1897

A second attempt at a meatworks meatworks in Bowen succeeded at Merinda, eight kilometres west of Bowen. 

Catholic church opens in Brandon. 

Cairns local government divisional board built a tramway to Gordonvale. A CSR line joined the tramway at Hambledon Junction. 

The Ayr Chronicle first published.

Lawes formed the Farleigh and Foulden plantations into Farleigh Sugar Plantations Limited. 

Suffering from work anxiety and exhaustion, and advised by doctors that he had six months to live, Edmund James Banfield moved to Dunk Island with his wife Bertha, becoming the island’s first white settlers. Banfield lived on the island until his death in 1923. 

Post Office Directory recorded five hotels, four stores, eight mining companies, a recreation reserve and a jockey club at Golden Gate. 

Mulgrave Central Mill opening coincided with the construction of the Cairns to Mulgrave tramway (a 3 feet 6 inches gauge railway).

Wright's Creek school opened north of Gordonvale. 

Extensive mining began in the Burketown region.

Watsonville had three hotels, a store, Catholic and Primitive Methodist churches, a billiard saloon, a school of arts and a private school with an average attendance of 51 pupils.

Macknade Mill (established 1874) purchased by CSR. Today it is Australia's oldest sugar mill still operating on its original site.

© Ian Hughes 2013