Delivering the Maroochy mail services

A boat service on the Maroochy River from 1909 to 1963 was a boon to settlers. It delivered vital supplies and passengers – even visitors on a day’s excursion.

The river was the ‘highway’ into the farms of the hinterland.

In 1909, William Coulson began a boat service from Yandina to Maroochydore, after gaining a mail contract. It was of great assistance to farmers whose houses faced the river. His first boat was the Kate and then the 20-passenger Sis in 1917. In the 1940s, Irene and Ariel were bigger and licensed for 40 passengers.

Groceries, bread, meat, blocks of ice, goods such as furniture, sawn timber for cases for the fruit industry and building materials also were delivered. Goods, including cans of cream, were destined for delivery to the railway station to go to butter factories at Caboolture or Eumundi. Cases of bananas were also delivered to the railway station for further transport.

Farmers had working horses, house cows and poultry, so there was always animal feed to be collected and loaded for the return journey.

By 1920, Coulsons were paid annually £100 for Mail Service No. 248, Yandina to Maroochydore: a distance of 28km, doing the run three times weekly. In 1949, payment increased to £475 for six times weekly. Lionel Coulson returned from World War II to help his father. He and his wife Hazel ran the boat service until 1953 and were calling at 60 jetties and serving about 300 residents.

Before cane was harvested mechanically, cane cutters in itinerant gangs cut the burnt cane by hand. Many were migrants. Their provisions were also delivered by the mail boat. Storekeepers sent their accounts to the Moreton Mill in Nambour for payment to be deducted from their wages in the 1950s and ’60s.

In 1953, Ralph Duffield and Merv Gilby bought the business and continued to operate the boat service. The mail contract was held. The delivery of a wide range of supplies continued until 1963.

With roads progressively built either side of the river, many farmers relocated their houses there. In 1963, Angell, a carrier from Bli Bli, took over and delivered mail by road.

 Audienne Blyth is a member of the Nambour Historical Museum, open 1-4pm Wednesdays to Fridays, and 10am-3pm on Saturdays.