Tropical Coast of Queensland

Lucinda



Lucinda is a coastal town in North Queensland, located at the southern entrance to Hinchinbrook Channel near the town of Ingham. A sugar-exporting town, Lucinda is noted for its 6 km-long sugar jetty, the world's largest bulk sugar loading facility. Lucinda is also used as a port for a supply barge to Palm Island.

Location: Lucinda is 24km north of the north Queensland town of Ingham, 120km north of Townsville and 270km south of Cairns.

Lucinda is positioned opposite the southern end of Hinchinbrook Island - Australia s largest national park island and the region is patronised by locals and international visitors alike. The Thorsborne Trail , 32km, 5 day hike along the eastern edge of the island is internationally rated in the top 10 walks on the planet.

The Hinchinbrook Channel and its extensive estuary system is also regarded as one of Australia s sports fishing meccas , famous for its Barramundi , Mangrove Jack, Fingermark and of course Queensland Mud crabs. The island, some 36kms long, is world heritage listed and regarded by the state government as the 'jewel in the crown' of Queensland.

Lucinda is in the heart of sugar cane country, providing a thriving backdrop for visitors to observe as the season progresses. The cane country scenery is forever changing and is a hive of activity for 6 months of the year. The landscape of cane fields is magnificent with a sparkling array of fabulous greens and natural beauty that takes your breath away, unique in its own right.



As a tourist attraction Lucinda has the longest loading jetty in the southern hemisphere, 5.8km that actually curves with the earth. It services the sugar industry by loading raw sugar onto approximately 20 international ships per year. This facility and the large storage faculties is a tourist attraction, fascinating many visitors. Lucinda is serviced by a convenience store and post office on Dennis Parade and a hotel on Lucinda Point Road. It is also frequently serviced by Ingham and the nearby town of Halifax.

Surrounding Area


Halifax
A town in the Shire of Hinchinbrook, on the Herbert River, 15 km northeast of Ingham. Motorists must pass through Halifax to reach Lucinda. The town began when August Anderssen, a blacksmith, purchased the land in 1880, after which time the land was turned into sugar plantations.


Jourama Falls, Paluma Range National Park
A picturesque waterfall on Waterview Creek, rainforest, vine forest and open woodland are protected in this section of Paluma Range National Park in the foothills of the Seaview Range. Rainforest grows on the higher slopes and fringes the creek. Poplar gum, bloodwood, Moreton Bay ash and cocky apple trees are common in the open woodland.Fringed by rainforest, Waterview Creek tumbles down many picturesque cascades and rapids, offering beautiful spots to relax, camp, walk and enjoy watching birds, butterflies and other native wildlife.

Travel 91km north of Townsville or 24km south of Ingham, then turn off the Bruce Highway onto the 4.5km, unsealed access road to Jourama Falls, Paluma Range National Park. The access road is suitable for most conventional vehicles and caravans. Access may be restricted during the summer wet season when Waterview Creek rises and causeways are impassable.


Blencoe Falls and Herbert River Gorge

Herbert River Gorge
The Herbert River is one of Australia's two finest extended whitewater journeys, the other the Franklin River in Tasmania. Parts of the river, especially the Herbert River Gorge stretch, are used for kayaking and white water rafting. The second season of the U.S. reality television series, Survivor, was filmed on the "Goshen" cattle station in the upper Herbert River region, near the Blencoe Falls and Herbert River Gorge.

With its headwaters forming at an elevation of 1,070 metres on the Atherton Tableland, part of the Great Dividing Range west of Herberton and north of Ravenshoe, the Herbert River is formed by the confluence of the Millstream and the Wild River. The Herbert River flows in a generally southeastern direction through the Lumholtz National Park joined by fifteen tributaries including the Stone River and flowing past the town of Ingham. The Herbert River reaches its mouth where it enters the Coral Sea near Lucinda, at the southern end of the Hinchinbrook Channel.

The Herbert River Falls is a plunge waterfall on the Herbert River. The falls are located on the northern boundary of the Girringun National Park, west of Cardwell. The waterfall plunges from the Atherton Tableland at an elevation of 505 metres and falls between 56 75 metres into the Herbert River Gorge below. Blencoe Falls are also in the Herbert River Gorge.


Hinchinbrook Island channel from lookout near Cardwell

Hinchinbrook Island
With its lush rainforests, rugged, misty and heath-covered mountains, sweeping sandy beaches, rocky headlands, paperbark and palm wetlands, mangrove-fringed shores and extensive open forests and woodlands, Hinchinbrook Island National Park is one of the world s most outstanding island parks. Hinchinbrook, off the coast of north Queensland between Townsville and Cairns, is basically two large islands joined by a long sand isthmus which has developed so there is a narrow sandy beach facing south, then a few substantial dunes and a vast, impenetrable mangrove swamp cut by sinuous channels. From the air it is one of the true wonders of the Australian coastline.
Brief history
The Ingham area was first settled by Henry Stone in 1865, but unlike many other regional settlements, sugar and not cattle was established as the primary produce of the area from the beginning. The Gairloch Sugar Mill was established in 1872. The sugar plantations were worked by Kanakas brought in from the South Pacific Islands. When Australia's immigration policy was changed around the turn of the 20th century, an influx of Italian migrants began and continued until the beginning of World War II. Tobacco growing began in the 1930s. Agriculture diversified, and the Catholic Church established an agriculture college at Abergowrie (the only one in north Queensland) in 1934. Vegetable crops were grown for southern winter markets.

Lucinda is named for Lady Jeannie Lucinda Musgrave, the second wife of Sir Anthony Musgrave (July 1883-88), the colonial governor of Queensland, 1873-1877. Lucindale was proclaimed in 1877, a few months before they returned to the Caribbean to begin Sir Anthony's second term as governor of Jamaica.

American-born Jeannie Lucinda Field was the daughter of American lawyer and law reformer David Dudley Field II of New York. She married Sir Anthony in San Francisco in 1864 and was his second wife, succeeding Christiana Elizabeth Byam (daughter of Sir William Byam of Antigua), whom he had married in 1853, and who had died in 1858. Sir Anthony died in 1888 and Lady Musgrave died on the 12th August, 1920 in England.


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Sugar cane train


Kayaking on the Herbert River


Lady Jeannie Lucinda Musgrave

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