QLDPort & river
Mackay
A river port became a sugar city.
1862River-port settlement begins
WHAT STARTED IT
Mackay began as a settlement serving shipping and pastoral country through the Pioneer River. Its port and town survey followed in 1863. Sugar growing soon changed the scale and purpose of the settlement.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Sugar exports developed in the 1860s, supported in part by often exploitative South Sea Islander labour recruitment. A destructive cyclone struck in 1918. The new outer harbour opened in 1939, overcoming limitations of the river port.
TURNING POINTS
1862River-port settlement begins.
1918Major cyclone devastates the town.
1939Outer harbour opens.
2008A 15 February storm brought 736 millimetres of rain in under six hours; more than 4,000 houses were flood-damaged.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A coastal regional centre serving agriculture and the mining hinterland, with an urban identity still strongly connected to sugar and shipping.