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Molle Islands
HISTORY
Molle Islands
(For origin of name see Molle, Port.)
In May 1881 Captain J. F. L. P. Maclear in HMS Alert surveyed
Port Molle and his charts showed both North and South Molle Islands as
'grasslands' while Frederick North, Paymaster of Alert commented that
South Molle Island was covered in long grass with only a solitary tree here and
there. There still is a great deal of grass cover in the 1990s but it is evident
the islands are now much more wooded than they were in 1881 Ñ this attributed
to the fact that since the Aboriginal practice of burning the islands ceased the
forests are taking over.
Settlement
Lands Department records show special lease 199 granted for five years from
1 July 1883 to D. C. Gordon at a rental of £15 ($ 30) pa over South Molle
Island only. Gordon paid the first year's rent but thereafter correspondence
shows the lease cancelled and rent refunded because this lease was issued by
mistake due to a misunderstanding between Gordon and the Lands Department as to
which island was 'South Molle' (see Long Island).
Hugh Percival (Percy) Kean 1895- 1897
Percy Kean was given an occupation licence 78 over the Molle Group of six
islands (North, South, Mid, West Molle and Planton and Denman) on 1 July 1895
after the islands had been gazetted for occupation on 3 May 1895. At about the
same time Kean obtained licences over Long and Hamilton Islands,
full details of which are shown under Long Island. It seems however his grazing
ventures in all these areas did not succeed and his licence over South Molle was
cancelled on 18 April 1897.
William John Branston Forster 1900- 1907
OL78 was transferred to W. J. B. Forster on 12 October 1900 and in May 1901
he was granted OL245 over Haslewood/ Lupton Islands as well. When
in June 1896 Burns Philp & Co Ltd bought the long established general
business of Bowen merchant, Donald Miller (Port Denison Times 18 July
1896), Forster was transferred to the new branch from Geraldton W. A. as
accountant. It is evident Forster could not have done his job in Bowen and lived
in the Molle Islands at the same time and he therefore employed Joseph William
Hawkes of Proserpine as manager on Molle Island. Hawkes was there in 1901
when he wrote a story from the island in that year and refers to the visit of an
Aboriginal in 1900 while he was on the island. An editorial in the Proserpine
Guardian of 23 October 1964 refers to this relationship. In those years, as
at the present time, occupation centred on the beach on the northern side of
South Molle Island facing the bay known later as Bauer Bay or, more recently, as
Moonlight Bay.
Hawkes came from England to Australia in 1880, firstly to Bowen and then to Proserpine in 1894. An obituary to his daughter, Clara Mildred Lewis, in the Proserpine Guardian of 10 September 1965 mentions her father moving to South Molle Island 'to raise sheep'. Hawkes also was grandfather to Bernie Lewis who in 1992 was part-owner and editor of the Proserpine Guardian. He became a director and vice president of the Proserpine Farmers and Settlers Association which operated the Central Proserpine sugar mill from its opening on 16 September 1897 (The Proserpine Co-operative Mill Story 1981).
In May 1901 Forster was transferred to the Brisbane Branch of Burns Philp as accountant, leaving Bowen on June 4 on the Wodonga with his wife and son (Port Denison Times 8 June 1901). However he must have had to make some arrangement for the caretaking of the Molle Islands for on 4 October 1902 he arrived back in Bowen on Aramac, the Port Denison Times of October 4 reporting he intended visiting Molle Island before returning south. This visit ties in with Burns Philp board minutes of 13 October 1902 wherein it is noted Forster had been granted one month's leave of absence.
The Post Office directory for Bowen for 1902/ 3 shows Forster's address as 'Molle Island Station' but it is not clear how long he remained on the island during that visit. It is evident he must have come to some arrangement with the Cooke family (see below) who came to the area in 1902/ 3 and to South Molle Island and either managed it for Forster or sub-leased it on some informal basis before formally taking over the occupation licence.
Forster's movements after his return visit to Bowen in October 1902 are not clear. Thereafter there is no mention of him in Burns Philp's records, other than that a new accountant was appointed to Brisbane branch in 1904, which indicates he may have left the company.
The Cooke Family 1903- 1913
In 1902 William Cooke, a grazier from Mountayup in Victoria, came to the
area and, from later family recollections, immediately took up residence on
South Molle Island. His brother Allan joined him shortly after, his wife Hannah
following shortly after the birth of her daughter Iline on 13 December 1902.
However it was not until 1 March 1907 that OL78 passed formally to the Cooke
brothers from Forster and it therefore seems they either managed the islands for
Forster or had some loose sale or sub-leasing arrangement with him.
They ran sheep on both North and South Molle with a shearing shed on the
southern end of North Molle and on South Molle. At the same time they held an
occupation licence over Hayman Island.
Two sons were born to Allan and Hannah on South Molle Island in 1905 and 1907
and as they grew up the Cookes employed a governess, Elfreda Squires of
Brighton, England. A romance blossomed and William and Elfreda were married on
the island on 23 June 1911 after which they moved to the mainland where William
owned and worked the property Runneymede in the Cannon Valley. Elfreda's
mother and step-father, Mr. Tarry, had come to the island for the wedding and
with Elfreda's brother, F. C. Squires, lived on the island for a number of
years.
Allan and his family stayed on at South Molle and on 1 January 1912 the Cookes
subdivided OL78 by obtaining a separate OL78A over North Molle Island though the
reason for this move is not known. In 1913 the leases over the group and North
Molle were sold to H. C. Sterry, and Allan and his family joined his brother at Runneymede
for a short while before buying a property of his own in the Cannon Valley
(Richard Cooke, son of Alan Cooke; Queensland State Archives LAN/
S).
Henry Crawshay Sterry 1913- 1918
H. C. Sterry bought OL78 and 78A on 28 June 1913. He was born in Swansea,
Wales and came to Proserpine in 1895 where he worked as a jackeroo on Goorganga
Station until taking up a cane farm Selwyn near Breadalbane. He
later opened a commission and real estate agency in Proserpine which he operated
until his health failed. He died on 21 June 1943 (Obituary Proserpine
Guardian 25 June 1943). Whereas his predecessors had lived on South Molle
Island, Sterry left it to an Aboriginal housekeeper, Nora and her husband Joe to
manage the property (Mary Pepper, daughter of Douglas Debney; Bill Rogers). The
Debney Family 1918- 1923
Douglas Debney MBE was born at Crystallbrook in South Australia and as a
young man worked on the south-west Queensland property Monkira which was
part-owned by his father. In 1906 he moved on to Bowen and then to Proserpine
where he took up farming at Preston. In October 1918 he bought the licences of
the Molle Group from Sterry and with his wife Frances and their four children,
Mary, George, Douglas and Harry, moved to South Molle Island (Bowen Independent
26 October 1918) and grazed 1100 sheep on North and South Molle Islands. In
1923 the licences were sold to A. J. Carden-Collins and the family moved back to
the mainland, buying a sugar cane farm in the Cannon Valley. Debney became a
prominent figure in the area, including the post of chairman of directors of the
Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Milling Association from which he retired in May
1960 (Mary and Arthur Pepper; Proserpine Guardian frequent
references).
The Carden-Collins Family 1923- 1927
On 9 February 1923 Arthur John Carden-Collins bought the licences over the
Molle Group from Debney and took up residence on South Molle Island and like
those before them ran sheep on North and South Molle Islands. Immediately prior
to this move Carden-Collins had been the owner of the property Bezuma north
of Julia Creek, the name derived from the names of his three daughters Berry,
Zuill and Mary. Bezuma had been a part of the Meredith Menzies' property Millungera,
110 kilometres north of Julia Creek, which he had managed for some years
previously. In the early 1900s, he had also managed the Archer family's property
St. Helens west of Emerald. On 1 July 1925 Carden-Collins had OL78 and
78A (North Molle) converted to special leases 4569 and 4570 respectively, both
for a term of fourteen years and in 1927 sold them to H. G. Lamond and took up
the property Tondara near Gumlu (Mr and Mrs A. W. Pepper; McDonald, Lorna
Rockhampton, A History of City and District; Obituary Bowen
Independent 24 February 1956).
The Lamond Family 1927- 1937
Henry George Lamond purchased the leases of the Molle Group in 1927,
arriving at South Molle Island on 19 April 1927 with his wife Eileen and
children Eileen Amy, Henry James (Hal) and William. He was born at Burketown
where his father was an Inspector of Police with the Queensland Mounted Police
Force and spent the early part of his life working on grazing properties in
western Queensland.
On 27 June 1910 he married Eileen McMillan whose family were a well known pastoral family in western Queensland. Lamond put a further six hundred sheep on the islands, where goats already were thriving, being descendants from those placed there in earlier years by the Queensland Government as a food source for ship-wrecked sailors. He ran the islands purely as grazing properties, resisting the trend then developing towards tourism. He was a somewhat aloof person preferring his own company and that of close friends only but while he did not develop tourist accommodation on the island, photographs of the time show he did receive visiting tourists from vessels which called en route to ports along the Queensland coast, a practice shared by Daydream Island.
However Lamond did much to popularise the Whitsundays for on his arrival at South Molle he took up the pen and became an accomplished writer, his books and writings revolving around his life experience both in western Queensland and on South Molle. In 1968 he was awarded an MBE for his contribution to literature covering sheep stations and nature. His love of nature resulted in South Molle being proclaimed a bird and animal sanctuary, with himself appointed a ranger.
On 1 July 1931 SL4569 and 4570 were altered to SL6762 and 6763 respectively each for twenty years. This must have been preparatory to Lamond's intention to sell off parts of the group and in 1934 he sold West Molle (Daydream) to E. M. Catherwood and North Molle to F. C. Johnson in 1935. SL6762 was reduced accordingly with the excision of West Molle Island for which a new special lease 8203 was issued (see North Molle Island and Daydream Island for details).
In 1937 he sold special lease 6762 over the remaining islands; South Molle, Mid Molle, Planton and Denman to the Bauer family by way of a swap for that family's farming property near Lindum south-east of Brisbane. It was by coincidence that the Lamond family departed South Molle, on board the John Burke Company's MV Mygreta, on 19 April 1937, precisely ten years to the day since their arrival there (Bill Lamond, son).
Molle, North
At the northern end of the island just south of the most northerly beach on
the western side is a stream from which Daydream Island and Hayman Island used
to draw water during the 1940- 50s. In 1946 to facilitate the operation, Skip
Moody of Daydream Island and Bert Hallam of Hayman Island, assisted by Ray and
Fred Buschel and Alf Barr constructed a small concrete dam about 100 metres up
the stream and from it led a two-inch galvanised pipe into the sea below.
To this was attached a rope and buoy with which the pipe could be hauled to the
surface and fed into a one-thousand gallon tank carried in a small barge. In
1993 the small dam still existed though filled with rubble and a few metres
above it was a newer concrete sump feeding a national parks tap at a picnic area
behind the beach.
On a beach about half a kilometre north of the south-western corner of the island sits the rusting engine of the Harbours and Marine Department launch Curtis wrecked there in cyclone Ada in January 1970.
Settlement
Francis Casimir Johnson 1935- 1956
In 1935 Lamond sold SL6763 over North Molle Island to Francis Casimir
Johnson from Llanrheidol Station which lies just north of the town of
Middleton about 150 kilometres west of Winton (QSA LAN/ U18; Proserpine Shire
Council minutes 10 October 1935; Proserpine Guardian 19 October 1935).
The transfer was registered on 13 September 1935.
From 1918 to 1949 Llanrheidol was owned by Melbourne bookmaker, Solomon Green, under the company name of Llanrheidol Pastoral Company. It is evident from correspondence with the Lands Department in those years that one Graham Johnson was a resident manager for Green and may even have had a share in the company. Richard Davidson of Winton, who worked on Llanrheidol during the 1930s recalls the Johnson family of father and mother and eight children, one of whom was Frank and this would have been Francis Casimir.
It seems Johnson did little with the island other than holiday there occasionally and during this period a South Sea islander by the name of Jack Geisler lived on the southern end of North Molle Island with his Aboriginal wife and family, perhaps caretaking for Johnson (Nancy Allan; Skip Parker; Jack Tyree).
In October 1938 the island was declared a national park and Johnson's lease
SL6763 was terminated (Proserpine Guardian 22 October 1938; Proserpine
Shire Council minutes 13 October 1938). However he was granted a new special
lease SL10656 for 17 years 8 months from 1 November 1938 to expire on 30 June
1956 over the whole island despite its national park status, a common
procedure in those days. The odd term of the lease effectively made it a twenty
year lease from 1 July 1936 which presumably was to back-date it to about the
time he bought the lease from Lamond. In November 1957 after the expiry of
the lease one S. R. Johnson requested, but was not given, a lease over 14 acres
of the island but it is not known whether there was any family relationship
between the two.
Molle, South
Settlement
The Bauer Family 1937- 1971
In 1937 the Bauer family took over Lamond's lease 6762 of South Molle, Mid
Molle, Denman and Planton Islands by exchanging their farm property at Lindum
near Brisbane. The family comprised Ernest (Pop) Bauer, his wife Anna and their
children, Marie, Irene, Wally, Colin, Norris, Owen, Ruth and Joan. Initially the
Bauers were accompanied by Mrs Bauer's sister, Vena Aiken, and her husband Doug,
and family friends, the Cleetons, with the intention that together they would
develop the island as a tourist resort but this did not work out and the Aikens
left after about nine months. Cleeton was a builder and constructed the first
formal tourist accommodation on the island, a dining/ recreation hall and two
accommodation units facing the beach in Bauer Bay. However the Cleetons found
the life not to their liking and left also after a short while.
In 1939 Mid Molle, Planton and Denman Islands were declared national parks
and excised from the lease. In 1941 South Molle Island also was declared a
national park and a new special lease 12404 was granted over the whole island
(1040 acres) to Pop Bauer and his wife Anna for thirty years from 1
January 1942 (Proserpine Shire Council Alterations to Rate Book 1914Ð 1943). In
1952 a family company, South Molle Pty Ltd, was formed and the lease was
transferred to the names of E. M. Bauer, A. W. Bauer, C. C. Bauer,
N. F. Bauer and O. M. Bauer.
In 1955, following Pop Bauer's retirement, the lease was again transferred - to N. F. Bauer, O. M. Bauer, W. E. Bauer and G. C. (Gib) Jewell (Proserpine Shire Council Alterations to Rate Book) the latter being the husband of Marie Bauer, the couple joining the family company for a time. Over the following years the family members went their separate ways and sole management finally ended up in the hands of Wally Bauer in December 1959.
To facilitate the landing of guests the Bauers built a small jetty out from the home beach but in 1958 a larger jetty was commenced by the Proserpine Shire Council finally being opened in January 1960 (Proserpine Guardian 15 January 1960, 27 May 1960).
In order to obtain a more secure title over the area on which the resort's improvements were situated a perpetual country lease NCL1659 was obtained in April 1960 over 23 acres around the resort and that area was excised from the national park. SL12404 was surrendered and a new lease SL24843 for 12 years from 1 April 1960 was granted covering the remainder of the island which remained national park, both leases in the name of South Molle Pty Ltd. In 1966 a further perpetual lease, NCL2100, was obtained over 37 acres in Hidden Valley where the resort farm and dam were and this area also excised from the national park. Special lease 24843 was amended accordingly to an area of 892 acres. Both leases were again in the name of South Molle Pty Ltd.
In 1966 Gold Coast property developer, Peter Vaggelas became interested in
the island, proposing an exchange of properties at the Gold Coast and Port
Macquarie but Wally Bauer was not interested at that stage.( Proserpine
Guardian 13 January 1967). However in January 1970 the resort was badly
damaged in cyclone Ada and the prospect of rebuilding and re-establishing
must have proved daunting to Wally for in November 1971 he sold to Vaggelas and
left to live at Buderim (Proserpine Guardian 12 November 1971; Bauer
family).
Peter Vaggelas 1971- 1976
In September 1971 Gold Coast property developer Peter Vaggelas bought the
resort from the Bauer family by exchanging it for a partly completed development
at Port Macquarie which Wally Bauer proceeded to develop further. At that
stage, besides interests on the Gold Coast and Port Macquarie, Vaggelas owned
the Harbour Lights Caravan Park at Bowen. For the Bauers, history had repeated
itself as they earlier had bought South Molle Island via a swap of land.
Vaggelas' purchase of the leases was accomplished by his purchasing the Bauer company, South Molle Pty Ltd, and the leases and the resort's business continued in that name with Vaggelas as managing director. In announcing the purchase Vaggelas said he would spend $2- 3 million on improving the resort to world class (Mackay Mercury 10 November 1971). Plans for an airstrip were put forward with two sites suggested, one on the high ground to the south-west of Mount Jeffreys, the other at the shore-line running from Paddle Bay along the western shore of Mid Molle Island but the plans did not proceed.
SL24843 expired on 31 March 1972 and a new lease SL38254 was granted to South Molle Pty Ltd for ten years from 1 July 1974 over 358 hectares being the whole of the island other than the areas covered by NCLs 1659 and 2100. The former had meanwhile been increased slightly to a total area of 12.323 hectares.
Vaggelas and his wife Betty lived on the island but in 1975 sold it to Gould Holdings, and returned to the Gold Coast. He became involved in the unsuccessful attempt to salvage the Cherry Venture which had been blown ashore on the Sunshine Coast on July 9, 1973 when a tow-line snapped while it was being towed to Japan for breaking.
Gould Holdings Pty Ltd 1975- 1978
In December 1975 the resort was bought by Elaine and Ron Gould from Palm
Beach on the Gold Coast where they had been involved in property development,
and the leases were transferred to the name of Gould Holdings Pty Ltd. The
Goulds proposed a multi-million dollar redevelopment of the island, but their
plans did not work out satisfactorily and by February 1977 they were in default
in their payments with the result that Peter Vaggelas re-possessed the resort
and evicted the Goulds who returned to the Gold Coast. A legal battle ensued
between the Goulds and Vaggelas wherein the former claimed the profitability of
the resort had been mis-represented to them at the time of their purchase.
Eventually the Goulds were awarded $1.4m in damages (Courier Mail 8
November 1984).
Kennedys Pty Ltd 1978- 1980
In September 1978 Jim Kennedy bought the resort with plans to
revitalise it. He had previously been a chartered accountant and an electrical
retailer but immediately prior to his purchase of South Molle had been the owner
of Tangalooma Resort which he sold in November 1977 (Proserpine Guardian 8
September 1978). Under his experienced management the resort flourished and in
1976 he sold out to the Telford Group.
Telford Property Fund Ltd 1980- 1986
The Fund bought the resort in October 1980 for $4 million and took over
control in December 1980 with plans for further development (Proserpine Guardian
5 December 1980). Trustees for the Fund were Burns Philp Trustee Co Ltd, and
the island lease was registered in their name as Trustee for Universal Flexible
Property Trust No. 1. The resort then was sub-leased to Playfair Australia Ltd
for five years. After expiry of SL38254 it was replaced by SL47971 for twenty
years from 1 April 1986.
However by early 1985 the Telford group was in financial difficulties and the Trustees took over control of the resort and did not renew the sub-lease to Playfair, with the head-lease now registered in the name of Burns Philp Trustee Co Ltd as Trustee for Telford Property Trust No. 6. Through 1985 and early 1986 rumours persisted of a take-over of the Resort by Ansett (Proserpine Guardian 28 March 1985, 15 August 1985, 26 September 1985, 20 March 1986) with the rumours confirmed in April 1986 when Ansett Transport Industries (Operations) Ltd sub-leased the resort from the Trustees.
Ansett Transport Industries (Operations) Ltd 1986
In April 1986 Ansett obtained an eight year sub-lease 9525 of the resort
from the Trustees from 1 July 1986 to 30 June 1994. At the same time they bought
the lease to the Hook Island underwater observatory.
Molle, Port
Port Molle was given its name on 14 May 1815 by Lieutenant Charles Jeffreys,
RN, in HM Colonial Brig Kangaroo while on its way from Port
Jackson to Ceylon with part of the 73rd Regiment which had finished its tour of
duty in Australia (see Jeffreys). Unfortunately deep research has not
been able to locate any direct evidence Jeffreys gave the name, but Lieutenant
P. P. King, RN, in his sailing directions for the area attributes the
naming to Jeffreys and this is sufficient authority as King followed only four
years behind Jeffreys and obviously had his narrative in hand.
Jeffreys gave the name 'Molle' after the then Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales, Colonel George James Molle (1773- 1823) who came to New South Wales in February 1814 as the commanding officer of the 46th Regiment and upon his arrival was appointed Lieutenant Governor under the Governor, Lachlan Macquarie. An earlier friendship between Macquarie and Molle did not survive a closer association and Molle became one of two thorns in Macquarie's side, the other being Lieutenant Charles Jeffreys and probably Jeffreys took cynical pleasure in giving the name 'Molle' to the area. In September 1817 Molle and his regiment left the Colony of New South Wales for Madras.
In an account of his voyage which appeared in the Hobart Town Gazette on 11 May 1816 Jeffreys comments on the coincidence that he anchored in the Whitsunday Passage on Whit Sunday 1815 (which in that year was May 14) whereas James Cook had passed through on Whit Sunday 1770.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography states Jeffreys named Molle Island (today's South Molle Island) and Mount Jeffreys thereon after himself, something 'just not done' in Royal Naval circles in those days but the author disputes this claim for which there is no evidence. Charts printed after Jeffreys' visit show only 'Port Molle' and do not name Molle Island or Mount Jeffreys though they do show a 'Peak' on South Molle Island. Similarly, survey charts prepared after the surveys by HMS Fly and HMS Bramble in 1843 and 1844 mention only Port Molle and not the island or the mount.
It was not until 1863 that A347 showed, in addition to Port Molle, the name 'Molle Islands' against the group but with no individual names for the component islands and no mention of Mount Jeffreys. It is evident that before that time 'Molle Islands' had become common usage, that name appearing in the remarks of HMS Pioneer when she passed through Port Molle on 7 October 1862. The same edition of BA347 gave names for the first time to a number of the major features in the area, Whitsunday, Hook, Passage and Long Islands and it is probable these, including Molle Islands, were given in a cartographic office rather than by any individual surveyor, adopting what had become common usage.
In May 1881 Captain J. F. L. P. Maclear, RN, in HMS Alert conducted
a detailed survey of Port Molle and for the first time the islands of the Molle
group received individual names of West Molle, North Molle, Mid Molle and Molle.
(In 1990 the name 'South Molle' remains a local name only with Admiralty charts
still showing the original name of 'Molle Island'.) Molle Channel, Planton and
Denman Islands were named also at that time as
were Mount Jeffreys and Mount Kangaroo.
In 1817, on his way back to England carrying a large complement of passengers including time-expired convicts, Jeffreys followed closely in the track of his previous voyage and at 8 pm on 27 June was west-south-west of Pentecost Island. At 11 pm Kangaroo came to anchor in 10 fathoms at 'the north end of 'Horatio Harbour'' with 'the middle of Ross Island' two miles distant to the north-east. Jeffreys was a very cautious seaman and understandably unwilling to travel at night in strange and dangerous waters and it is very significant he broke the rule on that night no doubt because he was proceeding into familiar waters, namely his Port Molle.
There was no mention of Port Molle in his log on this occasion but it is a
feature of this second voyage of Jeffreys along the Queensland coast that he
gave different names to quite a number of features he had named on his first
trip. His was not a surveying trip nor was he a surveyor and it seems he gave
names for the occasion only with no thought they would become permanent
fixtures, though some of them did.
As to 'the middle of Ross Island', it was usual in those days to refer to a
closely grouped collection of islands as one, pending further surveys and it
seems a reasonable conclusion 'Ross Island' was today's Molle Group with the
'middle' being Mid Molle Island. This would place his anchorage about midway
between Daydream Island and Ker Point on South Molle Island.
The origin of the name 'Ross' can be only a matter of speculation but perhaps it was after Major Robert Ross, Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales under Governor Phillip. Jeffreys had previously named the anchorage 'Port Molle' after one Lieutenant Governor who was a thorn in the side of his Governor (Lachlan Macquarie) and possibly he saw fit to bestow the name 'Ross' after another equally notorious Lieutenant Governor. Jeffreys himself was contemptuous of gubernatorial authority and presumably gave the names after kindred souls. The name 'Horatio Harbour' is equally a matter of speculation, possibly after Lord Horatio Nelson who would have loomed very large in Jeffreys' earlier naval career.
While in Horatio Harbour, at daylight on 28 June 1817, Jeffreys sent the cutter to sound the bay 'formed by the island' finding 9 to 24 fathoms. The island was examined but no water was found and some natives were seen who fled at the approach of the visitors. Kangaroo weighed anchor at 10.30 am and at 11 am hove-to to pick up the cutter, indicating it would have been to the north of the anchorage point, possibly at the north end of North Molle Island. It is evident Kangaroo on that occasion sailed up the Molle Channel and at noon Hayman Island bore NNE.
Following Jeffreys' naming of the Port and its subsequent appearance on Admiralty charts it became a regular port of call and watering place for vessels proceeding through the Whitsundays and comments about it abound in narratives of Royal Navy surveying vessels. In 1825 the badly damaged vessel Valetta took refuge there and was beached on the sand-flat in today's Happy Bay where remnants still lie under the silt.
On the evening of 17 September 1836 HMS Zebra on her way from Sydney to India anchored in Port Molle and her sailing master, Lucius C. Bailey, gave a detailed description of its appeal as an anchorage. The next day, September 18, her captain examined Long Island Sound, finding it a good anchorage and an alternative to Port Molle if the winds blew strong from the north. Bailey remarks upon the wreck (of Valetta) near which was a well, this probably dug by the crew of Valetta during their enforced stay of several months on the island in 1825. In later years this well was to become known, erroneously, as 'Flinders' Well' and generally was attributed to Aboriginals but the stronger likelihood is that it was dug initially by Valetta's crew. The Australia Pilot of those days describe the well as being two cables (about 360 metres) east of Humpy Point.
On 19 September Zebra sailed north via the eastern entrance to Port Molle and the Whitsunday Passage (Remarks L. Bailey, National Library of Australia M2436).
On 25 March 1843 HMS Fly under the command of Lieutenant F. P. Blackwood, RN, anchored in the Port. Blackwood and the ship's naturalist J. Beete Jukes explored Long Island Sound but could not have known of Zebra's visit for they expressed surprise at discovering the sound and the fact that the eastern shore of the Port was an island, today's Long Island.
It is interesting that Jukes in his narrative described the surrounding mountains as 'completely covered by magnificent forests, the greater part of which are pine trees'. Today the magnificent forests still are there but the greater part certainly are not pine trees. This in part would be due to the efforts of the sawyers and timber-getters over the years from 1860 onwards in their search for timber for the burgeoning settlements at Mackay, Proserpine and Bowen, but some other factor may be causing a decline in the pine tree population.
It is clear that at the time of Fly's visit the hillside to the north
of today's resort at Happy Bay was heavily grassed whereas today it is forested.
Crew member Edwin A. Porcher in his journal comments on the grass which
hindered walking and which was burnt to disperse mosquitoes while working
ashore. More conclusively however Porcher's journal contains a sketch which
shows grassland in that area and this would be the 'grassy slope' referred to
later by the commander of HMS Cordelia when she anchored there in January
1860.
It was during Fly's visit in March 1843 that the coxswain of the pinnace,
William Dowling,
disappeared. He had been ill, lying in a hammock in the forecastle with an
attendant who left him for a few minutes and returned to find him gone, he
apparently having gone overboard. His body was not found despite a search.
On 8 December 1847 HMS Rattlesnake under Lieutenant Owen Stanley, RN anchored for a few days though they were unable to draw water from the well which had dried up. On this occasion the ship's naturalist, John Macgillivray, also waxed lyrical about the beauty of the Port's surrounds and commented on the pines.
On 9 September 1860 HMS Spitfire under Joseph W. Smith anchored and on this occasion we hear a little realism creeping into official narratives about the suitability of the Port for commercial exploitation. He commented that while it was an excellent harbour, it was shut in by high mountains without any apparent pass into the interior and it did not appear at all available as an outlet to the country even in its own immediate vicinity. These were prophetic words, for until the present day the surrounding mountains have thwarted a number of dreams about developing the Port as a heavy industrial port.
In September and October 1862 the then Governor of Queensland, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, travelled up the east coast of Queensland in HMS Pioneer looking for likely port sites for the future. There is no doubt they looked at Port Molle but passed it by in favour of Port Denison where the township had been named after the Governor.
In the late 1870s as cattle grazing emerged as a major industry in the hinterland to the Whitsunday coast pressures arose for a port closer than Bowen or Rockhampton and again the subject of Port Molle was raised. As a result, in May 1881 Captain Maclear, RN, in HMS Alert conducted a detailed survey of the Port and commented: 'To the west the view is shut in by high hills and I don't know if it is feasible to bring in a railway. If it is it would make a very good place for a small roadstead'.
In 1883 the Chief Inspector of Stock for Queensland was convinced by local
graziers that the Port should be used for cattle exports but no action followed
and again the logistics of economical and practical access intruded. Thereafter
with the Port of Bowen well developed and transport improved, pressures for a
port at Port Molle died away until 1947
when large-scale development of coal deposits at Blair Athol was proposed and
this raised the question of an export outlet for the coal. An English company,
Electric Supply Corporation (Overseas) Ltd was given the franchise to develop
the deposit and they suggested Port Molle as the export outlet with a railway
line connecting it to Blair Athol. They regarded Port Molle as 'ideal' and there
was a suggestion that the supporting township be constructed on Long Island
(Proserpine Guardian 5 December 1947, 16 April 1948, 16 July 1948, 1
October 1948). This proposal did not proceed, with the Premier of Queensland
stating in early 1951 there would be no port near Proserpine (Proserpine Guardian
12 January 1951).
In 1950 the question again was raised when the American company, Nevin
Pacific Company, showed interest in the Blair Athol project. They also proposed
a rail link with Port Molle which they proposed to re-name 'Nevinport' though
this brought a sharp rebuke from the Premier of Queensland, V. C. Gair, who
testily stated that any re-namings in Queensland were a matter for the
Government and not individuals (Proserpine Guardian 21 November 1952, 19
December 1952, 24 December 1952). Negotiations with the Nevin Group ran on for
several years and by 1953 were stalled and the proposal faded away.
It never was stated where the necessary jetties would have been built and
sometimes Shute Harbour is mentioned as the venue. This however seems
unlikely as Shute Harbour is far too small and current-ridden for the large
ships which would have been necessary. It seems far more likely that Port
Molle proper, the deeper waters between Long Island and the mainland, would have
been the more likely venue, a supposition supported by the Electric Supply
Corporation suggestion of a town on Long Island.
In 1997 Port Molle slumbers on undisturbed other than by tourist vessels and the modest jetty facilities they require.
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!