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Is this fair in Douglas Shire?
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Mowbray and Craiglie Queensland |
 Visit Port Douglas Court House Museum. Wharf Street, Port Douglas. Open Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 1pm. Admission by gold coin donation. This museum is staffed by volunteer attendants. Read about 'Port's People
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Mowbray History The Mowbray Valley was the hunting ground for the Chabbuki (Tjapukai) tribe of aborigines. They moved through the valley on hunting trips between Port Douglas and Mona Mona camp near Kuranda.
April. Christie Palmerston and his mate William Little/Lakeland/Leighton and aboriginal guide Pompo discovered a route suitable for wagons and pack teams from the Hodgkinson goldfield down to Island Point, which would now become the port. Palmerston named the river that had led them down the range after the Goldfield Warden for Thornborough on the Hodgkinson field, William Matthew Mowbray. Their route over the range was later called the Bump Track. They carved their initials on the tree they camped under at Mowbray. The replica is now in the Teamsters’ Park in Craiglie. Aug 3. John James Montgomery applied for the first homestead selection Sept 6. The 'Bump Road' (Palmerston’s track) was opened from Port Douglas to Rifle Creek, near the future Mount Molloy township. Nov 1. Rudolf Berzinski selected 160 acres just outside the 6 mile boundary of Port Douglas, at Craiglie. He was a pioneer settler of Mowbray. He and his wife are buried in the Port Douglas cemetery 1887-1893 The area between Spring Creek and Yule Point was known as ‘The Police Camp’. This is where all the men and horses for the Mounted Police and Gold Escort from the Hodgkinson goldfields were located. 1878 A Road Board was established and improvements made to the Bump Road. Four Mile Camp, later named Craiglie, was set up as a packers’ and teamsters’ village. The Ryan family owned one hotel and the other premises was known as Ruggs’ Hotel. There was a blacksmith and farrier shop, a bakery, a butcher shop, a saddlery, a school near the tamarind tree and several homes. 1880 John Trezise, a Cornishman known as Cornish Jack, settled at Spring Creek, growing citrus, rice, maize, a jackfruit tree with huge fruit, then cane. The original home was destroyed by the 1911 flood. Trezise Road is named after him. He died in 1910 aged 74. John James Montgomery with his partner John George Robbins built Mayfield between the Mowbray River and the Spring Creek junction. They grew fodder, rice, citrus and fruits, supplied to the teamsters. They had Chinese tenants. Bill Millet, a pioneer coachman, selected land and built up a citrus orchard. He had a Chinese tenant. They all made their fruit cases from split palings dressed with a tomahawk. Sawn timber was not available. But Bill bought a two-horse-power kerosene engine and a circular saw to make his cases. 1882 The number of hotels in Port Douglas, Craiglie and Mowbray consolidated to 15. Early 1880s John Pringle arrived from South Queensland and built a house at Craiglie. His five sons and one daughter went to Craiglie school while his property in South Mossman could be developed should a sugar mill be built 1883 James Reynolds selected Mowbray Vale, with wife Margaret. He grew cattle, maize, fruit and sugar cane. He opened a butcher’s shop at Craiglie. He died in 1905 aged 65, and is buried in the Port Douglas cemetery. His son James Patrick, born in Thornborough in 1878 but educated in Port Douglas, was Chairman of the Shire from 1913-1920. 1890 James Reynolds’ citrus and mango orchard had 2400 trees. 1891 When the Cairns railway was completed to Myola, just beyond Kuranda, the importance of Craiglie for the “Knights of the Road”, the teamsters, ended. The Stewart family settled at Spring Creek on property originally selected by Allan Gray. Before she was married, Mrs Stewart had worked for Mrs Gray in Port Douglas. On the property there was a fine orchard and Chinese tenants, Lee Hon and Lee Mew. Early 1890s Severin Berner (Barney) Andreassen settled in the Mowbray Valley. He had been fishing for beche de mer from Schnapper Island with his partner Mr D. P. Monynahan. 1893 The railway between Cairns and Mareeba was opened with the result that the Bump Track became used only for passenger traffic rather than predominantly for freight as it had been. Craiglie soon became a deserted village. 1894 The two single-storey galvanised iron hotels at Craiglie, Ruggs and Ryans, were moved to Front Street Mossman and re-erected as the Royal Hotel and Mossman Hotel respectively. 1896 John Robbins of Lower Mowbray Valley, procured a Brahman bull from Melbourne Zoo in an endeavour to build up a strain of tick resistant cattle. The locals called them Zebus. The progeny of this bull was the forerunner of the Brahman stock through the north. 1902 Jan. An extension to the cane tramway connecting Mowbray to the Mossman Central Mill was opened. The journey to Mossman took 1 hour 26 minutes. 1904 20,000 cases of oranges and mandarins were shipped out annually from the Port Douglas wharf, most coming from the Mowbray Valley 1907 James Patrick Reynolds, second son of James and Margaret, took up a selection adjoining the home farm and grew sugar cane until he retired in 1947. Reynolds Park in Port Douglas is named for James and his father. He recruited a gang of white cane cutters, among them six Connolly brothers from New South Wales. Three of the brothers married three of James’s sisters and stayed on to acquire land and grow cane in Upper Mowbray. 1911 March 16. A cyclone devastated the area, the second “blow” within 5 weeks. A Methodist Church was built near the top of Robbins Hill by Mr Fred Stevenson 1914 Mr F. W. Stevenson acquired property at Killaloe and commenced cane farming. His four daughters assisted him in cutting the cane 1915 A severe drought made the fallen timber from the 1911 cyclone very dry and bushfires burnt kauri pine and hickory. 1917 ? earlier? Rosebank house was built by Billy Burdett, assisted by Matt and Michael Connolly, from timber from the property sawn at Billy’s sawmill. 1919 ? Diggers Bridge was built over the Mowbray River by returned soldiers for the Douglas Shire Council 1920 March. A severe cyclone struck the valley damaging some houses and many mango trees. Early 1920s The Bump Track was used by cars and buses which were helped up the very steep places by teams of horses. James Patrick Reynolds, who lived at the foot of the Track, supplied the horses. 1923 Craiglie school closed 1925 Most of the aborigines of the Mowbray area had gone to Mona Mona Mission Station near Kuranda. Cars began to replace horses and buggies and the road to Mossman improved. May. The Mowbray School opened with Mr. A. L. ‘Bunny’ Edward as teacher.
1932
1933
1942-1945
(WW II)
1977 Compiled by Pam Willis Burden March 2006 A more detailed time line history has been published as a Bulletin, and is available for $2 plus postage from the Douglas Shire Historical Society. Email |
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![Two men look on as a car and its passengers are hauled up the Bump Track by three horses, Port Douglas Region, Queensland, ca. 1928 [picture] - Part of Yonge, C. M. (Charles Maurice), 1899- Album of views of Queensland, Great Barrier Reef, New South Wales and Canberra, 1928-1929 [picture]](images/nla.jpg "Two men look on as a car and its passengers are hauled up the Bump Track by three horses, Port Douglas Region, Queensland, ca. 1928 [picture] - Part of Yonge, C. M. (Charles Maurice), 1899- Album of views of Queensland, Great Barrier Reef, New South Wales and Canberra, 1928-1929 [picture]")