Advertisement
Published: December 13th 2012
Edit Blog Post
Tully
Arguably, the wettest town in Australia Mission Beach – Tully – Cardwell – Ingham –Toomula
Leaving Mission Beach we were looking forward to our trip south towards Townsville along the coast.
Our first stop was Tully and the ‘Big Gumboot’. Tully is another sugar town, and arguably the town in Australia with the highest rainfall, although it tends to fight fo this title with Babinda. Tully receives over 4134 mm of rain per year and is nestled between Mt Mackay and Mt Tyson and as you would expect it is very green. Tully is the administrative hub for the Cardwell Shire, making it a busy town. There is a distinctly rural feeling to Tully which we enjoyed.
Tully, originally known as Banyan, was first settled in the 1870's as a sugar cane and cattle farming town. In 1927 the name was changed to Tully after William Tully, a surveyor. The Sugar mill dominates the skyscape of the town and across the road from this is the ‘Big Gumboot’. The boot is made of fibreglass and stands 7.9 metres high, which represents Tully's record annual rainfall of 7,900mm (311 inches) in 1950. There is a spiral staircase inside the boot that leads to a viewing
Tully
The Tully Gumboot, a 7.9m high tourist attraction celebrating the record-breaking year that 7,900mm of rain fell on the town. platform. From the top of the boot you get a great view of the Tully Sugar Mill and also of the Tully township with Mount Tyson in the background.
From Tully it was only a short drive down to Cardwell overlooking Hinchinbrook Island, the largest island National Park in Australia, and situated right on the coast of the Hinchinbrook Channel. Cardwell was a frontier outpost, with all commercial activity relying on the sea lanes. The shipping activities are central to Cardwell's early history. Cardwell's first jetty was commenced in 1872, and was built over the water in front of the Post and Telegraph Office at the southern end of town. Within 2 - 3 years it was used to transport the first shipment of gold by sea from the newly opened northern goldfields of the Palmer River and Atherton region. Today it is a holiday, fishing and stepping off point for Hinchinbrook, and equally as well known for its crab sandwiches which we had for lunch, yum! Unfortunately Cardwell took a battering from Cyclone Yasi in February 2011. Cardwell was described at the time as "ground zero" of cyclone Yasi, with the small coastal town absolutely wiped out by
Tully Sugar Mill
One of the largest sugar mills operating in Australia. the catastrophic winds and rain overnight. Although we saw plenty of evidence of this terrible event, I have to say that the community has done a great job in rebuilding and getting the town ‘back on the road again’.
Travelling on south we detoured for Lucinda a coastal town located at the southern entrance to the Hinchinbrook Channel near the town of Ingham. A sugar-exporting town, Lucinda is noted for its 6 km-long sugar jetty, the world's largest bulk sugar loading facility. Jackie was really happy to see the beach here and had a number of ‘crunched’ crabs in no time flat! Back through the small town of Halifax and with stops at both Taylors and Forrest beaches we then headed to Ingham via Victoria Estate. Victoria Estate is a sugar mill town five km east of Ingham and It is one of two sugar mill towns in the Herbert River Valley.
In 1855 a Melbourne entrepreneur, Edward Knox, formed the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) and two years later formed an associated Victoria Sugar Company. The companies moved their activities northward as cane-growing areas were opened up, and in 1883 opened two mills in Queensland, one being
the Victoria Mill. CSR spent £240,000 on Cane Plantations, (known as Victoria Plantation), transport, and the mill during 1883-85. Steam ploughs cleared the scrub, hundreds of labourers were employed, and 17 miles of railway and four locomotives hauled the cane to the mill. Following the general practice of replacing company plantations with privately run small farms, CSR subdivided and sold off the plantations in 1892. Many of the cane farms were purchased and owned by Italian families. The Victoria Mill ultimately became Australia's largest until overtaken by CSR's Invicta Mill at Giru in 1999.
This detour out to Lucinda and then down along the beaches and through the towns of Halifax and Victoria Estate was a great trip which we really enjoyed, if you are in the area, consider it!
Next was Ingham, founded in 1864, the town is the service centre for a large sugarcane growing region. It was pioneered in the 1870s by William Ingham, for whom the town is named and it is now the administrative centre for the Shire of Hinchinbrook. From Ingham we continued south towards the Northern Beach areas of Townsville eventually settling on a campsite for the night at Toomula right
Cardwell
A great town right on the Hinchinbrook channel. Cardwell was all but demolished by cyclone Yasi in Feb 2011 and today the work still continues to repair all this damage. next to the beach where we went looking for shells and Jackie, as usual, went crabbing. Unfortunately we were still in stinger and croc country so a swim was out of the question but these beaches north of Townsville were great spots to visit. What a fantastic coastline!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.105s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0519s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Marilyn
non-member comment
Hi guys Sounds like you are still having fun and really enjoying the east coast. Life is buys busy here at Rowanston. We have had 2 weddings, the Budburst thing - one wedding was Matthew and Irene (oldest son) and a couple of big sales since we saw you. One was 500 doz to the Hong Kong Jockey club - our 2010 Shiraz has been chosen as their 20th Birthday wine. We have also had a 2 week trip to China as part of a Vic Trade mission - which was excellent and exciting. Thanks for you Christmas card. You van is still waiting for you when you return - if you return!! cheers for now Marilyn and John