Community
30 August, 2022
A ghost from Gordonvale
PIONEER, Cate Langtree’s colourful and adventurous life took her from the gentle rolling green hills of Ireland to the rough and rugged goldfields of Far North Queensland.
Catherine (Cate) Shinahan came from County Carlow, Ireland to Cooktown in 1878 as a 20-year-old sponsored servant. Her employer was Mr James Earl who had a commodious home on the huge sheep and cattle property known as Butcher’s Hill Station.
It was there that Cate met a young butcher named John (Jack) Langtree. Jack had migrated to Australia with his parents and siblings 22 years earlier. Jack and Cate married on March 16, 1881 and began an adventure which would take them all over far north Queensland. Cate recalled:
“Jack and I worked hard to save enough money to get into the transport business. Eventually Jack was able to purchase a bullock team and transported goods from Port Douglas up over the bump to the Palmer River Gold Fields and Cooktown. We set up home in a mining camp at Scatterbrain Creek, Upper Laura. This was on Jack’s transport route. I would get to see him every two weeks when he passed through. We had a small hut with an ant bed floor.”
The couple had 10 children: Lil, Annie, Phene, Dick, George, Jack, Kit, twins Tom and Vince and the youngest Charlotte.
In 1894 Cate encountered a most unsavoury character while she was at home alone at Montalbion with six of her children. The notorious bushranger, Jacky Norman, was terrorising settlers for tobacco, food, and other supplies. Cate recounted the terrifying experience:
“I gave him all that I had and a tin of tea just to get rid of him and his gang. Later they came back for more. When I refused their demands, they attacked the hut with spears and axes.”
The fugitive was eventually caught after killing a police officer. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Five years later the Langtree family ran the Silverton Hotel and stayed there until the mines closed in 1901. Jack and the boys chased work in the mines at California Creek, Nymbool and Irvinebank and in 1903 the family celebrated the weddings of the three eldest girls.
Jack eventually retired and the couple moved to a small cottage in Church Street, Gordonvale. Jack passed away there in 1919. Three years later Cate suddenly took ill with appendicitis and died on August 31, 1922.
Cairns’ residents will have the opportunity to meet Catherine and the other “Ghosts of Gordonvale” this Sunday, August 28, 2022, from 3pm.
The stories of Catherine and the other pioneer settlers will be presented by members of the Mulgrave Shire Historical Society on the banks of O’Leary’s Creek, behind the monumental section of the Gordonvale Cemetery. Admission is $5 per person, bring your own chair and water.
For further information contact the Mulgrave Shire Historical Society, Phone: (07) 40561810 or email: settlersmuseum@bigpond.com. Sources: Mulgrave Shire Historical Society (MSHS), TROVE, State Library of Queensland (SLQ).
