only four years. Constructed on a former mangrove swamp at the base of the ridge running south from Grassy Hill, the site was inundated with water during the wet season and lacked proper drainage. The place was considered unhealthy, and was vacated in 1892.[19]
\nAfter a fire destroyed the adjacent town hall on 13 December 1892, the former post and telegraph building was occupied as the temporary Chambers of the Cooktown Municipal Council. It was permanently taken over by the Municipal Council in March 1893.[20]
\nAs a result of the change in the building’s use, there were also changes made to the relevant government reserves. In 1900, the southern part of the 1886 post and telegraph reserve, containing the 1877 building, was added to the existing, vacant, town hall reserve to the south, creating a Reserve for Municipal Purposes of 2 roods and 29 perches (2,757m2).[21] In 1903 the Cooktown Municipal Council became Cooktown Town Council, and remained so until 1932, when it became part of the Cook Shire (established 1919).
\nBy 1900 the Cook and Palmer census districts still had a population of just under 6,000, despite less than 1,300 persons on the Palmer, Coen and Hamilton goldfields, and the municipality of Cooktown retained a population of nearly 2,000. However, a cyclone in 1907 destroyed or unroofed many buildings, including the Masonic Temple, the Presbyterian and Catholic churches and ten hotels. Many commercial buildings were rebuilt, but houses were abandoned as the population drifted to Cairns.[22] The population of Cooktown dropped as low as 429 in 1961, but had recovered to 2339 by 2011.[23]
\nSome changes have been made to the 1877 post and telegraph building over the years. The building was truncated when the kitchen wing and two rearmost bedrooms on each side were removed by 1957. The former site of the town hall, to the south, was still vacant at this time, and remained so until a modular building was moved onto the site between 1987 and 1989.[24] Alterations were also undertaken in the 1970s, when a number of internal partitions were removed and the north and south verandahs enclosed; and a masonry strong room/vault was added to the north side of the north verandah in 1982.
\nThe building functioned as the administrative offices of Cook Shire Council until c2007, after which it became a history centre, operated by the Cooktown Historical Society, with a small museum, as well as providing storage for historic Shire Council documents. In 2020, the Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office (former) survives, next to its 1887 replacement, on Charlotte Street.[25] The only other known surviving government buildings of Cooktown's establishment phase are the Cooktown Powder Magazine (1875-6) and the former Cooktown Hospital (1879-81, QHR 600424).
","criteria":"Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office (former), constructed in 1877 as Cooktown's first purpose-built post and telegraph office, is a result of the establishment of Cooktown as the port for the Palmer River goldfields. It is important in demonstrating the provision of post and telegraph facilities in new settlements by the Queensland Government, and the development of Cooktown as a regional centre in the 1870s.
|Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office (former) is significant for its rarity value as one of only five known 1870s government buildings to survive in Far North Queensland.
|Cooktown Post and Telegraph Office (former) is important for its aesthetic contribution to the Charlotte Street streetscape, which is characterised by prominent and attractive 19th and early 20th century buildings and civic works in the centre of Cooktown. With views from Charlotte Street to its front elevation, open verandah, and the building’s large ventilated roof, the place makes a notable contribution through its form, scale, materials, and siting.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16452,"place_ref":601696,"name":"Gallop Botanic Reserve, incorporating Cooktown Botanic Gardens","alternate_name":"Queens' Park Gardens and Recreation Reserve | Cooktown Botanical Gardens and Recreation Reserve","street_address":"Finch Bay Road","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-10-13","description":"Gallop Botanic Reserve contains 62.3216 hectares and lies approximately 1.5kms from the centre of Cooktown. The reserve is bordered by the South Pacific Ocean on the east, Alligator Creek to the east and south, Garden Street on the west, and vacant land designated Special Purpose - Community Facilities to the north.
The reserve incorporates: Cooktown Botanic Gardens; an early sports field and concrete cricket pitch; two granite quarries with evidence of hand-quarrying technology; walking tracks; and Finch's Bay Road.
Geographically, most of the reserve comprises high spurs of large granite boulders, bounded to the east by a granite headland with indigenous vegetation extending to the ocean and beaches at Finch's Bay and Cherry Tree Bay. A small creek on the reserve flows into Cherry Tree Bay.
Most of Gallop Botanical Reserve has open sclerophyll vegetation consisting of Melaleuca spp, Eucalypts spp [Bloodwood], Cooktown Ironwood and various grasses. The Cooktown Botanic Gardens, consisting of 3.5 hectares within the Gallop Botanic Reserve, is vegetated with similar species of native trees, but interspersed with the indigenous vegetation are formal lawned areas, stone pitched waterways and planted exotic species.
The gardens retain a number of elements of their late 19th century design, including garden terraces, dry-pitched granite rockpools, subsidiary covered stone-pitched drains, stone steps, wells, rock garden survivals and diverse archaeological elements. Some original plantings survived the period of neglect from 1917 to 1979, and at least 90 species originating from the early plantings as a botanical gardens have been identified.
Although adaptations to the formal gardens occurred in the 1980s, there is substantial physical evidence to suggest that the layout is broadly similar to that developed in the period 1878-1917. Large sections of the original, extensive, underground drainage system of stone-pitched channelling have yet to be investigated, and possibly further original stone-pitched waterways and garden beds may exist which have yet to be identified.
","history":"Cooktown Botanical Gardens and Recreation Reserve, an area of 154 acres southeast of Cooktown between the town and Finch's Bay, was surveyed and proclaimed in 1878, less than 5 years after the establishment of Cooktown in October 1873 as the Endeavour River port to the Palmer Goldfields. In the period 1878-1917 the Cooktown Municipal Council established a formal botanical garden and recreational playing fields on a small part of the reserve closest to town. Apart from improving an existing dray road to the ocean and establishing walking tracks, the bulk of the reserve remained largely undeveloped. From the mid-1880s to the early 1900s, when Cooktown boomed as a goldrush town, the formal botanical gardens flourished; as output from the Palmer declined and Cooktown's fortunes fell in the early 20th century, funding to maintain the botanical gardens diminished, and they were closed to the public in 1917. With the late 20th century emergence of Cooktown tourism, the gardens are being re-established as an important historical attraction.
The movement to establish botanical and recreational reserves in Queensland's larger 19th century towns and cities reflected contemporary thinking about the importance of providing adequate public recreational facilities. The working and middle classes controlling local government in Queensland's urban centres regularly petitioned the colonial government for the provision of public open spaces in the form of recreational reserves and botanical gardens. The establishment of these reserves also reflected an enormous public interest, formerly the preserve of governments and wealthy private individuals [such as English botanist Joseph Banks], in experimenting with the commercial and scientific values of exotic trees and plants and indigenous Australian flora.
Queensland's botanic gardens initially were the responsibility of the Lands Department, which allocated annual grants to trustees but did little to encourage botanical experimentation. In 1889 responsibility was transferred to the newly created Department of Agriculture and Stock, which through a subsidy system allocated in proportion to local subscription, encouraged greater experimentation with exotic plant species for commercial and scientific purposes. The new Department worked closely with the privately-supported Queensland Acclimatisation Society [based in Brisbane], and established the Kamerunga State Nursery near Cairns in the late 1880s.
Moves within Cooktown to establish a botanical gardens were underway from at least October 1876, when the Cooktown Municipal Council resolved to apply to the Queensland colonial government for land between the town and Finch's Bay [already a popular recreational venue] for the purpose of a water reserve, recreation ground and botanical garden. Sections of this were already occupied by Chinese market gardeners, who were also logging the area for timber to produce charcoal. The area also had historical connections with the work of naturalists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, members of the 1770 exploratory voyage of the Endeavour, under the command of Lieutenant James Cook, along the east coast of Australia. During a 7-week stay in the vicinity of Cooktown in 1770, while repairs were made to the Endeavour, Banks and Solander collected the most comprehensive natural history collection of the entire east coast voyage.
In June 1877 Cooktown Municipal Council received a government grant of £200 to assist in establishing the reserve [this became an annual grant], and appointed a Gardens Committee, but little was achieved until after the reserve was surveyed in May 1878. By July 1878 some fencing had been erected and in August-September 1878 the Council appointed a caretaker/gardener and offered £10 for a suitable plan of laying out a botanical gardens on a small section of the best land in the reserve [nearest the town]. Surveyor Brittian's plan, which included areas marked out for walks, was adopted. The existing dray road through the reserve to Finch's Bay was improved, and the Council appointed Trustees for the reserve in December 1878. During 1879 structural development was undertaken, including roadworks, fencing, drains, and the establishment of a nursery on the eastern side of the hill facing Finch's Bay, stocked with plants from the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. The Chinese still had a presence on the reserve at this stage, having agreed to pay rent to the Council.
Interest in the reserve appears to have waned in the early 1880s, and by 1886 there does not seem to have been a gardener or caretaker permanently employed. However, in the mid-1880s the Council recommenced development of the formal botanical gardens. In 1885-86 a botanist was employed to lay out a new nursery, an undated Council map indicating that this was established within the present border of the gardens. Early in 1886, trees and shrubs were ordered from the Queensland Acclimatisation Society in Brisbane, and a contractor was employed to dig over the gardens. A full-time gardener was employed from September 1888. Along with the renewed interest in the formal gardens, development of the recreation reserve as a sporting facility was resumed, the playing field being upgraded and a concrete cricket pitch laid in 1888.
Activity in the formal botanical gardens peaked in the first half of the 1890s. A well was sunk in 1890 and a pump, tank and pipe reticulation installed. A second well was sunk at some later stage. In 1892 a gardener's cottage [removed in 1917] was erected on the reserve and occupied by Charles Watson, who held the position of caretaker/gardener from 1890 to 1902. By this period the formal botanical gardens had been enclosed with a paling fence and intensively developed with lawns, shrubs and garden beds. By early 1893, they were being referred to officially as Queen's Park and Gardens - later the name came to represent the whole of the reserve. In the 1890s, stone-lined paths, stone-pitched pools and stone-work foot bridges were built along a creek descending from the hills behind Cherry Tree Bay, flower gardens flourished, a bush house was erected [1893] and a wide range of trees and shrubs of both decorative and economic value were planted in the gardens. Shade and street trees in the Cook Monument Park [601044], and in Cooktown's main street, Charlotte Street, were supplied from the botanic gardens.
In the late 1890s, as Cooktown's population and wealth declined along with the decline in gold output from the Palmer River, the Trustees of the Queen's Park Gardens and Recreation Reserve began to experience serious financial difficulties. Funding came partly from local subscription and donation, partly from annual government grants [paid in proportion to local subscription and donation], partly from an annual grant from the local Council, and partly from the sale of plants, fruit and flowers. Through the early years of the 20th century, the Trustees managed to maintain the gardens and recreation grounds to a reasonable standard, but little new work was undertaken. Vandalism and theft of trees from the larger reserve became increasingly problematic, and the cyclone of 19 January 1907 caused considerable damage to the botanical gardens, bushhouse and gardener's house. Several government subsidies enabled repairs to be undertaken 1907-08. Despite continuing financial difficulties there was some renewal of activity in the gardens 1910-12. A windmill was erected in the gardens in 1910, planting of specimen and shade trees continued, and a decorative fountain may have been installed.
In 1912, the Queensland government ceased giving subsidies to reserves for special improvements, although they still received the usual endowment of 7/6 in the pound on subscriptions and donations. This became a major concern to the Trustees of the Queen's Park Gardens and Recreation Reserve. During 1915, the Cooktown Town Council began to pay its grant to Queen's Park in small sums at irregular intervals - perhaps a response to the contingencies of the First World War, but more likely reflecting the general decline of Cooktown as a service and administrative centre and port. By January 1917, closure of the reserve was seen as unavoidable. Tenders were called for the lease of the cottage and gardens, or recreation reserve, or both, but none being received, action was taken to wind up the affairs of the Trustees. The gardener's cottage, bushhouse, windmill, garden stock and various implements were sold at auction and the Trustees accounts closed in June 1917. Cooktown Town Council retained trusteeship of the whole of the reserve, but the formal gardens and recreation grounds were not used again for public recreation until 1979. The quarrying of granite for street kerbing, from outcrops on the hill near Finch's Bay, probably dates to after 1917.
In December 1980 the Cook Shire Council resolved to restore the reserve, particularly the formal gardens. A 1982 report prepared by consultant Vince Winkel, emphasised the preservation of original plantings and indigenous flora, including: a mangrove forest, the strand plants on the beach front facing the sea, the strand plants of the land side of the sand dune, the swamp area immediately behind, the open forest on the hillsides, the heavier wooded open forest, and on the sporting field side where the old botanical gardens were, the riverine forest of tea trees along the creek.
In 1984 Cook Shire Council commenced reconstruction of the formal botanical gardens, comprising approximately 3.5 hectares, with the assistance of Commonwealth Employment Funding. The original gardens area was cleared and lawns established, stonework re-built and trees removed. A walking track was cleared to Finch's Bay along the old dray track, and another walking track continues from this track to Cherry Tree Bay. Playground equipment was placed in the southeastern corner of the recreation oval. On 19 December 1984, the whole of the reserve was officially re-opened as the Gallop Botanic Reserve, commemorating the contributions of Mr Rollo Darcy Gallop and his son, Mr Graham Darcy Gallop, Administrators of Cook Shire from July 1961 to March 1969 and April 1969 to June 1979 respectively. The Gallops were also civil engineers, practising as Gallop and Associates.
In 1986 Cook Shire Council commissioned a conservation report on the reserve, and in the early 1990s undertook a programme of reconstruction and conservation of the original layout of the botanical gardens. This included the re-instatement of above ground stone drains - mostly with the original stone but some realignment; repairs to the stonework of the crossings over the drainage system; and conversion of an early well to a pump house [with recent stonework].
The botanical gardens, now known as the Cooktown Botanic Gardens, are contained within the Gallop Botanic Reserve. These gardens have been expanded in the last 10 years with the establishment of an exotic plant section, a palmetum, a section of native plants, and a "Solander's Gardens", and are used extensively by tourists and locals for recreational and educational purposes.
","criteria":"Gallop Botanic Reserve, established in 1878 as the Cooktown Botanical Gardens and Recreation Reserve, is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland's history. Its establishment reflected Cooktown's sudden emergence in the mid-1870s as the principal port of far north Queensland, and improvements made to the reserve in the last two decades of the 19th century illustrate sustained local and government confidence in Cooktown during this period. Through the early establishment of the Cooktown Botanical Gardens and Recreation Reserve, a substantial area of natural vegetation close to Cooktown has been preserved. This is particularly significant because of the association of Cooktown and its environs with the important work of naturalists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, who collected extensive plant specimens from the district in 1770.
|Gallop Botanic Reserve is unique in Queensland, comprising not only a formal botanical garden, but also substantial natural forest and ocean frontage. Cooktown Botanic Gardens within Gallop Botanic Reserve are unique for the extent of covered and uncovered early stone-pitching surviving in the grounds, and their 19th layout is one of the most intact in Queensland.
|Cooktown Botanic Gardens within Gallop Botanic Reserve are significant for their potential to reveal further information about late 19th century public gardens location and design, and the social, economic and cultural function of such gardens in a pioneering community.
|The formal botanical gardens within Gallop Botanic Reserve survive as important evidence of late 19th century public gardens design and planting. Although adaptations occurred in the 1980s, physical evidence suggests that the present layout is broadly similar to that developed in the period 1878-1917. The gardens retain a number of elements of their late 19th century design, including garden terraces, dry-pitched granite rockpools, subsidiary covered stone-pitched drains, stone steps, wells, rock garden survivals and diverse archaeological elements. Some original plantings survived the period of neglect from 1917 to 1979, and at least 90 species originating from the early plantings as a botanical gardens have been identified. Other surviving early elements of the wider reserve include the recreational oval, cricket pitch, and the route of the early dray track through the reserve to Finch's Bay, illustrating the important role of the reserve as a recreational facility since the earliest days of the establishment of Cooktown.
|The Gallop Botanic Reserve has considerable aesthetic value associated not only with the restored formal botanical gardens, but also with the geography of the place, including granite outcrops and a spectacular, unspoilt coastline.
|Finch's Bay, part of which is contained within the Gallop Botanic Reserve, has had an important association with Cooktown residents for over 120 years as a place of recreation. The Cooktown Botanical Gardens has a special association for the local community with the establishment and development of their town in the last quarter of the 19th century. Since 1980, Cook Shire Council has invested in the restoration and re-development of the formal gardens and recreation grounds as an historical tourist attraction.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16459,"place_ref":601704,"name":"Cook Shire Hall","alternate_name":"Standen's Hall | Standens Hall | Oddfellows Hall | Cooktown Presbyterian Church","street_address":"42 Helen Street","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-04-08","description":"Cook Shire Hall is located in Helen Street on the crest of the ridge running south from Grassy Hill, above the main street of Cooktown. The hall, which has a simple rectangular floor plan, runs on an east-west axis on the site which slopes moderately down to Helen Street from the east. It is constructed entirely of timber and sits on timber stumps, with the western end approximately 1m above the ground. It has verandahs on three sides. A medium pitched gable roof sits above the line of the verandahs and is clad in corrugated iron. The gable ends and side walls above the verandah are clad in rusticated weatherboard [chamferboards].
The verandahs are infilled on the north and west sides with timber lattice above a close-boarded balustrade and with weatherboard on the east side. The western verandah is accessed by timber steps located in its centre, and northwest and southwest corners. Over the central stair is a small gable roof that accentuates the main entrance to the hall.
The walls are clad in timber that have a tongue and grove beaded profile inside and a rusticated profile [chamferboard] outside. They are fixed to exposed frames facing onto the verandahs.
A suspended ceiling has been installed which covers the original tongue and groove beaded ceiling. The original ceiling has a flat centre and follows the line of the roof frame at its edges.
","history":"This building was erected in 1907 for the Loyal Captain Cook Lodge of the North Queensland Branch of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows Friendly Society, and served as the Lodge's hall and meeting venue until at least 1936. It is understood to have been hired out for public entertainments during this period also. It replaced an earlier building constructed in 1890 as the Cooktown Presbyterian Church, which was destroyed in the January 1907 cyclone which devastated much of Cooktown.
Title to the site [Lot 122 on plan C1793], a 40 perch allotment in Helen Street on the ridge overlooking the Endeavour River estuary, was transferred in October 1889 to the trustees of the Cooktown Presbyterian Church, whose parish was established that year. Although alienated since 1875, the site appears to have been vacant at the time of transfer to the church trustees, who awarded a contract for the construction of Cooktown's first Presbyterian Church the following March. The building was completed within 5 months and dedicated on 3 August 1890. At this time, output from the Palmer goldfields was declining, and Cooktown's importance as the principal supply port to the interior diminished subsequently. The number of Presbyterian parishioners declined almost as soon as their church was completed, and on 2 October 1892 the charge was declared vacant. The building was used for occasional Presbyterian and Anglican services and by community groups such as the Liedertafel [choir singers] until title was transferred in June 1906 to The Trustees of the Loyal Captain Cook Lodge of the North Queensland Branch of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows Friendly Society.
The Loyal Captain Cook Lodge was established in Cooktown in 1884, meeting in the Town Hall. The Lodge acquired land in Charlotte Street in 1891, but never built on it, instead purchasing the former Presbyterian Church in 1906. Less than a year later the building was destroyed by a severe cyclone in January 1907, but was rebuilt immediately in its present form, apparently to much the same footprint as the original building. Physical evidence suggests some of the timbers from the first building, particularly uprights and verandah posts, were utilised in the second structure. Whether the 8" deep chamferboards date to 1890 or to 1907 has not been determined.
The Loyal Captain Cook Lodge continued to meet in the hall until at least 1936, when the property was sold to Charles Victor Standen, accountant and secretary of the Lodge from c1927 until his death in December 1938. The Standen family were very early residents of Cooktown and had a hardware and timber business in the town. It is likely the Lodge continued to meet in the hall after the sale to Standen, but this has not been verified. Title was transferred to CV Standen in February 1937, and following his death passed to his widow, who made Standen's Hall available for public hire until it was acquired by Cook Shire Council in mid-1951, since which time the building has served as Cooktown's only Shire Hall. It is still used for public entertainment, including film screenings, and in effect is Cooktown's only cinema.
The adjacent allotment [Lot 123 on plan C1793] was never owned by the Presbyterian Church or by the Oddfellows. It was acquired by the Cook Shire Council in 1941, and although now part of the Shire Hall grounds, has not been included in the entry in the Queensland Heritage Register for Cook Shire Hall.
","criteria":"Cook Shire Hall is significant historically for its close association with public entertainment in Cooktown since the first decade of the 20th century. It is Cooktown's only surviving public hall, and has been the venue for most of Cooktown's public entertainments and functions since its construction in 1907, nearly 90 years ago.
|As such, the place has a special association for the residents of Cooktown and the surrounding district as the venue for many memorable local public events, wedding celebrations and general entertainment.
|The place is also significant for its strong association with the work of the North Queensland Branch of the Manchester Unity International Order of Oddfellows Friendly Society in Cooktown, being the property and meeting place of the Loyal Captain Cook Lodge for at least three decades.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16471,"place_ref":601731,"name":"Early Granite Kerb and Channel System, Cooktown","alternate_name":"Stone Kerbing and Channelling | Early Granite Kerbing and Channelling, Cooktown","street_address":"Adelaide, Charlotte, Furneaux, Green, Helen, Hogg, Hope and Walker Streets and Webber Esplanade","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-04-08","description":"The Early Granite Kerb and Channel System, Cooktown, is located along Adelaide, Charlotte, Helen, Hope, Hogg, Walker, Furneaux, Green, and Hill Streets throughout the town of Cooktown in Far North Queensland. It is constructed of granite – a granular igneous rock composed mainly of felspar (orthochase) and quartz. The kerb blocks are typically 200mm thick and 600mm long and the channel is formed from various sized slabs. The early kerb has shallow drill holes, indicating that the stone was probably drilled by hand.
\nThe kerbs have been constructed to several different depths, possibly dependent on the extent of stormwater runoff in specific area. On the western side of Charlotte Street adjacent to Endeavour Park [QHR 601044], there is 300mm high kerb with an 800mm wide channel (constructed in 1884-85). Directly opposite, along the eastern side of Charlotte Street, which is slightly higher, the kerb is 300mm high and the channel is 600mm wide. In the main town area in Charlotte Street the kerb heights vary from 300mm to 200mm, but the channel remains constant at 600mm wide.
\nLower Furneaux Street receives large quantities of stormwater from the elevated areas of the town, and accordingly, there is a 350mm high kerb with a 1400mm wide channel.
\nIn Hogg Street adjacent to Town Section 15 the normal kerb and channel becomes a drainage channel formed on both sides of the channel with granite and measures 400mm deep by 1100mm wide. At the intersection of Hogg and Charlotte Streets is a particularly fine granite boxed culvert, and at the intersection of Adelaide and Hogg Streets, an early stone-pitched dish drain.
\nThe channel to the streets along the crest and upper slopes of the ridge running south from Grassy Hill direct stormwater run-off toward Charlotte Street, and just south of the junction of Charlotte Street with Hill Street, a large stone-pitched underground drain carries the run-off underneath Charlotte Street and the foreshore to the Endeavour River estuary (under Endeavour Park). Along Charlotte Street there are a number of vertical and side entry stormwater gully pits which appear to connect to early underground stormwater drains.
\nFeatures of Early Granite Kerb and Channel System, Cooktown of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of Early Granite Kerb and Channel System, Cooktown not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nMost of the Early Granite Kerb and Channel System at Cooktown, located on the south bank of the Endeavour River in Far North Queensland, within the traditional land of the Guugu Yimithirr people, was constructed between 1882 and 1905. Particularly fine examples of this work are evident in Charlotte, Hogg, Furneaux, and Green Streets, but the full extent of the work is much wider, and early kerb and channel which is now below present street levels, continues to be uncovered as new roadworks are undertaken.
\nCooktown (also known as Gungardie or Gangaar) is located within Guugu Yimithirr (or Yimidhirr) country, occupied continuously since at least 37,000BP.[1] After HM Bark Endeavour, captained by Lieutenant James Cook, struck a coral reef in 1770, it was beached for repairs for seven weeks on the south bank of the mouth of the river Cook named the Endeavour. Although relations between the visitors and the Guugu Yimithirr people were initially cordial, a cultural misunderstanding led to a confrontation, which was soon followed by an act of reconciliation.[2] The Endeavour River was not visited by Europeans again until 1819, when Lieutenant Phillip King visited in HM Cutter Mermaid while conducting a hydrographic survey of northern coastal waters. The next recorded visit following this was made by John Jardine in 1865.[3]
\nGold was discovered on the Palmer River, over 100km southwest of Cooktown, by surveyor Frederick Warner in August 1872, and reported to Parliament in May 1873. Between June and September 1873, James Venture Mulligan led a prospecting party from the Etheridge River to the Palmer River, and a rush to the Palmer from the Etheridge ensued after his return. Cooktown (initially called Cook’s Town) was established when a party of police, government officials and miners landed on the south bank of the Endeavour River on 25 October 1873, with the aim of establishing a port and supply line for miners already on the Palmer. A party of miners soon left the Endeavour River for the Palmer, and the Palmer Goldfield was declared on 27 November 1873.[4]
\nCooktown developed rapidly as a port and a supply and administrative centre. Initially it was a disorganised tent city, until the Government Surveyor James Read arrived in February 1874. The first land sale occurred in May the same year, while a government reserve was established east of Charlotte Street and north of Hill Street.[5]
\nWithin six months of its establishment, the town had 20 restaurants, 12 large and 20 smaller stores, six butchers, five bakers, three tinsmiths, and chemists, fancygoods shops, watchmakers, bootmakers and saddlers; while 65 publican's licenses had been issued for the Cooktown-Palmer River district, with 30 more applied for by April 1874. There was an estimated non-resident population of 3,000 in the town itself, and thousands of men en route to the goldfields. Large numbers of Chinese miners made their way to the Palmer Goldfield via Cooktown, and Chinese storekeepers were amongst the earliest to establish businesses in Cooktown. Two Cooktown newspapers were established in 1874; a state school, customs house, courthouse, and several churches were erected by 1875, and the town was declared a municipality in April 1876. The 1876 census revealed a population of over 9,200 persons on the Palmer Goldfield, and Cooktown had a population of just under 2,200.[6]
\nCooktown Municipal Council was established in 1876, but the earliest recorded stone kerb and channel work dates to 1882, during a period in which the Cooktown Municipal Council commenced a number of civic improvements, including stormwater kerb, channel and drains; footpaths; street lighting; and wharf extensions. A report in April 1882 noted that ‘at present the work of stone-pitching the gutters of the main street is being carried out, and this will be a great improvement’. [7] It is not known if this project used granite.
\nThe improvement to the town’s stormwater management system had begun near the end of the gold boom on the Palmer River. The population of Maytown, established in 1874 on the Palmer River, peaked at 1500 in 1876. The Palmer Goldfield, the highest producing alluvial goldfield in Queensland, produced 45% of Queensland’s gold in 1877, while customs duties collected at Cooktown were second only to Brisbane, during 1875-1877. However, as alluvial yields dropped, the flow of Chinese miners bound for the Palmer through Cooktown decreased. Gold warden WO Hodgkinson proclaimed the field’s alluvial deposits ‘exhausted’ in 1883. Reef mining also proved to be uneconomical. Maytown’s population fell to 604 by 1886. Cooktown’s fortunes also declined, and the gold boom was over by 1885.[8]
\nDespite the decline of the Palmer Goldfield, Cooktown’s economy was sustained by the pearling, bêche-de-mer, and pastoral industries, the use of Cooktown as the main port for Queensland’s trade with New Guinea from 1885, and by the discovery of tin along the Annan River in 1886. Another source of economic stimulus during the 1880s was the construction, from 1884, of a railway. This officially opened to Laura in October 1888, but the line was never viable so was not extended to Maytown on the Palmer Goldfield. Public improvements continued in Cooktown during the 1880s, including the building of a monument [QHR 600421] in 1886 to Mary Watson, a victim of frontier conflict; and a monument to Captain Cook [QHR 601044] in 1887. A combined boarding school and convent for the Sisters of Mercy [QHR 600423] was constructed at Cooktown in 1888-9.[9]
\nThe improvements to Cooktown’s stormwater system also continued. In mid-1884 the Council called tenders for 240 yards of kerb in Charlotte Street. The contract was let to Cornishman Tom Pascoe, a Cooktown resident, who tendered with a price of 6/- per yard. He used slabs cut locally from granite boulders along the slopes and spurs of Grassy Hill. In addition to the kerb constructed by Pascoe, culverts at the junction of Banks and Charlotte Streets were constructed by day labour over a two week period in the latter months of 1884, using stone cut from near the Seaview Hotel (no longer in existence) in about September 1884.[10]
\nEarly in 1887 Tom Pascoe again successfully tendered with the municipal council, winning the contract to construct the Hill Street culverts. It is possible the large underground stone-pitched drain leading from Hill Street underneath Charlotte Street and the foreshore to the Endeavour River estuary, was constructed at this time also. At the same period, further watertable works and kerb in Walker Street was carried out by day labour.[11] In the second half of 1888 the Cooktown Municipal Council employed an engineering surveyor to draw up plans and specifications for new culverts at the intersection of Walker and Charlotte Streets, but these plans proved too expensive. The work was instead contracted in 1889 to Cross and Duffiey for £125. Taylor & Brown constructed a culvert in Hill Street for £21 in 1889.
\nDuring the 1890s the Cooktown Municipal Council continued the work of installing kerb and channel along the town's principal streets. In the second half of 1890 Thomas Pascoe was contracted to cut 500 yards (457m) of stone kerb at 2/8 per yard, a standard price for this work, and in the same period he constructed a culvert in Hill street for £45. A council quarry in Hope Street was operating at this period. In the second half of 1891 Cleary, Brown & Smith were contracted to split and stack 500 yards of kerb at 2/8 per yard. In October 1892 the Council voted a sum of £50 for work in Hope Street and 50 feet (15.2m) of kerb was constructed along the southern side of Hogg Street from the corner of Hope Street. Early in 1893 two men were employed by the council to cut kerb for future road works. By early April that year they had cut 159 yards (145.4m) of kerb and 54 yards (49.4m) of pitching. Between mid-1894 and mid-1895, 271 yards (248m) of kerb was constructed in upper Charlotte Street, and in November 1895 kerb was constructed along the southern side of Green Street from Charlotte Street. Further kerb along the eastern side of Charlotte Street, between Green and Furneaux Streets, was undertaken August-September 1896.[12]
\nLocal government member Pher Erick Seagren continued to improve Cooktown’s streets in the late 1890s and early 1900s. A Cooktown resident for 60 years, Seagren was one of the town's earliest settlers, a substantial landholder in the district, and a prominent and highly respected member of his community. He was keen to encourage Cooktown's progress, and was actively involved in municipal work for many years, beginning with three years on the Daintree Divisional Board [1892-95] prior to being elected to the Cooktown Municipal Council in 1895. He was Cooktown’s mayor from 1898-1901 and 1905-08. M J Fox, in his History of Queensland, wrote of Seagren's contribution to his community: ‘He has laboured for the improvement of the town with unsparing energy, and the excellent condition of the streets, footpaths, and other public works is due to his progressive methods when mayor’.[13]
\nEarly in 1898 the municipal council called tenders for 450 yards (411.5m) of kerb and 600 yards (548.6m) of pitching for kerb in Hope Street from Walker to Hogg Streets. It appears that the kerb and channel to lower Charlotte Street was undertaken in 1898 as well, and that similar work to upper Charlotte Street commenced in May 1899. By mid-July 1899, the kerb on the northern side of Furneaux Street as far as the hill above Helen Street was completed.[14]
\nKerb in Green Street between Charlotte and Helen Streets was commenced in December 1900 and completed in August 1901. Kerb along Walker Street from the Commercial [now Cooktown] Hotel to the junction of Helen Street was constructed between November 1901 and March 1902. Kerb along Hope Street commenced in June 1902. In January 1903 it was reported that kerb and undertables were constructed in Helen Street between Walker and Hogg Streets and in November the same year the kerb was continued in Hope Street to the corner of Pryde Street. In 1904 a culvert and kerb was constructed in Adelaide Street and the Furneaux Street kerb was constructed in 1905.[15]
\nDespite these civic improvements, Cooktown’s fortunes declined in the early 20th century. In 1900 the Cook and Palmer census districts still had a population of just under 6,000, despite less than 1,300 persons being on the Palmer, Coen and Hamilton goldfields, with the municipality of Cooktown retaining a population of nearly 2,000. However, a cyclone in 1907 destroyed or unroofed many buildings, including the Masonic Temple, the Presbyterian and Catholic churches, and ten hotels. Many commercial buildings were rebuilt, but houses were abandoned as the population drifted to Cairns.[16] The later halt to overseas shipping calling in at Cooktown during World War I, a fire in the business centre in Charlotte Street in 1919, the evacuation of civilians during World War II, and a cyclone in 1949, accelerated Cooktown’s decline. By 1951 the town’s population was 300.[17] The population of Cooktown was still only 429 in 1961, but had recovered to 2,339 by 2011.[18]
\nThe early and extensive granite stormwater system in Cooktown is one of only two such examples extant in North Queensland; the other example (c1884-1905) being in Charters Towers [‘Stone kerbing, channels and footbridges of Charters Towers’, QHR 602512]. Some sandstone kerb and channel also exists at Croydon, while red stone-like bricks were used in Normanton. There is also stone kerb and channel on Leslie Street in the remnants of Maytown [‘Maytown’, QHR 602255].[19]
\nThe importance of Cooktown’s granite kerb and channel system to the aesthetics of the town is evidenced by it being a notable feature in photographs, from the 1880s to the present day. This aesthetic and streetscape importance is also acknowledged by the local community – from the 1970s to the 1990s, additional sections of granite kerb and channel were laid by the Cook Shire Council, in parts of Helen Street, John Street, Hogg Street, Walker Street, Charlotte Street and Howard Street.[20]
\nIn 2021, the original kerb, channel and culverts from the 1880s-1900s continue to perform their original functions, with concrete slabs laid above them when necessary for pedestrian or vehicle crossovers. As some street levels in Cooktown have been raised since the Early Granite Kerb and Channel System was constructed, there is the possibility that some sections of kerb and channel may have been buried.
","criteria":"Cooktown’s Early Granite Kerb and Channel System is important in illustrating its important role as a prosperous regional centre and port, in the development of Far North Queensland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Cooktown was established in 1873 as the port for the Palmer Goldfield – Queensland’s premier alluvial goldfield during the late 19th century. The kerb and channel work was initiated in the early 1880s when the Cooktown Municipal Council commenced a number of civic improvements.
|Such extensive and early use of granite kerb and channel, illustrating the confidence and optimism of local business and civic leaders in the future of Cooktown in the late 19th century, is one of only two examples in North Queensland, including Charters Towers, and therefore is significant for being a rare aspect of Queensland’s cultural heritage.
|The place is an intact, extensive and rare example in Queensland of a late 19th century and early 20th century civic storm-water management system, using locally accessible material. It retains its kerb, channel, dish drains (shallow paved drain across a road), box culverts, gully pits (entrances to underwater drains), and underground drains, all constructed from a hardwearing material (granite).
|The Early Granite Kerb and Channel System, Cooktown has aesthetic significance, contributing to the overall aesthetic and amenity of the historic streetscapes of Cooktown and providing a high degree of unity to the townscape in its material and design.
|The Early Granite Kerb and Channel System, Cooktown contributes to the uniqueness of Cooktown and is valued by the local community as an important feature of Cooktown's history and identity. The community’s strong association with the early kerb and channel is evident in the actions of the Cook Shire Council, which since the 1970s has been constructing new granite kerb and channel to complement the earlier work.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16595,"place_ref":601858,"name":"Ebagoola Township and Battery","alternate_name":"Ebagoolah Township | Ada Stewart Battery","street_address":"TO BE DETERMINED","suburb":"COEN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-05-15","description":"The Ebagoola Township Site and Ada Stewart Battery is located 40km south of Coen and about 6km west of the Peninsular Development Highway. The homestead of Yarraden pastoral station is located nearby.
The place occupies a mostly flat area of land and is bounded on its southern side by a disused airstrip. A small hill (known as 'Hospital Hill') is located at the northeast corner of the site, about 400m northeast of the battery. To the east and west of the site boundary, are two intermittent creeks. The vegetation cover is predominantly grassland and open Eucalyptus spp regrowth, except for the main township area. Open Melaleuca forest is evident along the entire western boundary following the course of a dry creek bed. Cattle graze the place, particularly the site of the main Ebagoola township, which remains cleared.
Ada Stewart Battery
The battery is located about 500m north of Ebagoola township and within Lot 8 on E5146. The components of the battery comprise an almost intact three standard steel stamper frame with ten head of stamps in two mortar boxes. The battery is set in compacted clay foundations and as a result of vibration the frame contains a number of major cracks, which have been subjected to makeshift repairs. The body of a single-cylinder flat-bed steam engine is located alongside. The engine has been broken into two sections and the large flywheel has been placed against the stamper frame. Remains of a brick mounting for a Cornish boiler are adjacent to the engine. The boiler, which now lies several metres away, is of an early type.
The battery outflow and mill area below the boxes comprises a shallow excavated bench with collapsed belt wheels and a removed camshaft. The only surviving item of secondary processing plant is a grinding pan, which is not in situ. Other items of plant lying around the site include another belt shaft and wheels, a duplex pump, and the body of a smaller grinding pan. An extensive area of tailings extends west from the battery to the creek.
Plant:
·\t Ten head stamp battery with two 5 stamp mortar boxes - Lallal Iron Coy. Foundry Ballarat (on one mortar box).
·\t Cornish boiler - no brand (firedoors removed).
·\t Grinding pan (not in situ) - Langlands Foundry Limited Melbourne.
·\t One-cylinder rocking shaft reversing steam engine - no brand.
·\t Duplex steam pump (not in situ) - no brand.
·\t Grinding pan (not in situ) - no brand.
Ebagoola Township Site
The main area of the township site extends for approximately 250m on the eastern side and approximately 50m on the western side of a station track, which aligns approximately with a section of the former main street of Ebagoola Township (McDonald Street). The area remains cleared of low level vegetation and contains numerous stands of exotic trees including mature mango trees, tamarinds and several date palms. Apart from scattered sheets of corrugated iron and timber stumps there is little surface evidence of buildings. A survey peg marked 'EK28' demarcates the northern end of the visible remnants of the former township.
On western side of the station track and to the south of the survey peg, are indications of former building and habitation sites. Timber stumps, corrugated iron sheeting and piles of roughly cut timber are concentrated in places here and in other areas within the main township area. These remnants are found in close association with exotic trees, usually Mangoes. Other notable features within the township area are a number of bottle and rubbish dumpsites, the remains of an old dray or wagon and cattle yard fencing.
The only surviving building within the site of the former township is a small corrugated iron hut in the south of the main township area and about 450m south of the survey peg (about 830m southeast of the battery area). This hut was formerly owned by Tom Miller who died in 1958, and was occupied until recently by Christie Steenson of Coen. An open lean-to living area attached to the front of the hut has been removed. The interior is intact, partly furnished (including built-in bush timber shelving & a gas refrigerator of an early type) and in fair condition, although there is evidence of termite activity. A grove of mature Mango trees, glass, metal and other artefact scatters are evident in close proximity to the hut site. A metal drum, sunk into the ground about 10m northeast of the hut, is probably the remains of a toilet. Two stone piles are situated about 12m east of the hut.
Extending south from the hut is evidence of a concrete platform or floor and a line of three thickset low timber stumps. Further south of the concrete platform is the remains of a corrugated iron tank, however this does not appear to be in situ.
In addition to the remains within the township area, a building and/or dwelling site is located approximately 150m northeast of the battery area, at the western foot of Hospital Hill. This site consists of a group of features including a number of large timber stumps (lying on the ground), several glass scatters, two gateposts, and a large, near-dead Frangipani tree. Two culturally modified trees, thought to be the result of steel axe cuts, are also evident in this vicinity.
Workings
An extensive area of shallow workings extends for approximately 1km along the western fringes of the gazetted township site from the southwest corner to the battery area in the north. This heavily worked area stretches about 130m to the east in the direction of the station track (McDonald Street). The area is typified by numerous shallow pits and ditches, mullock dumps, machinery, and other metal remains. The most visible feature within this extensive worked area is a 6m high mullock dump found in close association to a concentrated group of shallow workings and machinery parts. This concentration of workings has a diameter of about 50m and includes a broken piece of machinery inscribed with 'This end toward the pump' and an almost intact vertical boiler complete with fire door and valve handle.
East of the main township area, on the western side and bed of a creek/gully, is a widespread and structureless area of alluvial diggings. This creek/gully aligns with the eastern boundary line of the site.
In the southeast of the site, along a fence line forming the site's southern boundary, is a worked area consisting of shallow pits and mullock dumps.
","history":"The township of Ebagoola was situated on the Hamilton Goldfield on the western fall of the McIllwraith Range, on Cape York Peninsula. The goldfield, named after the Member of Parliament for Cook, gold miner/investor John Hamilton, was proclaimed on 13 July 1900 following prospector John Dickie's report of gold in the area in January 1900.
Alluvial gold had been discovered on the Cape York Peninsula as early as 1876, on the Coen River, after the Palmer goldfield drew attention to the region. A small rush ensued in 1878. Although this soon dissipated, by the late 1880s a small township had been formed at Coen. In 1892 the Coen Goldfield was proclaimed officially and reefing work commenced. Although production totals paled in comparison with fields such as the Palmer, within the next few years the erection of batteries and a cyanide works at Coen gave the northern Peninsula a permanent base for prospecting expeditions. Gold was found on the Starcke River in 1890, at Batavia (Wenlock) in 1892, Ebagoola in 1899 and Potallah in 1902.
The township of Ebagoola was surveyed in September 1900 to service the newly proclaimed Hamilton Goldfield. The first Ebagoola camp was near the site of Dickie's discovery, but the surveyed town was located a mile to the north at the northern end of the field.
The majority of surveyed allotments were quickly purchased and a number of small businesses were established. Characteristic of new mining towns, these included a butchery (the first business established on the field), a general store and a hotel. These buildings were rudimentary, slab-walled structures with roofs clad with bark sheets held down by saplings, canvas over a ridge pole, and iron sheeting.
By November 1900 the population of the field was estimated at 330, of whom 130 were alluvial miners, 100 quartz miners, 50 businessmen and non-miners, and 50 women and children. Fever, dysentery and eye trouble were prevalent in the last part of the year, due to the lack of clean well water.
By the end of 1900, as a measure of confidence in the place, three large hotels and several substantial stores had been built, and dwellings were being erected as fast as building material could be obtained. Reserves had been laid out for Government buildings and the hospital on a mound at the northern end of town. The town was serviced by a post office from 1900 to 1917 and a school operated from 1905 to 1914.
As mining and ore treatment intensified on the field, Ebagoola township developed rapidly in the early 1900s. New businesses included two cordial manufacturers, a chemist, baker, two barbers, two blacksmiths, a confectioner, tobacconist, dressmaker, two auctioneers, commission agent and an accountant. There was also a tent hospital run by the chemist's wife, and a coach service from Ebagoola to Port Stewart, the closest port, about 60km east and about 240km north of Cooktown.
The first gold-bearing ore from the Hamilton field had to be sent to Coen, about 40km north, for crushing. By November 1900 there was only one 5-head stamper battery on the Hamilton field, and that was poorly equipped. It serviced the output of fifty mines and floods had caused its closure for 12 weeks at the beginning of 1901. However, the official return of gold for 1900 was 806 ounces of reef gold and 12,000 ounces of alluvial, valued at £35,258.
At the end of 1900 the 10-head Ada Stewart battery at Coen was relocated to Ebagoola, in time to crush ore during the wet season. A third battery was established on the field soon after.
Intensive mining activity in the Ebagoola district proved to be of short duration. Within a decade, the mines were closing. In 1907 the Pioneer battery was moved to the nearby Lukin field and in the same year the Ada Stewart battery changed ownership, and again in 1910. From 1909 to 1913 Berryman and Pool cyanided the Ada Stewart battery sands.
By 1910 the population of the field was recorded as 101, less than a third of the estimated population of late 1900. All the mines at Ebagoola had closed by 1913 and the town was practically deserted by the start of World War One (August 1914), with only one hotel, the Hamilton, still operating. By 1924 there were only a few fossickers getting very little gold. Tom Miller, the last resident of Ebagoola, died in 1958 and his corrugated iron hut remains, as do early tree plantings and street alignments.
","criteria":"Ebagoola Township Site, established in 1900, is significant in demonstrating the evolution of mining settlements on the remote Cape York Peninsula. After a decade of activity the population dwindled and dwellings were removed, leaving the street alignments and allotments identified by plantings of mangoes and date palms, which are significant in marking the township site today. The combination of the Ada Stewart Battery, remnant workings (both reef and alluvial) and nearby Ebagoola Township Site is important in demonstrating the development of the Hamilton Goldfield, and of small scale but intensive gold mining activity in far north Queensland, in the early 1900s. The Ada Stewart Battery at Ebagoola is significant because it demonstrates the need for reliable crushing batteries on remote goldfields to enable mining to proceed. Its presence on the Hamilton field also demonstrates a typical pattern of moving plant from field to field in response to new economic opportunities, in this case from Coen to Ebagoola.
|Major items of plant are significant. The flat-bed engine is rare though now broken. The 10 head battery is one of only two intact 10 head stamp batteries recorded in Cook Shire, and the only Lallal Iron Foundry product recorded in North Queensland. The form of the only remaining building in the Ebagoola township site, Miller's hut, in such intact condition, is now rare for abandoned mining towns. The surviving combination of reef and alluvial workings, battery and township within such a concise area is quite unusual in Queensland.
|The spatial layout and remnant fabric and earthworks at the Ebagoola township and Ada Stewart Battery are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an early, intensively worked goldfield in far north Queensland. The battery includes a 10-head stamper, Cornish boiler, grinding pans, duplex steam pump, reversing steam engine, associated brick and clay machinery mounts, and tailing sands. The nearby township site consists of dwelling sites and associated materials; stands of date palms and mango trees, the remains of cattle yards, while extensive areas of shallow workings and alluvial workings are found throughout the whole site. Miller's hut in the Ebagoola township site is typical of dwellings in early North Queensland mining camps, although possibly it is of later origin.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16597,"place_ref":601860,"name":"Gordon's Mine and Mill","alternate_name":"Iron Range Mine and Mill | Gordons Mine","street_address":"TO BE DETERMINED","suburb":"TO BE IDENTIFIED","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2002-12-13","description":"The place is located in an area of dense regrowth rainforest on a hillslope descending to a tributary of Gordon Creek. Access tracks intersect the site on two levels. There are three mine adits on the upper level. The middle adit, or main tunnel, has caved at its entrance. An air receiver is located at the entrance to the main tunnel.
Concrete Foundations, 1994
The mill with most of the surviving plant is located either side of the lower access track. Components include, a building site benched into the hillside which contains several surviving bush timber shed uprights and the body of a Roots blower. The lower track passes through the middle of the mill site which contains a partly intact and badly corroded Huntington mill on a concrete base, and a suction gas producer with associated concrete engine mounts. A series of large corrugated iron cyaniding tanks are located along the creek bank below the mill. Remains of at least five cyanide tanks are evident together with a small concrete structure which appears to be a retort flue.
Plant:
·\tHuntington mill - Manufactured by Babcock & Wilcox Ltd. Regent Park N.S.W.
·\tGas producer - no brand (No. 8890)
·\tRoots blower (not in situ) - No 1 Roots Blower Alldays & Ions Ltd Birmingham England.
·\tAir receiver - no brand.
","history":"In early 1934 Jack Gordon prospected the Iron Range locality from the Packers Creek field near Portland Roads. In June he followed a gold trail up a tributary of Gordon Creek, a branch of the Claudie River, and discovered what was later called the Iron Range Reef.
Within two years, the region was a hive of activity with 45 men working along an 8 km strip. Although the original ore was shipped and railed to the Venus battery at Charters Towers for treatment, the Iron Range mill was in full operation by November 1936 after a Huntington mill was erected by Jack Gordon at the mine following great difficulties in transportation. This was soon followed by crushing machines on the Golden Gate and Scarlet Pimpernel leases. In 1938 the Iron Range mill operated for most of the year; a cyanide plant was installed and 29 men were employed.
Gordon's Reef outcrops on top of a steep ridge and the main tunnel was driven to cut the ore body approximately 57m below the ridge. Up to 1939, development work consisted of numerous tunnels and drives, which officially yielded 2,005 ounces of gold from 210 tons of ore. Between 1938 and 1956, the Mines Department annual reports indicate that a total of 10,428 tons of ore was crushed from the Iron Range and yielded 4,525 ounces of bullion gold and 122 ounces of fine gold. Although the vast majority was derived from Gordon's mine, some of the returns may relate to the surrounding leases.
","criteria":"Gordon's mine and mill is significant for demonstrating the material evidence of a successful 1930's mineral exploration and development project that resulted in the support of gold mining operations over a period of twenty years in difficult rainforest terrain on northern Cape York Peninsula.
|The milling plant remaining on site is now very rare in North Queensland: the Huntington mill is one of only two recorded in North Queensland, while the Roots blower is the only one recorded in association with a North Queensland mining place.
|(Criterion under review)
|The surviving plant and archaeology of the site demonstrate quartz mining and milling processes in a tropical rainforest, and rainforest regrowth.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16599,"place_ref":601862,"name":"Wenlock Goldfield","alternate_name":"Lower Camp (Wenlock) | Batavia Goldfield","street_address":null,"suburb":"COEN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-03-03","description":"Wenlock Goldfield
The place comprises an area of intensive surface workings, mine shafts, mullock dumps, plant and equipment and structural foundations. One partly collapsed headframe of bush timber remains over the Golden Casket shaft. A concrete tank and structural foundations to its north indicate the remains of a tailings treatment area. The three main areas of surviving plant were associated with Fisher's Black Cat Amalgamated group of leases, Larsen's Consolidated leases, and Larsen's Deep mine.
The remains of the Black Cat group include several caved shafts, a Marshall portable steam engine, a vertical boiler, a colonial boiler and a more recent Southern Cross diesel engine. Larsen's Consolidated plant, to the north, is located alongside a large tailings dam site over Tunnel Creek. The area of mill sands extends north for over 200m. The Consolidated plant is centred around a partly intact Huntington mill, which is seated on a heavy concrete base. A suction gas producer is situated alongside. Larsen's Deep shaft, to the east, includes several small concrete machinery mounts around a caved shaft and a vertical boiler and winch. Scowan's workings, comprising an extensive area of surface diggings, extend east from the area.
Extensive surface workings also extend south and west of the described area. A recent hut and campsite is located 150m north-west in association with another large area of tailings.
Plant:
·\t One-cylinder portable steam engine - Marshall Sons & Co. Gainsborough & London.
·\t One-cylinder horizontal suction gas engine - Ruston Proctor & Co Lincoln.
·\t Vertical boiler - no brand.
·\t Truck chassis with engine - International (engine no. 437DA).
·\t Colonial boiler - no brand.
·\t Four-cylinder diesel engine - Southern Cross.
·\t Huntington mill - Manufactured by Babcock & Wilcox Limited Regent Park N.S.W.
·\t Gas producer - Hoskins Ltd Co. Makers.
·\t Vertical boiler - no brand.
·\t Two-cylinder one drum winch - no brand.
Lower Camp Settlement
The Lower Camp settlement area is centred on the east bank of the Wenlock River, extending from the vicinity of the grave of Thomas Power 200m north of the crossing, for about 1km northward to the junction of a small creek with the river.
The grave of Thomas Power is located on the bank of the Wenlock River and is surrounded by a tube steel rail. It contains a form-cast concrete headstone inscribed - 'In Memory of Thos Power Died 10 2 30'. Thomas Power reputedly died in a gunfight in 1930.
The settlement area, which extends up to 200m east of the riverbank, is profusely covered with large stands of mature mango trees. There is some evidence of campsite surfaces, bottle dumps, fence posts, as well as a large number of 44 gallon drums scattered about the site. A path and garden edging made of upturned beer bottles covering an area of approximately 3m x 6m is visible in close proximity to a number of mango trees and scattering of fibrous cement strips. About 40m north of the beer bottle garden are a series of 6 linear ditch and mound features that run parallel to the riverbank and measure about 13m in length. Each ditch is approximately 1m wide and its associated mound about 1.5m wide. These may provide evidence of a level of self-sustainable agricultural practice or communal vegetable patch that helped support the residents of this isolated mining settlement.
One concrete slab or floor surface is evident in the settlement site, which measures approximately 6m x 4m and is associated with a metal scatter, but no structures are apparent. However, housing and roofing materials including corrugated iron sheeting and fibrous cement strips/roof capping are scattered throughout the site. An old truck body can also be seen in the Lower Camp settlement site.
Forsythe's Batavia Battery site
Forsythe's Batavia Battery site is located on the riverbank at the junction of a small creek, about 1km north-west of the main Wenlock Lower Camp workings and mill. The site is identifiable by several small concrete engine mounts. No plant or structures remain.
","history":"Wenlock Goldfield (formerly Batavia Goldfield) and the settlement of Lower Camp are situated along the eastern bank of the Wenlock River on Cape York Peninsula, about 100km north of Coen. The Batavia Goldfield was proclaimed in 1892, following discovery of gold at Retreat Creek (a tributary of the Wenlock). In subsequent years camps known as Bairdsville, Top Camp (Plutoville), and Lower Camp (Wenlock) were established and supplied from Coen. The settlement of Lower Camp was formed after Kitty Pluto discovered gold there in 1915. It became the main township on the Batavia Goldfield in the 1930s and was officially named Wenlock in 1938. It is around this time also, that the Batavia Goldfield became known as the Wenlock Goldfield.
Alluvial gold had been discovered on the Cape York Peninsula as early as 1876, on the Coen River, after attention was drawn to the region by the Palmer goldfield. A small rush ensued in 1878. Although this soon dissipated, by the late 1880s a small township had been formed at Coen. In 1892 the Coen Goldfield was proclaimed officially and reefing work commenced. Although production totals paled in comparison with fields such as the Palmer, within the next few years the erection of batteries and a cyanide works at Coen gave the northern Peninsula a permanent base for prospecting expeditions. Gold was found on the Starcke River in 1890, at Batavia (Wenlock) in 1892, Ebagoola in 1899 and Potallah in 1902.
Following William Baird's discovery of gold at Retreat Creek in 1892, a 13km² area around the camp of Bairdsville was proclaimed as the Batavia Goldfield. Output for 1892-93 was an estimated 2,000 ounces of alluvial gold worth £4 per ounce. Miners continued prospecting the area. In 1906 gold was discovered at the Tunnel, 2km northeast of Lower Camp. The discovery of gold at Plutoville (Top Camp) by an Aborigine named Pluto in 1910 was suppressed, to allow Coen and Ebagoola miners first choice of the ground, and a rush did not take place until mid 1911.
Despite being so close to the workings at Top Camp (Plutoville), gold was not discovered at Lower Camp until January 1915 when an Aboriginal woman, Kitty Pluto, accidentally discovered a nugget while carting surface wash from Top Camp (Plutoville) to the Wenlock. Both Top Camp and Lower Camp workings are situated on the east bank of the Wenlock River, close to the edge of a low Mesozoic sandstone tableland rising above the workings. However the main centre remained at Plutoville (Top Camp) from 1911 to 1922. Stores owned by Dehn, Armbrust and Shepherd traded at Top Camp.
The original shallow alluvial area at Lower Camp covered less than 0.4ha and by 1916 most miners either had returned to Plutoville, prospecting the surrounding countryside, or had left the region altogether. In 1922, a group of miners attempted to locate the main leader's northern extension beneath the mantle of Mesozoic sediments. After sinking several shafts, they came across an auriferous lead at a depth of 5.4m and at a distance of 20m from a reef, which provided rich specimen stone. From then until the late 1930s, the Lower Camp was in constant production and has officially returned a yield of 35,016 ounces of gold.
The most productive area was confined to deeper ground to 25m and contained within the New Year's Gift, Prohibitionist, Double Chance, Band of Hope, Golden Casket and Hidden Treasure claims, all of which were later converted into general mining leases.
The Batavia was the most productive goldfield in Cape York during the economic depression of the early 1930s, with six payable mines. In 1932 it produced 2,793 ounces of recorded gold valued at £9,287, compared to 3,342 ounces valued at £11,114 in 1931. The use of motor lorries greatly assisted operations on the field. Two batteries had been established by the end of 1931 to crush the one-ounce stone. One of these was Forsythe's, formerly at Belmore Creek near Croydon, which had been shifted to the Batavia field in November 1931. Peninsula Mines Limited had taken over two leases at the beginning of 1932. Two boarding houses were established at Lower Camp during 1932 with 75 people on the field. A crude-oil engine driven Huntington mill began work in November 1932. Sheppard erected a six head stamp battery driven by suction gas. The Peninsula Mines Limited was using an oil engine driven boring plant. By 1935 the yield was 1,326 ounces of gold (more than the previous year) from the New Year's Gift, Golden Casket, Reform, Black Cat, United, Double Chance, Hidden Treasure and Duke leases. By the mid 1930s there was a population of about 160.
In 1938 Larsens' Consolidated Pty Ltd who were employing 20 men on the Prohibitionist, Winner, Dole, Tin Hare and Rose leases, moved their battery closer to the Duke and other leases. The battery output was 1,122 ounces of gold from the mines and dumps. Additional drills, a generator and a wilfley table were purchased. Three head of stamps, driven by a diesel engine, were erected at the Golden Casket mine in 1938. A new multi-tubular boiler and five foot Huntington roller mill were installed at the Black Cat Amalgamated Mine in 1939 by Fisher and Sons.
In 1942 the Australian Army dismantled and removed smaller, more portable equipment from the mines and mills of the Wenlock Goldfield. This was to prevent the Japanese from utilising the mines should they invade. This episode is one of the few examples of the scorched earth policy implemented on the northern part of Cape York Peninsula when invasion seemed imminent.
In 1946, in the wake of World War Two, the Golden Gate, Reform, Black Cat Amalgamated, Golden Casket, Wasp and Black and White mines were reopened. Joseph Fisher and Sons constructed a road from Portland Roads to Wenlock, which necessitated seven bridges. Sheds and huts were erected and machinery was installed at the mines. At the Black Cat Amalgamated mine a Marshall portable steam engine, a rock drill sharpener, air compressor, air hoist, Blake steam duplex pump and a Worthington steam duplex pump were installed in the re-equipping of the mines.
In 1947 Joseph Fisher and Sons purchased Zamittt's mines to obtain a complete block. After finishing carting their machinery from Portland Roads harbour they commenced reconditioning the Black Cat Amalgamated mine. The first crushing was put through the battery by June 1947 and 239 ounces of gold valued at £2,264 was obtained by the end of December 1947. A total of 517 tons of stone was crushed in the first year for a total return of 296 ounces, and dewatering was commenced and completed down to below the No.1 level. The main shaft was re-timbered, a new headframe and brace constructed, and a 2,000 gallon tank installed. Also that year the Wasp Syndicate, working on the Edna May Extended and Golden Casket leases, produced 520 tons of stone for a return of 349 ounces of gold.
The Wenlock was still the best producing field in Cape York in 1949, although production was far below that of 1948 - 364 ounces compared to 557 ounces. In 1950, 324 ounces of gold were produced from the Black Cat Amalgamated mine, 47 ounces from Edna May and 26 ounces from the Golden Casket. All the mines were flooded in April when the Wenlock River broke its banks. Dewatering was completed by the end of May by obtaining a Mines Department pump. Production declined markedly in 1951 to 203 ounces of gold and there were only the Fishers and one other person mining there. There were only four miners there in 1952 - the Fishers, George Scowan and Fred Taylor. Fisher and Sons put through 51 tons of Black Cat Amalgamated stone for a return of 2.63 fine ounces and another 11 tons from underground yielded 14 ounces of gold; 206 tons of dump yielded 27 ounces of gold. The total production amounted to £526. In 1953 FH Taylor, lessee of the Wasp and Edna May Extended, was carrying out improvements. He hired a Southern Cross diesel engine and pump from the Mines Department preparatory to sluicing the Edna May dump and deepening the Wasp.
As noted above production declined after the 1950 floods due to the lack of suitable pumps and many workings were abandoned. William Stanley, the last inhabitant from this earlier period, lived at Wenlock until his death in 1957. Prospectors continued fossicking around the old workings and during 1964-65 the recovery of two tons of handpicked specimen stone yielding 2,787 ounces of gold was reported. In 1986 claim holders used excavators to rework the Top Camp diggings and some coarse nugget gold was recovered before the field was abandoned. All evidence of the early Plutoville settlement and Top Camp workings were lost during this operation.
","criteria":"Wenlock Goldfield is significant historically as the most productive goldfield on Cape York Peninsula during the depression years of the early 1930s. Its richness has contributed to constant reworking and fossicking since then. The role of Aboriginals (Pluto, Kitty Pluto, Friday Wilson) in discovering and working the mining claims is significant. In addition, Kitty Pluto is the only woman recorded as discovering a goldfield in Queensland. The removal of portable mining machinery from the Wenlock by the Australian Army during World War Two is an example of the tactical action of denying the enemy resources which could be useful to an advancing enemy.
|Lower Camp Goldfield incorporates a wide range of diversified equipment and is comparable to many examples across the state. Isolation has been a factor in the survival of the plant as there were significant access problems. The Huntington mill is rare and the most intact of the two recorded in North Queensland.
|Wenlock Goldfield has the potential to provide valuable information contributing to an understanding of Queensland's history. Analysis of the spatial positioning of dwelling sites in relation to mine workings, would provide new information about life at isolated mines on Cape York goldfields in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The diversified collection of surviving mining plant has the potential to contribute significantly to our understanding of early to mid- 20th century gold mining techniques.
|Wenlock (Lower Camp) is significant as the focal settlement of the most productive goldfield on Cape York Peninsula during the 1930s. Surviving evidence includes a lone grave, a concrete surface, scatters of housing materials, garden bed edging constructed of beer bottles, remnant vegetable garden/landscaping, and the largest concentration of mango trees recorded in association with a North Queensland mining camp.
|The place possesses an evocative quality, engendered by the cultural landscape value of remnant workings and camp remains set within natural bush, which generates aesthetic significance.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16608,"place_ref":601871,"name":"Palmer River Gold Company Dredge","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"TO BE DETERMINED","suburb":"TO BE IDENTIFIED","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-06-17","description":"The place contains the pontoon and partly intact superstructure and plant of a steam powered bucket dredge. The dredge which is partly buried under a high sand bar is situated in the middle of the river which is over 400m wide at the site. The pontoon measures 19m by 10m. The total length from the head of the bucket ladder to the end of the stacker is 37m. Ironwork throughout remains in good condition with the exception of the pontoon's rear plating which has corroded through at water level. All corrugated iron cladding has been removed but the iron frame and decking remains intact
A twin cylinder horizontal steam engine has been removed and now lies alongside. The cog-train drive for the bucket chain remains but the chain now holds only two buckets. The washing trommel, jig mount and a large gravel pump remain in place. The boiler which was mounted on the starboard/right hand side may still be in place under the sand bar covering this area. Items of plant removed and left in the river bed and on the eastern bank include - the engine mount, camshaft, iron chimney section, a winch drum and 13 buckets. The company's campsite is located on the east bank, 500m north-east of the dredge.
Plant:
·\tSteam gravel pump - W H Allen Son & Co Ld Bedford England Conqueror 14.
·\tTwo-cylinder horizontal steam engine (not in situ) - no brand.
·\tSuperstructure steel beams - Dorman Long & Co Mbro.
","history":"The Palmer River Gold Company N.L., a Cairns company, took up ground along the river between Frome and Strathleven and carried out dredging operations between 1926 and 1935. The company originally estimated that 2.6 million cubic metres of auriferous material was available but after four years work it was found that the yields were less than 25% of the anticipated values. A total of 3,584 ozs of gold was won during this period.
The all-steel bucket dredge and pontoon was built by Messrs Chas. Ruwolt Pty Ltd of Richmond, Victoria and shipped to Cooktown then railed to Laura in mid 1930. From there, the dredging plant weighing in total 350 tons was carted by six-wheeled trucks (Morris and Thornycroft) over the Great Dividing Range to Strathleven, a distance of 133km. The largest portion of the road was made by the company.
The dredge was erected under the supervision of Mr William Condron, consulting engineer for Ruwolt Pty Ltd, and Mr Walter Baker, the dredging company's General Manager. The dredge was capable of treating 50,000 cubic yards per month and had 31 buckets of 5 cubic foot capacity. Dredging operations commenced at the end of December 1930 and were carried on into the wet season. However a photograph in 1932 (John Oxley Library: neg. 31/31) shows the dredge partly submerged and damaged by floodwaters. The date that the dredge ceased operation and was finally abandoned has not been confirmed.
","criteria":"The dredge is significant as rare surviving evidence of contemporary technology for alluvial dredging and gold mining in Australia in the 1920s.
|The dredge is significant as rare surviving evidence of contemporary technology for alluvial dredging and gold mining in Australia in the 1920s.
It is the earliest surviving steam dredge in Queensland, and possibly in Australia, and is a rare extant example of early dredge construction.
|It is the earliest surviving steam dredge in Queensland, and possibly in Australia, and is a rare extant example of early dredge construction.
The dredge's survival despite more than 60 years annual exposure to the full force of wet season river flooding is a testament to its construction.
|The dredge demonstrates achievements in overcoming considerable access, transport and operational constraints.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16891,"place_ref":601044,"name":"Cooks Monument and Reserve","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Charlotte Street","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-04-30","description":"Cook's Monument is situated in a small reserve located between Charlotte Street and the Endeavour River estuary, on a slight rise adjacent to the site where James Cook beached the barque Endeavour for repairs in mid-1770. The reserve is grassed, with palms and mature trees around the perimeter.
The monument comprises a tall, slender sandstone column, topped with a detailed capital, which rises from a square pedestal resting upon a granite base and plinth. The steps of the plinth lead to a square dado incorporating drinking fountains on each side. These fountains were once linked to a regular water supply [possibly an internal tank], and the water outlets emerge from the mouths of sculpted animal heads. The dado is set beneath a modest entablature and the pediment is flanked by sandstone urns at each corner.
To the north of the Cook Monument is the 1803 cannon sent in 1885 to Cooktown by the Queensland colonial government, for the use of the local volunteer defence force. It stands on a concrete platform. Adjacent to the gun is an interpretative sign.
To the south of the Cook Monument, but within the same reserve, are three more recent memorials and the early town well:
i. Kennedy Memorial: a conical-shaped granite cairn, approximately 1.2m high, resting on a concrete base, with an embossed brass plaque in the face addressing Charlotte Street.
ii. National Horse Trail Marker: a simple granite cairn or marker approximately .5m high, conical in shape, with an embossed brass plaque in the face addressing Charlotte Street.
iii. Annan River Water Supply Memorial Fountain and Early Town Well: The fountain comprises a series of metal water pipes constructed over an early, brick-lined town well. The well has a diameter of 23 feet at ground level, from which the shaft is bricked down 16 feet to a 4 feet 6 inches wide ledge, after which it narrows to 14 feet diameter, and is bricked down a further 8 feet 4 inches, at the bottom of which are granite slabs. In the wall of the upper shaft are two arched entrances, now filled in with rubble, leading to underground spider channels or aqueducts which formerly fed the well with storm water run-off, in addition to the ground water from below. Formerly there were three cross-logs let into the walls near the top, for roof joist supports. Adjacent to the well was a tank stand with engine and boiler beneath. Water was pumped form the well to the tank, then from the tank to the wharves via a galvanised pipe along the foreshore. .Above the bricks are several courses of cement blocks [added at a later date], topped by a metal railing added in 1989 as part of the conversion to a fountain. The capacity of the well is approximately 47,000 gallons.
","history":"The Cook Monument at Cooktown was erected in 1887 by Hobbs and Carter of South Brisbane, to designs prepared in the office of the Queensland colonial architect, George St Paul Connolly.
Cooktown had been established in September 1873 as the Endeavour River port for the Palmer River goldfields. By the mid-1880s it was serving one of the most significant goldfields in Queensland. A railway was constructed from Cooktown to Laura between 1884 and 1888, further opening the port to development. By the late 1880s Cooktown had become the important centre not only of a thriving mining district [boosted by the 1887 discovery of tin along the Annan River], but also of pearling, bêche-de-mer, and pastoral activity. After 1885, Cooktown was also the main port for Queensland trade with New Guinea.
In May 1886, the then premier of Queensland, Sir Samuel Walker Griffith, travelled to Cooktown and other northern ports on a tour of inspection, partly associated with defence issues, more with political strategy. The Separation movement was gaining momentum in Townsville and the far north, and Griffith was keen to demonstrate his government's commitment to, and concern for, northern Queensland. The Cooktown Municipal Council at this time was seeking to commemorate James Cook's encampment at the Endeavour River in the winter of 1770, and it appears that Griffith, as political expediency, committed the colonial architect's office to designing the Cook monument at Cooktown.
The Cooktown Municipal Council had intended that the monument include a statue of James Cook, but when tenders were called in June 1886, then again in September 1886 and February 1887 with different materials specified, they were for the column only. In December 1887 Sir Samuel Griffith re-visited Cooktown, and when requested by the mayor to provide assistance in commissioning the statue, refused, stating that it was more important to commemorate the event than the person.
The contract had been let in February 1887 to Hobbs and Carter of South Brisbane, with a price of £1,059 and completion time of 8 months. It appears that the memorial was not constructed on the site originally proposed, which necessitated an additional foundation, bringing the final cost to £1,297. The foundation stone was laid on 1 September 1887 by the mayor of Cooktown, John Savage, and the work had been completed by January 1888. Sandstone used in the construction came from Murphy's Creek in southeast Queensland, and it was reputedly the first stone structure erected in Cooktown.
Around the monument, a small [1.5 acres] reserve for municipal purposes was gazetted in June 1888. A brick-lined town well, believed to have been built by the Cooktown Municipal Council to service ships berthed at the nearby Cooktown wharves, was constructed in the reserve, south of the monument. This work probably was undertaken post-1888, as the Council filled in much of the Cook Monument Reserve in 1889. A small vertical boiler engine pumped water from the well to the wharves through a 3" diameter pipe. It is understood that the well has also supplied adjacent Charlotte Street businesses from time to time.
In the 20th century, several other memorials were erected within the reserve:
i. Kennedy Memorial: a granite cairn erected in 1948 to honour British explorer Edmund Besley Court Kennedy, who was killed by Aborigines on Cape York Peninsula [part of Cook Shire] in December 1848. Kennedy's exploratory work helped to open far north Queensland to pastoral settlement in the mid-19th century. The memorial was unveiled on 25 September 1948 by the Chair of the Cook Shire Council, Mayor WCH Hodges.
ii. National Horse Trail Marker: a small granite cairn erected in August 1977 to mark the beginning of the National Horse Trail from Cooktown to Melbourne, and the epic ride of Dan Seymour, who in the early 1970s demonstrated the feasibility of such a trail. The trail was mapped between 1974 and the 1980s, when it was made a bi-centennial project. Sections are used regularly, but few people have ridden the full distance. The marker was erected by the Australian Trail Horse Riders' Association and was unveiled by Henry Tranter, President of the Tablelands Trail Horse Riders' Club.
iii. Annan River Water Supply Memorial Fountain: in 1989 the old town well on the reserve was cleaned out and a fountain constructed over it to commemorate the inauguration in November 1989 of a new permanent water supply from the Annan River to Cooktown. The Annan River pipeline was a joint federal, state and local government project, replacing Cooktown's previous water supply from the bore fields on the southern outskirts of the town.
iv. 1803 Cannon: There is now located in the reserve a cannon cast in 1803 in Carron, Scotland, and bearing the royal monogram GR. During the height of the 'Russian invasion' scare of 1885, the Cooktown Municipal Council telegraphed to the Premier of Queensland, requesting him to supply arms, ammunition and an officer to take charge of the Cooktown volunteer defence force. This cannon was sent, along with 3 cannonballs, 2 rifles and 1 officer. Initially the cannon was located on the foreshore near the Powder Magazine [600425] on Webber Esplanade, overlooking the entrance to Cooktown Harbour on the Endeavour River estuary. It is fired once a year as part of the annual Cook's landing re-enactment celebrations.
","criteria":"Cook's Monument and Reserve is significant historically for its commemoration of Cook's encampment below Grassy Hill, at the mouth of the Endeavour River, in mid-1770 - the first official British sojourn on the east coast of Australia. The place is significant also as Queensland's earliest memorial to James Cook and the crew of the Endeavour, and illustrates Cooktown's early developed sense of historical importance.
The site contains an early brick-lined town well, which is important in illustrating the establishment of municipal services in early Cooktown.
|The monument is a fine example of its type and one of the finest sandstone public memorials in Queensland. It is also an excellent example of the work of the Queensland colonial architect's office under George St Paul Connolly.
|Its aesthetic setting within a grassy, treed reserve contributes significantly to the townscape of Cooktown, and from the Endeavour River estuary is a Cooktown landmark.
|The place has a special association for the people of Cooktown with their sense of historical identity. A number of other memorials have been placed in the reserve, illustrating this continued association.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650262,"name":"Reconciliation Rocks","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Cnr of Sherrin Esplanade and Adelaide Street","suburb":"COOKTOWN","lga":"COOK SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2021-05-28","description":"Reconciliation Rocks occupies a large site at the northwest edge of Cooktown (traditionally part of Gangaar/Gungardie) in north Queensland. Located adjacent riparian mangroves at the mouth of the Endeavour River (Waalumbaal Birri), the place is accessed via and extends into the Adelaide Street road reserve at its east. To its other sides, the site is bounded by the junction of Sherrin Esplanade, Adelaide Street and Furneaux Street (to the north), mangroves (to the north and west), and a grassed area (to the south).
\nThe place comprises an outcrop of granite rocks, separated into two sections by a central former railway cutting (1884; formerly a part of the Cooktown to Laura Railway) that runs north-south through the site. The eastern outcrop forms part of a rolling, grassed hill, and the western outcrop rises abruptly at its eastern (cutting) side and is comprised mostly of rock. Both outcrops narrow toward their north and south ends. An informal path runs through the former railway cutting. The place stands in an open, largely natural setting.
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\n","history":"
Reconciliation Rocks is the site of the first recorded peaceful resolution of conflict between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans. Part of a broader site on which prolonged contact and cultural exchanges occurred between Guugu Yimithirr bamangay (people) and European explorers from His Majesty’s Bark (HMB) Endeavour in July 1770, the rocks was the place where conflict between the groups over turtles was reconciled on 19 July. The rocks site was modified in the 1880s when a railway line was surveyed through the rocks. Re-enactments of the Endeavour’s time in Cooktown began in 1959. The re-enactment was updated in 2009 to reflect the role of the Guugu Yimithirr bamangay, reconciliation and the rocks site, and in 2018 commemorations and re-enactments began to be held at Reconciliation Rocks.
\nGungardie or Gangaar (Cooktown) is located within Guugu Yimithirr (or Yimidhirr) country, occupied continuously since at least 37,000BP.[1] The Guugu Yimithirr nation is comprised of 32 clans with a common language and a complex system of familial and social lore and law. The nation includes land from Yuku Baja (Annan River) in the south and Princess Charlotte Bay in the north. The area around Gungardie was home to the Waymburr clan of the Guugu Yimithirr,[2] but land between the south bank of Waalumbaal Birri (Endeavour River) and Yuku Baja was neutral ground accessed by both the Guugu Yimithirr and Kuku Yalanji nations for gun-gaar (white quartz), used in male initiation ceremonies.[3] The neutral ground was sacred land where blood could not be spilt, and was used for gatherings and to settle disputes.[4]
\nFor millennia, the Guugu Yimithirr and Kuku Yalanji practised land management and careful, sustainable resource use of their country.[5] Most people were also multi-lingual, due to the diversity of the shared ground around Gungardie and linguistic variations between the clans.[6]
\nThe first recorded sustained contact between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans occurred at Gungardie in July 1770. In August 1768, HMB Endeavour was despatched from England to Tahiti, via Rio de Janeiro, to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus. The bark,[7] captained by Lieutenant James Cook and with a contingent including botanist Joseph Banks, arrived in Tahiti in April 1769 for the June transit. Cook had been entrusted with secret orders from the British Lords of the Admiralty to search for and chart ‘a Continent or Land of great extent’, known in Europe as terra australis incognita.[8] Cook opened the orders in Tahiti, and Endeavour embarked on its expedition for the southern landmass.[9] After charting the New Zealand coast, the Endeavour crew sighted land (the east coast of Australia) in April 1770. They followed the coast north, stopping briefly at various harbours and coves to survey the land and attempt contact with people.
\nOn 11 June, Endeavour struck a reef off Cape Tribulation, about 50km south of Gungardie, and was badly damaged. ‘[H]ere begun all our troubles,’[10] Cook wrote in his journal, as the crew nursed the injured bark into a nearby harbour (Waalumbaal Birri) over the following eight days. On 18 June, Endeavour landed near the neutral gun-gaar ground and was moored ‘along side of a Steep beach on the south side’ of the harbour, then warped a little further inland and upended for repairs.[11] The Endeavour was fixed within eleven days, but unfavourable tides stranded the bark in the river until August 1770. Cook, Banks, and the crew used the time to explore the area and restock the ship’s stores.[12]
\nReports of the Endeavour had been carried up the coast to the Guugu Yimithirr bamangay (people)[13] before the bark’s arrival in Waalumbaal Birri. Badjala and Dulingbara people on K’gari had watched the progress of the ‘mysterious white-winged object’, and the passage of the ‘strange large canoe’ was reported up the coast from Cape Tribulation.[14] The Guugu Yimithirr bamangay were accustomed to passing traders from Torres Strait Island and Makassar (now Sulawesi, Indonesia) looking for bêche-de-mer and shells,[15] and initially ‘considered these boat people like others who came and went would not cause problems.’[16] The Endeavour crew who disembarked on the river bank were white skinned (except Tahitians Tupaia and Taiata[17]), and their skin colour and direction of travel was associated with wangaar (ghosts or ancestor spirits) in Guugu Yimithirr spiritual culture.[18] Moreover, the crew had arrived and established a camp on the neutral ground on the southern side of the river. The Guugu Yimithirr people adopted a strategy of cautious observation; women moved to the northern bank, while the men observed the actions of the Europeans over the next several weeks:[19]
\n… the Bama-ngay would have watched the ship come in and pull up …They wouldn’t have known what it was. They would have been talking amongst themselves and saying, what is this thing? They would have had all kinds of conversations amongst themselves trying to figure out what was going on. The Waymburr Bama-Gaay, that’s this mob, they were all up the river. Because it blows in June, the wind comes and the rain comes so there was nobody here. All this time, our Bama-Gaay from across the river, they looked and they saw this ship come in. Before that the Kuku Yalandji mob down at Cape Tribulation, the Yalandji coast, they would have seen Captain Cook sailing up the coast too. Because he pulled into Weary Bay before he came here to Cooktown. So, they watched, our Bama-Gaay watched for over a month.[20]
\nThe Europeans were keen to make contact. Cook had been instructed to ‘endeavour by all proper means to cultivate a friendship and alliance’[21] with any indigenous people he might encounter, but attempts at communicating with people in Kamay (Botany Bay) ended with conflict and other attempts at stopping points along the coast had met with limited success.[22] Since the Endeavour’s foundering they had sighted people from afar, and on 7 July Banks and a small group had approached a fire in the hopes that the people ‘who we had so long had a curiosity to see well, were there’. They found the people had departed, and Banks reported himself ‘disapointed of the only good chance we have had of seing the people since we came here by their unaccountable timidity.’[23] On 8 July he wrote that people had approached the ship, ‘but not come to them; Yesterday they had made a fire about a mile and a half of and this morn 2 had appeard on the beach opposite to the ship.’[24]
\nAfter three weeks of careful observation, the Guugu Yimithirr Bama made contact on 10 July. Four Guugu Yimithirr men entered Waalumbaal Birri from the northern shore, and two approached the Endeavour by canoe. Once they were within distance the Europeans threw to them ‘cloth, nails, paper, etc, etc,’ and finally a fish, which the men received, according to Banks, with ‘the greatest joy imaginable’. All four men met the Europeans on shore near the Endeavour and stayed until dinner time. They exchanged words, repeating the Europeans’ language after them, but the crew and interpreter Tupaia could not understand the Guugu Yimithirr men.[25]
\nThe Guugu Yimithirr Bama returned to the Endeavour the next day with a fish for the Europeans,[26] and over the next nine days, the groups exchanged food, goods and language. ‘[They] seemed to have lost all fear of us and become quite familiar,’ wrote Banks.[27] A group of five men came to the camp early on 12 July and stayed with the Endeavour crew for the rest of the morning. During several meetings they accepted trinkets from the Endeavour crew, gave gulka (spear) demonstrations when requested (described by Banks as ‘lance throwing’[28]), and taught the crew a number of words in Guugu Yimithirr. Cook, Banks and botanical artist Sydney Parkinson recorded more than 130 of them in their journals. These included body parts, animals, natural features, and a small number of phrases, including one believed to mean, ‘I’m going to tell you something.’[29] The Guugu Yimithirr bamangay introduced themselves to the Europeans by name; Banks recorded one (Yaparico) and Parkinson nine in their journals.[30] The names indicated that the men came from several different clans within the Guugu Yimithirr tribe, as well as one Kuku Yalanji bama.[31] On 14 July the Endeavour crew hunted an animal they did not recognise; they received the name gangurru from the Guugu Yimithirr people, transcribing it as ‘kangaroo’.[32]
\nOn 18 July, a group of Guugu Yimithirr men again approached the Endeavour. They boarded the bark and noticed a large number of turtles on the deck.[33] Turtle taking was managed sustainably by Guugu Yimithirr bamangay, and the breeding grounds from which the Endeavour crew likely took the turtles was part of a sacred songline.[34] Cook noted that the men ‘took more notice of these [turtles] than anything’, though Banks saw nothing amiss.[35] For the Endeavour crew, turtles were a valuable source of nutrition for the long voyage back to England, and the journal-keepers expressed delight at finding them. Female turtles were preferred as they kept better on long voyages than males,[36] but in Waalumbaal Birri marmiingu (female turtles) were vital for ongoing resource management.[37] The turtles on the bark, taken in large numbers and without permission, violated Guugu Yimithirr cultural laws:[38]
\nAt that time, the ship had already been loaded with the tents and gun powder and all the stuff that was taken off the ship. It was already reloaded and ready to sail off. But they had to wait for the right wind to blow them out of the harbour. So they came on board and you know what they saw on the boat? Turtles. 13 turtles on board. That’s a lot of [ngawiya] to get, and to have on the boat, but they needed the turtles to take them back to England again. But you know where they got those [ngawiyagaay] from? Boulder Reef. Egrit, Boulder and Unchartered, Boulder is the more Northern one. A round ran coral, shaped like a boulder, some stick out on the high tide. In 1770 on those boulders there was a lot of [ngawiya]. They didn’t spear them, they just went and picked them up off the reef and put them in the boat and took them back to the ship. When our Bama-Gaay saw all those turtle on the boat, they got very, very angry. They wanted to throw things overboard, but they were stopped. Then they marched off the boat, left angry.[39]
\n… one morning ten of our men were invited to inspect the visitors’ boat. To their horror, they saw a number of turtles on board, presumably taken from our waters… To our Bama it became an offence. The sharing code was broken. They should have got permission from us as the owners or custodians.[40]
\nThe bamangay departed without taking action. Later that day,
\nNgamu Yarrbarigu an elder of the clans called all the members together to discuss the day’s events. A strategy was agreed on. Ngamu Yarrbarigu and a number of men would visit the stranger’s camp the next day and every effort would be made to make peace, because our Bama now knew that the visitors possessed a spirit which was more powerful than they had experienced. Next morning before our Bama left camp, a customary ritual was performed by the Elders. Each man was wiped with sweat from the armpit of the Elders – ‘ngaalaan thuulngal’ – and our women chanted – ‘ganhil gunday’. This was for them to be protected, to practice self-control and to leave camp with a blessing.[41]
\nTen Bama returned to the Endeavour on 19 July. Their spears were left in the care of two others while they boarded the bark. ‘They soon let us know their errand which was by some means or other to get one of our [sic] Turtle,’ Banks wrote. Banks refused the request to return the turtles, and the men applied to another crew member. This was also refused. The men attempted to take the turtles off the Endeavour, but the crew deterred them. Angered, the men left the bark.[42]
\n‘Immediately upon their Landing,’ wrote Cook,
\none of them took a Handful of dry grass and lighted it at a fire we had ashore, and before we know’d what he was going about he made a larger Circuit round about us, and set fire to the grass in his way, and in an instant the whole place was in flames…as soon as they had done all this they all went to a place where some of our people were washing and where all our nets and a good deal of our linen were laid out to dry, here with the greatest obstinacy they again set fire to the grass which I and some others who were present could not prevent until I was obliged to fire a musquet load with small shott at one of the ring leaders which sent them off.[43]
\nCook ‘had no musquet with him,’ wrote Banks,
\nso soon returnd to fetch one for no threats or signs would make them desist. Mine was ashore and another loaded with shot, so we ran as fast as possible towards them and came just time enough to save the Seine by firing at an Indian who had already fird the grass in two places just to windward of it; on the shot striking him, tho he was full 40 yards from the Captn who fird, he dropd his fire and ran nimbly to his comrades who all ran off pretty fast. The Captn then loaded his musquet with a ball and fird it into the Mangroves abreast of where they ran to shew them that they were not yet out of our reach, they ran on quickening their pace on hearing the Ball and we soon lost sight of them.[44]
\nThe Europeans put out the fire, and Cook realised ‘one [of the men] must have been a little hurt, because we saw a few drops of blood on some of the linnen he had gone over’.
\n[T]hey did not go far from us, for we soon after heard their Voices in the woods, upon which Mr Banks and I and 3 or 4 More went to look for them and very soon met them coming towards us. As they had each 4 or 5 darts, and not knowing their intention, we seized upon six or seven of the first darts we met with.[45]
\n… on seeing us come with our musquets they again retird leasurely after an old man had venturd quite to us and said something which we could not understand. We followd for near a mile, then meeting with some rocks from whence we might observe their motions we sat down and they did so too about 100 yards from us.[46]
\nWhen our Bama confronted the strangers, each had four spears. The Elder Ngamu Yarrbarigu carried one spear which had no barb. Our elders were afraid to do anything that might result in the spirits of our departed ancestors being upset, in case Cook’s mob were indeed Wangaar or reincarnations of our ancestors. And so, with this doubt and fear in their minds, they used discretion, deciding against any rash actions.[47]
\nAs the groups faced one another at the rocks, the Guugu Yimithirr people offered the Europeans peace:
\n…a little old man came out of the bush. He got sweat out of his arms, he blew it, he was mumbling something, and he came forward, with a spear, with a broken tip. He came forward and Cook recognised that that man was making peace. You know why he was making peace? Because he was a Waymburr Elder. Cook called him a little old man. He made peace here because he was following the Lore. The Lore says that was not blood to be spilt on this part of Country. So, they stuck to their laws. The Bama men were frustrated. Cook and his crew had taken so much from this land, from the rivers and from the seas. They’d taken lots of things. The Guugu Yimithirr people were hospitable to Cook, but when they did the wrong thing by taking too much [ngawiya] they got very angry and frustrated. And they couldn’t do anything, they couldn’t turn around and spear them. You could imagine, Cook had muskets, something they’d seen them kill birds with. To stop them from having a big clash and creating a war this little old man came forward and he reconciled by doing it. This here, taking sweat from under your arms, is called [Narrla Mumdamaay]. You’re being smeared with sweat. In the old days people would go up to welcome somebody by taking [Narrla] from under their arms and rub it all over you. And they didn’t have deodorant before! So, sweat [narrla] was a very important thing, because that was the smell of you. So, your ancestors would recognise you.[48]
\nNgamu Yarrbarigu said to Cook’s men: Ngahthaan gadaai thawun maa naa thi hu ‘We come to make friends’. Sensing that the strangers were not sure of their intention and did not understand what their leader, Ngamu Yarrbarigu, said, our Bama then put their plan into action. They withdrew to an outcrop of rocks, where it is possible that more Bama were positioned. There they placed their spears on the ground and sat down. At this point, Cook may have become aware that his life was in danger. However, diplomacy was used by both sides. It may be that the caution on the part of the Guugu Yimithirr saved Cook’s life. A cautious agreement was reached.[49]
\n‘The little old man now came forward to us carrying in his hand a lance without a point,’ Banks wrote:
\nHe halted several times and as he stood employd himself in collecting the moisture from under his arm pit with his finger which he every time drew through his mouth. We beckond to him to come: he then spoke to the others who all laid their lances against a tree and leaving them came forwards likewise and soon came quite to us.[50]
\nThe actions of elder Ngamu Yarrbarigu,[51] described in Banks’ journal as the ‘little old man’, both asserted his cultural governance of the area[52] and calmed the conflict. Gathering sweat was a personal and welcoming gesture that allowed ancestors to recognise people,[53] and the use of sweat to mask the scent of others was a custom, ‘so that our spirits will believe that you’re one of us, they’ll look after you, hold you tight and keep you safe’.[54]
\nCook ‘return’d the Darts we had taken from them, which reconcil’d everything’,[55] and the Guugu Yimithirr introduced the Europeans to three additional men who were part of the group. Banks reported the exchange of further ‘trinkets’ before the groups walked back to the Endeavour. ‘They could not be prevailed upon to come on board,’ wrote Banks. ‘They stayed about two hours and then departed.’[56]
\nThen Ngamu Yarrbarigu told his men to leave their spears and follow the strangers towards their camp-site. There were some men who wanted to have a close look at the boat but they agreed to be more cautious. They stayed for a while and then left. Before leaving to board their canoes, our Bama agreed between themselves that the things that the strangers gave were to be got rid of and that no further contact was to be made and that the visitors should have freedom of movement.[57]
\nThe following day, Banks wrote, ‘No Indians [sic] came near us but all the hills about us for many miles were on fire and at night made the most beautifull [sic] appearance imaginable.’[58] The neutrality of the ground had been breached by the spilling of blood, and the fires were likely a cleansing action.[59]
\nThe Endeavour crew attempted departure on 20 July, but were hampered by a strong wind. The Europeans spent the next sixteen days hunting and collecting specimens while they waited for conditions to improve, but further interactions with the Guugu Yimithirr were limited. On 22 July, a group of men cooking around a fire received a lost crew member for about half an hour before directing him back to the Endeavour.[60] ‘In botanizing today on the other side of the river’, Banks wrote the following day,
\nwe accidentaly found the greatest part of the clothes which had been given to the Indians left all in a heap together, doubtless as lumber not worth carriage. May be had we lookd farther we should have found our other trinkets, for they seemd to set no value upon any thing we had except our turtle, which of all things we were the least able to spare them.[61]
\nWhile this sustained contact and knowledge of cultural practices between Guugu Yimithirr and Europeans occurred, after voyaging further north, on 22 August 1770 on Bendanug (Possession Island), Cook ‘took possession of the whole Eastern coast’ explored by the Endeavour ‘in the Name of His Majesty King George The Third’.[62]
\nThe Guugu Yimithirr encountered another European expedition in 1819-1820,[63] but no further reports of Europeans were made until the 1870s. Following the discovery of gold at the Palmer River, a European settlement was established at the mouth of the Endeavour River, to serve as a port town for the goldfield.[64] The settlement, named ‘Cook’s Town’ or ‘Cooktown’ by its inhabitants, was situated near Grassy Hill, not far from the Endeavour campsite. Residential allotments and a post office reserve were surveyed near the rocks where the Guugu Yimithirr and Endeavour crew reconciliation had taken place.[65] Interactions between the Guugu Yimithirr bamangay and European settlers in the following years contrasted starkly with the 1770 contact.[66] In 1884, the rocks were gazetted as part of a reserve for a railway connecting Cooktown to the goldfield.[67] The railway line was constructed through the rocky outcrop, dividing it into an eastern and western section. The railway was closed in 1961 and dismantled,[68] and the site was gazetted for recreation.[69]
\nIn 1959, the Cooktown Progress Association began an annual re-enactment of the arrival of Cook and HMB Endeavour and the 1770 encounters, later forming an official Re-enactment Society. In 2009, the re-enactment was reworked to include the Guugu Yimithirr perspective of Cook’s arrival.[70] Interpretative signs were installed at the rocks in 2012,[71] and the rocks site was increasingly recognised as a symbol of shared history and the power of reconciliation.[72] Gungardie / Cooktown was the first recorded site of prolonged interactions between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans. The encounters and contact at Gungardie generated one of the first written recordings of an Aboriginal language, and provided the origin of the word ‘kangaroo’. The event at Reconciliation Rocks, reconciling the misunderstanding and conflict between the parties, was initiated by the Guugu Yimithirr Bamangay and accepted by Europeans, who were under instructions to show the Aboriginal peoples every civility and regard. Books, papers and websites recounting the story of the reconciliation were published in the 2010s, and the site was named ‘Reconciliation Rocks’.[73] The Cooktown community began fundraising for statues to commemorate the reconciliation.[74]
\nIn 2019 the Australian Prime Minister visited the site in anticipation of proposed celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the Endeavour voyage.[75] Commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the reconciliation was held at the site on 18 July 2020.[76] A large festival was planned but postponed due to the COVID19 pandemic.[77] A National Museum of Australia exhibition, Endeavour Voyage: The Untold Stories of Cook and the First Australians, highlighting the events at Reconciliation Rocks, was launched in April 2020. Artworks and a short film, The Message, both depicting the reconciliation, were commissioned for the exhibition.[78] In 2021, Reconciliation Rocks remains a site of interpretation and commemoration.
","criteria":"Reconciliation Rocks is important in demonstrating the evolution of both Queensland and Australian history, as the place where Australia’s first recorded act of reconciliation took place between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans, after conflict that followed several days of cultural exchange and contact at Gungardie or Gangaar (Cooktown) in July 1770. Peace was instigated and offered by the Guugu Yimithirr Bamangay (people) and accepted by the crew of His Majesty’s Bark Endeavour at the rocks on 19 July 1770 after a dispute over turtles on neutral ground, in violation of cultural law and lore. The event is unique in Queensland’s history.
|Reconciliation Rocks demonstrates a unique aspect of Queensland’s cultural heritage, as the only recorded site of conflict resolution between Aboriginal and European peoples prior to European invasion and occupation of Queensland.
|Reconciliation Rocks has a strong and special association with the Cooktown community. Many Aboriginal members of the community are descendants of the Guugu Yimithirr Bamangay who encountered Cook and the Endeavour crew in 1770. The community has expressed and demonstrated pride in and value of the site as a place of immense significance that reflects the complex cultural structure of the Bamangay, the story of Australia’s reconciliation and the place of the first recorded act of reconciliation between Aboriginal peoples and European explorers. Commemorations and re-enactments have been held annually by the Cooktown Re-enactment Association since 1959, with a growing understanding and recognition of the role of the Bamangay since 2008. Commemorations have been held at Reconciliation Rocks itself since 2018. This value also is expressed through the use of the site for modern acts of interpretation, storytelling and continuing reconciliation. The 250th anniversary of the reconciliation was recognised in 2020 through art, movies, exhibitions, and onsite events.
|Reconciliation Rocks has a special association with the Guugu Yimithirr elder Ngamu Yarrbarigu, recorded as initiating the reconciliation. Despite cultural misunderstandings and hostilities, Yarrbarigu offered peace and it was accepted by the European explorers at Reconciliation Rocks.
\nReconciliation Rocks and the activities that occurred there also have a special association with Captain James Cook and Joseph Banks on their 1770 voyage along Australia’s east coast, as recorded in their journals.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"} ]}