Mena Creek

History

H. A. Noone an Irish resident of North Queensland since 1888 always had his eyes open for good timber for his saw mills, and just before 1900 his eyes turned towards Stewarts Creek (now Mena Creek) just 12 miles from Geraldton (now Innisfail). He saw that the area had huge stands of red cedar and would be a good area for cane farming. H. A. Noone realised that a single block had limited chance of survey and Government approval, so he formed a Settlement Group of 40 blocks of 160 acres and persuaded people to apply for the blocks. The authorities were impressed and the area was quickly surveyed and all 40 blocks were claimed. Then in a few years many farms in the area were cleared and H. A. began to focus on where to mill the sugar. The locality took its name from the nearby creek, which in turn acquired its name from two possible origins: * Mena Camp, Cairo, Egypt, near the Mena House Hotel, where the First Australian Imperial Force had a training camp from December 1914 to April 1915 in preparation for the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli Mena Creek State School opened on 15 March 1920. Mena Creek Post Office opened on 10 February 1934.

Most-observed species

• Southern Cassowary

  Casuarius casuarius (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,265
• Masked Lapwing

  Vanellus miles (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  881
• Australasian Figbird

  Sphecotheres vieilloti Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 · Aves
  878
• Metallic Starling

  Aplonis metallica (Temminck, 1824) · Aves
  782
• Artamus leucorhynchos

  Artamus leucorhynchos · Aves
  739
• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  736
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  665
• Spotted Dove

  Spilopelia chinensis (Scopoli, 1786) · Aves
  646

Most recent

• M 3.6 — 2011-03-15
  30 km NE of Innisfail Estate, Australia