Mission Beach is a town of 4,055 residents according to the 2021 Census. It includes several villages separated by small tracts of forests that fringe the many beaches of the area. Part one of our Place & Street Names history covers the villages of Maria Creeks, Midgeree Bar, Garners Beach, Bingil Bay and Narragon Beach. A Queensland Globe map shows the area involved with Narragon Beach (unlabelled) being just north of Clump Point bottom right hand side:
Maria Creeks (mid left) to Narragon Beach (lower right-hand side), area Map from Queensland Globe.
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VILLAGES: MARIA CREEKS, MIDGEREE BAR & GARNERS BEACH |
Bingil is the Aboriginal word for the area and is said to mean good camping ground with fresh water or good and well-watered point. Bingil Bay Road is one of the two main roads to access Mission Beach from the north, the other being El Arish-Mission Beach Road which links directly to the village of Mission Beach.
Aboriginal gunyahs, Bingil Bay 1902
References & Reading
Constance Mackness MBE, Clump Point and District: An Historical Record, G. K. Bolton, Cairns, 1970, P. 20.
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BROOKES BEACH |
This small beach lies between Bingil Bay and Garners* Beach and is one of those rare beaches in Australia that has its original natural rainforest fringe traversing the entire length of the sand edge. It has none of the usual beachside roads or buildings common to most Australian beaches and, apart from a few imported species like coconuts and Singapore daisy, is virtually as it was before Europeans settled here.
Dorothy Victoria Watson came from England to the Atherton Tablelands in 1920 where she met and married Bernie Brooke (left) in 1922. Bernie operated a bullock team for hauling timber in Millaa Millaa. They had three children, Ray, Gordon (‘Tiger’) and Ruth. In 1944, Dorothy and Bernie adopted a son, Paul, who would do a tour of duty of Vietnam. In 1931, the Brooke family moved to Silkwood (Number 4 Branch) where Bernie cut cane.
On 07 February 1942, the Brooke family left for Hughenden in accord with Police advice to leave the area during the war. Bernie volunteered for the Civil Construction Core to build roads and airfields. Ray joined the Air Force where he served in PNG’s Land Aircraft Crew preparing aircraft for flights. They returned to North Queensland in 1955 where they had purchased land earlier on the north headland of Brookes Beach. They built a home (relocated from elsewhere) but that was demolished after Cyclone Yasi in 2011.
Dorothy and Bernie (above) sustained a good life on the land in their retirement at Brookes Beach. Bananas, pineapples, and pawpaw were grown in abundance. Bernie passed away in 1969 aged 79. Brookes Beach had no properly assigned name, so locals often referred to it as Middle Beach being between Bingil Bay and Garners Beach.
Around 1980, Johnstone Shire Council officers approached Dorothy and sought permission to name the beach she lived on (ultimately for 32 years) Brookes Beach. The name was not gazetted but after some lobbying, Ken Gray affirmed the name with Queensland Places and Google Earth.
In 1989, Dorothy moved into the Pinehaven Home in Tully where she was affectionately known as Brookie. She died there aged 94 in 1991.
Brookes Beach
References & Reading
Ken Gray, Naming Brookes Beach, The Story of Dorothy Brooke, Mission Beach Historical Society, H014, 2022
*Refer Garners Beach Road, Bingil Bay.
Brisbane Courier Mail Annual 1967
Image author’s own
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DAVESON RD |
Alfred James Daveson (1875-1957) worked as a farmer and then a stockman in western Queensland before settling on the banks of Liverpool Creek around 1902. He called his house Silkwood after the trees growing in the area. A postal facility was established at his house and was called the Silkwood Office. The town that grew in the area took its name from the house Silkwood that Alf and his family lived in which was very close to where the Silkwood State School is now situated.
Alf Daveson's timber truck with silky oak log, Lacey Creek 1930s. Alf Daveson’s house, Mission Beach- El Arish Road,
1930s to 1940s
Alf had a sugar cane farm but soon joined his brother Henry who owned a butchery. Alf leased a property north of Charters Towers in 1915 and supplied the butcher's shop with cattle. By 1925, he was living in El Arish and buying up huge tracts of land around El Arish and Mission Beach. His profession was then cited as selector and other times as timber cutter.
He also ran successfully for the Ratepayers Party in the Johnstone Shire Council from 1930-1946. From around 1943 to 1954, Alf held the position of Chairman of Directors for the Silkwood Co-operative Butter Factory. He continued to cane farm and lived in El Arish until he died aged 82.
References
Ancestry.com.au
Trove
Queensland Places – Silkwood, Australia.
Commonwealth Electoral Rolls, 1903-2008.
Images courtesy of the Rick Family
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EL ARISH-MISSION BEACH RD |
The El Arish township is approximately 18 kilometres inland from Mission Beach. It was originally called the Maria Creek Soldier’s Settlement which was established under The Returned Soldiers Act of 1917. In 1921, the Australian Government allocated 72 lots of 40-acre and 50-acre blocks that were balloted off. The land was to be used for sugar cane farming. The town was renamed El Arish after the Egyptian (previously Palestinian) town Arish, which was the site of a significant battle by the Australian Light Horse against the Turkish Army in 1916. Many of the streets are named after high-ranking officers under whom many of the soldiers had fought.
The first sugar cane harvests were sent to the Johnstone Mill but in 1925 the Tully Sugar Mill was established and commenced crushing El Arish cane. The town grew with cane cutters, migrants and families moving into the area. There were several timber mills, stores, a school, hall, hotel and a railway station. The road between El Arish and Mission Beach was officially opened in July 1936. The population peaked in the 1950s but with the introduction of mechanical cane harvesters and better roads the town began a dramatic decline. El Arish today has an active community which has very close connections to the ANZACs and ANZAC Day celebrations.
El-Arish Mission Beach Road 1936
References & Reading
Sean Davey, El Arish: A History of War & Sugar in Far North Queensland
Wikipedia, El Arish, Queensland
Queensland Place Names- El Arish
Elarishnq.com, El Arish, North Queensland
Jubilee Souvenir of Innisfail & District 1873-1923
State Library Queensland
Cassowary Coast Libraries
ANZAC Day 1952, El Arish RSL Memorial Hall
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EVERGREEN DR |
Named after the lush vegetation that lines this road.
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FIG TREE BEACH RD |
Denotes the fig trees that may have grown in the area.
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FRIZELLE RD |
Edmund Daymon Frizelle was born in or around Dublin, Ireland in 1869. It was said in his obituary that he was educated in England and was an Oxford Science graduate.
After migrating to Queensland in 1893, he worked as a naturalist for an English company. He then tried his hand at sugar cane farming in Mackay around 1900. Frizelle worked for the railway in Martintown (Tolga) from 1903 until 1912. While working as a timber getter outside of Tolga in 1908, he was joined by well-known oologist (egg collector), Sidney Jackson. Together they collected the eggs and skins of various birds. Jackson had previously been a guest of Edmund and Bertha Banfield* on Dunk Island. Maybe Jackson’s stories of encounters with the wildlife of the Dunk area, caused Frizelle to settle close by. He purchased land from the Cutten* brothers of Bingil Bay in 1910 near the Garner* family’s block and commenced living and farming there by 1913. Records have him growing fruit up to 1942.
Edmund Frizelle (centre) with local aboriginal men at Jackson’s camp, Barron River, Atherton Tablelands 1908.
Frizelle continued as a naturalist and scientific collector. He is noted as having undertaken some of the first scientific recordings of the cassowary in the area. He also collected moths and butterflies to send to the Rockefeller Foundation in the United States. Ian J Mason, a well-known and respected Australian ornithologist and oologist, has written many scientific papers and books on birds and their eggs. His collection holds many papers submitted by Frizelle. Edmund Frizelle passed away in 1959 at the Innisfail Hospital aged 90.
References & Reading
Queensland Towns Directory.
F.J. Crome, Some Observations on the Biology of the Cassowary in North Queensland, P. 8.
Dorothy Jones, Hurricane Lamps and Blue Umbrellas, A History of the Shire of Johnstone to 1973, G. K. Bolton Printers, Cairns, 1973, P. 317.
An oologist at Tinaroo: Sid Jackson’s 1908 expedition to North Queensland by Russell McGregor
https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/73703/7/73703.pdf
NLA Pic Album 1243/3 #pic P887/1360-1404
Papers of Ian J Mason-National Library of Australia.
*Refer Cutten St, Bingil Bay
*Refer Banfield Parade, Wongaling Beach
*Refer Garners Beach Road, Garners Beach
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GARNERS BEACH RD |
The area now known as Garners Beach was referred to as Nee Mourna by E. J. Banfield* (the Beachcomber of Dunk Island). He wrote that it was the Aboriginal name for the beach but Djiru elders state that was never the Djiru name for the place and is not a Djiru word. The first land selection was by James Dillon in 1903. That was abandoned and taken up by Edward (Ted) Thomas Garner (1861-1945) in 1910. Ted arrived at Bingil Bay in 1909, 25 years after the Cutten* brothers, with wife Edith (1886-1935) and children Edward (Ted) Henry (1888-1965) Elizabeth Ann and Nellie. He built and ran the Cutten's timber and case mills.
The Garners at the
Cutten Case Mill.
In 1908, young Edward Henry (Ted Junior) married Catherine Mary Jacobine Wildsoet* and Elizabeth Ann Garner married Catherine's, brother Adolph (Lou) Wildsoet. By 1911, the Garners had built two homes, one on the hill for the older Garners and one on the flat at Garners Beach for Ted Junior and his young family. Their nephew, Arthur Garner, lived in a tent and was our first photographer. They cleared land and grew bananas and built boats to transport timber and produce up the Maria Creeks*. They also burnt coral mined at Kings Reef for lime which they sold to the cane farmers.
Original Garner home at Garners Beach
With the outbreak of World War I, they lost their markets and the ships to transport their fruit south. Then in 1918, the Great Cyclone wiped out the whole area and appeared to be the ruin of the Garners. With determination they rebuilt and in the 1920s they established fishing and holiday accommodation at the beach. During the depression, they opened their home up to anyone in need and offered all the
produce from their bountiful gardens. After Ted Snr and Edith had passed, Ted Jnr sold up many blocks for residential houses.
Garner and Wildsoet Families
References & Reading
Ken Gray, Bicton: The Cuttens of Clump Point, Mission Beach Historical Society, H005, 2022, PP. 42, 43, 60, 62, 70.
Helen Pedley, A Brief History of Mission Beach, section: Bingil Bay, accessed at https://www.cassowarycoast.qld.gov.au/downloads/file/1947/brief-history-of-mission-beach.
Constance Mackness MBE, Clump Point & District: An Historical Record, G. K. Bolton, Cairns, 1970, PP.16, 55.
Ancestry.com.au
Ken Gray, The Banfields of Dunk, Mission Beach Historical Society, S001, 2022, P. 3.
Dorothy Jones Library Heritage Collection
*Refer Banfield Parade, Wongaling Beach
*Refer Cutten Street, Bingil Bay
*Refer Wildsoet Street, Wongaling Beach
*Refer South Maria Creek Close. this section
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HOLT RD |
Harold Holt (1908-1967) was Treasurer in the Menzies Liberal Government from 1958 to 1966 before he became the 17th Prime Minister of Australia. In the 1930s, Harold shared a house in Melbourne with friend and fellow student, John Busst. Harold and his wife Zara visited John and Alison Busst (who were to become our district’s most notable conservationists), on Bedarra Island in the 1950s.
When the Bussts relocated to their new home, on Ninney Point at Bingil Bay, the Holts were frequent visitors. The Holts loved the area so much that they bought a nearby property at Garners* Beach with views of the Barnard Islands and Kurrimine Beach. They then built their holiday home, The Shack. It was from here that Harold Holt relaxed and sometimes worked on the National Budget. When he was elected Prime Minister, he was given the privacy and anonymity that he needed from the locals to continue his visits. In December 1967, he drowned while swimming off Cheviot Beach in Victoria.
The Shack, Garners Beach Alison Busst, Harold Holt, Len Webb* & Zara Holt
References & Reading
Ken Gray, The Artful Activist: How John Busst Saved the Great Barrier Reef, Mission Beach Historical Society, H007, 2022, PP. 6, 18-22, 25, 31, 34-36, 50.
Wikipedia.
Trove
Friends of Ninney Rise
www.ninneyrise.com/uploads/2/4/4/6/24467863/final_cmp_compressed.pdf P23
Image Brisbane Courier Mail Annual 1967
*Refer Garners Beach Road, Garners Beach
*Refer Webb Close, Bingil Bay
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MOUNTAIN VIEW CL |
Named for its view of Clump Mountain, which was named by Captain Owen Stanley* (left) on the survey ship, HMS Rattlesnake in 1848.
References
Wikipedia
*Refer Owen Stanley Street, South Mission Beach
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MIDGEREE BAR RD |
The name Midgeree Bar comes from the language of the local Djiru tribe for Place of Midges. The Bar should have an 'e' on the end for Place of.
References
Oral History provided by Leonard Andy (Traditional Owner, Djiru Country).
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SOUTH MARIA CREEK CL ==C==CLOSECLCL=CLOSE |
Dorothy Jones, in her book on the Cardwell Shire in 1961, stated that Maria Creek was apparently named after the brig Maria that sunk in 1872. However, in her 1973 history of the Johnstone Shire, she had done further research and spoken to the son of Sub-Inspector Robert Johnstone of the Queensland Police and to the Hydrology Office. Both sources confirmed that it was Robert Johnstone (left) who named Maria Creeks (and other places) after his wife Maria.
Before the wreck of the Maria, it was known as Louisa Creek. In 1904, the Chinese started growing bananas on the southern branch of Maria Creek and the creek was snagged and lighted to make it safely navigable at night. A railway line linked Maria Creek to as far north as Liverpool Creek. In 1911, The Adelaide Steamship Company built a wharf at the junction of the two branches of the creek and acquired the railway line. Chapman and Co. had their sawmill located on Maria Creek, so it provided sea access for ships exporting fruit and timber.
Chinese banana farmers, Cairns region
Maria Creek Wharf 1913
References & Reading
Dorothy Jones, Hurricane Lamps and Blue Umbrellas, A History of the Shire of Johnstone to 1973, G. K. Bolton Printers, Cairns, 1973, PP. 44, 294, 295.
John Oxley Library, Qld
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VILLAGE: BINGIL BAY |
This village is named after the Aboriginal word for the area and is said to mean good camping ground with fresh water or good and well-watered point. The beach and area are both named Bingil Bay, but at times in the press, the beach was referred to in the past as Cutten’s Beach, Alexanders Beach or even Bicton Beach. Government maps in 1923 named it Bingil Bay.
The first settlers, the Cuttens, insisted on calling the area Clump Point district rather than Bingil Bay, but the press often used the term Bingil Bay, nonetheless, and when Leonard and Herbert Cutten died in 1930, the area name reverted to the original name, Bingil Bay.
The town name was gazetted on 04 November 1961.
Bingil Bay, Image courtesy Susan Kelly, Natural Images.
References & Reading
Ken Gray, Bicton: The Cuttens of Bingil Bay, Mission Beach Historical Society, H005, 2022, PP. 4, 7.
The Australasian, 13 February 1926, P. 66 (Cutten’s Beach), accessed on Trove, August 2022 at:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/141408594?searchTerm=%22Cuttens%20Beach%22
El Arish: By the Seaside, (Alexanders Beach), Cairns Post 29 August 1931, accessed on Trove, August 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/149895802?searchTerm=%22Alexanders%20Beach%22
Clump Point, A Great District, Cairns Post, 11 August 1926, accessed on Trove, August 2022 at:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/40557711?searchTerm=%22Bicton%20Beach%22
Queensland Place Names website.
Image © copyright Susan Kelly, Natural Images.
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ALEXANDER DR |
Florence Cutten* (1868-1952) married Charles Turnbull Alexander (1863-1912) in 1891 and moved to Atherton. They had six children, one girl and five boys. Upon her husband's early death, Florence (left, with youngest Alick, 1914) returned to Bicton* with her young family where they bought up part of the Cutten estates. Over the years, the Alexanders had a dairy farm, grew bananas, and even tried grazing sheep with some success.
Her son Charles Fredrick Alexander (1892-1963) and his wife Gertrude were among the first to venture into tourism at Bingil Bay. In 1928, they built a two-storey guest house. They called it Alexander's Inn. It even acted as the first post office and telephone exchange for the region. This became very popular when the road from El Arish to Bingil Bay opened in 1936 giving guests better access. They collected their guests from the rail head at El Arish in the area's first motor car.
Alexander’s Inn, Bingil Bay. Original oil by P.E. Reuter 1952
Another son, Leslie Gray Alexander (1895-1985), was in Innisfail on the night of the Great Cyclone of 1918. Despite having had his left hand severed only six weeks previously in an accident with explosives, Les (left) immediately secured a boat and sailed down the coast, checking for survivors on the Barnard Islands and Kurrimine Beach. He was first to witness the devastation to his family's estate at Bingil Bay and come to their aid. Years later, he worked for the council as the Bingil Bay Road maintenance man. With the new road increasing the popularity of the area, he was also hired by the council as the beach inspector during holiday time.
Florence's daughter, Margaret Edith Alexander (1898-1982), married well-known local timber getter, Jack Bunting*. Margaret (left) inherited a 160-acre block of land at Ninney Point from her Cutten Uncles and sold it in 1955 to Alison Busst. That was where Alison and John Busst built their home, now the heritage-listed property known as Ninney Rise.
Sidney Arthur Eric Alexander (1904-1986) became a Johnston Shire Councillor and ran unsuccessfully for Mayor in the late 1930s. He caused considerable conflict between Johnstone and Cardwell Shires when he successfully moved to transfer the areas of Bingil Bay and Mission Beach (North) from Cardwell into Johnstone. He moved to Cairns and worked for the Queensland government as the District Pricing Officer to moderate prices after the war.
El Arish School children at Alexander’s Inn with Mrs Gertrude Alexander circa 1930s
In 1938, to perpetuate the names of people who assisted in opening the area, the then Johnstone Shire, decreed that the road from Bingil Bay around the mountain to Mission Beach would be called Alexander Drive and the shire would maintain it.
References & Reading
Ken Gray, Bicton: The Cuttens of Clump Point, H005, Mission Beach Historical Society, 2022, PP. 41 - 50.
Ancestry.com.au
Constance Mackness MBE. Clump Point and District, An Historical Record, G.K. Bolton, Cairns, 1970, PP. 14,53.
Trove
Cassowary Coast Archives
The Special Silver Jubilee Edition, The Tully Times, June 1989.P. 82
Image of Mrs Reuter’s Painting courtesy of Doug & Mavis Bunting
Image of Alexander’s Inn courtesy of Ray Langford
*Refer Cutten Street, Bingil Bay
*Refer Bicton Close, Bingil Bay
*Refer Bunting Street, Wongaling Beach
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BE-AMBER ST |
Origin unknown. The only reference to amba found was to an Indian tangy mango sauce so maybe there were mango trees there early on.
Reference & Reading
Wikipedia
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BICTON CLOSE |
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BICTON HILL |
The Cutten* family were the first European settlers of the district. They rowed from the Tully River on 1 April 1882 to select land and finally settled here on 27 August 1885. They called their house, their farm, the area and the hill Bicton after the Bicton Hills in Devonshire, England where they often had holidays before they emigrated to Queensland.
Bicton House before the 1918 Cyclone.
Bicton Hill, Original oil by P E Reuter
References & Reading
*Ken Gray, Bicton: The Cuttens of Clump Point, Mission Beach Historical Society, H005, 2022, PP. 4, 5.
Image courtesy John Oxley Library, Qld
Dorothy Jones, Cardwell Shire Story, Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, 1961, P. 407.
Image of Mrs Reuter’s Painting courtesy of Doug & Mavis Bunting
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BUTLER RD |
Jim Butler was born in Townsville in 1896. He moved to the Tully area and married Margaret Hosie in 1933. Together they ran a shipping service that ferried cargo, produce and people between Dunk Island to the Hull* River landing. Jim would pick up the cargo that the coastal steamers would offload at Brammo Bay, Dunk Island, for distribution between the stores and hotels in the Tully area. Jim was an owner and skipper of various boats. The first boat he owned was theTomboy which became too small for the purpose resulting in his purchase of a large schooner-like vessel, Silver Quay. By 1943, Jim and Margaret were the proprietors of the Kincora Hotel at Lower Tully which they had for many years before retiring to Tully. Jim passed away in 1969 and Margaret in 2006. They are both buried in the Tully Cemetery.
The Tomboy at Dunk Island, early 1930s The Silver Quay moored at the Hull River cargo shed, 1930s
Kincora Hotel, 1927
References & Reading
Australian Cemetery Index, 1808=2007
Cardwell Shire Council, Dorothy Jones Library Heritage Collection
Ancestry.com.au
Australia. Electoral Rolls 1908-2008
Dorothy Jones Heritage Collection
*Refer Hull Drive, Carmoo
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CUTTEN ST |
Herbert, Leonard & Sidney Cutten early 1920s
Frederick Cutten was born in England in 1819 and came to Australia in 1872. Frederick and Margaret Cutten along with children James, Sidney, Leonard, Herbert, Jessie, Margaret, Florence, and Alice were the first known European settlers of our district. The boys came first on 01 April 1882 but did not stay.
The Cuttens returned to stay on 27 August 1885. The four brothers (James, Sidney, Leonard, and Herbert) came in a flat-bottomed rowboat loaned from a family friend, James Tyson, who had large tracts of land on the Tully River. That was an arduous journey of over 35 km. They had hoped to select land at Clump Point but were beaten by W. Hyne*. They returned later and selected land at Bingil Bay.
They called their property Bicton after the Bicton Hills estate in England. They built a 13-room house, a sawmill, outbuildings, and a rail line for transporting produce to a newly built stone and timber jetty. Over the years, they cleared large blocks of land and planted tropical fruits, pineapples, mangos, tobacco, pepper, vanilla, ginger, cocoa, and bananas. Herbert was dubbed the father of the tea industry. They were probably the largest producers of coffee in Australia in the 1890s. With coastal shipping ceasing during World War 1 by 1917 and the Great Cyclone in 1918 causing the destruction of crops, buildings and infrastructure, Bicton Plantation was quickly failing. With the advancing age of the Cuttens, it was inevitable that the glory days were over. The last Cutten Brother living on Bicton land (Leonard) died in 1930 ending their extraordinary era their sister, Florence Alexander* continued farming the land successfully until the 1950s.
Edmund Banfield visiting the Cuttens, before the 1918 Cyclone Harvesting Coconuts
Land holdings at Bingil Bay by owner 1923.
References & Reading
Ken Gray, Bicton: The Cuttens of Clump Point, H005, Mission Beach Historical Society, 2022.
Helen Pedley, A Brief History of Mission Beach, section: Bingil Bay, accessed at https://www.cassowarycoast.qld.gov.au/downloads/file/1947/brief-history-of-mission-beach.
R. J. Taylor, The Lost Plantation: A History of the Australian Tea Industry, G.K. Bolton, Cairns. 1982, PP. 11-16.
Constance Mackness MBE, Clump Point and District: An Historical Record, G.K. Bolton, Cairns. 1983, PP. 12-14.
John Oxley Library, Queensland
Parish of Rockingham Map, Survey Office, Brisbane, 1923
*Refer Bamboo Street, Mission Beach
*Refer Alexander Drive, Bingil Bay
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HOLT CL |
Harold Holt (1908-1967) was Treasurer in the Menzies Liberal Government from 1958 to 1966 before he became the 17th Prime Minister of Australia. In the 1930s, Harold shared a house in Melbourne with a friend and fellow student, John Busst. Harold and his wife Zara visited John and Alison Busst, who were to become our district’s most notable conservationists later, on Bedarra Island in the 1950s.
When the Bussts moved to their new home, on Ninney Point at Bingil Bay in 1960, the Holts were frequent visitors. The Holts loved the area so much that they bought a nearby property at Garners* Beach with views of the Barnard Islands and Kurrimine Beach. They then built their holiday home, The Shack. It was from here that Harold Holt relaxed and sometimes worked on the National Budget. When he was elected Prime Minister, he was given the privacy and anonymity that he needed from the locals to continue his visits. In December 1967, he drowned while swimming off Cheviot Beach in Victoria.
Harold & Zara Holt John & Alison Busst
References & Reading
Ken Gray, The Artful Activist: How John Busst Saved the Great Barrier Reef, Mission Beach Historical Society, H007, 2022, PP. 6, 18-22, 25, 31, 34-36, 50.
Wikipedia.
Ninney Rise and John Busst, P. 23. https://www.ninneyrise.com/uploads/2/4/4/6/24467863/final_cmp_compressed.pdf
State Library of Victoria
*Refer Garners Beach Road, Garners Beach
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KOOMBOOLOO CREEK |
This is not a Djiru word. It may have been named by different Aboriginal people in the area or it could have been spelt incorrectly.
Reference & Reading
Oral History provided by Leonard Andy (Traditional Owner, Djiru Country)
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MOR-GAN-O ST |
Origin unknown. The family name, Morgan or Morgano stems from a masculinized form of Morgana which was a female personal name of Celtic origin. The ancient Britons of Wales used this family name and it stemmed from the Old Welsh personal name Morcant where Mor means sea. In Welsh, morgans is a term for sea sprites. In Irish, the name Muirgen means born of the sea.
Another possible source of the name is from Italy, where Morgano is a town in the Province of Treviso with a population of a little over 4,000 - like Mission Beach.
References & Reading
House of Names, Morgan History, accessed August 2022 at: https://www.houseofnames.com/morgan-family-crest
Ancestry, Morgano Family Name, accessed on Ancestry, August 2022 at:
https://www.ancestry.com.au/name-origin?surname=morgano
Wikipedia, Morgano, accessed August 2022 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgano
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NINNEY POINT |
Brookes Beach and Ninney Point foreground, Bicton Hill, Clump Point and Dunk Island background. Image courtesy Susan Kelly, Natural Images.
Ninney Point is a rocky headland situated on the south end of Brookes Beach between Bingil Bay and Garners* Beach. The origin of the name is unknown, but it has been called that since the Cuttens* settled near there in 1890.
Reference & Reading
Image © copyright Susan Kelly, Natural Images
*Refer Garners Beach Road, Garners Beach
*Refer Cutten Street, Bingil Bay
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PIONEER ST |
Named in honour of the early pioneers to the area - the Cuttens* and Alexanders* (Left, on the verandah at Bicton.)
Reference & Reading
*Refer Cutten Street, Bingil Bay
*Refer Alexander Drive, Bingil Bay
Bicton, 1914
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PLANTATION DR |
Named after Cutten's tea nursery that was planted on the south banks of Cedar Creek in the 1880s. Remnants of tea bushes still grow as large forest trees today on one lot in the street. The seeds and sucklings from these trees were gathered and used to start tea plantations that remain productive today on the Atherton Tablelands (Nerada Tea) and in PNG.
References & Reading
Ken Gray, Bicton: The Cuttens of Clump Point, Mission Beach Historical Society, H005, 2022, PP. 8,32, 56, 69, 77.
Image www.thedailytea.com
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PLUMB ST |
James Henry (Harry) Plumb was born in Maryborough in 1889. He enlisted in WWI in 1915 and joined the 26th Battalion and entered service at Gallipoli in September 1915. His battalion held defensive positions at Courtney’s Post, Steele’s Post and Russell’s Top. Harry served in Egypt in 1916 and was hospitalized with lung disorders in Cairo. He recovered and then fought at Marseilles in France in 2016. He also served at the Somme and in Flanders. In March 1917, Harry contracted pneumonia and went to a hospital in Rouen and then to Belgium. In October 1918, he was hit with shrapnel, causing a severe leg injury. That was on the day that his battalion captured Lormisset and helped breach the Beaurevoir line.
He was sent to hospital in England and later married Eleanor Elford of Middlesex in 1919 before being discharged in August of that year.
Harry was one of the early cane growers in the area, owning a block of 679 acres near the mouth of the Murray River.
Queensland Town Directory has records of Harry Plumb farming in Banyan (Tully) from 1913 to 1915. In 1926, he purchased 160 acres of land from Len Cutten* and commenced banana growing at Bingil Bay with the assistance of Charlie Nelson. Differing reports say he was at Bingil Bay in 1931. Records show him growing fruit at Clump Point from 1936 to 1942. He suffered from his war disabilities and passed away in 1958.
References & Reading
Cardwell Roll of Honour – J. H. Plumb, accessed online October 2021 at:
https://www.cardwellhistory.com.au/cardwell_roll_of_honour/plumb_jh.html
*Ken Gray, Bicton: The Cuttens of Clump Point, H005, Mission Beach Historical Society, 2022, P.64.
Queensland Town Directory.
Commonwealth Electoral Rolls 1903-2008.
Constance Mackness MBE, Clump Point and District: An Historical Record, G. K. Bolton, Cairns, 1970, P. 55.
Cane Farmer’s Trials, Ex-Soldier’s Experience, Cairns Post, 14 June 1935, accessed on Trove, August 2022 at:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/41558453?searchTerm=Cane%20Farmer%27s%20Trials
National Archives of Australia
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WEBB CT |
Dr Leonard James Webb AO was perhaps Australia’s first ecologist and ethnobotanist. Born in Rockhampton in 1920, he studied science at the University of Queensland. In the late 1940s, he was working for CSRIO researching ecosystems and plant species in tropical rainforests for the purpose of discovering new medicinal drugs.
It was during this time that he met John and Alisson Busst on Bedarra Island. They would remain firm friends with Dr Webb assisting the Bussts in their successful Save The Reef Campaign that was activated in 1967. He had a major role in studying North Queensland’s rainforest species and then protecting them from development.
By the early 80s, he had gathered enough scientific information to confirm that Australian tropical rainforest trees had evolved from Gondwana Land over 100 million years ago and not from Southeast Asia. This discovery aided in another successful campaign in 1980 with the World Heritage nomination of the Wet Tropics of Queensland. He authored or co-authored over 112 scientific papers, four books and chapters in books, all on nature conservation and the roles of humans in the environment. He passed away in 2008.
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Alison Busst, Harold Holt*, Len Webb & Zara Holt
Alison Busst, Harold Holt, Len Webb & Zara Holt
References & Reading
Ken Gray, The Artful Activist: How John Busst Saved the Great Barrier Reef, Mission Beach Historical Society, H007, 2022, PP. 5–7, 31.
Wikipedia.
Friends of Ninney Rise
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Webb_(academic)#/media/File:Leonard_James_Webb.png
*Refer Holt Close, Bingil Bay & Holt Road, Garners Beach
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VILLAGE: NARRAGON BEACH |
For some time, Narragon Beach was locally called Mackness Beach after brothers Leonard and Raymond Mackness* who owned land there. They purchased it from the original selector, Jack Unsworth* in 1921. The creek at the northern end of the beach was also named after the Mackness family and that name, Mackness Creek, endures on maps today.
Notable school principal and historian, Constance Mackness MBE, lived at Narragon Beach in her family home after she retired from her stellar education career in 1949. She was a strong, effective advocate for the district, akin to Len Cutten and Les Alexander before her. In 1953, Constance asked the Council for permission to beautify the area and for the beach name to be changed from Mackness Beach to Narragon Beach.
Council agreed but failed to gazette the name and over time it somehow became listed on Google Maps and in Queensland Place Names as Warragon Beach. In 2018, Ken Gray approached the Queensland Department of Natural Resources Mines and Energy and provided them with the historical records. The department engaged well and accepted the evidence after an assessment and gazetted it as Narragon Beach on 23 November 2018.
Narragon Beach, including Boat Bay in the foreground.
References & Reading
Constance Mackness, Civic Pride, Townsville Daily Bulletin, o4 September 1953, accessed on Trove, July 2018 at:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/62503128?searchTerm=%22Civic%20Pride%22
Ken Gray, Bicton: The Cuttens of Clump Point, Mission Beach Historical Society, H005, 2022, PP 68, 69
Image © copyright Susan Kelly, Natural Images.
*Refer Mackness Creek, Narragon Beach
*Refer Unsworth Drive, Narragon Beach
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BAMBOO ST |
This is often called Bamboo Road, yet the Cassowary Council Street sign says Bamboo Street. It was named after the bamboo planted there by Willoughby Lewis Smith c.1888. The clump of bamboo endures today at Bamboo Street alongside Alexander* Drive.
A 1,280-acre selection at Clump Point, Lot 21A, was selected by William Henry Hyne from Mackay in 1882. Five years after purchase, he sent a team of workers there to clear and plant mangos and citrus. Willoughby Smith, whose sister Phoebe was married to Hyne, was appointed the manager.
Carpenters from Townsville built a two-storied house where Smith lived with his young bride, Alice.
There were roads forged through the property, and boat sheds and outbuildings were built. Huts for the indentured Kanaka labourers were erected. In 1890, a severe cyclone went through and devastated the property, uprooting the fruit trees and damaging the buildings badly. Mr Hyne decided to cut his losses and ordered everyone to abandon the property. The area quickly reverted to jungle before it was sold and then subdivided in 1914.
William Hyne
Lot 21A, Land owned by W.H.Hyne
References & Reading
Dorothy Jones, Hurricane Lamps and Blue Umbrellas, A History of the Shire of Johnstone to 1973, G. K. Bolton Printers, Cairns, 1973, P. 148.
Constance Mackness MBE, Clump Point and District: An Historical Record, G.K. Bolton, Cairns, 1970, P..20.
Ancestry.com.au
Parish of Rockingham Map, Survey Office, Brisbane, 1923
*Refer Alexander Drive, Bingil Bay
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JAMES RD |
Mrs Marjorie Esme James (nee Pope), born in 1907, was a niece of Constance Mackness MBE*, author, historian, and school principal of Warwick Presbyterian Girls’ College. The Mackness brothers, Leonard and Raymond bought part of Jack Unsworth's* Narragon block when it was split up in 1921. There were four families living on it. Mrs James lived on the northern subdivision. Her sister, Sadie, and husband Richard Dixon were fruit growers and owned the block's frontage. Mrs James lived there up until 1980.
References & Reading
Ancestry.com.au
Constance Mackness MBE, Clump Point and District: An Historical Record, G.K. Bolton Cairns, 1970, P. 54.
*Refer Mackness Creek, Narragon Beach
*Refer Unsworth Drive, Narragon Beach
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MACKNESS CREEK |
Leonard (1886-1974) and Raymond (1888-1939) Mackness purchased land at Narragon Beach from the original selector, Jack Unsworth* in 1921. They had previously lived in Tuena in New South Wales. Leonard had suffered from ill health and was looking for somewhere to retire. Raymond thought it was the perfect place for them to make a home for their elderly parents, James, and Alice. The elder Mackness’s moved from Tuena to settle there in 1925 but unfortunately, James, an ex-gold miner, passed away the following year.
Raymond raised cattle for very little profit, but he was instrumental in helping to build roads and get a telephone line installed. He moved to Townsville in 1937 and passed away in 1939. Leonard continued living at Narragon with his mother until her passing in 1940. Around the beginning of the 50s, their nieces, Marjorie James* and Sadie Dixon had commenced living there too.
Raymond and Leonard’s sister, notable school principal and historian, Constance Mackness, moved to Narragon Beach after she retired from her stellar education career in 1949. She graduated from Sydney University with first-class honours in English, French and History. It was here she won a prize in Physiography which gave her the foundation for her retirement hobby, conchology (shell collecting). She was headmistress at the Pymble Presbyterian Girl’s College in Sydney and the first principal of the Presbyterian Girl’s College, Warwick, Queensland. Warwick College
Constance would be the main financial support for her family for the next fifty years. She published ten books, all young adult fiction and short stories and articles for newspapers. Constance was awarded an M.B.E. in 1959. In 1968, she published Clump Point and District - An historical Record in conjunction with the Clump Point – Mission Beach Progress Association. She was a strong, effective advocate for the district, akin to Len Cutten* and Les Alexander* before her. When her health started to fail, she moved to Brisbane to a Presbyterian Care Home. She died on December 13th, 1973, aged 91.
The creek at the northern end of the beach was named after the Mackness family and that name, Mackness Creek, endures on maps today.
References & Reading
Constance Mackness MBE, Clump Point and District: An Historical Record, G.K. Bolton Cairns, 1970, P. 54.
Nancy Bonnin, 'Mackness, Constance (1882–1973)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography
Ken Gray, Our First Beach Historian, Mission Beach Historical Society, S005, 2022.
Ancestry.com
*Refer James Road, Narragon Beach
*Refer Cutten Street, Bingil Bay
*Refer Alexander Drive, Bingil Bay
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PERRY HARVEY JETTY |
In 1917, the area of Clump Point, had a crude jetty constructed so the struggling farmers could get their produce straight on-board boats, instead of rowing to out to the ships for collection. This jetty unfortunately was wiped out in the Great Cyclone in March the following year. Clump Point Jetty was constructed in 1963. By now its main purpose was to transfer tourists and supplies over to the Dunk and surrounding islands. That concrete jetty corroded and was replaced as well and Cyclone Yasi in 2011 demolished that jetty and upon the construction of the fourth jetty, Alister Pike, a serving Councillor for the Cassowary Coast Shire, commenced lobbying that the jetty be named after Perry. After much toing and froing, it was finally decided that the new jetty be named in honour of the father of reef and island tourism in our region, Perry Harvey. Unfortunately, Perry did not live long enough to savour this tribute.
Perry was born in Tanganyika Territory (now Tanzania), East Africa, in 1933. His parents moved to Malaysia in 1939 and by 1941 with the imminent invasion of the Japanese, Perry and his mother left for Australia while his dad had to stay behind. Perry’s dad was to become a POW in Changi Prison. Mother and son arrived first in Busselton, W.A, but found the weather too cool so they moved to Magnetic Island in North Queensland. Perry was a weekday boarder at Townsville Grammar, returning home every weekend on Hayles Ferries. This is how he got to know Bob Hayle.
With the end of the war and Perry’s father being liberated from the camp, the family returned to Africa. By 1953, Perry was back in Queensland working for the Hayles and soon obtained his master’s ticket. While skippering a cruise to Palm Island, he met British nurse Brenda Curtis. The pair had heard various stories about Mission Beach so after their wedding in Cairns in 1957, they enjoyed their honeymoon camped on the banks of Wylie Creek* at Narragon Beach*. As luck would have it, 35 acres became available for sale at Narragon and by 1959 they were living and growing bananas there. By 1962 the family was complete with two daughters, Sandra, and Rona.
Perry started taking friends and tourists on day trips to the islands and the reef with his speed boat Astra. They enjoyed fishing, snorkelling and water skiing. He converted a 60-foot wooden boat that he named MV Purtaboi after the little island off Dunk. He operated this until it grew too popular, and he needed another vessel. He then had MV Purtaboi II built in Innisfail. Purtaboi Cruises operated from around 1968 to 1977. P&O (who owned Dunk Island at the time) wanted the monopoly of servicing Dunk Island, so bought Perry out.
MV Purtaboi transporting various cargo to Dunk Island
It was then he converted another trawler into the MV Friendship which again became so popular he had a fast catamaran built, the MV Friendship Flyer. The Flyer did the reef trips while the slower vessel did the island cruises. Perry and Brenda’s daughter Sandra (Harris) became the first woman in Queensland to obtain her skipper’s ticket.
MV Friendship MV Friendship Flyer
Perry was a vocal activist and environmentalist when it came to reef and species protection. He spent many hours harvesting the Star of Thorns that devasted the coral and opposed the coral mining of Ellison Reef. He was devastated when the giant blue groper, Ulysses (left), that Perry fed on his daily reef trips for 20 years was found shot.
By the late 80s, it was time to retire, and Perry and Brenda travelled overseas extensively. Brenda was instrumental in setting up Meals on Wheels in 1983 and became heavily committed to community activities. She received an Order of Australia Medal for services to the community in 2012. By now Perry had been diagnosed with cancer which he fought until 5th December 2014. His ashes were scattered in the Coral Sea.
References & Reading
Nikki Harris, My Pop, Perry Harvey, blog by Perry’s granddaughter
https://themanystoriesofperryharvey.weebly.com/blog/boats
Images courtesy of Nikki Harris
The Tully Times, Tourism Pioneer led Adventurous Life, 16th Jan,2014, Pg 14
Perry’s Life History by Perry Harvey
Image from James R, Perry Harvey Jetty
*Refer Wylie Creek, Narragon
*Refer Narragon Beach, Narragon
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UNSWORTH DR |
Anthony John (Jack) Unsworth selected a freehold 160-acre block named Lot 5v on Narragon Beach just north of Clump Point in 1892. He named his property Narragon which is what the local Aborigines called the area after a local Djiru hero. He cleared some land, built a small house, and planted bananas, citrus, guava, and coconuts. He was known by the Aboriginal people as Jackie Walkabout because he had to work away from the area to earn money while his orchards were maturing. He worked on the Tablelands and at Kirrama Station doing fencing and similar work.
Jack & Mary Unsworth with their daughter,1917
Sometimes he worked for his neighbours, the Cutten* brothers, eventually marrying Mrs Cutten's help, Mary Reimer, in 1907. Over time, the property reached the production stage and Jack Unsworth worked hard to send fruit off to the southern markets. Unfortunately, by 1915, the steamships had stopped coming due to the war. Unsworth had to take his family and leave to find paying work.
The property was vacant when the 1918 cyclone hit. The mass devastation was heartbreaking and Unsworth decided to sell to the Mackness* brothers and head south.
Unsworth Street was created around 2000 in a later subdivision.
Jack Unsworth, working at his hut when foreman on the Cutten farm, 1903.
A.J.Unsworth’s Land, 5V
References & Reading
Ken Gray, Bicton: The Cuttens of Clump Point, Mission Beach Historical Society, H005, 2022, P.68, 69
R. J. Taylor, The Lost Tea Plantation.
Pioneering in Tropical Australia, E F Ryko, Trove
Parish of Rockingham Map, Survey Office, Brisbane, 1923
*Refer Cutten Street, Bingil Bay
*Refer Mackness Creek, Narragon Beach
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WYLIE CREEK |
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WYLIE RD |
Wylie Road and Wylie Creek both bear the name of local fisherman, John Scotty Wylie, who lived beside this creek in the 1930s and 40s. Wylie was born in 1876 in Garlieston, Scotland. By 1899 he had migrated to Australia. At the age of 38, he signed up to the AIF to fight in France. He was discharged in 1917 suffering from chronic bronchitis and rheumatism. He also had an ongoing battle with alcoholism. After Edmund Banfield’s* death on Dunk Island in 1923, Wylie became the caretaker working for Spenser Hopkins who half owned the land and then owned it fully when Bertha Banfield died in 1933.
John McGinnis Williams, owner of the largest plywood manufacturing mills in Australia, mentions Wylie meeting his yacht when it landed at Dunk Island in 1928. Wylie met the boats that brought the visitors to the Island and acted as a tour guide. Later, Wylie moved to the mainland and built a home on the side of the creek now named after him. Directories have him farming there up to 1943. John Wylie died from alcohol poisoning in 1946 aged 70 years and is buried in the Tully Cemetery.
Red Wing, Brammo Bay, Dunk Is. circa 1930. John Scotty Wylie on right in water, Fred Nobby Whiting* in water on left.
References & Reading
Dunk Island Case, Court Proceedings, Remarkable Evidence, 21 September 1931 accessed on Trove, August 2022 at:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/41558453?searchTerm=Cane%20Farmer%27s%20Trials
Ken Gray, George’s Diary: George Webb of Mission Beach, Mission Beach Historical Society, H024, 2022, P. 11.
Commonwealth Electoral Rolls 1903-2008.
Cruise of the Francois 1928
Australian Cemetery Index 1808-2007.
*Refer Banfield Parade, Wongaling Beach
*Refer Whiting Street, Wongaling Beach
