Dimbulah
Approximately one hundred kilometres south-west of Cairns and forty kilometres west of Mareeba on Djankun and Kuku Djungan country in the Mareeba Shire, Dimbulah was established in 1876 to service the Hodgkinson goldfield's Tyrconnell Gold Mine.
A location near the Walsh River subsequently made the township a watering point for trains operating on the railway line to Chillagoe after 1901.
The settlement was initially named Dimboola, perhaps from the local people's word for "long waterhole" (the Walsh River). The spelling was changed to Dimbulah in 1904.
Chillagoe's copper smelters initially depended on imported coal shipped through Cairns. However, after coal was discovered at Mount Mulligan, northwest of Dimbulah, a branch line to the new mine made Dimbulah a railway junction in 1915.
Freight from the branch line to Mount Garnet and the line to Einasleigh and Forsayth also passed through Dimbulah, along with ore from nearby Wolfram, which was processed in the town at two heritage-listed treatment plants.
The availability of water from the Walsh, sand-based soil ideal for growing tobacco and an influx of Italian and southern European migrants saw Dimbulah establish itself as an agricultural area.
After the Walsh proved an unreliable water source for large-scale agriculture, the local growers' association combined with Mareeba growers to lobby for an irrigation scheme. World War II arrived before any project could be implemented.
Post-war tobacco production boomed after the Tinaroo Dam and Mareeba-Dimbulah irrigation scheme delivered a more reliable water supply. At its peak, the area had eight hundred growers producing over 60% of Australia's annual tobacco production.
Tobacco remained the dominant crop until changes in government policy through the 1990s forced growers to seek alternative crops. Some farmers were implicated in the illicit sale of 'chop chop' (untaxed tobacco). Others switched to beans, coffee, peanuts, sugar cane and tropical fruits with mixed success.
Links to add:
Chillagoe
Djankun
Kuku Djungan
Mareeba-Dimbulah irrigation scheme
Mount Garnet
Mount Mulligan
Tinaroo Dam
Tyrconnell Gold Mine.
Walsh River
Wolfram
