24/12/2024
STREETS AHEAD
This column provides a background to the streets and infrastructure of Gordonvale and who or what they were named after.
Langtree Street
Langtree Street is situated in the Riverstone Hills subdivision on the western side of the highway in Gordonvale. The Langtree family were farmers in Oldcastle, County Meath in Ireland. They came to Ireland from England in 1649 following the Irish rebellion of 1641 when most of Ireland then came under ‘The Irish Catholic Confederation’. Most people of the time were illiterate, and names were spelt as they were heard. Lanktree, Langtry and Langtree were all used at various times in Ireland and England over a four-hundred-year period, but for the family members that migrated to Australia this spelling of Langtree was used.
To escape starvation and poverty due to the ‘Great Potato Famine,’ George Langtree and his wife Margaret and four of their children: Mary, George (jnr), Richard and Thomas were the first to immigrate to Australia. They arrived on the ship ‘Scotia’ in Port Jackson in 1849 and then made their way to Brisbane. In April 1856, another son John Langtree who was eleven, and his two sisters Abig*il 14 and Margaret 12 arrived on the ship ‘Maitland’ to join the rest of the family. George (jnr) and his younger brother John were the only ones who moved to Far North Qld and the rest of the family stayed in the Brisbane area. Their father George died of cancer in August 1856 aged 43 years in Fortitude Valley.
George (jnr) and his wife Mary Gorton were married in 1863 and had thirteen children, but only six survived to adulthood. George first started work on a cattle station near Gayndah. He joined the gold rush on the Palmer River goldfields, Gympie, and Rishton. He then opened a grocer and butcher shop in Rishton before finally settling in Charters Towers and opened Langtree’s Boarding House. Later after a prolonged period of failing health he moved to Brisbane and died in 1908 aged seventy-six.
John (Jack) Langtree married Catherine Shinahan on 16th March 1881 at Butchers Hill Station which is 88km south of Cooktown near Lakeland. John became a bullock team driver working on the bullock trail between Cooktown and Port Douglas and Catherine worked as a domestic servant on a local property. John and Catherine had ten children: Margaret, Annie, Mary, Richard (Dick), George, John (jnr), Kathleen (Kit), Thomas (Tom), Vincent (Vince) and Charlotte. John, Catherine, and the family moved to Craiglee near Port Douglas, as this was a staging area for their bullock teams who would travel up over ‘The Bump Track” over the Great Dividing Range to the Tablelands delivering goods and services. Jack Langtree had the unusual reputation as the only non-swearing teamster of his time. By 1890 the growing family had moved to Mt Garnet and then Montalbion nearby, where Jack continued to be a teamster. His business was later wiped out by a terrible plague of ticks on the bullocks. Four more children were born here. In 1899 Jack Langtree re-opened the Silverfield Hotel in Montalbion. On 10th May 1901, music and dancing were permitted on the licensed premises, but by August of that year after several mine closures the hotel could no longer operate. By 1903 the family had moved back to Mt Garnet and Jack was working as a miner and continued in that profession until 1911 when the family moved back to Irvinebank and Jack bought a horse team that was not affected by ticks. Before retiring Jack and Catherine moved to Mackay and helped their daughter Annie’s husband Harry Webster on his cane farm. They also helped their daughter Mary’s husband Sam Costigan with a horse team carting freight up over the Eungella range west of Mackay. Jack and Catherine then moved to Edmonton to live with their daughter Margaret (Lil) and her husband Percy Whereat before buying a small cottage in Church Street Gordonvale where they retired to and ended their days there.
-2-
Jack’s children recalled their father as a quiet and gentle man who would play the Concertina (squeeze box) while at the same time dancing with their mother Catherine. Granny Langtree, as Catherine was known was a busy bustling little woman, and always had a bag of boiled lollies to dish out to any child she came upon. She was also so Irish in her ways. One way was her preponderance to divide things into halves – ‘cut that orange into three halves’ she was heard to say. Jack and Catherine are buried together in Gordonvale cemetery and five of their children’s gravestones are in the Gordonvale cemetery as well.
The Langtree family were true pioneers of the district, and they have a long and rich family history. This short article only skims the surface of the many stories that have been documented by family members.
Christine Randall (nee Langtree) and Allan Langtree are the grandchildren of Richard (Dick) Langtree who married Emma Charlotte Brischke in 1914 and they had four children. Allan (Mick) was Christine and Allan’s father. Dick had a cane farm in Cairns and raced greyhounds. They moved to Gordonvale and lived in a house on Cairns Road from 1925 for the rest of their lives. Some of their children lived there after they had passed away. Christine and her husband Rob still live in that house, and they are the third generation to do so.
Marie Sweetland (nee Langtree) approached Cairns Regional Council to have the street named after the Langtree family. Marie is the granddaughter of Thomas (Tom) Langtree who married Caroline (Carrie) Beck in 1923 at the home of his brother Jack’s place in Gordonvale. They had seven children and Kevin was Marie’s father. Tom and his brother Vince were twins, and both played the piano for the silent movies.
Pictured are Christine Randall (nee Langtree), and her brother Allan Langtree who are only two of the many descendants of the Langtree family that live in the Gordonvale, Edmonton and Cairns districts.
Pyramid Views is a monthly Gordonvale newspaper that aims to CELEBRATE AND CONNECT OUR COMMUNITY Submissions for publication are always welcome.
