USC295_0005

MOONBI 40, Page 12
[left column]
There the turbulent history of McKenzies may have
subsided but within a few years it was to assume a
new role. The outbreak of World War II in the Pacific
saw McKenzies developed as a Commando training
camp for one of Australia's most famous and heroic
units — Z Force. Two camps were developed — one at
the coast in the bush surrounding the old lead lights,
just north of Foulmouth Creek, and one on the North
western end of Lake McKenzie which was used for
some of the canoe training.

One of the exploits of Z Force related by Mr Allen
Russell, former manager of Dillingham Mining
Company, who had trained on Fraser Island, was that
a unit had to leave the camp, sneak into Maryborough
by canoe and mark the shipping in the Mary River with
a cross where they could have planted and detonated
explosive charges.

This very successful raid was carried out despite the
security surrounding the shipboard installation of
Maryborough and aroused at first incredulity and
finally a furore, when the exploit was revealed to the
Maryborough authorities.

Following the war the Z Force Installation was offered
to the Queensland Government as a going concern,
complete with lighting plants, etc. to be used as a
Forestry Headquarters for Fraser Island. The offer
was curiously refused and now the area is largely
overgrown. Little evidence remains of the Z Force
occupation except for one small hut and a lot of
cement slabs. Only the ghosts of those brave men and
the memory of it are all that remains. The new
camping area at Lake McKenzie is located near the
cement slab foundations of the Z Force camp.

[right column]
Since World War II there have been no permanent
human residents in the McKenzie area. The Forestry
relocated and despite its better and closer location
there has been no further use of the McKenzie jetty,
now just a ruin. No houses or other buildings, such as
the Picture Theatre, Q. Store, etc. remain. There are
some relics of the past for the observant such as the
old horse yards, the cricket pitch in the clearing for
the navigation lights, where many a memorable game
of cricket was played between teams from the
Forestry and Urangan, a few fire grids litter the site
near the old loco shed and the loading ramparts at the
mill site.

There is no evidence to recall the riotous mutiny of the
late 1920's, reported in MOONBI 36. There is no
evidence to recall the aboriginal occupation. There
is no evidence of tragedy and trauma and the
happiness experienced here. Yet the McKenzie area
has figured more prominently in the history of Fraser Island than any other part.

Now the areas adjacent to both the jetty and the Lake
are both gazetted Beauty Spots which are protected
from desecration of their flora for logging as a tribute
to the memories of the past and their attraction at the
present.

NOTE: In MOONBI 49 it is proposed to record some of
the history and features of SANDY CAPE. Any
readers should feel free to comment on any of these
features, correct or enlarge on the information in
them to ensure that this history does not die with the
present generation.

[end columns]
SID JARVIS'S FRASER ISLAND

MOONBI 40 continues the series of reminiscences of Fraser Island's veterans. In this paper Sidney Granville
Jarvis ex bullocky of Maryborough recalls his memories of the bullocky days.

[left column]
I was born at Granville, a suburb of Maryborough, on the 13th
March 1898. I attended the Granville State School, together
with two of the Owens.

The Owens were an aboriginal family, and Henry, who later
became known as Jo, or Banjo, was one of the brothers, and
Maidie was his sister. She was Mrs. Ross. The Owens
family has been associated with Fraser Island for up to 75
years.

My own father started punting timber from Fraser Island
around about 1908 or 1910. He used to punt timber for
Edward Armitage.

Mr. Armitage had a little steamer called the "GERALDINE".
He used to tow a barge and a pontoon. The pontoon was very
flat, like a ferry punt. They used to put the logs into the
barge and they used to tow it up the river, four or five times a
month.

Sometimes they did five trips a month. He would take one
trip to Harts and one trip to Hynes. These two sawmills used
to take most of the timber off Fraser Island as far as I can
remember. Although, at one stage Sims did get a bit, but
nothing compared with the other two.

I used to travel with my father on the punt, but from 1916 or the
later part of 1918, I started working on Fraser Island with
bullocks, and I worked there for approximately 11 years.
I only took my bullocks off Fraser Island in 1929 because they started to talk about trucks. I was always interested in
cattle and horses, not trucks.

My uncle drove the locomotive for Wilson Harts and Hynes
and his son worked on the loco for some time, then he
bought bullock teams and he pulled timber at Woongoolvber
to a tramline too.

My brother also worked in the timber on Fraser Island. As
young men we used to camp at a place known as Louisa's
Camp. It was a couple of miles further out from where the

[right column]
water was. Louisa's Camp is roughly where you would
describe the Eastern Break as being now.

Our camp was right amongst the timber - the big [print missing]
blackbutt timber, and just on the eastern edge of the
rainforest. We named it the Louisa's Camp after the
missionary girl who came there to see old Nugget.

Old Nugget was an aboriginal, who must have been over [80?]
He never had a tooth in his head, and his hair was as grey as
a badger. We all used to go and sit and listen for about an
hour. I didn't stop for long, because we had to be out very
early in the morning. Louisa came there and used to sit
and talk to them.

I don't know if she was any relation to the Ross', but they [??]
seemed to be related, the half-casts. But she was a very
good person.

She told my brother and I that, because we were batching
she would cook a pudding for us if we wanted it. We used [to?]
give her the eggs and the rice and stuff and she'd bake
a custard rice pudding for us.

There were three aboriginals that I was associated with
during my teamster days. One was Old Nugget, there was
another one known as Teddy Brown, and of course there was
old Roger Bennett. He worked for the Wilchefskis and the
Berthelsens at Deep Creek and Yankee Jack.

The timber we hauled was mainly blackbutt and tallowwood.
We didn't cut any satinay in those days, nor any box. There was
very little pine cut in my day, except for Cypress pine, which
was taken down to the Bluff. The Forestrynever let anyone cut
kauri until the war started, this last war, and then they started
pulling some. A little of the satinay and turpentine was used for
piles. I, myself, hauled piles for the Granville bridge. The area
which is now known as Pile Valley, at the head of Woongoolvba
Creek we used to refer as the "Turpentine Patch".