Summary

Written by Dorothy Gibson-Wilde, Gateway to a Golden Land: Townsville to 1884 originated as a thesis for the honours degree of Bachelor of Arts. It was published by James Cook University's History Department in 1984 with minor revisions and the addition of an index.

Townsville was settled by Europeans in 1864 as a port for the growing pastoral industry in north Queensland. John Melton Black – a failed Melbourne theatre-owner and aspiring pastoralist – founded the township with the financial backing from a short-lived partnership with Robert Towns, a Sydney merchant and businessman. Black served as the town's first Mayor but left Townsville for England after only three years, and did not return. Gazetted a Port of Entry in 1865, Townsville developed rapidly into a permanent town after gold discoveries in the hinterland at Cape River in 1867, Ravenswood in 1868 and Charters Towers in 1871; provided the catalyst for growth.

Gateway to a Golden Land is no. 7 in the series Studies in North Queensland History. This series was part of the prolific output of history publications overseen by JCU's Foundation Professor of History, Brian Dalton, across a period of more than two decades. In recommending Gibson-Wilde's book in his Foreword, Professor Dalton wrote:

"Her study of the first twenty years of Townsville's growth fills a major gap in knowledge of the history of this region. She provides a great quantity of information previously unknown; she also corrects much that was garbled, or simply mistaken, in earlier accounts. The result is the first thoroughly researched, detailed and reliable account of the discovery and settlement of Townsville by Europeans, and of its growth through twenty years to a position of confident prosperity."

Gibson-Wilde noted in her introduction, that "the aim of this work is to trace the development of the Townsville townscape during the first twenty years of the city's history". In that regard the book focuses mainly on the built environment as it developed in response to the needs of businesses and burgeoning industries in the region, rather than social or cultural developments.

Trisha Fielding
2024