Then
the Place Names Board gave approval for the name “Wongaling Beach” to be used to describe
a Crown Estate Development adjacent to Wongaling Beach,
between the towns of Mission Beach and South Mission Beach.
At the time, through local usage, the name “Wongaling
Beach” had become established as the name of the residential development
taking place there.
Consequently, that name had
also come to be used extensively on Survey Office and Lands Department files. No objections were lodged against the use of
the name “Wongaling Beach”
to advertise the subdivision.
Notification of the intended
names was gazetted on 3rd December 1965 and approved on 25th February 1966, along with the name Hinchinbrook
Lookout located at the Cardwell Gap.
In February 1967 the Cardwell
Shire Council reiterated to the Land Administration Commission that the name “Kenny” had been changed to “South Mission Beach”
after allotments had been sold there with the wrong description. In future, the Commission replied “the correct name
of “South Mission Beach
will be applied to the ‘town of Kenny.’”
Then in July 1967 the Cardwell
Shire Clerk, TR Farr, was instructed to write to the Place Names Board again and declare, that since the declaration of the
name “South Mission Beach” the Council felt that the real intention of the name ‘Mission Beach’”,
located in Johnstone Shire, “is lost as the area covered by the declaration ‘South Mission Beach’ is really
the area on which a Mission was established in September 1914 under Superintendent Kenny and known as the ‘Hull River
Mission’. The Mission was destroyed by cyclone in March 1918 and … reestablished
at Palm Island.”
The Council therefore made application that “South Mission
Beach should be altered to ‘Mission
Beach’ ... accordingly.”
The Cardwell Shire, in sending
a copy of the letter to Johnstone Shire Council went on, “Should the section of Mission Beach extending into the area
of the Johnstone Shire be required to be specifically designated, it is suggested that the name ‘North Mission Beach’
could be applied to it.”
By September 1967 Johnstone
Shire Council replied that the Names Board was “unable to make any change in the name from ‘South
Mission Beach’ to ‘Mission Beach’
in view of the alteration involved, and the opposition of the Johnstone Shire Council to the proposed change.”
But the Johnstone Shire Council
went on, on the motion of Cr Mullins, seconded by Councillor E Byrne who moved “that the Johnstone Shire Council be
requested to advise its reasons in objecting to the proposed alteration”’ and replied with the following to Cardwell
Shire that it “would appreciate the views of your Council in its objection to the proposed change as it considers that
greater advantage will accrue to both Council’s areas by the popularity and future development of the entire length
of the Beach if the whole locality is referred to by one descriptive name.”
Those two Councillors also
moved that “arrangements be made for the construction of a suitable cairn be placed near the site of the old mission
and signs be erected indicating Mission Hill. Carried.”
It was thirteen years later
that the, then Cardwell Shire Clerk, Peter Burow, was asking the South Mission Beach and Wongaling Beach Progress Association
about the renaming of ‘Wongaling Beach’, as Mr Morgan, the owner of the Hotel/Motel complex at Wongaling Beach,
an “interested citizen .. along with the names of various businesses who refer to Mission Beach, as their address, and advertise
accordingly. Also, it was pointed out that the writer understands that the name ‘Wongaling Beach’ has never been officially
gazetted.”
Mr Morgan stated that ‘Wongaling
Beach’ “was only a name that Mr Hatham called the area when the land he owned was subdivided, after the Wongaling
Creek which is in the Johnstone Shire, after all isn’t the true Mission Beach area at South Mission. The whole beach
could be known as Mission Beach.
The name I feel sure would be accepted by all concerned.
“As you are aware our
Hotel is called Mission Beach Hotel-Motel. The main request is that tourism is one of North Queensland’s main industries
and all people know of Mission Beach virtually
no one has heard of Wongaling Beach.
“The other three businesses
in the area, Coral Trout Flats, Almo Service Station and Wongaling Beach Caravan Park,
all refer to Mission Beach
on their address and locality and advertise as the same. Everybody that I have spoken to over this matter appear to agree
to the name.”
In a hand written addendum
Ray Morgan wrote, “I have sent a letter to Tip over the road in front of my place. I must be the local complainer by
now.”
Councillor LJ Dickinson moved
and Cr G Scuderi seconded, “The Council resolved that before it made any decision on the matter, that the proposal be
referred to the South Mission Beach and Wongaling Beach Progress Association for comment” before it made any decision
to rename “‘Wongaling Beach’, either Mission Beach or Central Mission Beach. Carried.”
By October the Cardwell Shire
was asking for another name change after making such a resolution in Chambers to have “the area between the southern
most point of South Mission Beach and the northern boundary of the Shire named ‘Mission Beach South.”
This would have eliminated
Wongaling Beach
entirely.
This followed a letter from
the Mission Beach South Progress Association suggesting that “the whole of South Mission and Wongaling Beach be designated
Mission Beach South and the area of Mission Beach in the Johnstone Shire be known as Mission Beach North. We have referred
our suggestions to the Mission Beach-Bingal (sic) Bay Progress Association for comment. C/- Post Office Mission
Beach 4855.”
December saw the Cardwell
Council writing to the Mission Beach South Association advising that not everyone agreed with the name change and had at their
November meeting “considered a petition signed by fifteen residents of Wongaling
Beach, objecting to the proposed name change.” These residents
included – Frank Loude, John & CJ Hutton, Margaret Scott, LD McColl, M & EJ Juce, M May, Peter Hanras, CJ &
Annette, & Barbara Bifi, M McMahon and R Graham” all from Wongaling Beach. The petition had been handed in by Councillor
Virgina.
Now, Mr EC Graham of Wongaling Beach Caravan Park, went even further and instructed
his Solicitors, Mighell, Lee-Bryce and Vandeleur, to represent him in an endeavour to try and stop the proposal from being
proceeded with to change the name. Mr Graham stated that he was upset that he had not been consulted or advised in the matter.
He cited that it would cost
him a considerable amount of money – replacing signs, repainting his shop front, discarding brochures which had been
printed at great cost, and permanent ads which had been placed with the RACQ and Universal Business Directories. He estimated
his loss at between $3,500 and $5,000 which did not take into account likely loss of business.
In November 1982, the Manager
of the Mission Beach Motel asked for the name of Wongaling Beach
to be changed to “Mission Beach”,
allegedly to avoid confusion. The Board noted that although this establishment was located at Wongaling
Beach, its address was incorrectly given in its letterhead as “Mission Beach 4855”. This request was
also refused, as was a similar one made about the same time through the Premier’s Department.
Obviously, if the motel management
used the correct official address in its letterhead – “Wongaling
Beach”, there would be no confusion to motel guests or business
associates, was the Board’s conclusion.
So from the end of 1980 till
the beginning of 1984 this matter basically lapsed with no letters concerning the matter to Cardwell Council until the proprietor
of the Bingarner Tropical Fruits wrote about several comments in the newspapers in reference to naming by commercial interests
in the Mission Beach
area.
The Mission Beach Resort
Hotel/Motel also expressed its concern “at the apparent resentment expressed by the Mission Beach-Bingil Bay Progress
Association in its communications with various newspapers concerning the use of the name ‘Mission Beach’ by various commercial
interests … and by word of mouth of its members.”
It was pointed out that “since
the resort was purchased in November 1980, extensive campaigns have been undertaken to promote the whole area as the Mission Beach area and any change in (their) name would
result in a loss of their sales and marketing exposure in Australia
and overseas. Support is sought by Council expressing its views on the matter to the Progress Association.”
Meanwhile the Mission Beach-Bingil
Bay Progress Association made comment on a statement released by the Federal Member for Herbert, Hon E Lindsay, concerning
a “’community hall for Mission Beach’ and the way it was published in the local press.
“It all comes about
by the fact that a Community Centre for here at Mission Beach in the Johnstone
Shire has been kicked around for years, and when the media gave a story from your press release, many people here in Mission
Beach and other places thought that at last it ‘was on.’
“However, there was
one thing many people were not aware of and that is, the Community Hall to which you refer is not being built in the town
of Mission Beach but more likely in the town of South Mission Beach, in the Cardwell Shire,” Mr W Roy Dunford of the
Association stated.
“Any confusion that
may exist has arisen from the studied refusal of certain parties to observe the approved place names.”
The press release by the
Member for Herbert announced that the Federal Government had approved a grant of $23,745 for the construction of a community
hall at Mission Beach
near Tully.
“This project valued
at $34,622, is funded under the Commonwealth Government Community Employment Program,” Mr Lindsay said. “It will
provide employment for four locally unemployed people for approximately fourteen weeks.
“Local community groups
approached the Cardwell Shire Council to provide a community and cultural activities centre in the Mission Beach area. This has resulted in the
Council providing an area for this community hall on the Mission Beach Reserve. The community hall project is the first stage
of a planned community centre. This centre will be built into the overall plan of the reserve which will include camping facilities,
a water reserve, playing fields, as well as an air-strip for planes.”
Even after this explanation
to the Member, Cardwell Shire councilors C Borgna and PV Dore moved and seconded “that a letter be forwarded to the
Place Names Board requesting that South Mission
Beach be changed to Mission Beach and pointed out that the Mission
was situated on Mission Hill. Carried.”
The Board replied that having
given careful consideration to the place naming actions that had been taken since 1961 in the Shires of Cardwell and Johnstone,
the Board decided to decline Council’s request and to retain the name “South Mission Beach” for the township.
In making its decision, the Board also had in mind the fact that the Mission Beach Post Office and the Mission Beach State
School are (1984) situated in the gazetted town of Mission Beach.”
The Board went on, “The
confusion that may exist has arisen from the studied refusal of certain local groups to observe the approved place names,
as certain organizations were using the names “North Mission Beach” and “Mission Beach” in tourist
publicity, and the purpose of this publicity was to mislead the general public into believing that the names had been officially
received.”
It emphatically stated: “The
present position is that the officially approved names of the towns in this area remain as originally assigned – from
the north: Mission Beach, Wongaling Beach and South Mission Beach.
There is no place named “North Mission
Beach” despite persistent statements from some quarters to this
effect.”
The department went on: “The
Board has from the beginning acted in a reasonable manner in trying to establish a suitable geographic nomenclature for the
contiguous coastal areas of the two Shires. Any difficulties over the past 16 (sixteen) years have arisen from the rivalries
among various local groups.
“It is possible that
if the Cardwell Shire Council had not in the first place asked the Board to approve the name “Wongaling
Beach” for the locality between Mission
Beach and South Mission Beach, the controversy might never
have erupted (or at least might have been more easily resolved). On the other hand, the Cardwell Shire Council in 1961 did
not object to the use of the name “Mission Beach” for the town and post office in the Johnstone Shire and it had apparently
tolerated the unofficial use of the name in the neighbouring Shire for some time before that. Furthermore, the Cardwell Shire
Council was, without the Board’s approval using the name “South
Mission Beach” for the
township in its territory as early as February 1961.
“The present official
nomenclature may not be entirely satisfactory (although that is a matter of opinion) but the Board believes that to change
it piecemeal in the ways suggested over the years could only make the situation worse.
“In order to avoid
causing greater confusion and in view of the seeming inability of local groups to agree among themselves, the Board intends
to retain the existing place names.
At this advanced stage in
the development of the area, any proposed changes in the names of post offices, schools and other public facilities would
be strongly resisted by Australia Post, Queensland Department of Education etc. Land titles and electoral enrolments also
would be affected. In addition, the Department of Mapping and Surveying has published several maps of the area at various
scales and these all show the officially approved nomenclature. The Department too publishes town maps of Mission
Beach, Wongaling Beach
and South Mission Beach and therefore could be expected to have a more than passing interest in proposals
to change place names in the coastal strip from Clump Point to Tam O’Shanter Point.”
Peter Kellett
1st October 2008
