Artist's life in Sketchbooks

Late last year I picked up a recently published book which presents local history from a rather unusual perspective.  The book entitled 'Sketchbooks; An Artist's Life on the Tableland' by Ellen Danaher uses the sketchbooks of well-known artist Val Russell as a basis to relate Val's life story while at the same time telling the story of Atherton's development as Val saw it through her lifetime.  Val Russell (1925 - 2009) arrived in Atherton, with husband Eric, in 1946 only intending to stay for about a year but the town was to become their home for almost sixty years.  During that time she sketched and painted throughout North Queensland, producing almost 1200 quality works of art.  Although most were sold and dispersed across the country and some overseas, her original sketchbooks survive as an intact collection.  These thirty-nine books, which span almost forty years of work, contain over 900 pencil sketches, all works of art in themselves.  They represent a unique pictorial record of North Queensland as it used to be and is the basis to tell this story.  The story is very much a personal history which follows her life through her artistic achievements and her long involvement in the development of the local arts community in which she occupied a central position.  I enjoyed this book as I had personal involvement in many of the events written about and many of her sketches of long vanished buildings brought back memories from my carefree childhood in that long past Atherton of the 1960's.
 

Looking for lost Closhey

While driving home from Cairns recently, it was noted that the annual bushfires had passed through the area about Davis Creek and this brought up the notion to look for any remnant of the long lost village of the Closhey River goldfield.  The intrepid trio decided to set a Sunday to made a little expedition down to search for relics of this short lived community.  Duncan had earlier discovered that very little had been written about this township but still managed to find a short paper on the subject published in the journal of the Australian Mining History Association but little else could be found.  I had always been interested in finding the lost grave of the first burial on this small goldfield, that of the respected mining man Mr William Hooley who died there in 1895.  And Robert, he needed no excuse to get out and fire up his metal-detector, so on a bright and sunny Sunday morning, it was off to seek out the old gold mining town of the Closhey.

Row of slabs

We drove down towards Kuranda and turned off the main road just pass Goldmine Creek.  From the journal article we had learnt that the Main Roads had used the area as a depot back in the 1960's when they had rebuilt the road between Mareeba and Kuranda but we hoped something might remain of the old village which in 1894 consisted of Sandiland's little bush hotel, a couple of shops (one owned by Hooley) and no doubt, an assortment of miner's huts and shacks.  A quick look over the bare burnt off site brought on a feeling of disappointment as it was apparent that the area of the village of Closhey was either under the new highway or had been bulldozed to make way for the Main Roads depot.  We soon found a neat row of small concrete slabs which was most probably the site of a number of road workers accommodation blocks.  All that we could find after an hour or so of searching for the old village was a few shards of old green beer bottle that might have come from the gold mining days, and little else.  We had better luck with the old gold battery site.

Bank of tailings

The mill of five stamps was erected in 1894 but only worked for a few years and we hoped something of it would remain.  We were to be pleasantly surprised with what we found.  After our fruitless search of the town site, we dropped over the bank and walked along the edge of Davis Creek looking up for any remnants of the battery.  Back towards Goldmine Creek we came upon a large bank of fine quartz sand, part of which must have been washed away over the years by floods coming down Davis Creek.  This was obviously the tailings from an old battery.  Looking up from the tailings, we could see where a mill site had been cut into the bank.  We quickly climbed up and found the remains of the five-head stamper battery that had been brought down from the Palmer Goldfield to crush the local ore.  There were still a couple of old shed posts in place as well as a couple of concrete foundations blocks for the mill machinery and a little scrap metal lying about.  A small terrace had been cut into the bank on the southern side of the mill, no doubt for a workshop.  This was a lot more that we though we would find considering the mill was purchased and removed back in 1898 by a Bowen syndicate.

Then in hope of finding some old miners hut sites or the site of William Hooley's grave, we crossed Davis Creek and climbed into a small valley where we soon found an old habitation site.  Robert gave the vicinity a good going over with his metal-detector while the rest of us scoured the site for any relics.  A good assortment of household residue was found showing that this was definitely a home from the gold mining days.  The small gully that drained through this valley had the appearance of a creek that had been worked out for alluvial gold.  A decision was made to return to this creek during some wet season with prospecting-dishes to test this theory.  A good search of the rest of the valley failed to show any further signs of habitation or any evidence of Hooley's grave which was supposed to be sited close to the village.  Another trip to this area for a wider search might be needed but for the time been, this little expedition had come to an end and we called into the Emerald Creek Ice Creamery on the way home where we had a late lunch of fresh ice cream followed with an iced coffee to end all iced coffees.

Site of the Closhey township                                  The old battery site 

Mulgrave Shire Historical Society

The historians of Gordonvale had a successful year, although sales of their new publications on their local history entitled 'From Plain Camp to Gordonvale' and 'The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment' has been disappointing.  It is pleasing to see that they have well utilized their new Facebook page over the past year which has greatly increased their Society's public profile.  They are opening this new year off with a flying start with an event for the centenary of the re-naming of the town from Nelson to Gordonvale.  To celebrate this occasion, the Society will be unveiling a plaque on the unmarked grave of the man after whom the towns' new name was devised, Mr John Gondon.  This little event will take place at the Gordonvale cemetery on Friday 24 January at 10.00am.

Atherton Family History Group

This small group of history buffs, who meet at the Atherton Library, had a very successful year over 2013 with a number of workshops and lectures on family history and several outings filling the year.  Their last outing of the year being the Christmas party held at the Malanda Dairy Centre which attract a couple dozen members.  Unfortunately, the de-merger of the Shire Counicls has produced some problems for the group as Council staff who where based in Mareeba have moved up to the Atherton library and have taken over rooms which were been used by the history group.  It is hoped that this little upheaval will not be too troublesome in this new year.

Search for Sorensen's Inn

A discussion held long ago with Mrs Betty Stone put a notion into the back of our minds to one day seek out the site of her great grand-parent's old wayside hotel.  A few years back, Betty instigated a project to place a plaque beside the road between Mareeba and Mount Molloy to commemorate the life and works of Gabriel and Doretta Sorensen who kept a road side shanty hotel and staging house for those travelling between Port Douglas and the mineral fields.  The couple had met on the Hodgkinson goldfield and were married at Kingsborough in 1878.  A few years later, with two small children in tow, they opened their shanty style Public house, known as the Ten-mile, at the base of a small hillock  near the Big Mitchell River and not far from Carr Creek.  They ran the wayside hotel for about twelve years and closed it after the railway was completed to Mareeba in 1893 taking much of the traffic off the road.  Four more children were born to the couple while they were at the hotel and one of their children was Betty's grand-mother.

The annual bushfires had pass through the area and the district had seen some early storms that had greened the place to a park-like state.  So, with a lazy Sunday without any prior plans, the intrepid trio of Duncan, Robert and myself, decided to head down to Mount Molloy to seek out the site of the old pub.  After a phone call to our old friend Betty for final directions, it was off on another little adventure with the first stop being the plaque attached to a rock beside the road.  We then drove slowly along the road looking closely at the small hills before choosing to start our search at a hill that was so small we almost dismissed it.  Our choice turned out to be very fortuitous as we were to walk straight to the site.

As soon as we stepped out of the vehicle, we liked the look of our selection and the spirits of the ancestors, cunningly disguised as March flies, swarmed to greet us.  Thank goodness for the Aerogard!  Within a hundred metres we came upon the first sign of a structure, being a slab of old concrete but certainly not old enough to be the site we were looking for.  A little further on around the hill, we came upon several rows of small concrete slabs and it soon became apparent that a Main Roads camp and depot had been built here nearly fifty years ago when the new bitumen road was constructed down to Mount Molloy.  A sense of disappointment came over us as we realized that the old hotel site may have been bulldozed if this was the correct area.  This feeling quickly became a certainty when we came across the remains of a very old rubbish heap.  The large number of pieces of old green beer bottle and crockery made it obvious that some structure had occupied this site back in colonial times.  The Main Road dozer had cut right through the rubbish heap and where the little hotel would have been positioned, now sat a row of old concrete slabs of small accommodation blocks.  All remains of the hotel would have been pushed away long ago.

We searched through the rubbish and then the general area but could find no other evidence of the hotel other then the small lagoon that had supplied its water and the nearby course of the old road that would have once brought the travellers past the front of Sorensen's old wayside Public house.  Looking over the area from the site of the shanty pub across to the old road and down to the small lagoon, it was obvious that we would have no hope of finding any remains of the grave of Sorensen's eldest child, Mary Drucilla Sorensen who died there of diphtheria at eight years of age in February 1888 and was buried in an unmarked grave not far from the house.  Although unhappy in that we could find little of the wayside hotel, it was a great day out exploring our heritage and to celebrate, we call into the Emerald Creek Ice Creamery where we blew our diets with a calorie-laden ice cream and an iced coffee to die for.

Site of the Ten-mile public house

Heritage North

The general feeling at the recent AGM of the Heritage North association was that the changes made to the groups' format in the pervious year had not had the desired outcome.  Many who once attended the regular meetings missed the social interaction with members of other historical societies and the lack of regular meetings had the unforeseen consequences of the closure of the groups' newsletter due to not having regular quarterly reports from the member Societies.  This tended to defeat the very purpose for which the group was formed.  It was decided to return to the old structure of the organization along with more emphasis on training sessions at the meetings.  The one workshop the group held earlier in the year was a great success and this showed its real value, if we can find the personnel to manage the group.  The next meeting will be held in Malanda on February 22 with the Eacham Historical Society as the host.

Eacham Football History

In early 1985, Mr Martin Grandelis, who had just arrived on the Tablelands to take up the position of Principal at the Upper Barron School, was asked to take the minutes of a meeting of the Eacham Junior Rugby League.  This was the start of a long involvement with the Junior Rugby League and his interest in its history was sparked shortly afterwards when he and several students were cleaning out the storeroom at the school and came upon an old rugby league shield.  Over twenty years later in 2008, Martin began his study with the result some five years later being a book on the local junior football league entitled, 'A History of the Eacham JRL 1969-1999, the first thirty years'.  At the recent launch in Atherton, at an impressive event in the Merriland Pavilion, Martin told the crowd of a couple of hundred football fans how more than 500 people had shared their experiences and old photographs which along with detailed records of the League, enabled him to put the story together.  Mayor Tom Gilmore of Mareeba had the honour of launching this large 600 page volume with its 825 photos.  The book details the champion teams and Grand Finals triumphs along with the controveries and upheavals of that first thirty years and it also records the growth of the professionalism in this junior sport.  Although I won't be in a hurry to obtain a copy as I was a soccer playing boy in my younger days, I found that many of my cousins and school mates appear in the book.  A truly impressive work of local history that could find a place in the home of any local footy fan.