Ravenshoe - Page 2

One of the display showing creation time

(Text from the Sydney Morning Harold - 8 February 2004)

Ravenshoe Controversial timber town in the Atherton Tablelands.

In the 1980s Ravenshoe was the site of a number of major battles between environmentalists and timber workers. A rather battered sign on the way into town proudly announces: 'The Timber Town of Ravenshoe'. This is a town with a past history of timber working and a present which is about a radically different set of values.

Located 147 km south-west of Cairns and 904 m above sea-level, Ravenshoe can claim to be the highest town in Queensland. The temperature is typically mild, rarely exceeding 26°C which means that it has an attraction for people wanting to escape the heat and humidity of the coast. An indication of the town's future was apparent in the first European visitation. In 1881 William Mazlin discovered substantial stands of cedar in the area and named the local river (later to become the settlement) Cedar Creek. The first sawmill was built in 1899 but the town wasn't settled to any significant extent until 1910 mainly because of the difficulties involved in getting timber from the Tablelands down to the coast. By this time the railway line had reached Millaa Millaa and bullock teams could haul the timber to the railhead.

For seventy years Ravenshoe relied on timber for its economic survival and its sawmills produced high quality rainforest timbers for markets in Australia and overseas. However, the town became the centre of media attention in September 1987 when Environment Minister Graham Richardson was jostled by angry crowds of timber workers during a visit to the area. Richardson was there to nominate 900 000 hectares of rainforest around Ravenshoe for World Heritage Listing. 160 000 hectares of this land had previously been set aside for timber production. The locals in Ravenshoe argued that if they were not allowed to log the rainforest then the town would die.

Sign from the Ravenshoe 1980's demonstrations

(Text from the Sydney Morning Harold - 8 February 2004)

The irony of all this is that, following this incident, 'alternative lifestyle' people moved into the area thereby giving the town a new lease of life. Today the town is reasonably prosperous although the 'alternative lifestyle' community are less in evidence than they were a decade ago.