Reverend Edward TaffsPrint Page

The plaque commemorates the Reverend Edward Taffs who was a priest at the church from 1904 to 1950.

He was born in Kent, England in 1859 became a school teacher and migrated to Melbourne in 1889 where he was ordained into the Anglican ministry in 1901.  After serving in South Gippsland he was appointed founding headmaster of Holy Trinity College (the precursor of Trinity Grammar School) in 1903.  In 1904 he moved to Mossman as rector of St David’s parish, which extended from Port Douglas to Mount Molloy and Mount Carbine. 

He and his wife Mary serviced this large parish from horseback and river boat, and he was responsible literally for the building of the current St David’s, started in 1912 but not completed until 1952, doing much of the stone work and carpentry himself, later with the aid of his grandsons.  He died in 1950 and is buried in Port Douglas cemetery.

He was responsible for planting the avenue of eleven raintrees (Samanea saman) along Foxton Avenue adjacent to St  David’s. These trees were raised from seed supposedly obtained from Daniel Hart who migrated to Mossman from Jamaica and brought seeds with him.  Raintree is a native of Central America and was introduced early into the Caribbean including Jamaica. 

However, Reverend Taffs could not have obtained the seeds directly from Daniel Hart as the latter died in 1900 and Taffs did not arrive in Mossman until 1904.  It has been estimated that the avenue was planted around 1912, which would coincide with the commencement of building of the Church. It is entirely likely that the trees were raised from seed collected from older trees established by Hart. 

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