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Long Island
HISTORY
Long Island
Because it is tucked so closely against the mainland, Long Island was not
apparent to the early explorers such as Cook and King nor to
Lieutenant Charles Jeffreys, RN, of HM Colonial Brig Kangaroo who
anchored in and named Port Molle in 1815.
However the crew of the Valetta which was beached at Happy Bay in 1825 were well aware of the separation as revealed in letters of the time from one of the castaways, Ranulph Dacre.
The earliest official mention of the separation from the main was made by Lucius C. Bailey, sailing master in HMS Zebra which anchored in Port Molle on 17/ 18 September 1836 on its way from Sydney to India. In his remarks Bailey describes how his captain 'in the Gig and Cutter' examined today's Long Island Sound, finding it a good anchorage and an alternative to Port Molle if the wind blew strong from the north. It is interesting that Bailey also makes reference to 'the long island' but in so doing was referring to the Molle Group in days when closely placed islands were regarded as one.
However Bailey's report seemed not to make its way into official records because in March 1843 Lieutenant F. P. Blackwood, RN, in HMS Fly and the ship's naturalist, J. Beete Jukes, took the ship's boat to explore the head of Port Molle and found 'to their surprise' the passage today known as 'Long Island Sound' (Jukes, J. B. Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of HMS Fly London 1847). Thereafter the passage appeared in charts though its official name did not appear for many years thereafter (see Long Island Sound).
The name 'Long Island' first appeared on Admiralty Chart BA347 1863 edition though it is not clear who gave the name. The same chart carries for the first time names of other major islands in the group, Whitsunday, Hook and Passage Islands and it is probable the names were given in a cartographic office, merely recognising names which in any event had become common usage.
Settlement
Donald Coutts Gordon 1884- 1886
Gordon's lease of the island came something of a farce. In
February 1883 he applied for a lease of 'South Molle Island' in the belief that
he was applying for today's Long Island. This mistaken idea is forgivable
because in official records there was not then a 'South Molle Island' which is a
local name for what officially is Molle Island. In Gordon's mind at the time the
island which formed the southÐ east boundary of Port Molle logically could be
called South Molle Island and it is hard to be critical of his error.
The upshot was that on 1 July 1883 special lease 199 over today's South Molle Island was issued to Gordon for a five year term at a rental of £15 ($ 30) pa. However, on receipt of the lease he was horrified to find he did not have the island he thought he had and in a somewhat testy telegram to the department after they had explained their version of South Molle and Long Islands, he stated 'South Molle and Long Islands are one and the same'.
Eventually the matter was straightened out, SL199 was cancelled, the rent refunded to Gordon and on 1 July 1884 he was issued with a lease for ten years over 'Long Island Run' for £18 ($ 36) per annum under the Settled Districts Pastoral Leases Act of 1876 (Queensland State Archives LAN/ N91 Folio 65). However after all that Gordon only paid two years rent and on 30 September 1886 the lease was forfeited for non- payment of rent.
Gordon was the son of John and Janet Gordon who in the 1860- 70's owned the grazing property Glen Gordon west of Rockhampton. The western boundary of the property ran across an ironstone outcrop known in those days as 'Ironstone Mountain' and which later was to become the world's largest single goldmine, Mount Morgan. To meet residential requirements of their lease the Gordons placed the property in Donald's name and he resided there while his parents retired to Rockhampton. Because there had been gold finds in the general area, Donald Gordon on one occasion thought he saw gold in some rock he picked up from the mountain but an expert told him it was only mundic and worthless. A friend however opined there was gold in the rock and the two arranged to go back to the mountain together and prospect for gold. On the appointed day however, fate intervened when Gordon received word his mother was ill in Rockhampton and went to her bedside, abandoning the proposed prospecting expedition. He did not return to Glen Gordon but instead took up work at Peak Downs.
In 1882 the family decided to get rid of the property and Donald Gordon approached one Frederick Morgan who had pegged a gold claim on Ironstone Mountain and needed an access to the site. Morgan bought the property for £640 ($ 1,280), about twice what the Gordon's had paid years earlier. The rest is history but Donald Coutts Gordon must be regarded as one of the unluckiest men in Australia. It no doubt was after the sale of Glen Gordon that Gordon became interested in Long Island, perhaps to get away from it all, but it is not clear whether he actually lived on Long Island at any stage. He died in Rockhampton at the age of 67 and was buried there on 17 August 1900.
After the lease to Long Island was forfeited it was opened again to occupation on 4 July 1887 at a rental of £2 ($ 4) per square mile but there were no takers until in 1895 Percy Kean offered £1 ($ 2) per acre and the Lands Department agreed (Queensland State Archives LAN/ S151).
Hugh Percival Kean 1895- 1897
Occupation licence OL76 was granted to Hugh Percival (Percy)
Keanfollowing his application of 29 April 1895 (QSA LAG/ 11/ B). Kean was born
on 8 February 1860 at Campbell Town in Tasmania, his father being Hubert Jerome
Kean, a brewer and his mother Fanny Elizabeth, nee Lambert. His son Percy Kean,
born February 1912 and living at Ravenswood in 1992, says his father was brought
up in his youth by an aunt in Melbourne whose husband had extensive grazing
interests in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. Percy Kean was in
Charters Towers employed as the divisional goat ranger in 1884 and thereafter
became involved in gold mining and was secretary of the Mount Charles Gold
Mining Company in 1886 and manager of the Dreghorn mine in 1888.
He came to the Proserpine area in the latter part of the 1890s and tried his hand at sheep farming both on the mainland and on the islands. The Proserpine Guardian of 9 October 1964 talks of his having experimented with grazing sheep on Grimston Point in 1897 and this accords well with official records (QSA LAN/ S3) which show him as having an occupation licence 86 from 23 September 1895 over Dryander Run 5 described as Commencing NE corner of Dryander 4, bounded on the west by No. 4 thence south about 2 miles thence on the south by a line bearing east to the coast then along coast to the commencing point'. This encompassed the area of Grimston Point.
Apparently having satisfied himself with the viability of sheep farming on an island Kean made his application for an occupation licence over Long Island in April 1895. At that time the Lands Department were asking a rental of £2 ($ 4) per acre but Kean beat them down to £1($ 2). At almost the same time he applied for and was given licences over the Molle Group and Hamilton Island. He also displayed an interest in Goldsmith, Scawfell and Haslewood Islands but in the event no licences were issued for those two.
It seems certain Kean put sheep on the islands and resided on Long Island, for his application for Hamilton Island showed his address as 'Long Island'. During this time he retained his mainland property and presumably commuted between there and his island properties. Some stories say Kean took up Long Island because he believed there was treasure there from the wreck lying in today's Happy Bay. In those years the origin of that wreck had been lost to sight and today we know it was the Valetta and there was no treasure.
Kean's occupation licences over Long Island and the Molle Group were cancelled in April 1897 while that over Hamilton Island was transferred to J. A. Gorringe in December 1898. He remained in the Proserpine area for several years before moving to Marble Island north of Shoalwater Bay. After a lifetime of mining ventures throughout Australia he died at the age of 77 on 10 August 1937 at the Lister Hospital, Mackay and was buried in the Mackay cemetery (Percy Kean Junior; Don Johnson Mining Historian, Charters Towers).
Sarah Adderton 1898- 1916
Sarah Adderton obtained occupation licence 76 over Long Island on 4 August
1898. Her husband Abraham in 1897 had obtained an occupation licence over Lindeman
Island where they moved in 1898. Apparently the Addertons did nothing with
Long Island and in 1916, towards the end of their time on Lindeman, Sarah
notified the Lands Department she did not intend to pay the rent for 1917 and
the island reverted to the Crown and was declared open again for occupation in
the Government Gazette of 2 January 1917.
Colin Graham Munro 1917- 1919
On 18 May 1917 OL417 over Long Island was granted to Munro who came from
Proserpine though nothing is known of him. However on 14 February 1919 the
island was again opened to occupation as OL447, Munro's licence apparently being
cancelled.
John Richard Middleton 1920- 1921
On 24 June 1920 Middleton, of Bowen, obtained OL447 over the island but rent
was later refunded to him and the island was re-opened for occupation as
OL452 on 11 March 1921. Nothing is known of Middleton.
The Altmann Family 1921- 1932
On 7 April 1921 OL452 over Long Island was granted to Carl Ludwig William
Altmann, son of Otto Carl Ludwig Altmann and Frances Emily Altmann. It is not
clear whether Carl went to live on the island in those early years and for some
time during 1927 he lived on Haslewood Island as a manager for the then owner,
Stanley Polglass. However his parents oved to Long Island in about 1924. Carl
was married in 1928 to Alice Burry and the couple joined Carl's parents on
Long Island where they lived until 1932. On 6 February 1928 OL452 passed to
Carl's mother though the reason for the transfer is not known.
Otto Altmann previously was a sailor with American vessels and arrived in Proserpine in 1904 and worked at the sugar mill. In 1907 he took up a farm in Cannon Valley where in the 1990s Altmann Road commemorates their occupation.
The Altmanns lived at the northern end of the beach at Happy Bay and grew bananas and papaws but also had a banana plantation at Banana Bay on the south west side of the island, immediately north of Paradise Bay. The bananas and papaws were transported weekly to Cannon Valley by Otto in his boat Senix, calling at South Molle Island and Daydream Island en route to deliver mail, supplies and so forth.
OL452 was surrendered on 13 February 1930 to become special lease 6129 for 14 years in Frances Altmann's name but she died on 14 February 1930 and it must be assumed the formalities for converting to a special lease had already been well in hand. Administration of Mrs Altmann's estate was taken over by the Public Curator.
The island was then sub-divided into three separate areas, SL6129 being retained but reduced by surrender of the areas of the new sub-divisions being 240 acres in the centre (SL 7285) and 1460 acres in the south (SL8137). The Wilding brothers bought the northern portion; W. L. Grant the centre section and Tom Hurford the southern. Apparently there were delays in registering the transfers to the new owners as when their leases were finally granted they were for odd terms, the idea apparently being to take the effective starting date back to when the sale actually was effected and presumably when the new owners took up residence.
Thus while the Wilding Brothers took over the reduced SL6129 over the northern section, Grant's SL7285 over the centre section was for 11 2/ 3 years from 14 June 1932, equivalent to a 14 year lease from 14 February 1930. Hurford's SL8137 over the southern section was for 12 years and 10 months from 1 April 1933, equivalent to a 14 year lease from 1 February 1932 (QSA LAN/ U17,19,21).
In 1932 Carl and Alice Altmann moved to a cane farm at Cannon Valley while
Otto became skipper of the yacht Day Dream then owned by Eric Catherwood
of Daydream Island. After Daydream Island passed to Skip Moody in 1941 Otto
joined with his sons, Alex and Herman in running a mail and tourist boat and bus
service from Cannonvale, servicing eventually Daydream, North and South Molle, Cid,
Henning, Hamilton, Dent and Long Islands (Alec Altmann, Joe Altmann,
Rhonda Davies).
For subsequent history of Long Island see Happy Bay, Palm Bay and Paradise
Bay.
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!