Babinda
Located on the Bruce Highway, 50 kilometres south-south-east of Cairns, 21 kilometres north-north-east of Innisfail and 10 kilometres from the coast on Yidinji — more specifically Wujnur or Bindabarra Yidi (waterfall people) — country, Babinda takes its name from Babinda Creek, which, in turn comes from a Yidin word indicating water (R.W.M. Dixon. Words of Our Country). Alternative suggestions — 'waterfall', 'rain', 'mountain' or possibly all three — are understandable. The town lies between the coastal Graham Range and the inland Bellenden Ker Range and boasts Queensland's highest average rainfall, although Tully claims higher aggregates. Runoff from the ranges passes over numerous waterfalls and rapids, including the notoriously treacherous stretch of Babinda Creek at The Boulders.
While Babinda is historically considered a sugar town, there were coffee plantations in the area towards the end of the 19th century. Agitation for a central mill to serve the area from the turn of the century saw work on a mill commence in 1914. After the mill opened the following year, the town boomed — the population increased five-fold in the decade between 1911 and 1921— and benefited from the newly-elected Ryan Labor government's price control and state enterprise policies.
Babinda became a largely government town with residential and business sites leased from the government, and the freehold hotel closed, with compensation payments. The State Hotel that replaced it was famously the only government enterprise established during the period of QuE State Socialism to turn a profit. Subsequently placed on the Queensland heritage register, it boasts one of the state's longest bars. Freehold titles returned with a change of government in 1929. In the meantime, the town acquired a sawmill, a hospital, and a rail link to Innisfail, when the North Coast Line was extended in 1924. The Cairns-Mulgrave tramway had been extended to Babinda in 1910.
Local growers took over the sugar mill in 1924, operating it as a cooperative until low prices forced them to sell the enterprise to Bundaberg Sugar in the 1980s. Cyclone Larry damaged about 80% of Babinda's buildings in 2006. Fiver years later, damage caused by the Category 5 Cyclone Yasi (3 February 2011) prompted an announcement that the Babinda sugar mill would close within two months.
Sources:
Peter Bell, History of Babinda: https://www.academia.edu/35713396/History_of_Babinda
Queensland Place Names: Babinda (requires search for Babinda): https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/land/title/place-names/queensland-place-names-search#/search=Babinda&types=0&place=Babinda1081
Queensland Places: Babinda http://queenslandplaces.com.au/babinda
Wikipedia: Babinda, Queensland:
