Bonnie Doon is a coastal rural

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

in the

Shire of Douglas The Shire of Douglas is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Far North Queensland, Far North Queensland. It is located on the coast north of the city of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns. The shire, administered from the town of Mo ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. In the , Bonnie Doon had a population of 372 people.

Geography

Bonnie Doon is bounded to the north by the

Mossman River The Mossman River is a river located in the Cape York Peninsula of Far North Queensland, Australia. The headwaters of the river rise under Devils Thumb on the Mount Carbine Tableland in the Great Dividing Range. The river flows through a dee ...

, to the east by the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down the Australian northeast coast. Most of it is protected by the Fre ...

, and to the south by the

Captain Cook Highway The Captain Cook Highway is a short, regional highway in Queensland which originates in Cairns and terminates in Mossman, where it joins Mossman-Daintree Road, continuing to Daintree. The Captain Cook Highway is used to connect the CBD of Ca ...

. The South Mossman River and its tributary Cassowary Creek flow from the south and, after, their confluence, the South Mossman River becomes the north-western boundary of the locality, until its confluence with the Mossman River.

History

In October 1878, William Henry Buchanan selected 400 acres of land on the south bank of the Mossman River, calling it Bonnie Doon. On 22 October 1886, the murder of William Thompson by his wife Ellen Thompson and her lover John Harrison, a worker at Bonnie Doon resulted in both of them being hanged at

Boggo Road Gaol Boggo Road Gaol in Brisbane, Australia, was Queensland’s main jail from the 1880s to the 1980s, by which time it had become notorious for poor conditions and rioting. Located on Annerley Road in Dutton Park, an inner southern suburb of Brisbane ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

on 13 June 1887. Ellen Thompson was the only woman ever hanged in Queensland. On 23 August 1897, the

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

from Bonnie Doon was the first to be crushed at the Mossman Sugar Mill. Bonnie Doon Provisional School opened about January 1915 as a half time school, sharing a teacher with Hutton Park Provisional School. They both closed about August 1922.

Education

There are no schools in Bonnie Doon, but there are primary and secondary schools in neighbouring Mossman.

References

Shire of Douglas Coastline of Queensland Localities in Queensland {{Queensland-geo-stub