The tranquil scene presented by the Whitsunday Islands, is actually the result of a violent and tumultuous history. Millions of years of volcanic activity formed a mountainous region on the coast approximately 100 million years ago. Then, about 15 000 years ago, the seas began to rise due to the melting ice from the last ice age. The valleys were flooded, and only the mountain peaks remained forming the islands we have today.

 THE NGARO TRIBE

 
There is evidence to suggest that Aborigines have inhabited the Whitsunday area for some 8000 years. The most prominent tribe during that time was the “Ngaro”, who mainly resided on Whitsunday island, but like all nomadic tribes, they moved from island to island according to their needs. The Ngaro used outrigger style bark canoes for fishing and also as transport to other islands for hunting, water collection and to make their weapons and tools at the natural rock quarry on South Molle. Unfortunately, the Ngaro had several confrontations with early pioneers and loggers in the Whitsunday’s towards the end of the 1800’s and were virtually eliminated as the Europeans moved into claim the land. Very little is known about living descendants from the Ngaro Tribe.

EUROPEAN EXPLORATION – 1770

 Lieutenant James Cook, whilst charting the East Coast of Australia aboard the Endeavour, was the first known European explorer through the Whitsunday Passage. The Endeavour sailed into the passage on June 3rd 1770, that was the day on which the Christian Church celebrated the festival of Whit Sunday, thus the naming of the passage.

Cook also named the surrounding islands the Cumberland islands after the Duke of Cumberland, one of the sponsors of his voyage. Today the term “Whitsunday Islands” is often used when referring to the Northerly Islands out from Shute Harbour, but they are still officially charted as the Cumberland Islands.

 On Whitsunday, 1815 (ie. May 14, 1815), Lieutenant Charles Jeffreys RN in HM Colonial Brig “Kangaroo” anchored in the Whitsunday area and gave the name “Port Molle” to the waters between the north-western shore of today’s Long Island and the mainland. Jeffreys and the “Kangaroo” were on their way from Port Jackson to Ceylon with a part of the 73rd Regiment, which had finished their tour of duty in New South Wales. So impressed was Jeffreys by the coincidence of his visit with that of Cook’s 45 years before, he wrote later; “There is something pleasingly coincident in the circumstances, of two British commanders, having upon that particular day, anchored in the same remote and unfrequented spot. The knowledge of which brought to recollection the immortal Cook and filled the mind with reverent as awe and sympathy”.

 Actually Cook did not anchor here, but let us not split hairs.

It is a legitimate assumption Jeffreys actually anchored in Port Molle but unfortunately, despite a long and frustrating search by CC and other historians of far greater competence than CC Jeffrey’s log or narrative of that event seems to be lost to prosperity.

Jeffreys undoubtedly gave the name “Molle” after the then Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales, Colonel George James Molle (1773 - 1823). Molle came to New South Wales in February 1814 as the Commanding Officer of the 46th Regiment. Upon his arrival was he appointed Lieutenant Governor under Lachlan Macquarie.

 Port Molle remained the only “Molle” name on official charts until 1863 when Admiralty charts showed, in addition to Port Molle, the “Molle Islands” but with no individual names for the component Islands. It was not until 1881, when HMS Alert conducted a detailed survey of Port Molle, that the Islands of the Group received their individual names of West Molle, North Molle, Mid Molle, Molle, Planton and Denman. SOUTH MOLLE?

Following Jeffrey’s naming of the Port and its subsequent appearance on Admiralty charts it became a regular port of call and watering place for vessels proceeding through the Whitsunday’s and comments about it abound in narratives of Royal Navy surveying vessels. One of its earliest and most notable visitors was, in July 1825, the ill-fated Valetta whose bones still lie under the silt of Happy Bay.

 

 THE OWNERS

 In the early 1920’s, this group of islands was purchased by Henry G. Lamond, then comprising South Molle, North Molle, West Molle, Planton and Denman, Mid Molle and Goat Island.
Mr Lamond, who had spent his entire life in Far West Queensland, took up occupancy on South Molle on the 19 April 1927 with his family - wife, Eileen and children Hal, Amy and Bill. The move to the islands from Far Western Queensland was accepted by the young Lamonds as an adventurous challenge. Having left the lifestyle of property owners and managers in the West in the 1920s, adapting to a complete change of daily living and surroundings was not easy for Mr and Mrs Lamond.

 During the early 1930s he sold West Molle to Major Paddy Lee Murray and North Molle to a Mr Johnson from Western Queensland. On the 19 April 1937, he sold the balance of the Molle Group to the Bauer Family who later established South Molle as a tourist resort.

Mrs Lamond passed away in 1968 in her 82nd year and Mr Lamond passed away the following year in his 85th year, in Brisbane. Of the children -  Hal was shot down over Sumartra in 1942 and was reported lost, presumed dead, while serving with the RAAF -  Mrs Amy Edgell and Mr Bill Lamond reside in Brisbane.

 

COMMUNICATION

 In those early days the mail was delivered to South Molle once a fortnight by a Mr Otto Altman in a 27-foot boat called “Senix”. Mr Altman owned a banana plantation on Long Island. There was no direct communication with the mainland; however, Mr Lamond arranged several methods by which contact could be made.
The lighting of fire on “The Saddle” on the southern part of South Molle was arranged to attract immediate help in the event of an emergency. Fortunately this method of communication was never used. Later, when Mr Lamond purchased an unreliable and somewhat temperamental wireless set he arranged with a Mr Dahl of Radio 4AY, Ayr, to be his telegraph station. At a set time each morning and evening, telegrams for him would be broadcast, although very public, it was a fast and effective method of communication.

 

 EARLY FACILITIES

 During the earlier stage of island life there was no wireless, no gramophones and it was only during the latter period on the island that a portable wind-up HMV gramophone was acquired. That instrument with some dozen records of the music of the time scarcely stopped during the leisure hours of the family.

There was no electricity on the island and the major household light was a Colman lamp supplemented with 2 or 3 kerosene lanterns.

 There was no form of refrigeration and perishables were kept cool in a charcoal cooler which comprised a packing case insulated on all sides with charcoal which was at all times kept moist. This proved primitive but most effective.

Groceries were ordered from Queensland Pastoral Supplies in Brisbane and delivered to the island once a month by John Burke Coastal Ships. Vegetables and tropical fruit were in abundance and came exclusively from the island garden expertly and fondly planted and cared for by Mrs Lamond.

 

TOURISM

 In the 1920s and early 1930s, such places as the now highly developed Shute Harbour were just a wilderness of tropical jungle probably best known for the plant Stinging Nettle, which grew abundantly.

The Lamond family lived on South Molle from 1927 to 1937. During this time, Mr Lamond earned a living as an author of world wide reputation at the same time supplementing the family income from the wool clip of cross bred sheep that he ran on the islands.

 The pen of Henry G Lamond, through his articles published all over the world in the early 1930s, did much to make the Whitsunday Passage known worldwide and undoubtedly was a major contributing factor to the start of the tourist industry in this part of Queensland.

Henry G Lamond, during the time he lived on South Molle and the ensuing years in Brisbane, wrote many books, which were published in Australia, the U.K., Europe and America. His articles likewise were published in magazines in many parts of the world. His last book “The Etiquette of Battle” was published in his eighty-first year.

Her Majesty the Queen honoured him for his contribution to Australian literature.

The original manuscripts of Mr Lamond’s works are documented and held by the Oxley Library, Brisbane.

 One of the first smaller tourist ships, the ‘Woy Woy’ chartered by a Mr Pollock, cruised the passage in the early 30s. About the same time, owners of smaller vessels were starting to take an interest in the tourist potential of the area and Easter and Christmas Holidays attracted a number of vessels of varying sizes from such areas as Bowen and Mackay.