South Johnstone

History

South Johnstone Sugar Mill opened in 1915. South Johnstone State School was opened on 5 June 1916. The school celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016. St Rita's Catholic School was established on 1 February 1932 by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan. The South Johnstone parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns was established in 1947. It is now merged with the Innisfail and Mourilyian parishes. St Saviour's Anglican Church was designed by Arthur Brown and constructed by local builder Mose Romano using masonry in 1939. It was officially opened on Sunday 2 September 1939 by Bishop John Feetham. It was at 26 Hynes Street () and has now closed. St Rita's Roman Catholic Church was built from brick in 1970.

Geography

South Johnstone is in Far North Queensland, approximately south-west of Innisfail. South Johnstone has a trade wind-influenced tropical rainforest climate (Köppen: Af) with hot, extremely wet summers and warm, somewhat drier winters. The wettest recorded day was 13 January 1981 with of rainfall. Extreme temperatures ranged from on 27 November 2018 to on 19 July 1965.

Most-observed species

• Southern Cassowary

  Casuarius casuarius (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,218
• Masked Lapwing

  Vanellus miles (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  806
• Australasian Figbird

  Sphecotheres vieilloti Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 · Aves
  756
• Metallic Starling

  Aplonis metallica (Temminck, 1824) · Aves
  706
• Artamus leucorhynchos

  Artamus leucorhynchos · Aves
  699
• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  660
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  602
• Spotted Dove

  Spilopelia chinensis (Scopoli, 1786) · Aves
  560

Most recent

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