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Mossman Far North Queensland |
 Visit the 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. Read about
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Brief History Of Mossman, Far North Queensland The Kuku Yalanji have inhabited this area for at least 9000 years. The rock scarp on Mt Demi above Mossman is called the Good Shepherd, or ‘Kubidi’ or Goobidi’. 1873 Dec. George Augustus Frederick Elphinstone Dalrymple named the Mosman River (later changed to Mossman) for Hugh Mosman while searching for a suitable port for the Palmer River goldfield. He also named Mt Beaufort and Wyanbeel (sic) Point, one of the few indigenous names he used. He named the low jungle range the Heights of Victory, and the Heights of Dagmar because it reminded him of the Dagmar Cross. 1874 Dan Hart and his 7 men went to Mossman where they cut 40,000 super feet of cedar. 1877 Oct 15. William Thomson applied for Selection No.28, the first homestead selection applied for and taken up in the area. He grew maize for the Port Douglas teamsters, coffee, coconut trees and mulberry. He was murdered in Oct. 1886. His wife Ellen and her lover John Harrison were hanged for the crime. 1878 Mar. Dan Hart, a native of Jamaica, finally secured Homestead Selection No.35, which is now the western half of Mossman town where the caravan park now stands. His Jamaican experience helped him pioneer sugar cane growing in the district. He also grew vegetables, maize, coffee, persimmons, pomoloes, mangoes, pineapples, citrus, coconuts, and bananas on his property Coolshade. Mossman was first called Hartsville, and then Thooleer after the property near the port on the river. Nov. R.O. Jones applied for The Cedars selection on the north side of the Mossman River, opposite the present caravan park. His daughter Gwendoline was the first white girl born in Mossman. 1879 Thomas William Wilson took up Portion 72 of 160 acres. He grew corn, fodder, fruit, dairy cattle and experimented with sugar on the eastern half of what is now Mossman town. He donated two acres for a school and sold, at a reasonable price, most of site of the sugar mill. Thomas, Wilson, and William Streets are named for him 1880 A sailing boat transport service was established between Mossman River and Port Douglas by Thomas Wilson and R.O. Jones. A saw mill was established in Mossman 1881 Oct. William Henry Buchanan, a Scot who built Buchanan’s Family Hotel (later the Court House Hotel) in Port Douglas in 1878, selected Portion 114, 400 acres of land on the south bank of the Mossman River and named it Bonnie Doon. 1882 Samuel Johnston (born 1840) from Derry via Bundaberg selected Drumsara named after the family home in Ireland. Yorkshireman John Pringle and wife Bridget settled in Mossman at Fairymount, Portion 135, growing rice and maize for the teamsters prior to planting sugar cane. One of their five sons, James Mossman Pringle was the first white child born in Mossman in 1883. Because of the lack of a sugar industry in 1886 John mortgaged his land and it was let out to Chinese. By 1891 there were a dozen Chinese residences. 1883 A sugar mill was erected on the Brie Brie estate by a wealthy Melbourne investor Harriet Parker, but it was not successful and closed in 1888 Mango Park, portions 198 and 206, was established by John Dorrens Johnston, brother of Samuel Johnston of Drumsara Sydney Algernon Barnard from Melbourne and his brother Frederick William took up Boonandarra. In 1885 he was clearing a track when he was speared by aborigines and died aged 23. He is buried in the Port Douglas cemetery. A ‘posse’ pursued the aborigines and many were killed. 1885 With the introduction of the Pacific Islanders Act, no Kanakas were to be imported after 1890. This would deal a severe blow to the sugar industry so the Act was amended and extended until 1900. Land was owned by the whites but cleared and worked by Chinese, Hindu, Punjabi, Japanese and Kanaka labour. 1885-1904 George Low Choy harvested cane in Mossman and supplied labour. He was moved out of the industry by a law passed in 1901 by Mossman Mill preventing Chinese having shares, deciding to pay two shillings less for Chinese cane. There are doubts that the Mossman Mill would have started if the Chinese hadn’t taken the risk to try cane farming. 1887 R.O. Jones built the first rice mill at The Cedars. About 200 Chinese tenants of R.O. and Dan Hart were rice growers and cleared large areas of land. 1891 When the Cairns railway reached Myola, the importance of Craiglie for the teamsters ended. The two single storey galvanised iron hotels were moved to Front Street Mossman to become the original Royal Hotel and Mossman Hotel. 1895 Raymond D. Rex and Mr Hawson developed Nayne on the Little Mossman and grew sugar. He married R.O. Jones’ daughter Gwendoline in 1903. The Mossman River Receiving Office was elevated to an unofficial Post Office. It became official in 1910. 1896
Sept. The sailing ship Westfield arrived with
machinery for the Mill. The Exchange Hotel was built by Denis O’Brien, who also built the North Australian Hotel (now the Central) in Port Douglas in 1878. 1897 23rd Aug. The Mossman Sugar Mill commenced. The first cane to be crushed was from Bonnie Doon. It is the most northerly mill in Australia. There were 200 kanakas cutting cane as well as Chinese. More recruits came in 1899 and 1900. 1898 31st Jan The Mossman River State School opened 1899 The Sugar Milling Co. commenced rail passenger service from Mossman to South Mossman A timber church was erected on the St David’s site Aug. A telegraph station was opened with a telephone station at the post office and the name was shortened from Mossman River to Mossman. 1900 A Government grant of £22,000 (Pounds) was given to build extension to the rail line. The line ran from the Mossman Sugar Mill to the small Tramway wharf in Port Douglas (the present Combined Clubs building) built by the Council. 1901 The locomotive Faugh a Ballagh and two passenger cars ran two return services each day, Mossman to Port Douglas. The population grew to 6,000 in the district. 1902 Jan. An extension to the cane tramway connecting Mowbray to the Mossman Central Mill was opened. 1903 March 30. The Douglas Shire Council was created, replacing the Douglas Divisional Board. 1904 The Douglas Shire Council constructed a new larger wharf in Port Douglas to handle general cargo and later for the storage and shipment of bagged sugar. This was later known as Fisherman’s Wharf and Ben Cropp’s Shipwreck Museum. The Mossman Cooperative Butchering Company was formed 1906 The Catholic church was opened by the Rev. Dr. Murray 1907 Following many people being affected by a mild form of plague in 1906, 60% of the cane was burned before cutting. 1911 16th March. A cyclone, the second in 5 weeks. The timber church in Mossman was destroyed. The Exchange Hotel, Callaghan Walsh’s store, the Mossman Butcher shop and Lunn’s Coronation Hall were damaged as well as many homes and farms. The Mill was badly damaged and the manager’s quarters and men’s quarters were destroyed. 1912 Construction of the stone church, St David’s, began. 1914 Richard Lunn introduced the first motor car to the district and set up Mossman’s first garage. 1916 Mossman Gorge was gazetted as a government reserve of 64 acres. J.D. Johnston had donated the land and insisted it become a reserve for the local aboriginal community. 1920 The business centre began to move from Port Douglas to Mossman near the sugar mill. 1924 March. The first continuous telephone service was inaugurated 1930 Aug 23. A new hospital was opened in Mossman. The Miallo school building was erected. 1933 Dec 17. The official opening of the Cook Highway, running along the coast between Cairns and Mossman. The Mossman to Daintree road was completed with Finnish roadworkers 1934 March 12. A cyclone damaged the Exchange Hotel. Cooya Beach was affected by storm surge and cane was torn out of the ground 1935 Dec 24. The passenger rail service between Port Douglas and Mossman was discontinued. 1936 Feb 22. The stone was laid for the new Shire offices in Mill Street WWII The US 2/15 Engineers began the Rex Highway over the range to Mt Molloy. The highway was completed in 1949 by the Queensland Government although not fully bituminised until 1983. Named after R. D. Rex, chairman of the Shire. 1942 July 31. A bomb was dropped on the Zullo farm, eight miles north of Mossman. Now a monument marks the spot. 1947 The old low level Foxton Bridge over the Mossman River was replaced by a higher level timber bridge. 1948 5th Jan. A letter delivery service started from the Post Office 1951 Dec 12. The new Post Office was opened on its new site in Front St. 1952 The stone St David’s church was completed and dedicated. The first Mossman Show. The Victor Crees pavilion was completed in 1953, named for the first president of the Show Society. 1953 John Verri’s store was built in Front Street The RSL Memorial Hall was opened. 1955 Feb 1. The Mossman Secondary Department (high school) opened in the QCWA Hall. It is the only secondary school in the Shire. M. C. Lemura’s and Bartolo’s stores were built in Front Street The Mossman Rotary Club began with foundation president Bill Reese Mill Manager L.J.F. Prince had two way radios fitted to cane inspectors’ vehicles and the diesel and later the steam engines. 1958 Last rail transportation of sugar to the wharf in Port Douglas. Thereafter the cargo was sent via road to the Cairns Bulk Sugar Terminal. 1960 The Mill first experimented with the Massey Fergusson chopper harvester, a mechanical cane harvester. 1962 Aboriginals from the Daintree Mission moved to Mossman Gorge 1967 Amalgamation of the Mossman Gorge section with the Daintree National Park created what was then Queensland’s largest area of National Park.
1971 An IBM 1800 process control computer was installed in the Mill. 1973 Jan. 30 Mossman High School transferred to its new grounds.
1977 The centenary of Mossman was celebrated St Augustine’s Catholic Church was opened. The new library was built. 1978 The last year that cane was cut by hand.
1980 The Mossman markets began in the grounds of St David’s church 1983 The Chapel and Vestry were added to St David’s. 1988 The Bicentennial Pool Olympic pool opened 1991 The population of Mossman was 2,200 and the Shire was 9,867. The Mossman court house and cells were sold and moved to Port Douglas to become the Clink Theatre 1996 Oct 7. The Douglas Shire Council moved into new offices in Front Street. 1997 Town and Country opened their shopping complex The new Foxton Bridge was opened “Thin Red Line”, an American feature film about World War II, was filmed at Drumsara, in Mossman and Daintree, directed by Terence Mallick 2000 “South Pacific” the musical, was filmed for American NBC in Mossman and Rocky Point, starring Glenn Close and Harry Connick Jnr.
2001 Census first release figures give the population of Mossman as 1,962. ADD 2006 Power was put underground in Mossman township and all electricity poles were removed. Compiled by Pam Willis Burden March 2006 Revised by PWB in 2007 A more detailed time line history has been published as a Bulletin and is available for $4 plus postage from the Douglas Shire Historical Society. Email |
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