History of Kulara

Kulara was a thriving village which was put under the waters of Lake Tinaroo in 1959. It was not known as Kulara until the building of the railway from Tolga, which reached Yungaburra in 1910.

When Robsons track from the coastal areas around Cairns to Herberton was opened, it was necessary to establish staging stations along the track to provide food and rest for the teamsters and their horses. One of these stations was the shanty pub built and operated by Fred Halfpapp on the bank of Forest Creek. It was the first building in the area. Robsons Track, from the top of the range, ran through Boar Pocket Road, later named Lake Barrine, through Balls Pocket, Pinnacle Pocket, then crossed the Barron River at Picnic Crossing and proceeded to Nyletta, which was then called Carrington. (now around the location of Hastie Swamp/Nyletta Swamplands)

It was along this track that the first rough bough and bark shelters were built by the timber cutters who had come from the south to cut out the valuable timber for the Crown before the area was opened for settlement.

John Stewart, the first settler there, selected an 80 acre lot at the northern end of Allumbah Pocket, between Petersen Creek & Wright Creek, and called it Ferndale. One arm of Tinaburra Waters is called Stewarts Gully, after John Stewart. He cleared the land, planted maize, coffee, arrowroot, tea, potatoes, cotton and some fruit trees, and his home became a staging point for travellers to and from Boar Pocket.

In 1908 the area from the top of the range to the Barron River was opened for settlement, most lots being 160 acres. The settlers were mostly Anglo-Saxon, but there were Germans, Swiss, Danes, Irish and Italians. Homes were built from timber felled on the lots and sawn locally. Payment to the sawmillers was often in the form of more logs.

Pastures were established and dairy cattle bought from those enterprising men who had overlanded large herds from New South Wales. Twenty families selected lots in Boar Pocket area, and Kulara as a railhead, grew rapidly. A hotel was built, then followed by a butcher, saddler, blacksmith, a hall and some tea rooms. Reserves were planned for sports and a racecourse. At first the Post Office was in the Railway Station, but was superseded by a Post Office and General Store operated by Miss Molly and Miss Lily Williamson. The Kulara school, which is the only building now standing on the Danbulla Drive, near Lake Euramoo, was opened in 1913. Despite having an attendance of 45 students at times, it was always a 1 teacher school.  (Located at the back of Danbulla State Forest. The school was moved to this site in the 1960s and was periodically used in the early 1980s as a residence for the Forestry Overseer based at Danbulla)

When a new name was sought prior to the opening of the railway station, the name chosen was that given by the Aborigines to the area around Petersens Creek, where the big fig trees grew. They had named it Coolara, but this name was replaced with Kulara, because of the confusion with Coolgara.

For a few years, Kulara boomed. The timber yard was a hive of activity seven days a week, with bullock and horse teams, and later timber trucks, delivering huge logs and sawn timber from the Boar Pocket Sawmill. This was then railed to Cairns and further afield.

Most of the children at the Kulara School came from dairy farms and used to have to help with the milking before and after school. After Primary School, most girls stayed at home to learn housekeeping, cooking and preparing their trousseau. The more adventurous went to Cairns or Atherton to train as nurses. The boys worked clearing land, timber cutting or labouring on other farms and sawmills. Only a few lucky ones attended boarding school at Herberton or Charters Towers.

In the 1920s, Kulara boasted a Rugby team, tennis club and a racecourse. As more people owned cars, families enjoyed a wider social life. Those who did not own a car could hire Jim Thomas, Jim Molloy or Eric Halfpapp to drive them around. These cars were large with folding dicky seats which could be pulled out to accommodate large families. Silent movies were enjoyed in the local hall with an occasional vaudeville show played to an enthusiastic audience.

The depression spelt hardship. The butter price fell to an all time low and farmers had to leave the district to find work. The sports areas were abandoned and became overgrown by lantana. One by one, the stores closed down and the township never recovered. There was a short respite during WWII when a bas was established at Boar Pocket. The roads swarmed with military vehicles. The pub boomed, dances were revived and the locals opened their homes to the lonely soldiers. Market gardens supplied the army camps with vegetables and again there was money to be spent. However the boom was short lived. Then end came in 1958 when almost all the buildings were removed before the area was flooded by the dammed Barron River. Nothing remains now but the small school house and the Reisens home on the edge of the lake.

In 2003, the Tablelands suffered a severe dry spell, (lack of decent rain for almost 3 years) and the dam dried up to around 14%. Original bridges, roads and even bitumen roads resurfaced. The original Kulara Recreation Ground Cricket Pitch surfaced, (first time since the damming in 1958) and promoted a Challenge to be formally made against the Tableland in the form of a cricket game on the original Kulara pitch on January 26th 2004. The challenging team comprised three of the pioneering Williams family, a couple of Kehoes and a few others to be known as the Tableland Pioneers XI. A team scratch side, to be known as the Kulara First XI, accepted the challenge. Terms were 35 overs each side and batsmen to retire after 50 runs. Sunwater kindly agreed to the manufacture and costs associated with the trophies, comprising a perpetual shield and a set of wooden cricket stumps by Atherton Joinery. Both were made from old timbers found in the area, and the shield to be rotated around the local pioneer families.

Access to the cricket ground was via the old Kulara Bridge, which was supported with scaffolding and support rails for the day. Doug Brown, veteran cricketer, who last played on the pitch in 1940, was the guest of honour. It was also suggested that a bronze plaque commemorating the event should be secured to the pitch before it went under again as it might not dry up again for another 40 to 60 years.

Previous to this, the last time the water in the dam had dropped was in 1994, and the Old Kulara Bridge emerged. Pictures were put in the local papers and many older residents of the Tablelands made the pilgrimage to the bridge. A few weeks later, the rain came down and the waters went up, covering the old town and bridge with water. 

Photo to left: View up a street in the town of Kulara before the damming. Courtesy of the Neville Family, Tinaroo.