Innisfail Estate, Queensland
Innisfail Estate is a semi-rural locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the, Innisfail Estate had a population of 1,454 people.
Geography
Innisfail Estate is bounded by the Johnstone River to the east, south and west. It is flat low-lying land, below above sea level. It is connected to Innisfail to the west across the river by the Geraldton Bridge.Rocky Point is at the south-east of the locality on the Johnstone River.
The south-western part of the locality near the bridge is suburban. The east of the locality is undeveloped wetlands. The remainder of the locality is used for agriculture, predominantly growing sugarcane.
History
In 1879 Thomas Henry Fitzgerald came to North Queensland looking for locations suitable to grow sugarcane. He was impressed by the potential of the Johnstone River district. Returning to Brisbane he established a company Fitzgerald & Co with the assistance of Roman Catholic Bishop of Brisbane James O'Quinn. On 23 April 1880 he returns to the area and establishes the first sugarcane plantation with its own sugar mill. The mill closed in 1885 but by then there were a number of other mills in the Johnstone River district.By the 1940s there was a cane tramway through the Innisfail Estate, with a ferry connection for the tramway across the Johnstone River to Innisfail and from there to the sugar mill.
Innisfail State High School opened on 24 January 1955 and operated until the end of 2009 at 2 Stitt Street in Mighell. In 2010, it was amalgamated with the Innisfail Inclusive Education Centre and Tropical North [Queensland TAFE] to form Innisfail State College using the site of the TAFE campus at Innisfail Estate.
Demographics
In the, Innisfail Estate had a population of 1,338 people.In the, Innisfail Estate had a population of 1,454 people.