Community
28 December, 2021
Historic Clocks of Cairns
Cairns’ residents were furious when the new post office was constructed without a clock tower in 1911.
There was a clock in the vestibule, but it didn’t always correlate with the clock inside the building or with the railway station clock. The public wanted a prominent, accurate clock to give them a standard time.
In August 1922 there were plans to erect a war memorial and after much deliberation it was decided that the monument could serve two purposes. It would be in the form of a clock tower and be situated on the corner of Abbott and Shields Streets. The architect was Richard Hill and builders were Melrose and Fenwick. Cairns Mayor, A. J. Draper, unveiled the cenotaph on Anzac Day 1926. It was constructed of granite and marble, stood 41 feet high and featured a life size figure of a soldier facing the sea.
The memorial was moved to its current position on The Esplanade in 1972. Former RSL President, David Chalk, said the introduction of the diamond turn at intersections meant the cenotaphs at Cairns and Gordonvale were removed from their traffic islands.
Chalk also said he had the faces replaced and permanently inscribed with the time of 4.28am to represent the Anzac landing at Gallipoli.
The clock tower at what is now the Cruise Liner Terminal was erected in 1948. The electric clock was manufactured by A. L. Franklin at a cost of £900 and was powered by a car battery.
The Tobruk Memorial Pool has another notable clock. Built to commemorate the soldiers associated with the Rats of Tobruk, the pool was opened on March 24, 1962.
The unusual clock tower structure at the entrance has a time piece attached to the façade which was donated by the Cairns Rats of Tobruk.
There was also a clock on the façade of the Cairns Railway Station which opened in 1955.
The station is unrecognisable today and the clock is gone.
The faces of the Hambledon Gardens clock tower have, for some time, been expressionless. Purportedly erected c. 1998 when the Hambledon Gardens estate was developed, the timber structure near Sugarworld has recently been repaired.
Sources: TROVE Newspapers, Cairns Regional Council archives, Queensland Heritage Register.
