depression

Key to Queensland public estate improvement works, 1937. This key to public works, complete or in progress, accompanied a map which appeared in the annual report of the Land Administration Board in 1937. Many of the works listed here were facilitated by relief funds made available under the Income (Unemployment Relief) Tax Acts, 1930 to 1935. Works included building a road between Amity Point and Point Lookout on Stradbroke Island as well as new forestry access roads in northern Queensland at Danbulla, Kuranda and to the top of the Kirrama Range. Land reclamation schemes were conducted around Cairns, Sandgate and Coolangatta. Major works such as these were conducted to help the unemployed survive in the Depression era, but these changes also caused a profound alteration to Queensland’s cultural landscape. Queensland parliamentary papers, vol 2, 1937

Aerial survey map west of Tully, 1936. In the 1930s, the rugged jungle country west of Tully presented numerous challenges for ground survey and remained ‘practically terra incognita’ as far as the Survey Office was concerned. Developments in aerial survey provided opportunities to examine large tracts of land and determine their value for exploitation. In 1936, Adastra Airways Ltd was contracted for the aerial survey of about 650 square miles. The company established its headquarters in Cairns and despite bad weather, succeeded in surveying approximately 560 square miles. Examination of the feature maps prepared from the photography revealed extensive scrub in the Tully and Jarra Creek valleys which had the potential for settlement. In this aerial mosaic, topographic features were highlighted including the Kennedy-Kirrama road under construction which would provide access to the valuable timbers in the Kirrama State Forest. This road was partially financed through unemployment relief funds made available during the Depression. Queensland parliamentary papers, Vol 2, 1936-37