Ingham
Located approximately 110 kilometres north-northwest of Townsville on the Bruce Highway and the North Coast railway line in Nyawigi country within the Shire of Hinchinbrook, Ingham is named after pioneer sugar planter William Bairstow Ingham. The town is situated on Palm Creek, near where the creek joins the Herbert River, around thirty kilometres upstream from the river's mouth. Initially known as Lower Herbert, the township was surveyed, gazetted and renamed in 1879.
In the wake of George Dalrymple's 1864 expedition from Cardwell to the Valley of Lagoons, European settlement saw the seemingly inevitable conflict between the settlers and the Nyawaygi people. Native Police "dispersals" of "troublesome" Aboriginal people persisted through the 1870s.
Maurice Geoffrey O'Connell was among the first settlers to plant sugar cane in the area, and large-scale plantation operations soon followed. The first local sugar mill was constructed at James MacKenzie's Gairloch property in 1872, with Farrand Haig and Henry Miles's Bemerside and Arthur Neame and Edwin Waller's Macknade mills opening the following year. All the early sugar operations encountered financial difficulties; significant government assistance saw the Colonial Sugar Refining Company rise to monopolise production in the area, purchasing plantations, buying the Macknade mill and establishing the Victoria Plantation mill in 1883.
Most of the work on the plantations was done by imported South Sea Islanders until the Queensland government began recruiting Italian settlers to replace them. While trade unions and other interests opposed imported labour, the Government's breaking up large plantations into smaller, family-owned farms opened up opportunities for Italian and Spanish settlers who played an increasingly significant role in the community. The annual Australian-Italian Festival, held on the first weekend in August, is one of the region's most popular events.
Links to add:
North Coast railway line
William Bairstow Ingham
Palm Creek
Herbert River
Cardwell
Valley of Lagoons
Native Police
Maurice Geoffrey O'Connell
Bemerside
Macknade.
James MacKenzie
Gairloch
Farrand Haig
Henry Miles
Bemerside
Arthur Neame
Edwin Waller
Colonial Sugar Refining Company
Victoria Plantation mill
