Yungaburra, a rural town of over 900 people on the Atherton
Tableland is 45 km south-west of Cairns. Originally named
Allumbah Pocket, Yungaburra was on a track formed by John
Atherton and John Robson in 1878. Robson's track proved to be a
good means of access to Cairns, and was joined to others when
mining discoveries were made at Herberton in 1880. Allumbah was
chosen as a village settlement site in 1886, but settlement of
any consequence did not occur until the 1890s. The district was
under dense tree cover, much of it rainforest cedar, silver ash
and giant fig. So prolific was the timber, an early pit-sawn
home was mostly silky oak, including the roof shingles. Dairying
and mixed farming was taken up, particularly as families left
towns such as Charters Towers and Herberton when mining
prospects faltered. A school was opened in 1909. When the Cairns
railway was extended to Yungaburra in 1910 it enabled dairy
produce to be transported to the Golden Grove factory at
Atherton (1913) and timber to be marketed