Gordonvale, Queensland

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Mulgrave Central Mill and mountains.

Gordonvale is a small sugar-growing suburb situated in the southern end of Cairns. Its most famous natural landmark is Walsh's Pyramid, which rises steeply to 922m. The suburb was previously called Mulgrave and then Nelson. Gordonvale was settled on as a tribute to John Gordon, a pioneer in the district. Gordonvale itself, lies approximately 23km south of the Cairns CBD and is just east of the Gillies Range which leads to the Atherton Tableland. Gordonvale was governed by the Mulgrave Shire Council until its amalgamation with the Cairns City Council in 1995. Many residents still consider Gordonvale to be seperate to Cairns, even though the Cairns City Council limits extend a futher 6.47km south of Gordonvale to Aloomba.

The area was first settled in 1877 by the the Alley and Blackwell families who cut a road through to Trinity Inlet so they could haul out cedar logs. By 1880, the road was well-used by miners and packers and they established the Riverstone Hotel to service the passing trade. After a while, a small town developed, encompassing three pubs, a store and a butcher shop run by John Gordon.

In the Cairns area, a Chinese businessman, Andrew Lee On built the first sugar mill in 1882, named Pioneer Mill, and established the Hop Wah Plantation on 612 acres of land. Other plantations and sugar mills were also established in the area in years following, and the region developed into a sugar cultivation and milling area.

Operating since 1896, the Mulgrave Central sugar mill is located near the town centre in Gordon St. The mill services about 300 sugarcane farms in the local region and operates during the 'crush' season (about six months of the year). When operating, the mill emanates a strong sugary smell downwind. Tours of the mill were previously available, but with the increase in global sugar prices, tours have been stopped as the focus is now on sugar production.

The Mulgrave Settlers Museum is across Gordon St from the mill. The museum has a number of historical items donated from the local community and displays that represent the early gold miners, cedar cutters, Chinese workers and packers (mule train suppliers to the Atherton Tableland). The museum is open Monday to Saturday from 10AM to 2PM, however is closed from December to February.

Gordonvale Golf Club is located centrally in the town and has an 18 hole golf course. The course is unusual as nine holes are shared with a horse-racing track, with the other nine going through bushland to run up against the Bruce Highway. It is also home to rugby league football club Southern Suburbs cockatoos, whom the whole town supports at every home game.

The suburb is surrounded predominantly by sugarcane fields and is only a short drive from many interesting places including the Bellenden Ker National Park and Goldsborough Valley State Forest.

Cane toads (Bufo marinus) were deliberately introduced into Australia in an attempt to control the native Frenchi beetle (Lepidiota frenchi) and the greyback beetle (Lepidoderma albohirtum) which were destroying sugar cane crops in North Queensland.

The Australian Bureau of Sugar Experimental Stations imported 101 cane toads into Gordonvale from Hawaii in June 1935. By March 1937 some 62,000 toadlets had been bred and distributed into sugar cane fields up and down the Queensland coast. Unfortunately the toads were unsuccessful at controlling the cane beetles and began their invasion which continues today.

The spread of cane toads was slow at first but by 1959 they had colonised most of Queensland’s east coast. In 1964 they appeared in the Gulf of Carpentaria and by 1984 had reached the Queensland/Northern Territory border. In March 2001 the invasion front entered the wetlands of heritage-listed Kakadu National Park and the toads are now, in 2006, only a few hundred kilometres from the Northern Territory/Western Australian border. They have also spread south into northern New South Wales, with one isolated community in Port Macquarie.