The former WH Paxton & Co. Offices and Warehouse comprises a number of attached timber structures located on the bank of the Pioneer River, fronting River Street. The northern ends of these structures are constructed on a timber-decked wharf jutting into the river, supported on concrete and timber piles driven into the mud. The place is visible from the river and from Forgan Bridge, and contributes to the historical streetscape along River Street.
\nThe premises comprises three sections: at the western end of the site, a two-storeyed, timber-framed building (1899), originally designed as offices and sample room on the upper floor and as a store on the ground floor; an attached single-storey warehouse (c1899) on the east side of the office building; and a large volume, timber-framed warehouse extension (c1912), attached to the eastern end of the 1899 warehouse.
\nOffices, sample room and store (1899)
\nThis two-storeyed, timber-framed building has a hipped roof clad with corrugated iron. All the exterior walls are clad with metal sheeting, some corrugated iron, but much of it later ribbed steel which appears to have replaced early corrugated iron.
\nOn the upper level on the west and north sides of the building there is an open verandah, overlooking the Pioneer River to the north. This has a separate roof clad with corrugated iron, and supported in part on early bracketed timber posts. Part of the verandah on the western side of the building retains an early dowel balustrade. A flagpole is attached to this part of the verandah. The exterior wall of the upper floor, where sheltered by the verandah, is of exposed timber stud-framing, lined with chamferboards. Several timber-framed windows and timber French doors open onto the verandah from the first floor offices. Beneath the upper floor verandah the lower level, enclosed with corrugated iron sheeting by at least 1937, is now clad with later ribbed steel sheeting.
\nThe entrance to the office building is at its south-west corner on River Street. It is marked by a timber batten arch and is accessed via a short timber stair. Just inside the entrance there is a timber staircase to the left. This is of two straight flights with a landing in the middle, and accesses the northern end of the upstairs verandah. There is a concrete strong-room or safe with a thick steel Chubb door near the front entrance, between the staircase and the exterior metal cladding.
\nThe former store on the ground floor has been converted into offices with a suspended ceiling and modern fit-out.
\nThe first floor area retains its early timber floorboards, interior partitioning, picture rails, and deep skirting boards. Early panelled timber doors and moulded timber architraves also exist throughout this level. The ceiling is lined with early, narrow, jointed timber boards.
\nWarehouse (c1899)
\nThis single-storeyed, timber-framed structure with a hipped roof adjoins the east side of the two-storeyed building. Roof and walls are clad with metal sheeting, much of it later ribbed steel. It has the same early, closely boarded lining to the eaves as the office building.
\nA c1937 photographs shows a loading area under a wide cantilevered, skillion awning along the River Street frontage of the c1899 warehouse and part of the 1899 office building; however, no evidence of this awning and loading dock appears to survive.
\nWarehouse extension (c1912)
\nThe warehouse extension at the western end of the site is attached to the c1899 warehouse. It occupies a large space and is fully enclosed with metal cladding except for doorways. It has a timber-framed double gable roof supported on stout stop-chamfered timber columns and trusses. The roof, like the exterior walls, is clad with later ribbed metal sheeting. The eaves are lined with widely spaced timber boards to assist with ventilation of the roof space.
\nThe interior is unlined. The floors are timber but in sections have been covered with concrete; some of the timber flooring survives beneath the concrete.
\nDespite the internal alterations on the lower level of the two-storeyed section, and the later exterior cladding, the structure retains its early form and still demonstrates its early function as the offices, sample room, store and warehouse of a key Mackay shipping agency and general wholesaler at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
\n","history":"
This former offices and warehouse, constructed in 1899 with c1912 additions, was built for wholesale merchants and shipping agents WH Paxton & Co, which from the late 1880s was a subsidiary of McIlwraith McEacharn & Co. The 1899 sections were designed by Mackay architect Arthur Rigby and constructed by Charles Porter (office building) and Joseph Vidulich (warehouse). The 1912 warehouse extension was designed by Brisbane architect Montague T Stanley.
Mackay was declared a port of entry and clearance in February 1863, following the opening of the Pioneer River district to pastoral settlement in 1862. Early activity centred on the south bank of the river, along River Street. Stores were constructed to receive wool from the hinterland and dray-loads of copper from Peak Downs. With the establishment of the sugar industry in the hinterland in the late 1860s local agitation for improved facilities at the river port resulted in the construction of a government wharf at River Street, Mackay, opened in September 1868.
Despite several inquiries and reports on the need for improved deepwater port facilities, activity associated with the successful operation of the port of Mackay remained centred on River Street until the mid-twentieth century. Wharves, warehouses, offices, ships' chandleries, boat builders, hotels and boarding houses created a busy precinct along the waterfront and at the northern ends of the streets feeding into River Street, such as Wood, Sydney, Brisbane, Carlyle and Tennyson streets.
Following the opening of the railway from Mackay inland along the Pioneer River valley in 1885, a much-used branch line was continued along River Street to service the port area. A new brick customs house was constructed in 1901 in the centre of the riverfront precinct to replace the timber customs house built in the 1860s.
WH Paxton & Co. was one of several large merchantile firms established in River Street to serve the shipping trade at the port of Mackay. These included Shepherd's Anvil Stores Pty Ltd (established 1873); James Croker & Sons (established 1889); J Michelmore & Co. (established 1891); and the offices of the Adelaide Steamship Company (erected in 1900).
William Henry Paxton came to Mackay in 1874 as manager for W Sloane & Co., a Victorian-based company with interests in a number of Mackay district sugar mills. By 1876 he had established WH Paxton & Co. as shipping, insurance, stock and station and general agents (including the agency for W Sloane and Co.) and wholesale merchants (including general hardware, wine and spirits, and produce). By 1886 the firm was trading in goods as diverse as plantation rice, flour, teas, maize, hessian bags, coal, tobacco, golden syrup, sugar and rum.
WH Paxton also held substantial mining interests, being a director of the Mount Orange Copper Mining Company, formed in 1877, and a shareholder in the Mount Britton Goldfield Company Limited, registered in 1882. He was mayor of the Municipality of Mackay in 1880. In 1883 he left Mackay for England and subsequently died in Melbourne in 1887.
Paxton had obtained the Mackay agency for the lucrative trade with the Australian-owned Australasian Steam Navigation Company (the ASN Co.). In 1887 the ASN Co. merged with the Queensland Steam Ship Company Ltd (the QSS Co.) as the largely British-owned Australasian United Steam Navigation Company (AUSN Co.), which became Australia's largest and most successful coastal shipping line. When news of his death reached Mackay in August 1887, flags over the AUSN Co.'s steamers in port were flown at half mast as a mark of respect.
Despite the early death of the firm's founder, WH Paxton & Co. continued to expand its operations in Mackay. By 1888 WH Paxton & Co. was also the Mackay agent for the British India and Queensland Agency (the BI & Q Agency), a subsidiary of the British India Steam Navigation Company (the BI Co.). The BI & Q Agency, registered in London but with the head office located in Brisbane, was formed in 1885 and had managed the merger of the ASN and QSS companies. Its principal proprietors were MacKinnon, McKenzie & Co. (British proprietors of the BI Co.), Gray, Dawes & Co. and McIlwraith McEacharn & Co. (based in Melbourne and London).
In August 1889 McIlwraith McEacharn & Co. of London, Antwerp and Melbourne, which had acquired the Rockhampton-based firm of Walter Reid & Co. in 1881, purchased WH Paxton & Co. at Mackay. As in Rockhampton, where McIwraith McEacharn & Co. continued to operate under the name Walter Reid & Co., the firm continued to operate in Mackay as WH Paxton & Co.
McIlwraith McEacharn & Co. operated their own shipping interests between the United Kingdom and the Australia-Pacific zone in association with the BI & Q Agency, in which it held an interest, and the AUSN Co. The firm was significant in developing the frozen meat trade between Australia and Britain. Along with the Adelaide Steamship Company and Howard Smith, McIlwraith McEacharn & Co. and the AUSN Co. were significant pioneers of Australia's coastal shipping.
WH Paxton and Co.'s offices and warehouse were located near what is now 25 River Street until 1899 when new, larger, purpose-designed premises were constructed for the firm at 10 River Street, on a site acquired by the ASN Co. (later the AUSN Co.) in November 1865, and adjacent to what was by then the AUSN Co. wharf.
The new premises were designed by prominent local architect Arthur Rigby. The materials remained modest: timber-framed, with single-skin walls of corrugated iron or chamferboard. The two-storeyed section, constructed by local builder Charles Porter, was completed in August 1899. The attached single-storeyed warehouse, erected by Joseph Vidulich, was completed a little later.
The two-storeyed building contained storage space on the ground floor and offices (general and manager's) and sample room on the first floor. One of the features of the office building was the provision made for ventilation and light:
"The main office - 41 ft long and 31 ft wide, and 14ft from floor to ceiling - contains 15 windows, and is lined with pine suitably varnished. In the centre of the roof is a fret-work ventilator 25 ft long by 2ft 6 in wide, of elaborate design."
In June 1912 Brisbane architect Montague T Stanley, son of former Colonial Architect FDG Stanley, called tenders for the erection of additions and alterations to WH Paxton & Co.'s premises in Mackay. This was likely when the double-gabled warehouse extension was constructed, and reflects the expansion of the company in the early decades of the twentieth century as the Queensland economy boomed.
Other warehouses, wharves and offices were built along River Street in the early years of the twentieth century, making River Street a hive of shipping and port activity. The Adelaide Steamship Company had constructed warehouses by 1900; J. Michelmore & Sons had erected their landmark warehouse and main office building in River Street, at the end of Sydney Street; and James Croker & Sons had constructed their own wharf by 1917.
In December 1914 McIlwraith McEacharn & Co. transferred title to 10 River Street to WH Paxton & Co. Ltd, likely in connection with wider corporate amalgamations in the Australian coastal shipping industry at this time. In 1914 the BI Co. combined with the Peninsula & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O) in one of the biggest shipping mergers in British history. Although the BI Co. initiated and retained the dominant interest in this merger, the combine traded under the P&O name. The subsidiary AUSN Co. retained its name but as a consequence of the merger, its management passed from the BI&Q Agency (in which McIlwraith McEacharn held a substantial interest) to MacDonald Hamilton & Company, P&O's Australian agents. At Mackay, however, WH Paxton & Co. remained the shipping agent for the AUSN Co. and also picked up the P&O line of steamers.
Between 1914 and 1946 P&O acquired more than a dozen shipping companies and by 1929 WH Paxton & Co. was the Mackay shipping agent for the AUSN Co., P&O Branch Service (via the Cape and Suez), the Eastern and Australian Steamship Co, and the Union Steamship Co. Ltd of New Zealand, as well as agent for the insurance company Lloyd's of London and sub-agent for Anglo Saxon Petroleum Co. Ltd.
A Souvenir of Mackay and District published in 1937 described WH Paxton & Co. as one of the largest companies of its kind in Queensland, but the firm's connection with the shipping trade was about to decline. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s extensions to Queensland's railway network reduced the dependence of the Mackay region on sea transport. Furthermore, the opening of a Mackay deep-water harbour in 1939 changed the focus of port activity from the River Street wharves to the harbour and much of the riverside stores and infrastructure gradually became redundant. Until the late 1950s, however, River Street remained dominated by the long-established firms of Michelmore & Co; Shepherd's Anvil Stores; James Croker & Co. and WH Paxton & Co.
As Australia's coastal shipping trade declined in the 1960s, McIlwraith McEacharn joined with the Adelaide Steamship Co. in 1964 to create Associated Steamships Pty Ltd. By the 1970s WH Paxton & Co. was experiencing losses in its wholesale department due to changes in shopping practices from the 1950s and the shift from coastal shipping to rail and road transportation. By 1975 the firm had been wound down, and 10 River Street was sold by July 1980. The building remained in use by APG, a company dealing with curtains, blinds and similar household furnishings. During its occupation of the building the warehouse floor was cemented and the initials 'APG' were painted on the roof of the office building.
In 1983 a new levee bank was constructed along River Street and the landmark J Michelmore & Co. warehouse was the first of the early shipping agency and wholesale importer premises to be demolished. Subsequently demolished structures included Shepherd's Anvil Stores Pty Ltd and James Croker & Sons' Victoria Wharf. Hotels along River Street, including the Prince of Wales, Leichhardt and the Crown and Anchor, were demolished more recently.
WH Paxton and Co.'s Offices and Warehouse survives as one of the few remaining places associated with the former shipping activity along River Street, which consolidated the importance of Mackay as a river port between 1863 and 1939. Other surviving buildings along the eastern end of River Street connected with former port activity include the Customs House (1901), the former Adelaide Steamship Company offices (1900) and Hossacks Store (formerly a ships' chandlery).
","criteria":"Constructed in 1899 with c1912 additions, the former WH Paxton & Co. Offices and Warehouse is significant for its association with Mackay as a major Queensland river port in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It demonstrates the pattern in Queensland's early settlement of establishing ports in sheltered rivers (for example, at Brisbane, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville, Ingham and Normanton), most of which were later replaced by deep water ports at the mouth of the river.
|The former WH Paxton & Co. Offices and Warehouse is significant as one of few surviving structures (including Mackay Customs House, QHR 600669) illustrative of the relationship between the Pioneer River, the sea trade, and the prominence of Mackay as a city river port in Queensland from the 1860s to the 1950s.
Very few warehouses constructed on timber wharves survive in Queensland's former river ports, and the wharf structure may date to the 1860s (this has not been confirmed). The former WH Paxton and Co. Offices and Warehouse on its timber wharf on the Pioneer River is now a rare surviving example of a type of structure once common in Queensland.
|The former WH Paxton & Co. Offices and Warehouse remains important in demonstrating many of the principal characteristics of a building designed to accommodate shipping offices and a wholesaling enterprise that combined warehousing, offices and display spaces within the one premises. The warehouse sections retain large interior volumes and well illustrate the use of heavy timber columns, bearers and trusses to support the roof. At the northern end the offices and warehouse spaces are constructed on a timber wharf over the Pioneer River, illustrating the close connection between the former shipping agency and Mackay's sea trade.
|The place is significant for its long and special association with WH Paxton & Co., a longstanding Mackay-based mercantile company important in Queensland's economic history. Established in 1876, WH Paxton & Co. was associated with the place from 1899, when the structure was erected as purpose-built offices and warehouse for the company, until the firm's closure c1975.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | 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 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":351,"place_ref":602603,"name":"Pioneer Shire Council Building (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"1 WOOD STREET","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-12-07","description":"The Pioneer Shire Council Building (former) is a small, reinforced concrete building in the Art Deco Style on Wood Street.
The Wood Street facade is divided into three sections. The central section has 3 round arches on square pilasters, two free standing and two half-width engaged on the outsides. These pilasters are fluted with a zigzag cut, and topped with a square capital of coloured glazed terracotta featuring a stylised design representing sugar cane, nautilus shells and perhaps palm fronds surrounded by a zigzag border. These glazed terracotta panels are part of a row of seven beneath the roofline. The words 'PIONEER SHIRE COUNCIL' appear in low relief above the glazed panels and central entrance section. The front rises to a horizontal parapet.
Each side section is a square tower slightly higher and marginally in front of the centre section. These are decorated with low relief coffering. Three slit windows are let into each. A wooden, tapering square section flagpole is mounted towards the outer edge of each side.
A light well is constructed in the side elevations admitting light to the interior. The building is attached to the former Post Office (Telstra Building) on the northern side by a metal roof forming a covered driveway.
Five steps lead up to the entry porch or veranda, at the back of which is a single central door of glass and aluminium. Original detailing, believed to be of pressed metal, on the ceiling of the porch is intact, while the floor features later tiles.
The front entrance opens to a central passageway that leads to the rear of the original building. The layout of the original building has a strong symmetry about the axis of the central passageway with various rooms opening to either side. A strongroom is located in an office on the northern side of the building. Original ceiling fabric is extant above the later suspended ceilings.
At the rear of the original building the space that was once the Council chambers is now subdivided into several rooms. A decorative archway remains at the rear extent of the original building.
Behind the original 1935 building to the east is a later two-storey metal framed and clad building that also extends above the original building in the area that comprised the former council chambers. This extension is not significant.
","history":"The Pioneer Shire Council Building (former) was constructed to a design by Harold Vivian Marsh Brown in 1935 and occupied by the Council until 1994 when the Shire amalgamated with the Mackay City Council.
John Mackay and John McCrossin first explored the area in which the Pioneer Shire was located in 1860. Returning to the area in 1862, Mackay established and subsequently lost, the extensive pastoral holding he had named 'Greenmount'. The township of Mackay, originally named Alexandra, was surveyed in June 1863. The first town allotments were offered for sale from the police station in Bowen in October 1863. Two years after the establishment of Mackay, the first sugar was planted on the Pioneer Plantation, introducing to the region its key agricultural product and industry.
The first local government body formed in the Pioneer Valley region, the Mackay Municipal Council, met on 1 December 1869.
The Pioneer Divisional Board was proclaimed in November 1879, the same year the Divisional Boards Act was enacted and first met in the Mackay School of Arts building on March 13 1880. The Act established local government boards to administer parts of the State. In many cases these divisions surrounded regional towns or cities, some eighteen of which had been incorporated by 1878.
The offices of the Pioneer Divisional Board were located within the boundaries of another local government area, the City of Mackay. Shire/town relationships of this type were and are not uncommon in Queensland. Other examples are the former Mulgrave Shire Council Chambers (1912-13) that remain in Cairns following and the North Rockhampton Borough Chambers (1885) in Rockhampton.
When formed, the Pioneer Division consisted of three subdivisions, each of which returned three members. The board's first members were JE Davidson (chair), MH Black, R Martin, EM Long, W Hyne, A Kemmis, DH Dalrymple, D Lacy and ES Rawson. A number of these men owned sugar plantations.
Office space for the new Pioneer Divisional Board was rented in the School of Arts. A divisional clerk and a clerk of works were appointed. The Board held meetings on the second Tuesday of each month. Throughout the 1880's and subsequently, many of the Pioneer Divisional Board's members were involved in the sugar industry. Robert Walker of Fairleigh Plantation, the second chairman, was one of the sugar pioneers. Walter Paget, a councillor from 1883 and chairman from 1885 to 1890 and 1901, constructed with his brother Arthur a sugar mill at Nindaroo Plantation. Like DH Dalrymple, Walter Paget entered State Parliament, serving as a member there until 1915.
In the late 1800's those involved in primary production required strong local government organisations to establish the road infrastructure needed to transport goods into and out of a region. As the sugar industry in the Pioneer Valley expanded, bridges became a priority. From 1886 through the Joint Bridges Board, responsibility for bridges was shared between the Pioneer Divisional Board and the Mackay Municipal Council. The first Sydney Street Bridge was completed in August 1887. Constructed in 1888, the Barnes Creek Bridge was also a responsibility of the Joint Bridges Board.
By 1884 a total of 19,320 acres of land in the valley was being used to grow sugar cane, processed in the main through privately owned plantation mills. A downturn in the sugar industry, attributed to an oversupply of beet sugar in Europe and the phasing out of Melanesian indentured labour, led to a move away form the plantation system and towards efficient central mills. Following recovery from the downturn, the Mackay region experienced a period of moderate growth, from mid 1885 to the 1920s, in both sugar production and population.
The Pioneer Divisional Board office relocated from the School of Arts building after its first purpose-built timber office building was constructed in 1889 on the western side of Wood Street.
A number of significant changes to the local government of the region occurred in the first two decades of the Twentieth Century. The Local Authorities Act (1902) widened the powers of local governments, giving these bodies more extensive powers over roads and bridges as well as responsibility for the impounding of animals, the generation of electric and gas lighting and control over traffic.
Mackay was declared a town in 1902, making the municipal council now the Mackay Town Council. Mackay was declared a city in 1918.
In 1903 the Pioneer Divisional Board became the Pioneer Shire Council, its subdivisions subsequently renamed divisions. During this period, as a means of opening the Upper Pioneer Valley to closer settlement, the Pioneer Shire Council funded the extension of the Pioneer Valley railway line from Pinnacle to Finch Hatton. This extension was opened on 21 September 1904. The Queensland government completed the last extension to the Pioneer Valley line, west to Netherdale, after its takeover of the Finch Hatton section on 1 July 1910. This action made more land available for sugar cane growing, as well as allowing tourists easier access to the Eungella Range.
During these two decades the boundaries of the Pioneer Shire were reduced when the Sarina Shire was formed to its south on 1 January 1912. Mirani Shire, excised from the western section of the Pioneer Shire, established its offices in Mirani in 1913.
Members of the Pioneer Shire Council were also members of the wider community and supportive of regional growth. William Kirkup of Walkerston owned a store and bakery while serving as chairman initially from 1902 to 1907, then for a range of years until 1927. Robert Kippen was a carrier, plantation supervisor, storekeeper, dairyman and publican, as well as shire chairman 1907 to 1908, then 1914-15 and 1921-24. Another publican with sugar and pastoral interests, Edward 'Ned' Hannan, served as a member of the Mirani and Pioneer Shires for various periods between 1905 and 1946. Councillors also looked after the interests of the Shire through representation on the Harbour Board following its formation in 1896.
Mackay and the Pioneer River district experienced a period of considerable economic growth during the interwar years. In part, this was due to continued expansion within the sugar industry. Adding impetus to this was the connection of Mackay by rail to Rockhampton, in 1921, and Townsville in 1923. By 1923 the population of Mackay was 6,350 and the district some 15,000. The close relationship between the two local government areas continued.
During the 1930s major public works projects were undertaken in the Mackay region. Work commenced on a new Outer Harbour for Mackay in 1935. The following year work began on a new bridge over the Pioneer River at Sydney Street, to replace the earlier one damaged in the 1918 cyclone. When completed was named the Forgan Bridge after the mother of the local MHR and then Premier of Queensland, William Forgan Smith.
Growth of its administrative section during this period of regional economic growth prompted the Pioneer Shire Council to relocate its offices, this time to the opposite side of Wood Street in Mackay. Designed in the Art Deco style by prominent local architect HVM Brown, the Pioneer Shire Council Building was erected by W Guthrie for a cost of £2,337. The new office was officially opened to business on Monday March 18 1935.
Harold Vivian Marsh Brown (c.1907-1992) was born in Mackay. Educated at the Mackay High School and the Brisbane Technical College, from 1926 to 1930. He worked as an articled pupil of Cavanagh & Cavanagh in Brisbane, being registered as an architect in 1930, before establishing his architectural business in Mackay around 1932. In the years to 1940 Brown designed approximately thirteen buildings in Mackay, including a number of fine examples of the Art Deco style. These include the Kane & Legge Building in Brisbane Street (his own office), Chaseley House, the Imperial Hotel, the CWA building, the RSL Memorial Hall in Sydney Street, Black's Building, Maguire's Hotel in Wood Street, the Holy Trinity Anglican Church Rectory and Hall (later the Masonic Club) in Gordon Street, the Hotel Mackay in Victoria Street and St Mary's Catholic Church & Presbytery in Mackay South.
Harold Brown's Art Deco council building served the Pioneer Shire adequately until the 1950s when conditions again became too cramped. In 1958 a decision was made to extend the building towards the rear of the site. A second storey has since been added in one of the two refurbishments, which have been undertaken since the 1950s.
The Pioneer district continued to grow post-war. In 1966 Mackay's population was 18,640 while the population of the Pioneer Shire was 19,990. By the early 1990s the Shire had reached 40,592 while Mackay city housed 23,056.
In March 1994 the Pioneer Shire amalgamated with the Mackay City Council and the Pioneer Shire Council Building was vacated. Gordon White, the last Pioneer Shire chairman, had held the position since 1983. Following the amalgamation he served as mayor of Mackay City until 1999.
","criteria":"The Pioneer Shire Council Building (former) is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history, specifically the development of the provision of services and infrastructure to rural Queensland through the establishment of divisional boards and shire councils.
The Pioneer Shire Council Building (former) situated in central Mackay is important in illustrating the pattern of Queensland's history, specifically the administrative relationship between a shire council and an adjoining town or city council. It is a good surviving example of rural shire council building made redundant by the absorption of the rural shire into the town/city shire within which it's office was located.
Constructed in 1935 during a major program of beautification and modernisation of services when Mackay was the fastest growing town in Queensland, the Pioneer Shire Council Building (former) is tangible evidence of this period of growth and modernisation.
|As one of his earlier Mackay buildings, the Pioneer Shire Council Building (former) illustrates the principal characteristics of the work of prominent Mackay architect Harold Vivian Marsh Brown. As the designer of 13 buildings during the interwar period HVM Brown made an important contribution to the commercial centre of Mackay.
The Pioneer Shire Council Building (former) is good example of the Art Deco style transplanted to rural Queensland. With its geometric façade stylised decoration, terracotta tiles and prominent lettering it demonstrates the characteristics of this style.
|As one of a number of Art Deco style buildings constructed in Mackay and many sugar industry towns during the interwar period, and for the contribution the Art Deco façade with tropical motifs makes to Wood Street, the Pioneer Shire Council Building (former) is important because of its aesthetic significance.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":4230,"place_ref":602553,"name":"Mango Avenue","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Mango Avenue (between Whittles Lane and Heidke Street)","suburb":"EIMEO","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-07-31","description":"Mango Avenue is characterised by an avenue of mature mango trees (Mangifera indica) extending approximately 150m along the road reserve, between Whittles Lane and Heidke Street, heralding the approach to the Pacific Hotel that sits atop a prominent headland (formerly the site of the Eimeo Hotel).
The trees are large mature trees of about 15-20 metres tall. There are 16 trees on the western side of the road reserve and 18 on the eastern side, with a large Hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) adjacent to the northernmost tree on the eastern side of the avenue. The canopies of the trees meet, forming a well-shaded tunnel along the road as well as overhanging adjacent properties, despite the spacing of the trunks being sometimes irregular. The trees commonly have evidence of severed lower branches and some sport street numbers for adjacent house blocks.
The road is a narrow strip of bitumen running roughly north-south. There is no curbing and little formal delineation of adjacent property entrances or boundaries on the east side. A concrete pathway exists along the western side of the road reserve, west of the trees. Property entrances on both sides of the roadway are simply sporadic gaps between the tree trunks.
","history":"The avenue of mango trees at Eimeo, north of Mackay, was established probably in the 1880s by Jeremiah Downs Armitage, owner of the beachside Eimeo hotel/boarding house, to delineate the track leading from the main road through his property to the hotel.
The Pioneer River district was taken up for pastoral and agricultural purposes from 1860. In 1862 a settlement was established on the south bank of the river; in 1863 this was surveyed as the township of Mackay, the first sale of town lots was held, Mackay was gazetted as a port of entry, and a customs house was opened. The town prospered as a port and as a commercial and administrative centre, drawing business from nearby pastoral holdings and the sugar plantations being developed along the river from the late 1860s. In the 1880s the population expanded as the Queensland economy enjoyed a boom and government settlement programs attracted agricultural immigrants to the colony. The Pioneer River sugar industry was flourishing and Mackay was emerging as an important regional centre.
Jeremiah Armitage came to Mackay in the early 1870s, and took up a 105 acre (42.5 hectare) selection with ocean frontages, about 9 miles (14.5 kilometres) north of Mackay, which he named after the island of Eimeo (Moorea) near Tahiti in the Society Islands. The land was selected in the name of Nancy Armitage (spinster), who gained a deed of grant to the property in 1876. Following her marriage in 1881, title was transferred early in 1882 to Jeremiah Downs Armitage. In 1874 he was recorded as a Mackay timber merchant, but had turned his attention to fruit growing by the 1880s.
To supplement his income as a fruit grower, Armitage developed Eimeo as one of the Mackay district's first tourist destinations. In April 1880 he opened a newly completed boarding house on a promontory overlooking the sea on three sides (later known as Eimeo Hill). The house sat in a 9 acre (3.6 hectares) garden stocked with fruit trees, and visitors were invited to enjoy "sea bathing, yachting, fishing and shooting". He may have licensed this building for a short period, as he held a publican's license for the Eimeo Hotel, Eimeo, in 1889-1890.
Armitage is believed to have planted an avenue of coconut palms (Cocos nucifera) and another of mango trees (Mangifera indica) along the track through his property leading to the boarding house/hotel. The mango is a large tree indigenous to India and South East Asia. As well as producing an edible fruit, the mango is an excellent shade tree. Walter Hill, first superintendent of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, is credited with its introduction to Queensland and it was cultivated widely in North Queensland by early settlers, as a specimen tree in botanic gardens, as a household fruit tree, and as a shade tree along streets and in public parks.
From January 1885 Jeremiah Armitage, fruit grower, conducted the first postal receiving office at Eimeo. By 1891 this duty had been transferred to Mrs Kemp of the Sea View Hotel.
Contemporaneously with Armitage's license for the Eimeo Hotel, William George Kemp held a license for the Seaview (or Sea View) Hotel at Eimeo from 1887 to 1894. This was transferred to Mrs ER Kemp in 1894, then to WJ Clemments (or Clements) in 1895 and to PA Christiansen in 1896. Seaview Beach (now Bucasia) was located just west/north-west of Eimeo Hill. Kemp Street at Bucasia commemorates Mr and Mrs Kemp, early licensees of the Seaview Hotel.
On 21 August 1890 Armitage advertised Eimeo for sale. The property then consisted of 105 acres, the Beach Hotel, a large residence and numerous fruit trees. No license for the Beach Hotel has been identified. The hotel did not sell at this time.
In October 1890 J Armitage was appointed Superintendent of Coconut Planting by the Queensland government, to plant and manage coconut palms on coastal islands for the use of shipwrecked sailors. He appears to have held this position for a short period only, someone else being appointed to the position in July 1892.
Armitage was declared insolvent in 1893, at which time his Eimeo property passed to his mortgagor, the Queensland National Bank, which leased the whole of the land to Robert Bridgman from 1895. Bridgman conducted the boarding house at Eimeo. Armitage retained some connection with the area, being listed as an apiarist at Eimeo in the 1900 Queensland Post Office Directory. He died in Brisbane in 1919.
In 1905, George Francis Bridgman obtained title to the property, which was transferred in 1913 to Mackay publican Martin Hassett, and in 1915 to another Mackay hotelkeeper, William Thomas Eyles. From at least Eyles' occupation, the business was known as the Eimeo Hotel.
In November 1919 title to the whole of the property was transferred to Charles Louis Albert Brown, who carried out the first subdivision of the 105 acre property in 1920, creating a number of beachfront residential allotments. In the mid-1920s the track leading to the Eimeo Hotel at the northern end of the property was surveyed as a public lane, which became known as Mango Avenue.
In 1923 the bulk of the property, including the Eimeo Hotel, was transferred to Arthur James Wallis Mowlam, then to James Amstead in 1926. Their names are perpetuated in nearby streets.
As the use of motor vehicles expanded in Queensland from the 1920s, Eimeo beach and the Eimeo Hotel, easily accessed from Mackay by road, gained in popularity with both local residents and tourists as recreation venues. The Queensland Government Intelligence and Tourist Bureau's 1929 publication The Mackay District, North Queensland (2nd edition pp29, 31) confirms this popularity and suggests that the Mango Avenue trees were well established by the late 1920s:
"In close proximity to Mackay are many splendid beaches. Some of them are beautifully situated, surrounded by coconut palms, and reached through avenues of mango trees. The two most popular seaside resorts are Eimeo and Slade Point. Both of these are within easy motoring distance. Eimeo is about 9 miles north-west of Mackay, and can easily be reached by motor-car in half an hour. The drive to Eimeo is interesting all the way. At Eimeo there is a comfortable hotel, where every attention is paid to visitors. The hotel is situated on a beautiful headland, and commands charming views on all sides. The grounds of the hotel are extensive and well laid out with many varieties of fruit trees, while the approach thereto is laid out with stately coconut palms. Excellent shooting and fishing may be enjoyed here, and a motor-boat is available for conveying parties around one or other of the beautiful bays in this vicinity."
In late 1932 title to the hotel site, on a reduced parcel of just under 9 acres (3.6 hectares), was transferred to Mrs Lavinia Walters, who demolished the building and constructed a new Eimeo Hotel in 1934, using some of the materials from the demolition. She purchased an old Anglican parish hall and moved it to the site to form an annex, and built an open-air dance floor and skating rink on the property. She is credited with being instrumental in having a bitumen road built between Eimeo and Mackay in 1938.
In the early 1940s, during World War II, the Eimeo Hotel was occupied by American servicemen on rest and recreation leave from New Guinea. The present Pacific Hotel on the site dates from 1954.
The coconut palms were removed in the 1990s, but the mango trees along Mango Avenue, between Whittles Lane and Heidke Street, survive and remain a tourist attraction.
","criteria":"The circa 1880s mango trees along Mango Avenue at Eimeo provide important tangible evidence of an early phase of North Queensland tourism, little of which survives in built form. It is associated with the 1880 establishment of one of the Mackay district's first seaside resorts, the Eimeo boarding house/hotel, during a period of strong economic growth in the region.
They are important also in illustrating the use of the mango as a shade tree and for street beautification in tropical Queensland.
|Once constituting the private entrance to the Eimeo boarding house/hotel, this avenue of Mangifera indica, now over 120 years old, remains an excellent example of a grand-entrance avenue of trees in a coastal setting.
|As an approach avenue of substantial shade trees that leads to a site closely linked to the recreational history of Mackay, the place has long been appreciated for its aesthetic significance. The dramatic tunnel effect of driving through the shady avenue when approaching or leaving the Pacific Hotel (formerly the site of the Eimeo Hotel) generates an aesthetic response known to have been enjoyed by visitors since at least the 1920s, and likely much earlier.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":4397,"place_ref":602766,"name":"Mackay General Cemetery","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Cemetery Road","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2010-11-19","description":"The Mackay General Cemetery is an 8.9 hectare reserve, located west of the inner city area of Mackay at the far western end of Shakespeare Street. It is bounded by Hume Street to the west, Cemetery Road to the south, Holland Street to the east, and to the north by cane fields that extend to the Pioneer River. The part of the reserve determined to be of cultural heritage significance is that used for burials, excluding the north-west corner where crops are being grown and there are no burials. The site is largely flat apart from a gully near the western end that contains a drain way. The main entrance is from Holland Street, at the intersection with Shakespeare Street. From here a curving central drive runs west through the centre of the cemetery, lined with trees on one side. The edges of the cemetery are unfenced; however rows of trees line the footpaths on the southern and eastern sides. The only buildings on the site are a shelter shed, located adjacent to the central drive in the centre of the cemetery, and some recent sheds.
The cemetery is laid out in a grid and subdivided into denominational sections, with specific areas designated for Church of England/Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran and Catholic burials. A section for minority and ethnic based religions is located in the far western corner. Newer burial sections are located north of the central drive, while a series of grass roadways run north-south between the denominational sections, linking the central drive with Cemetery Road.
A variety of monuments are found throughout the cemetery, including upright slabs, obelisks, crosses, angels, urns and bibles. They are constructed in a variety of styles and materials and feature a wide range of inscriptions in a number of languages. Headstones are made of marble, sandstone, iron, granite, and concrete. Grave surrounds include iron fencing or lacework but are predominantly concrete. Monuments and grave surrounds in the protestant sections are generally painted white.
An unusual locally made monument is a memorial to several members of the Cameron family. This elaborate cast iron, classical style aedicule is surmounted by a cross. Other monuments of note include several smaller cast-iron grave markers with iron lacework borders. These rectangular panels have inscriptions in relief, frequently laid out in wavy lines. More recent headstones and graves are less ornate, such as slab and desk variations.
There are a number of Muslim graves in the cemetery. One of these consists of a raised slab clad with ornate ceramic tiles; it has a diamond shaped headstone. Two others each consist of a concrete slab with small, simple upright headstone at each end.
The graveyard population comprises a wide variety of people including returned soldiers, Aboriginal people, South Sea Islanders, Japanese, Javanese, German, Maltese, Italian, French, English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish immigrants.
The work of a number of monumental masons is represented in the Mackay General Cemetery. The majority of mason-marked graves indicate that most people contracted the firm of Melrose and Fenwick. Other masons represented include J. Hanson of Sydney, J. Petrie & Son of Brisbane and of Townsville, A.L. Petrie of Toowong, F.M. Downes, Bowser Co Ltd., Brett & Nott, A.M. Rappell of Mackay, Jaceurs & Son of Royal Park Melbourne, B. & .H. Jennings of Rockhampton, Lowther & Sons, W. Robertson & Co. of Mackay, J. Simmonds of Brisbane, C.M. & C. Mackay Iron Works and F.M. Allan of Rockhampton. A number of war graves plaques have been placed on the graves of Australian servicemen by the Australian War Graves Commission.
Plantings throughout the cemetery are largely confined to the perimeter and central drive. An avenue of mature Camphor Laurels (Cinnamomum camphora) lines the northern side of the central drive. A cluster of other mature trees are found along the Holland Street boundary, north of the main entrance. A few lone trees are also randomly located in some burial sections (such as Methodist section no.1).
The shelter shed has a rectangular hipped roof, clad in corrugated iron and supported by square posts. Decorative arches span between the posts and a solid balustrade runs along the north and south edges with timber bench seating along the inner face.
A wide, grassy gully, with concrete drain at the bottom, separates Methodist section No.3 and Catholic section No.2 near the western end of the cemetery.
Views of farmland are obtained to the north, forming a picturesque backdrop to viewing the cemetery. Other picturesque effects are created by the curving central drive with its avenue of trees.
","history":"The Mackay General Cemetery was the Mackay region's principal cemetery and is one of the earliest regional cemeteries in Queensland. Its site was surveyed by licensed surveyor and Mackay identity T Henry Fitzgerald in late 1865. Closed to new burials in the 1990s, it is the burial place of about 15,500 people.
\nThe cemetery was surveyed soon after the township of Mackay was established on the banks of the Pioneer River. The first town allotments were sold in 1863 about two years after the Pioneer Valley began to be settled by pastoralists. Fitzgerald considered that the cemetery site was suitable because, as he stated, it was 'nearly a mile from the town boundary. The greater portion of it is quite dry and comprised of rich black soil in which it will be very easy to dig graves.'
\nThe earliest documented burial in the cemetery occurred in July 1866. The Mackay deaths register, in which that burial is recorded, notes two earlier burials (October 1864 and June 1865) there. It is possible that these occurred at the Mackay General Cemetery before it was officially surveyed; however, it is more likely that they took place at one of the cemeteries that ceased to be used after the General Cemetery was opened. Mackay General Cemetery is one of the earliest major cemeteries in the region, being contemporary to South Rockhampton (1860, QHR 601131) and West End at Townsville (1865, QHR 601475).
\nFrom the 1870s, the cemetery was divided into sections according to religious denomination and included an alien section. This typical feature of cemeteries established in late Victorian times was a vestige of the control formerly exercised by the Church of England (now known as the Anglican Church) over burials which originally took place in churchyards. Initially in Australia, the Anglican Church had control of public cemeteries. This situation was disputed by other denominations and began to change from the 1820s with the establishment of denominational areas within cemeteries. Then, from the 1840s, culminating in the Queensland Cemeteries Act 1865, government legislated for the transfer of responsibility for administration of cemeteries from the church to an appointed board of trustees. Typically, cemeteries established from the late 20th century have not retained denominational divisions.
\nThe Mackay Cemetery Trust was appointed in 1870 and on 4 April 1873 the rules and regulations for the Mackay Cemetery were gazetted. The first trustees were local luminaries T Henry Fitzgerald, John Spiller (Pioneer Plantation), David Hay Dalrymple (Mayor of Mackay), George Smith and William McBryde (Secretary). The cemetery continued to operate under a board of trustees until 1934 when legislation was introduced that handed the control of cemeteries to the local authorities.
\nThe general layout of the cemetery began to take shape from 1877 when tenders were called for cemetery roads; the present main road into the shelter shed dates to 1882. The Camphor Laurels (Cinnamomum camphora) that line the main central road date to 1899. Fences, lych-gate, mortuary chapel and iron gates were also erected in the late 19th century, but none of these are extant. Buildings in the cemetery including the tool shed and shelter shed date from the late 20th century.
\nThe layout of the Mackay General Cemetery is typical of that employed in late Victorian cemeteries both in Australia and Britain, which were strongly influenced by the principles of the cemetery design movement encapsulated in the book by horticultural journalist, author and landscape architect, John Claudius Loudon, On the laying out, planting and managing of cemeteries (1843). Above all Loudon recommended a practical approach to cemetery design that was responsive to the nature of the selected site; so on level sites formal layouts of orthogonal grave rows, walks and drives were employed, while on hilly sites broad sweeps were used to ease gradients. Other standard features included a central carriageway lined by evergreen trees, as were other paths in preference to groupings of trees, leading to a focal structure in the centre of the cemetery, use of plant species with some symbolism related to death or mourning, and a grid pattern of graves accessible by paths or roadways. The aesthetic qualities of these layouts represented a shift in the preferred balance of formal and informal elements within the cemetery landscape towards an increased degree of formality and often symmetry, which had a practical advantage in being easier and less expensive to lay out.
\nThe wide variety of elaborate monuments was also a feature of late Victorian cemeteries and reflected popular taste at the time. From the interwar period the trend was towards simpler more economical monuments and away from curbing and fenced plots. This trend culminated in the development of low maintenance lawn cemeteries after World War II with plaques set close to, or flush with the ground. An exception to this trend was the reappearance, towards the end of the 20th century, of more elaborate monuments associated with some ethnic populations.
\nThe variety of monuments and inscriptions reflects the changing demography of the Mackay region from its earliest days until the closure of the cemetery in the 1990s. A range of ethnic and cultural groups came to Mackay to work in the region's main industry: sugar cane growing and processing.
\nSugar cane was introduced to the Mackay area in 1863 and soon developed into a major industry. By 1872 Mackay mills produced 40 per cent of the total Queensland sugar production and 37 per cent of its rum. Heavy regulation of the sugar industry from 1915 ensured the prosperity of the region. It has become one of Queensland's main sugar cane growing areas and produces about a third of the sugar in Queensland. The state produces most of the nation's sugar.
\nSouth Sea Islanders were the earliest and most numerous of the ethnic groups who came to the region to work in the sugar industry. First brought to the Mackay area to provide cheap manual labour in the 1860s, they remained a major presence until the trade in Islander labour ceased in 1904. Mackay hosted the largest population of South Sea Islanders in Australia.
\nOther ethnic groups employed in the sugar industry included Javanese (from the 1880s), Singhalese (Sri Lankans) (from the 1880s), Japanese, and southern Europeans, notably Maltese (from 1912) and Italians. Over 1000 Japanese migrated to Australia between 1888 and 1901 to work in the sugar cane industry; for a short time in the 1890s a Japanese consular official was established in Townsville. Chinese and Indians were also a presence, as in most other places in north Queensland.
\nThe cemetery contains South Sea Islander, Japanese, Javanese (Muslim) and Singhalese graves. The Japanese graves date to the early 20th century. South Sea Islander graves in the cemetery include that of Kwailiu Fatana'ona (John Fatnahoona), who was recruited from Malaita in the Solomon Islands to work in the cane fields of the Mackay district and was buried in 1904 aged 40 years. The Muslim graves include a slab design finished with decorative tiles in a manner that is typically Indonesian. There are also Italian and Maltese graves. For some of these ethnic groups, particularly the Japanese and Javanese, graves are the only extant physical evidence of their presence in the Mackay region between the late 19th and early 20th century.
\nThe cemetery also contains a number of graves of early identities in the region. The graves of people associated with the establishment of the sugar industry include plantation and mill owners, Gustav Muller of Hilldale, Charles Walker of the Dumbleton Plantation, Charles King of Meadowlands Plantation and Mill, William Williams of the Lorne Plantation, and James Carey of the Racecourse Mill.
\nOther notable burials include monuments for: Andrew Diehm who accompanied the explorer William Landsborough on his explorations of the Burdekin and Bowen area; Houston Stewart Dalrymple Hay, the Harbour Master and Pilot for Mackay in the 1870s for whom Dalrymple Bay and Hay Point are named; and former mayors of Mackay including Henry Black (after whom Black's Beach is named) who held the office three times. Many of the district's early clergy are buried in the cemetery including the Catholic priest, Father Pierre-Marie Bucas.
\nIn the early 1950s the Pioneer Shire Council decided to close the Mackay General Cemetery and to open a new cemetery in Brickworks Court, Glenella, on the north side of the Pioneer River. The first burial at the new cemetery took place on 11 September 1951. Following subsequent burials it was discovered that the soil at the Glenella was not suitable for burials and the council decided to re-open the Mackay General Cemetery for a further two years. The last burial took place at Glenella on 17 June 1952. In 1953 the Council exhumed more than 60 bodies from it and re-interred them in the Mackay General Cemetery.
\nIn the 1990s it was decided that no further plots would be sold in the Mackay General Cemetery. Walkerston to the south-west of Mackay remains open for those who wish to bury their deceased loved ones and to erect burial vaults; otherwise the Mt Bassett Lawn Cemetery, opened in 1953, has replaced the Mackay General Cemetery.
","criteria":"The Mackay General Cemetery is one of the earliest cemeteries established in the Mackay Whitsunday region (1865), and having been in continuous use for more than 140 years until the 1990s when it closed, remains its largest. The cemetery therefore provides important evidence of the history and demography of this key sugar producing region (one of Queensland's oldest and largest) in particular its cultural and ethnic diversity.
The cemetery contains the graves of people from a range of the ethnic groups employed by the sugar industry through time, including South Sea Islanders, Javanese, Singhalese (Sri Lankans), Japanese, Maltese and Italians. For some of these groups, the graves in this cemetery are the only extant physical evidence of their presence in the Mackay region between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The cemetery is also important in demonstrating the evolution of burial practices over this period. The progressive layering, development and diversity of styles of memorialisation within the cemetery document changing attitudes to death and fashions in funerary ornamentation since the 1860s.
|The chief cemetery of Queensland's oldest and largest sugar producing region, Mackay General Cemetery is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a late 19th century public cemetery in continuous use for more than 140 years. These comprise: its denominational divisions including an alien section intended for non-Christian burials, the layout of graves in a grid divided by paths and roadways, the central carriageway lined by evergreen trees, and the variety of monuments illustrating a range of religious and cultural preferences through time. These key characteristics combine to create an atmosphere of repose and reflection, a quality recognised as important to properly honouring and remembering the dead by many Queenslanders.
The cemetery contains examples of a range of key monumental styles dating from the late 19th century until the 1990s. These include the ornate Cameron monument, made locally from cast iron, and the work of numerous monumental masons from throughout Queensland represented there.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":4507,"place_ref":602642,"name":"Sugar Research Institute & Residence","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"239 Nebo Road","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2008-03-14","description":"The Sugar Research Institute is located along Nebo Road, the main southern highway in and out of Mackay.
\nGeneral Description
\nThe Sugar Research Institute complex is made up of the Main Building, attached Garages, Directors Residence, and Workshop. A covered walkway to the west links the Main Building to a Conference Hall and office/laboratory building. A free-standing laboratory/office building is located behind this group. A corrugated, galvanised iron shed/garage is located at the south east extremity of the site, adjacent to the rear vehicle entrance. A small caretaker's cottage is located at the south west corner.
\nThe Main Building, attached Garages, Directors Residence, and Workshop were constructed in 1953, with the west wing added in 1966. This addition is not readily perceived from the exterior as it has followed the original design intent. The difference in construction period is more apparent from internal finishes and fittings.
\nLandscape Features
\nThe dominant landscape feature is the double row of royal palms [Roystonea regia] that line the roadside perimeter of the site. A low face-brick fence runs along the roadside boundary with pillars marking the entrances. A circular bitumen drive is centred on the front entrance of the building.
\nThere are several large established trees adjacent to the Director's Residence and scattered about the site. Planting beds are located immediately in front of the two wings of the main building and within the circular driveway. There is an established, fenced-off domestic garden behind the house.
\nThere is a rear entrance to the site off the west boundary with a bitumen drive linking the various buildings through to the basement access.
\nThe balance of the site is a fenced off paddock to the south.
\nMain (Institute) Building
\nExterior
\nThe Institute is a two-storey face-brick building with a sub-floor basement. The building is best described stylistically as being 'stripped classical', given its symmetrical massing and emphasised classical portico. The classical idiom is maintained through the use of white marble for the entrance steps and cladding to the walls, columns and ceiling of the portico. Two pedestals intended to support sculptures flank the entrance which would have further emphasised the classical theme.
\nLow pedestals either side of the marble stairs have a rough textured finish. This finish appears to be a recent application.
\nThe portico has a central glazed double door with sheet bronze finish. Surrounding the door, the portico is fully glazed in bronze framing. There is a marble spandrel panel above door height with obscure glazing above this.
\nThe windows to the east and west wings of the northern façade are made up of 15 pairs of vertically proportioned, painted timber windows set between painted plastered columns at ground and first floor. At each level, a painted concrete canopy projects over the windows. There is a painted concrete sill which projects slightly.
\nThe face-brick wall is capped with what appears to be a painted sheet metal coping (probably covering the original coping).
\nThe east elevation has been plastered and painted. Three painted timber framed windows at ground level serve the Directors Office. The frames of two smaller windows to the toilet have replaced with aluminium.
\nA vertical construction joint divides the south (rear) elevation marking the junction of the 1953 and 1966 construction phases. The slight difference in the colour and texture of the bricks is apparent.
\nThe south elevation is occupied almost entirely by two continuous bands of windows following an identical pattern to the north elevation but without the projecting centre bay. At ground floor level two doors interrupt the pattern at the eastern end and toward the centre two window bays have been removed and in filled with fibre cement boarding and an aluminium window. At the western end a vehicle ramp leads down to a roller shutter door to the basement.
\nThe only penetration in the west elevation is a doorway inserted to link to the covered walkway to the Conference Hall. The words 'Sugar Research Institute' are fixed to the wall at first floor level.
\nThe roof of the Main Building is a low-pitched Dutch gable covered with corrugated, asbestos cement roofing sheets. It is set behind a substantial parapet wall on all four sides. Four prominent, sheet metal rain water heads are set symmetrically on the surface of the brickwork on both of the north and south elevations and drain into sheet metal, rectangular section, surface mounted downpipes.
\nInterior
\nBasement
\nThe basement is a utilitarian space extending under the west wing of the Institute. It is accessed from a staircase below the main staircase in the entrance hall and from a vehicle ramp at the south west corner at the rear of the building. There is also an open well at the northwest corner of the building which gives access to ground and first floor from the basement. A goods hoist and beam are suspended below the first floor ceiling. A steep, steel industrial staircase and balustrade connects the three levels.
\nThe walls and ceiling are unfinished concrete and the floor has a smooth cement render finish.
\nThe plant located in the basement is presumably part of the air-conditioning installation and electrical distribution. Other plant and installations presumably relate to the laboratory functions on the first floor.
\nGround floor
\nThe ground floor of the Institute building is primarily made up of offices, lecture rooms, and other administrative spaces. All open off a central corridor running the length of the building from the central entrance hall.
\nThe entrance hall is an impressive double volume with the marble finish of the portico carried through to the stair treads, skirtings and the internal masonry faces of the window wall. The floor has a glass mosaic finish in a simple two-tone grid pattern with a ceramic tile skirting. The walls generally have a rough plaster and paint finish. The ceiling, as for most of the building, is made up of gypsum plaster panels with acoustic perforations.
\nThere is a timber lined opening into the adjoining office which served as an enquiries counter. This office also contains a strong room, the door manufactured by Ajax safe manufacturing company of Sydney.
\nGlazed double doors open off the south wall of the entrance hall into a library/lecture hall [Named the ETS Pearce Library]. There is an etched border to each glass panel and what appears to be stylised sugar crystal etched in the centre.
\nOffices opening off the corridor are cross ventilated with vertical, adjustable, obscure glass louvers in timber frames above door head height. The louvers as well as some fixed glazing panels also provide borrowed natural light for the corridor.
\nThe different construction periods of the east and west wings is evident in the finishes and fittings. In the earlier east wing more is made of timber finishes, in particular the use of panelling (in the director's office) where Queensland Silky Oak veneer panels are framed with Queensland maple. Queensland maple is used throughout the building for skirtings, architraves, jamb linings, hand rails and fittings.
\nThe office partition walls are of painted framed hardboard to both wings. The west wing however appears to have undergone more change and ad hoc rearrangement of the walls. The east wing retains much of the original layout and fabric.
\nDoor handles to the east wing are a distinctive lever type while those to the west wing are plain, stainless steel knob-sets.
\nThe toilets in the east wing are largely in original condition. Floors are glass mosaic with ceramic tile skirtings. Cubicle panels are terrazzo. Splash-backs to the hand basins and to the urinal are ceramic tiled. Walls are painted. Cubicle doors are painted timber with an unusual scalloped top and bottom. Towel rails and toilet roll holders appear to be original and match the door furniture. A number of the sanitary fittings appear to be original.
\nVinyl (possibly asbestos) floor tiles were used throughout the building. A number of offices have been carpeted, usually directly over the vinyl. In some areas the vinyl tiles have been replaced with new tiles.
\nCeilings are generally gypsum plaster with acoustic perforations and may be fixed directly to the concrete slab. In the west wing there is some variation in the size and pattern of the panels.
\nAir conditioning has been introduced into the offices in an ad hoc manner but without serious damage to the fabric. A duct runs above the window head on the south elevation of the east wing. In the west wing ducting has been located above a lowered ceiling to the corridor. Elsewhere ducting and plant have been hidden behind walls and in sections of lowered ceiling.
\nFirst floor
\nThe first floor of the Institute building is primarily made up of laboratory and ancillary spaces. A central corridor opens off the upper level of the entrance hall. The corridor merges into large laboratory spaces at the end of each wing.
\nThe upper level of the entrance hall is in the form of a gallery overlooking the entrance. The words 'ER Behne Laboratory' are located on the south wall at the head of the stairs. The words 'ER Behne Laboratory' are located on the south wall at the head of the stairs. The laboratory is named for Edmund Rowlands Behne who was on the Board of Directors of the Institute from 1949-1975 serving as Deputy Chairman between 1964-1973 and as Chairman from 1973-1975.
\nThe colours of the glass mosaic floor below are repeated, without the grid pattern. The steel balustrade and timber hand rail continue round the gallery. Male and female toilets open off the east side of the gallery.
\nAs with the ground floor, the east wing is the more unified in its detail design and use of fittings and fixed furniture. While laboratory fittings in both wings are in similar configurations, their detailing, fittings and tap ware are distinctive. The fittings in the east wing are generally more robust and carefully detailed. Those in the west wing are a mix of open benches and units similar to those in the east wing. There has been a considerable amount of alteration to all the laboratories with the installation of equipment such as fume cupboards and electrical installations.
\nThe laboratory at the eastern end of the east wing has a quarry tile floor which may be a later addition. Elsewhere floors are vinyl tile, some of which show signs of heavy use.
\nAs with the ground floor air conditioning has been introduced to various parts of the upper floor in an ad hoc manner. Some areas have lowered ceilings concealing the ducting while in other areas (mainly the east wing) the ducting has been located in the roof space.
\nGarage Building
\nThree single garages are linked at ground level via a short passage to the east wing of the Main building. The north wall is plastered and painted with the words 'Sugar Research Institute' fixed to the top of the wall. The plaster has horizontal coursing marks. The remaining walls are face-brick. The roof is low pitched, hipped, covered with corrugated asbestos cement tiles and set behind parapet walls. There is a marble coping to all the parapets.
\nThe garage doors are roller shutters, but the timber frames indicate that there were originally side-hung double doors.
\nThe interior of the garages was not viewed.
\nDirector's Residence
\nThe Director's residence is attached to the garage building. It has a hipped, corrugated asbestos cement tiled roof which is contiguous with the garage roof; however over the house the parapet wall gives way to overhanging eaves. Walls are face-brick and doors and windows are timber casements and painted white.
\nBrick stairs lead up to the recessed entrance. The lawn is ramped up to the bi-fold doors of the living room. At the rear of the house a raised semi-enclosed, covered patio area opens onto an informal garden area. The garden is enclosed with pool fencing.
\nInternally the Directors residence has generous living and dining areas located to the east of the entrance and the bedroom wing to the west. The bedrooms open to the north off a long passage while bath room, toilet and kitchen open to the south. A servery area is located between the kitchen and dining room.
\nThe living/dining areas have fixed timber shelving and cupboards and in each bedroom an entire wall is fitted out with cupboards, shelving and drawers. The kitchen fittings are similarly ample. The joinery is generally of a high standard. Several units have a painted finish but it is likely that all were originally varnished.
\nFloors are timber and appear to have been sanded and sealed with a polyurethane finish. Bedroom floors have been carpeted. The kitchen and bathrooms have recent vinyl sheet coverings. Walls are generally plastered and painted. Ceilings to the bedrooms appear to be original plaster board with rounded cover strips and moulded cornices. The living/dining area appears to have a recent plasterboard ceiling. The passage and entrance area has a recent lowered ceiling to accommodate air conditioning ducting.
\nWorkshop
\nThe workshop building has a short covered link to the rear of the Main building and forms part of the original construction. It has subsequently become totally enclosed by later structures forming covered parking areas and workshop extensions. The hipped roof of corrugated asbestos cement tiles and the face-brick external walls however remain largely intact although there have been door and window insertions.
\nInternally the building consists of several rooms with bench space and stainless steel sinks. One room is fitted out as a darkroom.
\nCharles Young Conference Hall
\nThe Charles Young Conference Hall and laboratories is a single storey brick building located to the west of the main building and connected via a covered walkway. The covered walkway is the strongest feature of the building forming a veranda and covered entrance to the Conference Hall. It consists of a heavy painted concrete canopy and projecting beams supported on dressed concrete columns.
\nThe conference hall has a large span roof with a pre-coated profiled steel roofing sheet covering. It follows a roughly mansard form rising above low parapets.
\nThe Conference hall building is a simple rectangle with a covered walkway on the east side. Walls are rectangular face-brick panels with narrow, full-height slot windows in between. These windows are all covered with a decorative, pre-formed aluminium sheet sun-screening. Areas opening on to the veranda have full-height aluminium framed glazing and doors.
\nA wing of offices and laboratories extends to the east of the hall behind the Main (Institute) building. This wing has a low pitched gabled roof finished as for the hall roof with boxed-in eaves. Walls are of face-brick. Windows and doors are aluminium framed.
\nInternally the conference hall is a large clear space with vinyl floor tiles, face-brick walls and large coffered ceiling panels. The hall is well provided with conference facilities.
\nThe office/laboratory area has vinyl tile floors; exterior walls are plastered and painted while all internal subdivision of spaces is made up of light aluminium framed partitioning system with timber ply panels and clear glazing above door head height. Fittings are generally made up of Formica finished panels on steel framing.
\n","history":"
The Mackay Sugar Research Institute was constructed in 1953 by builder Don Johnstone to a design by prominent architect Karl Langer. Initially, only one section, the eastern wing, was constructed, with the second or western wing opened in August 1966. Mackay architect HVM Brown prepared plans for the second stage of the building in 1963 based on Langer's original design.
\nFollowing the exploration and mapping of pastoral runs in the Mackay district in the early 1860s, the fertile land was soon reduced to smaller selections. It was found that the region was particularly suited to the growing of sugar cane and by 1870 the production of sugar was the region's principal industry. The development of the industry was assisted by the opening of a State Nursery in 1889. Originally built to explore the suitability of diverse forms of agriculture, the 'Lagoons' site became the centre for research into cane varieties and more efficient methods of production. Renamed the Mackay Sugar Experiment Station and including laboratories and residences, it was transferred to the Te Kowai mill site in 1935.
\nThe Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations had been formed in 1900 as part of the Department of Agriculture and Stock with its work financed by levies on sugar growers and millers, matched by government funding. It co-ordinated the research carried out in the three sugar-growing regions of Mackay, Cairns and Bundaberg comparing cane varieties, sampling soils and fostering better farming and irrigation methods. Millers, represented by the Australian Sugar Producers' Association, became increasingly dissatisfied with their lack of control over the direction and activities of the Bureau. This was somewhat deferred by the formation of the technology branch of the Bureau.
\nEstablished in 1929, the Queensland Society of Sugar Cane Technologists held its first conference at Cairns in 1930, convened by Norman Bennett of the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations. This was after preliminary meetings of the representatives of 16 sugar mills, six engineering firms and the Central Cane Prices Board. Other absentee mill owners were reputedly uncertain about disclosing trade secrets that such an alliance might bring but the formation of the group was in the face of 'stark ruin, with overseas prices on which cheap labour countries could not exist. To some it appeared that the expansion of the previous period had been a mistake...' a situation which was to repeat in years to come. By 1948 both the Queensland Cane Growers' Council and the Australian Sugar Producers' Association were again concerned and angry because the Bureau had lost a string of highly skilled personnel [including two directors], to more highly paid jobs.
\nIn 1949, the Australian sugar industry comprised mainly small cane farms located along the continent's tropical and sub-tropical Queensland and New South Wales coastline. The 5.5 million tonne cane crop, almost entirely grown in Queensland, was crushed by 34 raw sugar mills, most of which were owned co-operatively by growers. The highly regulated sugar industry was still recovering from material and labour shortages caused by World War II and was endeavouring to reassert its position in the world marketplace as a steady, consistent supplier of raw sugar. To achieve this goal, the industry's leaders determined they would have to expand cane production and the factories would have to improve sugar recovery and increase processing rates. The key was a speedy improvement in technological standards. As the government refused to entertain a proposal to place the Bureau of Experiment Stations outside the public service the Sugar Producers' Association formed a committee to draft the constitution for a new sugar industry funded and controlled research institute.
\nSugar Research Limited was incorporated on 22 February 1949 with 22 companies representing 24 mills as original subscribers, although some smaller mills joined soon thereafter and the Colonial Sugar Refinery provided an annual payment. The inaugural board of Sugar Research Ltd first met in March 1949 with its most pressing tasks being the appointment of a director and establishing a centre for research.
\nDr HW [Bill] Kerr, who had joined the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations in 1928, progressing to be the director from 1933 to 1943, was appointed the first Director of the Sugar Research Institute [1949-61]. Kerr was the driving force behind the establishment of the institute and well known in the Australian sugar industry for his important achievements. He developed and implemented soil analytical procedures for the assessment of available phosphorus, potassium and total replaceable bases. He introduced to sugar agriculture a system of replicated experiments, with statistical analysis and interpretation of results. Kerr was a member of the Queensland Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (from 1979 the Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists) from its establishment in 1929 until his death in 1992.
\nThe board decided to establish the Sugar Research Institute's central laboratories in Mackay, as an acknowledgement that Mackay in 1949 was both the largest sugar growing district [out of the three main sugar growing areas - Bundaberg, Cairns and Mackay] as well as being the geographical centre of the Australian sugar industry. The board invited Dr Karl Langer to discuss building plans.
\nKarl Langer was born in Vienna in 1903 where he lived until migrating to Australia in 1939 with his wife Gertrude. Langer studied architecture in Vienna graduating in 1926. During this time he had worked in the office of Josef Frank, who was to be come well known in Swedish modernism. In 1933 Langer was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy for his thesis entitled 'Origins and Development of Concrete Construction'.
\nAt the outbreak of World War II, Langer and Gertrude arrived in Sydney in May of 1939 proceeding to Brisbane in July. Langer left employment with Queensland Railways in 1946 to establish his own architectural practice. He worked throughout Australia and was the initiator of many influential urban design ideas such as the site for the Sydney Opera House and the pedestrianisation of Queen Street. He was the designer of buildings such as Main Roads Building, Spring Hill; St Peters Chapel, Indooroopilly; Lennon's Broadbeach Hotel on the Gold Coast, and worked in the regional centres of Queensland as an architect, town planner and landscape architect.
\nThe name Karl Langer is now synonymous with modernist architecture in Queensland and his connection with Mackay predates the building. Langer had been offered the position of assistant town planner in the Brisbane City Council in 1944 but the controversy and publicity surrounding this appointment brought him to the attention of the Mackay council which commissioned him to revise that city's town plan.
\nLanger was also an acquaintance of the secretary of the Sugar Research Institute and was engaged to design the building with offices, boardroom, drawing office and a library and lecture room on the ground floor. The first floor was to house research laboratories. The design provided a single storey utility building, an annexe to the main structure, containing workshops, stores and a machinery room. Later, a second wing could be added to the main building providing additional workshops and laboratory space to cater for expansion of the research institute.
\nA residence for the director was planned next to the laboratories. According to the original plans for the main building and utilities building the tender for the director's house was described as being 'under a separate tender.' However this may refer to the construction of the building being under a separate tender rather than its design which is also attributed to Langer. Mrs Betty Kerr, HW Kerr's wife, discussed with Langer the need for some alterations to the design of the residence. One particular change related to the need to block the view to the kitchen from the front door. Prior to Mrs Kerr requesting this change a person at the front door was able to see through to the kitchen.
\nLanger's plans also provided for the landscaping of the site as well as the provision of a caretaker's cottage. Whilst Langer's plans provided for a caretaker's cottage it is unclear if the existing building which was used as a caretaker's cottage was purpose-built or if the building was already existing when the land was purchased by the institute. The stylistic indicators of the building including its hipped roof, lack of sunhoods due to wide eaves and its corner casement windows suggest a date of mid to late 1930s.
\nLanger's pioneering use of climatic design in Queensland can be seen in the main institute building in the decorative restraint evident in the facade detailing and composition, the efficient but spacious planning of the building and the consideration given to a northern orientation. The northern orientation allowed for improved shading in summer and better light in winter. With the laboratories located on the southern side of the building this orientation allowed for a more even distribution of light to these areas.
\nPost-war shortages of both skilled labour and materials caused costs to escalate. The new director insisted that the director's residence both accommodate his wife and family of five children plus their maid and 'be of a type appropriate to the status of director' and suitable for entertaining guests from overseas. Escalating costs meant that Kerr was asked to modify his expectations and the institute building was completed in stages.
\nThe sugar industry, in 1949, was on the threshold of the buoyant sugar markets of the 1950s and in 1950 Justice Mansfield was appointed to head a Royal Commission for the orderly expansion of the industry. Most mills prepared ambitious plans.
\nThe Sugar Research Institute - 'a monument to the Australian sugar industry' - was opened on Saturday, 22 August 1953 by then Federal Treasurer, Sir Arthur Fadden. More than 100 official guests attended the opening during which Fadden stated that 'there was no industry in Australia better organised than sugar production' and that 'sugar is not only a Queensland industry, not only a national industry, but an international industry of great importance'.
\nThe building provided an environment for chemists and engineers to scientifically study the milling process in co-operation with its practical application. The Institute's focus from its establishment was to find solutions to industry problems via a program of short-term research and strategic design and construction projects. As a non-government funded research institute, the Sugar Research Institute is comparably rare. CSR was involved in experimental research, so whilst the Sugar Research Institute is not the only example of a private research institution, it is still unusual.
\nThe landscaping of the Institute was part of Langer's design, which included the planting of royal palms [Roystonea regia] along the roadside perimeter. The palms were planted in 1954 [a total of 58 at the time] to represent each of the Institute's member mills. The second half of the building, the mirror image of the first side, was completed to Langer's original design and opened in August 1966. Mackay architect Harold Vivian Marsh [HVM] Brown prepared plans for the second stage of the building in 1963.
\nTwenty-five years after being established, Institute-researched improvements in mill technology had tripled sugar production. By 1972 the Institute had developed improvements in cane transportation by improving scheduling, and reducing operating costs and capital expenditure; milling research that improved extraction through improved performance and reductions in capital expenditure; clarification studies that reduced losses and lime consumption; sugar quality; effluent treatment; elongated grain and filterability penalties and air pollution by developing suitable equipment to meet the standards set.
\nThe institute's annual general meetings and technical conferences were always well attended providing opportunities for mill personnel to discuss any issues with factories and to liaise with colleagues. The meetings and conferences were held in the main building in the library/lecture hall on the ground floor, the ETS Pearce Library, until the Charles Young Conference Hall was opened. Eddie Pearce was the General Secretary of the Australian Sugar Producers' Association and was a major contributor in the establishment of the Sugar Research Institute.
\nOn 31 August 1973 the Charles Young Conference Hall and laboratories were opened by Rex A Patterson then Minister for Northern Development. The hall and laboratories is located to west of the main building and is connected via a covered walkway. The building was named in honour of Charles Young in recognition of his services as founding Chairman from January 1949 to August 1973.
\nThe 1990s were a time of economic stringency and an uncertain future. Destabilisation in world markets and changes in US sugar import quotas led to industry restructuring and streamlining in areas such as sugar industry research funding. The Sugar Research Institute, whilst reduced in staff numbers and outsourcing some contracts continued its research and development.
\nAs reported by the Environmental Protection Agency's Sustainable Industries Unit in October 2004, the Institute developed more efficient condensers for sugar mills. Researchers at the Institute had observed that some vapour condensers operated more efficiently than others, requiring less cooling water flow and subsequently less electrical power for the cooling water circuit. The Institute obtained funding through the Sustainable Energy Innovation Fund to analyse the operation of several existing vapour condensers at sugar factories, to develop an improved condenser design to increase efficiency and to monitor the performance of two new condensers built with the new design.
\nTwo prototype condensers were constructed and installed. Compared with conventional designs, the units achieved reductions in cooling water flow rates. By adopting design modifications, the Institute estimated the cooling water flow would be reduced by up to 12%, yielding a proportional reduction in energy consumption for water pumping and cooling tower fans leading to annual energy savings. Besides the two prototype condensers three other condensers at Millaquin and Tully Sugar Mills were subsequently constructed and installed for the 2004 crushing season.
\nIndividual researchers from the Sugar Research Institute have also received peer recognition, including the prestigious Sugar Industry Technologists Crystal Award presented to Dr Peter Wright in 2003. The Crystal Award is presented to individuals who have contributed notably to the technological advancement of the sugar refining industry.
\nDr Wright began his career as a sugar technologist with the Sugar Research Institute in 1957. He is the first Queenslander, and the fourth Australian to receive the Crystal Award. Sugar Industry Technologists Inc was founded in the United States in 1941 by several North American sugar refineries. It has since grown to become an international association with a combined membership of approximately 100 corporate sugar refining companies and corporate allied companies with over 500 individual members worldwide.
\nOn 1 July 2005, Sugar Research Limited, trading as Sugar Research Institute, entered into an exclusive affiliation with Queensland University of Technology, providing stakeholders with access to research and consulting facilities. By June 2006 the sale of the property was finalised with the research work of the Institute being transferred to Brisbane.
\n\n
\n
","criteria":"
The sugar industry, its processes and way of life has made an influential contribution to the pattern of Queensland society and environment.
\nMackay Sugar Research Institute is significant for its part in the development of Queensland's sugar history as a non-Government sugar industry funded and controlled research centre with the construction in 1953 of the eastern section of the main Institute Building, the Director's Residence and a Utilities Building and in 1966 the western section of the main Institute Building and later in 1973 the construction of the Charles Young Conference Hall.
\nThe research undertaken at the Sugar Research Institute continued, complemented and surpassed the earlier Sugar Experiment Station. The construction of the Sugar Research Institute provides tangible evidence of the commitment that was given by the sugar industry to sugar research and particularly, the development of the Mackay district as the geographical centre for sugar research and production in Queensland.
|The Mackay Sugar Research Institute in particular the Main Building, the central part of the workshops, Director's Residence and the circular driveway is significant as a good example of the work of the important and influential architect Karl Langer. It is an inventive and pioneering solution to the problem of architectural design in Queensland under post-World War II building restrictions. Through the decorative restraint evident in the facade detailing and composition, the efficient but spacious planning of the building including its northern orientation, the main institute building is an excellent example of Langer's pioneering the use of climatic design in Queensland.
|The Mackay Sugar Research Institute is significant for its landmark quality including the royal palms [Roystonea regia] that line the roadside perimeter of the site and for the landscape design of the Nebo Road frontage, including the lawns, drive, and low brick fence. The palms were planted in 1954 and represent the Sugar Research Institute's member mills.
\nThe institute building is significant as an example of Karl Langer's work where the decorative restraint evident in the simplicity of the facade detailing and compositional qualities creates particular visual merit. Despite the surrounding area being largely built up, the Sugar Research Institute maintains its distinctive aesthetic qualities [namely its setting, form, composition and condition] and consequently retains it landmark quality in its position along Nebo Road.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":5016,"place_ref":602659,"name":"Walkerston State Butcher's Shop (former)","alternate_name":"Walkerston State Butchers Shop (former)","street_address":"13 Dutton Street","suburb":"WALKERSTON","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2007-12-03","description":"The former Walkerston State Butcher shop is a small timber building on the north side of Dutton Street, and its street awning, supported by timber posts, projects over the footpath. The front section of the original building has exposed timber framing, whereas the rear section is clad in weatherboards. A later rear extension is clad in both fibre cement sheeting and corrugated iron.
The front facade of the shop has a central doorway, with a large timber-framed four-panel window to the right of the door. The western side of the shop also has a timber double-door entrance. A metal window hood is located above the sash window at the end of the western wing of the rear section of the shop.
The original shop has a T shape, with the head of the T to the rear. The corrugated iron gabled roof thus has wider eaves towards the front of the building than it does to the rear. The gables have been vented at each apex by wedging the weatherboarding slightly open. The skillion roofed street awning has a timber valance, and the rear extension also has a skillion roof. An open skillion carport extends further to the rear behind the enclosed addition.
Internally, the shop has an open area to the front, measuring about 4.8m square, with a mansard-profile timber ceiling. Between the top of the side walls and the ceiling, sheets of perforated material have been set between the timber framing to provide ventilation. A doorway at the rear of this space leads into a kitchen, with modern fittings, which occupies the eastern rear wing of the building. A doorway to the left leads from the kitchen into the western rear wing, now used as a small storeroom. Both wings have sash windows that have been sealed. The west wing also has a rear-facing sash window that has been sealed after the addition of the rear extension. Both wings have mansard-profile timber ceilings.
A doorway from the kitchen leads into the rear skillion addition. The rear addition appears to have had a serving window that has been sealed, facing the rear yard, to the west of the carport. The interior of the kitchen and the rear addition are clad in plasterboard sheeting, but the remainder of the interior of the shop has vertical timber boarding. To the northeast of the rear of the shop is a raised concrete slab, which may cover an old well. Further to the rear of the shop is a large fig tree, which has two ingrown steel rails on its northern side, one vertical and set in the ground, the other set at a diagonal down into the tree. Two small rectangular open-top concrete vats stand in the northwest corner of the allotment.
A recent flat-roofed carport structure connects the front of the western side of the shop to the neighbouring building, and is not historically significant.
","history":"The small timber former State Butcher's shop, built in 1922 in Walkerston, just west of Mackay, stands on the north side of Dutton Street, and is one of the last of the old shops remaining in the town.
The City of Mackay is named for John Mackay, who entered the valley of the Pioneer River in 1860 and established a pastoral run there the following year. In 1862 a settlement was begun on the south bank of the river and by 1863, Mackay had been surveyed and the first lots of land sold. It was gazetted as a port of entry and a customs house was opened. The town prospered as a port and as a commercial and administrative centre, drawing business from nearby pastoral holdings and the sugar plantations being developed along the river. The 1880s saw an expansion in population as the Queensland economy enjoyed a boom and people poured into the colony. The sugar industry was also booming and Mackay continued to develop as an important regional centre.
Walkerston started in the 1860s as a staging centre for teamsters between Mackay and Nebo, and most of the land around Walkerston was selected in the 1860s. F.H. Wilson set up a boiling-down works in 1867, and a number of buildings were present by the time Walkerston received a Post Office in 1876. In this year Walkerston had a population of 200, compared to Mackay's 2000. A brickyard was also established around this time, and a Provisional School was opened in 1874. Walkerston had two names until 1881: 'Alsatia' applied to the area east of Bold Street; and 'Walkerston' applied to the area west of Bold Street.
The development of Walkerston was aided by the Pioneer Railway, which reached Mirani in 1885. The presence of seven sugar mills nearby (Alexandra, Pleystowe, Cassada, Branscombe, Lorne, Palms, and Palmyra), built between 1868-1883, also boosted Walkerston's economy during the 1880s.
Three State butcher shops were opened in Mackay during 1922, and Walkerston received its own State butcher shop in the same year. In 1915 TJ Ryan's Labor government won office in wartime Queensland on the strength of promises to improve living standards - principally by addressing the problems of high commodity prices, price-fixing and the emergence of monopolies. The Labor party in general and Ryan and his Treasurer, EG Theodore, in particular, advocated public ownership of key economic activities, in competition with private enterprise, but at fair prices. They argued that by operating at a reduced profit margin the cost of goods and services provided by State-run enterprises would be reduced, and that the flow-on effect would be to reduce and stabilise prices for similar goods and services provided by the private sector.
In the period 1915-1925 the Queensland Government instituted or acquired a diversity of business enterprises, including a State Insurance Office, a Public Curator's Office, the Golden Casket State Lottery, sawmills and joinery works, mining and fishing ventures (including a string of State Fish Shops), a hotel, a sugar mill, cold stores, plant nurseries, cattle stations and a network of butcher's shops, the process being formalised with the passing of the State Enterprises Act of 1918. These activities were part of a broader, pragmatic Labor platform, which advocated State intervention in the private sector to protect individuals against capitalist exploitation, not as a means of involving workers in the control of production, or of raising wage levels. Labor politicians regarded State enterprise as 'State capitalism' rather than 'State socialism'.
In 1915 cattle-raising was one of the principal economic activities of the State. Believing that all Queenslanders should have access to meat at fair prices, and needing to maintain a regular supply of cheap meat to the Allied fighting forces, the Ryan government introduced a State-wide system of State-owned butcher's shops which proved to be among the more successful of the numerous State enterprises. The first State butcher's shop was opened in Roma Street, Brisbane, on 12 November 1915, and soon other shops were established in Brisbane suburbs and in regional centres such as Rockhampton, Gympie, Townsville, Charters Towers, and Mount Morgan, following the railway lines via which frozen meat was distributed to the State butcheries.
From 1915 to 1929, 90 State butcher's shops operated in Queensland for various periods, mostly in leased or purchased premises. In fairness to established butcheries, when the State intended to open a butcher's shop in a town or suburb, inspections were made of existing butcheries, to assess the possibility of State acquisition. The peak number of shops operating at any one time was 72, in 1922-23.
Only seven purpose-built butcher's shops appear to have been constructed in Queensland, each built to an individual design. The first purpose-built State butchery was included within the brick Central State Fish Market, South Brisbane (1917-18). Another purpose-built State butchery, also made of brick, was opened in Roma [602155] in September 1919 after an expenditure of just over £4,000. The Booval State Butchery, built of timber, opened in July 1920, after expenditure of £600; and the Ayr State Butchery opened in July 1921. The latter was constructed of brick and wood, with a cost of just over £2,000. The design included a shop, breaking down room, cold store, engine room, change room, store, fuel shed and a condenser house.
The remaining three purpose-built State butcheries opened in 1922. The Mackay State Butchery, built of timber and fibre-cement, opened in May 1922, with a construction cost of just over £2,600. The Mackay (South Side) State Butchery, George Street, was also built of timber and fibre cement, and opened during August 1922, with a construction cost of £327. The timber Walkerston State Butchery opened during November 1922, with a construction cost of about £536.
Cold stores and additions were erected at various butcher's shops, but no other purpose-designed shop was constructed. Initially the State butcher's shops were supplied with frozen meat from meatworks companies, but from 1921 they purchased their own stock, which they killed at their own slaughter-yards, ensuring that the State butcher's shops were supplied always with fresh meat at very competitive prices.
Despite benefits such as the provision of employment, assistance to small farmers and small business, and the provision of cheaper meat to thousands, the State Enterprises scheme as a whole proved an economic failure. Some State enterprises had been purchased at an inflated price; others were located in unsuitable areas or were badly managed; others suffered the effects of economic recession, or of the mid-1920s drought. Following the passing of the Profiteering Prevention Act of 1920, other mechanisms were in place for controlling prices. By 1926, Labor premier William McCormack had declared publicly his intention of disposing of unprofitable State Enterprises, although little action was taken at the time. Some of the State butcher shops were disposed of in the period 1926-1928, and when Labor was defeated at the 1929 election, the in-coming Country/Progressive/Nationalist coalition government disposed of most of the remaining State Enterprises, including the 39 remaining State butcher's shops, which ceased trading as of 30 June 1929.
In their 14 years of operation, the State butcher's shops sold over £5 million worth of meat and had made an overall profit to the Treasury of £185,000, but when interest and other charges were factored in, they lost about £6,000. However, this pales by comparison with the combined £2 million loss sustained by the State stations and the State-acquired Chillagoe railway, mines and smelter.
The Walkerston State Butcher shop was built on land previously owned by Annie and William Barwise (publicans at the nearby Duke of Edinburgh Hotel). Title for 19.87 perches of this land was registered to The Commissioner for Trade on 6 November 1922 (the Memorandum of Conveyance had been produced on 3 August 1922). On 12 September 1922 a letter from the Commissioner of the Queensland State Trade Office, W.H. Austin, to the Under Secretary and Director of Public Works, had requested further work on the State Butchery at Walkerston ('now nearing completion'), through the District Foreman of Works at Rockhampton. The works requested were: a paling fence on the front alignment, with post and wire fencing on other three sides; a stable building of timber with an iron roof, containing two stalls with slip rails in front, a feed room (with wooden floor and door), and open space for one cart; and a hardwood cover for the well. An ice chest was also supplied by the Department of Public Works by 4 December 1922.
Title for the land was transferred to Albert A. Cook, John H. Baker, and Kenneth W. Baker in February 1925, and was then transferred to Albert A. Cook and John H. Baker in May 1928. Although the local history 'Sugar from the Scrub' claims that the shop was not used as a butcher 's shop after 1928, its subsequent owners were butchers, and it may have continued trading as such.
During its more recent history the Walkerston shop has been used as a Pizza shop, and it currently sells Dance Supplies A skillion section clad in fibre cement sheeting has been added to the rear of the shop at some stage, resulting in the boarding over of a rear sash window. A carport is attached to the rear skillion addition, and a more recent carport structure has also been added to the west side of the shop, connecting with the neighbouring modern building.
No equipment related to butchery remains in the shop, although a large fig tree to the rear of the property, near High Street, has metal railings embedded in its branches, possibly used for butchering carcasses. There are also two small concrete vats sitting at the northwest rear corner of the property, purpose unknown.
","criteria":"The former State Butcher's Shop at Walkerston, erected in 1922, is a result of the political and economic experiment embodied by the State Enterprises Act of 1918. Between 1915 and 1925 successive Queensland Labor governments established various State enterprises, with the network of State butcher's shops being among the more successful of these experiments. The highly co-coordinated, statewide system of State butcheries provided cheaper meat to thousands of Queensland families between 1915 and 1929.
|As one of the last of the old shops in Walkerston, it makes an important contribution to the built character of the town.
|The place is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of a modest example of a purpose-designed State butcher's shop of its era. The large front window, the street awning, and ventilation at the top of the walls also reflect the design of butcher shops of the period. The large roof overhang above the front section also appears to be an attempt to reduce the temperature within the shop.
|The timber Walkerston shop was one of only seven purpose-designed State butcher's shops constructed 1917-1922 - most of the State butcher's shops operated from leased or purchased premises. The only other known surviving State butcher, at Roma, is a larger, brick building.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion E | Criterion D | Criterion B","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15442,"place_ref":600667,"name":"World War I Cenotaph and Jubilee Park","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Alfred Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"Mackay's World War I Cenotaph is situated on the southern side of Jubilee Park in the centre of the city. With its tall white marble column rising above the canopies of adjacent trees, it is the most prominent feature of the park and forms part of a formal composition of paths, lawn, mature trees, garden beds, and structures such as a band rotunda and lamp posts. Retaining much of its original form and fabric, the park continues to accommodate many of the activities and events carried out there since its establishment. As a setting for the cenotaph, and several other war memorials, the park provides a tranquil gathering space for large crowds attending memorial services there, appropriate to the solemn nature of these events.
\nOccupying the south-west corner of a large block of land known as the Mackay Civic Precinct, Jubilee Park is bounded by Wellington Street to the west and Albert Street to the south. The northern edge of the park adjoins the Sir Albert Abbott Administration Building rear car park, while the north-eastern corner is truncated by the Mackay City Library. Along the park's eastern edge is another car park for the Entertainment Convention Centre. The car park areas that fall within the heritage boundary are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
\nThe surviving elements of the park's early layout are the central band rotunda, circular paths around it and those radiating to the park's corners, the fig plantings to the west and east of the rotunda, the avenues of palms along each radial path, garden beds terminating its south-western and eastern corners, a sandstone-edged garden bed on the south-western side of the rotunda and eight lamp posts.
\nAround the central band rotunda are two concentric un-edged gravel paths. From the outer one of these three straight paths radiate to the park's corners. The fourth to the north-east has been removed with the construction of the library. Other changes to these paths include deviations at the ends of those on the north-west and south-east corners caused by the construction of car parks and new associated garden beds. Early palms line the straight paths and figs are grouped together symmetrically on the grassed areas between. Later trees are placed around the edges of the park, leaving the area around the central rotunda open. The park retains eight of its 12 original lamps posts: four surrounding the central rotunda and two each along the southern and western edges of the park.
\nAt approximately nine metres high, the WWI Cenotaph is an imposing feature both within the park and along Albert Street, flanked by two trees, the canopies of which provide shaded gathering areas adjacent to the monument. The monument faces north, towards the band rotunda, with which it is aligned. A gravel pathway connects the monument to the outer circular pathway.
\nThe base of the cenotaph consists of three steps of pinkish-red terrazzo around three sides of a rectangular concrete foundation; however, the bottom step now sits level with a recent apron slab with pebblecrete finish. Approximately 60cm wide, this slab wraps around the entire monument. Flanking the main pedestal is a low wall with ornamental square pillars at either end. Made from polished and un-polished grey granite, the wall defines the rear edge of the monument and features inset panels of polished red granite. The three outer faces of the pillars have Latin crosses, created by a slightly raised polished surface on a rough background.
\nThe pedestal is a square pillar with simplified classical detailing, made from polished and unpolished grey granite with inset panels of red granite. The base is slightly wider than the rest of the pedestal, displaying the dates 1914 - 1919 on its northern face. This lettering, etched into the granite, has been recently highlighted with white paint. A thin ledge separates the base from the middle section. Comprised of red granite panels framed by engaged square pillars of grey granite at each corner, each face of the middle section displays a rectangular marble plaque with a curved top. The plaques to the north, east and west bear the 159 leaded names. The top of these three plaques each bear a short statement: GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN - FOR LIBERTY AND RIGHT - FOR GOD, KING AND COUNTRY. [36] The plaque on the southern side, facing Albert Street, displays a bronze relief sculpture of the head of a helmeted soldier above lettering encased within a rectangular border - THIS MEMORIAL IS DEDICATED TO THE MEN OF MACKAY AND DISTRICT WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR. The corner pillars have simply moulded bases and capitals and are slightly tapered. They support an entablature comprising a large fascia of grey granite and a small cornice. The inscription REX - GLORIA - PATRIAE, also highlighted with white paint, is on the northern side of the entablature.
\nSurmounting the entablature is a tall, fluted Doric column of white marble. Constructed from at least four marble sections joined by mortar, it appears additional fixing to the pedestal is provided by bolts passing through the bottom of the base, two on each side. A dark grey vein running though the marble at an angle gives the impression of a cracked or broken column. The column supports a marble orb with intersecting double meridian lines, made from raised strips of metal.
\nJubilee Park's rotunda has an octagonal pyramid roof clad in corrugated metal sheeting, supported on eight round concrete columns with simplified classical detailing at the base and capital. It stands on a raised concrete platform and has concrete steps on the southern side, facing the cenotaph. There is no balustrade and a garden bed runs around the edges. The ceiling is ornamented with a raised geometric pattern with art deco influences. The eight lamp posts are also made of concrete, with a simplified classical plinth and an eight sided, slightly tapered post. The lanterns have been replaced with modern casings but are fixed to an early metal capital.
\nAdditional war memorials have been located within the park, occupying the edges of the south-western corner and facing in towards the rotunda. Closest to the WWI Cenotaph is a World War II memorial of black polished granite with gold lettering. The next memorial consists of two plaques; one dedicated to the members of the 2/12 Battalion of WWII and the other a National Serviceman's Memorial, attached to separate sloping grey granite blocks on a shared, granite-clad base. Backing on to Wellington Street is a Vietnam War Memorial, with a white freestanding cross, white posts marking a rectangular piece of ground, and a brick wall with name plaques attached. A playground with two metal swing sets occupies the eastern side of the park and is not of state cultural heritage significance. Other elements within the park, such as park benches, metal light poles and recent signage, are also not of cultural heritage significance.
\nA notable characteristic of the park are its mature trees, many dating from the 1930s. Avenues of royal palms (Roystonea regia) line both sides of the straight paths, with the best preserved avenue along that to the south-east. Clusters of mature fig trees stand on the eastern and western sides of the park, three on each side planted in a triangular formation. Providing large shaded areas, the spreading canopies of these trees extend over the road along the western boundary, and over the library building and the adjacent car park on the opposite side of the park. Some of these figs were planted to commemorate significant events. One, a Ficus nitida on the west side of the park, has a bronze plaque attached to a timber sign, stating that is was planted by Mrs G. Moody, Mayoress of Mackay, to commemorate the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on 12th May 1937. [37] No other plaques or signs remain.
\nKey sightlines through the park exist along the straight pathways towards the band rotunda, and from the centre of the park towards the Cenotaph.
","history":"The Cenotaph at Mackay was first unveiled on the southern bank of the Pioneer River adjacent to the Sydney Street Bridge in 1929. It was designed by Townsville architect Stephen Harvey and commemorates the 159 men from Mackay and its district killed in action during World War I (WWI). In 1945 the memorial was moved to the northern edge of Jubilee Park, which had been constructed during 1935-6 to honour the jubilee of King George V, on the southern half of a block bounded by Albert, Wellington, Gordon and Nelson Streets. Again, in 1973 when the Mackay City Council was planning its civic centre complex, the cenotaph was moved to the opposite side of the park fronting Albert Street. Here it has remained as a focus for Anzac and Remembrance Day services, other war memorials having since been erected around it.
Mackay, briefly called Alexandra, was named after John Mackay who led the European discovery and settlement of the Pioneer River and its district. The township was surveyed in June 1863, with the first allotments being offered for sale in Bowen in October. Two years after Mackay's establishment, the first sugar was planted on the Pioneer Plantation, introducing to the region its key agricultural product and industry. The settlement and the port declared there otherwise served the district's pastoral industry. The first local government body formed in the region, the Mackay Municipal Council, held its inaugural meeting on 1 December 1869. Mackay was declared a town in 1902 and then a city in 1918. [1]
The pre-Federation defence force drawn from the male citizenry of Mackay and its district formed a company of the famous Kennedy Regiment, which was the first Australian infantry unit mobilised at the outbreak of WWI (1914-1918). [2] Many of its members volunteered to join the First Australian Imperial Force and a number distinguished themselves during the conflicts at Gallipoli and in France.
From Mackay, 1,594 men volunteered to serve, with another 36 coming from the nearby Nebo district. Mackay's cenotaph lists the names of 159 who were killed during active service; eight of whom were awarded military decorations. [3]
Australia and Queensland in particular, had few civic monuments before WWI, the memorials erected in its wake becoming our first national monuments, recording the devastating impact of the war on a young nation. Whereas the few memorials commemorating the deaths associated with the Boer War (1899-1902) had been sited in cemeteries, these were erected at prominent sites in towns and cities around the country where they would serve as aides to memory. Memorials took a range of forms other than statuary, including honour boards, memorial gates and halls, and avenues of trees. Australia lost 60,000 lives from a population of about 4 million, representing one in five of those who served. No previous or subsequent war has made such an impact on it. [4]
Even before the end of the war, memorials became a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief. To those who erected them they were sacred; substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East, British policy having decreed that its Empire's war dead were to be buried where they fell. The word cenotaph, commonly applied to war memorials at the time, means 'empty tomb'. As well as being symbols of national mourning these memorials were also affirmations of nationhood, the new nation and its army having proved its value on an international stage. [5]
War memorials provide valuable evidence of a community's involvement in the war; not so readily obtainable from military records, or from state or national listings, where names are categorised alphabetically or by military unit. Australian war memorials are also valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste.
Before the construction of the Mackay cenotaph in 1929, Anzac Day in the city was commemorated by a procession of returned servicemen and the gathering of crowds around a Cross of Sacrifice, a temporary structure usually placed in a central location. Wreaths and floral tributes were laid around the cross and a simple ceremony performed, with music provided by local bands and speeches given by local dignitaries. [6] By the mid 1920s a Fallen Soldiers Memorial Committee had formed to raise funds and organise the design of a more permanent monument, comprising about 20 members, including Mr G Hoffman, a returned soldier. [7]
Several sites for this monument were considered by the committee, the preferred option being to secure a portion of the drill shed grounds for a memorial park and erect it there. [8] Bounded by Gordon, Nelson, Alfred and Wellington streets, the area occupied by the drill shed and its grounds had always been intended as public open space, labelled a 'square' in the first survey of the new township of Alexandra (later Mackay) by Surveyor Thomas Henry Fitzgerald in 1863. In 1881 the land was gazetted as a temporary drill shed ground reserve and had passed to the Commonwealth Government around the time of Federation for use by its Defence Department. [9] Since the early 1920s the City Council had made several attempts to regain control of the land, bringing the matter before Prime Minister Bruce during his visits to Mackay in 1924 and 1927. [10] But the conditions imposed by the Defence Department for releasing it, involving land swaps and improvements to the site, proved to be beyond the means of the council. Thus the memorial committee relinquished the drill shed site and an alternative one was chosen on a small reserve on the southern bank of the Pioneer River, opposite the Customs House and next to the Sydney Street Bridge.
In April 1928 it was announced that the design of Mr A Harriss, a young architect working in Mackay, had been chosen for the monument. It was described in the Mackay Daily Mercury as 'a vertical design with four steps supporting a beautiful column of polished granite 30 ft (9.144 m) high.' [11] Tenders were advertised in various newspapers, including The Brisbane Courier; however after tenders closed on 23 May the committee decided not to proceed with Harriss' design. In July, it was reported that a Townsville architect, Mr Stephen Harvey, had visited Mackay and submitted a design for the monument, which was accepted. His design, of matching height to the earlier one, took the form of a column of white marble on a granite base. [12] During a subsequent visit Mr Harvey measured levels at the River Street site before returning to Townsville to finalise details in preparation for calling tenders. [13] These were advertised in late July. [14]
Stephen Harvey was born in Sussex, England in c1878 and immigrated to Australia with his family in 1912-13. [15] A joiner by trade, he had completed drawing and construction courses, and became an instructor in drawing for the Sussex County Council. [16] After working for an architect Harvey began practicing in the early 1900s. [17] Upon arrival in Australia, he worked in Toowoomba for two years before moving to Townsville, where he remained until his death in 1933. During his career in Townsville, Harvey was a well-known local architect who worked on a variety of civic and commercial projects. The Townsville Masonic Temple is one remaining example of his work (completed after his death). In 1918 he designed a large timber Roll of Honour board for the Townsville Town Hall, listing the names of all those who had served from the district (no longer surviving, name plaques alone re-installed in the new Town Hall). [18]
The tender for constructing the Mackay fallen soldiers' memorial was won by the well-known monumental masonry firm Melrose and Fenwick. Established in Townsville in the mid 1890s, Melrose and Fenwick grew to become the leading monumental masonry firm in northern Queensland, with branches in major centres such as Cairns and Charters Towers. The firm enjoyed continued success into the late 20th century and produced many war memorials including the: Finch Hatton War Memorial (erected 1921, QHR 600723), Townsville War Memorial clock tower (completed 1924, part of QHR 600934), and Cairns War Memorial (completed 1926, QHR 600378).
Mackay's Anzac Day celebrations in 1928 were held at the site of the proposed memorial with crowds filling the surrounding streets and balconies, and lining the Sydney Street Bridge. By November construction was well underway, with Melrose and Fenwick engaged on the stone inscriptions. However, due to shipping delays in Sydney, the foundation stone did not arrive in time for Remembrance Day. [19] A ceremony for its laying was held a week later, a large gathering in attendance. Mr G Hoffman, secretary of the Returned Soldiers League, addressed the crowd, paying tribute to the contributions of the Fallen Soldiers Memorial Committee members such as the Mayor, Alderman George Albert Milton, and Mr F Moore, its secretary. The Reverend AD Thorpe blessed the stone prior to its being laid by the Mayor. [20]
The completed monument was unveiled on 24 April 1929, the day before Anzac Day. Its cost was approximately £2,000, of which £1,750 had already been subscribed. As reported in the Mackay Daily Mercury, during the unveiling ceremony the gratitude of the committee was expressed towards the architect, Mr Harvey, who, after supervising the erection of the monument, had forgone his fee. The symbolic meaning of the various parts of the monument was explained as follows:
The column was approached by three steps, which were always indicative of the approach to a shrine. Then came a solid base foundation surmounted by the plaque bearing the names of the heroic dead. Above that was the strong Doric column on top of which was the round symbol of empire, held in strong bands. Thus the sacrifice of the dead heroes was supported by a strong foundation of Christian faith, with the column of strength and right holding up the empire, which was banded together in bonds of unity. [21]
In addition to these remarks about the cenotaph's symbolic elements, the three steps may correspond to those found on a Calvary cross used to mark Christian graves, which symbolise faith, hope and love (or charity). The granite pedestal was formed like a mausoleum, in this instance empty to recall the men buried where they fell. The pedestal and its flanking wall were decorated with Latin crosses, which are empty to remind observers of the resurrection of Jesus and the hope of eternal life.
The Mackay cenotaph [22] is a good example of a large civic memorial, designed by an architect and crafted by a prominent firm of monumental masons. This type of monument-a pedestal and classical column surmounted by a sphere or orb-is one of a wide variety of symbolic forms employed after WWI throughout Queensland. Many symbols used were already familiar in grave monuments and included urns recalling the ancient Greek practice of placing cremated remains in funerary vessels, and broken columns representing lives cut short. [23] One of the earliest WWI monuments in Australia took the form of a column and surmounting globe; that erected at Manly in Sydney and unveiled in 1916. [24] Other examples of this type in Queensland include the Cardwell War Memorial (1922, masons Melrose and Fenwick) made from sandstone with a cross on top of the orb (symbolising Christian dominion over the world); Graceville War Memorial (1920, QHR 602443) made from polished grey granite with a map of Australia and the word 'ANZAC' etched on the polished granite ball; the Mitchell War Memorial (1927, QHR 600038) with a polished red granite sphere supported by a simple granite column; and the Mothers' Memorial, Toowoomba (1922) made from polished and unpolished trachyte with a wreath around the surmounting globe. [25] In other memorials the surmounting globe symbolised the broader concept of humanity.
The Mackay WWI memorial has some unique features, such as a bronze relief sculpture of the side profile of a helmeted head (symbolism unknown, possibly that of the Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare, Athena), not known on any other monument in Queensland. Also unusual is the low wall flanking the monument, a feature appropriate to its original location on the river bank, which clearly delineates a front to the cenotaph.
Efforts by the council to secure part of the drill shed grounds for a public park continued into the 1930s. The City of Mackay Town Planning Scheme of 1934, Queensland's first town planning scheme that went on to serve as a model for other of the state's cities [26], recognised the need for the local authority to provide ample recreational areas for the city's growing population. An analysis of its existing parks at the time found them to be inadequate. The drill shed ground was identified in the Town Planning Scheme as an ideal site for a neighbourhood playground, due to its central position in a densely occupied residential area. [27]
These efforts came to fruition with the construction of Jubilee Park during 1935-36, one of several projects carried out in Mackay by depression relief labour. [28] It was built on the southern half of the block opposite the drill shed and was named to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of the reign of King George V. Jubilee celebrations were held in the park on the 24 May 1935, when it was officially named by the Mayor, Mr G Moody, and a Jubilee tree was planted by his wife (this tree, a type of kauri pine, no longer exists). [29] The band rotunda was officially opened later in the year on 22 December, again by Mayor Moody, who congratulated the city engineer and workmen for the design, solidity and finish of the structure. [30]
Jubilee Park was laid out in a symmetrical pattern of two concentric paths surrounding the central band rotunda, from which four straight paths radiated out to each corner, along which were planted avenues of palms. Garden beds were sited at each park corner, where the straight paths ended and within the path rings. One bed retains its original sandstone edging; that on the western side of the rotunda. Over time, other memorial plantings were added, such as a large fig tree planted on the Wellington Street side of the park, one of four planted in the city to commemorate the coronation of King George VI in 1937. [31] Coronation Day celebrations on 13 May, which saw over 1000 people gathered in the park to listen to a radio broadcast into the late hours of the night, was one of many large public events held at the park. [32]
By 1945 the site of the cenotaph was being threatened by subsidence of the river bank and it was decided to move it to the drill shed grounds on the northern edge of Jubilee Park on axis with the band rotunda. When re-erecting the monument, the workers filled the base section with concrete. Anzac Day commemorations in 1946 were held at the new site and The Daily Mercury praised the wisdom of the new location and its appropriateness as the setting for the cenotaph. [33]
The park and drill shed existed alongside each other for several decades. In 1965, the Mackay City Council finally became trustees of the land, it being declared in the Government Gazette on 23 October as a Reserve for Local Government (Park and Civic Centre) Purposes.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, preparations were being made to establish a civic centre complex on the land to the north of the park. A larger area was required than was available there, and it was decided that a school reserve on the adjoining block should be utilised and the section of Nelson Street separating them closed off. [34] The council proceeded with this plan, also acquiring most of the freehold properties on the adjacent block. By 1973, construction of the first stage of the civic centre project, an Administration Building, was underway. In order to make way for this building, the WWI memorial had to be relocated for a second time and was moved to the opposite end of Jubilee Park close to Alfred Street, again on axis with the band rotunda. This time, moving the base of the monument proved very difficult because of its concrete fill added during the 1945 relocation, which had attached it too firmly to the solid foundation. The column was lifted off, but despite a concerted effort with the city's largest crane, wedges and jacks, the base could not be moved. To avoid damaging the monument, a series of holes had to be drilled through the concrete base to weaken its hold on the foundations. [35]
The Mackay Civic Precinct complex was completed in 1988 comprising the Sir Albert Abbott Administration Building, a library, civic centre and senior citizens building, arranged around a central fountain forming a southerly endpoint to Nelson Street. The library had been sited over the north-eastern corner of Jubilee Park, incurring the loss of some plantings and pathways. More recently an Entertainment Convention Centre has been erected to the east of the park and cenotaph.
Mackay's World War I Cenotaph continues to be the main location for Anzac and Remembrance Day ceremonies in the city, attracting large crowds and conducted in a similar way to those of the 1930s. Jubilee Park has also become home to several other war memorials-the Mackay World War II Memorial, 2/12th Battalion Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, and National Servicemen's Memorial-further enhancing the appropriateness of the setting it provides for events commemorating the sacrifices made during war by the district's servicemen and women.
","criteria":"Funded through public subscription, unveiled in 1929 on the southern bank of the Pioneer River and relocated to Jubilee Park in 1945, the World War I Cenotaph in Mackay, is important in demonstrating the profound impact made on Queensland communities by the great loss of life incurred by Australia's involvement in this war and the ensuing efforts to memorialise those sacrifices. As well as expressing the grief and gratitude of the district for its fallen servicemen, this monument also illustrates the tenor of the new nation's emerging identity.
|The Cenotaph at Mackay is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a monument erected to commemorate World War I and its impact on the new nation of Australia. These characteristics include its composition of symbolic elements-such as the three steps to its base, the mausoleum form of its pedestal, white marble Doric column and surmounting globe-the names of fallen soldiers recorded on the plinth, and its location in a public place. The form and fabric of Jubilee Park serve as an appropriate setting for events focused on the cenotaph and the other war memorials erected nearby.
|The World War I Cenotaph in Jubilee Park at Mackay is aesthetically significant for the accomplished composition of its design elements: the approach to a mausoleum-like pedestal representing the great loss of life incurred during this conflict and the wide-ranging grief expressed in response to the bodies of the fallen not being returned for local burial, its Latin crosses and three-stepped base recalling Christianity, its Doric column evoking the architecture of classical antiquity, and the surmounting globe of white marble symbolising allegiance to the British Empire and pride in the sacrifices made on its behalf by a new nation.
The aesthetic response evoked by this cenotaph is amplified by the high standard of design and workmanship it displays and the multiple viewpoints from which it can be appreciated both from within the park, as an appropriate setting for commemorative events or quiet contemplation, and from Alfred Street.
|The World War I Cenotaph at Mackay has a strong and enduring connection with the district's community as a symbol of the sacrifices made by its volunteer servicemen during this global conflict. This association has been further enhanced by the installation of later war memorials nearby-the Mackay World War II Memorial, 2/12th Battalion Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, and National Servicemen's Memorial. The cenotaph and these memorials, as well as the formal setting provided by Jubilee Park and its arrangement of original structures, tree-lined paths, lawn and garden beds, are a focus for events held to commemorate these significant contributions.
","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":15443,"place_ref":600668,"name":"St Pauls Uniting Church","alternate_name":"St Pauls Presbyterian Church; St Paul's Uniting Church; Paul's Presbyterian Church; St Pauls Uniting Church","street_address":"21 MacAlister Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-08-21","description":"This single storey timber framed building is set on low timber and concrete stumps and clad in chamferboards. It has steeply pitched gable roofs sheeted with galvanised corrugated iron. The church is located in an established streetscape of mature trees, between two similarly scaled buildings, the Sunday School hall (1919) and the Youth Centre (1958).
A traditional latin cross plan, the church consists of a wide nave, two short transept wings, a chancel that contains the choir loft, a projecting organ bay and private rooms. The western end of the nave faces the street and is the main point of entry.
The front facade consists of a high gable wall with a lower attached skillion roof and wall that joins two gabled entry vestibules. The twin vestibules are positioned on the north west and south west corners of the nave. Each has a set of arched timber entry doors approached by a short flight of timber stairs. The building is symmetrical except for an elaborately detailed timber belfry located over the north west entry vestibule. This picturesque element has a steep hip roof with a broken pitch. Two additional gable roofed entry porches are located on the eastern side of the transepts.
The confined space of the entry vestibules opens onto a spacious nave with a high vaulted ceiling and finely detailed exposed beams and trusses. At the end of the nave a chancel arch frames the organ and choir loft. A dais with low timber balustrades is located in front of the choir screen under the crossing. The pulpit and baptismal font are positioned on this dais.
The transepts are visually separated from the crossing by structural timber columns and decorative timber arches that span between the columns. Tall slender arched windows with panels of coloured glass are arranged in pairs or groups of three. There are three stained glass windows of more recent design in the front facade. Externally the windows have timber hood moulds following the line of the arches.
The church has most of its original fittings and is very intact. Minor additions are in keeping with the character of the building.
","history":"The church is a large single-storeyed timber building which was opened as St Paul's Presbyterian church in 1898.
The Presbyterian congregation in Mackay was established in 1872. The first church was erected in 1875 and the manse was built three years later. Following the appointment of Reverend James Gibson in 1895 the congregation flourished and plans for a new church were begun. The design by Brisbane architect Walter Voller was accepted and construction began in 1897. Gibson, who claimed to have hammered in many of the nails himself, was prominent in the church in Queensland, three times Moderator, he was also a founder of Emmanuel College and Theological Hall. He later became Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church in Australia.
In 1918 Mackay was hit by the worst cyclone in its history which destroyed whole blocks of the city centre and much of the housing stock. The Anglican and Methodist churches, and the earlier Presbyterian church then used as a hall, were also destroyed. The new church suffered some damage. While undertaking repairs the choir loft and Elders' Court were added. A pipe organ was installed in 1953.
","criteria":"St Paul's Uniting Church demonstrates uncommon aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage as it is a rare example of an intact 19th century timber church in North Queensland. St Paul's Uniting Church is one of the few public buildings in Mackay which withstood the 1918 cyclone.
|St Paul's Uniting Church demonstrates the principal characteristics of a provincial 19th century timber church.
|St Paul's Uniting Church accomplished design in terms of massing and composition, and its picturesque classical and gothic detailing exhibit aesthetic characteristics which are valued by the community.
|St Paul's Uniting Church has been strongly associated with the Presbyterian community and later the Uniting Church parish of Mackay.
|St Paul's Uniting Church has a special association with James Gibson, who initiated the project.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"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":15444,"place_ref":600669,"name":"Mackay Customs House","alternate_name":"Customs House Mackay","street_address":"31 River Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-07","description":"The Mackay Customs House is a single storey brick building located at the corner of Sydney and River Streets, Mackay on the southern bank of the Pioneer River. It sits diagonally across the property, addressing the street corner and facing north-east towards the river mouth and the remaining buildings of the river port. Sydney Street continues north from this intersection as the Forgan Bridge across the river to North Mackay.
At the centre of the symmetrical plan of this building is the Customs Office or Long Room. To the front is the semi-circular Public Area with encircling colonnade, and to each side are offices, separated from the Long Room by a corridor. At the rear is an enclosed verandah, from which open several utility rooms including toilets and the strong room.
The elevations are also formal in composition, and predominantly symmetrical. The corrugated steel roof is highly modelled, with decorative timber gablets and rafter ends. The external walls are tuck-pointed red brick to the mid-height of the double-hung windows which have decorative metal security grills placed in place, with 'roughcast' stucco panels with brick quoining above.
Raised several steps above the ground, the curved entrance colonnade has columns of Doric order supporting a moulded entablature. At its centre is a raised parapet with the Royal coat of arms in relief at its centre. From this colonnade, there is access to the Public Area through two pairs of French doors with leadlight glass panels, and access to the staff areas through timber panelled doors. The owners have undertaken some minor works including the removal of metal grill gates at the top of the steps to the colonnade entrance, and replaced these with slat grey, steel framed doors with full glazing panels.
Dividing the Public Area from the Long Room is a moulded archway and a panelled cedar counter. The Long Room is a double-height symmetrical space with semi-circular clerestory windows to each side, decorative pressed metal ceiling, and plaster mouldings to the opening surrounds. The interior of the building has plaster walls and varnished cedar joinery including doors, architraves and skirtings. Apart from the Long Room and the Public Area, the ceilings are tongue-and-groove timber boarding.
To the south-east corner of the site is the former Bond Store. It is a rectangular single-storey building, which addresses Sydney Street with a gabled parapet and awning over the footpath. The external walls are rendered masonry, and feature stucco panels to the upper sections reflecting the detail of the Customs House. To the rear of the site is a garage building, with a central bay of brick and lean-to additions enclosed in steel mesh to either side.
To both street frontages is a timber picket and rail fence with brick corner posts. The garden has palm trees, lawns and concrete paths, with a bitumen car parking area at the rear of the site
","history":"The Mackay Customs House was completed in April 1902. The design of the building is attributed to JS Murdoch, District Architect with the Queensland Works Department, and it was constructed by MS Caskie for the tender price of £3797/18/0.
\nIn search of new pastoral land, John Mackay and his party entered and named the valley of the Mackay River in 1860, and the following year he returned to establish a cattle station. In 1862, the ketch 'Presto' entered the Mackay River landing stores and building materials, then surveyed the river mouth, which consequently was gazetted as a Port of Entry. The first settlers arrived in October 1862, establishing the settlement of Port Mackay on the south bank of the river. In January 1863, John Tanner Baker was appointed Sub Collector of Customs for the new port (Baker also acted as Harbour Master and Magistrate). He arrived in February setting up in a tent, but soon established the Customs Office in a corner of the large store of Byrnes, Basset and Co. located on the riverbank. By the end of 1863, the name of the river had been changed to the Pioneer, the first survey of the town of Mackay had been made, and the first land sale of town lots had been held.
\nIt was soon obvious better premises were needed for the Queensland Customs Service in Mackay, and in 1864, £1000 was allocated for a new building. By May 1865 the Colonial Architect reported that the new timber Mackay Customs House had been completed. It was located on the corner of a large 'Reserve for Government Buildings', overlooking the river.
\nThe town of Mackay soon began to prosper through the growth of the port, the nearby pastoral holdings, and the plantations along the river which included the beginnings of the local sugar industry. River Street developed as a busy waterfront precinct with wharves (the Government wharf opened in 1868), warehouses, offices, ships' chandleries, boat builders, hotels and boarding houses, and the Customs complex which by 1870 included the Customs House, the bond store and the Sub Collectors residence.
\nBy 1895, agitation had begun for a new Customs House befitting Mackay's prosperity and importance. Lacking funds, the Government constructed a timber extension to the existing building. The community protested, pointing out that these extensions contravened legislation and should have been of non-combustible materials. The agitation for a new Customs House continued, and in 1900 drawings for a new brick building were prepared and tenders called.
\nFollowing the federation of the Australian colonies as the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901, the new federal government assumed responsibility for the fixing and collection of customs duties on goods entering Australia. Customs duties imposed on inter-colonial trade were abolished. The operation of existing coastal customs houses and the establishment of new ones became a Commonwealth function. Under the new arrangements, the Commonwealth assumed control of Queensland's existing customs houses.
\nThe design of the Mackay Customs House is attributed to JS Murdoch, District Architect Northern Division for the Queensland Works Department. At this time, AB Brady was Government Architect and Acting Under Secretary of the Works Department (as shown on the tender notice), and Thomas Pye was District Architect Southern Division, and they both may have had input into the design. Under this team, the Government Architect's Office produced many of Queensland's finest public buildings, including a number for the new Commonwealth.
\nJS Murdoch was also responsible for the Customs Houses of Maryborough, Bundaberg and Townsville, which exhibit some similarities in style to that of Mackay. He later joined the Commonwealth Government where he was involved in the planning of Canberra and the design of the provisional Parliament House and the Canberra Hotel, and rose to the positions of Chief Architect and Commonwealth Director-General of Works.
\nThe Mackay Customs House was completed in April 1902. It was reported as featuring locally made bricks, cement and plaster finishing, rolled galvanised iron roof, wood and zinc ceilings, and joinery and fittings of cedar. The original timber Customs House was moved sideways to become the front portion of the adjacent Second Officer's Quarters.
\nThe original Reserve for Government Buildings was divided into the Customs House Reserve and the Post and Telegraph Reserve. In 1905, the Commonwealth subdivided the Customs Reserve further, returning the portion which included the Quarters to the State. Also in 1905, palm trees were planted to the north and the east of the Customs House.
\nIn 1921, the Commonwealth Bank leased the Customs House for 10 years, moving the Customs Service back into the adjacent timber building. The Customs House has since been altered several times for multiple occupancy, housing various other government departments. The brick Bond Store, on the south-east corner of the site addressing Sydney Street, was constructed about 1935.
\nFollowing the devastating cyclone of 1918, Mackay enjoyed a period of substantial growth through the 1920s and 1930s. Local member and Premier of Queensland William Forgan Smith promoted Mackay's development, strongly supporting the Mackay Harbour Project and the Sydney Street bridge replacement. The first Sydney Street bridge, completed in 1887, was the second bridge across the river at Mackay, but for some time lead to nowhere. Located adjacent to the Customs House, it marked the 'head of navigation' of the Pioneer River. The new bridge was completed in 1938, increasing traffic along Sydney Street to North Mackay.
\nThe inadequacy of the river port had been recognised by 1914. In 1939, the new Mackay Outer Harbour was opened, and the services of the river port gradually transferred to the new harbour. Apart from the Customs House and the Bond Store, only a few of the buildings of the former river port still survive.
\nIn 1969-70, extensions were made to the rear of the Customs House. In the late 1980s, conservation and restoration works were undertaken, reversing some of the alterations which had been made to the interior of the building.
\nThe Customs House was sold in 2004 and subsequently housed offices for a financial planning firm. An ownership change occurred in 2020 and in 2024 the former Customs House houses a dental practice.
","criteria":"Completed in 1902, the Mackay Customs House is located on the site of Mackay's first Customs House constructed in 1865. Community agitation resulted in the earlier timber building being replaced by a new brick structure befitting Mackay's prosperity at that time. Originally part of a Government Reserve surveyed soon after the settlement of Mackay, the site has been associated with the Customs Service for over 130 years.
Located on the southern bank of the Pioneer River, the Mackay Customs House faces north-east towards the river mouth, and the precinct of the former river port of which it is one of few surviving structures. The Customs House also addresses the approach to the Forgan Bridge, which marked the head of navigation of the river.
|The Customs House was constructed in the first years of the new Commonwealth for Commonwealth use. It uses the architectural language of a domestic style of the period, sometimes termed 'Federation', which was part of a broader movement searching for a cultural identity for the new nation.
As the office of the Australian Customs Service in Mackay for a century, it displays the coat of arms in relief on the front parapet, and its central and grandest space is the Long Room, which is a symbolic and traditional element of a Customs House. The Bond Store which is an important part of a functioning customs house remains on the site adjacent to the Customs House.
The exterior and interior of the building are substantially as they were when constructed. Exterior features include the curved entrance colonnade, 'roughcast' stucco panels, gable treatments and tuck pointed brickwork. The interior has decorative metal and boarded ceilings, moulded plaster wall decoration and panels, leadlight door panels, cedar joinery, and clerestory windows to the Long Room.
|The design of the building is attributed to JS Murdoch, District Architect with the Queensland Works Department, during a period when many great public buildings in Queensland were designed by that office under AB Brady and Thomas Pye. It shows a high degree of technical competence, successfully combining picturesque qualities and domestic scale with the traditional formality of government buildings. Along with several contemporary Customs Houses, it is one of the few Queensland public buildings of that style. Murdoch later had a successful architectural career with the Commonwealth government, playing a substantial role in the development of early Canberra.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15446,"place_ref":600671,"name":"Commonwealth Bank of Australia","alternate_name":"Australian Joint Stock Bank | Australian Bank of Commerce Limited | Commonwealth Bank Mackay","street_address":"63 Victoria Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The bank building, in keeping with other North Queensland bank buildings of the period, is a two-storey building with a former residence on the upper floor. An extension has been attached on the east. The ground floor windows are modified within their surrounds with modern glazing and frames. The night safe is located in the front, on the left hand side.
\nThe front consists of a seven bay colonnade, of which the central bay is slightly narrower, but contains the entry and features a projecting one-storey portal, the entablature of which is free standing. The columns are round and stand on pedestals joined with a low wall. The entablature above the columns is enriched with classical triglyphs. The two central columns are positioned forward of the others as corner posts of the portal, the back of which is formed by square pillars topped by an arch.
\nThe upper storey has more slender cast iron columns above the masonry lower ones, holding up the veranda roof of corrugated iron. The balustrade is formed with cast iron lace with a pattern based on overlapping circles. The main roof is hipped, it's ridge at right angles to the street. Arched windows connect the veranda with the upper floor, containing paired glazed doors; the top pane of each is arched also. The roof is clad in corrugated iron and has a decoratively moulded chimney rises on the left side.
\nThe stucco on both levels is ruled to resemble ashlar masonry. The lower veranda is ceiled with boards. The upper floor is also lined with boards. These differ being run on the rake, are narrow and contain a rib mould at each joint.
\nThe former bank chamber has a central main door as well as two further doors, which may be former windows with sills removed.
","history":"The Commonwealth Bank building was constructed in 1880 for the Australian Joint Stock Bank and is the oldest commercial building in Mackay.
\nThe Australian Joint Stock Bank was established with the discovery of gold in southern states in 1852 and opened branches on Queensland goldfields as they were discovered. It opened a branch on the Broughton goldfield on 23 April 1872 and then established branches in other centres. The Mackay branch was opened in this building in 1881.
\nThe town of Mackay is named for John Mackay who entered the valley of the Pioneer River in 1860 and established a pastoral run there in the following year. In 1862 a settlement was begun on the south bank of the river and by 1863, the township had been surveyed and the first lots of land sold. It was gazetted as a port of entry and a customs house was opened. The town prospered as a port and as a commercial and administrative centre, drawing business from nearby pastoral holdings and the sugar plantations being developed along the river. The 1880s saw an expansion in population as the Queensland economy enjoyed a boom and people poured into the colony. The sugar industry was also booming and Mackay continued to develop as an important regional centre.
\nThe new Australian Joint Stock Bank was one of a number designed by Colonial Architect F D G Stanley, although the construction was supervised by Brisbane architect Arthur Josling. Stanley undertook a variety of private commissions during his term with the Queensland Public Works Department and knew Josling from his employment by the Department as a temporary draughtsman between November 1878 and June 1879. Brisbane builders Southall and Tracey carried out the work. Construction began in January 1880 and the bank opened on 5 February 1881.
\nAlthough suffering a devastating cyclone in 1918, Mackay enjoyed a period of substantial growth through the 1920s and 1930s, when it was the fastest growing town in Queensland. This was largely because its connection to the railway system in 1924 improved access to markets and reduced transport costs, thus boosting not only the sugar industry but also the developing dairy and tourist industries.
\nThe Australian Joint Stock Bank Limited had become the Australian Bank of Commerce in 1910 and traded under that name until 1931when it was acquired by the Bank of New South Wales. In 1934 the Commonwealth Savings Bank moved into the building.
\nThe Queensland Government Savings Bank established an agency in the Mackay Post Office on 3 January 1865. The Bank had been established in 1861 and was intended to encourage small deposit saving by working people. In 1864, the Savings Bank Bill provided a government guarantee to protect trustees and deposits and to allow depositors to easily transfer accounts. The Savings Bank merged with the Commonwealth Savings Bank in January 1921. The Mackay branch then leased the Customs House until they moved to the former Australian Bank of Commerce building.
\nThe interior has been considerably changed by a series of refits and renovations carried out over the years. In 2024, the building is no longer in use as a bank and is vacant.
","criteria":"Mackay, as an important sugar centre, made a major contribution to the economy of Queensland and to the development of the North in the late 19th century. The Commonwealth Bank, by the quality of its design and construction, demonstrates the importance of this regional branch and the prosperity of the city at that time. It is now the oldest commercial building in Mackay.
|The Commonwealth Bank building is a good example of its type and demonstrates the principal characteristics of a regional bank of its era, from the reassuring conservatism of the classically influenced design, to the layout, which provided a residence for the bank's manager on the upper floor.
|It was designed by one of Queensland's most influential architects and has aesthetic value as a prominent and finely detailed building that makes an important contribution to the townscape of Mackay
|The Commonwealth Bank, originally built for the Australian Joint Stock Bank, is important as a major commercial building by F.D.G. Stanley, who made a significant contribution to the development of the built environment in Queensland, both as the Colonial Architect and in private practice. It is also associated with the development of the Australian Joint Stock Bank, at one time the largest bank in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | 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 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":15447,"place_ref":600672,"name":"Queensland National Bank and bank residence (former)","alternate_name":"Metway Building | Hogs Breath Café","street_address":"79 Victoria Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Former QN Bank (Metway Building)
The bank on the corner of Victoria and Woods Streets is of dark face brick with rendered elements and is highly decorated. Though having only two storeys, it is a tall building, with the ground floor raised above pavement level, a lofty ground floor and an upper floor with a deep parapet above it.
The building faces the intersection with two closely matched elevations and a curved corner entrance. Four giant order columns with Corinthian capitals dominate the front; the central two are freestanding and frame the entry; the others are engaged to brick pillars. The main entrance is framed by small columns and has a curved entablature over the lintel. A leadlight window sits over the door, which is now a modern one of glazed aluminium.
On each side of the corner section, a colonnade runs along the street elevation with a narrow arcade behind this, with a matching verandah on the first floor level. Pilasters 2 storeys high with Corinthian capitals, having round arches between at each level, form the colonnade. The ground floor has large arched windows to match, containing leadlight panes in their central part. The windows to the upper storey are rectangular. The verandah is railed with a balustrade of urn shaped masonry elements. This was repeated on the ground floor, but has been partially removed for access. Above an entablature decorated with the completed Roman detailing, the parapet contains matching balustrading. The veranda ceiling is decorative, pressed metal/
The banking chamber has moulded beams running between substantial piers, and pressed metal ceilings.
Bank Residence (Hogs Breath Café)
The former bank residence is a two-storey building of rendered masonry with a relatively small rectangular plan area. It abuts the rear wall of the bank and is set back a few metres from the street and elevated. The windows are simple rectangles and the hipped roof is clad with corrugated iron and has shallow eaves lined with battens. The rafters are sawn to the profile: the sheets span self-supported out to the edge.
A balcony the full length of the first floor faces Woods Street. This is supported on cantilevered double joists and has turned posts. Moulded boards form a spandrel under the floor line and frieze at the eaves.
The space between the building and the boundary wall at both the front and sides has been filled with the corrugated iron roof of the new café extension.
","history":"The bank and manager's residence were constructed in 1923 for the Queensland National Bank.
The Queensland National Bank was the first and most successful of Queensland's three indigenous 19th century banks. It was established in March 1872 by a group of prominent Queensland squatters, politicians, lawyers, and businessmen who wished to secure development capital free from overseas or inter-colonial control. Its first office was established in Brisbane in that year and the bank attracted widespread Queensland patronage. In 1879 it secured the whole of the government's banking business. By 1880 it held 40% of deposits in the colony and dominated the Queensland economy. The Queensland National Banking Company established a branch in Mackay in 1881 in rented premises.
The town of Mackay is named for John Mackay who entered the valley of the Pioneer River in 1860 and established a pastoral run there in the following year. In 1862 a settlement was begun on the south bank of the river and by 1863, the township had been surveyed and the first lots of land sold. It was gazetted as a port of entry and a customs house was opened. The town prospered as a port and as a commercial and administrative centre, drawing business from nearby pastoral holdings and the sugar plantations being developed along the river.
Although suffering a devastating cyclone in 1918, Mackay enjoyed a period of substantial growth through the 1920s and 1930s. It was the fastest growing town in Queensland, its population doubling between 1920 and 1940. This was largely because its connection to the railway system in 1924 improved access to markets and reduced transport costs, thus boosting not only the sugar industry, but also the developing dairy and tourist industries. Local Member and Premier of Queensland, William Forgan Smith, supported the growth of the region and important improvements were made to the infrastructure of the town and harbour. The construction of the new Queensland National Bank premises thus came at a time when Mackay was growing in economic importance in North Queensland.
The building was designed by FH Faircloth and constructed by local builder, W Guthrie, at a cost of £15, 300. Frederic Herbert (Herb) Faircloth was born in Maryborough in 1870 and was a pupil of German-trained Bundaberg architect Anton Hettrich. Faircloth set up his own practice in Bundaberg in 1893 and was very successful, eventually being responsible for the design of almost every major building in Bundaberg. He also made a major contribution to the appearance and character of Childers after a fire devastated the main street in 1902.
In 1948 the National Bank of Australasia absorbed the Queensland National Bank, then in 1983 merged with the Commercial Bank of Australia to form the National Australia Bank. In 1986 the three branches of the National Australia Bank in Mackay were consolidated and this building was sold. It deteriorated as several proposals for re-use fell through, then was renovated and adapted in 1992 as commercial premises containing the Metway Bank, offices and the Hog's Breath café.
A single storey section has been added to the front and side of the bank residence as part of the conversion to a café. There are internal connections between the buildings.
","criteria":"The former Queensland National Bank building and residence is important in illustrating the development of Queensland because it was purpose built as premises for a bank formed to serve Queensland interests and needs when the state was a self-governing colony. The quality of its design and construction also demonstrate the importance of this regional branch at a time when Mackay was the fastest growing town in Queensland.
|It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a regional bank of its era, from the reassuring conservatism of its classically influenced design to the provision of a residence for the bank manager.
|It has aesthetic value as a prominent and finely detailed building that makes an important contribution to the townscape of Mackay.
|It has a special association with the life and work of important regional architect F H Faircloth. It is also associated with the development of the Queensland National Bank, the earliest of Queensland's indigenous banks.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | 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 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":15448,"place_ref":600673,"name":"Mackay Court House and Police Station","alternate_name":"Mackay Court House","street_address":"Victoria Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Court House and police complex is situated in the central business district of Mackay on the corner of Victoria and Brisbane Streets. The following buildings are on site:
The Police Station (Former Court House) is a classical revival building of rendered brick scribed to resemble stonework and is set well back from the street. The majority of the building rises to 2 storeys and the roof is clad with corrugated fibrous cement sheeting. The street entrance features an arcaded Tuscan order portico with 3 bays separated by square pilasters rising through 2 stories to the triangular pediment, which has a circular louvred vent in its centre. Three square windows are located in the spandrel over the arches, each with a moulded frame all around. This entrance is flanked by single storey wings which continue the arcaded effect with arched windows, now filled with glass louvres. The windows in the upper storey and the side windows and porches on the lower storeys are shaded by sun hoods on cast iron brackets. Windows were double hung and timber framed: some of these have been replaced.
There is a tall brick chimney set back from each side of the entrance serving the corner fireplaces in the former female witnesses room and barristers room. A third chimney rises at the rear. Internally, the courtroom space is now occupied by offices although the ground floor plan is actually little changed.
The Court House is a two storey Georgian Revival building constructed of face brick with rendered detail. It has two hipped roof bays flanking a parapeted Tuscan giant order colonnade, with paired cement rendered concrete columns and a wrought iron balustrade. The rear elevation also has a two storey verandah supported on Tuscan order columns with iron balustrading between. The high hipped main roof is clad in fibrous cement tiles and is topped by a fleche centred over an octagonal well in the first floor vestibule. The Brisbane Street elevation has a pedimented parapet with a circular louvred vent set in the gable. The building has multiple paned sash windows which are shaded by sun hoods on the lower floor. The interiors are well preserved and the entry and stair halls and the vestibule are panelled with polished silky oak, the floor being finished with coloured terrazzo.
The Police residences are a pair of brick bungalows prominently sited fronting Brisbane Street. They have hipped roofs; that of the Inspector's Residence being clad in corrugated iron and that of the Keeper's residence in corrugated fibrous cement sheeting. Each has a projecting gabled room to the front with a bay window under a strongly defined gable end. Although such gables are a feature of this style, they visually echo the triangular pediment of the police station which they serve. The front entrance is from a small verandah with timber balustrading which is approached by low timber steps. The windows are paired casements. The houses are not identical although similar in form, and the floor plans differ, presumably to suit the use of the first tenants. The interiors still reflect the era in which they were built, although the Inspector's house has been fitted out as an office. Both houses have hardwood floors, plastered walls and fibrous plaster ceilings with decorative mouldings.
The Watch House is 2 storey, rectangular in plan and is constructed of brick and patterned concrete blocks to an asymmetrical but balanced design. The main floor is elevated with undercroft car parking. Both levels are now used principally for storage. The northern wing is of face brick featuring boldly framed deep set square windows and houses a staircase, records and storage. It is linked to the main block by a lower, recessed section with a textured wall finish and slot glazing. The main block is screened by patterned Besser blocks. The interior is severely utilitarian in finish.
The Watch keeper's residence is an extension of the 1935 Keeper's residence and is similar in style on the exterior although the interior is more typical of its era and has an open plan layout.
","history":"The site has been associated with the police and judiciary in Mackay since the 1860s. Although buildings were erected and removed during the 19th and 20th centuries as the site developed, the major buildings remain and include the police station, built as a court house in 1886, the current court house, built in 1938, and two brick police residences from 1936-7. A 1960s watch house and keeper's residence are also on this site.
The town of Mackay is named for John Mackay who entered the valley of the Pioneer River in 1860 and established a pastoral run there in the following year. In 1862 a settlement was begun on the south bank of the river and by 1863, the township had been surveyed and the first lots of land sold. It was gazetted as a port of entry and a customs house was opened. The town prospered as a port and as a commercial and administrative centre, drawing business from nearby pastoral holdings and the sugar plantations being developed along the river. There were 2 police constables in Mackay by late 1863.
1864 was the year in which a centralised police force under a Commissioner was inaugurated by Act of Parliament. It replaced a system of police districts where constables were under the direction of local magistrates and marked the beginning of a modern police force in Queensland.
The government faced the problem of policing a huge area with a scattered population on a limited budget. Transport also posed problems, especially before the development of reliable roads and a railway network. The situation was addressed by instituting a system of regional courts served by visiting magistrates or judges and which had police offices, accomodation and lockup facilities on the same site. The first report of the Commissioner of Police in 1865 recommended cutting costs and improving efficiency by combining police and judiciary functions in the same building. Because police travelled on horseback, the provision of stables and a paddock for police horses was necessary, so that police reserves for all these purposes were gazetted in major towns.
A police watch house was built in Mackay in 1865 at the northern end of the current site and a Police Magistrate was appointed to serve the district. In 1872 a simple timber courthouse with a shingled roof was constructed. It was built near the Customs House rather than the police facilities and was inadequate from the beginning. A new courthouse was built in 1873 to the south of the lockup and was soon extended, reflecting the speed with which the area was developing. A police station was constructed in 1878-9 comprising cells and barracks.
The 1880s saw an expansion in police numbers and in court cases as the Queensland economy enjoyed a boom and people poured into the colony. Police numbers were expanded and police and judiciary facilities constructed at such a pace that it became difficult to obtain suitably qualified contractors. The sugar industry was also booming and Mackay was amongst those regional centres where substantial new court houses were erected. In 1884 contracts for a new court house were prepared following the construction of new police stables and lock up keeper's quarters.
The new court house was designed by noted architect J.J. Clark, who was at the time Colonial Architect. John James Clark was born and trained in Liverpool, England. He arrived in Melbourne in 1853 and won a number of architectural competitions, his success in such competitions being a feature of his career. He designed some major public buildings in Melbourne, including the Treasury. He moved to Sydney in 1881 and in 1883 had become Queensland Colonial Architect. Although he left the position in 1885, he was responsible for some important public buildings including courthouses at Charters Towers, Rockhampton and Warwick. They and the Mackay court house were designed in the classical revival style thought appropriate for public buildings intended to convey a sense of stability and dignity, particularly a court house which represented the power of the law. The contractor for the work was Denis Kelleher and the cost on completion, including a strong room and furniture, was £4499/8/7. The court house was a single storey building with rooms extended to each side of the front entrance containing barristers and witnesses' rooms and which were later extended by one room on each side. Behind the bench were rooms for the judge, police magistrates, Clerk of Petty Sessions and Jury. It was opened on 27 May 1886 and the first local sitting of the Supreme Court was held on 15 June 1886.
A new gaol at North Mackay was completed in 1888 and facilities at the police complex and court complex improved with Quarters for the police sergeant proposed in 1889 and police quarters in 1896.
Although suffering a devastating cyclone in 1918, Mackay enjoyed a period of substantial growth through the 1920s and 1930s. It was the fastest growing town in Queensland, its population doubling between 1920 and 1940. This was largely because its connection to the railway system in 1924 improved access to markets and reduced transport costs, thus boosting not only the sugar industry but the developing dairy and tourist industries. The growth of the region was supported by Local Member and Premier of Queensland William Forgan Smith and important improvements were made to the infrastructure of the town and harbour. Although Mackay enjoyed prosperity, the country as a whole endured widespread unemployment during the Depression years and extensive public works programs were put in place to alleviate this.
New police residences were designed in 1935. The Inspector's Residence was built in 1936 and the Watch House Keeper's Quarters in 1937, the difference in designation a subtle reflection of rank, although the buildings are very similar. They are unusual in that they are constructed of brick, although this may have been connected with the availability of good local bricks. They have the short passage and asymmetrical room plan typical of 30s houses in the south, but which was modern for Mackay where many houses of a similar size were still built with central passage layouts. The residences are of a better quality than comparable police residences in other regional centres and represent a dramatic improvement from early police accomodation which was often cramped and inadequate. The size and quality of these ancillary buildings reflects not only the prestige accorded to these officers, but the prosperity of Mackay and the importance of its court and police station to the region.
The next phase of the upgrading of the police and judicial complex was the construction of a large and handsome court house to replace the 19th century court house which had long been inadequate. At the time Andrew Leven was Government Architect. AB Leven was trained in Scotland and arrived in Queensland in 1911, working here and in New South Wales until 1914 when he became a draughtsman in the Public Works Department. By 1923 he was Assistant Architect and Chief Architect between 1933 and 1951. For 22 years he was the government representative on the Board of Architects, being Chairman for the last ten years. His office was responsible for the design of a number of public buildings in the Georgian Revival style. The Mackay Court House is amongst the grandest of these buildings with handsome internal detailing including panelled offices. The Court was also designed to accommodate other important government functions such as the office of the Lands Commissioner. The foundation stone was laid on 31 March 1938 by Premier Forgan Smith. The new court house addressed Victoria Street where the first police lockup had been and thus provided the main street with an imposing public building.
The old court house became a police station after the court moved to its new premises effecting a reversal of zones of usage across the complex. It underwent additions and modifications for this purpose in 1940-1, which extended the rear and created an upper level to part of the building to provide accomodation and a recreation room.
Plans were drawn in 1961 for a new cell block and facilities by Architect in Association Colin Tesch and the new watch house was constructed in 1962-3 at a cost of £35,140. It is designed in the International Modernist style developed in Europe about twenty years before, which makes this a late example, though perhaps not in the local context. It was built as part of a surge of post war development in response to growth in the population and economy and following the lifting of restrictions imposed on building during and immediately after World War II. A new watch house Keeper's residence, costing £4387, was built adjoining the existing residence at the same time.
In 1989 the demolition of the police station was proposed, but the people of Mackay strongly supported retention of the building, which underwent refurbishment in 1990-1 as did the 1938 Court House. A large new police building on site includes a watch house, the old one being used now mainly for storage.
","criteria":"The complex which contains the current and former court houses, police residences and other police buildings, illustrates several patterns important in understanding the development of Queensland. As the site of a court and police station which developed through the late 19th and 20th centuries in response to changes to legislation, population and the administration of justice, it illustrates the way in which the legal system was implemented and administered. This is individually and collectively reflected in the buildings on site. The quality of the buildings, in design and material, also illustrates the importance of Mackay as a regional centre, both in the 1880s when sugar was booming, and during the period between the World Wars when Mackay was the fastest growing town in Queensland. The 1930s buildings are major examples of buildings constructed as part of the public works program undertaken by the Labor government during the Depression to alleviate unemployment.
As major public works, the court houses are important in the life and work of government architects JJ Clark and AB Leven, both architects of distinction, who made an important contribution to the development of architecture in Queensland.
|The buildings on the site and the relationship between them, the fabric and design of the buildings and the extensive documentation connected with them are important because of their potential to provide information on both the city and the law which served it.
|The two court houses in particular are fine examples of public buildings of their era and are excellent representatives of the high quality work produced by the office of the government architect.
|As substantial and prominently sited public buildings, of architectural merit, they make an important visual contribution to the character of Mackay.
|The Court house and police complex have had a long connection with the people of Mackay and the surrounding district as the focus for the administration of justice in the area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | 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 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":15498,"place_ref":600723,"name":"Finch Hatton War Memorial","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Anzac Parade","suburb":"FINCH HATTON","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Finch Hatton War Memorial stands within the road reserve of Anzac Parade / Mackay-Eungella Road, the main street of Finch Hatton, a town located approximately 58 kilometres west of Mackay. The memorial is highly visible within the town and faces southeast, addressing the street and the former Finch Hatton Railway Station [600985] on the opposite side.
\nThe sandstone monument is approximately 5.2 metres high and comprises a digger statue standing on a decorative pedestal, with a stepped base. Marble plaques fixed to the pedestal recognise members of the local community who served in WWI (southeast face) and WWII (southwest face).
\nThe monument was historically set within an enclosure (likely square in plan), with plantings at each corner of the base of the monument (by 1929).
\nFeatures of Finch Hatton War Memorial of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nFeatures of Finch Hatton War Memorial not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\n
Note: The original finish of the stone monument is unknown; however, it was painted with khaki-coloured kalsomine (a lime-based paint/wash) by 1932. The date for the white paint scheme extant in 2021 is unknown. Mackay’s 1985 report, ‘Lest we forget’ recommended seeking advice on removal of the paint.
The Finch Hatton War Memorial, located in the town of Finch Hatton west of Mackay, was completed by 19 November 1921, at a cost of over £200, paid for by public subscription. The stone monument with a digger statue was designed and produced by Melrose and Fenwick of Mackay, and honours 16 local men who died in World War I (WWI). A later plaque honours seven who died in World War II (WWII).
\nThe erection of the memorial was made possible through the combined efforts of the settlements of Finch Hatton and Netherdale, both part of the traditional land of the Yuwibara people, in the Pioneer Valley west of Mackay.[1] European settlement of the Pioneer Valley began in the 1860s, with the establishment of pastoral runs. In 1883, the government commenced construction of a railway line running west from Mackay to assist sugar cane growers. This opened to Mirani in August 1885 and was extended over the Pioneer River in 1897. Although the line was extended west to Pinnacle by 1902, good quality agricultural land lay beyond the railway terminus, and the Queensland Government was soon lobbied to extend the line. The Government, however, had other priorities, resulting in the Pioneer Shire Council constructing the extension to Finch Hatton, which opened in 1904.[2]
\nFinch Hatton, then known as Hatton, already had one hotel and several stores by 1904. The railway line boosted the town’s development and closer settlement in the area, as did the opening of the Cattle Creek sugar mill in 1906. The Finch Hatton State School opened in 1909, and by 1913 the town had two sawmills. Finch Hatton became the main centre of the Pioneer Valley hinterland, and by the 1920s was the third largest township, after Mackay and Sarina, in the region. The Government took over responsibility of the Pinnacle-Finch Hatton section of the railway line from 1 July 1910, and a year later opened an extension west to Netherdale, which was initially called Eungella.[3]
\nLike all Australian communities, Finch Hatton and Netherdale were affected by WWI, fought from 1914 to 1918. The memorials erected after the war recorded its devastating impact on a young nation. From a population of 4.9 million, 416,809 Australians enlisted for service, and over 60,000 died.[4] Even before the end of hostilities, memorials were being erected by Australian communities. These memorials were a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief; substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East.[5]
\nFund-raising for local war memorials was a voluntary community effort, as no State Governments, other than Victoria, made direct grants for local WWI memorials except for the building of halls, hospitals and schools, which were eligible for public money whether or not they were memorials.[6]
\nAt Finch Hatton, fundraising for the ‘Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Fund’ occurred during 1921, including a sports meeting, a horse race, and a grand ball. As the memorial would cost over £200, the locals were encouraged to ‘do their bit to…raise this tribute to our dear boys who have gone before’.[7]
\nWWI memorials took a variety of forms in Australia, including honour boards, stone monuments (including obelisks, soldier statues, arches, crosses, columns or urns), tree-lined memorial avenues, memorial parks, and utilitarian (useful) structures such as gates, halls and clocks. In Queensland, the soldier statue was the most popular choice of monument, while the obelisk predominated in southern states. The argument over whether a war memorial should simply be a monument, or have a utilitarian function, occurred all over Australia. Post-WWI, most Australian localities decided on a monumental approach (60%), with only 22% choosing utilitarian buildings (mostly memorial halls) and 18% choosing the compromise position of utilitarian monuments (such as memorial clocks or drinking fountains). After WWII, the utilitarian form of memorial increased in popularity, and fewer monuments were built. Typically, tributes to WWII or later wars were added onto or near existing WWI monuments.[8]
\nAustralian war memorials are distinctive in that many list not only the dead, but also those who served and survived. Australians were proud that their first great national army, unlike other belligerent armies, was composed entirely of volunteers, men worthy of honour whether or not they paid the supreme sacrifice. Memorials which honour all who served from a locality provide valuable evidence of community involvement in the war. Such evidence is not readily obtainable from military records, or from state or national listings, where names are categorised alphabetically or by military unit. Australian war memorials are also valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste.
\nMost statues were constructed by local masonry firms, although some were crafted by artists or imported. Melrose and Fenwick, the makers of the Finch Hatton monument, were a monumental masonry firm established in Townsville c1896. They were a large firm with branches throughout Northern Queensland, including Mackay.[9] They enjoyed continued success into the late 20th century, only ceasing business in the early 1980s.
\nThe monument at Finch Hatton was almost completed (prior to placement) by 3 November 1921, according to the ‘Fallen Soldiers’ Monument Committee’.[10] Placement of the monument in the street near the railway station was underway by 15 November by Melrose and Fenwick; and the memorial was finished by 19 November – this date being recorded on a plaque on the street (southeast) face of the monument, which lists 16 men from ‘Finch Hatton, Netherdale and Districts’ who died during WWI.[11] The pedestal of the monument is of an unusually ornate style.[12]
\nThere have been some changes to the Finch Hatton War memorial and its immediate context since 1921. In 1929, during a clean-up around the war memorial, four ‘rose trees’ were planted ‘in the enclosure’, one at each corner of the base of the monument (not extant).[13] The early enclosure (not extant)[14] was also painted white in 1932, the same year the monument was cleaned and painted with khaki-coloured kalsomine (lime-based paint/wash).[15] After WWII, an additional plaque was added to the monument, on its southwest face, listing seven local men who died during that conflict. A grassed enclosure with a concrete border was added around the monument between 1996 and 2004, and by 2009 the grass had been replaced with pavers.[16]
\nIn 2021, a century after it was first erected, the Finch Hatton War Memorial continues as a focus for remembrance activities by the local community.
","criteria":"The Finch Hatton War Memorial, erected in 1921, is a good example of a finely crafted monument and is important in demonstrating Queensland's involvement in a major world event. World War I (WWI) memorials are a tribute to those who served, and those who died, from a particular community. As the focus of ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day ceremonies, they are an important element of Queensland's towns and cities and are also important in demonstrating a common pattern of commemoration across Queensland and Australia.
|The Finch Hatton War memorial is a good example of a well-designed and finely crafted WWI monument with a digger statue, and is a fine example of the work of the monumental masons Melrose and Fenwick. It is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a WWI memorial, including its visible location in the centre of the town, stone construction, and plaques bearing the names of those who died. Its digger statue is representative of the most popular form of WWI memorial in Queensland. The later addition of a plaque dedicated to those who died in World War II (WWII) was a typical practice in Queensland.
|This particular memorial is of aesthetic significance for its high level of workmanship and design, and is a landmark due to its highly visible location on the main street, which enhances the Finch Hatton townscape. The pedestal displays a pattern and design which is unusually ornate for war memorials in Queensland.
|The Finch Hatton War memorial, funded by public subscription, has a strong and special association with the Finch Hatton and Netherdale communities. Commemorations at the cenotaph reflect the wider reverence felt for war memorials across Australia. As a focus for ANZAC Day ceremonies the monument is highly valued by the community for its spiritual, symbolic, cultural and social associations.
","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":15499,"place_ref":600724,"name":"Lt Thomas Armstrong Memorial","alternate_name":"The Valley Uniting Church","street_address":"Victoria Street","suburb":"MIRANI","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The memorial is a tablet of black polished stone, measuring 104 x 64 cms and forms the base for two white marble reliefs. The lower one is in the form of a scroll and sword and has the inscription:
In Loving Memory of Lieut Thomas A Armstrong 33rd Battalion AIF who was killed in action near Passchendaele, Flanders on 12th October 1917 aged 26 years. Greater love hath no man than this.
The upper white marble relief bears the battalion crest in polychrome and its motto, Strenue Percute.
","history":"This memorial is unusual in that it is dedicated to the memory of an individual soldier. It marks the death on 12 October 1917 of Lt Thomas A Armstrong who was killed at the age of 26 near Passchendaele, Flanders during the First World War.
Armstrong's family lived on a farm between Marian and Mirani. The memorial was erected behind the altar at St James Uniting Church (then Presbyterian? Methodist?) at Marian, a timber church located on Anzac Avenue near the Marian sugar mill. The mason who created the memorial is unknown. It was mounted behind the pulpit on the northern side of the church.
By 1991 the church was no longer in use and it was proposed that the Marian State School purchase the site for its use. Local church services were relocated to St Stephens Uniting Church at the nearby township of Mirani and the memorial was transferred from St James church to St Stephens, Mirani.
","criteria":"The Armstrong Memorial is important is demonstrating the pattern and evolution of Queensland's history, as a memorial to the participation and death in battle of a member of the Marian community in the First World War. In its depiction of martial symbols such as the sword and battalion crest, it reflects a pride in Australia's participation in the war as a nation within the Empire as well as personal loss.
|The Armstrong Memorial is rare in Queensland as a privately erected war memorial to an individual soldier.
|The Armstrong memorial has aesthetic value as a well designed and good quality war memorial publicly displayed in the church.
","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":15759,"place_ref":600984,"name":"Mirani Railway Station Building","alternate_name":"Hamilton Railway Station","street_address":"Victoria Street","suburb":"MIRANI","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-07-07","description":"The Mirani Railway Station is a single storey, timber framed building, set on low timber stumps, clad with timber weatherboards. The building has a gable roof clad with corrugated iron. Timber louvered ventilators are located high in the western and eastern elevations. The roof extends on both the northern and southern sides of the building creating shade to these sides.
The fretted shelter shed spandrels running the length of the structure on the northern and southern sides compare with the Finch Hatton Railway Station building, further west along the line.
Spaces that have previously been used as office area, ladies' room and closet (altered) are located to either side of the shelter shed area. Booking windows face the shelter area.
Station name boards are extant along the railway line.
A single storey timber trolley shed is located approximately 60 metres to the east of the railway station building.
NB: The children's playground area structures and equipment are not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The Mirani Railway Station opened on 10 August 1885. The station formed part of the Pioneer Valley Line of the Mackay Railway which opened on the same day.
In search of new pastoral land, John Mackay and his party entered and named the valley of the Mackay River in 1860, and the following year he returned to establish a cattle station. Other settlers quickly followed. In 1862, the ketch 'Presto' entered the Mackay River landing stores and building materials, then surveyed the river mouth, which consequently was gazetted as a Port of Entry.
In the earliest years of non-Indigenous settlement of the Pioneer Valley, the area was leased as two cattle runs, Hamilton and Hopetoun. They were worked as one property with the head station at Hamilton, across the Pioneer River from the township now known as Mirani. [Prior to the opening of the railway station in 1885, Mirani was known as Hamilton, after one of the cattle properties, but was changed so that no confusion could arise between it and the station of the same name in Brisbane].
Sugar cane is a bulky crop that transports well, but it needs to be processed quickly once harvested. In the 19th century, the only transport method that answered these requirements was the railway. Every sugar district developed a network of tramways and railways, provided by a combination of the sugar mills, local government and the State Government.
Agitation for a local rail network began in the late 1870s. The principal advocates were the independent cane growers who were forced to send their cane to the nearest plantation mill to be crushed. [The first sugar mill in the district, John Ewen Davidson's, Alexandra was established in 1868]. A government run rail network was a means of overcoming that dependence and allowing growers to choose which mill crushed their cane. The Colonial Sugar Refining Company had introduced the two feet gauge steam tramway to the Queensland canefields when it built three large sugar mills simultaneously, at Homebush south-west of Mackay, at Victoria on the Herbert River and at Goondi on the Johnstone River. Homebush Mill opened in 1883.
Approval for the Pioneer Valley line was granted by the Parliament in October 1882. Mackay was growing in name as the centre of a prosperous sugar district, and, due to the input on the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, already had private steam tramways. In 1880 John Spiller built a five kilometre line on his River Estate plantation and worked it with a locally built vertical boiler engine. The following year he built a similar line on his Pioneer plantation, both on the north side of the river.
A railway route was surveyed west from Mackay parallel to the south bank of the river to a point opposite Hamilton [later Mirani] station and construction began in late 1883. The contract was awarded to George Bashford & Co in late 1883. Nearly 2000 people assembled to watch the Governor ceremonially turn the first sod on his first visit to Mackay even though work had been underway for a month. The first stage from Mackay to Mirani was opened on 10 August 1885. A branch line commencing at Newbury Junction, west of Mackay, ran south towards Eton, the only other settlement of note in the district apart from Mackay and Walkerston. Construction work on the railway line was virtually halted for three months in 1884 due to flooding which, at the time, was the highest on record.
The Railway Station became a focal point of the township. A post mistress was appointed and all postal business was conducted from the station from 1888 to 1924 when separate postal facilities were established in Alexandra Street.Harry Wesche planted mango trees in the station's yard when he worked there c.1915. Some of those trees survive today.
In 1885, with the Mackay Railway terminating at Mirani, the town was the limit of closer settlement. Throughout the 1890s the government received requests for the Pioneer Valley line to be extended to open up more land for cane, particularly the extensive area of land that lay between Mirani and the Eungella Ranges. The Pioneer River however, was a significant barrier.
A short extension of the line was finally made over the Pioneer River at Mirani in 1897 to give growers access to rail transport. Expenditure for the bridge of five, 34 metre long steel spans on high concrete piers was approved and contract let to A Overend & Co, in August 1896. The two kilometres of track to Mirani West, officially opened on 11 December 1897, were laid without authority until the plans were resubmitted by the Philp Government and approved in December 1900. The extension further west to Pinnacle, opened on 7 July 1902. This was the first line completed under the new day labour system.
The Pioneer Valley Line of the Mackay Railway was the catalyst for the establishment of the township, Mirani, that became an important secondary centre within the Mackay region. Further, the Pioneer Valley line was instrumental in the expansion of the sugar industry, significantly increasing the amount of land that could be cultivated for sugar on an economically viable basis, as well as being a critical factor in the development of a central mill system, providing an alternate transport system to shipping, thus enabling cane plantations to be located away from major waterways.
There was little goods traffic. The line carefully avoided any contact with the Homebush mill tramway, whilst the sugar mills at Meadowlands, Te Kowai, Alexandra, Palms, Pleystowe and Marian continued to haul sugar to town and cane to the mill by road. Only Victoria Mill near Eton was right beside the railway. Matters were rectified after a visit to Mackay by Commissioner Curnow in April 1887, and the department agreed to build short spurs to Te Kowai, Palms, Alexandra and Pleystowe mills, with the owners repaying the cost over five years. A similar siding had already been built to Marian mill; it was repaid by a surcharge. The Government financed the construction of two Central Mills in 1888, Racecourse Mill beside the railway line at the Lagoons and at North Eton. The latter had a siding to Drapers [south-west of Mackay] which was shifted in 1902 to connect at Victoria.
By 1899, the Mirani Railway comprised the station building, with an addition to the roadside, as well as a detached kitchen. In 1899, Henrik Hansen prepared drawings for a ladies' room and closet to be added to the Finch Hatton end of the building.
In 1913, the building was remodelled resulting in the removal of the curved timber brackets to the shade [which was characteristic of nineteenth century railway architecture] and the substitution of ladder frame brackets carried on fretted struts and similar spandrels to the shelter shed with shades to both sides of the building located on an island platform.
By 1960 the Mirani Railway Station consisted of the station building, lamp room, quarters, loading bank, goods shed, whim derrick and forkline with trucking yards.
The Mackay Railway, from Kowari to Netherdale, officially closed on 19 December 1977 after being damaged by flooding. In 1981 a lease of the quarters was offered to the Pioneer Valley Historical Society.
In 1988, the station building and residence were to be sold for removal. The Mirani Shire Council was successful in obtaining a grant through the Bicentennial funding to adapt the former station building for reuse as a museum. The grant allowed for the former station building to remain on site. The section of the Mackay Railway between Marian and Finch Hatton [which included the Mirani Railway Station] closed on 2 October 1990. This is becoming a common pattern in sugar districts as industry deregulation results in cane lands going out of production and mills closing. Many tram and rail lines are disappearing and road transport is taking an increasing share of the harvest to the mills.
The former station building continues to be cared for by the Mirani Shire Council which owns the property.
","criteria":"The Mirani railway station building is important as a substantially intact example of a country branch line station building, demonstrating the importance of the Queensland sugar industry's railway networks and the gradual loss of this network following industry deregulation and a shift to road transport of harvested cane. Located on the Pioneer Valley Line of the Mackay Railway, the Mirani railway station building is an extant reminder of the growth of the district as pre-eminent cane growing area in the late 19th and early 20th century. The opening of the area through the establishment of the railway also prompted the development of the timber industry.
The Mirani railway station building is further significant as the earliest surviving building on the Mackay Railway and is closely comparable with Finch Hatton Railway Station building, further to the west.
|With spaces formerly comprising an office area, shelter area with shade to both sides of the building and ticket windows facing the shelter areas, the Mirani Railway Station building is a good example of a country branch line timber railway building. Its decorative fretted shelter shed spandrels compare with the Finch Hatton Railway Station building.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15760,"place_ref":600985,"name":"Finch Hatton Railway Station","alternate_name":"Pelion Railway Station | Hatton Railway Station","street_address":"Mackay-Eungella Road","suburb":"FINCH HATTON","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-12-06","description":"The Finch Hatton Railway Station is a single storey, timber framed building, set on low timber stumps, clad with timber weatherboards. The building has a gable roof on the eastern side and a gambrel roof on the western side, clad with corrugated iron. Timber louvered ventilators are located high in the western and eastern elevations. The roof extends on the northern, southern and sides of the building creating shade to these sections.
The fretted shelter shed spandrels running the length of the structure on the northern and southern sides compare with the Mirani Railway Station building, further to the east along the line. The station building has timber louvred valance along the western elevation with station name boards.
Accommodation from east to west consists of the former ladies' room and closet, shelter area and office.
The building is surrounded by well manicured grounds and mature trees. A number of commemorative cairns are located within the property.
","history":"The Finch Hatton Railway Station opened on 21 September 1904. The station formed part of the Pioneer Valley Line of the Mackay Railway, the first stage of which opened on 10 August 1885 terminating at Mirani.
[History in "Register of Non-Indigenous Cultural and Heritage Sites in the Mirani Shire" states that although the line reached Finch Hatton in 1904, the Station was not built until 1910.]
In search of new pastoral land, John Mackay and his party entered and named the valley of the Mackay River in 1860, and the following year he returned to establish a cattle station. Other settlers quickly followed. In 1862, the ketch 'Presto' entered the Mackay River landing stores and building materials, then surveyed the river mouth, which consequently was gazetted as a Port of Entry.
In the earliest years of non-Indigenous settlement of the Pioneer Valley, the area was leased as two cattle runs, Hamilton and Hopetoun. They were worked as one property with the head station at Hamilton, across the Pioneer River from the township now known as Mirani. [Prior to the opening of the railway station in 1885, Mirani was known as Hamilton, after one of the cattle properties, but was changed so that no confusion could arise between it and the station of the same name in Brisbane].
Sugar cane is a bulky crop that transports well, but it needs to be processed quickly once harvested. In the 19th century, the only transport method that answered these requirements was the railway. Every sugar district developed a network of tramways and railways, provided by a combination of the sugar mills, local government and the State Government.
Agitation for a local rail network began in the late 1870s. The principal advocates were the independent cane growers who were forced to send their cane to the nearest plantation mill to be crushed. [The first sugar mill in the district, John Ewen Davidson's, Alexandra was established in 1868]. A government run rail network was a means of overcoming that dependence and allowing growers to choose which mill crushed their cane. The Colonial Sugar Refining Company had introduced the two feet gauge steam tramway to the Queensland canefields when it built three large sugar mills simultaneously, at Homebush south-west of Mackay, at Victoria on the Herbert River and at Goondi on the Johnstone River. Homebush Mill opened in 1883.
Approval for the Pioneer Valley line was granted by the Parliament in October 1882. Mackay was growing in name as the centre of a prosperous sugar district, and, due to the input on the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, already had private steam tramways. In 1880 John Spiller built a five kilometre line on his River Estate plantation and worked it with a locally built vertical boiler engine. The following year he built a similar line on his Pioneer plantation, both on the north side of the river.
A railway route was surveyed west from Mackay parallel to the south bank of the river to a point opposite Hamilton [later Mirani] station and construction began in late 1883. The contract was awarded to George Bashford & Co in late 1883. Nearly 2000 people assembled to watch the Governor ceremonially turn the first sod on his first visit to Mackay even though work had been underway for a month. The first stage from Mackay to Mirani was opened on 10 August 1885. A branch line commencing at Newbury Junction, west of Mackay, ran south towards Eton, the only other settlement of note in the district apart from Mackay and Walkerston.
In 1885, with the Mackay Railway terminating at Mirani, the town was the limit of closer settlement. Throughout the 1890s the government received requests for the Pioneer Valley line to be extended to open up more land for cane, particularly the extensive area of land that lay between Mirani and the Eungella Ranges. Selectors began to farm the fertile areas further west of Mirani within the vicinity of McGregor's Creek, however the unbridged Pioneer River was an impediment to further expansion.
A short extension of the line was finally made over the Pioneer River at Mirani in 1897 to give growers access to rail transport. Expenditure for the bridge of five, 34 metre long steel spans on high concrete piers was approved and contract let to A Overend & Co, in August 1896. The two kilometres of track to Mirani West officially opened on 11 December 1897.
Plans for major extension of the Pioneer Railway line were tabled before Parliament on 30 November 1900. The extension further west to Pinnacle, opened on 7 July 1902. This was the first line completed under the new day labour system.
The Pioneer Valley line was instrumental in the expansion of the sugar industry, significantly increasing the amount of land that could be cultivated for sugar on an economically viable basis, as well as being a critical factor in the development of a central mill system, providing an alternate transport system to shipping, thus enabling cane plantations to be located away from major waterways.
Whilst the Pioneer Valley line was extended to Pinnacle by 1902, good quality agricultural land lay for many kilometres beyond the railway terminus. Around the same time as the extension of the Pioneer Valley line, the Racecourse Central Sugar Company had embarked upon an extension program of developing cane growing in the Upper Pioneer Valley. The Sugar Company, together with the Pioneer Shire Council and the selectors in the area combined to turn what was previously a sparsely settled area into a productive sugar district. Playing a key role in furthering the area cultivated for sugar was the extension of the railway line through to Finch Hatton.
Almost immediately after the railway line was extended to Pinnacle, the government was lobbied to extend the line further. The government, however, had other priorities, resulting in the Pioneer Shire Council deciding to construct the next stage to Finch Hatton, as well as a branch line from Pinnacle along McGregor's Creek. The railway from Pinnacle to Finch Hatton opened on 21 September 1904. Finch Hatton now became the terminus for the Pioneer Valley line and this was the trigger for closer settlement within the area and gave rise to the establishment of the township.
In September 1904, the Mackay Chronicle reported that Hatton [as Finch Hatton was known] was beginning to assume a business air with the residences of Messrs Peoples and Zahmel within sight of the terminus. A hotel, run by a Mr Waters, had also been constructed. The extension of the railway line to Finch Hatton was a catalyst for the opening up of further land for sugar cane with the opening of the Cattle Creek mill, south-east of Finch Hatton in 1906.
[In 1906, Hatton was renamed Pelion, however a few months later the name was changed to Finch Hatton].
The government took over responsibility of the Pinnacle-Finch Hatton section of the railway line from 1 July 1910 and quickly constructed the extension west to Netherdale [this station was also known as the Eungella Range]. By 1914, tourists began to access the Eungella Range area by travelling to Netherdale by rail and walking up the newly improved road to Eungella.
Finch Hatton station had a station master in charge, attending to the substantial traffic to and from the adjacent Cattle Creek mill which had its own private siding. The Station Master, E Crow, was promoted in mid-1915, and the local newspaper correspondent mentioned the long hours at the station. There was also a Night Officer so that the station was manned two shifts.
In 1913, Queensland Railways published a brochure titled Tours in the Mackay District which highlighted the natural beauty of the region especially that of the Eungella Ranges. By the 1920s, Finch Hatton had become the largest township in the area outside of Mackay and Sarina.
In 1932, a special committee was set up, comprising the representatives of the departments of Land, Forestry and Agriculture and the Director of the Mackay Butter Factory to investigate the settlement, forestry and scenic potential of the Eungella area. The outcome of that investigation was that the area of 'primeval' jungle should be preserved. In 1941, acknowledgement of the importance of the Eungella area led to the gazettal of Eungella National Park.
The Mackay Railway, from Kowari to Netherdale [west of Finch Hatton] officially closed on 19 December 1977 after being damaged by flooding. The section of the Mackay Railway between Marian and Finch Hatton [which included the Finch Hatton Railway Station] closed on 2 October 1990. [The position of Station Master was abolished in 1988 and the goods shed had been sold for removal]. The Cattle Creek Mill also closed in 1990. This is becoming a common pattern in sugar districts as industry deregulation results in cane lands going out of production and mills closing. Many tram and rail lines are disappearing and road transport is taking an increasing share of the harvest to the mills.
By 1994, the railway complex comprised only the station building as the Station Master's house was relocated to Zahmel Street, Finch Hatton.
The former station building continues to be cared for by the Mirani Shire Council which owns the property, operating the building as the Finch Hatton Historic Railway Station and Internet Access Centre. The Station and Centre focuses on the local and social history and the development of the Pioneer Valley and opens on a daily basis.
","criteria":"The Finch Hatton railway station building is important as a substantially intact example of a country branch line station building, demonstrating the importance of the Queensland sugar industry's railway networks and the gradual loss of this network following industry deregulation and a shift to road transport of harvested cane. Located on the Pioneer Valley Line of the Mackay Railway, the Finch Hatton railway station building is an extant reminder of the growth of the district as pre-eminent cane growing area in the late 19th and early 20th century. The opening of the area through the establishment of the railway also prompted the development of the timber and tourism industries.
|With spaces formerly comprising of office area, shelter area with shade to both sides of the building and with ticket windows facing the shelter areas, the Finch Hatton Railway Station building is a good example of a country branch line timber railway building. Its decorative fretted shelter shed spandrels compare with the Mirani Railway Station building.
|The Finch Hatton railway station building is important for its aesthetic significance, particularly with regard to the station building's unusual architectural features, its intact state and by its picturesque setting in the main street of the township, close to the Finch Hatton War Memorial [EHR 600723].
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15762,"place_ref":600987,"name":"Greenmount Homestead","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Greenmount Road","suburb":"WALKERSTON","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1993-09-06","description":"Greenmount Homestead, consisting of the main house and various outbuildings, is situated on an easterly slope with a ridge to the southwest. The site, one of the few elevated sites in the area, overlooks canefields and contains a formal garden to the north, a dam to the east and mature trees.
The main house is a single-storeyed timber building with a corrugated iron gambrel roof with projecting gables. The building is encircled by verandahs with lower skillion roofs which connect a kitchen house on the southwest and an office on the southeast, both with corrugated iron hipped roofs. The building has timber stumps with timber slab and woven sheet infill.
The north elevation is symmetrical with a central projecting gabled entry porch with twin side stair, recessed seat and timber louvres. The gable has shingle cladding and a lower awning supported by deep, curved timber brackets. The verandahs have crossbraced railing, timber posts and brackets and raked, lined ceilings. The verandahs have been enclosed, with the south and east having sash and casement windows, and the remaining verandahs having flywire. The kitchen house and office buildings are clad in corrugated iron and have metal window hoods.
French doors with fanlights open onto the verandahs, and the recessed main entry has a timber panelled door with leadlight glass inserts, sidelights and fanlight. An etched glass panel in the door has the inscription GREENMOUNT. The floorplan consists of bedrooms to the east and west, a drawing room on the north with a large bay window and a large dining room on the south. An ensuite has been built on the west verandah.
Internally, the building has ornate pressed metal ceilings, single skin tongue and groove timber walls, timber batten arches, sash windows and fanlights above internal doors. The building houses original furniture, fittings and artefacts which belonged to the Cook family.
The formal garden to the north of the building comprises a circular drive and lawn enclosed by hedges and palms. A fernery is located to the west of the building. An avenue of Mango [Mangifera indica] trees, lining the original drive way, is located to the south of the building and continues onto the adjoining property. Large figs [Ficus sp.] are located around the site which is currently accessed from the northwest.
Outbuildings include; hipped roofed, corrugated iron clad blacksmith's workshop, laundry/outside shower and a lighting plant shed to the south, sulky shed and garage to the southeast; a skillion roofed, corrugated iron clad staff shed with an ant bed floor to the south; a gabled roof, asbestos cement sheeted seed house to the west; and the timber and iron Balnagowan kitchen/schoolhouse and a cattle dip which are on an adjoining property to the southwest. Other structures include a kennel, chicken coop and tank stands. These buildings also contain much of the original machinery and fixtures.
Buildings and machinery recently moved to the site, and not part of the original homestead complex, include two small timber buildings, a gabled roof timber railway station located to the northeast and various farming machinery.
","history":"Greenmount Homestead was erected in 1915 for Albert and Vida Cook. Albert Alfred Cook was the son of Kennedy district pioneer John Cook, who took up Balnagowan Station on the northern side of the Pioneer River in 1862. Greenmount Station, on the southern side of the Pioneer River, was taken up in 1861 by John Mackay, the first European settler in the district. In 1864 Mackay forfeited ownership of the lease, and the property passed through a number of owners and resumptions until acquired in 1914 by Vida Althea Cook.
Despite having erected a new homestead at Balnagowan in 1908, which was extended in 1912, the Cooks chose to make their home at Greenmount. In 1914-15 Mackay architect William Sykes prepared the designs for Greenmount Homestead, modifying substantially Albert Cook's rough plans for modelling the new building on the second Balnagowan. The house was erected in July-December 1915 by local Walkerston contractors Arthur Carter & Co., on land overlooking the Cook family company's Pleystowe sugar mill. The fireplace and mantelpiece from the second Balnagowan were removed to Greenmount.
Most of the outbuildings and structures associated with the running of the homestead were erected in 1915: the cattle dip and yards, house well, tank stand, gas house, and septic tank; the motor buggy house at Balnagowan was dismantled and re-erected at Greenmount as a workman's hut; similarly, another motor house and box shed from Balnagowan became a garage at Greenmount. Early in 1916 a motor house was constructed using timber and iron from Balnagowan, a wash house was erected, and the Balnagowan bush house was removed to Greenmount. This was replaced in 1928, and re-built in 1988.
In mid-1918 a dray shed was erected from storm-damaged structures at Balnagowan; the passage connecting the bathroom to the main house was enclosed, as was the kitchen verandah on the southern side; and a schoolroom, constructed of timber and iron from dismantled Balnagowan buildings, was erected between the garage and gas house on the southern side of the house. This was removed in 1954 to a ridge near the cattle yards and used as married quarters. An electricity generator was installed in 1925, and in the following year a workshop and skillion were erected.
The house has been altered little since the 1920s. In the 1950s the western verandah and part of the front verandah were glazed and a bathroom added, and flywire screens were placed on the remaining verandahs. The roof and guttering were replaced in 1988.
At Greenmount c1917, the Cooks established one of Queensland's first Aberdeen-Angus studs. This breed had been introduced in Australia c1840, but by the 1880s, numbered little more than 1,000 head in Queensland, which was then the largest beef producer in the Australian colonies. In the 1910s, Queensland cattle breeders were reassessing the beef and milk production values of the Aberdeen-Angus, and Albert Cook was amongst this vanguard. Following Albert's death in 1948 his son Thomas took over the management of Greenmount, and in the 1950s introduced Brahmans and Brahman crossbreeds to the Greenmount stud.
Following Thomas Cook's death in 1981, the homestead on 11.3 hectares, together with three generations of the Cook family's furniture and effects, was given by his widow to the Pioneer Shire Council, which leases the property to the Mackay Historical Society as a museum. The grounds, maintained by the society as the Tom and Dorothy Cook Memorial Park, include a fig tree [Ficus sp.] believed to have been planted by John Mackay in 1862.
Several small timber buildings have been moved onto the site since its lease to the Mackay Historical Society: the old Walkerston railway station c1986, and two former single men's barracks from the Marian sugar mill, in 1991. These do not form part of the entry in the Queensland Heritage Register.
","criteria":"Greenmount Homestead at Walkerston demonstrates a now uncommon aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage, as the main house and its associated outbuildings and structures, and the formal garden, furniture and personal effects, form a cohesive and intact grouping which together demonstrate a way of life no longer common. The house, together with the large group of associated outbuildings and structures and the formal garden, and the physical arrangement of these elements, are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an early 20th century Queensland homestead complex. The place is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the local community, in particular the landmark contribution of the buildings and grounds, through form, scale and siting; the quality and intactness of the interiors, including early fixtures and furnishings; and the landscaping, including the substantially intact formal garden. It has a strong association with the local community, which perceives the place as an historically significant element in the Mackay/Walkerston cultural landscape. It has a special association with the Cook family and their contribution to the development of the Mackay region and to the growth of the sugar and cattle breeding industries in Queensland over more than 120 years.
|Greenmount Homestead at Walkerston demonstrates a now uncommon aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage, as the main house and its associated outbuildings and structures, and the formal garden, furniture and personal effects, form a cohesive and intact grouping which together demonstrate a way of life no longer common.
|The house, together with the large group of associated outbuildings and structures and the formal garden, and the physical arrangement of these elements, are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an early 20th century Queensland homestead complex.
|The place is important in exhibiting a range of aesthetic characteristics valued by the local community, in particular the landmark contribution of the buildings and grounds, through form, scale and siting; the quality and intactness of the interiors, including early fixtures and furnishings; and the landscaping, including the substantially intact formal garden.
|It has a strong association with the local community, which perceives the place as an historically significant element in the Mackay/Walkerston cultural landscape.
|It has a special association with the Cook family and their contribution to the development of the Mackay region and to the growth of the sugar and cattle breeding industries in Queensland over more than 120 years.
","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":15853,"place_ref":601080,"name":"Selwyn House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Cowleys Road","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2001-02-23","description":"Selwyn House is a single story, high-set house set on timber and concrete stumps. The house comprises a fibro clad central section with enclosed verandah, flanked on the north and south by wings clad with ripple iron, with projecting, hipped gable roofs to the front [east] and the rear [west]. The roof of the enclosed central, projecting porch, with its hipped roof is similar in style to the projecting north and south wings. The roof is clad with corrugated, galvanised iron.
The north wing has a bay window in the front and casement windows along the northern elevation. The south wing has timber-framed, double hung sash windows in the front elevation and timber-framed, double-hung sash windows along the southern elevation. The lower section of the house has timber lattice work on the front [eastern] elevation. Originally, two sets of external stairs were located on either side of the open porch. The porch has been enclosed with a series of windows on three sides. The original timber brackets are extant. Located at the rear [southern] side of the house, at the north and south ends, are two timber staircases.
Internally, the original, now central, core of Selwyn House is evident and is clad with timber chamferboards. French doors open from the core to the enclosed verandahs. All the doors are extant. On the western side of the enclosed verandah, bathroom facilities have been built. The room on the northern side of the core is clad with vertically joined timber. The room on the southern side of the core is clad with fibro. An archway is located in this room, forming one large area. This room is likely to have originally been two smaller rooms. On the eastern side of the verandah, a doorway leads to the centrally located, projecting porch. This room is clad with fibro. A wall has been added to divide the verandah. Timber-framed casements windows with coloured panes of glass are located along the eastern wall of the verandah.
Internally, the north wing consists of one large room divided by a timber arch. This room appears to have originally been two rooms. The design of the pressed metal detail on the walls and ceiling is different in each room. Two doorways are located along the northern wing's wall. One is a set of french doors, with ornate leadlight detail, breezeway and fanlight assembly, leading to the central section of the house.
Internally, a pressed metal ceiling on the northern side of the house. The only internal wall clad with ripple iron is also located on the northern side of the house.
The southern wing is similar in style to the northern wing but less ornate. Internally, the south wing has horizontally lined with ventilators located in the timber lined ceiling. The kitchen is outfitted with c1950s décor and a stove recess is located in the southern side of the western wall. The room is clad with horizontally joined timber.
Selwyn House is situated amongst a number of mature palm trees and garden plantings. Two mature mango trees mark part of the western boundary line. While the area has undergone some changes, particularly with the establishment of businesses in the vicinity, Selwyn House is still predominantly surrounded by large areas of sugar cane and the Racecourse Mill is located only a short distance away in a generally south-westerly direction.
","history":"The core of Selwyn House, was constructed on land which originally formed part of the Meadowlands Plantation owned by William Henry Hyne and George Francis Bridgman. The first section of the building was likely to have been constructed c1896, when prominent missionary, Mary Goodwin Robinson operated the Selwyn Mission. Mrs Robinson was involved in the Selwyn Mission, as it was to become known, from its establishment, c1882 until her departure from the Mackay area due to ill health in 1903. Extensions to the northern side of the house were added in 1914 and to the southern side in c1918.
In search of new pastoral land, John Mackay and his party entered and named the valley of the Mackay River in 1860, and the following year he returned to establish a cattle station. In 1862, the ketch Presto entered the Mackay River landing stores and building materials, then surveyed the river mouth, which consequently was gazetted as a Port of Entry. The first settlers arrived in October 1862, establishing the settlement of Port Mackay on the south bank of the river. In January 1863, John Tanner Baker was appointed Sub Collector of Customs for the new port. He arrived in February setting up in a tent, but soon established the Customs Office in a corner of the large store of Byrnes, Basset and Co. located on the riverbank. By the end of 1863, the name of the river had been changed to the Pioneer, the first survey of the town of Mackay had been made, and the first land sale of town lots had been held.
The first sugar cane was planted in the Mackay region in 1865 and by the 1870s the industry was well established in the area. Queensland plantations turned to Kanaka indentured labour at this time as it was believed that Europeans could not perform manual labour in the tropics. The methods used to recruit South Sea Island people and the conditions within which they worked were the subject of considerable criticism, and so from the mid 1880s, a series of Government Acts sought to replace the large plantations worked by South Sea Islanders with small independent farms supplying central mills.
The Deed of Grant for the property on which Selwyn House was to be constructed was issued to William Henderson on 6 August 1866. [An area of just over 18 acres, the property was described as Portion 199]. Ownership was transferred to John Francis William Fitzgerald in December 1871. Fitzgerald was in partnership with Albert Throckmorton Ball, a pastoralist turned sugar grower. They continued in partnership, however, they incurred serious losses through the rust of 1875. The property was transferred to Michael McCluskey in September 1873. McCluskey was a publican and owned the Horse and Jockey Hotel, on Nebo Road, from 1869-76. Following his death in 1876, the property was acquired by George Francis Bridgman and William Henry Hyne. At this time, it became part of their Meadowlands Estate, first established in 1870.
Similar to most European communities in Australia, the early settlers in Mackay in the 1860s began to feel a need for a religious presence. Initially, the community had to rely on visits from the clergy. Dr Tufnell, Anglican Bishop of Brisbane called into the fledgling town in 1863, married two couples and arranged to have land bought for the church. A Roman Catholic priest was appointed in Mackay in November 1865. An Anglican clergyman arrived in 1867 to establish a parish. The first to show concern for the South Sea Islanders was Reverend Albert A Maclaren, Anglican priest in Mackay from mid-1878 until early 1883, and in 1891, founder of the Anglican mission in Papua New Guinea. It was through Maclaren's urging that the first Christian missions for South Sea Island people in Queensland were established.
In 1876, the Mackay Mercury began to advocate the introduction of missions for South Sea Islanders in Queensland. At Mackay, Father Maclaren was able to interest Mary Goodwin Robinson in ministering to South Sea Island workers. Mary Robinson was the wife of HJG [Henry John Goodwin] Robinson. In 1877, HJG Robinson took up a position as manager of Branscombe plantation. By c1882 Mary Robinson had begun giving Bible lessons to South Sea Islanders in her home. It has been suggested that Mary Robinson began teaching as early as 1879. Mrs Robinson, knowing many planters and plantation managers, asked for donations and funds to continue her work. Hyne and Bridgman of Meadowlands Plantation donated just over 3 acres of land.
By 1884, Branscombe Plantation had closed and HJG Robinson was transferred to Te Kowai Plantation, where he remained until 1890. HJG Robinson then took on the management of Marian Plantation, with Mary Robinson having to transfer her headquarters to Marian. After several years at Marian Mill the Robinsons returned to the Te Kowai area in c1896, at this time it is likely that HJG Robinson was involved in the Racecourse Mill, which began operation in 1889 as one of the first central mills in the district. It was around the time of the Robinsons' return to the area that a mission building was constructed on the land earlier donated by Hyne and Bridgman of Meadowlands. It is likely that this building forms the core of Selwyn House, which was a simple three room cottage design with a verandah.
Bridgman and Hyne held the property until September 1901, when title was transferred to the Corporation of the Diocesan Synod of North Queensland. At this time, the portion of land was subdivided. The subdivision comprised the area of just over three acres which Hyne and Bridgman had earlier donated to the Selwyn Mission. Here Mary Robinson ran a school for Melanesians. The response she received is reflected in a letter she wrote to Bishop Barlow on 15th April 1901. Robinson states that:
\t'I ought to have written 'ere this and reported myself, but indeed have scarcely known which \tway to turn for the crowds of heathens pouring in every night afresh to the School, making me feel quite alarmed as to where to put them all! What a harvest there promises for the future. I ask your prayers that I may have the strength and health to gather them in'1
From 1882 to 1903 Mary Robinson operated the Robinson, later Selwyn, Mission. In 1903, when old and seriously ill, Robinson retired to Adelaide. As the mission became established she had trained Melanesian lay preachers and had a European assistant. These people carried on the mission's work after Robinson's departure, but at a new base at St Mary's Church at Pioneer on the north side of the river. Alex Sayven was lay preacher at St Mary's from 1905 to 1914. By 1928, it was observed that the '...seed from the Selwyn Mission has been carried far...' 2
Selwyn House was sold in 1903 to TJ [Thomas James] Whitcomb. During 1903, Whitcomb was elected Chairman of Directors of the Racecourse Central Mill Company. He remained in that position until his retirement in 1915. Whitcomb may not have lived at the property during the earlier years of his ownership, as he is listed at a different address for several years. He undertook major extensions in 1914 and it is likely that, at this time, the house was raised on blockwork as well as the addition of the northern wing, complete with pressed metal walls and ceilings. It is likely that a section of pressed metal in the former verandah area was completed at this time. The property remained in the Whitcomb family until 1918. During Whitcomb's time as Chairman of Directors, the Racecourse Central Mill consolidated its resources with the purchase of Meadowlands Mill. Negotiations were commenced in January 1914. At the annual meeting of Racecourse shareholders held on 25 February 1914, the directors' decision to purchase Meadowlands was ratified. In February 1915, TJ Whitcomb retired from the Board.
In 1918, the house was purchased by JM [James Mark] Gibson, a major figure in the local sugar industry and the building was extended again, this time with the addition of a wing on the southern side, following heavy cyclone damage. Gibson was one of the largest sugar growers in the Mackay district and was involved with the Racecourse Mill for over 56 years; as chief chemist, manager and from 1923, as director. On his death in 1964, the house was divided into two flats and remained that way until the house was purchased by the current owners, who reverted it back from flats to a house.
","criteria":"Constructed c1896, the core of Selwyn House is significant for its connection with the Selwyn Mission, established c1882, and the education of indentured South Sea Islander labour and for its close connection with the sugar industry in Mackay.
|Selwyn House is significant as a possible rare extant, though now modified structure utilised during the period.
|Selwyn House is significant as a possible rare extant, though now modified structure utilised during the period. Further historical research will reveal more about the construction date.
|From the earlier simple, verandahed timber dwelling to the large house with intact pressed metal linings and external and internal ripple iron cladding, suitable for entertaining guests of a mill directors, the growth and development of Selwyn House has closely mirrored the development of the sugar industry in Mackay.
|(Criterion under review)
|Selwyn House is significant as a focus for local memory regarding the role played by South Sea Islander labour in the establishment of Mackay and the surrounding area as one of Queensland's premier sugar-growing areas. South Sea Islander people have all expressed a high level of interest in the house for its social value. Oral histories maintain that the bell which used to be located on the property was rung to bring people together. [The bell was removed around 1996].
Selwyn House is significant as it has strong social significance for residents of the Mackay and surrounding areas and is highly valued by the community. Selwyn House was identified in the Mackay Region Pilot Heritage Study.
|It is significant for its association with Mary Goodwin Robinson who established the Selwyn Mission, and was involved with it until her departure from the Mackay area in 1903. Mary Robinson provided a level of education to indentured South Sea Islander people who worked on the sugar plantations.
Selwyn House stands as a demonstration of the prosperity and vigorous growth of the industry and as an illustration of the lifestyle of major figures in this development, especially Thomas Whitcomb and James Gibson, both of whom held the position of Chairman of Directors at the Racecourse Central Mill.
","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":15880,"place_ref":601107,"name":"Mackay Town Hall (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"63 Sydney Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1998-05-29","description":"The former Mackay Town Hall is a two-storeyed rendered masonry building addressing Sydney Street, Mackay. The street facade, facing west, has a two-storey arcaded verandah is symmetrical about a central entry and clock tower. To the northern side and the rear of the building is a public park.
The street facade is divided into five bays of semi-circular moulded arches with pilasters between and string courses. At the centre is a square clock tower with balustrade parapet, ball finials and circular windows. Above the entry archway, which projects slightly forward of the others, is "Town Hall 1912" in relief.
The parapet of the verandah has a cornice and ball finials, and is at a lower level than the parapet of the main building. The upper level verandah has cast iron balustrading and the lower level masonry. The verandah ceilings are ripple iron.
To the side elevations are timber double-hung sash windows with arched heads, whilst those to the lower verandah have square heads. To the upper level verandah are several pairs of French doors. The side and rear windows have hoods of timber and corrugated steel.
Centrally located on the lower verandah, the main entry has a pair of timber panelled doors with brass handles and letter slots. Beyond the entry is a central corridor with offices to either side. The corridor contains the marble honour boards and the timber stair, which has turned balusters and newels. The honour boards, mounted on the southern wall of the ground floor corridor, list local servicemen from the First and Second World Wars. The dedication inscription has not been completed.
Ceilings throughout are decorative pressed metal with metal roses.
The upper level is a single room, formally the Council Chambers, from which French doors open onto the upper verandah.
Added to the south-east corner of the ground floor are toilets accessible from the exterior.
","history":"The former Mackay Town Hall, the second constructed in the city, was built in 1912 by local builder, Charles Porter, to the design of Mackay architect A Rigby. It was constructed on land purchased by the Mackay Municipal Council on 13 December, 1872.
John Mackay and his party had explored what was to become the Pioneer Valley in 1860. The present city blocks were surveyed in June 1863 when the settlement consisted of several dozen huts and tents in a line along a track parallel to the southern bank of the river, and the first land sale was held at the police office, Bowen, on 13 October 1863.
The settlement became the business centre for the pastoral stations in the district, providing services, supplies and port facilitates. By the mid 1860s the township of Mackay had a post office, telegraph connection to Brisbane, churches, banks, a racecourse and the road through the valley and over the range to Fort Cooper had been upgraded from a track.
By 1868, public meetings had discussed the establishment of a local municipal council. Further meetings and a petition signed by 178 householders, freeholders and residents of Mackay resulted in the proclamation of the Municipality of Mackay on 22 September 1869.
The inaugural meeting of the Mackay Municipal Council, which was comprised of local businessmen, was held on 1 December, 1869. This meeting was possibly held in the Court House in River Street, which served a number of government functions. Soon after, the Council met in the original Post and Telegraph Office in Wood Street. Subsequent meetings were held in a building in Sydney Street owned by Mr R Fleming.
The first Municipal Chambers of Mackay were constructed on Allotment 3 Section 33 in Sydney Street in 1872. By 1884, when Mackay was experiencing a sugar boom, the building was deemed to be inadequate and plans were prepared for a new town hall. However, it was not until 1909 that the Town Council accepted recommendations from its newly formed Town Hall Committee, that a town hall of brick be built and that Council apply for a ten year Government loan for that purpose. The following March, the Committee also recommended the building should be on the site of the original Town Hall in Sydney Street, and that competitive designs be called for.
Two designs were submitted, and that of Mackay architect and engineer A Rigby was accepted on 30 November 1911, with modifications to the roof as recommended by the Treasury Department. Tenders for construction were called, and the lowest, that of Charles Porter for £2327, was accepted. Porter had previously undertaken major building contracts for the South African Government, and his constructions in Mackay included several, nearby places of local significance, including Paxton's Shipping Office and Store, St Patrick's Presbytery and St Mary's Church in River Street as well as the Australian Hotel. His company also supplied building material and furniture to the Mackay community.
The earlier town hall was moved to the rear of the block, to make way for the new building. Tenders were accepted from T Cherry and V Warry for the supply of furniture and Porter's supplied gas fittings. Furnishings included "cork carpet" in the hallway, linoleum in the downstairs rooms, fibre matting on the stairs and the Council room left bare. Photographs of John Mackay and past Mayors were hung in the entrance hallway.
The Town Hall was constructed of locally produced bricks and the plan featured a central, square tower designed to include a clock. The clock was never purchased and circular, glass paned windows still remain on the west, north and south sides of the tower.
The new Town Hall was constructed during the year of the "Jubilee of 50 years of economic growth". The first official Council meeting was held in the new building on 19 October 1912 with the official opening the next day.
In October 1915 the Mackay Harbour Board requested that a Roll of Honour Board be erected in the Town Hall, listing the names of those from Mackay and district who had enlisted in World War I, together with photographs of those killed. The marble Honour Board, installed in March 1917, is mounted on the wall of the corridor of the Town Hall, although the inscriptions are incomplete.
In 1918 the Town Hall was one of the few buildings in Mackay which was not damaged by a severe cyclone and was used as a refuge for evacuees. A child born during this period was given the middle name of Hall.
Extensions to the rear of the building were completed by 1939/40. Further extensions were added in 1949 and 1959 to accommodate an increasing Council staff.
After moving to the new Civic Administration Building in 1974, Council planned to demolish the existing Town Hall and offer the site and adjacent parkland for commercial development to help defray costs of the new building. Following a public meeting of 500 people protesting the decision, 18 months of debate and a petition of over 8500 signatures, Council eventually agreed to retain the building. However, the 1949 and 1959 extensions to the rear of the building were demolished.
In 1982-3, Council spent $120,000 renovating the building. This work included repairs to structural weaknesses; the exterior repaired and painted; louvred extensions on balconies removed; floors tiled; railings on upper and lowers balconies restored; internal painting; wall papering and carpeting throughout; ceiling fans and new lighting installed; hand rails on stairs and all window sills scraped and polished and the original brass door knobs and fittings polished. In March 1983 the building was leased to the Department of Community Health.
In 1996, the Council coordinated public meetings to discuss the future of the now-vacant building. Strong attendance showed the community concern over the building, and favoured community uses for it.
","criteria":"The former Mackay Town Hall, the centre of administration for the Mackay Municipal Council, was constructed in 1912 on the site of the earlier timber town hall. This second town hall served as the centre of local government for over 60 years, until the construction of the Mackay Civic Centre in 1975.
|The building, which was one of few buildings of the Mackay City Centre to survive the devastating cyclone of 1918, is evidence of the growth and prominence of Mackay at that time.
|The former Town Hall demonstrates the principal characteristics of regional town halls, being a substantial two storeyed building on a prominent site featuring a dominant clock tower.
|The former Town Hall, with its two storey formal street facade, two-storey verandah with moulded arcade and clock tower, makes a substantial contribution to the streetscape of Mackay's city centre.
|The importance of the building to the community has been demonstrated by public pressure to retain the building when it was threatened with demolition in the 1970s, and community interest in its ongoing use in the 1990s. Council undertook substantial refurbishment works during the 1980s.
","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":15884,"place_ref":601111,"name":"Holy Trinity Church Complex","alternate_name":"Holy Trinity Church, parish Hall and Presbytery | Holy Trinity Anglican Church Complex","street_address":"39 Gordon Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-04-29","description":"The Holy Trinity Church Complex is located one block south of Victoria Street, the main commercial street of Mackay, on the corner of Gordon and Sydney Streets which is a major thoroughfare through the city.
The Church:
The Holy Trinity Church is a substantial rendered masonry building sited on a north-south axis. The principal façade of the building faces north to Gordon Street. Front elevation has decorative parapet including dentil course and raked arch motif below the eaves line and crucifix finial. A central rose window is filled with coloured and leaded glass panel. The entry is defined by an arched gabled entry portico with twisted 'barley sugar' columns. The exterior is rendered with smooth white stucco. The gabled roof of the building is clad with red painted wide gauge corrugated iron roof which simulates terra cotta tiles. Along the outside of the nave is an arcaded arched colonnade loggia.
The interior of the building comprises a nave with the aisles surmounted by clerestory lighting. Lining the side elevations of the church are round-arched window openings. The clerestory windows are in pairs and filled with coloured glass. Below are glazed doors in geometrical patterned coloured glass.
The interior is also rendered with white stucco and has a cruciform plan. In one transept is the Warriors' chapel with three stained glass windows of St George, St Michael and St Alban. This chapel is divided form the body of the church through three round arched openings. At the rear is an organ loft on four columns. The ceiling is vaulted, with cross vaults at the bays of the engaged piers.
There are many memorials within the church, including several retrieved from earlier churches on the site. There is also a cedar Bishop's throne which could also be from an earlier church. The sanctuary arch is flanked by marble Corinthian columns. A simple marble alter sits within the half domes space of the sanctuary.
The Residence:
The residence is between the other buildings, set back from the street screened by a tropical garden. The residence is also rendered with white stucco and has a decorative front parapet, and a group of three round arch windows on the principal elevation. The roof is clad with red corrugated iron. Stepped fronted residence, gabled roof apart from the front parapet. The interior includes chevron decorative ceilings.
Parish Hall:
The front of the Hall faces north to Gordon Street. A foundation stone is at front of the building. The hall is a rectangular building on the same orientation as the church, north-south axis, but slightly larger. It too is rendered with white stucco and has decorative parapets repeating the raked arched motif of the church. The parapets are capped with terra-cotta tiles.
The front facade has a central projecting bay, with a group of three archways at the entrance. Above is a group of three arched windows housed within a large round arched recess .
Up several steps is a reception lobby with terrazzo floor, with small meeting rooms either side. Stairs to either side lead to further rooms upstairs. Through the three entrance doors with brass handles, is a large hall, of two-storey height. Centred is a dance floor. The hall area presently has a suspended ceiling and a mezzanine over its rear section. Along each side of the hall is an arched colonnaded aisle, with a mezzanine walkway to the perimeter. In some parts, there are large round-arched windows rising the two-storeys of the height. Below the stage is a basement with framed change cubicles.
","history":"The Holy Trinity Church, Mackay was constructed as the third church on the site and the first masonry church. The building was completed in 1926, although the design is thought to have been completed by 1923 by Brisbane architect Lange Powell. The church precinct was supplemented by a parish hall and rectory in the late 1930s.
The Church of England Diocese of Brisbane was formed at the time of Queensland's establishment as a separate colony in 1859 and took over what had been the Newcastle Diocese which had extended ten miles north of present-day Mackay. North of this area remained within the Diocese of Sydney. The district discovered by John Mackay in 1860 was thus already within a defined ecclesiastical district and Mackay alone, of the parishes of Northern Queensland, had been under the auspices of the Brisbane Diocese since separation. . Mackay was later incorporated into the Diocese of North Queensland which was formed in 1878.
John Mackay and his party had discovered what was to become the Pioneer Valley in 1860. The present city blocks were surveyed in June 1863 when the settlement consisted of several dozen huts and tents in a line along a track parallel to the southern bank of the river, and the first land sale was held at the police office, Bowen, on 13 October 1863. Among the speculators was Edward Wyndham Tufnell, Bishop of the Church of England, Brisbane, who purchased six lots in the heart of town for £396. A further twenty acres of land on what is now Nebo Road was purchased by Bishop Tufnell at a later date.
While early settlers in Mackay were cattlemen it was soon realised that the soil, climate and rainfall were suitable for the growing of sugar-cane. The growth of the sugar industry was accelerated by the Sugar and Coffee Regulations of 1864 and by the 1880s a system of plantation agriculture had developed.
The first Church of England service in Mackay was conducted by Bishop Tufnell at the Mackay Court House in 1863. By 1867 the Parish of Mackay was established and land for the construction of a church was purchased on 11 August, 1869. That the church was built at a time of depressed economic circumstances reflects a strong commitment by the congregation to their religious beliefs. None of the six town lots purchased by Bishop Tufnell was used for the site of the first Holy Trinity Church.
The first Trinity church was completed in 1871 of an English design with a steeply pitched roof covered with wood shingles. It was built of stone but collapsed in 1878 possibly because of a defect in the foundations. The Mackay Mercury reported on 10 March 1878:
"Last Sunday morning, during the heavy rainfall, we regret to state that the gable end of Trinity Church fell with a great crash and destroyed a considerable portion of the altar and Church furniture. The building had been in a dangerous state for some time past and, judging from the numerous cracks in the walls, and imperfect foundations, it is a wonder it has stood for so long."
Services were held in the Oddfellows' Hall, Sydney Street, until 1879 when a second church was consecrated. By 1884 the Mackay Parish complex consisted of a ...large, beautifully appointed Church, a large Sunday School building and a neat cottage for a parsonage. During the late 1880's a ladies' committee was formed to raise funds and this committee contributed 347 pounds towards the cost of a new parsonage. The term 'parsonage' became obsolete after 24 years and 'rectory' was substituted.
The second Holy Trinity Church was designed by the colonial architect, F G Stanley, who supplied the plans free of charge. The building was constructed of wood, and was of a Gothic design with a steeply pitched roof covered with shingles, sited on the southern side of the grounds and capable of holding a congregation of 500. This Church was fitted with a pipe organ, an altar of carved English oak, and carved oak rails in memory of prominent people with strong associations with Holy Trinity Parish. Lighting was by gas, with ornate brass standards, about seven feet tall, each surmounted by a cluster of three lamps representing the Trinity.
The second church was destroyed in a cyclone in 1918. A temporary church was constructed from salvaged timber and a fundraising drive was conducted throughout Australia. In 1923 the estimate for the new building was £10,800 but by time of construction in 1926 the cost had risen to £14,315. This resulted in modifications to the original plan which had included an imposing bell tower, 82 feet high and 17 feet square at the base. The plan also incorporated an arcade which would have been on the east side of the land.
The design of the third church is believed to be similar to that of the Mission Church of the Order of Saint John which was seen by Canon Halse in Bombay. It suggests the style of a Spanish church with the addition of open verandahs to allow for the harsh northern climate. The incumbent Rector, Canon Fortesque Leo Ash, arranged for a Warriors' Chapel as an integral part of the building in memory of those who had died in the 1914-18 war. The architect was Lange L Powell and the builders were A Stonage and Sons. The church, together with a rectory and a parish hall occupies a city block. The church was designed in 1923 and completed in 1926.
Lange L Powell was an early twentieth century architect who practised in partnership with Claude Chambers as Chambers and Powell form 1911 until 1920; and then with Beatrice Hutton as Powell and Hutton from 1922 until 1924. When Powell designed the Holy Trinity Church, Mackay he was in private practice. During his long career as an architect Powell designed many prominent buildings, including St Martins Hospital and the Masonic Temple in Ann Street, Brisbane.
In his design of the Holy Trinity Church, Powell used a blend of Romanesque, Spanish Mission and Mediterranean architectural styles, all popular during the inter-war period. A similar eclecticism was used by architect Eric Ford of Brisbane's Chambers and Ford on the design of the Holy Trinity Church at Woolloongabba in Brisbane. The massing and detailing of these two churches illustrates the use of Romanesque architecture which was popularised in America from the late nineteenth century by architect, Henry Hobson Richardson. That the churches are rendered with smooth cast stucco suggests strongly an overriding Spanish Mission influence.
Many of the memorials within the Holy Trinity Church are relics of the first and second churches which were salvaged and incorporated in the present building.
In the mid 1930s the early Rectory was condemned and the hall, built in 1918, required repairs. A new hall was constructed in a style to complement the church and it was proposed that the hall be built large enough for dances, meetings or general entertainment so that rental would pay off the building. The hall had 4000 square feet of floor space, a small hall for kindergarten, Sunday School and rooms for guilds and meetings. The hall was built during 1937-38 and the Rectory, constructed between the church and the hall, was built in 1939. The Premier W Forgan Smith specifically travelled to Mackay for the opening of the parish hall on 4 September 1937.
The foundation stone for the hall was laid by Premier W Forgan Smith in 1937. The architect was Harold Brown and the contractor was Queensland Engineering. The building was constructed at a cost of £15,000. The Mackay Daily Mercury reported on the 6 September 1937 at the laying of the foundation stone:
'the hope was that the hall would be the centre of culture for the city - physical culture, arts, drama and music - as well as providing rooms for smaller meetings for social, religious, and industrial purposes. The hall would be used a great deal for Church purposes and also for other social occasions that were well run and for the benefit of the people.'
The church hall was officially opened by the Bishop of North Queensland, Dr Feetham, 19 April, 1938, at a mask and domino ball reported by the Mackay Daily Mercury as needing little extra in the way of decoration owing to the aesthetic surroundings, but the lighting effects and the outstanding artistry of the interior required nothing in the way of additional support to add to the pleasure of patrons.
The rectory constructed in 1939 between the Church and the hall was designed in a style to complement the other buildings. It became a Parish Centre when a new rectory was built in 1974.
The existing church and hall, although not original, remains one of the few building complexes occupying an original site in the district.
","criteria":"The Holy Trinity Church complex is a substantial brick complex which is important in demonstrating the growth and importance of Mackay associated with the sugar cane industry from 1864 to the present time.
|The Holy Trinity Church Complex comprises three buildings constructed at different times all with reference to and in sympathy with the distinctive Romanesque inspired design of the 1923 Church. The Complex is a landmark in Mackay and has aesthetic and architectural significance for its siting, planning, quality of detailing and other design qualities. The Church is of particular architectural quality, with well composed interiors and detailing, and has special associations with the architect Lange Powell, in illustrating the breadth of this work.
|It has a long association with the Anglican community in Mackay.
|The church demonstrates the spread of the Anglican Church in regional Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | 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 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":16044,"place_ref":601281,"name":"Richmond Mill Ruins","alternate_name":"Richmond Mill","street_address":"Habana Road","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1996-06-04","description":"The Richmond Mill is situated on the Habana Road, about 14kms from Mackay on its northern side. The ruins of the mill are now part of a small private property of some 4.5 acres, surrounded by undulating canefields. At present, the Richmond Mill Ruins site includes the remnants of the mill train foundations, the brick chimney stack, the brick-lined well, a boiler, the juice tank, and many other artefacts including pans, tools and machinery parts.
The mill site is in the north-eastern corner of the present property, with Habana Road running parallel to the southern boundary. Near the entrance from the road are the remains of a brick kitchen fireplace and levelled ground indicating the site of the original homestead. Behind the present residence is further levelled ground reputed to be the site of the manager's house. Towards the centre of the site are several ruinous timber and corrugated iron buildings which were also part of the mill complex. The first is the old garage, then the single-roomed caretaker-manager's quarters with a small verandah on its south side, and the larger workmen's' quarters, which has partially collapsed. It is believed there were other workmen's quarters to the west of this building.
To the north of the timber outbuildings is a grove of trees on a slight bank, in which is nestled the juice tank. Still in its original location, the steel sides of the tank measure some 7 metres in diameter and 1.12 metres in depth, with a 100mm pipe outlet. Its top is no longer enclosed, and the offices and laboratory which reputedly sat above no longer exist.
Then in a partial clearing at the north-east corner of the property are the ruins of the mill, still in its setting of canefields. The most dominant feature of the mill is the brick chimney stack, which is still visible from the road. It is some 20 metres (65ft) high, slightly tapered and finished with corbelled and dentil courses at the top. The bricks measure 9" by 4½" by 3", and are laid in English bond separated by 15mm of sand/lime mortar. At the base are two openings on opposite sides with arched brick lintels. On the eastern face is the remains of the lightning conductor. On the inside faces of the stack are recesses in the brickwork which apparently were for housing the scaffolding as the stack was constructed.
Beside the stack is an open pan, some 2.2 metres in diameter. It is said to have come from the nearby Inverness Mill, but is very similar to the one which was at the Richmond Mill, which was said to have been mounted on a brick base. To the north of the stack is an area of brick paving believed to be the floor of the mill building. Within this paving are holes which may have been for the vacuum pan stand, under which was housed the smaller 12hp engine. Also in this area is another brick and concrete stand and a shallow pit, about one metre in diameter which is partially collapsed. Further to the north is a concrete trough which housed the fugals, which were driven by belts from the nearby 12hp engine. Here centrifugal spinning separated the molasses from the granule sugar.
To the west of the stack are three pairs of brick and concrete stands being the foundations of the mill train, which carried the rollers and engines. At present, several fig trees have taken root and are growing over these foundations. There are remnants of the rollers and other machinery on one pair of foundations. To the west of the foundations once ran the carrier, which transported the cane from where it was unloaded into the rollers. It was a continuous belt of timber slats housed in steel chains running between axles, and remnants of these chains and axles remain. Beside the foundations is a copper tray, also reputedly from a nearby mill. To the east of the stack is the remains of a boiler. It was one of two which provided steam for the larger 50hp engine which powered the mill. It was located beside the stack originally.
At the north-east corner of the site is the well. It is some 9m (30ft) deep with about a metre of silt at the bottom. Constructed of brick, it has only the top seven courses mortared. Recent remedial work has included the addition of a second brick skin to the exterior to strengthen its walls.
The site immediately to the south of the well is believed to be that of the blacksmith's shop, and to the west several holes now filled indicate this was probably the site of the refinery.
Scattered through the site is a large collection of artefacts including tools and machinery parts from this mill site and other locations.
","history":"Richmond Mill, Mackay was constructed in 1881 for John McBryde and Hector McKenzie Finlayson on 10 acres they purchased from the Richmond Estate. It was the first central mill in the district.
\nThe pastoral lands of the Pioneer Valley had been discovered by John Mackay and an exploration party in May 1860. Rapid settlement followed as settlers took advantage of the recently proclaimed Land Act to occupy the rich country of the area. Through the 1860s large pastoral holdings were established throughout the valley, but these were challenged when the Queensland Government introduced legislation in 1868 to encourage closer settlement. By the early 1880s most pastoral land in the Pioneer Valley had been converted to agricultural land.
\nIt is thought that sugar was first planted in the valley in 1865 on the Pioneer Plantation. Sugar production was encouraged by the Queensland Government because consumption of sugar in industrialised countries had increased enormously and supply had decreased as a result of the American Civil War. The British Government, through its Sugar and Coffee Regulations of 1864, also sought to encourage production of sugar in the colonies. By 1875, approximately 5,000 acres was under sugar cultivation in the Pioneer Valley.
\nThe Richmond Estate, selected in 1870 by Hugh McCready, was located in the Pioneer Valley, North Queensland. It is believed that Andrew Cumming was in partnership with McCready and that the plantation took its name from one owned by Cumming on St Vincent Island, West Indies.
\nCane production in the Pioneer Valley fell during the 1870s when rust disease destroyed most of the crops. During this time farmers concentrated on improving their production techniques and were more selective about the type of cane they planted. By the early 1880s, rust disease was under control and cane production doubled.
\nTo meet the resulting increase in demand for milling facilities, the Richmond Sugar Company was formed in 1881, the principals being Scotsmen John McBryde and Hector McKenzie Finlayson. John McBryde had first settled at Rockhampton in 1863 where he established a coconut plantation and bred horses. Prior to 1878 he went to the Pioneer Valley where he formed a partnership with Finlayson to breed horses and grow cane on Glenalbyn, North Side. They also owned the Inverness Plantation with FW Poolman.
\nThe aim of the Richmond Sugar Company was to develop a central mill to process cane for farmers in the surrounding district. The mill, which did not have its own plantation but relied solely on product from surrounding farms, has been hailed as a forerunner of the central mill concept because it was established four years before centralised milling became common in Mackay. Its establishment encouraged speculative investment in similar mills and investment in cane production because producers were now able to get their cane milled without having to process it themselves.
\nFor a short while the Richmond Mill was the only central mill north of Bundaberg. It produced both golden syrup and refined sugar. The golden syrup was produced in the off season using a charcoal filter process. The company won awards at the Mackay Show in 1883 for golden syrup and its white sugar won first prise at the Melbourne Exhibition in 1888. They also won a medal in 1886 at the British Industries Exhibition in London for sugar refining and a medal in 1883 at the British Industries Exhibition in South Africa for sugar refining.
\nMr Blackmore was the designer of the mill buildings and engineer for the construction of the machinery which was imported from A & W Smith of Glasgow. The mill was made up of a simple set of rollers 117cm long and 56cm in diameter and was driven by a 50hp, horizontal steam powered engine with two boilers. It was the first mill in the Mackay district to be driven by steam rather than fire heated batteries when Aspinall steam heated evaporative batteries were installed.
\nThe machinery was housed in a cathedral shaped building, 44 metres long and 9 metres wide, with the wings 9 metres by 6 metres. The juice tank, measuring 7 metres in diameter by 1120 mm in depth, with a 100mm pipe outlet, was built under the floor of the factory offices. William Robertson of the Victoria Foundry, Mackay built the 20 metre high chimney stack. It is similar in design to the Cornish boiler stacks of early North Queensland mining towns and was constructed of locally made brick. This brick, marked with an 'H', most probably came from either Hardwick Brickworks in West Mackay or Hayward Brickworks at Walkerston. The machinery and building cost £10,000.
\nThe mill was supplied by up to 7330 gallons of water per hour pumped from the nearby creek by a Cameron Pump. Within a short time a 9 metre deep well was constructed when the creek ran dry during a drought year. This well was built with two skins of brick, 230mm thick. It is believed that the well remained in use on the property until after the Second World War, when a windmill was built over it.
\nThe Pioneer Valley became an attractive investment prospect as sugar production expanded and demand increased. With the growth in the industry the Victorian Sugar Company, a subsidiary of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, was formed. The company bought 16,000 acres of land in the district and erected the Homebush Mill to process its crop. At the same time the company continued to purchase sugar from smaller farmers. Other southern investors followed the lead of CSR which spelt the end for smaller enterprises such as the Richmond Mill.
\nThe industry had reached a peak by the early 1880s and unfortunately inefficiencies in the industry were exposed when world sugar prices fell. Further pressure was placed on the industry when the government banned the importation of South Sea Islands labour. The resulting high cost of wages crippled the industry.
\nBy 1888 the Richmond Mill was only producing 75 tons of sugar and in 1894 the mill and the Richmond Estate plantations were offered for sale. The mill was closed in 1895 and a caretaker appointed.
\nWilliam Begg Fordyce arrived from Scotland in 1888. He came to the mill as a ploughman and was later appointed caretaker/manager. After his appointment Fordyce appears to have been involved in dismantling the mill. The buildings were removed along with most of the mill machinery. The stack, boiler, juice pan, well and machinery foundations remain on the site. Fordyce, who as manager shared in the mill profits, later purchased up to 1,000 acres of the former Richmond Estate, including the Richmond Mill site.
\nIn the 1990s, the mill site was owned by Mr EC Denman, the great-grandson of Andrew Cumming, original owner of the Richmond Estate, through the marriage of Cumming's daughter Helen Jane to Edward Denman. In 2003, the property changed hands and remains in private ownership.
","criteria":"Richmond Mill is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's history because of its contribution to the early sugar refining industry and as an example of the earliest central milling process in the Mackay district.
|The site demonstrates a rare and endangered aspect of Queensland's history because the mill chimney stack is the last remaining stack in the district.
|The place has the potential to reveal information which could contribute to an understanding of Queensland's heritage, the mill remnants being important in demonstrating the early use of steam power in the sugar extraction process, which was first introduced to the Mackay district at Richmond Mill.
|The Mackay community, which has a strong and active interest in its history, values the Richmond Mill Ruins because of its association with the early sugar industry and for the landmark and aesthetic qualities of the chimney stack.
|The Mackay community, which has a strong and active interest in its history, values the Richmond Mill Ruins because of its association with the early sugar industry and for the landmark and aesthetic qualities of the chimney stack.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | 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 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":16054,"place_ref":601291,"name":"Sarina War Memorial","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Broad Street","suburb":"SARINA","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-12-05","description":"The First World War Memorial is situated in a central median strip facing west.
The memorial comprises a pedestal surmounted by a digger statue and is surrounded by two fences. The first fence is located on the pad on which the memorial sits and comprises picked stone bollards, square in plan, and linked by metal rails. Another fence of short circular metal posts linked by a metal chain is located beyond this, forming a protective boundary around the memorial.
The memorial itself sits on a stepped base of five tiers which vary in size, the last two having chamfered tops Surmounting this is the pedestal itself, comprising a plinth capped with cyma recta mouldings and a dado Both the plinth and the dado have marble plaques attached with lists of the fallen on the dado, and commemorative verses on the plinth. The dado is capped by a substantial cornice of cyma recta mouldings, on top of which stands the digger statue.
The soldier statue stands with his head slightly bowed and hands crossed over a rifle which is in the reversed positioned and resting on his left boot. A tree stump is located behind the statue for support.
","history":"The Sarina War Memorial was erected for the ANZAC Day ceremonies of 1919 and was produced by monumental masons of Townsville, Melrose and Fenwick. Funds for the memorial were raised by public subscription. The memorial honours the local men of Sarina and the surrounding district who served in the First World War.
The town of Sarina is located 35 kilometres south of Mackay and was originally established as a pastoral holding. In the early 1880s, the area was thrown open for selection as sugar cane fields and flourished following the construction of the Plane Creek sugar mill in 1896. A supporting infrastructure of schools, theatres and halls was established, as well as residences for both workers and management. The town and mill serviced the southern part of the region and by the 1930s Sarina was the second largest town in the region. It continues to exist as a secondary centre to Mackay.
Up until the early twentieth century, there were few statues or monuments in Queensland. However, as a result of the First World War (1914 - 1918), memorials were erected in almost every Queensland town. Such public expression of both grief for the dead and pride in the nation has not been generated by previous or subsequent wars.
The First World War had an immense impact on the Australian population. Of those who went to war, almost one in five did not return. It was common for families to lose more than one son and for small communities to lose a whole generation of men.
In 1916 the British Government prohibited the exhumation and return of bodies. This, coupled with the impracticality of visiting distant graves ensured war memorials became an expression of public mourning, revered as cenotaphs (literally meaning 'empty tomb') by those who erected them. Placed at prominent locations, they became symbols of remembrance and were considered to be as sacred as grave sites. As such, materials, design principles and symbols suggesting permanence, reverence and commemoration were important elements.
Queenslanders were at the forefront of sustaining public expression. In 1916 they were the first state to establish ANZAC Day as a day of remembrance, encouraging other states to join them in making April 25th a day of national commemoration.
It was expected that this tradition would be continued by future generations and that the memorials themselves would be honoured and respected. However it is apparent from the evidence of vandalism and alterations to memorials throughout the state that this has not always been the case.
The memorials are important, not only in terms of what they represent, but also for what they record. In addition to listing the local men who served and fell in the First World War, many memorials also display details regarding unveiling ceremonies and fund-raising committees, making them invaluable as social and historical documents. They are even more valuable when it is considered that all other documentary records of those who served in the First World War are listed either alphabetically or by military units, making it virtually impossible to determine the original locality of a specific serviceman. The memorials are therefore the only readily accessible records of the origins of the men who served and fell.
Although there are many different types of memorials in Queensland, the digger statue is the most common. It was the most popular choice of communities responsible for erecting the memorials, embodying the ANZAC myth and representing the qualities of the ideal Australian.....loyalty, courage, youth, innocence and masculinity The digger was a phenomenon peculiar to Queensland, perhaps due to the fact that other states had followed Britain's lead and established Advisory Boards made up of architects and artists, prior to the erection of war memorials The digger statue was not highly regarded by artists and architects who were involved in the design of relatively few Queensland memorials.
Most statues were constructed by local masonry firms, although some were by artists or imported They varied slightly in design, presumably to suit the needs of the communities who commissioned them.
Melrose and Fenwick, the makers of the Sarina memorial, were a monumental masonry firm established in Townsville in c1896 They were a large firm with branches throughout Northern Queensland, and provided many war memorials to that area. They enjoyed continued success into the late 20th century, with the business closing in the early 1980s.
","criteria":"War Memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state. They provide evidence of an era of widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism, particularly during and following the First World War.
|The monuments manifest a unique documentary record and are demonstrative of popular taste in the inter-war period.
The memorial at Sarina demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event. This is achieved through the appropriate use of various symbolic elements including the digger statue, lists of the fallen and commemorative phrases. As a digger statue it is representative of the most popular form of memorial in Queensland.
|The memorial and its setting are a landmark within Sarina and contribute to the aesthetic qualities of the streetscape. The memorial is of aesthetic significance for its high degree of workmanship and design.
|It has a strong and continuing association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and as the focal point for the remembrance of that event.
|It also has special association with the Townsville monumental masons, Melrose and Fenwick.
","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":16055,"place_ref":601292,"name":"Koumala War Memorial","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Mumby Street","suburb":"KOUMALA","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-08-27","description":"The Koumala War Memorial is situated in a reserve next to the Koumala State School, facing Bull Street. The reserve is surrounded by a low chain wire fence with white painted metal frames. The setting in which the memorial is located is barren apart from new plantings of 'Ned Kelly' Grevilleas, and a flagpole which stands directly behind the memorial.
The memorial is constructed of white painted concrete and comprises a double stepped base from which rises an obelisk on a square plinth. The front face of the plinth features a plaque with a commemorative statement from the citizens of the Koumala district. The obelisk is surmounted by a small Latin cross.
","history":"The Koumala War Memorial was erected in 1959 and was designed and produced by ? Funds for the memorial were raised by public subscription, arranged by the Koumala sub-branch of the RSL. The memorial was erected in honour of those who served in all wars and particularly honours the six local men who made the supreme sacrifice in honour of their country during the Second World War.
Six small trees have recently been planted by the school children with each tree representative of one the six men. Temporary plaques displaying the names were placed beside each tree and it is intended that these will be replaced with more permanent plaques at some stage.
","criteria":"War Memorials are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history as they are representative of a recurrent theme that involved most communities throughout the state. They provide evidence of an era of widespread Australian patriotism and nationalism, particularly during and following the First World War.
|The monuments manifest a unique documentary record and are demonstrative of popular taste in the inter-war period.
The memorial at Koumala demonstrates the principal characteristics of a commemorative structure erected as an enduring record of a major historical event. This is achieved through the appropriate use of various elements such as the cairn and commemorative plaque.
|It has a strong and continuing association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historic event and as the focal point for the remembrance of that event.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | 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 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":16416,"place_ref":601655,"name":"Pindi Pindi Brickworks (former)","alternate_name":"Pindi Pindi Firebricks Company | Evans Firebricks Ltd","street_address":"Off Bruce Highway","suburb":"PINDI PINDI","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-10-27","description":"The former Pindi Pindi Brickworks site is bounded by Blackrock Creek to the south and the Bruce Highway and railway line to the west. At present, the former Pindi Pindi Bricworks site includes the remnants of the kilns, the brick chimney stacks and the brick-floored 'storage area'.
Evidence of the clay and shale pit quarrying operation is still present, and now shares the boundary with another property on the eastern side of the allotment. The original processing area is still visible, with the floor being constructed of bricks produced at the works. Original wooden supports, roof beams and trusses also remain, along with corrugated iron roofing. The majority of the walls are open and the roofed area has dirt floors.
Two brick kilns, with chimneys, remain. Located at the base of the kilns are a number of openings with arched brick lintels. The original clay conveyor belt and pan are also present under the covered works area. Two small, brick offices remain in the western corner of the site as does a single storey brick house. The house is located near the river at the southern end of the property.
","history":"The former Pindi Pindi Brickworks were established in 1933 for Edmund Evans.
The production of bricks on the site was related to the presence of coal at the Fleetwood Colliery, in the Whiptail Ranges, a source that was first commercially exploited in 1927-28. This colliery supplied the brickworks with coal following the opening of the Pindi Pindi site. Production of bricks was possible due to the high quality of clay in the area.
The brickworks were established by Edmund Evans, a resident of Dinmore, a bricklayer by trade with experience in brick manufacture. A local resident, W Adams, assisted him in investigating the site. Construction on the brickworks site, established to supply the North Queensland market, began in May 1933. The first production of bricks took place at the end of 1933.
Local shareholders in the Mackay area invested in the establishment of the works, with the brickworks trading under the name of Evans Firebricks Ltd. In 1934, the works employed 18 local workers, three of whom quarried the material at the clay pit and fifteen employed in the works environment. 78 000 bricks were produced during this time. Increasing demand for building bricks, as well as for firebricks, necessary for the sugar industry in North Queensland, saw the continued expansion of the brickworks.
In 1937 the company won a lucrative contract to supply refractory firebricks used in the construction of brick arches in locomotive firebricks for the Northern Division of Queensland Railways. It was the only local company capable of producing this material.
Following the replacement of Evans in 1938, Newbold Industries purchased the works, and Bill Gunthorpe was appointed as manager. Gunthorpe took up residence on site, living in a brick veneer dwelling, thought to be the first constructed in the area. This dwelling is currently separated from the brickworks site, situated on the Bruce Highway, across from the sheds. At this time, the works were renamed the Pindi Pindi Firebricks Company and continued to supply materials for the construction industry in North Queensland.
With the outbreak of World War II the works were forced to close, as a result of labour shortages and the loss of construction contracts in North Queensland. At the time, the threat to Australia from invasion was considered so real that machinery on site was buried to prevent it falling into the hands of the Japanese. At the end of 1947, the company closed, only to be reopened in 1949 by a local resident, Tony Giaiotti. Edmund Evans returned on site to act as an advisor to Giaiotti.
The bricks at Pindi Pindi were made by the semi-plastic method. A tramline ran from the clay and shale pit to the works. The clay was ground in the pan and then dropped into the brick press. The building bricks and fire bricks used the dry press method, however, bricks for fire arches in locomotive fireboxes had to be fashioned by hand.
Early bricks produced on site were stamped with EFB (Evans Fire Bricks). The original brick pan and press were from Fowlers in Sydney. The pug-mill (mud mixer) was designed by Evans. The single cylinder engine remaining on site was imported from England, and is thought to be still capable of operating.
Products from the works also found markets in other parts of Queensland, firebricks being used at the Mt Isa smelters as well as at Ipswich. Labour shortages continued to afflict the works at this time, and during the sugar crushing season, the works closed entirely.
During the 1950s, the brickworks changed hands three times, being sold in 1951 to George Fattseas of Mackay. In 1955, Bitkin and Machen purchased the site, but closed the works in 1958. A local Mackay builder, Alan Porter, purchased the works in 1961, reopening them and continued in ownership until 1977. The Pindi Pindi works closed in 1977 with the brickworks being relocated to a new site at Glenalla Road, Mackay. At the time of closure, most of the machinery was moved to the new works, however, the kilns, brick pan and press and single cylinder engine (Ruston Hornsby) remain on site.
Bricks from the former Pindi Pindi Brickworks were used to construct the Mackay Central State School (formerly the Mackay Intermediate School), Mackay Court House and Mackay Technical College. The brickworks are no longer in operation.
","criteria":"The former Pindi Pindi Brickworks, established in 1933, is important as an industrial in North Queensland, demonstrating industrial processes of the inter-war period. The establishment of the Brickworks resulted from the demand for the supply of building materials in North Queensland, as well as being the source of production for the supply of firebricks for the local sugar milling industry. It was the first brickworks to be established outside Brisbane capable of producing refactory firebricks, supplying these by contract to Queensland Railways.
|The site demonstrates a rare aspect of Queensland's history as the brickworks chimney stacks at the Pindi Pindi site are among the last remaining stacks in the district.
|As an industrial archaeological site, the former Pindi Pindi Brickworks has the potential to reveal information which could contribute to an understanding of Queensland's heritage, providing more information on the manufacture of bricks in North Queensland.
|The former Pindi Pindi Brickworks is significant for the landmark qualities of the chimney stacks.
|The bricks produced at the former Pindi Pindi Brickworks are associated with the development of the character and fabric of North Queensland, particularly in the Mackay area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | 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 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":16460,"place_ref":601705,"name":"Homebush Mission Hall","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Homebush Road","suburb":"HOMEBUSH","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1997-01-06","description":"The Homebush Mission Hall is a single-storey building of timber and corrugated iron, located a few kilometres to the east of the village of Homebush, about 20kms. south of Mackay. It is situated on the western fringe of a small cluster of cottages and surrounded by canefields. Triangular in shape, the site fronts the Homebush-Eton Road along its northern boundary, and has a cane tram line running parallel to its diagonal boundary to the south-east.
The hall is nestled towards the rear corner of the site, and faces north-east. The site is flat and grassed, with a scattering of mature eucalypts and new plantings, and marked by a fence of bush timber posts.
The building is a simple rectangular form (about 9.3 x 6.1m), with a projecting entry porch. The gabled roof is corrugated iron, with a lean-to roof over the porch. The walls to the body of the hall are also clad in corrugated iron, and punctuated by four tall, narrow windows to each side. These four-pane windows are horizontally pivoting, and retain some of their early hardware. Centred within the gable at each end is a panel of timber louvres to vent the roof space.
The hall is low-set, with timber stumps to the perimeter, and steel posts to the remainder. There are timber steps to the porch and the rear door. The entry porch is open, and clad in weatherboards and timber lattice. In the wall sheeting behind the porch is a V-shaped cut, being evidence an earlier porch had a gabled form.
There are also two windows, matching those of the sides, to the front wall, one each side of the double entry doors. The interior is a single room, with the timber wall and roof framing exposed. The floor is of narrow (about 50mm) hardwood boards. The rear door is boarded and braced, and retains some original hardware. To the far end is a raised timber platform, used as the sanctuary for the church services.
Beside the building is a corrugated steel water tank and timber stand. Also on the site is a empty outside 'thunderbox' toilet (reputedly from the Sarina Mission), some log seats and a corrugated steel toilet block.
","history":"The association of the South Sea Island community with this site began in 1892 when the Colonial Sugar Refining Company donated land from their Homebush holding for a community meeting house.
The Pioneer Valley lay within the southern section of the Kennedy land district. While pastoral land in the Leichhdart and Port Curtis districts was opened for settlement in the early 1850s, the Kennedy was not opened for selection until November, 1859. The first settlers established large runs across the entire Pioneer Valley. By the late 1860s pastoral holdings dominated the district although some land was utilised for agriculture around the township of Mackay.
Twenty years later agriculture, particularly sugar growing, had superseded pastoralism in the valley. Pastoralism declined because sheep were affected by footrot and spear grass and there were no local markets for cattle. Several of the early settlers, struggling to maintain their pastoral holdings, experimented with sugar cane on the rich soil of the valley.
The burgeoning sugar cane industry was greatly assisted by the opening of markets in Europe after sugar supplies were cut during the American Civil War. A further impetus was the establishment of steam powered mills in the district in 1868. By 1878 4,844 acres was under cane in the valley.
Indentured Melanesian labour was used to run the plantations and mills. Over 62,000 Pacific Islanders were contracted as indentured labourers in Queensland between 1863 and 1904. The everyday lives of these indentured labourers was controlled by Europeans, particularly in the area of education. South Sea Islanders mostly received their education through the Mission School System, developed by christian churches throughout the district. These mission schools, established away from the parent church, taught Christianity using full time missionary and Melanesian lay teachers. The school combined religious education with general education. Older people attended Sunday services, baptisms and other church services and were taught to read and write at night classes.
The Homebush Mission Hall was established by the Presbyterian Church on land donated by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company at Homebush. The building, which had been constructed of corrugated iron and timber stumps, supplied by the trustees, looked on to the mill road, which ran along the tramline to the combined road and tramline bridge over Sandy Creek.
The Mission Hall officially came under the trusteeship of Frederick Culverhouse, a butcher of Sandy Creek near Homebush, of Neil Petersen, a farmer of "Marseille" (sic), Homebush and Frank James Stevens, a farmer of "Colston Vale," Homebush on 28 June, 1892. Trusteeship of the hall did not pass to the South Sea Islander community until 1992.
An anti Asian/Islander immigration movement, which had its foundations in the mining fields of southern Australia in the 1850s, had grown in strength and general acceptance by the late nineteenth century. The introduction of various pieces of legislation made the White Australia Policy a fact in law by the beginning of the twentieth century. Specific legislation in 1901 and 1903 restricted the immigration of labourers from the Pacific Islands. A Queensland royal commission in April, 1906 reported on the number of South Sea Islanders to be deported by the end of 1906, while, at the same time, amendments were made to the Federal Pacific Islander Labourers Act to discontinue further immigration from the islands of the Pacific.
North Queensland, South Sea Islander political activists formed the Pacific Islanders Association in May 1901 to protest against the deportation of members of the community. Deportation meant that people who had lived in Australia for many years would be sent back to their country of birth leaving family behind. The Pacific Islanders Association was active for several years with meetings and protest gatherings held in locations such as the Homebush Mission Hall.
In the 1918 cyclone the Mission Hall was severely damaged, almost to the point of total demolition, and was later rebuilt, to face the Homebush Road, with mostly original material and with donations from trustees, Stevens and Petersen, and with a small sum from the Homebush Mill. For the next five decades the Mission Hall served the local community as a place of worship, social gatherings, weddings, Sunday school, picnics, meetings and other entertainment. The regularity of church, Sunday school and social gatherings decreased over the years, as the local population changed.
By the 1970s the hall was no longer in use, and had become dilapidated. In recent years the hall has again become a focus for the local South Sea Island community and is a part of their cultural revival. Many of these people received Sunday schooling there, looking upon the building with great affection and pride.
On 13 January, 1992, the hall came under the trusteeship of the Australian South Sea Islander United Council. A current trustee, Cristine Andrew, has been instrumental in having the building conserved.
","criteria":"The Homebush Mission Hall is an important historical feature in the development, both socially and economically, of the North Queensland region through its strong association with the South Sea Islander labour force which was instrumental in the establishment of the sugar cane industry, particularly in the Mackay District.
|Although similar examples were once common through the region, it is now a rare example of community meeting place of simple vernacular construction methods using timber and corrugated iron.
|It is also recognised by the broader community for its landmark and rude picturesque qualities.
|The Mission Hall is strongly associated with the Islander community as a meeting place for religious, social, cultural, educational and community activities for over a century and particularly as a centre for protest meetings against deportation in the first decade of this century.
|The hall continues to be an important part of Islander community life and the recent major conservation works on the hall is evidence of the continuing significance of this building to the South Sea Islander community of the region.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 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":16647,"place_ref":601911,"name":"Mackay Central State School","alternate_name":"Mackay Intermediate School","street_address":"251 Alfred Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-07-28","description":"The Mackay Central State School is a two-storey brick and stucco building with three projecting gable bays. Its roof is clad with corrugated iron. Between each bay the main façade is recessed. There is a single storey level section at each end with a hipped roof. The central entrance comprises a porch of three archways with a half timbered ceiling. On the roof is an octagonal fleche which has a copper cupola roof and louvred arcading around the sides. All external windows, many original, are multi-panelled casements. The internal windows are multi-panelled sash windows with hopper ventilating top lights. Paired entry doors have four pane glazed top panels set over singular rectangular panels with deep moulded borders. Internal doors are similar, but constructed of timber only.
The school is symmetrical in design. The ground level comprised six classrooms, a teachers room and a passageway. A stove recess is still evident in the domestic science classroom in the eastern wing. There are eight class rooms on the upper floor and three of these can still be subdivided by the original folding partitions. The upstairs ceilings are half timbered and original air vents are extant throughout the building. Bathroom facilities are located at each end of both floors. The main building is reasonably intact and the original configuration of the building has been retained.
The southern and western boundary of the school grounds are planted with mature Banyan figs (Ficus benghalensis). The grounds also include mature mango trees.
","history":"The Mackay Central State School, the second to be built on the site, was constructed in 1933 to a design from the Office of Public Works.
In search of new pastoral land, John Mackay and his party entered and named the valley of the Mackay River in 1860, and the following year he returned to establish a cattle station. In 1862, the ketch 'Presto' entered the Mackay River landing stores and building materials, then surveyed the river mouth, which consequently was gazetted as a Port of Entry. The first settlers arrived in October 1862, establishing the settlement of Port Mackay on the south bank of the river. By the end of 1863, the name of the river had been changed to the Pioneer, the first survey of the town of Mackay had been made, and the first land sale of town lots had been held.
The town of Mackay soon began to prosper through the growth of the port, the nearby pastoral holdings, and the plantations along the river which included the beginnings of the local sugar industry. River Street developed as a busy waterfront precinct with wharves (the Government wharf opened in 1868), warehouses, offices, ships' chandleries, boat builders, hotels and boarding houses, and the Customs complex which by 1870 included the Customs House, the bond store and the Sub Collectors residence.
The first school on the site, on which the Mackay Central State School was to be built, was opened on 14 September 1871 with 41 pupils. In 1885, when student numbers reached 650, the boys and girls were separated. The boys school remained on the original site, while the girls moved to a site across the road (now the Mackay Entertainment Centre). In 1933, the schools were reunited at the girls school site.
The present school was constructed in 1933 as the Mackay Intermediate School. In 1928, Intermediate Schools were established to provide vocational training for senior primary school students. At the completion of Grade five, children wishing to have vocational training were sent to the district's intermediate school where they followed the curriculum of sixth and seventh grades as well as compulsory vocational subjects. This policy also avoided the duplication of vocational training equipment at all primary schools. Intermediate Schools were similar in room size and plan form to existing high schools. By 1937, there were Intermediate Schools in Brisbane North (1935), Brisbane South (1929), Bundaberg (1933), Charters Towers (1929), Gatton (1933), Gympie (1933), Mackay, Maryborough Girls and Boys (1936), Mount Morgan (1929), Roma, Warwick (1929) and Ayr (1937).
Designed by the Department of Public Works, the school is architecturally typical of the style of brick schools constructed during the 1930s. Brick schools were popular with architects as they were considered permanent, relatively inexpensive to maintain and labour intensive. It is partly for the latter reason that thirty brick schools were constructed in Queensland during the 1930s Depression, providing considerable employment relief. Typically, these schools were multi-storeyed, unlike the predominant single storey, timber school buildings. They were symmetrical in plan and usually exhibited classical style elements and featured a prominent central entry. Based on this plan, the Mackay Central State School was constructed as a purpose-built Intermediate School.
The foundation stone of the Mackay Intermediate School was laid by the Premier and local MLA, William Forgan Smith, on 22 July 1933. The school catered for 600 male and female pupils and comprised fourteen classrooms, domestic science rooms in the eastern wing and manual science rooms in the western wing. Like similarly constructed schools, the classrooms in the Mackay Intermediate School were divided by folding timber partitions.
On completion of the building, the primary schools students moved to their new school and the Girls Schools became the Infants School. Students attended the Infant School from grades 1 to 5, then the Intermediate School from which they could graduate to Mackay High School.
In 1967, the Infant and Intermediate Schools combined and became the Mackay Central State School. The building was extended, with a wing constructed at the rear of the building, to provide for the increased numbers of students. The extensions provided an additional three classrooms. Other buildings later constructed on the site include the pre-school and activities block.
","criteria":"Constructed in 1933, as a former Intermediate School, the Mackay Central State School is most significant in demonstrating the results of an important development in Queensland education, established in 1928, where schools provided vocational training for senior primary school student. Evidence of a practical approach can be still seen in the extant stove recess in the domestic science room in the eastern wing of the school.
Mackay Central State School is demonstrative of a government scheme, the Unemployment Relief Scheme, implemented to assist the unemployed throughout Queensland, by means of generating work projects, during the Depression of the 1930s.
|Further, the Mackay Central State School, is significant as one of the best examples of a purpose-built Intermediate School, the purpose for its use being clearly expressed in the fabric of the building, with the domestic science section located in the eastern wing and the manual arts section located in the western wing.
Constructed in 1933, the school is a good example of the types of brick schools constructed in Queensland during an era of substantial building activity.
|The building is a fine example of a two-storeyed Inter-war brick school. Due to its massing and scale, the building is a landmark in the streetscape, in keeping with the Queensland Government's 1930s policy to raise the educational status of primary education through the construction of well designed, imposing buildings.
Further, the mature boundary plantings, including Banyan figs (Ficus benghalensis) contribute to the aesthetic significance of the site.
|The grounds on which the Mackay Central State School is built has been the site of public education for over a century, and consequently, is significant for its strong association with the local community.
","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":16792,"place_ref":602056,"name":"Mackay Technical College (former)","alternate_name":"Block E Mackay TAFE","street_address":"Alfred Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-10-27","description":"The former Mackay Technical College, now known as Block E, Mackay TAFE, is a two storeyed, brick building, elevated on a brick base and low stumps. The building has a hipped roof with a gable roof projection, clad with corrugated iron. A ventilator fleche with a domed metal top is located in the centre of the hipped roof. The building occupies a prominent position on the corner of Alfred and Wood Streets, Mackay. It is painted brick on the ground floor and roughcast render on the first floor.
The building has an assymmetric front (north) elevation with a projecting gable to one side with a ground floor verandah on the northern and southern side of the building and first floor balcony wrapping around the north, south and west sides of the building. A simple timber bargeboard is located in the gable of the projecting wing. A series of windows appear on both floors of the projecting gable section. A group of six long, rectangular windows are located in the ground floor and a group of five long, rectangular windows are located in the first floor and are surrounded by decorative mouldings. Below these windows the raised lettering reads 'TECHNICAL COLLEGE'. A large blue 'E' is located on the northern elevation.
Double hung, sash timber windows are located on both floors on the eastern side of the building. The windows on the ground floor are protected by sunhoods with curved, timber brackets and clad with corrugated iron. A timber staircase is located on the eastern side of the building leading to the first floor balcony on the southern side.
Timber french doors open to the verandahs from both the ground and first floors. On the ground floor the verandah has been enclosed on the western side. Timber balustrading, hand rails, verandah posts and lattice valances are located on the ground floor verandah and first floor balcony. A series of timber sunshading is located on the western side of the balcony. As part of the enclosing of the ground floor verandah, a series of timber, casement windows are located on the western side of the building. Paired, timber entrance doors are surrounded by a breezeway and fanlight assembly.
Internally, the front entrance leads to a foyer with rendered walls with a high, pressed metal ceiling. An arched opening with decorative mouldings and keystone leads to the central hall and central staircase. The hallway runs east-west through the building with a number of panelled, timber doors with breezeways, leading to offices and staff rooms. The hallway has a high, pressed metal ceiling. Part of the enclosed verandah on the western side of the building is used as a staff room. This room is vertically lined with timber and has a ripple iron ceiling. The eastern wall of the room is brick. On the western side of the building, in the room which originally housed the library, is the College Counsellor's office. This room has plastered walls and a pressed metal ceiling. A timber picture rail is also located within the office.
A timber door opening off the central hall, facing the northern side of the building, leads to the main office area. This office has plastered walls with a pressed metal ceiling. In one corner of the office, a porcelain wash basin with splashboard is still intact. The windows on the western side of the room are double hung, sash timber windows, which originally opened to the verandah. A timber door leads to the enclosed space which is vertically lined timber and has a ripple iron ceilings. In some class rooms white boards have been attached to the blackboard, however, in one classroom on the ground floor, one of the blackboards remains intact.
The original turning, timber staircase is also extant with timber railings and timber newell with decorative carved sections. Similarly to the arrangement of rooms on the ground floor, the planning arrangement of rooms on the first floor remains intact. A hallway with a high, pressed metal ceiling leads to several offices and classrooms. The original north facing classroom is now used as a library. This room, like the others in the building, has plastered walls and a pressed metal ceiling. Double hung, sash timber windows are located on the western side of the room and timber french doors lead to the balcony.
The building has been slightly modified with partitions, air conditioning and kitchen facilities in order that it may continue to function as part of Mackay TAFE. The surrounding site has been built up by structures associated with the Mackay TAFE. The north-west corner of the property, adjacent to the former Mackay Technical College, is currently used for car parking facilities. This carparking area, which has a number of established palm trees and other plantings, is surrounded by a low, timber, picket fence. The fence does not run passed the former technical college building along Alfred Street, but continues for a small way, terminating near 'Block D', on the eastern side of the former technical college building.
","history":"The former Mackay Technical College was constructed in 1911-12 to a design prepared by the Office of Public Works.
Mackay was settled by Europeans in the 1860s, by pastoralists seeking new areas for expansion. Sugar became the dominant industry of the region from the 1880s, and the town grew significantly in the early to mid-20th century due to this industry. State education in Queensland in the 19th century was quite rudimentary. In 1875, legislation was passed which created the system with free, compulsory and secular education. This was, however, limited to a primary school level. After 1860, Grammar schools provided the only secondary education in the colony at this time, and these schools were only available to those who could afford the associated fees.
Technical colleges, and the teaching of technical education attempted to fill this gap in the provision of education and were the precursors of state high schools in Queensland. They started as private institutions but were gradually taken over by the state. The technical college grew out of the school of arts movement in the late 19th century. Schools of arts, institutions run by local committees providing a library, reading room, lecture hall and rooms for public meetings, were established from the mid-19th century largely to improve the education of the working class. The school of arts committees usually organised classes in the useful arts and sciences to mechanics and tradespeople.
The first technical college in Queensland started in Brisbane in the 1870s. It operated entirely within the existing school of arts organisation, with the school of arts committee charging fees for its few subjects. The colonial government were involved from the early 1880s, providing a small grant to cover costs. However, the particular subjects remained completely within the control of the school of arts committee. From this initial grant the involvement of the colonial government continued to increase. In the 1890s an endowment system matched revenue raised in fees on a pound for pound basis. A Board of Technical Education was established in 1902 to provide administrative support and distribute government subsidies. Later in the 1900s this board was abolished. The state government took over the running of technical education in Brisbane, and then across the state a decade later, with the passing of further legislation.
In 1907, Education reported that the Department had collected much information on the most modern methods of constructing and equipping technical colleges. Information had been supplied by the United States Bureau of Education and JW Turner, who, in association with GH Knibbs, had been commissioned by the NSW Government to tour the United States and Europe studying technical colleges.
The Mackay Technical College building was one of a number of similar buildings constructed for technical colleges around the state at this time. These technical colleges were constructed in Rockhampton, Warwick, Toowoomba and Mount Morgan. They were generally established without the direct involvement of the government, being run by local committees. As in Mackay, architectural plans and specifications were supplied by the government, along with funds for construction, but administratively, the technical colleges remained autonomous.
In Mackay, the Department of Public Instruction took over the administration of the technical college soon after it was constructed. The Mackay Technical College also incorporated the Mackay High School. Compared to other states the total number of high schools in Queensland was small, reflecting the state's ongoing low priority given to secondary education. Emphasis was placed on vocational and technical training, and consequently, money was spent on technical education and new architecturally attractive and well-equipped technical colleges. Like the Mackay High School (1911), the Bundaberg State High School (1919) was built attached to a technical college.
Prior to the construction of the Mackay Technical College, administration was under the control of the School of Arts committee. At the time, the work of the College was confined to day classes. Eventually, an evening class was established for those people who had left school but still wanted to continue with their education. Later, a book-keeping class was included in the curriculum and following that, a dress-making class. In 1904, the School of Arts committee suggested that other classes be established including cooking and carpentry. In 1907, the committee established a cookery class in a shop belonging to a Mr Elworthy. Attendance at this class eventually dropped off due, it is thought, to a lack of accommodation available for the students.
The committee's problems due to the lack of a suitable building was alleviated when it was announced that the Government would contribute four-fifths of the cost of the construction of buildings for technical college purposes. The School of Arts committee held a meeting to discuss means of providing the remaining funds required to construct the technical college. A sum of £500 was raised, with the state government also contributing the expertise of architects in the Works Department who provided plans and specifications.
By 1907, the government had prepared plans for Mackay Technical College, however, construction of technical colleges did not become a major concern until 1911. Originally, the Committee planned to have a wooden building constructed, however, after calling a second meeting, it was decided to collect the extra amount required for a brick building.
The building was designed by the Works Department architects in 1910, with the drawings signed by AB Brady and T Pye. The Annual Report of the Department of Public Works reported that the contract, 'for the main building only, will shortly be completed...' Construction commenced in 1911 and was completed by 1912 in time for the beginning of the school year. The completed scheme included a detached brick building, containing a chemical laboratory and carpentry workshop. The contract amount for the Mackay Technical College was £3845.
As constructed the building was two storeys. On the ground floor were a dressmaking room, a room for general instruction and offices for clerical and administrative staff. At the rear of the building a room catered for cookery classes. Also at the rear of the building were toilet and cloak room facilities. This section has been removed. On the first floor were located three classrooms and a large art and lecture room. A separate, single-storey building, no longer extant, was constructed at the rear of the main building and housed a chemical laboratory and carpentry workshop. In 1916, drainage and repair works were undertaken to the College, as well as the addition of furniture and fittings. Total cost of the works was £96.15.8.
The official opening of the Mackay Technical College was held on Wednesday, 21 February 1912, with formal duties undertaken by the Mayor of Mackay, HD Petersen. Among the 150 guests included the Committee members and Mr Denniss, Principal of the High School. Telegrams were received from the Ministers for Education (KM Grant) and Railways (WT Paget).
The day was a grand occasion in Mackay's history. It was reported that the opening of the College building 'which would also be used as a high school' marked a 'new stage in the educational history of Queensland', and was a 'sign of intellectual progress in the community of Mackay'.
The building served as the Mackay Technical College and High School until 1959 when a new high school was constructed in the city in Milton Street. New buildings for the TAFE [the provision of technical education was rearranged as Technical and Further Education in the 1960s], were constructed on the Alfred Street site from the 1970s to the present. Now known as 'Block E', Mackay TAFE, the former Mackay Technical College is currently occupied by the Student Support Unit, including the College Counsellor, Literacy Unit and Disabled Services.
","criteria":"The former Mackay Technical College, constructed in 1911, is significant in demonstrating the provision of technical education in Mackay, and by extension in Queensland. It is one of many technical colleges constructed throughout Queensland in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as part of an attempt to 'promote mental and moral improvement of the working classes.' The building is significant as the first state high school in Mackay, and is significant in demonstrating the history of education in the city and surrounding area.
|The former Mackay Technical College is significant as it displays the principal characteristics of an institutional building from the government architect's office of the period, with typical details such as its two storey masonry and timber construction and asymmetric design, with pressed metal ceilings, timber joinery and decorative ventilator fleche. The place demonstrates the principal characteristics of a building of its type, with provision for classrooms and lecture rooms, a library, a laboratory and office area.
|With its design incorporating simplicity and asymmetry, its wide verandahs and timber posts, prominent central fleche and its position on the street corner surrounded by trees and plantings, the former Mackay Technical College is important for its aesthetic significance and for its contribution to the Albert street streetscape. Internal features including the timber joinery details and pressed metal ceilings also contribute to the overall aesthetic significance of the building.
|Forming part of the educational system in Mackay for over ninety years, the former Mackay Technical College is significant for its association with the teachers, students and other associated people during that time. The place has strong associations with the community of Mackay especially with its continued use as an educational facility.
|(Criterion under review)
","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":29134,"place_ref":602727,"name":"East Gordon Street Sewerage Works","alternate_name":"Pump Stations","street_address":"38 East Gordon Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-07-10","description":"The 1936 Sewerage Works is located on a level allotment in East Gordon Street, Mackay. The two principal early structures on the site are the pump house and chlorinator building. These are small, white, concrete buildings with castellated parapets. The larger is to the rear and the smaller to the front of the block.
The buildings are constructed from off-form concrete with a horizontal, wide-board pattern showing. Vent stacks are built as miniature towers at some corners of the structures; other corners have matching engaged buttresses. They sit on concrete tanks, their floors about 1.5m above the ground.
The smaller building (chlorinator) is rectangular in plan with the longer elevations facing south-west and north-east. Two square, metal-framed windows, covered with metal shutters open into both of these elevations. A square window into the north-west elevation is also covered with sheeting. The entrance to the building, in the south-east elevation, is via a concrete stair which ascends parallel to the wall finishing at a concrete landing. A wooden door opens from the landing. This is secured with a knob and a more recent lock. The top of the tank under the smaller building forms a raised semicircular concrete plinth which extends to the south-west. The tank contains a chamber with a tapered floor.
Internally, the building comprises a single room with unpainted concrete walls. It contains two large items of early machinery. One of these has a small brass name plate bearing the words 'Filtration and water softening system'.
The larger building (pump house) is also rectangular in plan with the long elevations facing south-west and north-east. Access to the building is via a concrete stair to the narrow, south-east elevation. The stair ascends at right angles to the wall finishing at a long landing. At the top of the landing, a double metal door opens into the interior. It has a curved handle and is secured by a barrel bolt. A plaque above the door commemorates the commissioning of the works on 25 January 1936. The opposite elevation has a single small, metal-framed glass window with nine panes.
The south-west elevation has three square, steel-framed windows. These pivot around a horizontal axis at mid-height. The top of the tank attached to the side of the building projects to form a rectangular plinth. A steel stairway ascends at right angles to the south-eastern side of the tank finishing close to the wall of the building. Four metal shafts project from the top of the tank. Three of these have metal wheels fitted to the top; threaded lengths of rod extend above these wheels. Hinged, steel panels provide access into the tanks.
The opposite (north-east) elevation has two square windows and a narrow hatchway around 1.5m in height. The windows are covered with sheeting which is boxed out from the wall a short distance. Two metal plates are bolted over the hatchway; a large square plate above a smaller rectangular one. Both plates have curved handles at each end.
The top of the tank forms a rectangular plinth extending from this elevation. There are small rectangular and arched openings into the base of the north-eastern end of the plinth.
Internally, the larger building is painted light grey on the lower part of the wall and pale green above, separated by a black band. The floor comprises a series of steel plates with a metal ladder descending to a sub-floor area that is now disused. The building contains a grey cabinet housing electrical equipment. This is not considered to be of cultural heritage significance.
The building also contains a manually operated overhead crane. Transverse movement of the crane is achieved by means of a simple chain and wheel mechanism. A similar chain and wheel raises and lowers a hook. This mechanism comprises a pulley and two back-to-back hooks. One of the hooks secures the mechanism to the overhead cross beam of the crane; the other dangles downwards for holding the load.
","history":"The sewerage works in East Gordon Street, one of the first in Queensland, was opened by George Moody, mayor of Mackay, on 25 January 1936. The consulting engineer was AE Harding Frew.
Mackay began as a settlement on the south bank of the Pioneer River serving pastoral holdings. By 1863 it had been surveyed and the first lots of land sold. It was gazetted as a port of entry and a customs house was opened. Sugar was introduced in 1865 and by the mid-1880s this was the major industry in the area. Mackay prospered as a port and as a commercial and administrative centre.
From the end of the nineteenth century until well after World War II, basic services in regional Queensland were progressively upgraded. Reticulated water supplies, sewerage systems and electricity were introduced into regional towns beginning with the major centres. Planning for Brisbane's sewerage system was underway by 1909. A scheme was introduced at Toowoomba in 1925, and development of a sewerage scheme at Rockhampton commenced in 1936. Most other regional centres did not have sewerage systems provided until after World War Two, with some local government areas waiting until the 1960s-1980s. Mackay's sewerage system, opened in January 1936, was among the first in regional Queensland.
The system was introduced at a time when Mackay was undergoing a major public works program to improve the infrastructure of the town and upgrade the harbour. A number of factors prompted this program. Through the 1920s and 1930s, Mackay enjoyed a period of substantial growth, even during the period of financial hardship and unemployment caused by the Depression. It was the fastest-growing town in Queensland, with its population almost doubling between 1923 and 1940. This was largely due to the linking of Mackay by rail to Rockhampton in 1921 and to Townsville in 1923. This improved access to markets and reduced transport costs, boosting not only the sugar industry, but also the developing dairy and tourist industries.
Another contributing factor was that the local Member of Parliament, William Forgan Smith, was Premier between 1932 and 1940 and he supported the growth of the region. It was hoped that the public works program, including the Outer Harbour scheme, would make Mackay one of Queensland's most frequented beauty spots and that, as an attractive modern city, it would become a base for those visiting Eungella and the islands.
The city council commissioned a town plan from Ronald McInnes in 1934. It was based on Britain's Town Planning Act of 1932 and was the first town plan designed for an existing city in Queensland, serving as a model for other cities for many years. The Mackay City Council undertook an ambitious plan for the beautification and modernisation of the city. The scheme included the provision of new parks, kerbing and channelling, new water mains, a new powerhouse and the establishment of the sewerage system.
At the opening of the East Gordon Street Sewerage Works on 25 January 1936 the chairman of the Mackay Harbour Board, CF Bagley, paid tribute to the city council for its initiative in carrying out the scheme and to the consulting engineer AE Harding Frew who designed it.
Alison Eavis Harding Frew (1883-1952) was a prominent Queensland civil engineer. Harding Frew's designed about 80 bridges throughout Queensland during his career. He was a consulting engineer in Melbourne during the 1920s and on the Pyrmont Power House at Sydney in the early 1940s. He was a consultant on the 1926 Brisbane Cross River Commission and was the designing engineer for the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane, from November 1926 to 1932. From 1932 to 1935 he was the engineer for bridge construction on the Hornibrook Highway project, the bridge linking Sandgate and Redcliffe. Frew's design for the fully automated pump houses at Mackay, featuring castellated parapets, encompasses one of the basic principles of civil engineering, which is to design creative solutions that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
At the opening of the works Bagley reiterated the view of the day that, with the completion of the sewerage works and the Outer Harbour Scheme, Mackay would become even more important, and the Government Medical Officer, Dr E Chenoweth, emphasised the public health advantages of the new sewerage scheme.
Sewage was pumped to the site via concrete or glazed pipes, where it was held in a well and treated with chlorine before being pumped out to sea at high tide. The main elements of sewage treatment included the separation of solids from fluids by screening and allowing the solids to settle in a tank. The solids were drawn off and disposed of, and the fluids were often treated before being discharged into a waterway or the ocean. Chlorine was used as a disinfectant.
By December 1933 a total of 68,123 feet (about 22 kilometres) of sewer main, including a main crossing at Sandfly Creek near the East Gordon Street site, had been pegged out. Tenders had also been let for the construction of the pump well and pump house, the supply and installation of pump machinery, and the construction of the chlorinator.
The smaller building (the chlorinator) toward the front of the site is now used for storage. The larger building is still in use as a pump station with a submersible pump external to the structure and a switchboard inside the building. A modern deodoriser has been installed next to this building. Sewage is pumped from the station at East Gordon Street to a pump station in Sydney Street.
The East Gordon Street works now forms part of a major network of 135 pump stations throughout Mackay and they are associated with a sewer main of more than 630km, which ultimately connects to one of three waste water treatment plants in the city. Mackay Water, a business unit of Mackay City Council, is responsible for the management of Mackay's sewerage scheme.
","criteria":"The East Gordon Street Sewerage Works in Mackay, opened in 1936, was one of the first in regional Queensland. As such, it is important in demonstrating the progressive upgrading of basic infrastructure in regional Queensland, in particular the provision of sewerage schemes, which took place in regional towns and cities from the interwar period. Most other regional centres did not develop such schemes until after World War II, with some local government areas not constructing sewerage infrastructure until after 1960.
As one of the first sewerage works in regional Queensland, it is tangible evidence of the importance of Mackay as a regional centre in the 1930s and the influence the city enjoyed through their local Member of Parliament, William Forgan Smith, who was Premier at the time. During the 1920s and 1930s, Mackay was the fastest growing town in Queensland.
|The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a sewage treatment works of the interwar period. Characteristics include pump house, chlorination plant building, and the deliberate attempt to visually disguise the true purpose of these structures through the stylistic treatment of the exterior walls with their castellated parapets, which is unusual for such utilitarian structures.
The place also is important in demonstrating the work of prominent civil engineer AE Harding Frew, who designed the scheme. Frew made a substantial contribution to civil engineering infrastructure in Queensland including designing the William Jolly Bridge [QHR601694] in Brisbane.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":29199,"place_ref":602749,"name":"Habana Tramline Causeway and Wharf Site","alternate_name":"Habana Wharf Road","street_address":"Between Habana Wharf Road and Constant Creek","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2010-05-14","description":"The start of the 1km causeway route is in a field at the north end of the metalled Habana Wharf Road. The causeway, marked by an avenue of paperbark (Melaleuca) trees, is visible to the left as Habana Wharf Road bends to the right towards a private residence.
For its initial section the causeway is stone pitched, low-lying, and prone to flooding. It heads west north west and the avenue of trees ends at rising, cleared ground. The route crosses this higher ground before changing direction several degrees to the north. The route then continues as a stone and gravel causeway, standing more than 30cm above the surrounding salt marsh. During its course it makes two slight turns to the west, until it is heading almost due west through bush. There are no visible relics of the tramway on the causeway. At one point the causeway intersects a track heading north to a clearing that was the site of a residence. Soon after this point the causeway ends at a sandy beach.
A tramway alignment, marked by loose stones and multiple fragments of corroded tramway line of various lengths, continues across the sand towards a line of mangroves. There are several large posts near or within the mangroves, both standing and laid flat. Various other corroded metal artefacts are scattered about. There are two narrow gaps in the line of mangroves by which the creek bank can be accessed.
To the south of the rail-alignment is a raised platform of stones, with more fragments of corroded railway line and other metal artefacts. On the other side of the mangroves is the steep muddy bank of a tributary of Constant Creek. No wharf remnants are visible on the creek bank.
","history":"The stone and gravel causeway near the end of Habana Wharf Road was built during 1882 with South Sea Islander (Melanesian) labour, to provide tramline access to a wharf on the bank of Constant Creek near to where it empties into the ocean about 14 kilometres north-west of Mackay. The wharf was built in late 1882 or early 1883, to service the Habana sugar plantation, owned by Edward Maitland Long and William Robertson.
The history of the Mackay district is closely linked to the sugar industry. The City of Mackay is named for John Mackay, who entered the valley of the Pioneer River in 1860 and established a pastoral run there the following year. In 1862 a settlement was begun on the south bank of the river and by 1863 Mackay had been surveyed and the first lots of land sold. It was gazetted as a port of entry and a customs house was opened. The first sugar plantation was established near Mackay in 1865 and the first small sugar mill was opened in 1868.
South Sea Islanders (referred to at the time as Kanakas) made a major contribution to Queensland's early sugar industry. Between 1863 and 1904, some fifty thousand Islanders were brought to Queensland as indentured labourers usually bound by a three year contract. The Islanders provided cheap manual labour, but were also believed to be essential in a climate that was considered too harsh for white manual labourers. Most came from eighty islands in Melanesia, mainly those included in present day Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. The method of recruitment remains a matter of debate, but it seems that at least some of the recruiting during the initial phase was by kidnapping and deception.
Islanders made a vital contribution to the sugar industry, performing virtually all of the field work connected with the industry during its first phase of development. Only a minority stayed on; most returned to their islands at the conclusion of their contract period.
The Pioneer Valley, one of Australia's largest sugar producing areas has always had the largest South Sea Islander population in Queensland. They began arriving in the Mackay district from 1867, and by 1875 there were about 1700 in the area, comprising 45 percent of the total population. Over two thousand Islanders still reside in the Mackay region.
Although an 1875 outbreak of the crop disease, rust, caused some foreclosures and sales, by 1876 the Mackay district had 18 sugar mills and 5568 acres of land were under sugar cultivation. The sugar industry boomed in the early 1880s and Mackay prospered as a port and as a commercial and administrative centre, drawing business from nearby pastoral holdings and the sugar plantations being developed along the river.
The period 1881 to 1884 also marked the zenith of the plantation system of growing sugar cane. This system was characterised by large land holdings that were worked with indentured South Sea Islander labour. Each plantation built its own sugar mill to crush its cane. Twelve mills opened near Mackay during the early 1880s, including at Habana, on the plantation of Long and Robertson. The Colonial Sugar Refinery (CSR) opened a large mill at Homebush in 1883, and in the Mackay district 19,320 acres of cane were being cultivated under the plantation system by 1884. However, this system depended on the importation of South Sea Islander labour, and it soon suffered a number of blows.
A drop (of a third) in the price of sugar in 1884, and increasing numbers of small selectors and farmers in the area, began to challenge the plantation system. Small farmers did not like having to crush their sugar crops at plantation mills, where they were a secondary consideration. Sir Samuel Griffith, Queensland's Premier between 1883-1888 and 1890-1893, sought to break the plantations into small farms. This accorded with the preferred model for the development of the State: small yeomen farmers working their own land with the help of their families.
Legislation aimed at applying this model, together with humanitarian and union concerns, as well as racism, ultimately formed the basis for opposition to and brought about the eventual cessation of the trade in South Sea Islander labour. Church and mission groups opposed it on ethical and humanitarian grounds. And labour unions, exclusively white, felt threatened by cheap non-European labour and were concerned that employers would use Islanders to undermine working conditions.
From 1884, Islander labour was progressively restricted. In 1884 an amendment to the Pacific Islanders Labourers Act 1880 banned South Sea Islanders from a range of work, and restricted them to menial jobs in agriculture. The Pacific Islanders Act of 1885 sought to end the recruitment of South Sea Island labour by 1890; this was repealed in 1892 on economic grounds. However the Pacific Island Labourers (Extension) Act 1892 further barred them from construction work on plantation roads and tramways. Finally after Federation in 1901, two pieces of Commonwealth legislation put an end to the trade: the Immigration Restriction Act (1901) and the Pacific Island Labourers Act (1901), the former being where the various policies that came to be termed the 'White Australia Policy' began. It aimed to exclude all non-European immigrants; the latter legislation required an end to recruitment of South Sea Islanders from March 1904 and their deportation after December 1906. From 1904 to 1908, around 7000 people were deported. About 1200 were granted residency, and an estimated 1000 others stayed on illegally in Australia.
Large central mills operated by groups of small farmers eventually supplanted the plantation mills, offering them economy of scale in allowing them to crush their crops at a large and efficient mill. The first two central mills in Queensland were opened near Mackay in the late 1880s, with government financial assistance. The Sugar Works Guarantee Act of 1893 extended the scope of government support to farmers wishing to establish central mills, and thus by the 1890s the small plantation mills on large estates were giving way to small farms and large central mills. The last of the Mackay district's plantation mills, Palms, closed in 1924.
From 1870 to 1876 EM Long owned the Branscombe Estate south of the Pioneer River near Walkerston, in partnership with GN Marten. A mill operated here from 1871 to 1884. In addition, Long and Marten owned the River Estate from 1871, with its mill being active from 1873 to 1891. During the 1870s Long also selected multiple blocks of land in the Habana area, north of the Pioneer River, or took over the leases of other selectors. William Robertson did the same, and the two men usually applied to buy their various selections several years after gaining a lease, to obtain deeds of grant.
The causeway and wharf site is to the north-east of the current settlement of Habana, and although the causeway begins on the former land of Henry Braby, his selection was an exception in the area in the 1880s, which was by then dominated by the landholdings of Long and Robertson.
Braby obtained the lease of selection number 640 in February 1881, for 10 years dating from January 1880, and he was issued with a deed of grant in 1886. A sugar engineer, Braby grew fruit on his selection until about 1894. An August 1880 survey of Braby's selection does not show a causeway, although a road (later Habana Wharf Road) was surveyed in the middle of his selection, terminating near where the start of the causeway would later be located.
In January 1882 Long requested, in a letter to the Colonial Secretary, the lease or purchase of a wharf frontage on Salt Water (Constant) Creek, 'Upon which I am ancsious (sic) to erect a wharf for shipping purposes'. An August 1882 letter from the Lands Office in Mackay, to the Under Secretary of Lands, Brisbane, noted that it was a good wharfage site, and that Long 'has already incurred great expense in forming by embankment and drainage a long causeway (to carry a tramway) to this spot'. A Special Lease, number 169, was granted in September 1882, for 14 years from 1 October 1882, and consisted of a 5-acre wedge of land, rental of £1 per acre per annum. However, the wharf site was not surveyed until February 1884, and a formal Lease for Special Purposes, under the Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1876, was issued in July 1884, for a period of 14 years from 1 September 1882.
The official 1884 survey shows the causeway route, identical to its route in 2010. The causeway began on Brady's selection 640, and then crossed an area of salt marsh, before entering the wharf site. The documentary evidence suggests that the causeway was built between January and August 1882, and that the wharf was built after September 1882. By 1884, a wharf and store were extant at the site. It appears that Long initially used the causeway for horse drawn transport before installing a tramway.
South Sea Islander oral histories state that the Habana wharf and the built-up road (causeway) were constructed using South Sea Islander labour. Edward Long relied heavily on South Sea Islander labour to develop his plantations. In a Sydney Morning Herald article dated 27 August 1884 he was quoted as stating: 'The work of a sugar plantation could not be carried on without kanakas. We have them for three years and during that time they are a constant and reliable labour. If you have whites and there should happen to be any disagreement, say at crushing time, they may leave you and your produce will be left on the field.'
Oral tradition also asserts that many South Sea Islanders were hurt or killed working with horses at this time, as they were unfamiliar with the animals. The graves of those killed on the project are reportedly on a hill about 1km from the wharf site.
During early 1883 all the machinery for the Habana mill was transported through the Habana wharf, then across rough terrain some 4.5 miles (7.2km) to the mill site. The mouth of Constant Creek was navigable for steamers up to 80 tons. Apparently both the Habana and Plane Creek (1896) mills used tramways, leading to their own wharves on convenient creeks, to avoid the cost of carting sugar to Mackay. Rails purchased from Long by the Racecourse Mill, for a rail extension at Cattle Creek, were also shipped out through the Habana wharf in 1904.
On Saturday 21 July 1883 the Mackay Mercury reported that there had been a ceremonial first cane crush 'last Thursday' for the opening of Long and Robertson's mill at Habana, which afterwards was celebrated with a ball held at the School of Arts in Mackay.
The Habana mill operated from 1883 to 1901. Long applied for a local school and a provisional school was opened c.1883. Long appears to have accepted the end of the plantation system, and from 1884 he pioneered the concept of leasing land to small farmers in order to supply his mill. By 1891 one quarter of Habana's crush came from farmers renting land from the company. Long also encouraged British migration, especially after 1889, and he was an early advocate of Japanese labourers, the first of whom arrived at Habana c1893.
By 1893 there were 85 whites working at Habana mill, with 315 Islanders employed. The farming population consisted of 100 white men and women, and 82 Islanders. By 1896 Long and Robertson had 1300 plantation acres under cane, with 17 miles of tramway, and 26 farmers were supplying Habana Mill. That same year Long applied to renew the lease on the wharf site, and this was granted for ten years, at £2 per acre per annum.
In 1896 Long was also the managing director of the Pleystowe Central Mill Company, which illustrates his attempt to straddle the two main systems of sugar production. However, controversy surrounded the dealings between Long and the Government over the establishment of the Pleystowe mill; specifically, over the timing of his land purchases and the granting of government financial assistance for the mill.
By 1900 Long had a high, if controversial, public profile. He was the first chairman of the Mackay Harbour Board, (1897-1903), and was a Pioneer Shire councillor between 1880-1881 and 1897-1900. In 1901, the year of the last crush at Habana mill, he was the acting chairman of the Central Sugar Millers' Association of Queensland.
A government inquiry into the Pleystowe mill's affairs was announced in February 1902, due to growers' complaints. Long, in hospital in Brisbane at the time, was exonerated of any major misdemeanour. However, the government foreclosed on Pleystowe Central Mill in 1903. It continued to operate, but Long was replaced as manager. Early in 1905 Long fell ill again, and he returned to England for a year's holiday. He died on board ship in the Thames Estuary, 4 August 1905, aged 63.
The Habana Provisional School closed in 1906, and in 1907 Robertson decided not to renew the lease on the wharf site. The Land Commissioner, in a letter to the Under Secretary for Public Lands, noted that it was not likely the wharf would be required by anyone for some time to come.
In 1908 a tramline reached Habana from Pleystowe Central Mill. The Habana area increased its population in the 1910s and 1920s, through small scale cane farming and dairying. A state school was opened in 1917; immigrants arrived from Malta, Italy, Russia, Greece and India to provide farm labour. By the mid-1920s, there were seven central mills operating around the Mackay area, in contrast to the 30 plantation mills that had been operating in the mid-1880s.
The Habana wharf remained as a popular fishing spot for some time, and still existed in the 1930s; however, nothing remains visible of the wharf structure today. To the south of the tramway route across the sand to the wharf site there is a large raised area of stones, about one foot above the surrounding terrain, which may have served as a turn-around point for the trams, and as a work area. Some large decaying posts near and within the mangroves along Constant Creek may be from boat launching activities post-dating the wharf's commercial use. Vehicle access along the causeway has been blocked.
","criteria":"The substantially intact Habana Tramline Causeway provides rare surviving evidence of a large construction project undertaken with South Sea Islander labour before the Pacific Island Labourers (Extension) Act 1892 barred them from construction work on plantation roads and tramways.
The route of the causeway across salt marsh to a wharf site on a navigable creek, the raised profile of the causeway, and the remnants of the tramline, provide uncommon evidence of key transport infrastructure associated with a nineteenth century coastal Queensland sugar plantation.
|The Habana Tramline Causeway and Wharf Site, developed ca1882, is a product of the 1880-1884 sugar boom in the Mackay district, and is important in demonstrating an early phase in the evolution of Queensland's sugar industry when the plantation system dominated. The causeway and wharf were built by South Sea Islander labour to serve the Habana Sugar Mill (1883-1901), a plantation mill owned by well-known public and sugar industry figure Edward Maitland Long. The plantation system, dependent on South Sea Islander indentured labour, peaked in the early 1880s, after which it was gradually supplanted by the central mill system serving small cane farms worked by white labour.
|The Habana wharf site, with its numerous metal tramway artefacts and raised stone work platform, has the archaeological potential to contribute to a greater understanding of the operation of a nineteenth century sugar plantation wharf.
|The Habana Tramline Causeway and Wharf Site are important and now rare evidence of the significant contribution made by South Sea Islanders to the establishment of a viable sugar industry in colonial Queensland, including the establishment of its transport infrastructure. With a number of deaths of Islander labourers said to have occurred there during its construction, the place has a symbolic association with these people and the difficult lives they led while indentured to work in Australia.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion B | Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | 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 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":29200,"place_ref":602731,"name":"Mackay Masonic Temple","alternate_name":"Masonic Temple Masonic Hall","street_address":"57 Wood Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-08-14","description":"The Mackay Masonic Temple is located in the Mackay central business district on the corner of Wood Street and Ninth Lane. It is a two storey masonry building, rectangular in plan form, with parapets concealing a gabled roof clad in metal sheeting. The Temple and a single storey addition at the rear cover the majority of the allotment. A low red brick fence with rendered detailing and a pipe rail between engaged piers fronts Wood Street and a short forecourt lies between the fence and building facade.
The most striking feature of the Temple is the west facing portico formed by four massive columns and entablature in the Doric Order. Its pediment contains the masonic compass and square symbols fixed to a brick lined typanum, and above the pediment, a brick parapet detailed with string coursing and engaged piers projects forward over the portico.
From Wood Street, three concrete steps between the inner columns provide access to the portico behind which the main wall of dark red, salt glazed bricks is flanked by pairs of rendered masonry pilasters. Centrally located in this wall are pairs of six-panel timber doors with fanlights above at ground level, providing entry to the building and at first floor level providing access to the balcony. Wide moulded architraves surround the openings.
The concrete balcony to the first floor spans the space within the portico and is detailed with a moulded concrete balustrade containing urn shaped balusters.
The south elevation is more simply detailed and is rendered and finished with an ashlar pattern. There are seven square metal framed windows to the upper level and four rectangular metal framed windows lower level. The north and rear elevations are similarly detailed. Extensions on the north side of building include a shop fronting Wood Street and a meeting room for the Masons, with two kitchens (the main kitchen and an ancillary kitchen) and toilets. The extensions to the rear of the building incorporate offices occupied by other organisations or businesses. The extensions to the north and rear are not of cultural heritage significance.
On the lower level, the double doors open into a foyer with a small storage room to the right and stairs at the left leading to the upper level. Double, glass panelled doors lead into the main hall. The Masonic compass and square symbol is etched into each of the upper panels. There is a frosted glass, rectangular fanlight above the door. A wide moulded architrave surrounds the door and fanlight.
The main hall has polished timber floors and high timber lined ceilings. The walls are lined with sheeting and are detailed with a dado. Cupboards line the walls either side of the entrance doors. A door and windows to the north wall of the hall have been blocked by the extensions.
The first floor is accessed by a timber L-shaped staircase with carved balustrade. The risers are carpeted and the treads are lined with a dark rubberised material. A rail for a chair lift is fitted to the stairs along the wall.
The lodge room is located on the upper level. This is a large room with a black and white tiled floor laid in a chequerboard pattern. The walls are lined with sheeting and there are pilasters at regular intervals. The windows on the southern and northern walls are covered with dark curtains.
There are raised platforms at the middle of the eastern, southern and western walls. They are at varying heights. The highest and largest is on the eastern side, it is three steps high, the second highest, two steps high, is on the western side and the lowest, one step high, is on the southern side. All contain a pediment and at least one chair. For each of the pediments, a wooden column bearing a metal Masonic symbol is located to the right from the perspective of a person seated in the chair.
The eastern platform occupies the whole of the end of the room opposite the entrance. A central section is higher than the rest of the platform. Across the front, two steps provide access to the top; a third step provides access to the central section. Five ornate chairs are arranged across this section with the pediment located in front of the centre chair. The symbol of a carpenter's square is depicted on the front of this pediment. On either side of the central section, on the lower part of the platform, is a row of benches. Another pediment is located a short distance in front of the centre of the platform; a circular symbol is depicted on the front.
At the western and southern sides, the platforms are occupied by only a single chair and the pediment. On these sides only, a cube-form masonry block with a metal ring fitted in the top is located on the left side of the pediment from the perspective of a person seated in the chair.
There is a row of padded wooden benches against the southern and western walls. Immediately in front of these is a row of plain wooden benches similar to church pews.
In the middle of the floor is a rectangular pattern of black and white tiles in chequerboard pattern separated from the rest of the floor by a wide margin with a stylised rope tassel at each corner.
The pressed metal ceiling is coved and ribbed. Ribs along the sides and at each end mark the transition between the coving and the flat portion of the ceiling. The ceiling is divided into equal, rectangular sections by ribs running across its width. The ribs extend down the coving to the cornice. There is a decorative pattern along the top of the ribs and inside each of the rectangular sections. A letter 'G' suspends from a hook in the centre of the ceiling.
On either side of the platform on the western wall are panelled wooden doors. A wide architrave surrounds the door openings and the rectangular, red glass lights. The lights are etched with the Masonic compass and square emblem. The door to the north of the platform has a small peep-hole with a sliding cover.
The southern door opens into a small room with a varnished wooden dado. Padded benches line the walls. The windows are covered with dark blue curtains similar to the lodge room.
The northern door opens into a smaller room. This has a varnished timber architrave. There is another wooden, panelled door opposite the doorway into the lodge room.
","history":"The Mackay Masonic Temple (1924) was built during a period of rapid growth in Mackay, the administrative centre of a thriving sugar industry. The fine and substantial temple was built as a joint venture between three local Freemasonry lodges.
Freemasonry was established in Queensland in 1859 when dispensation was granted by the Provisional Grand Lodge of New South Wales (English Constitution), authorising what was then the most northerly lodge in Australia: the North Australian Lodge of Brisbane.
The Mackay Lodge first met in the Oddfellows' Hall in Wood Street on 24 June 1875. On 23 February 1880 it moved into the original two-storey timber Masonic Hall, using this hall until January 1918 when it was destroyed by the cyclone that devastated much of Mackay.
Following this disaster, Mackay enjoyed a period of substantial growth through the 1920s and 1930s, even during the period of financial hardship and unemployment caused by the Depression. It was the fastest growing town in Queensland, its population almost doubling between 1923 and 1940. This was largely due to the linking of Mackay by rail to Rockhampton in 1921 and to Townsville in 1923, which improved access to markets and reduced transport costs, thus boosting not only the sugar industry, but also the developing dairy and tourist industries. The local Member of Parliament, William Forgan Smith, was Premier between 1932 and 1940 and supported the growth of the region. In the 1930s major public works were undertaken in Mackay to improve the infrastructure of the town and upgrade the harbour.
The development of Mackay in the 1930s also owed much to its mayor, Ian Wood. Becoming mayor in 1930 at the age of 29, he energetically promoted the area, opening a travel agency in the early 1930s. Wood was instrumental in developing an airport and Eungella National Park and served as mayor or alderman for most of the period between 1927 and 1973. He was a senator between 1949 and 1978 and was also a member and president of the Chamber of Commerce
After the destruction of the original hall, the local lodges met again in the Oddfellows' Hall until three lodges (Mackay 24, Temple 31 and Caledonia 34) combined in a joint venture to build a new temple on a grander scale. The Mackay Masonic Trust was formed and the foundation stone for the temple was laid on 8 March 1924. The temple was consecrated on 13th June 1925 by the Most Worshipful Deputy Grand Master Brother R.W.F. Quinn.
Masonic temples (also known as lodges) all follow a similar layout designed to accommodate the Masonic rituals. The main ceremonies are held in a rectangular room called the lodge. It has a tiled central mosaic pavement with tessellated border. Seating is arranged around the room so that all members are able to observe ceremonies conducted in the centre of the room. An elevated seat is located at the eastern side of the room for the Worshipful Master. Elevated seats are also provided at the western and southern sides for the Senior Warden and the Junior Warden. The room usually contains an altar with three candles and two pillars supporting globes. The architecture, furniture and decoration of lodges are rich in symbology. Among the most prominent symbols are the compass and square and the letter 'G'. Lodges often also contain social rooms, dining rooms and other spaces.
The building's architect, F.H. Faircloth, died before its completion. He was born in Maryborough in 1870 and was a pupil of German trained Bundaberg architect Anton Hettrich. He set up his own practice in Bundaberg in 1893 and was very prolific, eventually being responsible for the design of almost every major building in Bundaberg. He also made a major contribution to the appearance and character of Childers after a fire devastated the main street in 1902. His designs in Childers include the Isis Masonic Lodge [QHR 602123]. Other examples of his work include the Bundaberg War Memorial [QHR 600364], Woodstock House in Maryborough [QHR 600694] and St Patricks Church at Mount Perry [QHR 600764].
The temple was built by brothers Frank & William Guthrie at a cost of £6500. The Guthries, from Bundaberg, originally planned to stay at Mackay for 12 months to complete the National Australia Bank. Instead, they stayed in Mackay a further 36 years and constructed many other local buildings including the Daily Mercury building, and the Ambassador, Australian, Metropolitan, Prince of Wales, Shamrock, Taylor's and Wilkinson's hotels.
In 1959 the temple was extended, with a shop fronting Wood Street added to the north side. Also added to the north side were a meeting room for the Masons, with two kitchen areas (one being the main kitchen the other an ancillary kitchen) and toilets. The extensions to the rear of the building incorporate offices that are leased to other organisations or businesses. To enable these extensions to proceed, the original (1925) kitchen and toilet area were demolished.
The building was renovated in 1985 and painted inside and out. A further $351,000 was spent on extensions and renovations in 1994. Mackay firm Sanders, Turner & Ellick were the architects for the project and the builders were T.F. Woollam & Sons.
Lodges currently meeting at the temple are Mackay 24, Temple 31, Caledonia 34 and Star of the North 401.
","criteria":"The Mackay Masonic Temple has a strong and special association with several Masonic lodges in the Mackay region as their principal meeting place since 1924.
|As a well composed, landmark building that is an excellent example of the Doric classical temple tradition, the Mackay Masonic Temple is important for its aesthetic significance. The building is visually pleasing for its regularity and symmetry, the contrast between exposed brick and stucco finishes on its façade, and the integration of Masonic symbolism into the design.
|As a fine and substantial building, the Mackay Masonic Temple (1924) is important in demonstrating the prosperity enjoyed by Queensland's sugar-growing districts at the time of its construction. During the 1920s and 1930s, Mackay was the fastest growing town in Queensland.
The temple is also evidence of an important phase in the development of this regional centre. Replacing an earlier temple that was destroyed by a devastating cyclone in 1918, it was built during a period of reconstruction and rapid development in Mackay that included a major civic program of beautification and modernisation of services.
|The building is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a substantial Masonic Temple. These include the front facade with its Doric order columns, the lower level function area, and the upper level lodge room. The lodge room follows a standard plan with central mosaic pavement, elevated seats for the Master and principal officers, seating arranged around the perimeter of the room for members and the prominent display of Masonic symbols.
The temple is also important in demonstrating the work of F.H. Faircloth, a prolific regional architect who practised in the late 19th and early 20th century. Faircloth was responsible for the design of many major buildings in Bundaberg and Childers including the Isis Masonic Lodge at Childers [QHR 602123] and the Queensland National Bank and residence at Mackay [QHR 600672].
","criteria_letters":"Criterion G | Criterion E | Criterion A | Criterion D","criteria_definitions":"The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | 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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":31211,"place_ref":602748,"name":"The Leap Cane Lift","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Bruce Highway","suburb":"THE LEAP","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2010-02-05","description":"The Leap cane lift is in the road reserve on the north side of the Bruce Highway about 20km north west of Mackay. It stands between a ditch adjacent to the southern side and a tramline a short distance to the north.
Standing between 7m and 9m high, it comprises two upright timber poles supporting a horizontal cross piece. The cross piece comprises double wooden beams fastened either side of the top of each upright. Diagonal wooden braces are fixed to each end of the cross piece.
Pulley wheels are fixed to the top of the cross piece so that the wheels turn between the two beams. Two wheels are fitted to the centre of the cross piece and a single wheel at the southern end. Steel cable runs through the pulley wheels. A hook is suspended at the end of the cable.
The other end of the cable is attached to a geared steel winch near the southern leg of the lift. A long handle extending from the side may be for a brake or a clutch mechanism. A stake next to the southern leg has an electrical insulator fitted to it.
The lift is located in an area where there are extensive fields of sugar cane. The road reserve which forms the setting of the lift comprises a wide strip of mown grass. There is a patch of dense bush located to the east of the lift.
","history":"The Leap cane lift is situated near the locality of the same name in a rural area west of the city of Mackay. Mackay is the regional centre of one of Queensland's main sugar cane growing areas. One of the top two sugar producing regions in the state, it produces about a third of the sugar in Queensland. Sugar cane is a major crop in Queensland; the state produces most of the nation's sugar. The cane lifts formed part of the process of transporting bundled whole stalks of harvested sugar cane from the farms to the mill. They were rendered obsolete by the universal adoption of 'chopper' harvesters from the 1960s.
Sugar cane was first introduced to Australia in 1788 with the arrival of the first fleet. In 1821, Port Macquarie under the command of Captain Allman became Australia's first cane-growing area. In Queensland, the successful cultivation of sugar cane was established in 1864 at Redland Bay by Captain Louis Hope who erected Queensland's first sugar-crushing mill on the banks of Hilliard's Creek about 25km south-east of Brisbane.
Cane growing was tried at Bowen in the Whitsunday region in 1864 but continued there only until 1869, when it became clear that the climate was too dry. In the Pioneer Valley the first grower in the Mackay region was John Spiller. He arrived in Mackay in 1865 as a would-be squatter without capital but with cane brought from Java which he planted on the north bank of the Pioneer River. In June 1867 he produced the first sugar in the region.
The incipient cane growing industry was given impetus in 1864 with the enactment of the Sugar and Coffee Regulations, introduced by the government to encourage northern settlement. This enabled lessees to obtain plots of up to 1,280 acres (about 518ha) at a reasonable cost. Spiller and John Crees selected two blocks that became the Pioneer Plantation and built a primitive mill. T H Fitzgerald began a commercial plantation, Alexandra, in 1866 and with J Ewen Davidson set up a steam-powered mill that produced 110 tons (about 100 tonnes) of sugar in 1868. With these facilities a sugar boom began: small growers brought their cane for crushing to the Alexandra mill and acreage under cane expanded rapidly. Cane growers pushed back the graziers and by 1870 five mills were established.
By 1872 Mackay mills produced 40 per cent of the total Queensland sugar production and 37 per cent of its rum. Seventeen mills were established along the Pioneer River before 1875, most in 1872 and 1873. Another 12 including Farleigh, Habana, Homebush, and Marian were established between 1881 and 1885, then North Eton and Racecourse in 1888, Plane Creek began at Sarina in 1896 and in 1906 Cattle Creek Mill at Finch Hatton started operations.
Where crops were near the main railway line, cut cane was transported from field to mill via rail wagons. However, in cases where the crops and mills were remote from the railway, many mills established extensive tram networks for transporting harvested cane. The railway and tram networks continue to be used together with road transport.
From at least as early as the 1890s, cane lifts at tram or railway sidings were used to transfer bundles of cane onto rail or tram wagons. Cane was initially harvested as whole stalks by hand and, later, by wholestalk mechanical harvesters. The cane was cut close to the ground and then the top foliage was cut off. It was transported to the mill as whole stalks. A frequent practise was to lay temporary tramlines into the field so that tram wagons could be loaded with cut cane close to where the harvesting took place. Where this practise was not followed, the cane was loaded onto a horse drawn wagon or motorised vehicle. This was done by hand until the introduction of mechanised loaders in the mid-20th century. The wagon or vehicle transported the cane to the nearest siding where the bundles of cane were transferred onto a tram or rail wagon using the cane lifts.
Many lifts were on private property, others on railway land at sidings. In many cases sugar mills paid for the construction of the lifts and cane farmers repaid the money at a predetermined cost per ton of cane sent to the mill.
The lifts took different forms. F W Bolton, the manager of Farleigh Mill, is credited with introducing the 'traverser' type by 1891. This consisted of an overhead travelling winch which traversed a horizontal beam supported by two posts. The cane was laid flat on a sling in a dray which was driven under the winch. The winch was used to hoist the bundle of cane which was traversed about two metres and lowered into a tramway wagon parked next to the dray. The lift was praised at the time for greatly reducing loading times and enabling the cane to be packed more densely. Apparently this type of lift was widely adopted but there are no known examples extant in the Mackay area.
A similar configuration, possibly a modification of the traverser type, comprised two posts supporting a horizontal beam with a fixed pulley. These were predominantly used with tram wagons. As with the traverser the tram track passed under the horizontal beam. The wagon or truck containing the cane stalks was driven along the tram tracks to a position beneath the horizontal beam. The bundle of cane was hoisted, then the truck was driven out and its position taken by the tram wagon into which the cane was then lowered.
A third or 'derrick' type consisted of a boom fixed by a pivoting coupling to the bottom of a mast. It was held in a diagonal attitude to the mast by a hinged horizontal beam extending from the top of the mast to the end of the boom. The boom swung in an arc and the lifting hook was lowered from the end of the horizontal beam. Derrick type lifts were in use by 1893. They were used mostly to load cane into main line railway wagons.
Albert John Wellman Fudge, a carpenter, is credited by some with inventing the derrick type lift. Fudge was a British immigrant who moved to Mackay in the 1890s. It is claimed that Fudge built over one hundred cane lifts for most district mills. His work was said to have been carried on by Harry Penny until the introduction of chopper harvesters.
A variety of methods were used to power the hoist. It was common to use a horse hitched to a pole fixed to a rotating drum. This system was later adapted for use with a motor. From World War II, trucks were also used. Power was transferred via a set of rollers positioned in the ground so that they would engage with the wheels of the the truck carrying the cane.
The Leap cane lift is associated with the extensive tramway built to serve Farleigh Mill. The section of tramway from Farleigh to The Leap was built c1893 during Bolton's tenure as manager. Bolton announced the proposed construction on February 9, 1893 at a meeting of local growers at The Leap hotel. At this meeting, he promised to erect traverser type cane lifts at the end of the line. The extant lift is configured in a similar way to a traverser type, comprising a horizontal beam supported by two posts. However, the pulley is fixed, not traversing. The hoist winch is extant and it may have been powered by an electric motor.
Cane lifts became redundant after the widespread introduction of chopper mechanical harvesters. Mechanical harvesting was attempted with little real success from the late 19th century. The development of mechanical harvesters accelerated from World War II. The first harvesters cut the cane as whole stalks. This meant that the labour intensive task of bundling whole cane stalks and loading them continued. From the early 1950s, mechanical loaders alleviated this problem to some extent.
The introduction of chopper harvesters solved the loading problem. These harvesters chop the cane stalks into short lengths or billets. The billets are ejected from the harvester directly into bins towed by motor vehicle alongside the harvester. The bins are towed to the rail siding where they are transferred onto tram or rail wagons. Alternatively, the billets are tipped into bins on the wagons. By the mid-1960s, chopper harvesters had almost completely superseded wholestalk harvesters. The extant cane lifts probably all predate this time and some could date to the late 19th century.
","criteria":"The Leap cane lift is one of a group of lifts in the Mackay region, one of Queensland's oldest and most productive sugar cane growing areas. Historically, sugar has been one of the State's most important agricultural commodities. The lifts are important in demonstrating the evolution of the industry in that they provide evidence of how harvested cane was transported before the introduction of mechanical chopper harvesters. Sugar cane was originally harvested and transported to mills as whole stalks. The lifts were used to hoist bundles of stalks into tram or train wagons. They became redundant after the universal adoption of chopper harvesters from the 1960s. Cane lifts were used at The Leap from the 1890s.
|The Leap cane lift is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type. The lifts took two basic forms: a derrick with a swinging boom, and a horizontal beam supported by two upright posts. The lift at The Leap is a highly intact example of the latter type and includes pulley wheels, cable, hook and winch. Its location near a cane tramway reflects the predominate use of this type of lift for loading tram wagons. The derrick type was used predominately for loading main line railway wagons.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":31232,"place_ref":602750,"name":"Mount Martin Cane Lift","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Mirani Mount Ossa Road","suburb":"MOUNT MARTIN","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2010-02-05","description":"The Mount Martin cane lift is situated at the locality of the same name on the southern side of the Mirani Mt Ossa Road. Mount Martin is located 45km west of Mackay. The lift is near a tram track in an area where there are extensive fields of sugar cane.
The lift stands between 7m and 8m high. Its main components are a single upright wooden mast, a wooden boom and a horizontal beam assembly. The horizontal beam assembly consists of two coupled timber beams. The boom is fixed via a hinged coupling to the bottom of the mast. The horizontal beam is fixed via a hinge to the top of the mast and the end of the boom, holding the boom in a diagonal attitude to the mast.
Pulley wheels are fixed to the horizontal beam assembly so that the wheels turn between the coupled wooden beams. A wheel is fitted to each end of the beam. Steel cable runs through the pulley wheels. A hook is suspended at the end of the cable. A steel ladder is fitted to the side of the mast and a safety rail runs almost the full length of the horizontal beam.
The lift is located in an open grassy paddock adjacent to a cane field.
","history":"The Mount Martin cane lift is situated near the locality of the same name in a rural area west of the city of Mackay. Mackay is the regional centre of one of Queensland's main sugar cane growing areas. One of the top two sugar producing regions in the state, it produces about a third of the sugar in Queensland. Sugar cane is a major crop in Queensland; the state produces nearly all of the nation's sugar. The cane lifts formed part of the process of transporting bundled whole stalks of harvested sugar cane from the farms to the mill. They were rendered obsolete by the universal adoption of 'chopper' harvesters from the 1960s.
Sugar cane was first introduced to Australia in 1788 with the arrival of the first fleet. In 1821, Port Macquarie under the command of Captain Allman became Australia's first cane-growing area. In Queensland, the successful cultivation of sugar cane was established in 1864 at Redland Bay by Captain Louis Hope who erected Queensland's first sugar-crushing mill on the banks of Hilliard's Creek about 25km south-east of Brisbane.
Cane growing was tried at Bowen in the Whitsunday region in 1864 but continued there only until 1869, when it became clear that the climate was too dry. In the Pioneer Valley the first grower in the Mackay region was John Spiller. He arrived in Mackay in 1865 as a would-be squatter without capital but with cane brought from Java which he planted on the north bank of the Pioneer River. In June 1867 he produced the first sugar in the region.
The incipient cane growing industry was given impetus in 1864 with the enactment of the Sugar and Coffee Regulations, introduced by the government to encourage northern settlement. This enabled lessees to obtain plots of up to 1,280 acres (about 518ha) at a reasonable cost. Spiller and John Crees selected two blocks that became the Pioneer Plantation and built a primitive mill. T H Fitzgerald began a commercial plantation, Alexandra, in 1866 and with J Ewen Davidson set up a steam-powered mill that produced 110 tons (about 100 tonnes) of sugar in 1868. With these facilities a sugar boom began: small growers brought their cane for crushing to the Alexandra mill and acreage under cane expanded rapidly. Cane growers pushed back the graziers and by 1870 five mills were established.
By 1872 Mackay mills produced 40 per cent of the total Queensland sugar production and 37 per cent of its rum. Seventeen mills were established along the Pioneer River before 1875, most in 1872 and 1873. Another 12 including Farleigh, Habana, Homebush, and Marian were established between 1881 and 1885, then North Eton and Racecourse in 1888, Plane Creek began at Sarina in 1896 and in 1906 Cattle Creek Mill at Finch Hatton started operations.
Where crops were near the main railway line, cut cane was transported from field to mill via rail wagons. However, in cases where the crops and mills were remote from the railway, many mills established extensive tram networks for transporting harvested cane. The railway and tram networks continue to be used together with road transport.
From at least as early as the 1890s, cane lifts at tram or railway sidings were used to transfer bundles of cane onto rail or tram wagons. Cane was initially harvested as whole stalks by hand and, later, by whole stalk mechanical harvesters. The cane was cut close to the ground and then the top foliage was cut off. It was transported to the mill as whole stalks. A frequent practise was to lay temporary tramlines into the field so that tram wagons could be loaded with cut cane close to where the harvesting took place. Where this practise was not followed, the cane was loaded onto a horse drawn wagon or motorised vehicle. This was done by hand until the introduction of mechanised loaders in the mid-20th century. The wagon or vehicle transported the cane to the nearest siding where the bundles of cane were transferred onto a tram or rail wagon using the cane lifts.
Many lifts were on private property, others on railway land at sidings. In many cases sugar mills paid for the construction of the lifts and cane farmers repaid the money at a predetermined cost per ton of cane sent to the mill.
The lifts took different forms. F W Bolton, the manager of Farleigh Mill, is credited with introducing the 'traverser' type by 1891. This consisted of an overhead travelling winch which traversed a horizontal beam supported by two posts. The cane was laid flat on a sling in a dray which was driven under the winch. The winch was used to hoist the bundle of cane which was traversed about two metres and lowered into a tramway wagon parked next to the dray. The lift was praised at the time for greatly reducing loading times and enabling the cane to be packed more densely. Apparently this type of lift was widely adopted but there are no known examples extant in the Mackay area.
A similar configuration, possibly a modification of the traverser type, comprised two posts supporting a horizontal beam with a fixed pulley. These were predominantly used with tram wagons. As with the traverser the tram track passed under the horizontal beam. The wagon or truck containing the cane stalks was driven along the tram tracks to a position beneath the horizontal beam. The bundle of cane was hoisted, then the truck was driven out and its position taken by the tram wagon into which the cane was then lowered.
The Mount Martin lift is an example of the derrick type. This type featured a boom fixed by a pivoting coupling to the bottom of a mast. The boom was held in a diagonal attitude to the mast by hinged horizontal beam extending from the top of the mast to the end of the boom. The boom swung in an arc and the lifting hook was lowered from the end of the horizontal beam. A ladder was typically fitted to the mast to permit access to the top of the derrick for maintenance purposes. Ladders could be wooden rungs fastened directly to the side of the mast or complete ladders with steel rungs and side rails. Derrick type lifts were in use by 1893. They were used mostly to load cane into main line railway wagons.
Albert John Wellman Fudge, a carpenter, is credited by some with inventing the derrick type lift. Fudge was a British immigrant who moved to Mackay in the 1890s. It is claimed that Fudge built over one hundred cane lifts for most district mills. His work was said to have been carried on by Harry Penny until the introduction of chopper harvesters.
A variety of methods were used to power the hoist. It was common to use a horse hitched to a pole fixed to a rotating drum. This system was later adapted for use with a motor. From World War II, trucks were also used. Power was transferred via a set of rollers positioned in the ground so that they would engage with the wheels of the the truck carrying the cane.
The Mount Martin lift was located close beside the railway branch line to Kungurri, opened in 1911. It was designed to transfer cut cane onto rail wagons. Several lifts originally existed at this location and a number of other derricks were erected at other sidings along the line. The extant lift dates to prior to 1939. In 1968, Marion Mill, the main user of the line, shifted to road transport because of the high cost of rail transport relative to road. This led to the closure of the branch line in 1970 and the lifting of the rails. A cane tramway presently runs along the old rail easement close to the lift.
Cane lifts became redundant after the widespread introduction of chopper mechanical harvesters. Mechanical harvesting was attempted with little real success from the late 19th century. The development of mechanical harvesters accelerated from World War II. The first harvesters cut the cane as whole stalks. This meant that the labour intensive task of bundling whole cane stalks and loading them continued. From the early 1950s, mechanical loaders alleviated this problem to some extent.
The introduction of chopper harvesters solved the loading problem. These harvesters chop the cane stalks into short lengths or billets. The billets are ejected from the harvester directly into bins towed by motor vehicle alongside the harvester. The bins are towed to the rail siding where they are transferred onto tram or rail wagons. Alternatively, the billets are tipped into bins on the wagons. By the mid-1960s, chopper harvesters had almost completely superseded whole stalk harvesters. The extant cane lifts probably all predate this time and some could date to the late 19th century.
","criteria":"The Mount Martin cane lift is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type. The lifts took two basic forms: a derrick with a swinging boom, and a horizontal beam supported by two upright posts. The lift at Mount Martin is a highly intact example of the derrick type and includes pulley wheels, cable, hook and access ladder. The ladder is a typical feature of this type of lift and was fitted to permit access to the top of the derrick for maintenance purposes.
|The Mount Martin cane lift is one of a group of lifts in the Mackay region, one of Queensland's oldest and most productive sugar cane growing areas. Historically, sugar has been one of the State's most important agricultural commodities. The lifts are important in demonstrating the evolution of the industry in that they provide evidence of how harvested cane was transported before the introduction of mechanical chopper harvesters. Sugar cane was originally harvested and transported to mills as whole stalks. The lifts were used to hoist bundles of stalks into tram or train wagons. They became redundant after the universal adoption of chopper harvesters from the 1960s. The Mount Martin lift dates to before 1939.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion D | Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650229,"name":"Sarina Air Raid Shelter (former)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Broad Street","suburb":"SARINA","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2019-05-03","description":"The Sarina Air Raid Shelter (the shelter) is positioned near the northern end of the median strip of Broad Street, the main street and highway through the town of Sarina, approximately 25km south of Mackay. The grassed median strip is located between car park spaces and double lanes for north and south-bound traffic. The shelter is in the western half of the median strip, which in this location is about 20m wide. The Sarina State School is about 30m east of the shelter, and the town’s pre-WWII Post Office is about 40m to the northwest. In 2019 the shelter is used as office and storage space for the local council’s gardeners.
\nIt is surrounded by public infrastructure and mature trees (not of state cultural heritage significance).
\nAir Raid Shelter (1942)
\nThe above-ground shelter is a box-shaped, off-form reinforced concrete structure, approximately 10m long by 3.7m wide. It is orientated roughly north-south lengthwise, with its front wall facing west, about 7m from the street. The shelter accommodates a large main chamber, and one toilet closet at each end. These closets are set back 1.5m east of the main west wall, giving the shelter a symmetrical, fat ‘T’ shape. All exterior and internal concrete walls are 305mm thick, and the flat concrete roof is 152mm thick.
\nThe shelter has two entrances (one at the north, one at the south) with a small 90 degree corridor towards the rear of the shelter, formed by an internal blast wall (separating the corridor from the main space of the shelter). From the end of each corridor, there are 90 degree turns either into the main shelter space, or into the toilet closet. The main interior shelter space measures 4.6m between the internal blast walls, and 3m between the front and rear walls of the shelter. Evidence of bench seating survives within the main shelter space.
\nPost-war modifications include four openings cut through the east and west walls of the shelter to form windows (likely for the 1945 conversion to a women’s toilet).
\nFeatures also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures not of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\n","history":"
The Sarina Air Raid Shelter stands in the median strip of Broad Street (Bruce Highway) in Sarina, about 25km south of Mackay. It is the surviving one of two public reinforced concrete air raid shelters constructed in the street in early 1942. At this time Australia was at risk of air attack due to Japan’s entry into World War II (WWII). Built by the Sarina Shire Council as a half-size version of a standard Department of Public Works (DPW) concrete air raid shelter, the Sarina shelter was adapted for other uses after WWII. It is one of the most intact of its type (‘T’ shaped with toilet closets).
\nSarina, located on the banks of Plane Creek, is part of the traditional land of the Yuwibara people.[1] The Plane Creek pastoral property, established in the 1860s, was opened for selection in 1880, which facilitated the local sugar cane-growing industry. The town, initially known as Plane Creek, grew after the opening of the Plane Creek Central Sugar Mill in 1896, and was renamed Sarina by 1907. At this time Sarina possessed three hotels, a police station and Plane Creek Provisional School. The Sarina Shire was formed in 1912, breaking away from the Pioneer Shire. The railway reached Sarina from Mackay in 1913, and opened to St Lawrence in 1921, where it joined the North Coast line from Rockhampton. In 1924, 60 shade trees were planted along the median strip of Broad Street, a wide thoroughfare and former stock route, which is the main business street of Sarina. In 1927 a ‘power alcohol’ distillery opened next to the sugar mill, to produce ethanol from waste molasses. By 1933 Sarina had a population of 1747, up from 218 in 1901.[2]
\nWith the declaration of WWII in September 1939, the Queensland Premier's Department, as the agency responsible for co-ordinating civil defence works in the state, began implementing home security policies. Air Raid Protection Committees, usually consisting of the local mayor, inspector of police and government medical officer, formed in centres along the Queensland coast. As the threat of war with Japan increased, construction of public air raid shelters was planned in main centres considered vulnerable to air attack.[3]
\nOn 8 December 1941, the United States of America entered the war, following the previous day’s bombing of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft. Simultaneously Japanese forces launched assaults on Thailand, the Philippines and the British colony of Malaya. Three days after Pearl Harbor, two capital ships of the Royal Navy (HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse) were sunk by Japanese aircraft off the coast of Malaya. The sudden fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942 and the rapid Japanese advance through the islands of the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) raised fears of air attacks on Australia. The first Japanese air raid on Darwin occurred on 19 February, carried out by aircraft launched from four of the six aircraft carriers involved in the attack on Pearl Harbour, plus land-based aircraft flying from the NEI. During early 1942 Japanese air raids on other targets in Australia seemed likely, and an invasion of Australia was also feared.[4]
\nAs a result, the Queensland Government closed all coastal state schools in late January 1942. Although most schools reopened on 2 March 1942, student attendance was optional until the war ended. A policy of voluntary evacuation of women and children from Queensland coastal areas was also implemented by the Queensland Government on 27 January 1942.[5]
\nAnother result of the fear of air attack was the construction of air raid shelters. In the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted 23 December 1941, Premier William Forgan Smith ordered the Brisbane City Council to construct 200 public surface shelters in the city area (235 were eventually constructed). Order No.1 also required the owners of any building in the coastal areas, where over 30 people would normally be present at any one time, to build shelters within, or adjacent to, the building. Businesses such as hotels constructed shelters for their patrons. Queensland Railways (QR) also instituted a shelter-building program at its railway stations.[6]
\nOrder No.1 was applied state-wide, and another 24 local authorities in Queensland's coastal areas were ordered to produce surface or trench shelters for the public, to be built according to the Air Raid Shelter Code laid down in the Second Schedule of Order No.1. Initially, 19 of these local authorities were expected to construct a total of 133 surface shelters able to withstand the blast of a 500-pound bomb bursting 50 feet away. A surface shelter was a self-contained external structure with the floor surface at or above ground level. Five local authorities, including Sarina Shire Council (SSC), were ordered to dig trenches. Standard designs for brick and concrete surface shelters, and for trench shelters, were sent to local authorities by the Architectural Branch of the DPW.[7]
\nHowever, as a result of a visit to Sarina on 24 December 1941 by State Government staff, instead of digging trenches, Sarina constructed two ‘half-size’ surface air raid shelters. The manager of the power alcohol distillery at Sarina was also ordered to construct a half-size concrete shelter. A report on the visit, by engineer Percy Ainscow of the Public Estate Improvement Branch, noted that ‘trenches were of no use in the town of Sarina [due to the wet ground, which was also an issue at Proserpine]. Approval was obtained for two small reinforced concrete shelters for Sarina, and authority to arrange for the erection of a shelter at the Power Alcohol Factory’.[8] Pairs of half-size concrete shelters were also built at Home Hill and Proserpine.[9]
\nSarina’s half-size air raid shelters were based on the standard DPW design (January 1942) for a reinforced concrete air raid shelter. Although the half-size version had the same wall and roof thickness, and the same size entry corridors and toilet closets, the main shelter space was half the length of a full-size shelter. The full-size standard shelter had 12 inch (30.5cm) thick walls, and a flat, 6 inch (15.2cm) roof (flush with the outside walls) – unless there was a risk of nearby buildings collapsing onto the shelter, in which case the roof had to be 12 inches. The outside length of the front wall of the full-size standard shelter, not including toilets, was 39ft 5 inches (12m); while the total length of the rear wall (including toilets) was 47ft 7 inches (14.5m). The shelter was 12ft (3.7m wide). In Sarina’s case, although the width was the same, the shelter’s front wall was 7.7m long, while the total rear length was 9.9m. The front walls of the toilet closets at each end of both the standard and half-size shelters were set back 5ft (1.5m) from the main front wall of the shelter, giving the shelters a symmetrical, fat ‘T’ shape. [10]
\nThe two entrances to both the full-size and half-size shelters were at right angles to, and just inside, the front wall of the shelter. Each entrance made a 90 degree turn into a corridor towards the rear side of the shelter. Each corridor was formed by a 12 inch thick internal blast wall (separating the corridor from the main space of the shelter) to one side, and a 12 inch thick wall to a ‘closet’ (containing a toilet) on the other side. From the end of each corridor, there were 90 degree turns either into the main shelter space, or the toilet closet, which was 5ft x 3ft 1 inch (1.5m x 0.94m) in size. Each internal blast wall had a recess through the top of its end for a lamp. The walls had angled corners (called a ‘haunch’ in plans) to the floor and ceiling, while the height of the interior space was 7ft 10 inches (2.4m).[11]
\nThe main interior shelter space in the full-size version was 30ft x 10ft (9.1m x 3m), with seating for 50 persons. This consisted of a central, double timber slat bench (set on five footings) for 30 people (15 facing each way); while a timber slat bench, for 20 people, was set (on seven footings) against the front wall of the main space, between the internal blast walls. In comparison, the half-size shelter’s main space was only 4.6m x 3m. In the full-size shelter, seven offset air vents (doglegged, to avoid splinter penetration) were formed through both the front and back walls of the main shelter space; and each toilet closet also had three offset vents, for a total of 20. The half-size shelter only had four vents in each wall of the main shelter space, for a total of 14 vents, including the toilet closet vents. [12]
\nBy 9 January 1942, the steel for Sarina’s shelters, which would be built by the SSC, was being cut and bent, and construction commenced around mid-January.[13] It was announced that the shelters would be 32ft x 12ft (9.8m x 3.7m) in size, with four rows of seats to accommodate 40-50 people. The first half-size concrete shelter was built in Broad Street ‘just opposite Kelly’s’ (in 2019 the National Australia Bank, corner of Broad Street and the Marlborough-Sarina Road).[14] The second shelter (the surviving air raid shelter) was originally planned for Central Street, near the railway crossing, but as QR was building its own (trench) shelters nearby, it was relocated to Broad Street, to the north of the first shelter: in front (west) of Sarina State School and within 50m of the Post Office.[15] The first shelter was finished by 14 February 1942, and the second by 28 February.[16]
\nThe number of shelters to be built, and the number of local authorities required to build them, was increased in January 1942. By 26 January, 26 local authorities outside Brisbane were expected to build 143 surface air raid shelters, with Tully and Redcliffe constructing trenches and Ipswich building a combination of surface shelters and trenches.[17] Ultimately, those local authorities outside Brisbane which had work funded by the DPW, built 133 shelters – 126 surface shelters, and seven underground (the latter at Bundaberg and Mount Morgan). In five cases (Atherton, Cairns, Gladstone, Mackay, and Toowoomba) the DPW built the shelters without local authority assistance. Some local authorities, like Brisbane, undertook and funded their own shelter building program.[18]
\nThe DPW’s construction program outside Brisbane cost £56,596; £30,929 worth of the work was undertaken by the DPW, and the rest by local authorities with funds provided by the DPW.[19] However, problems arose when the DPW asked the local authorities to pay half the total cost. Townsville, Toowoomba, Gladstone, and Ayr denied liability for costs, and a Bill was passed in December 1942 to force their compliance. The Ayr Shire Council claimed that the shelters would be death traps during an air raid, as they concentrated people in one place, and would be a target for low-flying aircraft.[20]
\nThe SSC was also not happy having to pay half the total cost (£1124.17.1) of its two air raid shelters, claiming it was led to believe that the State Government would pay the full cost; it could have built cheaper shelters than the DPW’s design; and QR had been allowed to build timber trench shelters at the Sarina railway station. However, the SSC applied for, and received, a loan to cover its liability.[21]
\nAs well as building air raid shelters, the SSC undertook other Air Raid Precaution (ARP) measures in early 1942. By early January, shades had been put over street lights, and the fire brigade was testing water hydrants; householders had to have sand available to extinguish incendiary bombs, and government building windows were covered in cheesecloth.[22] In February, to raise funds for equipment for the local emergency hospitals, the Sarina ARP Organisation held a euchre party and dance in the School of Arts hall. In March 1942 the SSC requested 12 steel helmets for its Rescue and Demolition Squad. It later borrowed £1400 from the State Government for an emergency water supply.[23] Air raid drills occurred in March and June 1942, with one being a surprise test of the sirens which resulted in the public air raid shelters being rapidly filled.[24]
\nAs the threat of Japanese air attack diminished, Queensland’s public air raid shelters became unnecessary.[25] By December 1944 the Civil Defence Organisation (CDO) was permitting the removal of air raid shelters, with half the cost, once again, to be paid by local authorities.[26]
\nAlthough calls were made to remove the ‘unsightly’ trench shelters at the Sarina railway station, the SSC did not demolish the concrete surface shelters on Broad Street. By early December 1945, when the Sarina branch of the Australian Communist Party suggested converting the surface shelters to rest rooms for country visitors, the SSC had already let a contract to convert ‘the top shelter’ (the surviving shelter) into a women’s toilet and wash room, with water and electricity connected. The existing four windows, cut into the shelter’s walls, were probably formed at this time.[27] In 1947, the other public air raid shelter was converted into a public library with the addition of electric lights, doors and windows, and officially opened in March 1948.[28] In 1960 the SSC considered converting this shelter into men’s toilets, should it be vacated by the library, but this did not eventuate. After the library moved to the memorial hall, the former air raid shelter/library was demolished in 1979.[29]
\nOther known surviving public air raid shelters (‘T’ shaped, with toilet closets) are located at: Babinda [QHR 602743] (with a new concrete dividing wall added, for use as a public toilet); Gordonvale (northern end and toilet closet only); and the old court house, Gympie [QHR 602778] (one internal blast wall removed; converted to a sound recording studio). Queensland Rail air raid shelters (‘T’ shaped, with toilet closets) also still exist: one at Maryborough Railway Station [QHR 600702] (internal blast walls removed); and one at Toowoomba Railway Station [QHR 600872] (brick, internal blast walls removed). Elsewhere in Queensland, ‘T’ shaped public air raid shelters without toilets (entrances are set back and face the rear of the shelter, and the corridors make a single 90 degree turn into the main shelter space) survive at Landsborough Railway Station [QHR 602709], and Shorncliffe Railway Station.
\nPublic shelters without toilets (entrances are not set back, and the shelter is rectangular) survive at: Queens Wharf Road, Brisbane [QHR 600135]; Ferguson Street, Manly (timber building added above); and the Maryborough Court House [QHR 600714]. Although most of Brisbane’s public air raid shelters were demolished, 20 rectangular shelters, designed to have three or four of their walls removed at the end of the war for use as bus or park shelters, also survive.[30]
\nIn 2019, Sarina’s Air Raid Shelter (former) is used as office and storage space for council gardeners. It is one of the most intact surviving examples of the DPW’s standard ‘T’ shaped air raid shelter with toilet closets, retaining its two internal blast walls, complete with lamp recesses; and its two original toilet closets. Most of Queensland’s public surface air raid shelters were demolished after WWII, and surviving examples which retain their toilet closets and both their internal blast walls are now rare.
","criteria":"The Sarina Air Raid Shelter, a public air raid shelter built by the Sarina Shire Council in 1942, is important in demonstrating the impact of Japan’s entry into World War II (WWII) on Queensland’s civilian population, and the urgent Air Raid Precaution measures undertaken in 1941-42. It is a product of the Protection of Persons and Property Order No.1, gazetted in December 1941, which ordered Queensland’s local authorities to construct public air raid shelters.
|Although hundreds of public air raid shelters were constructed during 1942 in Queensland, few survive intact. The Sarina Air Raid Shelter is one of the most intact public air raid shelters of its type (‘T’ shaped with toilet closets) in Queensland.
|The Sarina Air Raid Shelter is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a WWII concrete surface shelter built for public protection in Queensland. The extant features demonstrate the design, solid construction and dimensions of a half-size version of the standard DPW public air raid shelter (‘T’ shaped with toilet closets). Surviving characteristics include: the reinforced concrete floor, walls and roof; angled corners to the floor and roof; air vents; two entrances; two toilet closets; two internal blast walls with lamp recesses; and evidence of its internal rows of bench seating. Its siting in an easily accessible location, within an area with a concentration of civilians – in this case in the main street of Sarina – is also a defining characteristic of public air raid shelters.
","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":null,"place_ref":650250,"name":"Mackay Memorial Swimming Centre","alternate_name":"Mackay War Memorial Swimming Pool","street_address":"2 Milton Street","suburb":"MACKAY","lga":"MACKAY REGIONAL COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2020-06-26","description":"The Mackay Memorial Swimming Centre (1963) occupies a large site at the western edge of the Mackay central business district. It addresses a main thoroughfare, Milton Street, to the east and is bounded by Victoria Street to the north, undeveloped land to the west, and Gordon Street, a major entry point to the city centre, to the south.
\nThe features of state-level cultural heritage significance within the complex are:
\nThe Entrance Building stands near the centre of the Milton Street boundary, with the Plant Building located to its north. The Olympic-sized 50m Swimming Pool is located immediately behind the Entrance and Plant buildings, and the curvilinear Wading Pool to the southwest of the Entrance Building. Between the pools and the Entrance Building are formal landscaped lawns, garden beds and paths. To the south, west and north of the pools are open lawns and a variety of mature trees, including rows of palms around the perimeter.
\nEntrance Building (1963)
\nThe Entrance Building is a long, single-storey, brick and concrete building with a butterfly roof. It has an expressive, mid-century modern style featuring angled walls and contrasting use of materials. It has high levels of natural ventilation provided by bands of high-level, fixed, horizontal concrete fins along the east and west walls.
\nThe plan is largely symmetrical, and contains a central entrance, offices and refreshment kiosk, with changing room wings on either side (male changing rooms to the north and female to the south). Angled walls in the main entrance foyer direct patrons towards the changing rooms, which are accessed through built-in metal turnstiles. Each changing room wing contains a shower block near the centre of the building, a changing area with open roof in the middle, and toilets at the far ends of the building. The refreshment kiosk faces the pool area and is accessed through the central office.
\nFeatures of the Entrance Building of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Entrance Building not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nWar Memorial Mural and Plaque (1963)
\nSet into the front wall of the Entrance Building on the south side of the main entrance is a large, rectangular mural constructed from a mosaic of square glass tiles. It has a grey border, edged in black, containing the words ‘DEDICATED TO THE FALLEN OF MACKAY AND DISTRICT’ in the top panel and ‘LEST WE FORGET’ in the bottom panel. The side panels have brass wreaths attached. The central image is a landscape scene featuring stylized depictions of three Australian servicemen (representing the navy, army and air force), a Lancaster Bomber plane, a battleship, a submarine, an Owen submachine gun, a Christian cross, a dove, and the Southern Cross. In the background, light and medium blue tiles represent the sky and sea respectively, yellow tiles a ray of sunlight, and green tiles the hills of New Guinea.
\nOn the opposite side of the main entrance is a rectangular brass plaque signed by the mayor, J Binnington, commemorating the official opening of the Memorial Swimming Centre by the Hon. CW Davidson OBE on 14 December 1963.
\nEntrance Building exterior landscaping (1963)
\nAdjoining the east and west sides of the Entrance Building are original landscaping elements.
\nFeatures of the Entrance Building landscaping of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Entrance Building landscaping not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nPlant Building (1963)
\nThe Plant Building has a complementary aesthetic to the Entrance Building and stands on a similar street front alignment. The entrance is through a recessed doorway in the centre of the south elevation, and non-significant additions have been made to the western side. The interior comprises a large main room with two smaller side rooms, one of them a former shower; and two open-roofed filter bed compartments, accessed from above by a hatch in the roof of the large main room. An original store room, accessed via an external door, is located at the northern end of the western elevation.
\nFeatures of the Plant Building of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the Plant Building not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\n50m Swimming Pool and Wading Pool (1963)
\nThe 50m Swimming Pool and Wading Pool remain in their original locations and retain most of their original tiles.
\nFeatures of the pools of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the pools not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFormal pool landscaping (1963)
\nThe formal landscaped area around the pools and between the pools and Entrance Building includes concrete pavement pools surrounds, curved and straight paths, curvilinear lawns, and amenities such as benches and drinking fountains.
\nFeatures of the formal pool landscaping of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:
\nFeatures of the formal pool landscaping not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nGrounds
\nThe grounds to the north, west and south of the formal pool landscaping area, which comprise open lawns, mature shade trees and perimeter plantings of palms, provide outdoor recreation space and an attractive backdrop to the pool complex.
\nFeatures of the grounds of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of the grounds not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nThe Mackay Memorial Swimming Centre, Mackay, opened in December 1963 as a ‘living memorial’, a war memorial which combines remembrance with community amenity. It honours all those from the Mackay district who lost their lives fighting in World War I or World War II. This public asset was constructed with an Olympic-sized (50m) pool, children’s wading pool, an entrance building, and a plant building, set in generous landscaped grounds. A war memorial mural made of Italian glass mosaic tiles is set into the front wall of the entrance building. The place has a strong and ongoing community association, and is important in demonstrating the historic pattern of war memorial swimming pool construction which peaked in Queensland during the 1950s-60s.
\nMackay, part of the traditional land of the Yuwibara people,[1] was surveyed in 1863 and developed as the centre of a major sugar-growing area. Following the devastating cyclone of January 1918, Mackay enjoyed a period of substantial growth. In 1938, the Forgan (Road) Bridge replaced an 1880s bridge across the Pioneer River, and in 1939, the new Mackay Outer Harbour was opened. Queensland’s first bulk sugar handling terminal opened at this harbour in 1957.[2]
\nDespite its growth and prosperity, the citizens of Mackay waited until the 1960s for a public swimming pool. Earlier proposals, either for swimming enclosures in the Pioneer River or baths on land, were made from at least 1879, but none came to fruition.[3] One option utilised by keen local swimmers was a swimming hole on the north side of the river between the river wall and Cremorne.[4]
\nSea bathing was popular in Western culture from the late 18th century, for health and hygiene reasons. Competitive swimming also developed during the 19th century, and increased in popularity in the early 20th century. In 1896 swimming was included in the modern Olympic Games (men only, until 1912), and in 1908 the Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) was formed to standardise the rules for swimming, diving and water polo and ensure the direction of Olympic Games competitions for those sports. Swimming was given further impetus by the 1924 Olympic Games held in Paris, which set the 50m Olympic standard for pool length.[5]
\nIn Queensland, swimming for health, recreation and sport has a long history. A bathing house (for private subscribers) was erected in the Brisbane River at ‘the Government Garden’ in 1849, while the first floating bath in the Brisbane River was constructed in 1857.[6] The first in-ground public baths in Brisbane, the Spring Hill Municipal Baths, opened in 1886 [QHR 600313], and the first state school swimming pool in Queensland was opened at Junction Park, Brisbane in 1910 [QHR 650023]. Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley Baths, on the site of the earlier Booroodabin Baths (1901), were rebuilt in 1925-26 to the Olympic standard length; and Queensland’s first 50m pool outside Brisbane was opened in Dalby in 1936 [QHR 602564]. Australia’s gold medals in swimming at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics increased interest in the sport, and 50m pool construction.[7]
\nMackay also sought an Olympic-sized pool. In late 1944 the Mackay City Council (MCC) employed architect Dr Karl Langer to design a town plan, and his May 1945 plan included a swimming pool near the centre of Mackay, as well as swimming pools in several of the six neighbourhoods he envisaged.[8]
\nThe MCC, however, preferred the current site of the Mackay Memorial Swimming Centre for a freshwater swimming pool. In 1947 Langer provided coloured perspective drawings and sketch plans for a pool 165ft by 50ft (50.3m by 15.2m), ‘to be constructed on the area at the end of Victoria and Gordon streets, with the entrance opening on to Milton Street’. The site was expected to cover 2ha ‘when reclamation is completed’.[9] This land was previously part of a 2.6ha ‘Reserve for a Public Park and Recreation Ground’, declared in 1881 at the western end of the Mackay CBD.[10]
\nLanger’s 1947 perspective drawings included a long, low entrance building, with a hipped roof and an observatory balcony overlooking a rectangular 50m pool to the west, with a narrow, rectangular wading pool south of the 50m pool. A café at the southern end of the entrance building overlooked a dance floor/skating rink and a sound shell. The MCC resolved that Langer should proceed with working plans for the pool.[11]
\nThe push to construct a swimming pool received a boost at a public meeting in March 1950, when a committee was formed. It was noted that 25% of the district’s school children could not swim and that tourists also needed facilities.[12] By July 1950, when plans were approved, Langer’s design had evolved to include an L shaped pool.[13] However, the full concept never came to fruition, as the MCC was unable to borrow funds for the project. In June 1952, the new Labor city council cancelled Langer’s project.[14]
\nA new effort to obtain a 50m pool was soon started, prompted by the drownings of two local boys during 1953.[15] A public meeting on 30 March 1954, called by the Mackay Trotting Club and attended by 15 local civic and sporting bodies’ representatives, elected a committee to investigate construction of the pool. It was hoped that, after community fundraising, the MCC could apply for a government subsidy, build an L-shaped pool initially, and add supporting facilities later.[16] A subcommittee was formed to examine Langer’s plan alongside the plans (and costs) of public pools in other towns, including Dalby and Townsville. In April 1954 the Mackay committee expressed a desire that Mackay’s baths ‘be erected as a memorial to Mackay members of the forces who lost their lives in World Wars I and II’.[17]
\nThe concept of a swimming pool as a war memorial was related to a debate which had occurred in Australia after World War I (WWI), on the nature of commemoration. WWI memorials took a variety of forms in Australia, including honour boards, stone monuments and tree-lined memorial avenues; as well as utilitarian (useful) structures such as gates, halls, clocks and (less commonly) swimming pools. Most Australian localities decided on a monumental approach (60%), with only 22% choosing utilitarian buildings (mostly halls) and 18% choosing the compromise position of utilitarian monuments – including a clock on a cenotaph, for example. In Mackay a cenotaph was unveiled adjacent to the Sydney Street Bridge in 1929 (later moved to Jubilee Park).[18] From 1927 to 1973, gifts of over £1 for public war memorials were tax deductable, which assisted fundraising for memorials.[19]
\nThe argument over whether the local war memorial should be monumental or useful was repeated all over Australia after WWI.[20] Some communities solved the problem by building two memorials: one utilitarian, and one monumental. For example Bundaberg, as well as unveiling a digger statue in 1921, opened its Returned Soldiers Memorial Baths (30m length) in November 1923.[21]
\nWhen it was time to commemorate World War II (WWII), utilitarian memorials were more popular, and were supported by the Returned Sailors’, Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Imperial League of Australia (RSSAILA). Such memorials included halls, libraries, meeting rooms, council chambers, lawn bowls clubs, playgrounds, hospitals, and kindergartens. Fewer monuments were built to honour those who served or fell in WWII or the wars that followed. Typically, tributes were added onto or near existing WWI monuments. Mackay has several forms of monumental memorials to WWII, including stone plinths near the WWI cenotaph; memorial gates at the corner of Malcomson Street and Willis Street in North Mackay (1952); and a Rats of Tobruk monument at Queen’s Park, East Mackay (2001).[22]
\nOne form of utilitarian memorial rare after WWI, but more popular after WWII, was a public swimming pool, usually paid for by a mixture of municipal and tax-assisted private funding.[23] War memorial elements, designed to distinguish memorial pools from their non-memorial brethren, could range from including ‘memorial’ in the name of the pool, to plaques, flagpoles, war-related objects on display, or trophy guns next to the entrance.[24]
\nA number of war memorial public swimming pools were built in Queensland’s towns and cities after WWII, prior to Mackay’s. As well as the Tobruk Memorial Baths in Townsville ([QHR 601575, opened 1950), other memorial pools included those at Aramac (1952); Mitchell and Stones Corner (Langlands Park) (1955); Hughenden and Richmond (1956); Cecil Plains (1959); Gympie, Rockhampton (Lion Creek Road), and Toowoomba (1960); Corinda, Ipswich, and Maryborough (1961); Cairns, Chinchilla, Ingham, and Longreach (1962); and Goondiwindi (7 December 1963).[25]
\nWhile each pool complex was individually designed, they all included a standard-sized swimming pool (25m or Olympic-size 50m); an entrance building containing separate changing rooms for men and women (some with partly open-air roofs, which was believed to kill germs and aid in the drying process); and an open, landscaped site with pathways, lawns, trees and bench seating. Many also incorporated a shallow wading pool for children. The entrance building was often symmetrical, constructed from solid materials like brick and concrete, and change rooms had high-level windows or ventilation (eg. breezeblocks, louvres, etc). Circulation through the building was carefully organised, directing the sexes through their own changing rooms and out to the pool area. In line with contemporary architectural trends, some buildings were designed in an expressive, mid-century modern style, with features such as flat or butterfly-shaped roof forms, selective expression of materials and structural systems, and a horizontal, streamlined aesthetic.[26]
\nMackay’s City Engineer and his staff drew up the plan for a swimming pool that was approved by the ‘Mackay swimming baths investigating committee’ in June 1954. The inspiration for its layout and construction was Townsville’s Tobruk baths. A ‘Mackay and District War Memorial Baths Committee’ was later formed at a public meeting in January 1955. The projected cost by then was either £86,000 for an L shaped pool with amenities, or £75,000 for a rectangular pool and amenities. It was hoped that some money could be raised from public donations, and that the Queensland Government would also offer a 25% subsidy – but the MCC’s inability to borrow the remainder of the money again stalled construction.[27]
\nLocals were not ready to give up on their pool, and in late 1957 the Mackay Rotary Club decided to raise funds.[28] In January 1959, 250 men from the RSSAILA, Rotary, Jaycees, Royal Australian Air Force, and Mackay Swimming Clubs began canvassing the city area to ascertain support for construction of War Memorial Swimming Baths.[29] By December 1961, the Mackay swimming baths appeal was less than £4000 short of its £20,000 target, and an Art Union raffle, with a house as first prize, was held to raise the remainder, being drawn in May 1962. The resulting proceeds exceeded the target.[30]
\nConstruction began at the Milton Street site in March 1963, after the loan application was successful and a subsidy was provided. The site was gazetted as a 1.6ha Reserve for Local Government (Swimming Pool) Purposes, from 9 August 1963.[31]
\nThe new facility had a 50m, eight-lane swimming pool, a children’s wading pool, and generous landscaped grounds, all designed by the Mackay City Engineer’s office. However, the entrance building was designed by local architect Russell Gibbins. Gibbins established his architectural practice in Mackay in October 1954, having previously worked on the Gold Coast. He was known for designing in a contemporary, modernist aesthetic, with one of his most prominent projects in the region being the Mackay Harbour Board Building (opened 1966, demolished c2015).[32]
\nAs depicted in Gibbins’ August 1959 concept sketches, the entrance building was a symmetrical, brick and concrete building with a butterfly roof and banks of high-level, fixed, horizontal concrete fins providing ventilation to the changing rooms. It also featured a protruding front porch and flagpoles to the street frontage, a kiosk at the rear, and a manicured landscape with palm trees.[33] Some elements were not constructed, including a large fountain, a diving platform, a second storey above the kiosk, and flanking decorative screen walls at either end of the building. The internal layout of the entrance building was symmetrical, with a central foyer and office with ticket counters, and the one-way circulation pattern was controlled by turnstiles. The changing rooms comprised a large changing area, with an open-air section of roof in the middle, with benches (including terrazzo privacy screens in the female section), showers and toilets. The toilets included a separate section only accessible from the pool area.
\nThe memorial elements of the design were located on the street-facing side of the entrance building. The name ‘Memorial Swimming Centre’ was fixed to the entrance portico fascia in large lettering. On the wall to the left of the main entrance was a 2.7m by 1.5m mural made of Italian glass mosaic tiles, designed by Gibbins, and built by Bill Smith, a local stonemason, plasterer and tiler, who was also a returned serviceman.[34] It included figures representing the Australian Navy, Army and Air Force, a Lancaster bomber, a battleship and a submarine, an Owen gun, the hills of New Guinea and the sands of Egypt, while in the background the sun shone on a dove of peace and the Southern Cross. Bronze wreaths were attached on either side of the mosaic, which included the words 'Dedicated to the Fallen of Mackay and District, Lest We Forget’.[35] A bronze plaque commemorating the official opening of the Centre was attached to the opposite wall, and three flagpoles were positioned off-centre from the entrance on a small front lawn.
\nThe curvilinear children’s wading pool with a small fountain was located to the south of the 50m pool, with the area between the two pools and entrance building landscaped with concrete pathways and curved lawns, edged with small shrubs. Palm trees were planted around the perimeter of the complex, with other trees on the lawn areas around the pools. Other features around the pools included six light poles, timber seating with concrete bases and metal-framed sun shades, drinking fountains, and two spectator stands on the west side of the 50m pool. A plant building, including two large open-roofed sand filter beds, was located to the north of the entrance building. The plant building was designed to match the entrance building, with identical concrete fin windows; although it did not have a butterfly roof. The Mackay City Council coat of arms ornamented the east facade. The original colour scheme of the complex, as seen in Gibbin’s 1959 concept sketches and 1960s photographs, was predominately white, blue and yellow; with yellow used on the fascia of the front and rear porticos of the entrance building, and the bench seating and spectator stands. Similar tones of blue and yellow are present on Gibbin’s mural.[36]
\nThe ’Memorial Swimming Centre’, which had cost £90,000 (£22,000 of which was raised by the community) was officially opened on 14 December 1963, by the Postmaster-General and Federal member for Dawson, Charles William Davidson.[37] In his speech, Davidson noted that the Centre had been established as a memorial to those who lost their lives in two wars, ‘but it was also a memorial to those who served their country and returned. What was important was that it was a living memorial – something that could be used and not just looked at’.[38]
\nSince 1963, there have been some changes at the Mackay Memorial Swimming Centre, but the layout and main elements of the complex remain.[39] The Entrance Building has undergone minor changes and upgrades, including the conversion of the externally-accessible male toilets into an equitable access toilet and changing room, and the creation of an opening between the two sections of the female toilets (c2000). The supporting metal posts and timber rafters that crossed the open-air sections of the changing room roofs have been removed, while the fixed concrete fins in the north and south end walls have also been removed and replaced with concrete breeze blocks (post-2006). The flagpoles in front of the entrance building were removed post-2006. The Plant Building has had two extensions to the west, and a clubroom building was constructed to the north of the Plant Building between 1982 and 1987. Two viewing stands on the west side of the 50m pool have been removed, with their supporting concrete slabs remaining.[40]
\nMore swimming pools have opened in Mackay since 1963, as the population of the urban area increased from 16,809 in 1961, to 77,293 in 2011.[41] In 2020 the Mackay War Memorial Swimming Centre continues in use and remains valued by the community for its role in aiding remembrance, and for its role in facilitating competitive swimming in Mackay.[42] It retains its Entrance Building, with its original signage and mural; 50m and Wading pools; Plant Building; and its original layout of paths, lawns and tree plantings, along with original seating.
","criteria":"The Mackay Memorial Swimming Centre (1963) is important in demonstrating Queensland’s involvement in a major world event. In its form, fabric, materials and layout it is an important example of a post-World War II (WWII) utilitarian war memorial: a ‘living memorial’ with a dual role of providing commemoration and a community facility.
\nThe Centre is also important in demonstrating the pattern of increased public swimming pool construction after WWII, and the associated increased popularity of competitive swimming in this period. Memorial pool construction peaked in Queensland during the 1950s-60s.
|The Mackay Memorial Swimming Centre (1963) is an intact example of a memorial swimming pool complex from the 1950s-60s. In its form, style, materials and layout it is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of this type. This includes its: dual role as a public asset providing commemoration and a sports and recreation facility; central location; Entrance Building; Plant Building; 50m Swimming Pool; Wading Pool; site layout incorporating formal pool landscaping; and open grounds for recreation space.
\nThe Entrance Building retains its: expressive, mid-century modern style featuring angled walls and butterfly roof; memorial signage, mural and commemorative plaque; symmetrical layout; high-level windows; separate male and female changing rooms, partly open-air with privacy partitions in the female changing room; office and store rooms; refreshment kiosk; and evidence of its former circulation pattern, including original turnstiles.
\nThe Plant Building, designed to complement the Entrance Building, retains its original form, materials and high-level windows.
\nThe 50m and Wading pools remain in their original locations and retain their form and materials, including original tiles. The formal pool landscaping area retains its: open environment; concrete pavement pool surrounds, original layout of lawns, concrete pathways, spoon drains and garden beds; concrete and timber bench seats; and early drinking fountains. The wider grounds retain their open landscape character of lawns, mature shade trees and perimeter plantings of rows of palms.
|The Mackay Memorial Swimming Centre is important for its aesthetic significance. Retaining a high degree of integrity, the complex displays attributes of cohesion and legibility through its unified mid-century modern aesthetic treatment and materials; and the arrangement of components including buildings, pools, and landscaping elements in an attractive open landscape setting fringed with mature trees and palms.
\nThe war memorial mural, located prominently on the front wall of the Entrance Building, demonstrates expressive qualities for its commemoration of the Mackay community’s contribution to WWII, and its high quality design, materials and craftsmanship.
|The Mackay Memorial Swimming Centre is highly valued by the community for its symbolic, cultural and social associations, having a long, special and enduring connection with the people of Mackay and the surrounding district as a living war memorial.
\nCommunity meetings, lobbying, fundraising and donations played a key role in the realisation of the Mackay Memorial Swimming Centre. As well as its role in remembrance, the Centre has provided a safe swimming environment and community recreation space, and has contributed to the development of competitive swimming in Mackay.
","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"} ]}