History (wikipedia)

In the early 20th century Chinese banana farmers employed Aborigines as labourers in the Tully River region. Opium addiction and conflict with European settlers was resolved by the Queensland government creating an Aboriginal settlement at the present Mission Beach. Superintendent John Martin Kenny started the necessary work on 1 September 1914. There was no mission in the religious sense. The settlement had characteristics of a penal settlement. The Mission Beach structures were destroyed in the cyclone of 10 March 1918 and were not rebuilt. Superintendent Kenny and his daughter were killed by the storm. The Aborigines were subsequently moved to Palm Island, Queensland. The first white settlers, the Cutten brothers, came to Mission Beach area in 1882 and settled at Bingil Bay, where they farmed mangoes, bananas, pineapples, coffee, citrus fruit and coconuts. They also manufactured their own coffee. Produce was shipped south on cargo-boats. Before this the only white people to enter this area were the timber-getters who sometimes camped on the beach and retrieved timber from the adjacent rain forests. They employed local Aborigines for their assistance in their timber hauling, paying the Aboriginal labourers with tobacco and tools. The natives were generally friendly, although in 1872 the captain and some of the crew of the Maria which was wrecked at Tam O’Shanter were killed by the natives. After the Cutten brothers, the Unsworths settled at Narragon Beach, the Garners came and settled at Garners Beach, and the Porter brothers settled at what the locals refer to as Porter’s Creek (also called Wongaling Creek) at the south end of North Mission Beach. Mission Beach Post Office opened on 15 December 1949.

The town

Today, what were once separate villages have now grown such that they are considered one town, Mission Beach. The villages are, from south to north, South Mission Beach, Wongaling Beach, Mission Beach, Bingil Bay and Carmoo. Development has also begun at Brooks Beach and Garners Beach to the north.

Festivals

In early October there is the evolve music festival than shows mostly local musicians and a few bands from around Australia. There is a market there that has food, clothes, jewellery, and other festival stuff.

Tourism

Mission Beach is now a thriving tourist town that has been able to maintain its small town feel. One reason for this is that the town is spread out along a thin strip of land between the ocean and the hills and farmland behind. This has spread out a large tourism market, and the village doesn’t feel as busy as one might expect. The beach is flanked by green mountains rising just a short distance inland, and provides views out to the Family Islands. Close to shore at Mission Beach lies a shallow reef; during very low tides portions of this reef are exposed. The reef runs from the mouth of Porter’s Creek at the south end of North Mission Beach almost to Clump Point, a popular fishing spot which is also the main departure and arrival point for the Dunk Island Ferry. Surrounded by World Heritage rainforest on one side and the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef on the other, Mission Beach is home to many wildlife species, most notable is the cassowary. This large flightless bird can be found in the rainforest surrounding the area but appears to be thriving in spite of land clearing, traffic and predators such as wild dogs and feral pigs. Much of the area is part of the Coastal Wet Tropics Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for the conservation of lowland tropical rainforest birds. Mission Beach is also the mainland gateway to Dunk Island, with water taxis and ferries shuttling guests and day-trippers out to the island and its resort. Like many other small Australian towns, Mission Beach has built a monument to its most famous characteristic. The big cassowary, standing 5 metres high, can be found at the Wongaling Beach shopping complex.

Cyclones

Cyclone Larry

On 20 March 2006, Cyclone Larry crossed the coast in between Mission Beach and Innisfail. In addition to structural damage to property, Cyclone Larry also had a tremendous impact on the rainforest and animals of the region, and it will take many years to recover. A shortage of rainforest fruit saw cassowaries seeking food in built up areas and, unfortunately, a number were hit and killed by cars.

Cyclone Yasi

On 3 February 2011, the eyewall of Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi crossed the coast near Mission Beach. Wind gusts estimated up to 310 km/h (190 mph), leaving behind significant damage. A storm surge estimated to have reached 0.7 m (2.3 ft) destroyed several structures along the coast and pushed up to 300 m (980 ft) inland. In the hours after the storm’s passage, police were unable to venture beyond their station grounds as the situation had yet to be declared safe. Most of the beach had lost its sand and all of the towns structures were damaged to some degree, with many houses completely destroyed. Near sunrise on 3 February, there were no reports of fatalities or injuries in Mission Beach.

Agriculture

The Mission Beach area also supports a sizeable agricultural industry, particularly the cultivation of sugar and bananas. Boutique wineries specialising in tropical fruit wines can also be found in Mission Beach and nearby Kurrimine Beach.   31^st July, Thursday We left Lions Den quite early and returned the way we had come.  Up the mountain again onto the tablelands for a night stopover in a 48 rest area.  It is called Rifle creek and a beautiful stop over with trees, proper toilets (which is unusual as most of them are long drops), showers, it you wanted a cold one but it was a bit too chilly in the evening for that.  We pulled in and found a spot, the place is very busy and once we had set up we realised that we parked right across from the people we had left in the Lions den (the ones, we had dinner with and the same people we met in Normanton).  They must think that we are following them.  Nice people so we had happy hour and decided on an early night as we are leaving for Mission Beach in the morning.  It’s not too but we need to stop off to get a few things. 1^st August, Friday Left early again heading to Mission Beach and being the tablelands we are in the clouds so it was a bit of a scary drive for awhile because there are heaps of kangaroos and live stock to watch out for.  We go back the way we came, through Mareeba and Atherton and down the mountain once more.  Well, you will say, “there, she goes again”.  Once again about 220kms of the most amazing country side. We had our route picked out but decided to listen to Claude (he’s our Sat. Nav.)  He took us through secondary roads through little Agricultural towns, (huge plantations of bananas, paw-paws, sugar cane and tea). It was such a lovely way to go off the main highway and very charming until we eventually had to join up onto the Bruce Highway and then the traffic madness started.  I can understand why this highway is so dangerous with the chances that people take.  The little road from Bruce Highway to Mission beach is rainforest and again, Awesome.  Mission Beach, (we didn’t know what to expect) WOW, WOW, WOW and WOW again.  The caravan park is across the road from the beach and there are views of Dunk Island plus all the other Islands.  Dunk Island is all rain forest and we are taking the water taxi over there tomorrow and will spend most of the day there.  Hugo is going into doggie daycare.  We set up and took a walk on the beach.  I put Hugos hat on him and what a stir he made.  One man had to take a picture because he was sending that home to Melbourne (which is freezing at the mo) to say that it is so good here even the dogs need hats.  Today is 28 degrees and it is so beautiful.  I think that there is some weather coming in on Sunday so we will try and do what we can tomorrow and see what happens for the rest of the time. We had to put talcum powder around our hoses and tyres and supports because of the green ants here.  They are buggers and you don’t want them getting into the van or even biting you.  They are that vicious that they attack bird nests and kill them.  Horrible things.  From Mozzies to Ants, this is Oz and we love it.

2^nd August, Saturday

What a wonderful day we have just had.  We took Hugo to his doggie day care (a really sweet couple) and we thought that he would stress out.  He didn’t even look at us when we left which made us feel a lot happier about leaving him with strangers.  He was staying in their home and not in a kennel and they had another dog coming so all was good.  We took the water taxi across to Dunk Island and, OH my God!, how beautiful it is. It’s tropical, palm trees, long beaches, turquoise waters and not many people around.  The water taxi only takes about 10 minutes because it’s not far and, I nearly stood on a snake on the way back. I was just about to put my foot down when I saw it.  It was a brown one (no idea of what it was) and of course I had my Swan Valley safety boots on (my thongs) any way, I jumped one way and the snake slithered off into the forest. People row over to Dunk Island  in Kayaks because the water is like glass, not a ripple.  We walked through the rain forest to one of the beaches (Muggy Muggy beach) and the only people that were there was a mum with 2 young kids, otherwise we had the beach all to ourselves.  It was awesome.  We had a swim, messed around and walked back to the beach shack where they do prawns, fish etc.  There is a huge private resort here (apparently very expensive).  We are not allowed to walk into it, we were told but when we walked past we saw that it was all uninhabited.  The roofs were all blown off and the place was in a mess (Cyclone Yasi in Feb. 2011).  You could see that it was a pretty exclusive type resort. The other side of the resort which stretches to the other side of the island is no better.  Here there are no chalets or accommodation and the stretch of the beach has huge palm trees that have been torn out of the ground and just lying there. No-one has done anything to clean it up and so it just stays like that.  Apparently the owners were paid out by the insurance company, kept the money and sold the resort for a song.  The new owners evidently are loaded but still the place stays untouched.  It’s a shame, because it’s a beautiful spot.  We had lunch at the beach shack and then went for another walk.  The boat was only picking us up at 3.30, so we went back to the beach shack for a glass of wine and an ice cream, good combination, believe me.  We picked Hugo up and they said that he had a good time and played and shared toys with the other dog that they were looking after.  He looked really happy so we were chuffed. We are absolutely shattered and probably won’t even have dinner tonight.  Early to bed for us. Tomorrow, the markets are on but the weather is going to turn bad, so we shall see what we do for the rest of the time.  We were very lucky to be able to do today because the sun was shining and it was quite hot and the charter company won’t go out tomorrow or Monday because the weather is going to be unpredictable and we are leaving on Tuesday so everything working out perfectly for us.

3^rd August, Sunday & 4^th Monday

It’s been raining so we haven’t done much at all.  We went to the Sunday markets yesterday in North Mission Beach (they weren’t very big but it was quite a nice market).  Ralph found some books and I bought some CD’s and a top.  We took a drive around and then went for a walk on the beach. Monday, it’s pouring so I have done my shopping and housework as we leave tomorrow morning.  We are doing 2 overnighters on the way to Winton, so might not have any reception for awhile.