NATIONAL HERITAGE NOMINATED

CAIRNS AQUATIC CLUB Building.

The  AQUATIC AT WAR.

[1]The Cairns Aquatic Building has been nominated for national heritage along with the wharf precincts already listed on the state heritage register.

Refer :: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl

Place ID :: 105909

Place File Number :: 4/06/251/0028

[2]THE CAIRNS AQUATIC CLUB CONTRIBUTED 75 OF ITS MEMBERS TO WAR SERVICE DURING WORLD WAR ONE – 17 OF THEM DIED THERE.

[3]THE AQUATIC CLUB CONTRIBUTED 72 MEMBERS TO WORLD WAR TWO – SIX OF THEM DIED THERE.

[4]THE AQUATIC MEMBERS WERE HEAVILY INVOLVED IN PROVIDING COMFORT TO THE TROOPS IN BOTH WARS.

The AQUATIC

WORLD WAR1

The valiant members of the Aquatic did more than their share of contribution to the War effort. Not only did they materially assist the RED CROSS by making articles for the Hospitals and Aids for the wounded soldiers such as Beds, Crutches, and Chairs etc. When the call to arms was sounded  

THE CAIRNS AQUATIC CLUB CONTRIBUTED 75 OF ITS MEMBERS TO WAR SERVICE  – SEVENTEEN OF THEM DIED THERE.

And when it was seen that the loss of 75 able bodied men would curtail the building of this equipment, the Club raised enough money to purchase machinery to enable a small number of men and youths to continue the work whilst the 75 members went to fight. At the time when this was presented to the RED CROSS EQUIPMENT GUILD Cr. A.J. Draper, later to become one of the longest serving Mayors of Cairns said, the equipment was the best of its kind possessed by any RED CROSS EQUIPMENT GUILD in Australia. However the club was in danger of closing because of the loss of 75 Sailing Members.  Cr. A.J. Draper, urged them not to close, he argued that the Aquatic Club was far too important an organization in supplying sustenance and help to our sick and wounded soldiers.

(The Aquatic, did not close but instead went on to continue in the service to their community.)

There is a plethora of History to tell about this place. I wonder what the brave and valiant men and women, who sacrificed everything, would think of the greed and avarice, the political expedience and interference, the graft and the corruption, we experience today whilst trying to save the marvellous history of the Aquatic, indeed, what would they think and feel about it?

Once the place is gone there will be little record of what happened here, save for the information we have collected in our bid to save it. Our fight wont cost us our lives and our sanity like the members who sacrificed so much, but don’t you think we owe them?

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The AQUATIC

CAIRNS WAS DECLARED A CLOSED CITY DURING WWII 

Members of the Aquatic Club were already heavily involed in the War effort and were part of those 6 - 7,000 people who stayed to fight. 

Cairns was declared a closed City and to come here one had to obtain a special permit to enter the War Zone.

The noble and unselfish Aquatic Club members, who were ineligible to enter a service because of health or age, became part of the Voluntary Australian Navy Auxiliary Patrol. 

Their duty was to Patrol Trinity Inlet for intruders, help train people in boatmanship and man the original Submarine Boom Nets which they made themselves from rope supplied by the Harbour Master at the Cairns Harbour Board. This making the first Submarine Boom Net to protect the massive influx of shipping and cargo into Trinity Inlet against Enemy Submarine Attack.

The Aquatic Building itself played a Major Role in WWII when it was commandeered by the Royal Australian Navy.

• The building of the Cairns Rice Milling Company’s Rice Mill, in 1895 later to become the Aquatic Club Building.

• The Cairns Harbour Board Act 1904 and the subsequent Board

• The purchase of all private wharves and jetties in Trinity Inlet

• The commencement of Wharves 2 & 3 which the EPA has entered on the State Heritage List.

• The Aquatic purchased the Cairns Rice Mill Building in 1917 presumably from the Cairns Harbour Board or at least with the help of same as EC Earl was the Chairman of the Harbour Board and a founding member of the Aquatic. [6]

• WWI Apart from the many members who contributed to the Club, the Aquatic was heavily involved in WWI. 75 members joined the services and 13 of their members were killed in action. Members of the Aquatic raised funds and food Baskets and welcomed the survivors of that war home.[7]

• On the 19^th September 1921, a massive coal dust explosion in the Mount Mulligan mine killed all seventy-six men working underground. The disaster was the greatest Queensland has ever seen. Members of the Aquatic Club raised funds for the families of the Miners. [8]

• Whites Shed was built in 1923, [another building deemed Heritage and protected under the Act by virtue of the EPA.][9]

• Hales Magnetic Island Cruises and Green Island world famous venture, which established the Great Barrier Reef Tourist Industry. The wharf was next to the Aquatic. [This famous wharf has been demolished by the CPA.]

• The 1500 foot concrete wharf was completed in 1925 – 20 years after the Aquatic was formed and 5 years after the building was rebuilt after the cyclone in 1920. [The wharf was deemed to be of State significance and protected under the Heritage Act by the EPA.] [10]

• WWII 1935 – 1945 Sailing had to be abandoned. All Cairns Aquatic Club boats had to be immobilized due to the threat of Japanese invasion. [11]

•  Royal Australian Navy commandeers Aquatic Club and their start boat Magenta. Allows upstairs to continue for recreation of members, Service Personnel and Cairns Citizens. Thousands of Service personnel and Cairns  Area residents danced  at the Aquatic during those years.

• Cairns Aquatic Club sailing members who were ineligible for war formed the Australian Navy Auxiliary Patrol. They built the first Submarine Boom Nets from rope supplied by the Harbour Master and the nets to protect the Naval Troop Carriers (up to 21 ship movements a day). They also provided training in boatmanship for others in the service of providing rescue facilities for the Catalina Squadrons in Trinity Inlet. [13]

• The AQUATIC CLUB BUILDING is located between the historic wartime HMAS PLATYPUS WHARF [about to be completely demolished by the CPA. ] And the Historic Hayles Wharf built in 1924 Hayles Magnetic Island commenced a tour service to Green Island using a Jetty adjacent to the Aquatic Club, thus starting the world famous Great Barrier Reef tourism industry. Hayles Wharf was demolished by the CPA late in 2006.[14]

The Historic Aquatic Club Building is earmarked by the Cairns Port Authority to be either:

1. Demolished
2. Cut up and removed to another location.[15]

Either way this will effectively destroy the History and Nature of the last outpost of Heritage Buildings on the Cairns Waterfront that has State and National Significance. It will be another epitaph to the destruction of Cairns Heritage over the past 100 years. The former Mayors and Harbour Board Chairmen, Ron Davis and Mick Borsi have already added their name to the list of Heritage and Cultural Vandals by handing the old Cairns Harbour Board Building to the Fire Brigade for practice. [16]

The AQUATIC CLUB was founded in March 30^th 1908. By

• Edward Campbell Earl, the first Harbour Master, Mayor of Cairns 1906. Born Bowen, Queensland January 1874. Owned butcher shops, cane farms and cattle property. Member Barron Shire Council. Chairman Cairns Harbour Board. Member Cairns Stock Exchange Committee. Member Barron Falls Hydro Electricity Board. Died Leura, NSW October 1930. Buried in Katoomba Cemetery. [18]
• Dr. Baxter-Tyrie, The Great Plague of London in 1665, was a combination of Beubonic Plague and Pneumonic and Plague killed 70,000 people out of a population of 460,000. Australia's only outbreak of Bubonic Plague occurred in Maryborough in 1905.  In those days Maryborough was Queensland's largest port - a reception centre for wool, meat, timber, and other rural products.  A freighter from Hong Kong, where plague was rampant, was in the port of Maryborough about the time that a wharf worker named Richard O'Connell took home some sacking from the wharf, for his children to sleep on. Alarmed, the Commissioner for Public Health sent for plague specialist, Dr. Baxter - Tyrie (from Cairns) to supervise isolation and inspect the town. ... Dr. Baxter-Tyrie helped stop the Plague. [19]
• R. Stuart,
• C.B.Lilley
• E.Sunner
• Captain Nelson
• Dr.Kerwin
• P.G.Grant
• W.J.Munro
• A.J.Draper Mayor of Cairns 1891-1893; 1897; 1902; 1918-19; 1924-27. Born Williamstown, Victoria, April 1863. Commission Agent and Auctioneer and Merchant. Vice-President Canegrowers Association. Vice-President Australian Sugar Producers Association. Died Brisbane March 1928.[20]
• P.J.Doyle
• J.Meyer

Callaghan Walsh,. Mayor of Cairns 1890. Born Ireland 1843. Arrived Queensland 1862. Merchant in Cooktown, Port Douglas and Cairns. Chairman of the Cairns Rice Milling Company in 1889. President Cairns Chamber of Commerce. President Railway League. Chairman Cairns Harbour Board 1906. Died Brisbane April 1918. He was there when the Aquatic Club purchased the Rice Mill.

Mayor Kevin Byrne says on his introduction to the Cairns City Council Web Site::

“We are extremely proud of our city, and are committed to making Cairns the best regional city in Australia and the Asia Pacific.  In doing so, we must balance the demands of our growing city with the desire to maintain its quality lifestyle and unique natural and cultural environments.”  Unquote.[21]

 
Thanks to the sacrifices of thousands of Australians and people at the Aquatic, who helped save us from the Japanese invasion, Kevin was born in Lae, Papua New Guinea 1949,  Kevin was Commissioned into the Australian Army in 1969. With 17 year military career included postings throughout Australia and in Malaya, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Rhodesia and South Vietnam.

The once beating heart of a place that was of the utmost importance and significance in helping to save Australia from the Japanese Invasion in WWII and the supply and sustenance of the ships and aircraft that took part in the Coral Sea Battle. Whilst knowing the at the Federal Government had a policy of the Brisbane Line and would fall back to that and leave the North to the Japs.

 
The Brisbane Line was a controversial defense proposal allegedly formulated by the Liberal government during World War II to concede the northern portion of the Australian‘Pig Iron Bob’ for he’d battled the waterside workers during 1938 for refuseing to load scrap iron for Japan. NOTE:: Japan has no raw material resources and had to get it where they could. By providing them with Pig Iron they were able to convert that to weapons to use against us.  Subsequently many of the bombs that fell on Darwin were made from this material. [22] continent in the event of an invasion. Robert Menzies the founder of the Liberal Party and given the name

 Photo showing Aquatic Club House in centre  background as Mine Laying Barge  towed out to see by a Yacht.
(Original housed in AWM Archive Store) (Donor J Fagan) 

Mine Layer being towed out by a yacht.

Catalina Crew - Cairns, Qld. 1944-01-09. Members of a RAAF Catalina flying boat aircraft crew are shown leaving the jetty to prepare for an anti-submarine patrol. Left to right: Sergeant (Sgt) McMillan, observer; Flying Officer R. H. Gibson of Trangie, NSW; Sgt J. G. Weston of Cessnock, NSW; Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) J. G. Ryan of Brighton, Vic, captain; unknown; Flt Lt K. A. Crisp of Nedlands, WA.

28 Lake Placid Road

Caravonica 4878

 PS. The State Government has urged Queenslanders to give them a wish list of sites we want saved from development.

We were invited to send our list to the Environmental Protection Agency’

The Nomination Form is located at ::

http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/publications?id=991

 http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/publications?id=991

We did this.

What was their response?

The State Government dont want to listen to us.

 The National Nomination was at :

Cairns Wharf Precinct, Wharf St, Cairns, QLD Place ID : Place File Number : 105909 4/06/251/0028

Bibliography::

Dancing at the Aquatic 1920-2005; Bob Rendall
I Didn’t Know That (1939-1946); Vera Bradley
No Place for Snapdragons – International Year of the Older Persons – Cairns Committee, Living History Subcommittee (1999)
Trinity Phoenix: A History of Cairns and District; Dorothy Jones 1976