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Guide to Coolangatta
Coolangatta (28°10'S 153°32'E[1])
is a town located in the southernmost part of the Gold
Coast, in Queensland, Australia. It is named after the
schooner Coolangatta which was wrecked there in 1846.
and its immediate neighbouring "Twin Town" Tweed
Heads in New South Wales have a shared economy. The Tweed
River supports a thriving fishing fleet, and the seafood
is a local specialty offered in the restaurants and clubs
of the holiday and retirement region on both sides of
the state border.
Coolangatta was one of the earliest
settlements at the Gold Coast. Once again focused on a
steep headland at Point Danger the area was occupied by
Europeans from at least 1828 by a convict station and
red cedar getters soon followed. Selectors followed in
the 1860s and a small settlement at Coolangatta was established.
In 1883 a township was surveyed.
As a border town Coolangatta included
a customs office, boatshed and government wharf. Extension
of the railway from Nerang to Tweed Heads in 1903 guaranteed
the success of Coolangatta as a holiday township and it
flourished from that time forward. Guesthouses and hotels
were erected and a commercial centre soon followed.
The Border of QLD & NSW can
be seen where the pine trees line the centre of the street.Little
remains of the earliest buildings at Coolangatta but some
evidence remains of subsequent development in the early
years of the present century. The border fence and gates
that until recently were a characteristic of the area
have now been removed but the sense of the border remains
at Boundary Street running along the ridge of the headland
between Queensland and New South Wales. The headland itself
is an important landmark and tourist destination. Coolangatta
symbolises the terminus of the Gold Coast and the long
strip of beach that begins at Main Beach forty kilometres
to the north.
To commemorate the centenary of
the town, in 1984 a stone from the Coolangatta Estate
homestead was donated by the citizens of Coolangatta Historic
Village near Berry, New South Wales and was mounted on
a plinth of granite from Aberdeen, Scotland, the birthplace
of Alexander Berry.
A topsail schooner of 83 feet in length
and 88 tons, Coolangatta was built by James Blinkcell
in 1843 for Alexander Berry whose property, Coolangatta
Estate, adjoined Coolangatta mountain located on the northern
bank of the Shoalhaven River, New South Wales.
Coolangatta was wrecked on Kirra / Bilinga
Beach adjacent to a creek during a storm on Wednesday
18 August 1846.
On 6 July 1846, the ship sailed under
Captain Steele from Brisbane, carrying two convict prisoners
(George Craig in irons, and William George Lewis), to
load redcedar logs at the Tweed River for Sydney. Steele
found the river entrance closed by silt forming a bar,
so he anchored in the lee of Point Danger off Kirra Beach.
Redcedar logs were then hauled overland from Terranora
Inlet and rafted from the beach, but in 6 weeks less than
half of the contracted 70,000 feet of redcedar had been
loaded. Meanwhile, five ships loaded with redcedar were
bar-bound inside the river.
On 18 August 1846, while Steel was ashore,
a south-east gale blew up. Steele's boat was damaged while
getting through the surf and he watched from the beach
and as the gale intensified. Eventually, the prisoners
were freed and all hands abandoned ship and swam for shore
as the anchors dragged. The ship parted its anchors and
washed ashore near what was later called Coolangatta Creek.
The survivors walked 70 miles north
to Amity Point in six days, fed each night by different
groups of friendly Indigenous Australians, and were taken
into Brisbane onboard the Tamar.
Government surveyor
Henry Schneider named the area Coolangatta while surveying
in 1883 for the land auction in March 1884.
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