Page 118 - Port Douglas Magazine 42

GRAVEYARD SHIFT
Port Douglas Cemetery is located at
19 Port Douglas Road. It is open to the
public seven days a week, 365 days a year,
Tales from from dawn to dusk (approx. 6am to 6pm).
Wear a hat as there is little shade.
The cemetery is open for reservations,

burials and ashes niches. Many of the oldest
graves were, and remain, unmarked, which
THE OTHER SIDE is why the northern and central sections of
the cemetery are closed for new burials.

Accidents, disease, cyclones and murder — it’s all documented in the
Port Douglas cemetery, if only you know where to look

THE FIRST PUBLICAN: WILLIAM BUCHANAN, 1883 Bank building when he was struck by flying debris that fractured his skull.

WORDS by Sara Mulcahy “This headstone is erected by the sorrowing widow and six children of the As you enter the graveyard at the main arch, turn left and Timothy O’Brien’s

late William Henry Buchanan who departed this life 3rd September 1883 grave is on the fourth row, right next to the pathway.
hey say you can tell a lot about a town by its cemetery. And with TRAMWAY TRAGEDY: JOHN COLE, 1909 aged 46 years. He was a good and faithful husband and father.”
graves dating back to the 1870s, the Port Douglas graveyard “In loving memory of John Mare Cole, the beloved eldest son of George THE FRONTIER WARS: SYDNEY ALGERNON BARNARD, 1885
Tprovides a silent, woeful and sometime macabre history of all that and Elizabeth Cole who died 8th December 1909 after an accident on the William Henry Buchanan, a gold miner and cane grower, was granted a

has gone before. Take a wander on a self-guided tour, and discover some Mowbray tramline, aged 23 years 7 months.” retail spirit license in 1878, and he and his father-in-law built Buchanan’s “Late of Hawthorn, Victoria, who was killed by blacks at Mossman River on
Family Hotel on the desirable block at the corner of Macrossan and Wharf
of the stories of this once-wild pioneer town. Here are just a few notable streets. When the Port Douglas Court House was built nearby the following the 13th of March 1885 in the 23rd year of his age. Watch therefore! For we
gravestones with tales to tell. In 1899 the Douglas Shire was granted a loan of £22,000 to construct know neither the day nor the hour wherein the son of man cometh.”
a tramway to extend the Mossman Mill’s passenger service from South year, he changed the name to Buchanan’s Court House Hotel. Two years later, The Land Acts of the 1860s allowed freehold occupation of parcels of land

Mossman to Port Douglas. By 1901 the tram was running two return trips aged 46, he died of typhoid leaving behind a wife and six children.
MURDER MOST HORRID: WILLIAM THOMSON, 1886 daily (Monday to Saturday), travelling the nine miles and 20 chains in 74 The Courthouse is the oldest hotel in Port Douglas and one of only two of up to 130 hectares. Vast swathes of FNQ were rapidly transformed from the

landscape the First Nations peoples had managed for thousands of years
“Sacred to the memory of my generous and beloved brother William minutes, at a cost of two shillings. Branches were later added to Mowbray the original 27 pubs still open today. to the farms and cane fields we see today. Those who took advantage were

Thomson who met his death by cruel and treacherous murder on the 22nd Post Office and Cassowary. In 1933, the Captain Cook Highway opened As you enter the graveyard at the main arch, turn left and William Buchanan’s known as ‘selectors’. One such selector was Sydney Barnard, who was killed

day of October 1886 aged 66 years.” between Cairns and Mossman, and one by one, the routes were curtailed, grave is on the first row, about six graves along. while felling scrub on his ‘selection’ on the Mossman River. It was reported

William Thomson was among the first people to gain a plot of land to until the last passenger service ran on December 24, 1935. in the Morning Bulletin that Barnard ran into his house for his gun. Friends

farm around Port Douglas, which was established as a settlement for the The tram claimed several lives. While there are no records of the accident CYCLONE CATASTROPHE: TIMOTHY O’BRIEN, 1911 found the house wrecked and a large pool of blood. His body was found near

Hodgkinson River goldfields in 1877. In 1878, a young widowed mother of that killed John Cole, there is a report of the death of council clerk Nicholas his house, covered with spear wounds.

four named Ellen Wood took up a position as his housekeeper. They had a Joseph Fynn (also buried at the cemetery) who died 21 November 1905, aged “In loving memory of Timothy Joseph O’Brien who was killed during Frontier violence between the local Kuku Yalanji landowners and the

daughter together and later married. 38 years. The Evening Telegraph reported that the axle of a goods wagon on cyclone 16 March 1911 aged 32 years. O sacred heart of Jesus have mercy settlers was a frequent occurrence in the 1870s and 1880s. In 1897, the

In 1887, Ellen became the only woman ever hanged in Queensland when the afternoon tram broke, and the wagon fell forward, seriously injuring Mr on his soul.” Queensland Parliament passed the Protection Act, which granted the power

she and her alleged lover, John Harrison, were found guilty of her husband’s Flynn. He was taken to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. On March 16, 1911, the second cyclone in five weeks and one of the worst “to cause Aboriginals to be removed to and kept within the limits of any

murder. Despite evidence of Thomson’s escalating violence, Ellen’s strenuous As you enter the graveyard at the main arch, turn right and John Cole’s grave on record hit Port Douglas and Mossman. Winds were up to 216 kph and reserve situated in the same or any other district”. There were hundreds

denials and a confession by Harrison that he alone had pulled the trigger, is on the second row, about 20 graves along. Turn left for Nicholas Flynn’s 400mm of rain fell in 24 hours. The school and hospital lost their roofs, and of documented removals from the Mossman Gorge area to settlements

the pair were put to death in Brisbane on June 13. If you want to know grave, which is on the second row, about 14 graves along. all the small boats in the inlet were lost. Only seven of 57 houses were left including Yarrabah, Palm Island and Cape Bedford. The Kuku Yalanji who

more about this gruesome tale, head down to the Port Douglas Courthouse standing with 100 people left homeless. survived the onslaught of settlement were gradually moved to the Mossman
Museum, where Ellen’s committal hearing took place in 1887. Two people were killed: Tim O’Brien and Andrew Jack. Jack was a cane Gorge Mission, which operated until 1995.
As you enter the graveyard at the main arch, turn right and William Thomson’s grower and councillor. His house collapsed on him. His widow survived As you enter the graveyard at the main arch, turn right and Sydney Barnard’s

grave is on the first row, about 22 graves along. him by only three months, leaving eight children orphaned. O’Brien, an grave is on the first row, about 17 graves along.

accountant, was helping his mother Margaret across the street to the National