Murray River
From its source in the mountains of Murray Upper National Park, the Murray River flows through Gulngay Country for 70 kilometres to discharge into the Coral Sea about 19 kilometres north of Cardwell.
Walter Hill, who investigated several streams north of Cardwell to assess their potential for agriculture, named the previously unnamed stream Macalister River in 1865. The name was subsequently changed to honour the district's first police inspector, John Murray. The river's central section, the Murray or Bellenden Plains, became the first area of Far North Queensland in which sugarcane was introduced. Unlike the thick tropical rainforest covering much of the rest of the region's lowlands the open, grassy plains facilitated allowed the crop to be cultivated without the need to clear the forest.
One feature I noticed in examining this river was the peculiar density of the scrub on each bank, the belt of which in some places could not have been less than a mile in breadth. In fact,
I never witnessed in any of the colonies so dense or so luxuriant a growth of scrub trees and plants as was presented on the banks of this river. This fact alone sufficiently testifies to the inherent richness of the soil; and the additional fact of there being in the very centre a river containing at all times an abundant flow of the purest fresh water down to its very embouchure, ought to be an adequate guarantee that the soil is well adapted to the cultivation of tropical or semi tropical produce.
I next proceeded overland to examine the soil adjoining the scrub, and nearer the head of the river. On reaching the necessary elevation, I was struck with the magnificent and romantic scene which suddenly presented itself: extenisive plains, stretching towards the north, south, and west, with scarcely a tree upon them, covered with luxuriant grass, watered with several large lagoons filled with pure water, and embracing many thousands of acres of the richest agricultural land that I have seen in the Australian colonies. It is, moreover, worthy of remark, that beyond these plains the land is of a gently undulating character, in many places thinly timbered, and so varied in quality as to be capable of yielding in perfection all the products peculiar to a tropical climate.
I am of opinion that the whole of this country, including the land along the banks of this excellent river for milos round, should be set apart for agricultural purposes.
There is one particular feature in the country here referred to, to which I would beg to draw special attention : that is, the facilities afforded on these extensive plains for irrigation, both by the extent of the lagoons, the number of the creeks, and the convenient sites for the erection of machinery to raise and distribute the water.
Nevertheless, the day is probably very distant when artificial means will need to be resorted to -the rather, because this district is more favored in respect of natural water resources than any other part of the colony with which I have become acquainted. In disposing of this matter, I have thought it right to give a name to the river alluded to, more particularly as owing to the richness of the soil upon its banks, it is likely to become the centre of a large and flourishing population. I have, therefore, christened it the Macalister, after the name of the present Minister for Lands and Works. (Brisbane Courier, 18 August 1865 (Trove))
Following Hill's glowing report:
Mr. J. E. Davidson, a gentleman of many years' experience in sugar growing in the West Indies, was the first to break the ground on the Murray Plains (so called after Mr John Murray of the N[ative] M[ounted] police), and shortly afterwards Messrs Tresilian and Morgan associated themselves with Mr Davidson. The canes now on their plantation are beyond anything I have ever seen in the Mauritius, many of them being six and seven inches between the joints, and proportionately thick, and, as far as experiments on a small scale may be taken as a test, extremely rich in saccharine matter. (Walter Scott, Sugar Growing in Queensland, Brisbane Courier, 6 October 1868 (Trove))
Native Police Sub-Inspector Robert Johnstone described the area this way:
When Bellenden Plains sugar plantation was formed, the country was taken up under the old coffee and sugar regulations, by the members of the firm of Trevylean and Company, and was surveyed by Mr. George Phillips C.E., who was the first surveyor in the district.
The writer was then (in 1868) manager of Bellenden Plains. The Valley of the Murray is one of the richest in agricultural lands and timbers in the State. In the wet season it is connected by an anabranch with the Tully, so called in honour of Mr. Tully, the ex-Surveyor-General. It was first named the Mackay, but the name was altered, for it led to confusion, as the Pioneer River was also known as the Mackay River. The Tully and Murray drain the same valley, and the area of timber, cedar, pine, hardwood, &c., is almost unlimited. (Queenslander, 6 August 1904 page 27 (Trove)
