The only location we have for this race meeting circa 1900 is ‘Cardwell’, although precisely where is not known. Cardwell has had three different race tracks throughout its history.
One covered much of the area taken by today’s Cardwell Country Club golf course and the public sports ground. Another was at Stoney Creek south of Cardwell and another along what is still known today as Racecourse Creek on Ellerbeck Road, north of Cardwell.
CARDWELL RACES CIRCA 1900 Mary Creagh Collection
The Ellerbeck course, which Cardwell residents born in the early 1900s often described, was on the northern bank of Racecourse creek on the downstream side of Ellerbeck Road.
There is some evidence to suggest the course may have extended across Ellerbeck Road.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s horse owners and jockeys travelled long distances on horseback to attend such race meetings. Cardwell brothers, John and Joe Hubinger, are known to have travelled on horseback for up to two weeks at a time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, riding up the ranges onto the Atherton Tableland to compete at race meetings. The horses they raced travelled with them.
John and Joe were also jockeys. And they won races!