Mossman is a rural town and

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 area in Far North Queensland. It is located on the coast north of the city of Cairns. The shire, administered from the town of Mossman, covers an area of , and existed as a local government entity f ...

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 , establishe ...

, Australia. It is the administrative centre for the

Douglas Shire Council The Shire of Douglas is a local government area in Far North Queensland. It is located on the coast north of the city of Cairns. The shire, administered from the town of Mossman, covers an area of , and existed as a local government entity fro ...

In the , the locality of Mossman had a population of 1,937 people.

Geography

Mossman in

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf Co ...

on 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 ...

. Mossman is located on 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 ...

north of the regional city of

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

, and east of the Mount Carbine Tableland. The Mossman River flows through the locality from west ( Finlayvale / Mossman Gorge) to east ( Newell / Bonnie Doon). Mossman Gorge, a popular attraction within

Daintree National Park The Daintree rainforest is a national park in Far North Queensland, Australia, northwest of Brisbane and northwest of Cairns. It was founded in 1981 and is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland. In 1988 it became a World Heritage Site. The pa ...

and the broader

Wet Tropics of Queensland The Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site consists of approximately 8,940 km2 of Australian wet tropical forests growing along the north-east Queensland portion of the Great Dividing Range. The Wet Tropics of Queensland meets all f ...

World Heritage area is located west of town.

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

farming is an important aspect of the local economy, with

Mossman Central Mill Mossman is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Douglas, Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre for the Douglas Shire Council In the , the locality of Mossman had a population of 1,937 people. Geography Mossman in Far ...

, the only sugar mill in the district (), processing the cane before sending it to

for shipping domestically and internationally. There is a network of

cane tramways The rail network in Queensland, Australia, was the first in the world to adopt narrow gauge for a main line, and now the second largest narrow gauge network in the world, consists of: *the North Coast Line (NCL) extending from Brisbane to R ...

through Mossman and nearby sugarcane growing areas to deliver the harvested sugarcane to the mill.

History

The traditional language area of Kuka-Dyangan (also known as Djangun, Gugu Djangun and Kuka Djangun) includes landscape within the local government boundaries of the

Douglas Shire The Shire of Douglas is a local government area in Far North Queensland. It is located on the coast north of the city of Cairns. The shire, administered from the town of Mossman, covers an area of , and existed as a local government entity fro ...

and

Cook Shire The Shire of Cook (The Shire) is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia. The Shire covers most of the eastern and central parts of Cape York Peninsula, the most northerly section of the Australian mainland. It covers an area ...

. '' Kuku Yalanji'' (also known as ''Gugu Yalanji'', ''Kuku Yalaja'', and ''Kuku Yelandji'') is an

Australian Aboriginal language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

of the Mossman and Daintree areas of

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

. The language region includes areas within the local government area of

and

Shire of Cook The Shire of Cook (The Shire) is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia. The Shire covers most of the eastern and central parts of Cape York Peninsula, the most northerly section of the Australian mainland. It covers an area ...

, particularly the localities of Mossman, Daintree,

Bloomfield River The Bloomfield River is a river located in the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland, Australia, noted for its Bloomfield River cod fish species, found only in the river. Course and features The river rises in the Great Dividing Range below Zi ...

, China Camp, Maytown,

Palmer Palmer may refer to: People and fictional characters * Palmer (pilgrim), a medieval European pilgrim to the Holy Land * Palmer (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Palmer (surname), including a list of people and ...

Cape Tribulation Cape Tribulation is a headland and coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas in northern Queensland, Australia. In the , Cape Tribulation had a population of 118 people. Geography The locality is north of Cairns. It is within the Daintree Na ...

and

Wujal Wujal Wujal Wujal is a rural town and locality in the Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire, Queensland, Australia. In the , Wujal Wujal had a population of 282 people. It is an Aboriginal community. The community of Wujal Wujal is located in the Cape York ...

. '' Yalanji'' (also known as ''Kuku Yalanji'', ''Kuku Yalaja'', ''Kuku Yelandji'', and ''Gugu Yalanji)'' is an Australian Aboriginal language of

. The traditional language region is

in the south to the

Annan River The Annan River ( Kuku Nyungkal: ''Yuku Baja'') is a river located in the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland, Australia. Course and features The river rises in the Yorkey Range below Mount Romeo near , north-northwest of . The river flows g ...

in the north, bordered by the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

in the east and extending inland to west of Mount Mulgrave. This includes the local government boundaries of the

, the

and the

Aboriginal Shire of Wujal Wujal The Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is managed as a Deed of Grant in Trust under the ''Local Government (Community Government Areas) Act 2004''. Geography It is on the east coast of ...

and the towns and localities of

Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for re ...

, Mossman, Daintree,

and

. It includes the head of the

Palmer River The Palmer River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia. The area surrounding the river was the site of a gold rush in the late 19th century which started in 1873. Course and features The headwaters of the Palmer River rise in ...

, the

China Camp China Camp State Park is a state park in Marin County, California, surrounding a historic Chinese American shrimp-fishing village and a salt marsh. The park is located in San Rafael, California, on the shore of San Pablo Bay. It is known for it ...

, Maytown, and Palmerville. The district was originally known as Mossman River after the river which flows through it. The

, in turn, was named by the explorer George Dalrymple on 6 December 1873 after

Hugh Mosman Hugh Mosman (11 February 1843 – 15 November 1909) was a mine owner and politician in Queensland, Australia. He discovered gold in Charters Towers. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Council. Early life Mosman was born on 11 Februa ...

who discovered gold in

Charters Towers Charters Towers is a rural town in the Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It is by road south-west from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the town boomed as the rich gold deposits unde ...

. Dalrymple wrote ''"I named this river the Mossman River, after Mossman, an explorer and mining man, member of a very prominent mining family"''. The town was also known for a brief time as Hartsville after Daniel Hart, an early settler. Later the name was changed to ''Mossman''. The Mossman - Port Douglas parish of the Roman Catholic Vicariate Apostolic of Queensland (now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns) was established in 1877. Mossman River Post Office opened by 1895 (a

receiving office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional se ...

had been open from 1883) and was renamed Mossman in 1899. Mossman Central Sugar Mill commenced crushing on 23 August 1897. Mossman River State School opened on 31 January 1898 under head teacher Thomas Garland. It was renamed Mossman State School in 1910. A secondary department was opened on 1 February 1955, which operated until a separate Mossman State High School opened on 30 January 1973. The establishment and subsequent growth of Cairns and the completion of the Cairns Railway up through the Barron Gorge in 1891 gave a more direct gateway to the hinterland but, at this period, it was found that the Mossman district contained suitable land for sugar-growing. The establishment of the sugar mill at Mossman formed the nucleus of the town, which grew at the expense of Port Douglas. Sugar cane tram travelling through Mossman, Queensland, 1900

Sugar cane tram travelling through Mossman, Queensland, 1900

The district was served by two separate 2-foot (610 mm) gauge tramway systems. Both at one time handled passengers and general goods, as well as sugar cane. Mossman district owes its present prosperity to these tramways which pioneered the first reasonable transport in the neighbourhood, for trafficable roads followed later. StateLibQld 2 294907 Remains of the Roman Catholic Church after the 1911 cyclone, Mossman

StateLibQld 2 294907 Remains of the Roman Catholic Church after the 1911 cyclone, Mossman

In June 1905, tenders were called to erect a Catholic church in Mossman. On Sunday 21 January 1906, St Augustine's Catholic church was consecrated by

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

James Murray in the presence of several hundred spectators. On Thursday 16 March 1911, a cyclone hit Mossman and Port Douglas doing considerable damage. In Mossman, over 80 people were homeless and the Catholic and Anglican churches were destroyed. Roman Catholic Church and Convent, Mossman, Queensland

Roman Catholic Church and Convent, Mossman, Queensland

On Sunday 11 February 1912, a new St Augustine's Catholic Church was opened by Bishop Murray. It was in Junction Road (approx ), opposite the Mossman Butchery Company (established in 1927 at 3 Junction Road, ). As the population of Mossman grew, there was a desire to build a Catholic school, but the Junction Road site did not have the space, so a new site was purchased in Grogan Street. On Sunday 29 April 1934,

John Heavey John Alphonsus Heavey (1868-1948) was a Roman Catholic bishop in Queensland, Australia. He was the Vicar Apostolic of Cooktown and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Cairns. Early life Heavey was born on 13 November 1868 in Roundwood, County W ...

officially opened the new St Augustine's complex at Grogan Street, consisting of a presbytery, a combined church and school building, and a convent. The architect was Vibert McKirdy Brown. St Augustine's Catholic School opened with 70 students, with the initial teachers being Sisters Mary Agnes, Gabriel, Cecelia and Pius of the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

. On 30 January 1977, a new hexagonal-shaped St Augustine's church opened on the Grogan Street site with the former church being converted into school classrooms. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Mossman was attacked in a Japanese air raid on 31 July 1942. A single flying boat dropped a bomb that fell near a house and injured a child. Mossman State High School opened on 30 January 1973. Mossman Library opened in 1977. At the , the town of Mossman had a population of 1,740. Prior to 2008, Mossman was the seat of the

. In 2008, the Shire of Douglas was amalgamated into the

Cairns Region The Cairns Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, centred on the regional city of Cairns. It was established in 2008 by the amalgamation of the City of Cairns and the Shires of Douglas and Mulgrave. H ...

, which was administered from both Cairns and Mossman. In 2014, the Shire of Douglas was de-amalgamated from Cairns Region and reinstated as Shire of Douglas. In the , the locality of Mossman had a population of 1,937 people.

Heritage listings

StateLibQld 1 117412 Cars travelling along Mill Street, Mossman, 1940

Mossman has a number of

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many i ...

sites, including: * Johnston Road: Mossman District Hospital * 2 Front Street: Exchange Hotel (formerly Daintree Inn) * 3 Foxton Avenue: St David's Anglican Church * 8–14 Mill Street: Mossman Shire Hall and Douglas Shire Council Chambers * 11 Mill Street: National Bank of Australasia Building

Mossman Central Mill

StateLibQld 2 129087 Mossman Sugar Mill, Queensland, 1920s

Mossman Central Mill Company Limited opened in 1894 as co-operative sugar mill owned by local sugarcane farmers. The first sugarcane was crushed on 23 August 1897, the sugarcane coming from Bonnie Doon. Annie Rose fed the first sugarcane into the mill, with the mill producing its first sugar after crushing of cane for the initial season. In 1906, Mossman Mill became the first Queensland mill to crush over of cane. That season lasted just under 8 months, extending from June 1906 to late January 1907. Initially, sugar was transported by sea from Port Douglas, but later the sugar was taken by road to the bulk sugar terminal in Cairns. Louis John Frederick Prince (General Manager) pioneered the use of computers for cane payment accounting and, in 1971, Mossman purchased the first process control computer used in the world sugar industry.

Education

Mossman State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 30-34 Front Street (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 213 students with 16 teachers (13 full-time equivalent) and 22 non-teaching staff (13 full-time equivalent). Mossman State High School is a government secondary (7-12) school for boys and girls at 46-62 Front Street (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 611 students with 62 teachers (56 full-time equivalent) and 41 non-teaching staff (31 full-time equivalent). It includes a

special education Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...

program. St Augustine's School is a Catholic primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at Grogan Street (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 217 students with 16 teachers (14 full-time equivalent) and 13 non-teaching staff (6 full-time equivalent). The Tropical North Steiner School has been approved to open in 2022; it will offer Prep to Year 3 initially.

Amenities

operates Mossman Library at 14 Mill Street (). The Mossman branch of the

Queensland Country Women's Association The Queensland Country Women's Association (QCWA) is the Queensland chapter of the Country Women's Association in Australia. The association seeks to serve the interests of women and children in rural areas in Australia through a network of loca ...

meets at 28 Front Street (). There are a number of churches in Mossman, including: * St Augustine's Catholic Church, at 24B Grogan Street (), within the Mossman-Port Douglas Parish of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns is a diocese of the Catholic Church located in the state of Queensland, Australia. It is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Brisbane. The diocese was erected as a vicariate apostolic in 1877 and was ...

*St David's Anglican Church, 3 Foxton Avenue (), within the

Anglican Diocese of North Queensland The Diocese of North Queensland is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, founded in 1879. It is situated in the northern part of the state of Queensland, Australia. As part of the Province of Queensland, it covers the Torres Strait Isl ...

*Mossman Uniting Church, 36 Front Street () *Mossman Seventh-Day Adventist Church, 60 Captain Cook Highway ()

Sport

Mossman has a number of sporting clubs such as the Mossman Sharks rugby league club, Coral Coast Judo Club, Douglas United Dragons Football (Soccer) Club, A Basketball League runs out of the high school Indoor Sport Centre. There is also the Port Douglas Crocs AFL club, Mossman Gymnastics, Port Douglas and Mossman Rugby Union club, and Lady Dragons Indigenous Rugby League Football Club.

References

External links

*
Town information from the Sydney Morning Herald
{{authority control Towns in Queensland Populated places in Far North Queensland Shire of Douglas Queensland in World War II Localities in Queensland