Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Source: Negative No. 43835, Historical Photographs Collection, John Oxley Library, Brisbane
important plant nutrient. Consequently, agricultural scientists recommended the
application of lime in an attempt to increase sugar yields. Burnt lime was also used
as a settling agent in the process of manufacturing raw sugar. In 1915, the QBSES
reported that, in North Queensland, terrestrial sources of lime were expensive;
Ernest Scriven (1915, p1175), the Director of the QBSES, stated:
The price of lime in Northern sugar districts is still unduly high, and efforts
are being made by many of the Farmers' Associations to open up various lime
deposits and also to procure coral lime, coral sand, and shell deposits.
The following year, Scriven (1916, p1237) reported that interest in coral lime
was high, and pulverising machines were already on the market. Farmers were
advised to use coral fertilisers in combination with green manures and, by 1920,
coral lime was being applied in the Mossman, Goondi, Mourilyan and South
Johnstone areas at a cost of £3 per ton for coral sand and £4 per ton for burnt
coral lime (Scriven, 1922, p1034).
Thus coral mining for agricultural lime commenced in 1900 and continued
until at least 1940. During that period, at least twelve coral areas were mined in
the Great Barrier Reef
(Figure 11.2)
. An account of that activity was provided
by a shell collector, who indicated that the mining of coral reefs occurred at the
Barnard Islands around 1900. That informant stated:
At the turn of the century last, coral mining was carried out in the Barnard
Islands […] and also at the mouth of the Mowbray River: Yule Point. Because
of shifting sands and coastal erosion, at times extinct reef is exposed here
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