HOW IT CAME ABOUT
When Greg Westcott from Portland Roads became aware of Cate’s background in Graphic Design, Exhibition, research and writing, he brought it to her attention that Interpretive Signage was in the Cook Shire budget. Cate submitted a proposal and quote to David Barker, Tourism Coordinator Cook Shire Council. David suggested that we seek RADF funding as well.
Meanwhile Cate had started researching the history of Portland Roads. It was becoming apparent that there is much more of interest about Portland Roads than could be presented on Signage, and that there is much fascinating information that is little known and would be soon lost if it is not recorded and collated.
There is also some question as to whether signage was the best way to present the information, and whether it is what the majority of residents of Portland Roads want given that it would change the look of the foreshore considerably and that there is now technology available to present interpretive information to visitors such as websites and ipad apps.
Seamus Campbell has 15 years of experience as a web developer so is well placed to research the new technologies that are available.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Cate, Seamus, Jo and Ewen will collaborate with local community members, past and present, to collect Oral Histories and local knowledge that locals feel is worth preserving and sharing, and working out the best way to present the information.
Cate and Seamus will soon be asking individuals for interviews. Any information that you would like to email through in the meantime will be most welcome.
N.B. Funding for deployment of that information in the chosen format is NOT included but this research will form the basis of funding proposals.
Please see below the initial proposal and the RADF application that was submitted by Cate Adams and Seamus Campbell with the help of Dr Joanna Wills Museum Development Officer, Far North Queensland, Cairns and Ewen McPhee Museum Development Officer, North Queensland, Townsville.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this project are to collate, document, preserve and give access to the history of Portland Roads which is little known. This will promote an understanding of it’s unique character for visitors, through stories of the past and present, indigenous, gold miners, WWII, Cook, Bligh and Kennedy.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Portland Roads Naming – (I have expanded this to add some info about our research and people’s contributions, any more info would be most appreciated: Cate)
I have not found a specific record of who named Portland Roads. Cook named Weymouth Bay after a place in England next to the Isle of Portland one side of which was treacherous for ships, the other side was known as the Portland Roads;
– John Pritchard has supplied a newspaper from 1936 which states that Cook named Portland Roads after the Duchess of Portland was a patron of his voyages,
– Roads is short for Roadstead – a nautical term for safe harbour.
– Cook’s log states that he named Cape Weymouth and Weymouth Bay presumably after Viscount Weymouth but did not mention Portland Roads.
“On the Mainland within us was a pretty high promontory, which I called Cape Weymouth (Latitude 12 degrees 42 minutes South, Longitude 217 degrees 15 minutes); and on the North-West side of this Cape is a Bay, which I called Weymouth Bay” (Cook’s Journal August 16th 1770)
– Weymouth is next to Portland in England
– Viscount Weymouth and Duchess of Portland were of the same family
– The natural Portland anchorage is known as the Portland Roads.
– Geoff Pope supplied a document from the British Hydrographic Department that states that the first mention of Portland Roads is in the sailing directions of Lieut Hemmings 1896 from Cape Weymouth to Torres Strait
– Cook named the Isle of Portland in NZ after the Isle of Portland in UK because it looked similar
– The Duchess of Portland was a great collector of items that Joseph Banks collected on his journeys.
Captain Cook’s log – gives an emotive account of his surprise and joy of surviving after nearly being wrecked again on the reef and passing through Providential Channel to find Weymouth Bay see ‘Captain James Cook – Journal Entries August 16th – 23rd 1770.pdf’ http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8106/8106-h/8106-h.htm
Captain Bligh – landed at Restoration Island after the mutiny on 29 May 1789, in a small open boat arriving from Tonga. He named it Restoration Island because the food they found (oysters and native fruits) greatly restored their spirits and because that date was the anniversary of the restoration of King Charles II (in 1660) see http://www.fatefulvoyage.com/notebook/061.html and http://restoration-island.blogspot.com.au
Kennedy – a memorial stands testament to the ill fated expedition, his men were left nearby at the mouth of the Pascoe, all but 2 starved to death after refusing fish from the local aboriginals
Gold mining days – the tenacity of the gold miners of the area and the building of the Jetty in 1938 to transport freight to and from the Gold Fields. A stamper has been erected near the foreshore and relics and mine shafts can be seen scattered in the bush at nearby Gordon creek
WWII – remains can be seen of the large Jetty that was used for supplying ships and troop to support the war in the Coral Sea, with 50,000 troops passing through the area. Bunkers remain in evidence
Indigenous history – This is Kuuku Ya’u traditional land. We are collaborating with a Kuuky Ya’u elder who will provide stories from her childhood when her father worked the harbour. Much of this is undocumented so this is an opportunity to preserve history that may otherwise be lost. We plan to include words from the Kuuku Ya’u language.
Unique wildlife – The wildlife of Portland Roads and surrounding
Kutini-Payamu (Iron Range) National Park brings intrepid birders to the area. With species not found anywhere else in Australia but related to New Guinea. Before the ice age, some 12,000 years ago, the land was connected to New Guinea and when the ice receded many species between Iron Range and New Guinea became extinct as there were no mountain ranges to provide refuge so Kutini-Payamu was like an island.
http://www.savanna.org.au/qld/cy/cyplantsanimals.html
1960-80s hippy haven then fishing village, stories from current and past residents, such as a restaurant where you could order what kind of fish you would like for dinner and it would be caught for you. 30 trawlers sat in the harbour. (in 2011 there were 2-4 at any one time, currently we see 1 some of the time)
Colourful identities – Barbara Holdsworth – Cryptozoology, Barbara’s collection of plaster casts of purported to be footprints of big cats includes one that greatly resembles the Thylacoleo, a marsupial Lion reportedly extinct 20,000 years ago, Barbara was known as an eccentric and believed many undocumented species lived around Portland Roads,
I found and contacted Cryptozoologist Paul Clacher – who now has the collection he said that the one that she thought had 16 claws, 4 on each toe, turned out to be a cane toad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacoleo and
http://www.paulclacher.com.au/
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
Portland Roads is the most northern community in Cook Shire, and is located approximately 480km north of Cooktown on the eastern peninsula of Cape York, and approximately 40 km from the Aboriginal community of Lockhart River.
Despite the remoteness of this location, the area has been a safe harbour since European discovery and has an interesting history associated with Indigenous, maritime, resource exploitation, WWII and alternative lifestyle stories. Although the more factual details of this history have been documented, there is no formal history of Portland Roads, and no documentation of the area’s community stories.
With the ever increasing number of tourists travelling to Cape York, Portland Roads has become more accessible. This more recent history has resulted in significant changes to the small local community. More tourists have lead to the establishment of holiday accommodation, a café, public toilets and to the Esplanade being bituminised.
These types of changes have caused local residents to reflect about their local identity, and have created a desire to record stories about the community’s lifestyle and history to ensure this is not lost.
The Presenting Portland Roads Project has two key components: community consultation, and historical research and recording. The community consultation component will comprise liaising with past and present residents to identify how they would like their stories to be told and presented. This is an important component of the project to ensure there is community consensus about the project’s outcome. To do this, the community will work with staff from Queensland Museum to facilitate community discussions and identify potential interpretative uses for the collections of historical material gathered. Researching the best medium to communicate information to different audiences – locals, tourists, researchers – is a critical component of the project, and will consider the pros and cons of interpretive signage, internet, paper-based publications, digital applications (apps). It will also be important to identify a suitable repository for the information collected during this phase of the project.
Historical research and recording will comprise collating historical research information and recording oral histories with Portland Roads residents (past and present) to find out what it was like to live there and how it has changed.
Gathering this material will mean these histories will be preserved in a format supported by the community. This will mean that this history can be used in the future by researchers or interested parties to promote a deeper understanding of the community’s history. The research collation of stories will be undertaken local residents.
They will work collaboratively with Queensland Museum staff about the most appropriate way to preserve and interpret their stories.
At the end of the project, discussions will be held about suitable sources of funding to implement the interpretative form identified.