This page designed by
Number of Visitors to this page:
Dent Island
HISTORY
Dent Island
The earliest charts of the Whitsunday area showed only one
island, named 'Passage Island' where Dent Island and Hamilton Island lie
and it was not until 1866, when Commander G. S. Nares, RN, in HMS Salamander
carried out a detailed survey of the northern waters of the Whitsunday
Passage that charts were altered to show the two separate islands. Nares named
Dent Island after Lieutenant Albert Dent, RN, in Salamander.
In 1879 as part of a Government programme of improving navigational aids along the Queensland coast a lighthouse was erected on the island, the first in the area (see Dent Island lighthouse). There is a second island, known locally as 'Dent Island' being the small mangrove island in the Proserpine River just downstream of the mouth of Saltwater Creek. It was the scene of the wreck in 1907 of the Ada Dent from which the name is derived.
Settlement
Michael Ahern 1905- 1912
Michael Ahern was granted an occupation licence 290 over the whole island on
18 November 1905. He probably was the Mick Ahern who worked with John
Withnall and Mick Adlem in the timber trade during the latter part of the 19th
century (see Timber Industry) but it is not known what he did with the
island.
William Galbraith 1912- 1913
William Galbraith took over OL290 on 1 July 1912 but did not run any stock on
the island. The licence covered the entire island but it is said there was some
argument with the Government over the lease and it lapsed on 10 April
1913. This may have been in connection with the Commonwealth Government's
decision to create a lighthouse reserve and official correspondence in 1910
shows their claiming a strip of 200 acres (81 ha) running across the island 20
chains (396 m) north and south of the lighthouse, effectively isolating the
southern end of the island.
By 1919 or 1920 this reserve had been extended to cover the whole of the southern half of the island (about 400 acres (160 ha)) with some argument that the northern half should not be leased because of the danger that smoke from fires may obscure the light. In any event it seems that from about 1915 a reserve over the southern half was a fait accompli as in that year all lighthouse reserves passed to the Commonwealth Government (Australian Estate Management).
Galbraith came to Proserpine in 1903 and settled on a cane farm in the Cannon
Valley, coming originally from Hastings, Edinburgh. (Obituary Proserpine
Guardian 19 June 1937)
Edward Stuart Abell 1927- 1933
Eddie Abell is a grandson of Thomas R. Abell who with his family pioneered
settlement at Jubilee Pocket (now Airlie Beach) in the early 1900s. He
obtained special lease 5321 for 14 years from 27 September 1927 over 900 acres
(365 ha) being the whole of the island but of this the southern section of about
420 acres (162 ha) was still a Commonwealth lighthouse reserve.
Correspondence of the time shows that previous objections to the leasing of the
northern half had disappeared but there was a proviso that a fence be built at
the boundary of the two segments to avoid trouble with straying stock
(Australian Estate Management). Eddie Abell accordingly built a fence
across the island between his property and the reserve but did not run any stock
nor did he live there (Eddie Abell).
Thus at this stage there was a confusing 'dual tenure' of the southern half, the Commonwealth having its reserve but the area nevertheless included in Abell's Lease. It would seem that in those days no one at Government level may have been aware of the anomaly, or cared about it, and it was not until 1961 when a separate lease was issued covering the northern half only.
The O'Hara Family 1933- 1968
The lease was transferred to John James
(Jack) O'Hara
on 25 January 1933 (Queensland State Archives LAN U/ 15) who ran cattle and
sheep on the island though his prime interest was in a cane and dairy farm near
Proserpine at the junction of Shute Harbour Road and the Bruce Highway. Jack
built a coral-floored, corrugated-iron shack about 300 metres inland from the
most southerly of the two beaches which front onto Whitsunday Passage on the
north-west side of the island. A creek which runs to the centre of the
beach provided water.
In those early days the O'Haras did not live permanently at the site, the shack being used only as a refuge during mustering and inspection visits and holiday periods. Some years later a second and larger fibro dwelling was erected closer to the beach on the small headland at the northern end of the beach but still not as a permanent residence. This was destroyed in a cyclone but in later years another dwelling was erected on the same site and in 1959- 60 was the camp-site for workmen who rebuilt the cottages at the Dent Island lighthouse.
In 1939 Jack O'Hara retired from the mainland farm and he and his wife, Margaret (formerly Mrs Hewitt), went to live on the island. To accommodate their retirement they dismantled the Hewitt Building in Proserpine's main street, at that time occupied by a chemist, and had it transported to Dent Island (Proserpine Guardian 1 July 1939) by the Altmann's boat Ventura. The building was re-erected behind the north-facing beach on the northern end of the island and still stands in 1995 as the dwelling (though extended) of Bill and Leen Wallace at their Coral Art resort. The O'Hara's lived there until Jack's death in May 1943 when his wife left the island to live on the mainland until her death in September 1944. Meanwhile, when the lease expired in 1941, Jack had been granted an occupation licence 584 on a year by year basis.
Jack O'Hara left the property to his wife and sons, Roy, Victor, Ray and Jim but various complications delayed the transfer until after Mrs O'Hara's death and it was not until 17 October 1950 that the transfer of OL584 to the estate of Mrs O'Hara and the sons was finalised (Proserpine Shire Council Alterations to Rate Book 1949- 1952). Meanwhile the property was managed by the sons though only Roy and Ray chose to work it as a grazing property. Roy was killed in a riding accident on 12 December 1952 after which Ray took over management and he and Max Muller ran cattle. Ray did not live on the island but from time to time various caretakers lived in the house and tended the stock; George Sax (1949- 50), Ray and Beryl Buschel (1951- 54), Jim Cowan Senior, Bill and Leen Wallace (1955- 61).
In 1961 the licence passed to Ray O'Hara and in the same year Bill and Leen Wallace obtained a lease of 1.01 hectares over the area around the house and fronting onto the beach. They purchased the house from the O'Hara's and there began setting up their 'Coral Art' establishment which still exists in 1997. On 30 September 1961 Ray O'Hara's OL584 was cancelled and in its place he was granted a pastoral holding 4947 for 33 years from 1 October 1961 over 480 acres (194 ha). The reduced area (from the original 900 acres) resulted from the exclusion of the lighthouse reserve, the area leased by the Wallaces and the establishment of an esplanade around the foreshores (Jim O'Hara).
In 1968 the Pastoral Holding was sold to R. W. Vigar.
Ronald William Vigar 1968- 1973
Ronald Vigar, who had also purchased the leases to Paradise Bay on Long
Island in 1957 and Hamilton Island in 1961, purchased Ray O'Hara's
pastoral holding in 1968 (transfer Registered 5 November 1968) and while he ran
some cattle there for a time did nothing significant with the holding and in
November 1973 he sold it to Sebastian Properties Pty Ltd.
Sebastian Properties Pty Ltd/ Normelda Developments Pty Ltd 1973- 1974
Sebastian Properties' address was shown at the time as Wooloomooloo, Sydney
and at the same time as they purchased the property they sold it on to Normelda
Developments Pty Ltd of Toowoomba. According to Bill Wallace of Coral Art
the idea of this company was to develop a tourist resort but the Government
would not approve it. No more is known of this involvement.
The Faust Family 1974- 1988
On 26 April 1974 Peter Faust, prominent
grazier from
Breadalbane and Proserpine Stations, and later chairman of the
Proserpine Shire Council took up PH4947 to graze cattle. The holding was in the
name of Faust and his wife as Trustees for The Faust Family Trust.
Hamilton Island Development B Pty Ltd 1988
In August 1988 the lease was bought by Keith Williams, owner of Hamilton
Island with a view to developing an international golf course and health farm as
an adjunct to the resort on Hamilton Island (Whitsunday Times 31 August
1988). However when the Dent Island lighthouse was automated in 1983 and
de-manned in 1987 the reserve over the southern half of the island held by the
Commonwealth of Australia was reduced to a small area immediately around the
lighthouse and its sea access and the remainder put out to tender for leasing in
July 1989. This was taken up by Keith Williams in that same year under the
name Hamilton Island Development B Pty Ltd.
The Information on the Whitsunday Islands is reproduced by kind permission of Mr. Ray Blackwood from his book: " The Whitsunday Islands An Historical Dictionary ".
Please visit his site here. It is well worth the time!