Settlement
spreads from Nambour to Dulong
Dulong is an aboriginal word meaning 'red mud', and up until mid-1894 was generally spelled 'Doolong' by the first settlers. It
refers to the area of rich, fertile, volcanic soil at the top of a steep range of hills west of Nambour and below the Blackall Range.
The area was covered with thick rain forest containing large quantities of red cedar, beech and pine, all heavily tangled with masses
of vine scrub.
A remnant of original vine scrub still standing today on Mr Noel Gaylard's property
Before 1870 parts of the area had been surveyed into blocks. The first evidence of a track being officially surveyed from Petrie's Creek west is a map dated 1870, which shows the alignment terminating near the site of today's Kureelpa Hall. This track followed the crest of a ridge from Petrie's Creek, and reached the top of the Highworth Range at the site of today's Dulong Lookout, after a steep climb with a gradient of 1 in 4. By 1883 a line had been blazed up the Blackall Range through the site of Mapleton, passing through what is now the Services Memorial Park.
Logging crews moved into the area in the 1880s, and cleared a network of tracks through the scrub. The teamsters snigged the logs along these to the loading ramps. There they loaded the logs onto bullock waggons, and hauled them down the ridges. The waggons made their way down a track to the Rafting Grounds on the Maroochy River at Dunethin Lake, or to the limit of navigation of Eudlo Creek, where the logs were tipped into the water, tied together to form rafts, and floated down the river to Cottontree. There they were taken ashore and hauled over Pott's Point to William Pettigrew's depot at Mooloolah Heads (Mooloolaba), loaded onto the Gneering, and shipped to Pettigrew's sawmill in Brisbane.
The first hut in the Doolong area was built by bullock drivers with slabs and shingles which they split out of a nearby tree. It had a wide fireplace and an earthen floor. The only table was made of slabs resting on round poles driven into the ground. When the area was thrown open for selection, prospective settlers found shelter there while they walked the survey lines and decided upon the block of their choice. There was always room for any man who wished to spend the night on the floor in front of the fire.
In those days, there were two principal ways in which selectors could claim land under the Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1876. Firstly, there were 'Homesteads' for areas of up to 160 acres. Blocks of this size were called 'quarter-blocks', as their area was one-quarter of a square mile, each side being half a mile long (800 metres). The price of a Homestead was 2s. 6d. per acre, spread over five annual instalments, called Rents, of sixpence per acre. Improvements to the value of 10 shillings per acre and personal, continuous residence by the selector for five years were required before a Certificate of Fulfilment of Conditions was granted. The selector would then pay the balance of Rent (if any) and a Deed Fee, and then he would be given a Deed of Grant.
Secondly, there were 'Conditional Purchases' for areas up to 5120 acres (eight square miles). Rents of 15 shillings, 10 shillings or 5 shillings per acre were spread over ten annual instalments. Improvements of 10 shillings per acre were required and the selector or his bailiff had to reside continuously for two years on the land. After a Certificate of Fulfilment of Conditions was granted, the selector could pay the balance of Rent and a Deed Fee and thereby receive a Deed of Grant, or he could transfer his Rights and Title to the lease.
In our area, the blocks were mostly of 160 acres. They were advertised and made available to the public for selection. One made one's choice and sent an application to the Lands Administration Commission. If more than one application were received for a particular block, then the successful applicant would be chosen by ballot. Generally there were few ballots held, firstly because there were not many applications received, and secondly because it was the accepted understanding that the first person to claim a selection had priority.
In 1870 John Murtagh came to Australia from County Sligo, Ireland in the Southern Belle at the age of 19 years. He was accompanied by his brother. After some time, he returned to England. There he married, and returned to Australia with his wife and daughters in the Quetta. He worked on the telegraph line to Gympie and then selected land at Doolong, becoming the first settler there in 1888.
Supplies came from Brisbane by boat, and the paddle steamer Tadorna Radjah took them to the Cedar Tree along Petrie's Creek. Then Histead's punt took them to Davis' Pocket, two miles from Nambour, and pack-horses took them the rest of the way through the scrub and forests to Doolong. The most basic supplies were of food, the most common groceries being flour, sugar, tea, salt and salted meat. The staple diet in those times was corned beef and damper, with a hot cup of billy tea to wash it down.
Francis Michael Murtagh and his wife Caroline arrived in Queensland in 1882. In 1884 they took up a selection below Kureelpa and named it 'Highworth' after Caroline's home town. His sons, Dennis and Frank Jr, worked three bullock teams hauling timber in the Dulong, Mapleton and Kenilworth areas. Francis later held positions of importance as a Cane Inspector and then as a Director on the Board of the Moreton Central Sugar Mill. James Stark, a timber getter, selected a block close to the bottom of what became known as the Highworth Range, now generally known as the Dulong Range.
A survey carried out in late 1888 by Mr G. C. Reid, Licensed Surveyor, extended the road from Nambour from its western end at Kureelpa to the South Maroochy River and about a quarter-mile beyond. It ended at a point near the bottom of the Blackall Range escarpment. He also marked out a new road running south-south-east from this point towards Doolong. This new road was called the Doolong Road, then Dulong Road, and is now Sherwell Road. Blocks were surveyed along the western side of this road, but the area was marked 'Blackall Range Timber Reserve'. The area north of here were described on his map as 'vacant, heavily timbered blackbutt ranges, extremely rugged, dense undergrowth'. It is now the Mapleton State Forest.
Reid also surveyed a second road heading south-west from the top of the steep pinches at the site of today's Dulong Lookout (later to be known as Dalzell's Pinches), and then following the ridge line in a west-north-westerly direction before descending towards the valley of the South Maroochy River. This road connected with the road heading west from Kureelpa just east of where it crossed the river, and was an alternative route west from the top of the Highworth Range. This road's section along the ridge is now known as Thrushs Road, and the section linking up to the Mapleton Road near the river is called DeVere Road. The two sections are not now connected, there being a private farm still owned by the DeVere family between the two dead-ends.
Although these roads were properly surveyed, it was a few years before they were cleared enough to allow the passage of pack-horses, and a few years more before waggons and sulkies could get through. Bullock teams and horse teams made their own tracks through the scrub to get the timber out, and by the turn of the 20th century the use of wheeled vehicles had turned the tracks into primitive roads.