Evelyn Scrub War Memorial is a heritage-listed

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

at Jonsson Road, Evelyn,

Tablelands Region The Tablelands Region is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia inland from the city of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns. Established in 2008, it was preceded by four previous local government areas ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. It was built . It was added to the

Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. As ...

on 28 February 2003.

History

The Evelyn Scrub War Memorial was erected after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

(1914-18) on land set aside for the purpose by Edward Daniel, . It lists the names of all the men from the Evelyn district who had served in the war. Forty-one names are recorded on the memorial. In 1882 land on the Evelyn Tableland was surveyed into blocks between . Selections were taken up as dairy and agricultural farms. Evelyn township was established on the edge of the rainforest "scrub" in the 1890s as a commercial centre for the Evelyn Tableland farming district. Evelyn Scrub State School was established in 1895. The town had two timber mills, a town hall where congregations for the

Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

Presbyterians Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

and Methodists were held, shops including a general store and butchers shop and some small houses. The railway connecting

Ravenshoe Ravenshoe ( ) is a rural town and locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Ravenshoe had a population of 1,332 people. Geography Ravenshoe is on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland. It is ...

with

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

was completed in 1910 and a horse drawn timber tramway named the Evelyn Scrub Tramline Co was built from Evelyn to connect with the railway line at Turulka about away and operated until 1921. The railway was used to transport timber from the sawmills to the port of Cairns. In 1918 a wide variety of crops were grown in the region, including English and sweet potato, maize, bananas, pineapples, grapes, oranges, apples, strawberries, peaches, plums, lemons, pawpaw and honey. Following the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914, approximately 90% of the young men from the Evelyn Scrub eventually enlisted for overseas service. Some never returned, and of those who did, very few went back on the land. Community send-offs were held for the volunteers of the Evelyn district at the Pioneer Hotel in Tumoulin. On their return the soldiers were accorded a public welcome. Australia, and Queensland in particular, had few civic monuments before the First World War. The memorials erected in its wake became our first national monuments, recording the devastating impact of the war on a young nation. Australia lost 60,000 from a population of about 4 million, representing one in five of those who served. No previous or subsequent war has made such an impact on the nation. Memorials became a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief. To those who erected them, they were as sacred as the grave sites, substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East. British policy decreed that the Empire war dead were to be buried where they fell. The word "

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...

", commonly applied to war memorials at the time, literally means "empty tomb". The Evelyn Tablelands was severely affected by the prolonged drought of 1915. It was the worst drought on record and cattle were sent away to the newly opened pastures of Millaa Millaa. In 1918 a cyclone again devastated the area, causing extensive damage to crops through flooding and heavy rains. Another drought in 1923 contributed to the economic decline of the Evelyn Tableland. The depression of the early 1930s had a major impact on the towns of the

Atherton Tableland The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau, which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. It has very deep, rich basaltic soils and the main industry is agriculture. The principal river flowing across the plateau is the B ...

s. The three sawmills that had operated on Evelyn Tableland, between them producing worth of timber in 1917, were dismantled and removed. Shops and houses from the township were also moved as people sought greater opportunities elsewhere. The school was closed in 1946. The Evelyn War Memorial is now all that now remains of the town. It serves as a reminder of those who served in far away battles and is also an illustration of the once bustling farming and timber getting community in an area that is now sparsely populated. A dawn service is held at the Memorial each

ANZAC Day Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and ...

in commemoration of those who served.

Description

The area of the old township of Evelyn is comprised today of grassy paddocks and tall eucalyptus trees, and is used as grazing land for cattle. Timber cattle yards are constructed immediately behind the memorial. The Memorial stands on private property on the Jonsson Road, off the Tumoulin to Ravenshoe Road in the southern Atherton Tablelands. The Memorial is in the form of a substantial

pedestal A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

supporting a narrow pointed

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

topped with a spherical object. The entire monument is concrete. Forty-one names and fates of the men from Evelyn Scrub who served in the Great War are attached to a brass plaque secured to one side of the pedestal behind a glass screen. Of particular interest is the inclusion of the name of an aboriginal person (designated as such) listed among those who died in service. A second plaque is fixed below the first, dedicated to the pioneers of the Evelyn Scrub by the Evelyn Social and Sports Club in 1983. A single flagstaff stands five metres from the memorial on the southern side. There are no associated gardens or plantings remaining at the Memorial.

Heritage listing

Evelyn Scrub War Memorial was listed on the

on 28 February 2003 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. Evelyn Scrub War Memorial, erected , is significant historically as a record of community and district participation in the First World War and as an embodiment of the prevailing sentiments and attitudes at the time. As the last standing structure at what was once the town of Evelyn it illustrates the growth and decline of farming communities in the evolution of the history of the Atherton Tablelands. The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. As a focus for ANZAC Day ceremonies it is highly valued by the community for its spiritual, symbolic, cultural and social associations.

References

Attribution

External links