Waste of space

FORGOTTEN PARK

Paul Makin

Journalist

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The park is large enough to do something with, but Council has no ideas or plans for the land. Picture: Paul Makin

Before we get to the present day let me take you on a journey through time. In March of 2022 Newsport carried out an investigation into a park that Douglas Shire Council was claiming to be Port Douglas’s original cemetery.

We were able to prove through historical records and information from local historian Noel Weare that it wasn’t the first official graveyard. The present-day cemetery on the main road into Port, opposite the Sheraton property, is the true original cemetery.

Records show that the first burial at that cemetery was on 22nd June 1878 of George Freshney, who died aged 21 years and the cemetery was gazetted the same year. The official Port Douglas Hospital, opposite the park where the Council sign was located, was successfully tendered for on 28th December 1880 by TP Hardy and Co and the building went up the following year in 1881.

The park in question was gazetted as a cemetery in 1883, some five years after our true original cemetery. There’s always been a rumour that the park was used as a burial site for local Chinese folk, or it was utilized as a cemetery for still born babies from the hospital, but this reporter has yet to see written proof of that.

If anyone has that information, I’d be happy to check it out.

Dates don’t lie

Mayor Michael Kerr requested Council personnel check out the information contained in the Newsport story last year and determine whether the park was our original cemetery.

After Council staff came back to him, he issued this statement to Newsport: “It’s important we portray the correct information on any Council sign in the Shire, so after it was brought to our attention in that article that it was not the case and once Council staff confirmed that new information, the sign simply had to be removed”.

It was taken down in a flash. When Douglas was part of Cairns Regional Council in 2009, an email from the State Lands Department advised that the purpose of the land had been changed from ‘Memorial’ to ‘Park’.

What now?

Now the park is sign less and doing nothing worthwhile. Visitors walk past it on their way to town hardly giving it a second glance. As our headline reads it’s a ‘waste of space’. Surely it can be used for something. It's prime real estate and could be developed as a commercial block.

That would put a heap of dollars into the Council ‘Kitty’ for ratepayers still reeling from a ferry deal that left their eyes watering. If that’s not on the radar maybe it could evolve into a public park with seating and shade sails to attract people to the space. A reflection area perhaps?

How about a remembrance park for our service men and women? Dare I say a small splash park? Anything but nothing!

What does Council say?

Newsport contacted the Douglas Shire Council to find out if they have any plans for the underutilized park. A spokesperson told us: “At the moment Council has nothing planned and there are no capital works projects scheduled at this location for this financial year”.

So, it continues to be a waste of space.


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