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Yungaburra Sawmill
Cairns Plywood Sawmill
During World War II the Yungaburra sawmill was used in the production of timber veneer for the local manufacture of everything from bunk beds and prefabricated huts to barges, landing craft and aircraft propellers.
Cairns had long been the centre of north Queensland’s timber milling industry. From mid-1942, the town’s sawmills and furniture factories operated full-time on defence works. A timber product in great demand was three-ply veneer, manufactured in sheets cut from large kauri pine logs from the Tableland.
Fire destroyed the main sawmill shed in December 1987. However, surviving items of the early steam powered plant include a rare Stirling boiler and a timber veneer lathe.
Place information
Location
Place type
Factory site/industry
History
Albert and Frederick Williamson established the sawmill in 1911 soon after the railway from Cairns reached Yungaburra. Cedar had been cut from the nearby rainforest for about 30 years, but until the arrival of the railway the only way to transport the logs to the port of Cairns was by chute down the range or by floating them down the Barron River. Both methods were unreliable and wasteful, so the railway ensured a timber boom for the Tablelands. In 1926 the Gillies Highway was opened between Gordonvale and Atherton providing the first trafficable road to the Tablelands and Yungaburra became...
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