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75th Anniversary of the Battle of Coral Sea

April 14, 2017 By Dianne Smith

coral sea memorialThe 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea will be marked by a special commemoration in Cardwell over the weekend of 29-30 April 2017. The feature will be a march and commemorative service to be held on Sunday 30 April at 10.00am at the Coral Sea Memorial Park in Cardwell. The evening prior (29 April) a cocktail party will be held in a style reminiscent of a social event during war time with the community coming together to enjoy a night of celebration and dance.   Coral Sea Events 2017.  Coral Sea Memorial Park – google maps location 

The Battle of the Coral Sea is commemorated annually in Cardwell and remembers an air and naval battle fought between the Japanese Imperial Navy and U.S. and Australian Naval Forces at a critical stage of the Second World War, from 4 – 8 May 1942. When the Japanese entered the war in December 1941 they were looking for supremacy in South East Asia, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies. Singapore fell in February 1942 and Japan’s advance seemed unstoppable. The residents of the East Coast of Australia feared there could be an invasion at any time and took strategic actions. A bridge on Kirrama Range Road had explosives placed under it to be blown up to stop a Japanese force using the road to get to the inland. There were a number of plane crashes in the area. The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first time the Japanese had been stopped from achieving their objective, which was to invade Port Moresby, and therefore an historic joint military action between Australia & the United States which helped change the course of the war in the Pacific.

The story of the Battle of the Coral Sea Memorial Park…….

In 1981 Bill Phillips envisaged a living memorial to the men and women connected with the Battle of the Coral Sea. As owner of the Banfield Caravan Park and former Cardwell Shire Councillor, Bill approached the Cardwell Shire Council to set aside 16 acres (6 hectares) of crown land for a memorial park.

The Governor of Queensland, the Late Sir James Ramsay dedicated the park as a living memorial to the Battle of the Coral Sea on April 29th, 1984. In 1992 Australia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea with various commemorative services, and Cardwell continues with the tradition, staging the largest of these commemorations early in May each year.

The location, a beachfront park, represents the largest Coral Sea Battle memorial in Australia and bears the unique distinction of being the closest geographically, to the site of the actual 1942 battle, even though the ships sunk during this dramatic conflict lie on the sea bed about 800 kilometres east of Cardwell. Visitors can stroll in the shade of the park’s natural trees, inspect the wall of plaques, or pause for reflection and a snack at one of the table settings. All plaques or memorial features are dedicated to a person or group of people who took part in the Pacific War, both on and off shore.

In 1993, memorials were dedicated to the sailors of the HMAS Australia, USS Chicago and the Naval Association. In 2008 a plaque with the names of all who perished on the aircraft carrier USS Lexington was unveiled. This was followed by specific memorials to the oiler Neosho in 2011 and the destroyer USS Sims in 2012. The USS Yorktown also suffered damage and we are having difficulty compiling an accurate and complete list of those who were killed. We hope to raise funds for future plaque honouring the men of USS Yorktown, and display a full list of those who died.

On 7th May 2012 the declaration of the USS Lexington, USS Sims and USS Neosho as protected historic shipwrecks under the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 was announced in Canberra. A group of Lexington veterans who attended the Cardwell Commemoration ceremony also travelled to Canberra for that landmark ceremony. The final resting places of these ships were found by joint US and Australian survey teams.

Over the years Cardwell has had visits from the US 7th Fleet Band. A moving and entertaining concert is usually held in the park and enjoyed by the visiting and local dignitaries and the public.

During foreshore restoration after cyclone Yasi in February 2011, Cardwell’s beachfront pathway was extended through to Coral Sea Park at the northern end of town, with images of ships and planes etched in the pathway. New signs were also erected adjacent to the path recounting details  and stories from the historic 1942 battle.

Today any deceased ex-service man or woman who served in any allied force may have a plaque placed in the park in their memory.

Cardwell’s Coral Sea Memorial Park is a pleasantly natural and living shrine that reminds both Australian and foreign tourists, of the esteem in which which the gallant men and women who fought so courageously to protect Australia’s shores in the middle of last century, are forever held.

Filed Under: Cardwell, What’s On

In the fog

November 11, 2016 By Murray Massey

in-the-Fog-CoverWhat makes an Aussie digger?

This book sets out to answer that question by looking at one unlikely candidate who stands for so many.

Jack Bourke was the Sacristan at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Brisbane when World War Two erupted in 1939.

He enlisted, leaving a secure job, relaxed lifestyle and a wide circle of friends. Jack was popular, loved music, entertained with his accordion and kept in touch.

But this seemingly carefree young man also penned an uncensored diary of his time in service, which is now the essence for a new and exceptional history of life in World War Two.

jack-bourke-by-james-wiencke-page2‘In the fog’ by journalist and historian, Jacqui Murray, is a fresh approach to war history in which Jack Bourke takes us along with him through the world’s most lethal military conflict.

A larrikin adventure of a lifetime which had it all – the greatest of times and the worst – and mateship, the priceless thread to which Aussie soldiers like Jack clung for survival and hope.

Filed Under: Cardwell, Publications

Viscount Edward Cardwell

July 18, 2016 By Murray Massey

Why was our town named after a British man who never set foot in Australia, and a man who, according to many of the official and authoritative published accounts of the time, was intellectually feeble and of unattractive and dull disposition?

During research for the 150th anniversary of Cardwell’s settlement, we believe we uncovered the fascinating story that lies behind some of these highly questionable and obviously unfair portrayals of Viscount Edward Cardwell. A calm and quiet man by all accounts, but apparently also serenely fearless and clearly a non-conformist, Edward Cardwell overturned aristocratic tradition and privilege as Britain’s War Minister in the mid 19th century.

He abolished the system of purchase in the Army’s commissioned ranks, by which wealthy and privileged men bought and sold their rank and promotion as military officers. Cardwell’s changes required that promotion within the British Army’s commissioned ranks be based instead on merit, founding traditions which endure today.

He introduced six year terms of service for military men, and began the system of pensions for long term service. For the first time he established a genuinely professional British Army, but how he achieved this is equally as fascinating and far from fully documented.

His Army Regulation Bill of 1871 rocked the British establishment, was bitterly opposed by the Duke of Norfolk who was Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and was thrown out of parliament by the House of Lords in London. Yet, against this immense and powerful opposition, Edward Cardwell as Britain’s War Minister, persuaded Queen Victoria to use her royal warrant to sign his bill into law.

Edward Cardwell, later elevated to the House of Lords himself, was War Minister for six years from December 1868, which reminds us that his landmark military reforms and achievements came after Queensland’s Governor, George Bowen, named our township in honour of Viscount Edward Cardwell in 1864. And these military reforms, whose far-reaching legacies continue today, were only some of the influential achievements of Edward Cardwell which, in turn, suggest that Governor Bowen was perhaps a man of some foresight himself.

We grew to like Edward Cardwell during our research for this exhibition, and if you visit Cardwell and wish to know more, you can watch our video presentation at the J. C. Hubinger Museum at Cardwell’s Visitor and Heritage Centre.

Meanwhile, we wonder if the poverty of acclamation for Lord Cardwell’s 19th century landmark achievements, as implied in the formal records of the time, is a reflection of the unwelcome impact his changes had on the exclusive privileges of powerful and important Britons of that era!

Filed Under: exhibitions

Cyclone Yasi

July 18, 2016 By Murray Massey

When Yasi was upgraded to a category five cyclone about eight hours before its eventual tumultuous landfall near Cardwell on Wednesday evening, February 2, 2011, life became a voyage into the unknown for local residents.

No one living had experienced such extreme natural climatic torment. The Bureau of Meteorology would later bracket Yasi with three other cyclones to devastate Australia’s tropical east coast, as one of the four most intense cyclones in recorded history: a cyclone named Mahina that wiped out a pearling fleet killing hundreds of seamen in Princess Charlotte Bay in 1899, two un-named 1918 cyclones that devastated Mackay (January) and Innisfail (March), and Yasi in 2011.

The last surviving Cardwell resident known to have lived through the 1918 cyclone which devastated Innisfail and caused massive destruction to Cardwell, Maureen Massey (nee Hubinger), had died at age 95 in the year leading up to Yasi.

Because of its severity and the damage it caused, few precise readings of Yasi’s power are known, but there are some very accurate measurements and indications.

A barometer at Tully Sugar mill recorded rare low atmospheric pressures suggesting wind gusts of around 285 kilometres per hour, by 9 am the following morning 24 hour rainfalls commonly totalled more than 400 millimetres and up to 471 millimetres at South Mission Beach, and a tidal surge exceeding 5 metres was recorded by a government storm tide gauge at Cardwell.

The surge, about half an hour after midnight (on February 3) raised the level of the ocean 2.3 metres above the highest normal tide, and fortunately occurred when the normal ocean tide was falling and scheduled to be near it’s lowest point that night.

Maureen Massey was too young in 1918 to remember the March cyclone that year, but her older brothers, especially Noel, told many times how the sea had washed in across the highway and into the front yard of Hubinger’s 1912 home at 67-69 Victoria Street a few doors removed from, and in the same block as the Marine Hotel.

Evidence shortly after Yasi indicated the level of the surge around Hubinger’s home (severely damaged but then still standing solid) was around half a metre deep.

First hand evidence of Yasi’s extreme power is rare because all but a handful of townspeople from Cardwell to beyond Mission Beach had evacuated, and the blinding combination of wind, water and debris at the storm’s peak occurred during the night, and while those enduring its terror were hunkered down out of harms way.

Filed Under: exhibitions

World War One Honour Roll

July 18, 2016 By Murray Massey

Cardwell’s current museum building, in which the town’s World War One honour roll still stands, was around 25 years old at the time local men and women left the district to serve in the Great War in Europe.

The heritage-listed museum of today was then the administration headquarters in the Cardwell Shire and the Shire Hall, the venue in which formal ceremonies and social activities, both celebratory and solemn, were held.

The call to fight in Europe in 1915 and during the following three years, was answered by 28 men and women, which represented seven percent of the local population of around 400. If a similar proportion were to respond today, the young men and women departing for foreign battlefields would be well in excess of 700.

cardwell_roll_of_honourTo honour those from Cardwell and district who served in that war, an interactive honour roll was unveiled in the Museum on Anzac Eve 2015.

People now visiting the Cardwell museum can not only inspect the marble honour roll where it was erected in 1922 but also read the stories of each of those 28 service men and women simply by touching their names on the interactive computer screen.

At the 2015 unveiling ceremony, a book titled Streets by the Sea – a Cardwell chronicle, authored by Helen Pedley whose research included the stories of each of the service men and women, was also launched, and can be purchased via our website.

Filed Under: exhibitions

The Hubingers

July 18, 2016 By Murray Massey

Hubinger Exhibition in the Museum

The first of the Hubingers, Johann Christian, arrived in Cardwell in 1869 and set up a farm on the north bank of Meunga Creek, beginning a family presence that remained prominent in both the business and social life of the town for more than a century.

The permanent Hubinger Exhibition in the Museum, which is named in honour of Johann Hubinger, is a small representation of the family’s vast involvement and input throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Johann was the first Cardwell Shire Chairman and retains the record in terms of total length of service in that position, but the family interests ranged from running a bakery, general store, butchery and an ice works to farming small crops and citrus, grazing cattle and retailing petrol.

Although Johann, who came from Germany was baptised and grew up a Lutheran, the Hubinger dynasty which he founded in Cardwell was energetically engaged in the establishment and nurturing of the Catholic faith.

For Cardwell’s 150th anniversary in 2014 we chose to research Johann Hubinger’s life before Cardwell, to gain an insight into how and why the pioneering people of his era came to Australia and ventured into remote bushland, and the influences they may have brought with them.

The energy of purpose and industry of Cardwell in the 19th century far outstrips what is apparent today.

Filed Under: exhibitions, From the past

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Recent Posts

  • Cardwell’s History Quilted June 15, 2017
  • 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Coral Sea April 14, 2017
  • In the fog November 11, 2016
  • Remembrance Day book launch November 5, 2016
  • Heritage Precinct now open 7 days July 19, 2016

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