This page designed by
Number of Visitors to this page:
Keswick Island
HISTORY
Keswick Island
Keswick Island, together with its twin, St Bees Island, was first
designated as 'L1 Island' by Lieutenant Matthew Flinders, RN, in HMS Investigator
in October 1802. Flinders was well out to sea when he passed and probably
could not see any separation between the two islands but in any event it was
practice in those days to treat closely linked islands as one and to give a
single name pending later surveys. The two islands were given their
individualnames in 1879 by Staff Commander E. P. Bedwell, RN, in SS Llewellyn
and are two of the many names from the then English county of Cumberland
he brought to the Whitsundays following James Cook's 1770 designation of the
group as 'The Cumberland Isles'. Keswick is a major country town on the edge of
the Lake District in Cumbria into which Cumberland was absorbed in 1974.
Settlement
George Godfrey Fuljames 1885- 1891
Fuljames was given occupation licence 1 over both Keswick and St Bees
Islands in 1885 though this was cancelled in 1891 (see St Bees Island).
James Gibson Calvert 1912- 1913
The island was gazetted open for occupation on 19 September 1902 but it was
not until 11 January 1912 that Calvert, from Townsville, applied for an
occupation licence and was given OL178. No further details are known of
this person but it is apparent his tenure was very brief because the island was
again gazetted open for occupation on 31 January 1913(Queensland State Archives
LAN/ S74 Folio 124).
George Bergen Fay 1913
Fay applied for an occupation licence on 10 March 1913 and was given OL191
but his tenure also was very brief and expired at the end of that year (QSALAN/
S74 Folio 137).He was a Mackay identity, initially an auctioneer but later
licensee of the MetropolitanHotel and Wills Hotel in Mackay. He was a
municipal councillor and for two years was Mayor of Mackay where he died on 29
September 1936 aged 56 years (Obituary Mackay Mercury 30 September
1936).
James McCready 1914- 1917
McCready, from Mackay, was granted occupation licence 199 on 14 August 1914
and held it until 1917 (Queensland State Archives LAN/ S74). Nothing is known of
him or the use he put the island to.
The Busuttin Family 1918- 1940
The island was again gazetted open for occupation on 18 February 1918 and on
3 May 1918 Consiglio Victor Lawrence (Charles) Busuttin, whose brother and
partner Joseph already held a licence over St Bees Island, was given OL259. This
licence remained in force until 14 January 1932 when it was transferred to
Joseph Busuttin which must have been preparatory to a change in tenure for in
that same year separate pastoral holding leases over Keswick and St Bees Islands
were given to Joseph Busuttin, that over Keswick, PH3898, running for 30 years
from 1 July 1932. Charles Busuttin had married and decided to quit the island
life, returning to live at Preston near Proserpine until his death on 26 August
1950 at the age of 77.
Because Keswick island has no reliable water supply the Busuttins did not develop it in any substantial way but ran Chinchilla rabbits there in the early days and later sheep. In 1938 a national park ranger surveyed both St Bees and Keswick Islands with a view to their being gazetted national parks but consideration was deferred until the expiry of the existing lease. In the event nothing further was done and in 1995 both islands remain among the few in the region which are not national park.
Dr Alexander Horn 1940- 1957
Dr Craig Angus Horn 1957- 1966
In early 1940 the leases to both islands were sold to Dr Alexander Horn of
Toowoomba, the transfers registered on 5 February 1940. Horn sold St Bees in
1949 but passed the lease of Keswick Island to his son, Craig Angus Horn, a
doctor practising in Macquarie Street, Sydney at the time. This must have been a
somewhat informal arrangement at first forthe lease was not transferred to the
son's name until 18 November 1957. As the expiry date of the lease approached,
Craig Horn was given a further pastoral lease, still under the number 3898, for
30 years from 1 January 1962 though this later was increased to 33 years and 43
years. Craig Horn however was too busy to visit the island or develop it and in
1966 sold the lease to Dr Tony Fisher of Sydney.
Harold Anthony Fisher 1966- 1978
Dr Tony Fisher is well known in Sydney as the owner of the maxi racing
yachts Helsal and Helsal II which figured prominently in the
Sydney offshore racing scene and particularly the SydneyÐ Hobart races in the
1970Ð 80s. Born in 1927 at Manly, NSW he served with the Navy from 1944,
including service with the Allied occupation forces in Japan. After the war he
studied medicine at Sydney university, specialising in aviation medicine and
later was to have a general practice at the Sydney suburb of Panania. He owned
two large cattle properties in the Northern Territory and New South Wales and to
facilitate his travelling between them learnt to fly and bought his own
plane.
In the 1960s his brother-in-law, Brian Ritter, became interested in St Bees Island and Tony accompanied him on an inspection which resulted not in the purchase of St Bees by Brian Ritter, but of Keswick Island by Tony Fisher as a holiday retreat. From this emerged the idea that he would buy a boat to sail to the island periodically, despite knowing nothing about sailing, and this in turn led to the construction of the initially controversial ferro-cement Helsal which subsequently confounded the critics by breaking many off-shore racing records.
Tony built an airstrip and a small cottage on the south-eastern corner of the island near the shore of Egremont Pass and spent some flying holidays there with his wife Nola and their children. A flight to Brampton Island for ice-creams for the children was a not unusual excursion as part of the occasion. In March 1974 he sailed Helsal to the island and with 20 guests on board cruised the area. Other than the strip and cottage he did no significant development and in April 1978 sold the lease to a syndicate operating under the name Keswick Island Pastoral Company Pty Ltd, of which he was a member initially. After leaving the syndicate he continued his medical practice in Sydney but also became involved in several business ventures, including the investment purchase of Cottage Point Inn at Cottage Point near Sydney. In 1994 he still practices in Sydney, residing at the northern suburb of Terrey Hills (Tony Fisher).
Keswick Island Pastoral Company Pty Ltd 1978- 1988
This syndicate comprised Leo S. Donnelly, a priest from Port Macquarie, John
R. Robinson a solicitor from Lismore, Adrian P. Hickey from Sydney, S. John
Hamilton from Port Macquarie and, for a time, Tony Fisher, before the other
partners bought him out. They planned to grow macadamia nuts and in 1984 the
terms of the lease were amended to allow the island to be used for other than
pastoral purposes. To accommodate this venture the syndicate employed Keith and
Maria McKenzie as caretakers. They hailed from Wollongong but with their two
sons had left there in 1984 in their 10.2 metre yacht Snow Goose to
experience a different life-style and took on the caretaker job upon reaching St
Bees/ Keswick in that same year.
Keith cleared land on the western side of the island for a plantation and set up a nursery with about 800 trees but problems with water intervened and the idea got no further than the nursery stage. The family lived in the cottage built by Tony Fisher adjacent to the airstrip and from there operated an air/ sea rescue radio station which became a feature of the Whitsunday maritime scene. In late 1987 they left to tour Australia by car before settling at Leyburn on the Darling Downs where they resided in 1994. They also during their time at Keswick Island, in conjunction with Roger Goebels of the Department of Primary Industry, established an apiary with a colony of Caucasian bees.
The island became mainly a holiday and fishing centre for the partners. John Robinson had his own plane and visited the island from time to time while Leo Donnelly developed it as something of a retreat for his many friends in the priesthood (Keith McKenzie; John Robinson).
Keswick Island Pastoral Company Pty Ltd 1988
ChrisJ. Dorrough
Transtate Ltd
On 19 August 1988 the company and the lease were purchased by Chris
Dorrough, a well-known property developer in the Whitsunday area. With two
partners he formed Transtate Limited which purchased Keswick Island Pastoral
Company Pty Ltd and made application to have the lease amended to allow a
tourist development. This was approved in 1990 and in 1994 negotiations were
still proceeding. This involved surrender of the pastoral holding lease 3898 and
its replacement by a special lease 51545 in the name of Keswick Island Pastoral
Company Pty Ltd, running initially for 1 1/ 2 years from 1 June 1990 for
investigation purposes (Chris Dorrough).
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!