CARDWELL, QUEENSLAND

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A tropical township through which visitors enter and exit Hinchinbrook Island. Cardwell is the only coastal town on the Bruce Highway between Townsville and Cairns.
Location: 1533 km north of Brisbane.
Origin of name: named by George Dalrymple (1826-1876), explorer, public servant and politician, in 1864, after Edward Cardwell (1813-1886), later Viscount Cardwell, Secretary of State for the Colonies April 1864 to July 1866.
Brief history: explorer Edmund Kennedy passed close by the present townsite in 1848 during his tragic attempt to travel from Rockingham Bay to Cape York. George Dalrymple published proposals for the establishment of a new pastoral settlement in North Australia in 1859, and began to explore and open up the northern part of Queensland to bring it to fruition. In 1864, he established Cardwell on Rockingham Bay as a port for the inland pastoral stations.
Natural features: Cardwell Range; Burdekin River; Hinchinbrook Island; Edmund Kennedy National Park (4 km north); Goold Island National Park; Brook Islands National Park; Cape Richards; Valley of Lagoons; Dead Horse Creek; Kennedy Falls; Murray Falls; Wallaman Falls; Girringun National Park; Murray River Wetlands; Rockingham Bay; Dalrymple Gap; Broadwater State Forest.
Built features: Edmund Kennedy Memorial Cairn; localities of Kennedy, Forest Drive, Port Hinchinbrook, File Mile, Abergowrie, Long Pocket.
Heritage features: Dalrymple Bridge