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The chart Cook carried on his voyage... Can't imagine how he missed Port Douglas...The most perfect place to repair boats. There is a slipway, pubs, restaurants, and hotels.


Bank of NSW Port Douglas 1890


Ocean Beach at Port Douglas, North Queensland, ca. 1908


The post office at Port Douglas, located behind a picket fence, around 1925


Two women and a child wait under the shade of the awning while the Mobile Library bus is opened Graphics on the outside of the bus depict a tropical theme.


A blackboard sign outside the Mossman Library reads... more here


The Clink Theatre, Port Douglas in 2004 with then president Faye Hudson on the steps.  The building was formerly the Mossman Courthouse and cells.  It was removed and remodelled in 1992 and named the Clink after the street that housed the gaol next to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.

A Brief History of the Douglas Shire

With sincere thanks to the Court House Hotel for their sponsorship of this website.

Noel Weare, our esteemed and indefatigable archivist, also founding President, has won the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Cairns Regional Council in the Australia Day awards 2009!

Please see our new Walks page.

The Douglas Shire
has won a prestigious award for the hard work put into the fascinating walk.

Also featured are some errors in our research...so more funding is needed to replace some of the information plaques!

Click here for more

Port Douglas Court House
Museum. 
Wharf Street, Port Douglas.  Open Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 1pm.  Admission $2 Children Free. (Children no charge!  Kids are welcome...)  This museum is staffed by volunteer attendants.

Unsealed Cook Highway between Cairns and Cooktown, Queensland, 1920-1930


Mossman School of Arts building, Douglas Shire, Queensland
Timber building with corrugated roof and convex sunhood. The mill chimney can be seen in the rear.

People standing at the side of a tram at the tram station at Port Douglas, Queensland, around 1902.

Aboriginal man and child at memorial for F D A Carstens Port Douglas Queensland April 1957

Aerial view of the early township of Port Douglas, Queensland, ca. 1885

Are we sure the caption below is correct !
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Image shows the wreckage of timber buildings in Port Douglas following the devastating cyclone of 1911. Amongst the debris a brick chimney stack remains intact.

For a detailed description of the damage see the Queenslander,25 March
1911, p.37.
The cyclone struck Port Douglas on the 16th March 1911. Two lives were lost and most buildings in the town were levelled. Only seven out of fifty-seven houses were left standing with one hundred persons left homeless. Information taken from: Tropical cyclone impacts along the Australian east coast from November to April 1858 to 2000

The Douglas Shire runs along the coast north of Ellis Beach to the Bloomfield River.  Port Douglas is located on the coast.  Mossman is inland and has become the administrative centre.

The Kuku Yulangi have inhabited this area for at least 9000 years

1770. Captain James Cook passed the coastline and named Cape Tribulation. Then Endeavour struck the Great Barrier Reef and was beached at Cooktown for repairs.

1873. James Venture Mulligan discovered payable gold inland on the Palmer River.  A gold rush began with Cooktown as the entry point.

          George Augustus Frederick Elphinstone Dalrymple named Island Point, the Mosman River (changed to the 'Mossman') and the Daintree River.

1874.  Cedar getters were active in the Daintree area.

1877. Christie Palmerston and his mate William Little discovered a route to Island Point which would now become the goldfield's port. Palmerston named the Mowbray River.

          The S.S. Corea chartered by Cooktown businessmen, anchored off Island Point. Cooktown businessmen established branch offices and a jetty and stores.

          John James Montgomery applied for the first selection on the Mowbray River

          The 'Bump Road', Palmerston's track, was opened, providing access to the goldfields from Port Douglas.

          William Thomson applied for the first selection on the Mossman River.

          A Proclamation in the Queensland Government Gazette established Port Douglas (formerly Island Point) to be a dutiable port from the 1st December.

1878. More businesses moved from the Cairns area to Port Douglas, including several Government offices and banks with the population ?about 400?.

          Four Mile Camp, later named Craiglie was set up as a packers and teamsters village.

          Farms became established growing coffee, bananas, corn, rice, sweet potatoes, yams and pumpkins.

          Dan Hart, a native of Jamaica who had settled as early as 1874, selected land on the Mossman River where part of Mossman township now stands.

          The single story Buchanan's Family Hotel was built.  Later known as the Court House Hotel.

          The North Australian Hotel, later to be known as the Central Hotel, was built

          A lighthouse was erected on Low Isles (The lens is on display in the Court House Museum at Port Douglas)

1879. The Port Douglas Court House was built.

          Pupil No.1 was enrolled at the Port Douglas State School No.334.

          The first permanent settlers in Daintree area were John, Archie and Gavin Steuart.

1880. St Mary's Catholic church was erected.

         Jack and Newell built a wharf on the inlet at Port Douglas.

1883. The Junction Hotel and Store were opened at Daintree

          A water-operated sawmill was built at Daintree for the cedar cutters.   

1885.  Cairns was chosen as the terminus for the railway to the hinterland and this killed any further development of Port Douglas.  This was the birth of the renowned Kuranda railway line.

1887.  The committal hearing of Ellen Thomson and John Harrison took place at the Port Douglas Court House.  They hanged in Brisbane for killing her husband. She was the only woman officially hanged in Queensland.

1893. The railway between Cairns and Mareeba was opened and the Bump Track was then used only for passenger traffic.

1895.  Disastrous flood on the Daintree.

1896. Tick Fever, or Redwater Fever, appeared in cattle herds of the district and the farmers turned to cane.

          The Exchange Hotel was built in Mossman.

1897. The sugar mill at Mossman commenced operation.

1898. The Mossman River State School opened.

1899.  Bailey's Creek School and Daintree River School began but later closed.

1902.  An extension to the cane tramway connecting Mowbray to the Mossman Central Mill was opened. The journey to Mossman took 1 hour 26 minutes.

1903. The Douglas Shire Council was created, replacing the Douglas Divisional Board.

1904. A new timber wharf was built on the Inlet in Port Douglas connected to the tramway line from Mossman.  In 1980 it became Ben Cropp's Shipwreck Museum.

1911. A cyclone devastated Port Douglas and surrounding countryside. A Methodist church was built in Mowbray

1914.  Richard Lunn introduced the first motor car to the district in Mossman

1920. The business centre began to move from Port Douglas to Mossman.

1924. Daintree State School No.1022 opened with 10 pupils.

           A butter factory and sawmill were built at Daintree.

1930. A new hospital opened in Mossman and the Port Douglas hospital closed.

1932.  The Mason family settled in Cape Tribulation

1933. Official opening of the Cook Highway along the coast between Cairns and Mossman.  The Mossman to Daintree Road was also completed.

1934.  A cyclone destroyed buildings on Low Isles.

WWII. The US 2/15 Engineers commenced construction of the Rex Highway over the range to Julatten from the outskirts of Mossman.

1955. The Mossman Secondary Department (high school) opened in the QCWA Hall.  It is the only secondary school in the Shire.  

1957.  Electricity was turned on in Port Douglas.

1958. Last rail and sea transportation of sugar from the Port Douglas wharf. After that it was sent by road to Cairns.

1960. The population of Port Douglas was about 100.

             Council started a vehicular ferry and the road extended to Cape Tribulation in about 1962.

1962. The Port Douglas State School closed.

             Aborigines from the Daintree Mission moved to Mossman Gorge.

           The Daintree butter factory closed.

1966.  Electricity was turned on in Daintree township.

1978.  The Nicholas family established the Cubbagudta tea plantation at Cow Bay

1981.  The Great Barrier Reef was inscribed on the World Heritage List.

1984. Cairns International Airport was opened.

1988. Sheraton Mirage resort, developed by Christopher Skase, opened.

            The Wet Tropics of Queensland was inscribed on the World Heritage List.

1989. St Mary's by the Sea Church was moved to Anzac Park.

A three month long domestic pilots'  dispute halted the growth of tourism.

1991. The population of Mossman was 2,200 and the Shire was 9,867.

1993. The Port Douglas Court House was returned to the police reserve and restored for use as a museum

           The Low Isles lighthouse became automated

1996. The Douglas Shire Council moved into new offices in Front Street.

            The biggest floods since 1952. The Daintree River was 2 kms wide.

2000. The old Shire Hall was removed from Macrossan Street and relocated privately in Craiglie to make way for the Outrigger Heritage resort. 

2005. Brian Ray was killed in a light plane crash.  The Ray Group had recently bought the Sheraton Mirage and was developing Balé Resort.  He had renovated and remodelled the Court House Hotel in 2000.

2006.     Sep 4.  The Douglas Shire Planning Scheme came into effect with development controls for the Daintree lowlands. 

2007. Apr 11.  The Eastern Yalanji Land Use Agreement was signed acknowledging traditional ownership by the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people of 230,000 hectares of land including Daintree, Cape Tribulation and Black Mountain National Parks

On 10th August 2007, Peter Beattie's Queensland Government voted to amalgamate the Douglas Shire with the Cairns City Council to form the Cairns Regional Council.  This ended 104 years of existence for the Douglas Shire Council.  The new Council will come into operation after local elections in March 2008.  The old Douglas Shire has become a division with one representative on the new Council.  The Douglas Shire Historical Society has voted to retain its name.

 If you'd like to read histories of different areas of the Shire, click on navigation buttons at the top-on the left.

Very detailed time lines have been published as Bulletins and are available from the Douglas Shire Historical Society for $4 each plus postage email here

Compiled by Pam Willis Burden