North to the Sun (1951)

[Music] I had always wanted to visit the tropical North Coast of Queensland so one day I went there for a holiday I had a very enjoyable time cruising along the Barrier Reef fishing sailing and water skiing on the lakes of the Aon table lands but after you have been there for a while you realize it isn't just a place for holidays it stands to reason that k a city of over 16,000 people can't live on visitors alone so I started to look around to find out what makes the place [Music] tick at First Sight Ken seems much like any other Australian Township the gutters are a bit wider they have to to take care of the 90-in rainfall shirt sleeves and light clothing are the order of the day all the year round and umbrellas are just as handy when the sun is shining as when there's rain pH that Tropical Sun it's not until I went out to the residential areas but I realized the difference it makes to life in the north Verandas are heavily shaded while the houses stand clear from the ground and every Garden is filled with tropical flowers and fruits I found out one unexpected thing about K settlement didn't come from the sea in the 1870s Cattlemen and gold prospectors were pushing northwards Overland Rich strikes of gold in the neighboring gold Fields brought in thousands of diggers till then the marshes and mangrove swamps on the coast had deterred settlement but Overland Supply from ports a thousand over the coastal Rangers in their bullet Cuts you can still see the tracks today to find suitable ports on the nearby Coast further to the North Port Douglas and cooktown were settled in this way a few years before k cook town has an earlier link with Australian history here Captain Cook beached the Endeavor after she was H off a thriving port with some 30,000 inhabitants when I was there there were barely 400 it wasn't hard to discover why when the gold went the people went the bush came back to the Farms the pubs ran dry eventually cooktown needed only a weekly launch from the south while a single rail motor supplied the [Music] interior the same thing might have happened at Ken but can became a railway center here the lions from the interior come down to the coast while the Sunshine Express route links it directly to Brisbane and the [Music] South Inland the baron Gorge provides the most suitable approach to link the network of lines over the Rich table land with the coast I found that Ken depends on its Hinterland for its Prosperity the rich coastal plains are dotted with sugar Farms the source of one of queensland's most important [Music] exports [Music] a good deal of mining is carried on coal tin Wolfram most metals and still a fa bit of gold another industry that has lost none of its importance since the early days is Timber getting m okay let it [Applause] go westwards towards the gulf is the cattle country land of [Music] the the Inland table lands once covered with dense tropical rainforests form one of the richest agricultural areas in Australia [Music] [Music] large maze silos duck the countryside and so much is produced that a lot of it is exported [Music] [Music] overseas was how important tobacco is beginning to be in North Queensland it's been grown in a small way around Mara and imbula for many years but since 1946 proper organization scientific methods and restrictions on dollar purchases have all combined to make it Thrive working through their own Cooperative The Growers have built their own selling floor and Factory at marba already the factory is producing cigarette and pipe tobacco mixtures the manufacturer of cigarettes is planned to begin in the near the future if the industry keeps growing at its present rate North Queensland May soon Supply a major part of Australia's [Music] requirements [Music] it seemed to me quite obvious that things in the north aren't standing still and I found responsible people fully Alive to coming needs the can's Harbor board has its plans and is already improving Harbor [Music] facilities [Music] in land new power and irrigation schemes are well underway road construction is being pushed [Music] ahead I was very impressed with what I saw in the North they seem to have everything up there a fertile land mineral wealth untapped Water and Power the possibilities for comfortable living the only thing they're really short of is [Music] people but new people are moving in all the time they can make a good life for themselves in the [Music] North