Ingham's iconic Water Tower

If you follow my blog you undoubtedly follow the two Facebook pages ‘Lost Ingham and District’ and ‘District Archival History’ which are hosted by two other ladies keen on unearthing and sharing Ingham's history. In the last couple of weeks they have been theming floods and cyclones. With so much water everywhere – rivers, creeks, streams, waterfalls and regular floods and annual monsoonal downpours it seems strange to think that a clean, healthy water supply for Ingham and its outlying communities has not always been a given.

Households in early Ingham town had their own private wells, while there was also a town well. But cesspits for human waste contaminated these wells causing sickness and the threat of epidemics. The introduction of a nightsoil service helped lessen the incidence of wells being contaminated by cesspits, but even so the Council was acutely aware that this was not a long term solution. As the town grew there was an increasing number of private homes, public buildings and factories which increased the chances of the town well becoming contaminated with effluent. Two health concerns that persisted well into the twentieth century were typhoid and hookworm and these were only brought under control with an improvement in sanitary conditions.  

The Health Department inspector recommended that a water supply be taken from the Herbert River. As a result C.E. Deshon, an officer of the Department concerned with water supplies, was invited to report to the Council on a suggested scheme. His findings recommended a water tower to supply 45 000 gallons, sufficient for around 1 500 people, which would cost £8 957. At this point the Council did not act despite the disastrous performance of the town well during the 1915 drought. The water level dropped so low that the pump was unable to work, and water had to be carted from the river. The result was, as could be expected, considerable sickness due to contaminated water.

It was twenty years before the town water problems were finally solved. Jack Mulholland, consulting engineer, guided by Irrigation Department's plans, recommended that the Council apply for a loan of £36 750 with a 50% subsidy similar to that granted for other water schemes.  The subsidy would have been £8 000, but it was determined that the Council would pay only a third of the cost while the other two-thirds would be contributed equally by the State and Federal governments. This was a ground breaking offer and the first grant of its kind for a water supply. Work began in May 1937 and proceeded using the unemployed as day labour to lay pipes.

Work  involved  construction of a concrete well at the intake on the Herbert River, a concrete tower 120 feet high in the centre of Ingham, mains between those points and reticulation pipes throughout the supply area with consumer connections being the householders' responsibility.  In July 1938 water began to be supplied with the aid of pressure valves until the tower was ready. The new supply was first available for limited hours, which became more generous as the number of consumers increased. The scheme was finally completed in March 1939 with nearly 500 consumers already connected and extensions being planned soon after.

The introduction did not go without teething problems. Experimental fibrolite pipes leaked, excessive consumption had to be checked because though the source of supply, the river, was boundless, delivery was restricted by the capacity of the power house plant. Water restrictions were imposed during periods of heavy consumption, particularly during the war when electricity generation was reduced. Excessive domestic use was curbed by house to house inspections looking for leaking taps, educating consumers and even prosecuting where flagrant waste occurred.

The water was cleaned by natural filtration through sandbanks in the river bed and generally the quality was good. However the supply was vulnerable to discolouration which occurred when floodwater from the river entered the pump well or if there were dredging operations in the upper Herbert. Rusting of the pipes was caused by significant numbers of bacteria releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide. A chlorinator was installed to treat the water which largely solved the problem.

The supply was received so well by the community that within the year there were requests for extensions from Trebonne, Halifax and Victoria Mill but the looming war put a hold on such plans. The concrete tower itself, a 120 feet high structure, was now however, the highest structure on the skyline and would be clearly visible to enemy warcraft. This caused some consternation in the Council chamber.  There were some councillors who argued that the tower should be camouflaged, but not all agreed.  In the end, shortages of both labour and paint put paid to the idea.

Sources:

Vidonja Balanzategui, Bianka. The Herbert River Story. Ingham: Hinchinbrook Shire Council, 2011.

Wegner, Janice. “Hinchinbrook: the Hinchinbrook Shire Council, 1879-1979.” MA diss. James Cook University, 1984.

Wegner, Janice. “Hinchinbrook Shire during World War Two,” Lectures on North Queensland History,

https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ.../Lectures_on_NQ_History_S4_CH11.pdf.

Source: State Library of Queensland. 2211512. Large Water Tower, Ingham Queensland, 1953

Source: Hinchinbrook Shire Library Photographic Collection. Herbert Street during 1967 flood 

Source: Hinchinbrook Shire Library Photographic Collection. Aerial photo of Herbert Street 1971

Source: Hnchinbrook Shire Library Photographic Collection, Aerial photograph of Ingham during 1977 flood

As another school year starts and children head back to big schools, staffed by numerous teachers, equipped with state of the art facilities and cooled by air conditioners it is a far cry from the bush schools of the past which serviced each of the outlying districts of the Herbert River Valley. Today few of the small bush schools remain yet the foundation of schooling in the Herbert River Valley was the small bush school, usually staffed by one teacher.

Thomas Millar, the manager of the Avoca Estate, downstream from the Camping Reserve (now Ingham), on the south side of the Herbert River, first approached the Board of General Education voicing the need for a school. In November 1874 a local petition was organized requesting the establishment of a provisional school. The petitioners were informed that the initiative for establishing a school was theirs as per The Education Act, 1860. If they wanted a school they would have to provide both a teacher and a suitable building. Meanwhile newspaper records indicate that the Mackenzies of Gairloch called a meeting in late January 1875 to gauge interest in obtaining a ‘national school’.  As a result of that meeting a committee was appointed and a subscription list opened, which it is reported “was responded to in earnest.” The correspondent forecast that the school would be opened within six months and would be well attended. The result of this community interest from various quarters  was that in March 1875, Thomas’s wife, Catherine Millar, opened the Lower Herbert Provisional School in the living room of her house with an enrolment of 15 children. Initial optimism prompted a request to the Government for the grant of land on which to erect a permanent school building. Though this did not happen at this point, the usual funding was provided to this first ‘national school’.

Though there had been a speculative land grab and three plantation mills already crushing: Gairloch 1872, Macknade, 1873 and Bemerside 1873 there were very few services or buildings that could be said to constitute a town. The Camping Ground which was then given the provisional name of Sligo consisted, at this time, of a store, public house, blacksmith and wheelwright’s shop and a telegraph office. By November the school was already struggling and the Board threatened to withdraw Government funding. It was remarked that “a number of children who ought to attend do not do so.” But apart from parents who were keeping their children back from school, the low enrolments were due to the community still being a transient one and the newly established sugar industry facing its first big setback, ‘rust’ disease. Clearly, despite the initial enthusiasm of a few, the time was not right yet for a school. Unfortunately enrolments dropped in the next year to ten students and so in December 1876 Mrs. Millar notified the Board of Education that she intended to close the school. Hers had been a thankless job. With financial cost to herself she had supplied the space and furniture and equipment within her own home for a school. An observation was made at the time in correspondence with the Board that the Valley was the most expensive place to live in “civilized Australia”. Alex S. Kemp records that a Mrs. Jim Fisher then opened a school at Log Creek which is supposed to have had an enrolment of 15 children. What happened to that venture is not known.

By 1879 the Government surveyor did survey not only town allotments, but a site for a court-house, school and police barracks. In that year an auction was held for 61 town lots for what was now no longer Sligo but Ingham. The surveyed school area was on the site of the present day Botanical Gardens. Again in 1881 another public meeting was held by Lower Herbert residents. The proposal that came out of that meeting was that two school buildings would be built, one on the Lower Herbert River Town Reserve (named Halifax in 1886), and one on the surveyed land in Ingham. It was proposed that the schools would operate on a part time basis with the teacher travelling between the two. With the realization that funds were not as forthcoming as hoped, and that what funds secured needed to be rationalized with efforts concentrated on the building of one school building, Halifax was the first to secure a provisional school. It opened on September 24 1883 with an enrolment of ten girls and seven boys. Another public meeting was held in 1884 to request a school for Ingham. A year later a school did open  finally in Ingham on May 4, 1885 with 27 students.

Halifax Provisional School (Source: Halifax State School Centenary 1883-1983, 48.)

Ingham State School 1886 (the boys) (Source: Hinchinbrook Shire Library Collection)

Sources:

Barrie, Douglas R. Minding My Business: A History of Bemerside and the Lower Herbert River District of Queensland Australia. Ingham: Douglas R. Barrie, 2003.

Kemp, A.S. “The Old Pioneers” and “The Turn of the Century.” The History of the Herbert River. 3^rd and 6^th instalments.

Vidonja Balanzategui, Bianka. The Herbert River Story. Ingham: Hinchinbrook Shire Council, 2011.

 “Lower Herbert.” Telegraph, January 26, 1875.

“Lower Herbert.” Queenslander, November 20, 1875.

“Lower Herbert Provisional School.” Correspondence to Board of Education, February 26, 1876.