History of Port Douglas Australia

Like many small towns in Far North Queensland, Port Douglas was established to serve the burgeoning gold rush in the area in the late 1800's. The mass of prospectors to the area brought life to the town, which would not exist today had it not been for gold diggers. But existence for the small town has been hard fought, and won only after a long battle with economic realities.

In 1876, explorer James Mulligan discovered goldfields on the Hodgkinson River in central Far North Queensland. Knowing the potential riches that could come from the goldfields, adventurers set out to find an easy route from the sea to the remote area. They found a small protected port that was ideal for shipping goods and materials, but they couldn't decide on a name. After a series of names such as Island Point, Terrigal, Port Owen and Salisbury, the port was finally named in honour of a former Queensland premier John Douglas. Port Douglas was born.

The gold rush quickly swelled the population of the small village to 12 000. Port Douglas had a courthouse, police barracks for 30 troopers, 27 hotels, and countless pubs. It was a huge success story for the pioneers who had the foresight to establish the trading port in the remote area.

But just when it seemed Port Douglas could become the major economic centre of tropical North Queensland, economic rationalism kicked in and threatened the survival of the town. A decision was made by the Queensland Government to build a railway from the Hodgkinson goldfields directly to the larger port of Cairns, bypassing Port Douglas altogether. The advantages of this new railway would be that access could be maintained to the goldfields in all weather - even in heavy rain.

Keen to keep the town afloat, residents turned to farming as a source of income. Sugar Cane became the primary produce of the area and was shipped south from the port in vast quantities. But again, Port Douglas was threatened. The opening of a cane crushing mill in Mossman, a small town to the north of Port Douglas, saw the focus of development move elsewhere yet again.

The population of the town began to dwindle, aided by a major cyclone in March of 1911 that devastated the town and killed two people. Sixteen inches of rain fell in 24 hours, decimating crops and ruining buildings and infrastructure.
By 1914 the population had plummeted from its height of 12 000 in 1877 to a mere 250 people.

Port Douglas became a very small fishing village and a minor gateway to ship sugar from the Mossman Central Mill until 1958. By 1960 the once booming town had a population of about 100 people. It was just one of the many gold-hungry towns that had failed and looked doomed to slip into the ocean.

But, as we all know, there has to be a major turnaround in this story for the current Port Douglas to exist. So here it is.

For 20 years nothing of major interest occurred in Port Douglas. That is, until the 1980s hit. The 1980s saw a cataclysmic change in Port Douglas as investors saw the tourist potential in the region and poured their money into building holiday resorts for the rich and famous. The man who started the furious rush to buy parts of Port Douglas was the infamous Christopher Skase. Despite his fraudulent business practices, he is regarded as the father of the current incarnation of Port Douglas.

There has been no looking back for Port Douglas. The town now boasts a population of around 4000, with a booming economy that relies almost exclusively on tourism. Visitors from all over the world flock to the region and soak up the atmosphere of tropical living. Fortunately, the charm of the original Port Douglas is still alive in the village, and this is what makes Port Douglas such as special place. It is a combination of historical hardship and modern luxury.

You can't help but be intrigued by that.