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Francis MacCabePrint Page Print this page

08-October-2014
08-October-2014

Photographs supplied by John Huth

The monument commemorates Francis Peter MacCabe, the first surveyor and explorer of the Port Curtis District. 

Francis MacCabe migrated as a free settler in 1841, arriving at a time when opening up the continent through exploration and settlement was a central plank of British Government policy for the Colony of New South Wales.  Appointed as a government surveyor, he immediately set to work surveying the more remote areas of New South Wales in Twofold Bay, in the Monaro Plains District and in towns along the Darling River in Western New South Wales. He carried out the first surveys of the Murrumbidgee, Murray and Darling Rivers in Western New South Wales between 1848 and 1852

In 1853, MacCabe was asked by Sir Thomas Mitchell to set up a surveying party to establish a new settlement at Port Curtis (now Gladstone) which at that time was a northerly outpost of New South Wales. By the time MacCabe and his party left Gladstone two years later, they had mapped out a wharf site, established the Town of Gladstone with one hundred and eighty allotments and laid out fifty suburban and fifty four farming allotments.
 

Location

Address:Bruce Highway, Calliope River Historical Village, River Ranch, 4680
State:QLD
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -23.959656
Long: 151.151748
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Monument
Monument Theme:People
Sub-Theme:Government - Colonial

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Saturday 23rd April, 1988
Front Inscription

The Institution of Surveyors, Australia  
Queensland Division 
Bicentennial Project

"In the steps of our forefathers"

In honour of surveyor Francis Peter MacCabe

This monument commemorates the achievements of  Francis Peter MacCabe the first surveyor - explorer in the Port Curtis District.  

From October 1853 till May 1854 he was camped 1.6km downstream from here.

Erected by Gladstone Town Group

23 April 1988

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au