Port Douglas
Approximately sixty kilometres north of Cairns at the northern end of Yirrganydji country, Port Douglas takes its name from former Queensland Premier John Douglas.
The town developed after James Venture Mulligan discovered gold on the Hodgkinson goldfield in 1876. Cooktown merchants paid Christie Palmerston to blaze a new track from the Hodgkinson.
Palmerston's track reached the coast near Island Point and, although it was slightly longer, provided easier access than alternative routes from Cairns and Smithfield through the Barron Gorge.
By October 1877, the new port had a wharf and storehouses, Palmerston's track had been cleared and marked, and the township surveyed. From there, it snowballed to a peak population of twelve thousand, with twenty-seven hotels. 'Port' serviced mining centres as far away as Herberton.
By 1880, timber-getters had started working around the Daintree River rainforest, shipping cedar to Townsville timber merchants, and settlers cleared lots around the Mossman River.
Calls for a railway into the hinterland resulted in spirited competition between Mourilyan, Cairns and Port Douglas, but Cairns eventually won.
The slow decline of Port Douglas began when the Cairns to Kuranda Railway opened in 1891. However, a new central sugar mill at Mossman opened in 1897, with a tramline carrying passengers and freight from the Mossman to the wharves at Port Douglas by 1900.
However, a cyclone demolished or severely damaged most of the town's residential and commercial buildings in 1911. Fifty years later, Port Douglas was little more than a fishing village with a population of around one hundred.
A remarkable resurgence began in the 1980s with the construction of the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas Resort, the relocation of North Queensland's international airport from Townsville to Cairns and a focus on low-rise, relatively inconspicuous developments.
The decade saw the town's permanent population rise from 675 (1981) to 3660 (1991) and a high point of 5867 in the 2001 census. While the population has fallen significantly since then, the town remains a high-profile international and domestic tourism drawcard. A web search for Port Douglas Resorts delivers the searcher to a website (https://www.visitportdouglasdaintree.com/resorts) listing close to thirty accommodation options.
- Links to add:
- Cairns to Kuranda Railway
Herberton
Hodgkinson Goldfield
Island Point
John Douglas (Australian Dictionary of Biography)
Mossman
Mossman River
Mourilyan
Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas Resort
