Whitsundays and the Withnall Family

From 1888 – 1904, John and Jeannie Withnall braved deprivation and loneliness as sawmillers on Whitsunday Island.  They stand as a monument of pioneering enterprise and determination.

John Withnall arrived in Bowen from England in 1884 just after a tropical cyclone had devastated Bowen. Carpenter by trade, he had no trouble immediately finding work. One of his first jobs was building a homestead for the Emmersons at Amelia Vale west of Proserpine, walking there from Bowen. While then building a home at Eton Vale, he met his wife, Jeannie, a native of Edinburgh.

Their foray into sawmilling began when they acquired a sawmill in the town of Bowen, eventually relocating to the banks of the Proserpine River as the town was developing at the time. John paid many visits to Whitsunday Island and realised its opportunity to provide him with a living as well as repaying the £300 loan given to him to purchase the Bowen venture.

In 1888, he and Jeannie and their son, Jack moved to Whitsunday Island and chose Cid Harbour as the site for their home and sawmill.

It was no mean feat transporting all the heavy mill equipment, including a steam plant, by small craft and landing it on the beach. While the mill was being erected, the family was safely installed under canvas. John set about the task of providing the necessary water to work the mill. He and two men he brought with him to the island constructed a dam with an estimated capacity of 60000 gallons and water was then piped to the mill site; a distance of 400 yards.

There was much timber on the island, mostly top-quality hoop pine. Cedar was also brought over from the mainland and Long Island and milled for export. There were four timber cutters and two teams of bullocks which were used for snigging the timber from where it was cut on the plateau to where the logs were then slid down a roughly cleared track into the sea; joined together and rafted around the island to the mill site. Once sawn and loaded onto boats, the timber was taken to Bowen, Proserpine, Mackay, Townsville and Rockhampton.

While John constructed the mill and built up a trade to maintain its operation, life for his wife, Jeannie, must have been much more difficult. She raised her six children in isolation and often hostile surroundings where she was the lone white women. On one occasion, when unable to go to Bowen because of bad weather for the birth of her baby, the child was stillborn. On another occasion, during a tribal fight, daughter Beatrice was struck by a tomahawk thrown by one of the aborigines. There was the time that they nursed a number of French convicts who had escaped from New Caledonia until they could be taken to Bowen. Supplies brought in only every three months from Bowen and rarely was there any fresh meat. The cattle that had been taken to the island went bush and died after eating wild peach.

In 1904, after sixteen years, the mill and home were dismantled, transported and re-erected in Bowen. John Withnall returned to his trade and he also took up farming. He died in 1950, aged 88 years; Jeannie having predeceased him several years earlier.  

Timber from Whitsunday Island played an important role in the building of early North Queensland. Most of the original commercial buildings in Bowen and other towns, contained this timber; so too did many homes. We are indeed indebted to the adventurous spirit, self-reliance and courage of the Withnalls.

Story and photo courtesy Proserpine Historical Museum. Information also sourced from “Proserpine Guardian” January 5 &12 1989.

Caption: Withnall's Sawmill Clearly showing pine trees in background

‍