Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1954), Friday 10 July 1936, page 8


BINGIL BAY ROAD.

OFFICIAL OPENING.

PRAISE FOR PIONEERS.

JULLY, July 9.

"And now they have passed away.

They lived for and prayed all their life here that they would have a good road to their house," remarked Cr. S. Alexander, at to-day's official opening ceremony of the Bingil Bay road, and in referring to the activities of the late Cutten Bros., pioneer settlers of Bingil Bay.

"It was," he added, "just 51 years since the four Cutten Bros. (Fred-erick, Leonard, Sydney and James, all since deceased) landed on the beach at Bingil Bay from Cardwell to estab-lish their homes. In those early times their only means of transport was by boat. Later on (1914), when the Great War eventuated, it put a climax to shipping fruit. In 1892 the whole of their plantation was destroyed by a cyclone, and in 1918 they suffered heavy losses through a similar concurrence. Undaunted, however, they stuck to their task and made their home at Bingil Bay. It was not until 1921 that they had a road connection, and then only by means of a dray. In their advocacy for road facilities they had encountered many obstacles, but had overcome these. In their earnest agricultural labors they had established a coffee plantation, only to later find the in-dustry crucified by the State duties then obtaining. "And this is a matter that could well be considered by the politicians to-day" he observed, as he referred to the high opinion of the late Cutten Bros. on coffee growing in the Far Northern belt He (Mr. Alexander) remarked that the resid-ents of Bingil Bay owed much to the activities of the Minister for Lands (Mr. Pease) for the fruition of the ¡road proposal from El Arish to Bingil

Bay.

MINISTER'S MEMORY.

Mr. P. Pease, in responding, said his mind went back many years, when as a pupil of the West End State School at Townsville, the Cutten brothers, then young men on a visit to the Townsville Show, had brough down a tropical exhibit comprising sugar cane, oranges, coffee and desic-cated fruit and how in a lecture to the scholars they had told of the wonder-ful possibilities of the Far North. "They were a wonderful type of settler. They never grumbled. All they did was to ask us to do some-thing. And here it is," he declared as he turned to gaze along the newly-constructed road. The Minister said that he remembered the time when the journey they had that day undertake from El Arish to Bingil Bay would have occupied most of the day. Now they could do it in half an hour.

HOPES CONSUMMATED.

"The completion of the road is the consumation of the hopes of the people. I want to see this district go ahead. The road should prove a valu-able asset from a standpoint of pro-duction," he said, adding that he could visualise the time when thousands of tourists would be attracted by the scenic beauties of Bingil Bay.

The Minister then cut the ribbon stretching across the bridge and offici-ally declared the road open.

The chairman of the Johnstone Shire Council (Cr. S. K. Page) called for three cheers to mark the occasion.

ANOTHER SECTION.

Miss Mackness. (of the Warwick Girls' School, and now on vacation with her mother, Mrs. Mackness, an octogen-arian settler of Clump Point) praised the Minister for his efforts in having the Bingil Bay road constructed. There was another important road section, however, that required atten-tion (that part from Bingil Bay around an unnamed point towards Clump Point proper) and which, when com-pleted and linked up with the road scheme on the southern side, would prove a great boon to settlers in that portion of Clump Point area. Land-holders now had to labor under great

disabilities.

Miss Maekness saw wonderful pos-sibilities in that particular part of the coast from a tourist standpoint A re-mark which drew from the Minister a suggestion that Bingil Bay, in its de-lightful setting, should prove a popu-lar resort for honeymoon couples, Whereupon Miss Maekness replied that if the Minister had a road construct-

ed they would quickly find an appro-priate name, by calling the unnamed point *'Honeymoon Bend."

" The party later lunched, and prior to their departure for El Arish, Mr and Mrs. Pease made a courtesy call on Mrs. F. V. Alexander, one of the surviving sisters of the late Cutten brothers. On the way back the Min-isterial party was shown over the main

road system towards Fenby's Gap and through which Mr. Pease, in the near future, hopes the road will he con-tinued on to connect with the network on the Tully side of the range.

After the party had partaken after-noon tea as the guests of the El Arish branch of the C. W. A., a tour of the Granadilla settlement area was under-taken, and the proposed school site in-spected.

To-night the Minister will hear depu-tations, and leaves for Silkwood at

midnight

During his tour to-day the Minister was accompanied by the president (Mr. J. Conners) and the secretary (Mr. Fitzgerald) of the El Arish- A.L.P.