1873

James Venture Mulligan discovered payable gold on the Palmer River.

Dec 6-7 / George Augustus Frederick Elphinstone Dalrymple, a Scotsman, named the Daintree River for Richard Daintree, the former Government Geologist, then Queensland’s Agent General in London. Dalrymple was searching for a route from the coast to the Palmer River Goldfield. He also named the Mossman River and the Heights of Alexandra. Daintree never visited the area.

1874

Dan Hart’s timber-cutting expedition followed Dalrymple’s report of large numbers of cedar trees and sailed up the Daintree and Mossman Rivers. Hart was beaten to the Daintree by the parties of Vickery, Graham and Freshney.

Sep / O’Grady and Henriques had 30 men cutting cedar on the Daintree. They floated the logs down the river to the Heads where they were loaded onto small coasters.

1875

Aug / Edmund Hayes applied for 160 acres around the sawmill he had erected with Mr James Barclay on the north bank of the Daintree near its mouth.

1877

The discovery of gold in the Hodgkinson River changed everything for the aboriginals in the Daintree Rainforest who had lived there for thousands of years. Violent clashes between the Indigenous people and European settlers often resulted in fatalities.

1879

The first permanent settlers in Daintree area were John, Archie and Gavin Stewart. John Whitehead Stewart took up Portion 57 across the river from the present township, named it the Skeleton Estate, and grew the first mango and mangosteen trees in the area.

The first postal receiving office on the Daintree was opened on his premises. Part of the estate was subdivided and renamed Allanton.

1879 to 1885

Many of the choice blocks were selected by southern men for speculative purposes but not many settled there. The absentee landlords fulfilled the selection conditions by bailiffing or leasing, hoping someone else would invest capital in a sugar mill that would enable them to sell their land at a profit.

Patrick and Bridget Reynolds selected a block on the Upper Daintree River. Brother Thomas followed. They cut red cedar logs and cleared the land, then bred horses for the Indian Army.

1880s

Henry Joseph Niau and family, who had originally come from France as part of a contingent of colonists, selected two square miles on the Daintree, on the promise of a sugar mill. With the help of the Chinese he cleared the land and sold timber and grew sugarcane.

1881

John Stewart bought another 400 acres opposite where the township is now, built a bigger house and grew maize.

Dec 16 / A mail service began operating between Port Douglas and the Daintree River by boat once a week, 29 miles.

1882

Jan / William Reynolds took up selection 128. He left after the 1894 flood because it washed his house and out-buildings away.

Jan / Frank Charles Fischer, brother of Heinrich, selected 450 acres, later reduced 371 acres, on Forest Creek. A. H. Steuart (Archibald) was his bailiff at first. The Fischer brothers finally lived on Heinrich’s property.

Mar / John Theodore Pentzcke, applied for 150 acres and grew, or Pentzcke grass or Panicum Muticum called Para which was the basis for successful dairy and beef production in the district.

Sep / Originally from Germany Heinrich (Harry) Fischer took up selection 162 of 445 acres and cut cedar..

Oct / Frank Osborne selected two square miles on Stewart’s Creek named Kassary Plantation. He cut cedar on the land but could not make a living.

Dec / Archibald Hastie Steuart took up selection 179 adjoining his brother John. He made his living cutting timber and rafting it down the river.

1883

March / The Daintree River flooded. Richard Kiely drowned.

Sep 6 / Arthur Osborne was said to be the first white child to be born in Daintree at Marion Vale.

Sep / The Pioneer Hotel and Store were built and opened by John Mahoney who selected 158 acres on the north side of the river.

A water-operated turbine sawmill was built for the cedar cutters by Masterton and Jamieson. It was operated by a waterfall on Martin’s Creek, where the village still gets its water.

1884

Jan 1 / The Post Office opened at the Pioneer store with Elizabeth Mahony in charge

Mar / Machinery arrived for a steam powered sawmill owned by Bredhauer and Co. Bad management and low prices led to the collapse of milling.

John Bingham opened Junction hotel on the south side (town side) of the river.

1886

Dec 20 / The township of Whitby, inside the bar of the Daintree River, was surveyed by Charles Gardiner and named after the port in England where Captain Cook was born.

Whitby was used for ships coming to the river to pick up the timber for export. A sawmill, owned by Barklay and Hayes, was erected.

1887

Charles Masterton and Walter Jamieson had a dairy on their former sawmill site, using the same waterfall to cool their building, and made butter with a horse-driven cream separator. It was the only horse in the area.

Most of the settlers forfeited their land and businesses because of crop losses.

1888

Jan 16 / Ruby Reynolds, daughter of William and Mary was born.

Timber operations ceased and many inhabitants left. Whitby was deserted.

1889

A Royal Commission found few settlers remaining.

Aug / William Reynolds of Reynolds and Co. was awarded a bronze medallion from the Townsville Pastoral and Agricultural Association for Dried Bananas.

1890

Carl Berzinski settled Portion 235, an island of about 80 acres, 6 miles up the river from the township. The property still grows the original para grass, first called Pentzcke’s grass.

1895

Apr 6 / Disastrous flood. Mrs Bridget Reynolds, daughter Marie Gertrude and three year old grandson Henry Leslie (son of Heinrich and Rose Ann Fischer) were drowned when their house washed away. Their graves are on the Daintree property.

1897/1898

Coffee was grown.

1899

May 15 / Daintree River School No. 1005 began on Mr H Fischer’s property. Miss Mary Julia Cronin was also the teacher at Bailey’s Creek. She died of influenza on June 13 1899.

Frank Osborne selected 44 acres of agricultural farm and called it Lilybrook.

1900

Apr / Both half time schools closed due to resignation of the teacher, Mr P Keating, who had to row 16 miles along the river between the schools.

1902

Mar / A Provisional school re-opened on the request of Mr H. Fischer with Mr James Carlos Donnelly as teacher. He stayed week and week about with the Fischers, and later Osbornes, and Doyles at Bailey’s Creek.

Frank and Arthur Osborne cut a track up Thornton Peak.

The Berzinski family selected a small block, Rose Hill, opposite their island for the homestead.

1903

The school moved to Osbornes at Lilybrook when Doyles closed at Bailey’s Creek.

1905

The Post Office directory listed 24 people in the area. Henry Fischer, John Schewan and Ragner Solderheim were listed as ‘coffee planter’.

Daintree schools closed due to the scarcity of pupils.

1907

General Notices for October 1907 show Daintree PO and Postal Note office closed.

1910

The inquiry committee into new sugar proposals found only three permanent settlers remaining – Frank Osborne, John Shewan and Mrs Stewart.

1911

Mar 16 / A cyclone razed Port Douglas and surrounding countryside. Within 24 hours, 16 inches of rain fell.

1916

Frank Fischer purchased a Zebu bull from Robbins in Mowbray, bred a new strain of cattle that had high tick resistance, and were most suitable for tropical environment. Zebus are now called Brahmans.

1918

Daintree was not listed in Pugh’s Almanac this year, and only listed under Port Douglas (three farmers) in the P.O. Directory 1917-1918.

Early 1920s

A steam winch was mounted on the Daintree wharf to lift massive logs up the hill to the sawmill, and haul tonnes of machinery to the Butter Factory.

1921

Lucas Hughes came to Daintree from the Tablelands to buy fat cattle and saw the potential for dairying. He later bought farms, and he and Kilpatrick leased them to farmers until they could buy them. He was instrumental in the rebirth of Daintree.

About 1923

The Hash House was built by volunteer labour to provide hearty meals for workers at the butter factory, and sawmill scrub-fellers.

1924

Jul 4 / Daintree State School No.1022 opened with ten students on Martin’s paddock.

A butter factory and sawmill were built and operated by Daintree River Development Company, formed by Lucas Hughes, Tom Kilpatrick and H. Skennar. The caravan park now occupies the site.

Daintree had a store, post office, drapery, butcher, baker, café (short-lived), blacksmith and sawmill office.

The dairy industry was very strong. Jim Hill ran cattle on Berzinski’s island and the cream was rowed six miles to the butter factory three times a week.

1925

May / The P.O. Guide shows Daintree as a Receiving Office, Postal Note and valuable Payable Parcels office, with Port Douglas as the nearest Money Order and Telegraph Office – 30 miles.

1926

The original school burned down and was rebuilt in its present position.

An Aboriginal reserve was gazetted upstream from the village on an extremely steep hillside.

Apr / Daintree appears in the telephone directory for the first time with four subscribers: A. Osborne 2, Daintree River Development Co. Ltd. 3, J.G. Martin, Daintree River 4, J Bauman farmer 6.

1927

A cyclone caused the Daintree River to flood.

1929

Barrett Creek Bridge opened.

Arthur Osborne and Charlie Tunnie built three shops opposite the saw mill. Previously Chap Osborne had run a store and his wife Violet was the Postmistress.

Arthur, Chap and Eric Osborne were running the launch service with the Daintree and the Echo to Port Douglas and Cairns and fortnightly to Low Isles to help with the scientific expedition there.

Early 1930s

The Butter Factory became a co-operative run by the dairy farmers.

1930

Red Mill House was built as his residence by Alfred Lucas Hughes, managing director of the Daintree River Development Company.

1933

The Daintree to Mossman road was completed. Before that the only access to Daintree Village was by river or along a bridle track.

1934

Mar 12 / A cyclone hit Daintree. The butter factory manager’s house was turned into a hospital. The school was blown askew on its stumps but there was no loss of life. Eight inches of rain fell in four hours.

1935

Stewart Creek Bridge was built, just above Daintree village.

1937

The regular boat service to Port Douglas ceased.

1938

Feb 28 / Twyford Provisional State School opened near Stewart Creek

Main Roads constructed a gravel road for 3½ miles up Stewart Creek

The Osborne Bros sold their launches and established the Daintree-Mossman motor service with a bus and a truck.

1939

Jack Maxwell, engineer of the butter factory, built his home in the village.

1941

Jan / Pastor Akehurst of the Assembly of God purchased 259 acres and built grass huts and a timber church and living quarters for a Mission Station. 50-80 Indigenous lived there led by King Toby.

Jul 27 / The Mission was officially opened.

WWII

Two bombs were dropped in the swamps along the river east of the town.

The Aboriginal people at the Mission helped to clear the rainforest and grew bananas and pineapples which they sold to American servicemen camped on the Tablelands.

1942

The sawmill closed due to fuel rationing and lack of logs.

1943

Sep 22 / Mrs Mabel Kathleen Porter took charge of the non-official post office. The office was conducted in conjunction with Osborne’s general store.

1944

Water was connected to Daintree Mission.

1945

There was a Saturday ‘picture bus’ to Mossman leaving at 5pm and returning at midnight.

1949

Jan / The Dormitory opened at the Mission. 15 Indigenous children lived there. The children attended the Daintree School and only mixed with their parents at church on Sunday.

The Mission now had dairy cows. Pastor Jack Goulder was there until Jan 1953.

mid 1950s

The school enrolment was 54.

1951

Harlow’s Bridge was built.

Dudley Holland was superintendent of Daintree Mission and Daphne Watkins remained dormitory matron. They transported children to Daintree School each day.

May 1 / Mrs Violet Osborne took over the post office again.

1952

The first telephone exchange, Twyford, was installed in the Stewart Creek area.

Fire damaged the ceiling and roof of the school and the 54 students’ classes were held in the disused butcher’s shop until repairs were made.

At the end of the year 50 Indigenous people were at the Mission and 12 girls were in the dormitory. They had a sawmill and grew bananas and pineapples for sale. They also grew potatoes, pawpaws and fruit.

1954

Apr 1 / George Warman Major took charge as postmaster. Annual salary was 484 pounds. Number of subscribers was 12.

1955

Daintree children started High School at the new Mossman Secondary Department school. Most boarded in Mossman during the week.

St Clements Church of England was built on land leased from Dick Fischer. His employer, Louis Fischer, had loaned him the money and he was the first Indigenous local to own freehold land in the area on Upper Daintree Road.

1956

Dec 1 / The Daintree Shire Hall opened, built by Arthur Zillfleisch and Co.

The telephone directory listed ten subscribers in Daintree.

1957

Mar 28 / Record floods for about 40 years. Water rose 27 ft above the decking of Stewart Creek Bridge.

1958

The Douglas Shire Council operated a ferry run by an outboard to cross the river until a larger one on cables was run by A. Fapani.

1961

The Mission housed 20 adults and 29 children.

1962

The butter factory closed due to a glut on the Australian market and increasing factory overheads. Farmers turned from dairying to beef production.

Sep 8 / The Mission was auctioned. Although many did not want to move, all the Indigenous residents were moved to the Mossman Gorge Reserve and the children from the dormitory were returned to their parents.

1966

Electricity was turned on in Daintree township.

Mar 9 / Mrs Elizabeth Ann Osborne took charge as Postmistress with an annual salary of 1568 pounds.

1967

A Federal Referendum resulted in Indigenous Australians being given the vote.

1969

There were 26 subscribers to the telephone exchange. It was open Monday to Friday from 8am to 1pm.

1971

Mains water was connected to the township.

1978

STD phones were available to 30 subscribers.

1979

The first tourist boat on the Daintree River was operated by Michael and Jaki Turner .

1980

The Daintree Tea House opened. The Steens purchased Jack Maxwell’s house, renovated it and opened a restaurant. They also opened the Timber Museum and gallery. Some of the cedar cutters’ original tools were displayed.

The Daintree Eco Lodge was built.

1981

Dec 31 / The Post Office and Commonwealth Bank agency closed.

1985

Dec / Storekeeper Beryl Wruck was taken by a five-metre crocodile at Barratt’s Creek.

1987

Aug 1 / Dave and Margaret Patterson started Daintree River Train.

1988

The Wet Tropics of Queensland was inscribed on the World Heritage List.

1994

Last section of road from Mossman to Daintree Village was fully covered with bitumen as a two-lane road.

1995

Nov 5 / Fire destroyed a block of shops on the eastern side of the village.

1996

Mar / The biggest floods since 1952. 52 inches of rain. The river was two kilometres wide.

1997

“Thin Red Line”, an American feature film about World War II was filmed in the hills above Stewart's Creek.

2004

Jan / Sharon and Steven Doble bought the Daintree River Train.

2006

The Daintree School had about 15 students from Year 1 to Year 7.

2007

Apr 11 / The Eastern Yalanji Land Use Agreement was signed in Wujal Wujal acknowledging traditional ownership by the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people of 230,000 hectares of land in the Cape York region taking in Daintree, Cape Tribulation and Black Mountain National Parks. The agreement also included 64,000 hectares of land as new Aboriginal freehold. The agreement also included the doubling of the national park between Mossman and Black Mountain to 159,000 hectares.

2008

Jul 24 / Lily and George Fischer’s home burnt down. It was formerly Daintree’s first Anglican Church, built on Dick Fischer’s property. They moved in about 2000 after the neighbouring family home became unstable.

2010

The school was threatened with closure because of small numbers of students but was reprieved.

2010 approx

Bruce Belcher bought Daintree River Train and made it into a land-based restaurant at his river cruise centre.

2011

Apr / The Douglas Shire Historical Society erected ten historic photo posts in the Village and at the Mission site as part of the Great Tropical Drive initiative.

2012

Dec / the Daintree Eco Lodge was voted the best in the world at the 2012 World Travel Awards .

2013

Jul 12 / Daintree Eco Lodge owners Terry and Cathy Maloney were forced into receivership after overspending on their pioneering Indigenous employment program, Aboriginal Champions. Colonial Leisure Group became the new owners.

2019

Jan 26 / Record flooding of Daintree River, peaking at 12.6m. Previous record was in 1901 with 12.4m.

In 1996 it was 11.4m.

Daintree ferry stopped for 48 hours. Cows were found walking on the beach at Wonga having been washed down the river. The Daintree Eco Lodge and Tea House were flooded and had to close for business.

2022

Mar / A development application was submitted with Douglas Shire Council for a dramatic transformation of the Big Barra Café into a sports bar and 4WD tour office.

Tourism had been a major industry throughout the region until Covid-19 closed borders for over a year.

Many descendants of the original settlers, in particular the Osborne and Fischer families, still live in the district, some operating thriving beef-cattle properties in the river valleys beyond Daintree township, while others farm sugar and tropical fruits.

Compiled by Pam Willis Burden with Sylvia Prior and Gail Cockburn in February 2022.