The Battle of Parramatta Park, Cairns, During the Great Depression

A History of Cairns – City of the South Pacific (1770-1995) by Timothy Bottoms, PhD, CQU, 2002

Chapter 8Depression & Recovery

(1930-1939) Extract

8.3 The Battle of Parramatta Park

The beginning of June saw the early rumblings of an event thatstill causes controversy today and is cited in national and statehistories as an example of country people’s intolerance towardsunemployed.1 The president of the Cairns Show Association, Ron Fogarty,who was also manager of the Cairns Brewery,2 had become impatient and“threatened he would if necessary, even go to the extent of unroofingthe buildings unless the unemployed campers in the association’sbuildings at Parramatta Park left within 48 hours.”3 The planning andpreparation for the next show was by now well under way. Erroneously,two of the campers (‘Hobo’ and ‘Heau Beau’) wrote to the Post withoutauthority of the Unemployed Committee, claiming that Fogarty’s beerhad been banned,4 which was later fervently denied.5

On Thursday evening 23 June 1932, a large public meeting wasconvened at the Hibernian Hall by the Mayor (Ald. W.A. Collins), with200 unemployed and 300 local citizens in attendance, “for the purposeof enlisting public aid for the unemployed…”6 The tone was one ofconciliation, and the motion was passed “that the Mayor be requestedto convene a meeting of representatives of all local public bodies,with a view to having a shelter shed built for the unemployed.”7

A second meeting was held the following Thursday evening (30June), at the Cairns City Council Chambers, where the Mayor offered tobuild a temporary shelter until the show was over,8 as well as lobbythe state and federal governments for assistance in creating work forthe unemployed. However, the unemployed wanted permanent shelter, nottemporary, and obviously felt that this was probably the only timethey would be able to bargain for it. The Mayor, naturally felt hispriority was the people of Cairns, and that the unemployed (fromelsewhere), were the responsibility of the state and federal


governments.9 The Council and local prominent citizens had made theiroffer and it had been rejected. It was felt that the swagmen wereasking too much of the district.10 Nine days after the second meeting,it is possible to discern that the local ‘powers that be’ had decidedto take a different tack to settle the problem. They had “resolved tomake the whole matter public, soliciting the co-operation of thepublic in the committee’s efforts to hold the Annual Show free frominterference.”11

1 For example, see R. Fitzgerald, op.cit., p.168: “In country centres, theunemployed became targets of public hostility.” Particularly, G. Aplin, S.G.Foster, & M. McKernan (eds), Australians - Events and Places, Fairfax, Syme & WeldonAssociates, Broadway, 1987, p.146: “17 July Townspeople of Cairns attackedtravelling unemployed who were occupying the showground while waiting for thelocal council to build a shelter promised them.” Yet the unemployed hadpreviously rejected the temporary shelter! See also B.J. Costar, “Labor,Politics and Unemployment: Queensland During the Great Depression”, PhD, UQ,St. Lucia, 1981, pp.273-76, “The level of violence involved in the Cairns’affair made it unique; but, in other respects it was symptomatic of thetensions that existed between the itinerant unemployed, the State Governmentand the local authorities.” p.276.2 Called ‘Northern Australian Breweries Ltd.’ K.M. Deutsher, The breweries ofAustralia, Lothian Books, Port Melbourne, 1999, p.191.3 Telegraph, 16 June 1932. 4 This would appear to be highly unlikely considering that there were 25 pubsoperating in Cairns during this period of the early 1930s. G. Stack, and it wasnot easy, Boolarong Press, Brisbane, 1984, p.8.5 Cairns Post, 20 June 1932. 6 “Shelter for Workless. Representations to Premier”, Cairns Post, 1 July 1932.7 Cairns Post, 24 June 1932.8 The temporary shelter was planned for the vicinity of the overseas wharffor the duration of the show, and “would be of wooden framework withtarpaulin coverings, and the sanitary and other essential services would becarried out.” Representatives of local bodies, included “Alderman B.O.Balfe, Messrs. R.F.G. Fogarty, W. Houston and R.T. Whyte (Show Committee);E.H. Heale and T.G. Dillon (Cairns Harbour Board), J.J. McDonald (C.P.N.),Bennett and McCormack (Unemployed), Mr. H.K.N. MacDonnell (Chamber ofCommerce), and the town clerk (Mr. A.E. Wilkinson).” [Cairns Post, 1 July1932.] Note the unemployed were not dignified with their initials.Interestingly, the Cairns City Council had contacted the Forgan Smithgovernment requesting financial assistance to build a permanent shelter, but


It is from this point that a noticeable change began in the waythe unemployed and their views were reported by the Cairns Post.Certainly, it was apparent that prominent people were behind theeditor’s coverage of the issue.12 Police communication reveals thatthey were aware that residents wanted the swagmen to be “driven outwith the baton.”13 Although which residents were not specified. MayorCollins was not alone in wanting the local show to go ahead. Otherleading businessmen of the town, aided, of course by the Cairns Post,

were told that “in other centres such structures had been financed byvoluntary subscriptions and that Cairns should do the same.” However, thePremier misread the situation and his ‘optimism was misplaced’. Costar,op.cit., p.274, n.37.9 The whole national/state/local government structure was quite differentthen, with federal taxing and funding arrangements with the states notchanging dramatically until the advent of the Second World War.10 “i.e., 100 8ft. x 10ft. tents to be provided with an extra fly for each twotents, such tents to be properly constructed, each tent to contain two bunks,and that water, sanitary conveniences, fuel and baths be provided. Such campsite to be situated near Gatton and Grove streets.” Cairns Post, 9 July 1932.11 ibid. This was characteristic of the way Mayor Collins operated. As Pearsonnotes: “At meetings he frequently resisted motions to go into committee [i.e.closed session] and would only do so where commercial or legal matters neededto be discussed. He frequently said that ‘the people have a right to know’ sohe ensured that the local press was given every opportunity to learn of the[Electricity] Board’s activities, and the Cairns Post effectively made good useof this information.” L. Pearson, The Hydro: The Barron Falls Hydro-Electricity Board,History of the Early Electricity Supply Industry in the Cairns Region, Part II, L.M. Pearson,Brinsmead, 2001, p.170.12 “ ‘The Cairns Post’ has been requested to publish for the information ofthe public of Cairns and the Far North…”, although who requested the editor(J.H. McVilly, editor from 1926-1944), it does not say, but one can make someinformed deductions. ibid. Costar identifies that various “Cairns’ communitygroups then commenced to pressure the Government to evict the unemployed” andcites letters from the Cairns Chamber of Commerce (13 July, 1932, QSA32/3106, PRE/A1046) and Cairns Sporting Groups (13 July, 1832, QSA 32/3547,PRE/A1046). B.J. Costar, “Labor, Politics and Unemployment: Queensland Duringthe Great Depression”, PhD, UQ, St. Lucia, 1981, p.274.


were actively planning what the independent-minded, isolated northQueensland region had always done, on those rare occasions of civicincensement: to throw them out.14

It therefore comes as no surprise, that one of the unemployed,George Bliss recalled the following:

We heard that a prominent Tory had urged members of theCatholic Church and the Returned Soldiers’ League to ‘getdown and do over the unemployed’, and it was reported thatthe local brewery manager told his employees: ‘Don’t cometo work on Monday morning unless you’ve been down atParramatta Park getting into the unemployed.’ Managers ofbig stores and the timber mill were reported to have madesimilar statements.15

Another eyewitness remembered “a lot of civilians giving policesupport, big burly men from the wharves, country people, farmers andthat…they were all on the side of the Mayor.”16 Three days before theshow was scheduled to begin, the Cairns Post, under the by-lines “CairnsShow: The Preparation, Busy Scene at Parramatta Park”, informedreaders rather cryptically, that: “The final working bee will be heldthis Saturday and Sunday. All citizens are requested to assist in thecompletion of the preparation of the grounds.”17 Ernie Silvester, as a14-year old, was in town as part of his family’s travelling vaudeville13 Commissioner of Police to Premier, 13 July 1932, Premier’s DeptCorrespondence, QSA, cited in R. Sullivan & D. May, “The Reconstruction of anAgrarian Populist Mentality: the Parramatta Park ‘Riot’ of 1932”, ElectronicJournal of Australian and New Zealand History, www.jcu.edu.au/aff/history/article/sullivan.htm, p.9.14 See Chapter 6, Gaslight Sports. When southerners were discovered cheatingthe betting system on the foot races, they were “run out of town”. Theperception in 1910 was ‘Naturally, local honesty and honour was at stake andcommunity feelings ran very much against these deceiving interlopers whobreached the common decency and trust of the district.’ This appears to alsohave applied to the 1932 situation. Certainly the Cairns Post (18 July 1932),the day after the ‘riot’ reported: “the unemployed were once again warned toget out – and this time out of town.” See also: Chapter 6, Section 6.3 ACalamitous Year - 1911.15 George Bliss interview in L. Fox (ed), Depression Down Under, Hale &Iremonger, Sydney, 1992, p.72.16 Interview with Ernie Silvester, COHP, 0101, 28 January 2001.17 Cairns Post, 16 July 1932.

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entertainment troupe, and recalled that it was common knowledge aroundtown that there was going to be a confrontation down at the park, andas a result was forbidden by his mother to go near the showground.18

Thus it was that on Sunday morning, 17 July 1932, at about 9.15,just after church, citizens began to gather at the gates of theshowground, and as they poured through the gate, the unemployedrealised their mistake. George Bliss, recalled: “it was a tacticalerror on our part; a few days before we should have shifted and campedat the police station or somewhere.”19

The Post reported that the police aligned themselves between theunemployed and the local crowd, who “[g]rabbing any stick or batonlying handy20…led by the Mayor, aldermen and business men, advanced tothe end of the park, where the unemployed had moved into massformation, between a row of stalls and cattle pens.”21 One of thecornered swagmen threw the first blow at a policeman, and the battlewas on for young and old. Some citizens had climbed onto the roof ofone of the sheds and showered the unemployed with pieces of concreteand bottles. The swagmen, feeling they had little to lose, threw anunlit gelignite bomb, which thankfully did not go off.22 The youngteenage observer, Ernie Silvester, remembered:

I watched the police cars going from the showground to thePolice Station, or the Lockup, or maybe to the hospital;

18 Personal communication with Mr Ernie Silvester, 6 May 2001. Ron Stewart, ahire-car driver, gave evidence in Herberton (on 29 October, 1932), whichconfirms Mrs Silvester’s concerns, as he “had reason to believe from talk [intown] that there might be trouble there. It was said that the citizens weregoing to ask the unemployed to leave the grounds before the show, and alsotalk of the unemployed resisting attempts to get them to go.” Cairns Post, 31October 1932.19 George Bliss interview in L. Fox (ed), Depression Down Under, Hale &Iremonger, Sydney, 1992, p.73.20 Bliss as a participant identified that “”The police were using their batonsand when they broke their batons they picked up sticks. The fight didn’t lastlong; we were overwhelmed.” ibid. 21 Cairns Post, 18 July 1932.22 Ernie Silvester noted that: “had one gone off and killed some of the localor prominent townspeople, there would probably have been a few KangarooCourts and lynchings going on.” Interview with Ernie Silvester, COHP, 0101,28 January 2001.


with all these injured swagmen. Some of them wereunconscious with blood streaming from their head, wherethey had been hit, and their arms hanging out the carwindow.23

The battle lasted twenty minutes,24 and about 80 persons, including citizens, police and unemployedwere injured and several were taken to hospital in aserious condition. Three unemployed men were arrested andtwo others [one day later] are in hospital under policeguard. Seven unemployed, one Cairns man, and one policeconstable are still in hospital.25

Meanwhile the remaining ‘swaggies’ were chased across the railwaybridge spanning Alligator Creek as far as the suburb of Bungalow.26

Later the routed campers were allowed to return in groups of four, togather their meagre belongings.27 Nevertheless, this desperate ifsomewhat foolish stand, did in fact have an effect, for within twodays of the battle, it was unobtrusively announced: “Under theunemployment relief scheme for single men about 470 men have beenallotted two days’ work [by the state government] in the Cairns Cityand Shire areas, at 10/- a day. This number is a considerable increaseon the figures for the last quarter.”28

Editor McViliy of the Post raised the spectre of the communistbogey (as did southern and overseas newspapers),29 and with headlineslike “Red Blooded Men”, and “Ruthless Reds Routed”, maintained thatit was the communist ethos that inspired protesting unemployed, withno mention of the sheer desperation of their situation. Two weekslater the local Police Magistrate, Mr A.H. O’Kelly, appears to havebeen determined to convict30 even when the evidence given suggestedthat none of the four

23 Interview with Ernie Silvester, COHP, 0101, 28 January 2001.24 Cairns Post, 28 October 1932.25 Cairns Post, 18 July 1932.26 “This bridge crossed a deep tidal channel of water and mangrove mud about40-feet [12 m] wide and ran back into the vicinity of Barlow Sports Park.” V.Bradley, I didn’t know that. Cairns and Districts Tully to Cape York, 1939-1946, Service Personnel andCivilians, Boolarong Press, Moorooka, 1995, p.59.27 Cairns Post, 18 July 1932.28 Cairns Post, 21 July 1932.


[Courtesy of the Historical Society of Cairns, CHSP 00489]

Photo 8.3 Members of the unemployed who looked for relief work and wereknown locally as ‘swaggies’ [Swagmen] or ‘bagmen’, outside the Dog andPoultry Shed, one of the Showground Pavilions.

29 For example, see the Sydney Morning Herald, 20 June 1931 (“Desperate Fighting.Communists & Police. Barricaded House Stormed. Entanglements & Sandbags.”);Sydney Daily Telegraph, 10 December 1931 (“Reds Harried by Town & CountryCitizens”); Brisbane Telegraph, 12 & 23 July 1932. The Cairns Post (13 July1932), carried a report from St. Louis (11 July) under the headline “ViolentDemands. American Unemployed. Police Disperse Crowds.” And then went on tostate that “The police on Monday used tear gas bombs to disperse a crowd of2000 unemployed, under the auspices of the Communistic organisation, as theyattempted to enter City Hall to make their demands for relief. A negro andtwo whites were shot and wounded.” This may have given the impression thatthis was a growing world-wide phenomena.30 In his concluding statement, on Saturday morning 6 August, at the CityPolice Court, when sentencing the accused, O’Kelly stated: “You were led byhot-headed fanatics who took up the attitude that the police were theaggressors; but there had been no contradiction of the fact that theunemployed attacked the police first”. Cairns Post, 8 August 1932.


[Courtesy of the Historical Society of Cairns]

Photo 8.4 The ‘Battle of Parramatta Park’. It was on Sunday morning, 17 July1932, at about 9.15, just after church, citizens began to gather at the gatesof the showground, and as they poured through the gate, the unemployed realisedtheir mistake. The Melbourne Sun Pictorial [23 July 1932] reported: “The citizens’force scattering when a bomb (which did not explode) was thrown among them.About 100 unruly men were moved from the showground in a few minutes.” In factthe fracas lasted at least twenty minutes [Cairns Post, 28 October 1932]. Some150 citizens plus 34 police, making a total of 184, were involved against the‘swaggies’, and accounting for 1.67% of Cairns City population. The number ofcitizens who had ‘gone for a good sticky-beak’ (accepting the Cairns Post’sfigures) amounted to a 1000, or 9% of the town’s population, which suggeststhat those involved, even as spectators, were very much a minority of thepopulation of Cairns.

men were guilty of the charges brought.31 Even when their defencebarrister (H.F. McLaughlin) requested that the time they had spent inthe lock-up, be taken into consideration when sentencing, “His Worship[stated]: I will take into consideration nothing.” They were

31 Alfred ‘Snowy’ Paul (28) from South Australia, John Reynolds (26) anEnglishman, Stanley Keen (35) who had spent 15 days in hospital recoveringfrom his injuries, also English, and Roderick McLean (23) from Victoria.[Cairns Post, 8 August 1932.] George Bliss identified ‘Snowy’ as the onlyproclaimed communist amongst the defiant unemployed. L. Fox (ed), DepressionDown Under, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1992, p.72.


“sentenced to two months’ imprisonment with hard labour at Stewart’s[sic] Creek Gaol.” 32 Almost two months later, after an appeal at theHerberton Circuit Court, with Fred Patterson as defence counsel,33 MrJustice R.J. Douglas found all the men charged, not guilty.34

How united were the people of Cairns against the unemployed? Mayand Sullivan interpret the citizens of Cairns as being united in theiropposition to the unemployed but this is not necessarily so. Theattackers appear to have been made up of certain groups. These werethe farmers, workers from the brewery and the big stores and thetimber mills. These latter men came, George Bliss said, on the directorders of their bosses.35 The attackers may have been acting out ofgenuine outrage, but they were also protecting their jobs. Secondly,fights, like weddings, always drew a crowd in country towns. Most ofthose who did turn up at the showgrounds that morning were there justto watch the fight.36

32 Cairns Post, 8 August 1932. Trial report from Saturday 6 August.33 Fred Paterson, was a Queensland Rhodes Scholar in 1922, gaining a BA inTheology at Oxford. He was also a champion athlete, and became an AustralianRailway Union official and prominent radical lawyer who became Australia’sonly communist Member of the Legislative Assembly (for the seat of Bowen,1944-50). He also served on the Townsville City Council (1938-45), and wasbashed severely by a plains-clothes’ policeman while observing ademonstration in Brisbane (in 1948). See R. Fitzgerald, A History of Queensland –From 1915 to the 1980s, UQP, St. Lucia, 1984, p.33 & 47 n.77, pp.131-32.34 Cairns Post, 28, 29, 31 October 1932. Including John McCormack, James Hill,‘Snowy’ Paul, and Baden Bennett.35 The Post observed during the ensuing battle, that “among the injured were alarge number of influential citizens of the town, but the usurpers sufferedmost.” Cairns Post, 18 July 1932.36 This attitude was not unusual, as Young notes in regard to the BrisbaneGeneral Strike in 1912, when the Police Commissioner refused a permit for amarch, many citizens of Brisbane were so angered that their streets had beendenied to them, that “thousands of workers turned out to demonstrate. Othersturned up out of curiosity to see what would develop.” [P. Young, Proud to be aRebel: The Life and Times of Emma Miller, UQP, St. Lucia, 1991, p.180.] In a similarvein, curiosity brought out thousands to see the first flight in Cairns (seeChapter 6, Section 6.8 Flying), and there were regular crowds of people who sawthe arrival and departure of weekly steamers.


There were 34 police, and approximately 100 unemployed, withfigures for the numbers of citizenry involved in the melee, varyingquite dramatically, from 150 to 500. Similarly, the numbers ofspectators varies from 1,000 to 2,000 (and 4,000 by the time itreached Sydney!).37 The Cairns Post reported that 500 citizensparticipated in the fighting. Bliss had every reason to exaggerate theodds, while the Post needed to justify the actions of those involved.Monday’s edition claimed a “crowd of nearly 1000 citizens hadgathered at the entrance gates shortly before 10 a.m.”38 The populationof Cairns City was 11,000; the combined Shire and Town, 17,600 39 andif one accepts Bliss’ figures then the number of citizens (150 plus 34police, making a total of 184), involved in the fighting amounted to1.67% of the urban population and even less if related to thedistrict’s population.40 The number of citizens who had ‘gone for agood sticky-beak’ (accepting the Post’s figures) amounted to a 1000, or9% of the town’s population, which suggests that those involved, evenas spectators, were very much a minority of the population of Cairns.41

They may well have been distracted by an alternative entertainmentfor the weekend, but Kingsford-Smith, although attracting a crowd theprevious day had cancelled Sunday’s display of flying in his worldfamous Southern Cross.42 Ninety percent of the rest of Cairns had nothingwhatsoever to do with the ‘battle’.43 The event did not reflect wellon Cairns.44

The Home Secretary, E.M. (Ned) Hanlon, who had been in the jobless than a month, accused the Cairns police of being used as ‘a

37 The figure of 2,000 was identified by one of the unemployed Baden Bennett.[Cairns Post, 29 October 1932.] Sydney Morning Herald (18 July 1932) gives theinflated figure of 4000, quoted in L. Fox (ed), Depression Down Under, Hale &Iremonger, Sydney, 1992, p.74.38 Cairns Post, 18 July 1932.39 QPP 1933 (for 1932), Cairns Town, pp.6F-7F, Table III.40 The percentage was probably much lower than this, allowing that farmers hadcome from the Tableland and were not apart of Cairns population figures.Similarly, a number of police had come from Innisfail, and some might arguethat the police force was not apart of Cairns citizenry, which would make theprobable 150 citizens involved, equivalent to 1.35% of the population.41 Even if one suggests the number of spectators, were 1,500 people (13.6%),or 2,000 (18.6%), the figures do not reflect anywhere near a majority of thetowns’ population being involved in, or observers of, the ‘battle’.


private basher gang’.45 The Cairns City Council with the Post’s support,refuted this allegation, praising the role of the local constabulary.46

Meanwhile at Tully, a workers’ meeting passed a resolution that the“so-called citizens of Cairns who organised and led the brutal assault on theunemployed at Parramatta Park are blood-thirsty fiends of the lowestorder.”47 This caused Mayor Collins to indignantly respond that he hadbeen ‘grossly maligned’,48 and to proclaim (one would submit, very much‘tongue-in-cheek’), that: “It had never been suggested that the Cairns

42 On Saturday 16 July 1932, Mayor Collins welcomed the aviator to Cairns, andthe citizens were given their first view “of the world famous monoplane whenshortly before 10 a.m. the Southern Cross preceded by the Southern Midget flewover the city.” [Cairns Post, 18 July 1932] The aviator was intending to repeatthe display the following day, but at the conclusion of Saturday’s display,“Sir Charles was forced to leave the Saltpan because of encroaching tides.”He returned to Atherton to safeguard his aeroplane, and returned on Sunday,but the landing ground was still affected by the tide, and he did not land.43 Sullivan and May appear to have gone ‘hunting not travelling’ when theyresearched their version of events. They use the same tactic that they accusethe 1932 editor of the Cairns Post of doing – using inflammatory language todescribe their victims – in their case the citizens of Cairns. Theirartificial interpretation, relating the episode to ‘an agrarian populistmentality’, suggests an attempt at trying to force a round peg into a squarehole, while at the same time damning 89% (if one includes spectators with the1.67% involved in the violence, making a total of 10.67%) of the citizens of1932 Cairns. If the spectators are not included with those involved in theviolence, then the figure for citizens not involved, rises to 98%. Ittherefore seems singularly unwarranted to damn the whole of the localcitizenry as ‘lawless’. See R. Sullivan & D. May, “The Reconstruction of anAgrarian Populist Mentality: the Parramatta Park ‘Riot’ of 1932”, ElectronicJournal of Australian and New Zealand History, www.jcu.edu.au/aff/history/article/sullivan.htm44 Despite only a minority involved, this did include prominent businessmen inthe city’s ruling clique [elite?]. Nevertheless, their retort wasencapsulated by one of their own, J.H. McViliy, editor of the Cairns Post. Inhis editorial the day after the battle, McViliy wrote: “The challenge givento the Law, to Society, and to Citizenship, by the extremist nomadic elementthat had taken possession of Parramatta Park, resulted in Law, Society, andCitizenship vindicating themselves, and making a splendid gesture to thewhole State. In this regard, Sunday, July 17, 1932, will be recorded in thehistory of Cairns as a red letter day.” [Cairns Post, 18 July 1932] It hasn’t,

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people should go there to eject the occupants.”49 Nevertheless, for thenext seventeen years the Mayor continued to be re-elected by thecitizens of Cairns,50 serving a total of 22 years in the mayoraloffice, and became the longest serving mayor in Cairns’ history.Collins’ stewardship from before the Depression, through to the SecondWorld War and after, consistently demonstrated his allegiance to thepeople of Cairns and district. His insightful appreciation in planningfor the future needs of his community, particularly with regard to theBarron Falls Hydro-Electricity Board, similarly demonstrated thatdespite the Parramatta ‘Riot’, he had made an invaluable contribution,not only to Cairns, but also to far north Queensland.51

In spite of it all, the 1932 Cairns Show was once again a success,with more than 12,000 people on the first two days,52 and gate-takingsand receipts rose to £940.53 The following year saw much activity by

but echoes of this rhetoric, may be heard 50 years later with regard to thearrival of hippies and commune’s in the 1970s.45 Telegraph, 18 July 1932. In May 1935 cane-cutters in Tully went on strike,primarily for more money, but also to improve working conditions, as a resultof the advent of Weils Disease. Some 300 police were railed to Tully and usedto protect the cane cockies and imported replacement workers (‘Scabs’).Although there was violence on both sides, “Police brutality was given freerein, [and] it was unsafe for strikers to move singly in or near the town.”G. Stack, and it was not easy, Boolarong Publications, Brisbane, 1984, p.115. SeeChapter 8, Section 8.9 Cane. 46 Cairns Post, 19, & 27 July 1932.47My emphasis. Quoted in M.O. Walmsley, “The Battle of Parramatta Park”, HSC,Bulletin 114, October 1968.48 Telegraph, 26 July 1932.49 Cairns Post, 27 July 1932. 50 William Collins was Mayor of Cairns from 1927 to 1949. D. Maguire, Up Front!The Tom Pyne Story, Tom Pyne, Cairns, 1999, Appendix 10, “Mayors of Cairns 1885–1998”, p.159. 51 E.C. Blackhurst, “Telegraphic Address ‘Hydro’, A History of Hydro-Electricity in Far North Queensland”, MA, JCU, Cairns, March 1992, pp.156-66.


the Cairns Agricultural, Pastoral and Mining Association, with areclamation program begun, with up:

to eight feet [2.4m] of filling…required to fill the swampand the council dumped tremendous amounts of rubbish [fill]in Parramatta Park. At weekends the show supporters cartedsand and other fillings to cover the rubbish. The CairnsHarbour Board also provided much of the material…54

During the three-day 1933 Show, some 33,000 people passed through thegates, with takings of £1,170.55 Over the next five years, membershipof the Show Association nearly doubled,56 and gate-takings rose to£2,001 with an estimated attendance of 45,000 people. For a ‘city’ of13,500,57 this, as was recognised at the time, demonstrated theimportance of the event, not only for Cairns, but also the surroundingdistrict and hinterland, for which it was estimated that Cairns servedsome 60,000 people.58

The economic situation began to pick-up with an increase inuse of the railways, and:

52 On the third day of the show, during the afternoon, “462 motor cars wereparked outside the grounds. It is estimated that between 500 and 600 cars and‘buses must have visited the Park throughout the day. At an average of £400each [for a vehicle], they would represent a capital outlay of nearly aquarter of a million pounds.” Cairns Post, 22 July 1932.53 Cummins & Campbell’s Monthly Magazine, February 1934, p.13; Cairns Post, 21 July1932.54 J. Woodward, “Cairns Show”, Cairns Historical Society Newsletter, Vol.4, Issue 3,June 1999.55 Cummins & Campbell’s Monthly Magazine, February 1934, p.13. There was a 48%increase, up from the 1931 figure of £790.56 From 380 in 1931 to 440 (1932) to 740 in 1937. ibid.57 C. deG. Williams, [ Town Clerk, Cairns City Council], “Cairns Population,Year Ending 30th June, 1891-1958”, HSC, c.1959, D2200, also D3985.58 Cairns: A Guide and Handbook for the use of Tourists, Residents and Business Men, Edgar P.Holmes, Cairns, 1938, p.57. It was during this decade that the AustralianHorse High Jump record was broken, and in 1936, ‘Euchre’ and ‘Lookout’ jumped8ft.1¼in. (2.47m), and the following year (1937), ‘Plain Eagle’ cleared 8ft.3½in. (2.52m), and “the cheering from the huge crowd [at the Cairns Show]lasted for a quarter of an hour!” (p.59). The current world record is still2.47m. Cairns Show Guide, 18,19 & 20 July, 2001, The Cairns Post, p.22 (from Cairns Post,17 July 2001).


An all round improvement in general carrying was noticedduring June [1932]. A decided increase in the log and sawntimber traffic and the further development of the tobaccoindustry about Mareeba and Dimbulah districts wasresponsible for much of the revenue. Passenger traffic alsoshowed a slight increase.59

The general manager of shipping and retail giant, BurnsPhilp, Mr. J. Mitchell, wrote to a colleague in February1933, rejoicing that the “volume of business is simplymarvellous, and further, to our astonishment one of theseChain Stores alongside the Main Premises in Cairns, andanother large one in Townsville down the shopping centre,have put up excellent results.”60 By 1936, some 25% of BurnsPhilp’s shipping cargo from Sydney and Brisbane weredestined for Townsville and Cairns.61

Endnotes

59 Cairns Post, 19 July 1932.60 Cited in K. Buckley & K. Klugman, The Australian Presence in the Pacific, Burns Philp,1914-1946, George Allen & Unwin, North Sydney, 1983, p.242.61 ibid., p.277.

The Battle of Parramatta Park, Cairns, During the Great Depression

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