Tully's town and mill are turning 100
Commemorating two important years in Tully's history in 2024 and 2025
1924 The town of Tully is born and the first school opened.
1925 The Tully Sugar mill crushed its first cane.
Where we are
The "Golden Gumboot", was erected in Tully in 2003, as a monument to the town's high rainfall. It also serves as a museum, documenting past floods, as well as displaying the rainfall for the current year.
Tully's early history *
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In 1872 the river previously known as the Mackay River, was renamed the Tully River after Surveyor General William Alcock Tully. The area was also known as Banyan, after a tributary of the Tully River.
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In June 1922 the Tully Sugar Works Area was proclaimed in the Government Gazette.
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In the earliest surveys and correspondence in1924 the town was referred to by then Surveyor Campbell as the ‘Town of Banyan’. The name Tully was officially selected for the new town by the Bureau of Central Mills which controlled the surveying of the sugar mill designated area.
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In April 1924 the official first plan of the town of Tully is drawn up.
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On 30 June 1924 the government opened a provisional school on the mill site. This school was first called Banyan - the name was changed to Tully in 1925, when the school was erected on the present site. The Tully school became a state school on 1 June1926. The original building was burned down about 1934 and the present school erected to replace it.
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On 30 July 1924 the first sale of lots in Tully Township took place at eleven o’clock when 29 blocks were offered as perpetual town leases at the Innisfail Land Agency.
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In September 1924 the Department of Public lands announced that a ballot for 66 blocks of Tully-Banyan sugar lands in the parish of Rockingham had been held that day.
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24 January 1925 the new town of Tully, was gazetted under the police act and was administered from Cardwell the headquarters of the Shire council.
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On 5 November 1925 the new Tully Mill began its first crush.
... the rest, as they say, is history. And one that we're all proud of and want to share with you. JOIN US.
* Tully Street Name Signs of History by Helen Pedley
Traditional owners: The Gulngay people are the Traditional Owners of country around Tully, extending from the coast, up the Tully River in the west, across the Murray River in the south and up to and including the Walter Hill Range in the north, and including the eastern sections of Tully Gorge National Park.