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The Lutherans were able to establish a permanent Christian community at Hope Vale, while irrevocably failing at Bloomfield and Marie Yamba. The missionaries formulated their ideas concerning their potential evangelization of the blacks in terms of cultural contact. They believed that Aborigines in their traditional life had few, if any, religious susceptibilities and possessed only the rudest and most elementary forms of culture. Furthermore, pagan heathenism was felt to be far easier to eradicate than civilised vice. From the assumption that "the raw aboriginal is only a child" 134, it logically followed that those who had experienced little cultural disarrangement, such as the Bloomfield blacks, would be simple to convert whilst those who had been 'contaminated' by the European vices of alcohol and opium and who languished in the towns would maintain resistance to any evangelical efforts. Yet, in fact, the opposite situation was to 'otcur. Ultimately, Bloomfield and to a lesser extent, Marie Yamba, were to fail because of the strength and well-integrated nature of Aboriginal society while Hope Vale was to triumph because of the social and cultural disintegration which the Cooktown natives had experienced. But was 'Hope Vale' a success? To the missionaries, it may have been seen as such for the 'Children of Darkness' were true transformed into earnest, industrious, Christians. Yet if one is to regard missionary activity from the blacks' point of view, it is apparent that the process of evangelization was but another agent which the dominant European culture employed to destroy traditional forms of Aboriginal life. Source: espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_246274/Qld_heritage_v2_n... "Marie Yamba, Bloomfield and Hope Vale: The Lutheran Missions to the North Queensland Aborigines, 1886·1905" by Kay Elizabeth Evans, B.A. *

RAILWAY TERMINUS HOTEL was also known as Railway. Hill Street, Eton. Known by locals as the "top pub". It was destroyed by fire on Sunday, October 30, 1932. 1918 - 1932 E. HOWELLS (owner) Source: www.mackayhistory.org/research/hotels/hotels_l_to_z.html

Mention the possibility of a cyclone to any old Gladstone local and it won’t be long before the conversation shifts to stories of the great cyclone of 1949 which devastated Gladstone and Rockhampton and affected many other smaller towns along the coast on Wednesday 2 March 1949. Their stories tell of the force of the cyclone and the damage to property and also tell of lucky escapes from injury. In 1949 there was little education about preparation for the cyclone season. The full force of the cyclone hit at about 1 pm and took the townspeople unawares. There had been little warning that a cyclone was approaching. Men rushed home from work at lunchtime and children were sent home from school early. The wind, which was accompanied by torrential rain, blew furiously for about 16 hours and was estimated to have a velocity of 85 knots (100 mph/160kph). It left a trail of devastation in its wake. St Saviour’s Church of England, a wooden building, lost its roof and suffered some other structural damage, but St Matthew’s Church of England in the Valley area was a total loss. Source: gladstonehistoryinc.wordpress.com/1949-cyclone/