Hervey's Range Road

The opening of Hervey’s Range Road in April 1933 was described as a “red-letter day” for Townsville and district, and particularly for the tobacco growers who lived on the Range. The long-awaited road was expected to relieve much of the difficulty and expense involved in getting their produce to market.

The Eureka Hotel, at the top of Hervey's Range, c. 1930.
Photo: State Library of Queensland. 

During the official speeches, the President of the Townsville and District Development Association, Mr R. McKimmin, said that it was “one of the happiest days of his life” when he received word that the road up Hervey’s Range was gazetted. He believed that Townsville had been greatly neglected when it came to main roads, and that it had taken a lot of agitating to even get the few roads that they now had.

Just before the ceremonial ribbon was due to be cut by Mrs Wordsworth, the Shire Chairman’s wife, a man on horseback galloped out of the nearby scrub and slashed the ribbon with a knife. He then turned and made off back into the bush before anyone could apprehend him.

The Townsville Daily Bulletin noted that the man was a “well-known tobacco grower”, though didn’t give his name, instead preferring to call him “the bogus De Groot”. Other newspapers dubbed him “De Groot the Second”. This was a reference to Captain Francis De Groot who had caused a scandal at the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge a year earlier, by dashing up to the ceremonial ribbon and slashing it with his sword before the Premier could do it.

The official party at Hervey’s Range took the incident in their stride and promptly replaced the ribbon, which was then duly cut by Mrs Wordsworth.  The real De Groot never got off so lightly though - he was arrested and later fined.

It was the Chairman of the Thuringowa Shire Council, Councillor C.W. Wordsworth, who had the duty of declaring the road open.  In his address, Councillor Wordsworth noted that many of those present had travelled up the Range by car, but asked them to consider what it might have been like 70 years before, when there was no road up the Range, and when “every foot of the way was plodded along through clouds of dust and profanity”.

Hervey's Range Road, c. 1900.
Photo: CityLibraries Townsville Local History Collection.

In earlier days the track to the top of the range was steep and hazardous and took a full day for bullock drays to negotiate. The teams would spend one night at the Range Hotel, at the base of Hervey’s Range before negotiating the range the following day and reaching the Eureka Hotel at the top by nightfall.

One carrier’s wife, Mrs Margaret Fulford, remembered how arduous the journey from Townsville to the hinterland was, having made the trip in 1870.  She recorded in a memoir:

“We ascended the range, now known as Hervey’s Range, the road then being very rough and steep. I walked up carrying the child, taking my time and keeping in sight of the cart coming behind me. The horses could only pull the cart up a few yards at a time, on account of the steepness, and the black-boy had to carry stones to chock the wheels to keep the cart from going backwards each time.”

The Range Hotel Graves

At the foot of Hervey Range, just outside Townsville, is a lonely little cemetery that lies hidden under wild scrub and lantana, and contains what may be the oldest headstone in the region.


The grave of Francis John Earl, who died in March 1866.  Photo: T. Fielding

The cemetery was associated with the Range Hotel, which was located at the bottom of Thornton's Gap on the old Hervey Range Road. Built by James Mead in 1866, the Range Hotel provided a rest stop for travellers before they made the dangerous journey up Hervey Range. At that time, the only road from Townsville to the goldfields and hinterland involved an arduous trip, first by crossing the Bohle and Alice Rivers, and then by ascending Hervey Range at Thornton's Gap. Travellers and carriers would stop overnight at the Range Hotel before attempting to travel up the range the next day. A trip with loaded wagons would have taken an entire day. Once at the top of the range, the Eureka Hotel awaited the weary travellers.

Hervey Range Road, c.1900. 
Photo: CityLibraries Townsville Local History Collection.

The grave of Francis John Earl, a squatter who died of a fever, aged 25 on 12th March 1866 at the Range Hotel, is possibly the oldest extant headstone in the region. (The earliest headstone at Townsville's West End Cemetery dates to 1868, although burials occured there before that date). Two other headstones also lie in this cemetery, that of Mary Langton and John Henry Bell, which date to the 1870s.

The Range Hotel Cemetery, after clearing of scrub in August 2008. The Earl grave is on the right, the Bell grave is set back, slightly to the right of the centre of the photo, and the Langton grave is lying flat on the ground, and can be seen on the left.  Photo:  T. Fielding.

The layout of the graves suggests that there may have been more burials there, but no other markers now remain.  Given the positioning of the graves, there may have been as many as 21 plots, in three rows of seven.

The graves are a reminder of just how harsh pioneer life could be.  Mary Langton was 28 years old, with three small children to care for while her husband John Langton was often away working for long periods of time. John was a carrier who carried goods from the port of Townsville to the Dalrymple township. Perhaps living such an isolated life led to despair, as Mary committed suicide by taking poison and died in December 1873.

The third gave is that of John Henry Bell, second son of Charles and Mary Ann Bell, who died 11th May 1875 from inflammation of the lungs. Little John was four months old.


The headstone of John Henry Bell, died May 1875. Photo: T. Fielding

The Range Hotel closed in 1884 and its precise location is now a matter of speculation, although a bottle dump, thought to have been associated with the hotel has been located. An archaeological study of this site conducted by James Cook University in 2008 found over 400 glass bottle necks/finishes of varying colours.