The Discovery and Settlement of Port Mackay, Queensland

Abstract

PORT MACKAY in Queensland was discovered by Captain Mackay in 1860. The town was founded in 1862, and declared a port of entry in 1863, and is now the chief seat of the sugar industry in Queensland. The early history of a colonial settlement is sometimes of great interest, but it is often impossible to recover it, excepting where, as fortunately is usually the case in Australia, the young town promptly establishes a local newspaper. Port Mackay had the advantage of including amongst its residents Mr. H. Ling Roth, the author of the standard work on the aborigines of Tasmania; he was at one time secretary of the Mackay Sugar Planters' Association, and in this volume gives a monograph of the history of the town up to 1867, whence the story is continued in the columns of the local Press. He describes the discoveries along the Queensland coast up to 1844, and the exploration of the coastal districts by land from 1813 to 1859; and he explains how it happened that so valuable a locality as Port Mackay was missed by all explorers until 1860.