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Fitzalan Island
HISTORY
Fitzalan Island
In September 1860 the Queensland Government Schooner Spitfire passed
north through the Whitsundays on its way to search for the mouth of the Burdekin
River and to survey Port Denison preparatory to its settlement in 1861. On board
were G. E. Dalrymple, Commissioner of Crown Lands for the District of
Kennedy and botanist Eugene Fitzalan, both destined to play important roles in
the development of the town of Bowen on Port Denison.
Fitzalan must have been impressed with Port Denison for he and his family were among the first wave of settlers, arriving on the Jeannie Dove on 29 March 1861. He almost immediately took up a Government building contract in Port Denison and looked to the Whitsundays as a source of timber. He set up a timber-getters camp on the point of land immediately north of Fitzalan Island, on the western side of the point behind the first beach north of Fitzalan Pass. This point became known locally as 'Fitzalan Point'. During 1861 there was a detachment of native police stationed at the point to protect the camp against possible trouble from the Aboriginals.
At one stage Fitzalan chartered the ketch Buonaparte to carry his timber back to Port Denison while the Government boat Santa Barbara and the private vessels Presto and Noah were frequent visitors for the same purpose, as evidenced by advertisements in the Port Denison Times during 1864.
Fitzalan incurred some displeasure from Dalrymple during these early days and the Brisbane Courier of 15 April 1862 reports that while the custom house and police barracks were built entirely with island pine supplied by Fitzalan, there was some question as to the merit of certain other timber supplied by him. This was 'a kind of fig, very white and light when dry' (probably white cheesewood/ milky pine) and all work on Government buildings was suspended by Dalrymple pending a decision on the quality of the timber.
In 1865 a small steam sawmill was erected behind the same beach by the Brisbane firm of Brown and Sherry but was removed to Bowen within a few months due to lack of water. Evidence of this mill still existed in 1996 by way of two old concrete slabs, various metal items, old bottles, an old smoker's clay pipe and a tube-brush, the latter a spiral of wire bristles about two hundred millimetres in length and sixty-five millimetres in diameter used for cleaning scale from boiler tubes. No doubt more relics still exist there (see Timber industry).
During her surveys of the Whitsunday Passage area HMS Salamander anchored
to the west of the point and south of Gulnare Inlet on 30 January 1866
and landed there her commanding officer, Commander G. S. Nares, RN, and a
survey team who camped in that area until 2 February while the ship went to
Bowen for supplies. Undoubtedly the team would have camped on Fitzalan Point and
probably on the same beach as Fitzalan's timber camp. At the time Nares referred
to the area as 'Whitsunday Harbour' though that name did not show on his charts.
On Nares' survey chart the point is shown as 'Fritzalan Point' and chart BA347
of 1866 showed the same name. However the spelling was an error and in his
sailing directions Nares again mis-spelt the name as 'Fitzallen' in referring to
'Fitzallen Channel' between Whitsunday and Hamilton Islands.
From 27 February to 13 March 1868 HMS Virago also anchored to the west of Fitzalan Point while her crew collected fire-wood for her furnaces because of a shortage of coal, and some of the crew camped ashore on the point where later visitors were to find her name carved into a tree-trunk. On 13 March she steamed through Fitzalan Pass on her way to survey the waters around Lindeman and Shaw Islands and while her sailing directions for that time refer to today's Fitzalan Island as 'Fitzallen Island' her log shows her passing through 'Fitzalan Channel'.
The name faded from subsequent charts until in 1933 it was revived with correct spelling by Lieutenant Commander C. G. Little, RAN, in HMAS Moresby. However Little gave the name to Fitzalan Island and not to the point, which is something of a pity because Eugene Fitzalan's historical connection was with the point and not the island.
Fitzalan became a Bowen identity. He was a great rambler, a poet and a visionary. He formed a close association in Bowen with the harbour master Frederick Kilner, the naturalist and conchologist John Rainbird, the owner and editor of the Port Denison Times F. T. Rayner and a journalist from the same paperAugustus F. Perceval. This group extensively explored the area and probably were the first Europeans to climb Mount Dryander. In early November 1869 Fitzalan, Kilner, Rainbird and Perceval with two boatmen had their boat towed behind the coastal steamer Tinonee to just north of Port Molle whence they rowed to the head of Pioneer Bay where they attempted an approach to Mount Dryander on foot but were turned back by a deep creek which probably was today's Galbraith Creek. Returning to their boat they rowed around several headlands to a bay 'with a fine beach' which probably was today's Woodwark Bay. From there they ascended Mount Dryander but not to the summit as time was against them (Port Denison Times 13 November 1869).
Another trip was made in early June 1872, though Perceval was not with the party, his place taken by The Reverend J. K. Black of the Church of England. This time their boat was loaded onto the Tinonee and they were dropped off near Dent Island and rowed to Fitzalan Point where they camped on the beach where the timber-camp had been. During their stay they walked over the hill behind the beach to 'The Falls', a series of water-falls in a creek which runs on the eastern side of the point and discharges into the sea just to the east of Fitzalan Pass.
Next day they sailed across the Whitsunday Passage to either Denman or Planton Island, along the coast of South Molle Island and into Pioneer Bay. Intent again on climbing Mount Dryander, they tried to enter a creek but grounded and again moved around to what again appears to be Woodwark Bay and ascended the mountain. Again time was against them and they did not reach the top (Port Denison Times 22 June 1872, 29 June 1872).
Yet another attempt was made on the mountain in early July 1872 but this time
by land. It is not clear who was in this party but Fitzalan certainly was
there and most likely Kilner. They overlanded to Vine Creek and followed
its course to the summit though they could see little when they got there
because of the dense vegetation and had to climb trees to get a better
view. Following this exploit Fitzalan was moved to burst into verse and
published a lengthy poem about the future of the area and this appeared in the Port
Denison Times of 10 August 1872.
In yet another foray into the Whitsundays a group of six people sailed from
Bowen in June 1874 via Gumbrell, Daydream (which they called 'Little Pine
Island'), Henning and Long Islands, again camping at Fitzalan
Point. It is not clear who was in the party but quite evidently Fitzalan was one
(Port Denison Times 18 July 1874).
In the early 1880's Fitzalan moved to Cairns and died in Brisbane in 1911 (Bowen Historical Museum Eugene Fitzalan 1830/ 1911; Ships on our Horizon, Bowen's Maritime History).
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!