Frederick Walker

Frederick Walker was born in 1807 although not much is known of his early life; he later died in 1866 of a fever in the Gulf Country.  Walker was an Inspector of the Native Mounted Police and was in charge of the Planet Downs Police Station.   In 1861 Walker was appointed to take charge of a party to trace the tracks of Burke & Wills.  Walker was a natural selection as leader of the expedition as he had had tremendous experience with handling natives and was a very skilled bushman.  He started westward from Rockhampton down to Muttaburra and up past where Cameron Downs station was soon to be formed.   Walker’s party camped on the area where Hughenden is today and carved his initials “F.W” on a tree at his camp.  This is believed to have been the Historic Coolabah tree.  On William Landsborough’s Expedition he named Mt Walker in Hughenden in his honour.

Robert Gray was introduced in the North Queensland pastoral life by his cousin Ernest Henry.  Robert Gray, who like many others who came to settle the Flinders River country was a retired army officer. Gray served through the Indian Mutiny and he retained his military habits and dress right throughout his life. Gray had been included into the North Queensland pastoral life by his cousin; Henry and his wife, Lottie later joined him. Gray bought Hughenden Station from his cousin Ernest Henry in 1865 for 4, 999 pounds.  Gray then stocked Hughenden Station with 3, 000 sheep.  In 1876 Robert Gray allowed a friend by the name of William Mark to build a hotel on his land to cater for the travellers passing to and from the Cloncurry Mining Area.  By the following year the hotel was joined by a store, a Blacksmith and a Butcher shop.  Officially surveyed in 1887, Hughenden became a major railhead and around this time another Hotel was built and named the Great Western, this name is still in use in Hughenden today.

William Crossley was a big man standing 6’5” (187cm) tall and weighing over 16 stone (101kg), so his grandsons had no difficulty in identifying his grave marked by a circle of large boulders at White Cliffs creek.  After 10 years working as a teamster with Will Swindley and Ben Smith, he decided to venture further afield by making a trip from Clermont to Georgetown.  While making the trip in 1888 one of the wagons became bogged and the drivers halted to dig it out. William put his hand down to pull a rock out of the way when he was bitten on the hand.  Ben Smith rode 45 miles (72km) to Hughenden for a doctor who refused to come unless he as paid £25 for the trip.  Ben had to then ride back to camp, raised the money and returned to Hughenden to get the doctor.  By this time Crossley, who had been walking around suffering excruciating pain for four days, was so ill the doctor could do nothing for him and he died within a few hours of the doctor’s arrival.

The section of railway from Prairie to Hughenden was opened for regular traffic on October 19, 1887 and was constructed under contract by Messrs. MacKenzie and Sutherland.  The station buildings at Hughenden were erected by Messrs. Sparre and Hanson and were completed in December 1887, although the original building was destroyed by fire towards the end of 1946.  The construction of new buildings was then completed in 1947.  The Hughenden to Winton line was constructed in three sections.  Hughenden-Stamford a distance of approx. 39 miles was opened on December 13, 1897.  Stamford-Corfield a distance of approx. 41 miles was opened on October 20, 1898.  Corfield-Winton a distance of approx. 51.5 miles was opened on July 25, 1899.  The section from Hughenden to Marathon was opened on December 15, 1903 and the line to Richmond was completed the following year and opened on June 2. 

For more information on the History of the Sheep Industry, please refer to the end of this page.

The dissatisfaction of the shearers over the employing of pastoralists of non-union and Chinese labour and the determination of the pastoralists to maintain the right of employing whatever labour they desired culminated in what was one of the biggest strikes in Queensland’s history. It began on January 1, 1891. Feelings ran high on both sides, and this coupled with various incidents, resulted in a military detachment from Townsville, under the leadership of Captain Johnston, being called in to help maintain law and order in the Hughenden Divisional Board area. The Riot Act was read to a party of strikers, who attempted to stop the wool teams crossing the creek. Troops with fixed bayonets barred the way, and enabled the teams to cross over. In 1894, the strike was renewed. and the following sheds were burned: Ayrshire Downs, Cambridge, Manuka, Redcliffe and Dagworth, where shots were exchanged and a man was killed. Consequently the carrying of firearms was declared illegal throughout the district by Act of Parliament. A tree on the banks of the Flinders River, bearing the inscription, “United we stand, divided we fall. ALF. THE STRIKE O CAMP 1891. W Vincent”, marked the site of the shearing strike camp and stood as a reminder of this historical incident until it was destroyed by fire in 1944. With the acceptance of unionism and the formation of what was to be the forerunner of the Arbitration Court, the dispute ended.

Torrens Creek Nearly Blown Up!!

The Coral Sea battle of 1942 during World War II, Torrens Creek played a vital role among defence installations when the threat of Japanese invasion was very real. Torrens Creek was strategically situated to be an ideal location for a supply dump – a place to stockpile tens of thousands of pounds of high explosives such as bombs, shells, and ammunition of all calibres. The bomb dump comprised of several piles, each of about twenty tonnes, together with hundreds of boxes of fuses. This dump was placed in the open on the Town Common, but bushfires presented a real hazard. American Negro troops were in charge; they had to carry out regular controlled burns to create fire breaks. No doubt this sort of work in the loneliness and heat of outback Australia was new to them. They did not know what a bushfire could do. They would not have seen such long dry grass before. One summer day in 1942 or early 1943, the soldiers had been patrolling firebreaks and putting out their ‘controlled burns’. They returned to camp for lunch not realising all the fire was not out. They had not reached their camp before a terrific explosion hurled the men out of their trucks. There were twelve major explosions in succession, sufficient to leave craters twenty feet deep. Soil and rock erupted like a volcano. The area looked as if it had been bombed from the air. Red-hot shrapnel exploded over a wide area and started more fires. In the townships, buildings shook, windows broke, and people were convinced and air raid had occurred. As the fire spread, a thousand soldiers and civilians attacked the blazing grass with bags and boughs in an attempt to prevent it spreading to other fuel dumps, but in vain. There was deadly danger from exploding shells. Constable Seawright of Torrens Creek Police was awarded the King’s Medal of Bravery.

On a Sunday in October 1949 at 3 pm a tornado struck Hughenden with high wind speeds of about 60 miles an hour.  The tornado also brought an impenetrable cloud of dust which completely blanketed the town.  There were hardly any buildings that did not suffer at least some damage.  Four houses in Goldring, Resolution and Hardwick streets were completely destroyed, the Royal Hotel was severely damaged and had its roof torn off, the Church of England an old wooden building had been shifted about two feet off its blocks.  A 30ft length of timber believed to have come from the Shamrock Hotel crashed into the Primary Producers building smashing many interior fittings.  The worst feature of the tornado was the failure of electricity reticulation which was caused from the heavy D.C. electric wires.  It took about seven days to have the telephone system working and 10 days to restore power to the town.

On December 6, 1952, the biggest fire in the history of the West was responsible for the destruction of a great part of the main shopping centres in Hughenden. Damage was estimated in excess of £100 000. The buildings destroyed were of timber construction and they burned fiercely. The places destroyed were: Central Hotel; WF Stanley, agent and jeweller; Coleman and Walsh, drapers and mercers; Franzmann’s Sports Depot and Newsagency; Hardy’s Cash and Carry Store; Herron, tailer; Smith’s chemist shop; C. Goldstiver, agent and Dr Wilson’s surgery. The fire broke out in Mr Hardy’s store at 11:15pm and quickly spread to adjoining premises. The heat was so intense that premises on the opposite side of Brodie Street were scorched despite the efforts of volunteers, who manned bucket brigades and concentrated on dashing water on the fronts of those buildings. Those men engaged in saving the Post Office building opposite the Central Hotel form catching alight, had to stand with their backs to the building and direct stream of water from the hoses up over and behind themselves to assist them to bear the intense heat. Despite the fact that small fires broke out in the Post Office yard and the premises of the Shire Council in Resolution Street, 200 yards away, these were quickly brought under control.  The dry nature of the buildings saw their destruction within 95 minutes. Although no lives were lost in this conflagration, the fire can only be described as disastrous and the scene the following morning was one of complete devastation.