MULGR
VE NEWS EDITION 47, FEBRUARY 2014
Plaque to honour John Gordon Christmas A century after the town of Gordonvale took his name, the grave of John Gordon has finally receive recognition in a special ceremony on the 24th of January. Division 1 Councillor Steve Brain joined with the Mulgrave Shire Historical Society, descendants of John Gordon’s family and Gordonvale residents for the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the pioneer. Previously known as “Mulgrave” and then “Nelson”, the renaming of Gordonvale was published on 24 January 1914. “John Gordon is believed to have left Northern Ireland in 1870 and arrived in this area in 1882, via New Zealand, Cooktown and Port Douglas,” Cr Brain said. “He spent several years following mining interests in North Queensland before establishing a butchering business, firstly just outside of what is now Gordonvale, and then within the presentday town.” John Gordon was a founder and original mortgagee of the Mulgrave Central Mill Company and was a director of the company for more than 30 years. It was during this time that the name of the town was changed to avoid confusion with Nelson in New Zealand. Cairns Regional Council provided a memorial plaque to be placed at the unmarked grave of John Gordon, located in the Gordonvale Cemetery on Highleigh Rd.
John Gordon and Gordonvale 24th January 2014 Speech by By Jim Hill, Mulgrave Historical Society on the 24th January 2014. Exactly, 100 years ago today there appeared four lines in the Government Gazette. “It is hereby, notified for general information, that the Governor in Council has approved the name of the township situated on the Mulgrave River, and hitherto known as Nelson being altered to Gordonvale.” James Tolmir. Nelson had been named in honour of the then Premier Hugh Muir Nelson but because of postal confusion it was changed to Gordonvale. Previous to that it was known as Police Camp, Plain Camp, The Mulgrave and the aboriginal name was Gubuda (GOO-BOO-DA) by the Yidinji Vidtmydjp people. Many names changed in the early days of settlement, Cairns was Thornton, Edmonton was Hambledon Junction and Innisfail was Geralton. The popular notion was that it was confused with Nelson New Zealand, but Dorothy Jones in Trinity Phoenix claims that the Under Secretary of Lands at the time (1912) requested a change because of confusion with Nelson NSW and Nelson Vic. Mulgrave was the first choice at the time but this also clashed with other localities with similar names. After much discussion Gordonvale was chosen to honour the early settlers, why John Gordon was chosen we do not really know. He was one of three established shopkeepers recorded when the town was surveyed in 1896, the others being Ah Tong and Kearney. It could have been Sunmaudstown, Irvinville, Drapertown, Cannonvale or many others, but the final decision was
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Photo Information: Relatives of John Gordon. Those who unveiled the plaque are second from left Warwick Doncaster & Suzanne Maris ( brother & sister) great great niece & nephew also fourth from left Robert O'Byrne - nephew. Gordonvale. John Gordon was born in County Antrim on 12th May 1852 and it was suspected that he would stay and work the family farm. Ireland in the mid to late 1800’s was not a happy place to live. The population had suffered the potato famine of 1846 when many of the population of 8 million perished of starvation and associated conditions. This was followed by many years of political turmoil (the troubles) and many of the young people left their homeland to find a new life, many migrated to the U.S.A and Commonwealth countries. There are many families with an Irish ancestor a few generations back. His older brother had sailed to New Zealand in 1870, he too left for the colonies and joined his brother gold mining in New Zealand. When news of the new find on the Palmer came through, he with many others rushed to the new fields, landing in Cooktown in 1874. They endured many hardships but did reasonably well and then went into cattle, deciding it would give a much steadier income stream to provide food for the miners and other settlers. John Gordon, then with a cousin, turned to Goldsborough and opened a butcher shop, later moving to Pyramid and then to Gordonvale. He gave up butchering in 1906 to devote himself to sugar cane. He had a large farm at Mt Sophia and became prominent in the affairs of the town (then Nelson). In 1907 John married Elizabeth O’Byrne. He died in Gordonvale in March 1929, aged 77, leaving no direct descendants and is buried in plot 72 of the other denominations section of the Gordonvale cemetery.
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