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Cid Island
HISTORY
Cid Island
Cid Island was named in 1866 by Commander G. S. Nares, RN, in HMS
Salamander but the reason for the name is not known. Nares named many islands in
the area after members of his crew so it is possible the name derives from that
source. 'Cid' does occur as a surname in modern times but unfortunately old
records of crew other than officers are difficult to locate.
There seems to be no logical reason to ascribe the name to the legendary 11th century Spanish nobleman El Cid (Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar) famed for his defence of Christianity against the Moors. However in 1932 when the area around Cid Island was surveyed by an RAN boat party based at South Molle Island they gave the name 'Babieca Summit' to one of the two summits on the island, this name derived from the fact that El Cid's horse was named Babieca meaning 'The Simpleton'. This association of names however must be regarded only as a bit of historical levity on the part of the survey team and not as some proof the name of the island arises from El Cid.
Despite the naming by Nares, an article in Port Denison Times of 18 July 1874 relating a visit to the Whitsundays by a party from Bowen refers to it as 'Forest Island'.
Settlement
James Robertson Chisholm and George Proudfoot 1883
Chisholm obtained a special lease 217 for 7 years from 1 November 1883. He
was a well-known identity in
the Charters Towers and Hughenden district and at the time of leasing Cid Island
was manager of the
Wright Heaton store at Ravenswood Junction (now Mingela) and later at Pentland
and Torrens Creek
between Charters Towers and Hughenden. Wright Heaton were general carriers and
produce merchants
throughout north-west Queensland.
Over later years Chisholm owned a number of properties in the Hughenden and Charters Towers district but his last property was Stanley on the Charters Towers road about twenty kilometres from Townsville where he died on 13 November 1927. While riding alone on his property he suffered a heart attack but was able to dismount from his horse and get into the shade of a tree and scratched on a metal match-box the message 'Very wampy heart. Angina pains. Cannot live for ever'. When found he was still alive but could not speak and died shortly after, to be buried on his property. In the 1990s his grave is still prominent near the residence of the MacDonald family on what now is the property of Valhalla.
During the 1890s and 1910s Chisholm was wellknown for a series of articles he wrote for the North Queensland Herald under
the pen-name 'Along the
Line', this title deriving from the fact his property fronted onto the railway
line from Townsville to
Charters Towers and beyond and his articles related stories of people who lived
along that line.
The Chisholm family in 1992 recall J. R. Chisholm attempting unsuccessfully to run sheep on an island but it seems he never resided on Cid Island. It therefore is likely Proudfoot, whose name was a later addition to the lease and about whom nothing is known, may have resided there as a manager of the sheep run. However the lease lapsed so it is evident nothing very significant happened (Mrs Betty Latham, grand-daughter of Chisholm; D. H. Johnson, Charters Towers; Laurie Ryan, Woodstock; The MacDonald family, owners of Valhalla in 1992).
William McAllister 1905- 1910.
William McAllister was given an
occupation licence
289 on 16 November 1905. Post Office directories from 1902 to 1910 show several
people of the name
'William McAllister' living in Charters Towers including a 'McAllister Brothers,
Saddlers'. It seems
possible one of these may be the William McAllister of Cid Island, as a flow-on
from Chisholm's ownership
but nothing more is known.
Daniel Sydney Boughton 1910- 1911
OL289 was transferred to Daniel Sydney
Boughton
'of Hamilton Island' on 11 August 1910 but it is not known whether he occupied
Cid Island. Boughton is said by some to have owned a lease over Hamilton Island but
there is no
record of this and it therefore seems he may have lived there as a caretaker or under some loose ownership
arrangement with the then
owners of the lease on Hamilton Island, the Gorringe brothers, who also were
from Charters Towers. Post
Office directories of 1902 and 1903 show a Daniel Boughton living at Corfield
about 100 kilometres
south-west of Hughenden and it is possible it was in those days he got to know
the Gorringe brothers,
leading to his subsequent association with Hamilton Island and Cid Island.
He
died on 1 April 1911 at the
Mackay district hospital and is buried in the Mackay cemetery.
Caleb Hargest 1911- 1924
OL289 was transferred on 25 October 1911 to
Caleb (Calie) Hargest a member of a well-known Cannon Valley farming family. He seems
to have been the first
of the owners to reside on Cid Island in a permanent sense, in a dwelling behind
the beach on the western
side of the island today known as Homestead Bay. Old timers of the area
recall sheep being grazed on the
island and shorn there. In the 1980s some remnants of the dwelling and fruit
trees could be found but are disappearing rapidly.
A. J. Carden-Collins 1925
On 15 February 1924 OL289 was transferred to
A. J. Carden-Collins well-known as the owner of leases over several islands,
with South Molle Island as his
residential property. However on 1 July 1925 the licence was changed to a
special lease 4571 for 14 years
and almost immediately re-sold.
George Edgar Davies Jnr 1925- 1928
The lease was transferred to Davies
on 16 December
1925. He came from Western Queensland and at one stage worked for Carden-Collins
on South Molle
during his term there from 1922 to 1927. This association probably accounts for his taking over the lease. Old-timers of
the area say that George Davies
lived on the island and grew bananas there while an article in the Proserpine
Guardian of 2 October 1926
mentions his going to the island to gather bananas and causing some concern
because his boat had engine
trouble and a search had to be mounted for him.
In a letter written in August 1929 by a subsequent owner, Alexis Wynyard-Joss (see below), and a sketch made at the time by him, mention is made of a banana grove and a shack on the eastern side of the island at the head of the bay immediately south of today's Bench Point and this seems from anecdotes to have been where Davies lived at least some of the time. Today there are no bananas there but a small stone-pitched retaining wall on the north bank of the creek which flows into the bay indicates the most likely position of the shack.
Thomas Ross McKenzie 1928- 1929
The lease was transferred to McKenzie
on 13 October
1928 but nothing is known of him.
Alexis Wynyard-Joss OBE 1929- 1937
Alexis Wynyard-Joss took over the
lease on 10 May
1929 by which time the island was deserted (Proserpine Guardian 20 June
1931, 'The Cruise of the Symbol').
Wynyard-Joss was a member of the first of the Embury expeditions at Lindeman
Island over Christmas 1928
and was so taken by the area he wanted an island of his own. In the event he did
not live on Cid Island but
from time to time visited it with friends for holidays.
In July/ August 1929 he came from Brisbane to inspect his acquisition and in a letter dated 5 August 1929 written from the Palace Hotel in Proserpine to his fiancee, reported about 200 palms on the eastern side of the island and a grove of bananas and a shack just to the south of Bench Point. This probably was the shack occupied by G. E. Davies mentioned above.
Wynyard-Joss' main interest however was in today's Homestead Bay on the western side, and this he described to his fiancee: 'There is a shack, corrugated iron, about 40 feet [12 metres] long and divided into two rooms. It is set in a slight hollow with a low ridge of sandy soil between it and the beach. The orchard is almost smothered with tall grass and weeds and the lemon trees are huge and just one mass of enormous lemons, the largest I have ever seen. There is plenty of water, a well near the house and another on the point opposite the rocky knob [Hill Rock]. Beautifully clear and sweet spring water not at all brackish.'
Wynyard-Joss was born in Aberdeen in Scotland in 1872 but family emigration led him eventually to Sydney and later Brisbane. He served in both the Boer War and World War I being awarded an OBE for military operations in France. (Government Gazette 109 15 September 1919) After discharge he joined some partners in a cycle and car selling venture in Brisbane, The Canada Cycle and Motor Company but this venture did not succeed and the Depression of 1929 put paid to it. Thereafter he had an interest in he National Radio Company. He died in January 1954 at the age of 82 (Ngaio Nagel, daughter).
Thomas Swetenham Lewis 1937
The lease was transferred to Lewis on 19
March 1937. Proserpine Shire Council minutes of 8 April 1937 under 'Alterations to Rate
Book' mention the transfer
from Joss to Lewis but it must have been another dream unfulfilled for almost immediately the lease was on-sold.
Adelaide McColm and Donald Parry McColm 1937- 1939
The lease was transferred again on 30 August 1937 to the McColms. These two
people were mother and son,
Adelaide McColm being the wife of William Edward McColm who at the time was
part-owner of North
Toolburra, a grazing property on the Condamine River north-west of Warwick in
south-east Queensland.
The family left North Toolburra whereupon Donald and his mother decided to try their hand at developing a tourist resort on an island, Cid Island being their first choice but in the event did nothing and when the lease expired in 1939 the island was gazetted a national park. They tried another such venture at St Helena Island in Moreton Bay but war intervened and again the plans for a resort fell through (Alastair McColm, son of Donald).
A navigational light was placed on the island's southern end in November 1978
(Department of Harbours and Marine, Bowen log
books).
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!